A New Year & A New Beginning

Open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 14

This week, we celebrated the start of a New Year

A new year is a time full of hope and anticipation

It is a time that we think of new beginnings, fresh opportunities, and renewed vision

I don’t usually put a lot of stock in New Year’s Resolutions

Mostly because I haven’t seen very many people carry them to success

Almost all Americans made promises this week related at least one of four things: weight loss, financial decision making, career aspirations, or romantic relationships

The vast majority of these promises will not be realized or even started this time next year.

But for us, as a church, this should be an exciting time!

We are at a point of a new beginning

God has given us a fresh opportunity for the Gospel in this area of Boise

We have a clear vision from God to grow a new community of believers the Know Jesus and make Him known.

We are pointing people to Jesus and journeying towards Him ourselves

In Luke chapter 14, Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet

It is a story about God’s open invitation to His Kingdom and the responses we have toward Him.

And as we start a new church, we are in a similar position.

We are extending God’s invitation in the community around us

We are calling on others to come and experience the life-changing power of the Gospel

We are expecting that those who are invited will respond

It is with these things in mind that I want us to turn to our passage this morning in Luke 14

We’re going to be reading together, beginning in verse 16

As we read together, I invite you to stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word

Luke 14:16–24 CSB

Then he told him, “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ “But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’ “And another said, ‘I just got married, and therefore I’m unable to come.’ “So the servant came back and reported these things to his master. Then in anger, the master of the house told his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’ “ ‘Master,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there’s still room.’ “Then the master told the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, not one of those people who were invited will enjoy my banquet.’ ”

Pray, invite them to sit

It is so exciting to be a part of a new work for the Kingdom of God

Just like on New Year’s Eve, the beginning is so full of hope

We have new hopes and ideas

We have no idea what tomorrow holds, but we tend to think of it positively

We know, in the safety of this moment, that God is going to move and great things are going to happen

And all of these excitements are good and life giving.

They fill us up for the task ahead

They embolden us to try new things

They help us in our effort to refocus on what is important

But this will only stay true if we seize the moment and move on them

And so in this passage, as we look at the start of this new church, I want us to key in on invitation.

Jesus wanted the people to know that all are invited, but not all respond.

Today, we need to invite everyone, knowing God will bring who He brings.

A wise mentor once told me that at the crosshairs of the unchanging truth we find in Scripture and the always changing life circumstances we live in, we find the target of application.

As we think about invitation, Here are four keys Jesus gives us about invitation as His servants in this passage.

Look at verses 16-17

Luke 14:16–17 CSB

Then he told him, “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’

The first key to understanding invitation is this,

The invitation is from God, but He is using us to extend it.

The banquet in our passage this morning represents the Kingdom of God

A banquet is a place people want to be

They are full of abundance- the best of food and drink and dancing and celebration

A banquet is full of joy-people you know and love, excitement towards who or what is being celebrated

Banquets are great times of fellowship- you are united by a common cause and you are loving life together

And in the banquet of the Kingdom of God, everything is bigger

God Himself is the host of the party!

Jesus, our redeemer, is our great cause for celebration

All of humanity has been invited

His grace and mercy have been extended to anyone who believes

And as a church, we have been invited to be a part of that process

We are His servants, whom He has handed the stack of invitations

As our church launches, we have the opportunity to extend God’s invitation to any and everyone around us

We must announce God’s banquet to the world around us. Through us, His message…

must be shared clearly

Must be both loving and truthful

And it must truly be open to all. Their circumstances, history, and background are not enough to keep them from Jesus, so they must not get in the way of our extension of His invitation.

We have the privilege of carrying God’s invitation to the world around us, and, as we approach launch, we also need to take a moment of pause for self-examination.

Look at verse 28 with me:

Luke 14:18–20 CSB

“But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’ “And another said, ‘I just got married, and therefore I’m unable to come.’

Our second key to understanding invitation is this,

God’s invitation is for you to make Him your highest priority.

In our passage, the people with all the excuses are the people that should have been at the banquet

These people obviously had relationship with the man that invited them

They were selected out of all of the people in the story to receive an invitation

The text doesn’t tell us the reason for the banquet, but these people surely would have known what it was

At first glance, their list of excuses for not being there seems pretty reasonable

A field to inspect-you and I might equate this to our work getting in the way

Oxen to test- This could be related to possessions and life: a new car, an overdue home project, closing on a house, furniture delivery, or a long-awaited appointment

A new marriage- Family priorities are relational in every culture in the world. What man isn’t going to bend his agenda, plans, and priorities for the sake of his wife’s happiness? A smart man wants to take care of her!

