Power in the Invitation

Have you ever been invited to a party

I love being invited to parties

When your invited to a party you feel loved and accepted

Right now its hard to invite people to parties

Its been a long time since there was a social gathering

People are shut up in their houses or have to sit outside in public spaces at a distance to speak to each other

The mental and physical health of people is getting worst

Depression is setting in because of people feeling lonely

America against the police

it started with racism but has lit the tinder box

Because there has been so much unemployment

people are fed up because of whats gone on.

Here you can feel people are frustrated

Our goverment keeps coming out warning us that more Jobs are going to be lost

More poverty is on the way.

Yet as a group of people that come to REC we can change this

We can work together just like the early church did.

There is power in your inviation

Luke 14:12–23 ESV

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

Jesus speaks about a time where a man is giving a banquet,

Its like before this COVID time I would invite families to church and they would come at me with excuses

Like its too early on a Sunday Morning

My son or daughter has a football game

We have family time in the morning

We cant make the afternoon were having a day out

I would invite them to the banquet yet the excuses would come

I once put on a free BBQ and only a few came

Why, because these people were not poor, they were not crippled and life was fine and dandy

In their life money was good

Kids were happy

They were with their partner and thought everything will be okay in the world

Yet God told me to keep going.

My God told me to get a foodbank going

He essentially asked me to go out into the town again and invite the poor, the peoples lives that had been crippled because of their situations that life had put them in.

He told me to invite the people where Poverty had struck its heavy load

To invite the families where life was falling apart benief them because Poverty had arrived at the door

To invite the people that had been crippled because there finances were not adding up

They have been coming even before this time a few have come to the banquet

Now we have COVID now the original people are quickly realising that church is needed

They are realising that the security they had has now gone

They are realising as their busy lives came to an abrupt holt that they feel rather empty.

This is where we come in

This is where REC Church

This is where you and I come in

There is power in your invitation

Luke 14:23–24 ESV

And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

At the end of the parable it gives us a charge to go everywhere and compel people to come in

God wants a full house

He wants everybody at the seat

He wants a table full of people

Just like when you and I are invited to a weeding and all the seats are full of people

People Laughing and Joking and enjoying the bridegroom coming together

People watching from a distance as they see the married version of two people together

The Joy that it brings families and friends seeing two people together and happy

You see the church is the bride Jesus is the groom

Our Job is a simple

we are to invite people to the wedding.

There is power in your inivitation.

Im making this easy for you to do this week

Speak about poster

Saddle back church have done this and have seen huge numbers of people come online.

Their church went from 40,000 poeople before this time meeting, to 100,000 people online

They have seen over 4,000 people come to know Jesus

All because the people of the church gave out posters for people to join online groups

Community and groups is important right now

People want to know if its all going to be okay, and is there more to life right now than this?

Is there a higher being? Can I get rid of this empty feeling inside

Your neighbours where you live are probably feeling this feeling right now too, so why not invite them along online?

Why not invite them along to the wedding

Why not invite them along to watch online

Why not give them something to be happy about

Your inviting people to a wedding a great and joyuss moment

This wedding gives people hope.

Ephesians 3:17–18 ESV

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

We have the best message ever told to mankind

There is hope for mankind

That hope is in Jesus

That security is in Jesus

We have the best gift ever

The Church

We have community, that a lot of people do not have

We have an unending Love through Christ, that a lot of people do not have

We have purpose which a lot of people do not have

We have Hope which a lot of people do not have

So there is power in your invitation

Go get inviting people

You dont have to say much just pop the poster through their door

Put it up outside around your house

Choose a couple of lamp posts to put it on

Just go and invite people to the banquet

Because at the end of time, there will be a banquet in Heaven and the table is already set, and the spaces are many

Because God wants a full house

You are already there yet dont you want to see your family and friends there too?

Do you not want to particpate with them in the banquete.

So there is power in your invitation.

My hope for this church

We are being known as the small church with a big heart

People are seeing the impact we are making on Rayleigh and the surrounding areas

Our social media has now over 700 people on it

People are being impacted all the time

Imagine if we were a bit bigger in number?

Imagine what more we could do as a church?

We already give out so much food to so many people?

Imagine the help we could provide to even more people if we were bigger?

Imagine the movement we could make as a group of people?

Imagine the stories that we can tell in years to come if we just invited people along online today, or this week?

Imagine the move of God if we just invited people?

Imagine the power of the invitation, your invitation if we just invite people?

Imagine the history books that our church our little REC group you lot could be in?

All for Christ all for a great cause.

All for Hope

All for Love

All for Peace

There is power in your invitation.