Next Steps #6 THIS ONE

Northside Church

Next Steps LAC #6

4/10/22 Celebration Sunday

Jamey Mills

Good morning Northside, it is so good to be with you all… Man it is so good to be with you guys today… it's always a good day to be able to come and share with you all…

Intro the LAT… Dana, Ron, Phil, and Kevin

Today is another big day at Northside…

Baptism Sunday… we will be baptizing three people today…

I have some exciting news to share with you all…

It’s crazy to me that Easter is next week…

I wanted to tag on to something the host shared earlier… I really want us to consider the power and potential of an invitation. It is one of the things I believe healthy churches understand… they know why it matters… and the opportunity it creates.

I’m willing to bet that every single one of us have had our lives changed by invitation…

And one of the reasons it's so powerful is that it happens in the realm of relationship… right..

There is no way to read the bible and not come to the conclusion that

God is incredibly relational

… and that He created us in that same way. We are created to be relational…

One of the most incredible truths you can know is that everything that is written here… in the Bible… is aimed at revealing the reality of who God is as well as what it is you’re first created to be… which is in relationship to God.

God is highly relational which leads us to the point of understanding that God cares so much more about where we are with Him than what we do or have ever done… what God has for you isn’t first based on “doing”... it's not earned. It's not about or based on what we do or have done but on who He is…

That should be a freeing thought… we don’t have to stress out about that sorta thing but we can rest and find peace in the presence of who He is… WHO He is, is really the big deal of the entire Bible. And it is… life changing truth.

In fact, one of the craziest things about it is…

Our authentic relationship with the King leads to real and needed change in our life

… needed change… change that is based on and guided by the essence of who God is which is love… and sometimes we don’t always realize the need for… sometimes that we don’t always know how we feel about up front.

I don’t know if we’ve really ever caught on to just how important the way we respond to God’s invitation to relationship is…

I remember when Brandi invited me to marry her… (picture)

Okay that's not really how it happened… The truth is I pursued her… in my own unique and incredibly immature way for a long time. I gave up for a season… I even swore I’d never date her… but she only had to wink once.

The truth is… she was and is… so far out of my league… girls like that… don’t fall for guys like me unless they trip when they're running away… (Picture)

But I do remember when I felt like all that started to change… she was acting differently and looking at me differently… for the first few weeks I just assumed she stopped taking medication or something…

But when we started dating… I couldn't get rid of this idea…

Who am I, that a girl like that… would even think of a guy like me.

And it wasn’t just me… our entire school did a double take at the same time…

And my then best friend held an intervention for Brandi…. And the horrible thing was I thought about attending. I completely understood it.

I remember feeling this sense of incredibly deep honor mixed with a little confusion…

and it reminds me of a parable that Jesus told…

Matthew 22:2–14 NLT

“The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come! “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

(NLT)

2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son.

3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!

4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Jesus told this parable to the religious leaders of that day…

Jesus used parables to teach important, life changing truth through a story… that allowed us to more easily understand and connect to…

Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like…

The kingdom of God… one author said it this way… it is the rule and reign of Jesus that repairs and reconciles all that is broken in you and I…

What is the Kingdom of God?

Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is like this wedding feast… thrown by the King for his son.

It was the kind of party that I’m assuming everyone would want to make the list for… one of incredible honor… literally the invitation of a lifetime…

It was the kind of party that is out of reach for most of us… too lofty… over our head… the kind of food, the sort of people… People like me don’t party with people like that. My life is just too messy… my people are more hay bail than eat snail kinda people.

Jesus said the invitations were sent… there were people who had been invited… they knew who they were. When the servants went out to tell the guests that the time had come… that it was ready… something crazy happened.

Those who had been invited… refused the invasion of the king.

Who does that?

Jesus was talking to the religious leaders of the day… and no doubt Jesus was talking about them; trying to help them see what comes from denying Jesus/refusing that invitation. Some believe it was actually aimed at the people of Israel… God’s chosen people…

As the servants went out… Some just made excuses… basically… “we have a life to live”...

Luke 14 tells a very similar parable… where the excuses sounded like this…

I just bought a field, I need to check it out.

I just bought 5 pair of new oxen I need to try them out

I have a wife now, you know how it is.

For some it went even further. Saying the messengers were treated shamefully (in scripture, that's usually pretty rough stuff), kidnapped, and in some cases even killed.

Which they found out all too soon there would be consequences mistreating the messenger of the King.

In the meantime… Jesus says the king sent his servants out into the highways and byways to invite… “everyone that you see”... both the good and the bad…

Who were the servants to invite?

And so they did, they went out and invited the good and the bad… and let's face it… the ones that probably should have been invited already were… we are talking about those who felt like or were at least seen as unfit for the presence of the king…

Isaiah 57:15 NLT

The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

(NLT)

15 The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,

the Holy One, says this:

“I live in the high and holy place

with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.