Not one of these things are bad in themselves, but they reveal misplaced priorities!

When Bethany and I were living overseas, we twice made trips back to the U.S. to see family

We were living on a missionary salary.

We spent a lot of money and nearly all of our alloted vacation time to come see them.

We made plans months and months in advance. Everyone knew the schedule.

Yet both times, we had family members ditch our plans for other things.

We were hurt, not because their other things weren’t important, but because it felt like those things were more important than us, when we had invested significantly because we loved them so dearly.

Work, family, possessions, your daily life doings, none of these things are bad or unimportant.

But when they take precedence over God’s call, they become a barrier to the Kingdom

As we approach the official start of this new church, now is a good time for us to ask ourselves

What are the distractions and excuses that keep me from fully embracing God’s call and priority in my life?

We must ask Him to search and to help us sift our priorities into the right order

Each of us will face demands, But God’s call must always be our highest priority!

We also need to help each other and those that we meet to prioritize the Kingdom over the things of this world

And this is impossible if He is not our highest priority.

God has given us the privilege of carrying His invitation, even as His invited guests ourselves. We are His guests and His servants, and He is our top priority. We need to be ready to go above and beyond for Him.

Look at verse 21 with me:

Luke 14:21–23 NASB95

“And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.

The third key to understanding God’s invitation is this:

God’s invitation is for everyone, even the unwanted.

Our passage takes an interesting turn in these verses

When the people that should have come all reject His invitation, the Host looks around and says, “no, I’m having a banquet”

He sends his servants out to fill the place up:

the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame

Thieves in the bushes, travelers and strangers

These are the people sitting down to eat of the best He has to offer

Isn’t that the heart of our GOD!

The Gospel is open and available to everyone! There is no social stigma, status, or position that makes you ineligible.

As we launch this church, we must remember it is His church

IF we stay close to His heart, God will fill this place with

The broken, the needy, and the lost

People that have lived their whole lives in the margins

People that make us uncomfortable

God started the first church and the world wide Gospel movement with fishermen and tax collectors

What makes us think things will be any different here!

We are called to break down barriers and to reach out to those nobody wants. As we launch this church, lets ask ourselves

Who is it in our community nobody cares about?

Who is it that God is calling us to reach?

How can we reflect God’s heart towards those in the margins?

We must extend God’s invitation the world around us with His Kingdom as our highest priority, inviting the greatest and the lowest to join us in the celebration that is the Good News of the Gospel, and we must do so with urgency.

Look at verse 24 with me:

Luke 14:24 NASB95

‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

The final key to understanding God’s invitation in our passage this morning is this,

God’s invitation is urgent because the banquet is ready!

We should find this last verse in our passage as a great motivator

Those that rejected the invitation are not allowed to come to the banquet

This is a clear call of action for us who are the messengers of God’s Kingdom!

God’s Kingdom is eternal, but the invitation is for a limited time only!

A day and an hour is coming when it will be too late.

In my house, sometimes people seem to delay in coming to the dinner table

The food is hot and ready to go

There mom and dad sit, calling for children

And yet the seats remain empty

So, mom and dad made a rule

If you aren’t at the table when the blessing is asked, you will eat peanut butter and jelly

Because the meal that is prepared is for those that are ready to receive it.

As we start this new year and launch this new church, we must remember that the Kingdom of God is urgent!

The task God has given us is immediate and the stakes are high

There are people all around us who need to hear the Gospel and it cannot wait

We must share the Gospel without hesitation

We must invite people to come without reservation

Today they can come. Tomorrow might be too late.

The privilege of starting a new church is amazing and overwhelming. We get to be co-laborers in God’s great mission of inviting the world into His banquet.

Let’s make the invite clear and compelling as we share it with others

Let’s make God’s Kingdom our highest priority, and not let anything distract us from it, be it work, family, or anything else

Let’s be the church. Let’s welcome anyone and everyone, even those nobody wants, just as God has welcomed us.

I’m going to pray for us. The worship team is going to come and lead us in a song, and I want you to spend a moment this morning in reflection.

God has a mission for you, and it is time to step into it.

The banquet is ready, and there is room for many.

Who will you invite?

Pray