I restore the crushed spirit of the humble

and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

Another author said it this way… God dwells in places we cannot even comprehend… high and lofty but also dwells with… the contrite, the humble, and the crushed. The king has made himself available to the people.

It's not just the people who seem like they have it all together… but the invitation is extended to the lowly, the broken and the contrite…

And that is the outrageous beauty of what Jesus is teaching… and of who Jesus is.

One author said it like this… it sort of reorients everything we know about who gets in… who is invited into the presence of the King…

If we approach the gospel with a moralistic lens we miss the beauty and mystery of it.

You are the recipient of this invitation of a lifetime into the presence of the king

And that is the big news I want to share with you today. It is so much bigger and so much more important than anything else you may have come expecting to hear…

Here’s a question… does it feel like the invitation of a lifetime? If the answer is no… you’re not alone… but… it means we aren’t seeing it completely.

Can you imagine… one day… walking down the street doing your thing… and the next you find yourself confronted by this incredible… life changing invitation… completely paid for… no questions asked and no strings attached… other than… to have the sense NOT to refuse an invitation like this one.

An invitation into His presence… into the relationship that you were created for first… that brings with it this new life… this new way of living… this new hope and purpose… that is ever increasing as we learn to walk well within that relationship.

And it's so important for you and I… to STOP…

And not gloss over it the way so many of us do with invitations…

Read it… hear it… weight it… and respond.

So here it is…

Have you ever really responded to the invitation of the King in your life?

I’m not talking about a half hearted… yea I guess…

But I mean… as someone who truly understands the reality of what it means to be unfit… which we all are… but in the face of that… to find ourselves in this place of receiving an invitation of a lifetime…

That is the Kingdom of Heaven is about rule and reign of Jesus restoring all that is broken in us

… as one author said it… not just restoring… but making it better than it ever was… the fullness and freedom that God created you for… full of lifegiving things… hope, real God defined love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control…

And FREE of those things that rob us of that life… selfishness… sin… and our own attempts at defining an identity that can only truly be found in Christ.

And so you know… if that offends you… that means you have been confronted by the reality of the gospel… which is one of the forms in which we receive the very invitation we are talking about.

Truth truth is… every single one of us should be confronted at some point with the gospel… offended… because it is living and active… it speaks to the very depths of the brokenness within you… and

If we are truly accepting that invitation it means we are letting go of our definitions, our morality, and our way before the throne of the King

,the creator… who made you and loves you infinitely. Who knows your brokenness but invited you anyway.

Worship team… and Beth P.

Here is one other cool thing… our invitation… comes with as many +1’s as we can possibly imagine. As we accept that invitation, we become one that is being sent out to the highway and byways to invite people into the feast of the King… to extend this same invitation of a lifetime… to “everyone” that we see.

Here is a hard truth I hope we are ready for…

Why would anyone hold back an invitation to that sort of feast?

Are we afraid it will disappoint? Are we embarrassed of the King? Are we unsure of our own invitation… that it's bogus somehow? Are we too much like the people who had every excuse in the book?

For me… it's that I have gotten too comfortable with it. It’s become “normal” and this week I was reminded all over again that there is nothing Normal… or mondaine… or trivia… or little… about this invitation. I want it to become a normal part of the way I do life, but I don't want it to become normal in the way that I forget about its infinite value and purpose. And if you feel like thats where you at, the need to respond to the invitation of the king… for the first time… or all over again…

One author suggested that we often make it harder than it is… and offered two suggestions…

Pray about it… pray not just for those you know that are ignoring the invitation… but pray that God will use you.

Ask one simple question… to barista’s waitresses… neighbors… which is… how can I pray for you.

The guy I got it from suggested… Do you know how many times I have had people say… I don't believe in God… but… and then rattle them off.

And then… don’t forget to actually pray for them.

Responding to the invitation to the king… I believe it is a public thing. No doubt it’s a work that happens in our heart… but it also involves showing up. Not in some flamboyant way that demands attention to yourself… but in a way that is blown away that the invitation came.

Have you ever truly and clearly responded to the invitation of the King?

Today… there are three things about to go down…

We have three baptisms prepared… These are folks who are responding to the invitation of the kind…

A chance to respond to that invitation; if you feel like God is calling you to respond to that invitation all over again or for the first time… I’d encourage you to do it… not not wait…

I have invited a small group of people to come and meet me right over here… while we sing… I’d ask you to come over here… We'd love to meet you, talk with you, and pray with you…

Communion: which beth is going help us move toward now…

Pray

Next steps Land Acquisition update: We had 3 targets…

Faith: $300,000

Dream: $400,000

Miraculous: $500,000

Result of last week’s commitment Sunday as of now:

$585,000