Christianity As A Feast

Is Christianity merely a rigid list of rules and regulations, or is it an extraordinary invitation to a lavish table provided by God?

In this exposition of Matthew 22:1–14, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon examines the Parable of the Wedding Feast. Speaking directly to the resistant religious establishment of His day, Jesus reveals that the kingdom of heaven is not an onerous burden, but a grand celebration where every sacrifice has already been made by the King. Discover why the gospel is extended to both the good and the bad, the danger of practical indifference, and why wearing the freely provided garment of Christ's righteousness is required to enter.

In this episode, we cover:

• Christianity as a Feast: Reclaiming a compelling, vibrant vision of faith that satisfies the deep spiritual hunger of the soul.
• The Finished Work of Christ: Recognizing that God has prepared the table and made every sacrifice necessary through His Son.
• Overcoming Indifference and Hostility: Addressing the subtle ways busyness, pride, and moral self-sufficiency keep people from responding to God's invitation.
• An Open Invitation to the World: How the gospel expands beyond religious insider groups to welcome all who acknowledge their need.
• The Required Wedding Garment: Why human effort falls short and how accepting the freely offered robe of Christ's righteousness is essential.

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Transcript

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This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.

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Let's pray together. This is our confidence. Our confidence is not in ourselves and what we can uh deduce from the culture around us. Our confidence is founded on our experience of you, that you've never failed us yet. You're consistent, you're faithful, you're not a man that you would lie, the Bible tells us. And so we can take you at your word and we can build our life. And we can invite everyone we love to build their life on the truthful reality of God and his word. And so, Holy Spirit, as we open up the word today, we want to just be increased in our capacity to trust you, to enjoy you, and to feast on you. And so, Lord, stir up appetites in us which can only be satisfied by God. And the byproduct of that is worship. And so we want to worship you with our mind and with our affection and with our attention now. And so lead us into this, we pray, in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. You could have a seat. If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22. We've been teaching the parables of Jesus uh over the course of the summer. And we've got this Sunday and next Sunday, uh, and then we'll finish with the parables, then we'll jump into the book of Daniel. Uh, and so uh I want to I want to talk to you today from Matthew 22 about uh this is a Christianity as a feast, Christianity as a feast. Now I'm gonna give you some context for what's happening here. Jesus is in Jerusalem, he's already made the triumphal entry, which means he's in the city of Jerusalem. He's spending the last week of his life before the cross. The filter is off, okay? He is fed up with religious knuckleheads, and he is just, he's not being mean. It's just that Jesus lived and spoke with a sense of hiddenness about himself early on. But now it's like this is all going down exactly the way I've told people. And now he is being confronted because he's in Jerusalem. The religious leaders of the day, the elders, the Pharisees, these people that ran the religious establishment who were most threatened by the reality of God. That's who he's talking to. And he is on a three-parable rant in chapter 22 and verse 1 where we'll start. But this is the third of three parables. It started back in chapter 21, about verse 28, where the the Pharisees came to him and they said, Hey, by what authority do you do these things? And Jesus is like, Oh, really? And he starts just telling, he tells the first parable, and in that parable, he tells them, Hey, listen, let me tell you something. Hookers and tax collectors are going to get into the kingdom of God before you people do. Uh and then they're like, What? Next parable he tells about this tenant and the parable of the tenants. And basically, it's in that parable they begin to realize, wait a minute, I think he's talking to us about us. Jesus was so smart, he could talk right to you and about you at the same time, and you would even pick up on it. And so, but they begin to pick up on it. We jump in on the third parable, which starts in chapter 22, verse 1. It's called the parable of the wedding feast. And what I want us to see today is that the way the Bible talks about Christianity, not as a list of rules and regulations or do's and don'ts, but it talks about Christianity as a feast. Matthew 22, verse 1. And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention, and they went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to his attendants, Bind him hand in foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Now, uh again, Jesus is telling parables and he's talking to the religious leadership of the day. And they don't get it. They think because they're Jews that they're entitled, they're like, we're God's chosen people. We don't have to do anything, we're in charge. What are you doing? So Jesus, it's really merciful. He's trying to, during the last week of his life, he's talking to the most hard-headed religious people who cannot see what's right in front of them. And he's just laying it out more clearly and more clearly and more clearly every time. And so, what I mean when I say Christianity as a feast, there's five or six things I just want to point to in the text this morning. The first one is simply this is that there is a feast. There is a feast. Hear it again. And Jesus spoke to them in parables, verse one the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king, God, who had a wedding feast for his son, Jesus, and he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. One of the questions we have to ask ourselves is how often do I talk about Christianity in terms that are compelling? Let me ask that again. How often do you and I talk about Christianity to other people in terms that are compelling? Now, I did not grow up in the church. I went to church every once in a while. Friends would invite me. It was not compelling. Matter of fact, it was not even remotely interesting. It was always in terms of heaven and hell and bad people riding around listening to Deaf Leopard and blah. And I just was it was it was a matter of fact, yeah, it was boring. I would just sit in the back and just think, what in the world? But then when I turned 16, I got a job working for a man in a sporting goods store. And that cat was so compelling. He was like a clown on fire, okay? He never told me, son, you're in danger of hellfire. You know, if you don't know Jesus, you go to hell when you die. He never even said anything about heaven. He said crazy things like this. Man, we'd have we'd close a big deal, make a big sale. Uh I mean, like one guy came in, he had a ranch in central Texas, he bought six boats. I was like, shut up. Yeah, and so my boss would get tears in his eyes, go, oh man, I'll tell you what, Jesus Christ is the best business partner a man ever had. And I, because I was 16 and angry and didn't know anything, I would say, Yeah, you rich people, I have to say that to justify your excess. And he would just laugh. He would just laugh, and I was just like, he would invite me to church. Again, he never told me, hey boy, you're gonna bust hell wide open. The few times I went to church, that's what the evangelist would say. And I was like, not compelling. I think I live in my own personal hell. Thank you very much. I'll take a zero on what you're talking about. But the more I worked for Mr. Sewell was his name, starting on with 16. Worked for him on into college, but he's about two years in his life. This is what I mean by compelling. His life sent me three messages loud and clear. He never used these words, uh, like he, but but but he would just like I was dating a girl and he saw he saw us out on a date, and the next day at work, he said, uh, hey, you're hanging out with old so-and-so, right? And I said, Yeah, you got a problem with that? Because I was always looking for a fight. I was just always had a chip on my shoulder. You got a problem with that? You want to go? And I was like, he was just like, no. And then he would say things like this, you know, son, there's girls you want to date when you're a boy. And then there's women you want to marry and mother your children. You should figure out which one she is. And I knew what he was saying. I knew what he was saying. His life sent me again, never heaven and hell. I don't think he ever quoted a Bible verse to me. He would say to me, You haven't lived long enough to be this angry. You should probably figure out why. His his life sent me three clear questions. Number one, do you realize how how hungry you are? Do you realize, son, how hungry you are? Second question his life sent me was, did you know there's a feast? Did you know there's a feast? And the third question his life issues to me was, has anyone ever told you that you're invited? Has anyone ever just explained to you how invited you are and welcomed you are? Because I was alienated, I didn't have church clothes, I didn't fit in, I was this, I was that, I wasn't good enough for that, all this kind of stuff. And consistently and constantly. And so after two years of working for him, it seemed like a no-brainer that I would come to faith. Why? Because his life radiated to me that there was a feast, that man, God was something to be enjoyed. Like I remember one time I was not yet a believer. I was about 17, and he we were at breakfast before the workday started, because he would buy your breakfast. You just showed up at the cafe, and and and he said, Man, I gotta tell you, I gotta share something with you. It's so incredible. Man, it's such a blessing. I thought he's bought a new property, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, this man is wildly successful. I remember just thinking, you're lucky. That's what I thought when I was 16. You're just lucky. I don't know. And he would say, Oh no, God blesses people, do it right, son. Just do it right and trust God for the rest. Yeah, whatever. I'll think I'll trust me instead. But we're sitting at breakfast, and this is this is where I just thought, you know, something I don't know. What he wanted to share with me that day was he said, I'm so excited. Man, I got this new thing in my life. I thought he's taking like a supplement or something. No, he volunteered to teach three-year-olds at his church. This cat's in his 50s. And I was like, You what? He goes, Oh man, it's great. We have story time, then we have snack, then we line up and go to the restroom, and then we line up and go to the water fountain. We come back and we just have playtime, then their parents pick them up, and boy, they hug them. Those little J birds, all over the room. And I was like, How many of these you got? I was thinking, two or three, just 16. And I just thought, just those like roaches crawling all over you, sucking the life out of you. And I remember I was just looking at him and I looked up, he had tears in his eyes. And he goes, Whoa, it makes me so glad to be alive. And in that moment, I just thought, You know something I don't. What he knew is that there was a feast. And what I knew is that this man was feasting and I was starving. And all my jaded angry cynicism in the world could not protect me or insulate me from this vibrant reality that this man demonstrated. This is what I mean when I say there's a feast. Secondly, someone else has made every sacrifice necessary. Look at verse 4. Again, he sent other servants. By the way, when he says in verse 3, and he sent his servants to call those, think all the Old Testament prophets who are calling out to the Jewish people all along. He says he sent these other servants, think John the Baptist and Jesus. And again, he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, see, I prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. How hard is that? I mean, someone else has made every sacrifice necessary. Now, here's something you need to understand about this culture. People would get like an invite to a feast, and then they would get a second time, servants would go out and tell them, okay, the feast you got invited to is now ready. So come enjoy the feast. And to not come, because up front, what we do nowadays, we have what's called a save the date. We send out a little card that says save the date. And then when it gets close to the event, then you get the RSVP thing. In biblical days, they would send servants and say, Hey, we're gonna have a feast on this day. So just kind of put it down, get ready, you're invited. And people would say, I'm coming. And so these people have been invited and said, We're gonna come. And now the servants come and second servants are sent out to say, Hey, the feast that you were told about, it is now ready. All the all the preparations have been made. That's why Jesus is careful to say, My dinner, my oxen, my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. Here's the problem, okay? Someone else has made every sacrifice necessary. And these people are like, ah, never mind. I changed my mind. Now, why is this such a big deal? Uh, if you get invited to dinner, like occasionally my wife and I get invited to dinner a couple weeks ago, someone in our church said, Hey, are you guys like socializing during the global pandemic? I said, There's a global pandemic? I didn't know. Of course we're socializing. Why? We want to have you guys over for dinner. And like good Southern people, because my wife taught me, they said, Hey, you want to come over to dinner? And I said, Uh text, yeah, we can come. We can come on that Sunday night. That'd be great. And so they said, I said, can we bring anything? Because you're supposed to say when people invite you. Can we bring anything? The man texted back and said, Just yourselves and your hunger. I was like, This is my favorite. Because every once in a while I said, Can we bring anything? Oh, yeah, can you bring a salad? I'm like, Are you providing dinner or are we? I can't sit at home and eat this salad. But anyway, we get there and the guy's like, hey, come early, we want to socialize and get to know you guys. We don't know you really that well. All right, great. Walk in and we're talking, and I'm I smell something. I'm like, oh my gosh, what is that? He goes, by the way, I've been cooking ribs on my green egg since 11 o'clock this morning. It's 6 30 at night. He goes, These things are so good. He said, I have a special way. I cook them and then I bag them. And I was like, What? He goes, Yeah, you bag them and you put them in this thermal bag. And oh man, and I'm just like, just stop talking about it. Let me at them bad boys. And then it's me and my wife, and he and his wife. I bet he has four full racks of ribs. And I'm like, shut up, man. There's like some fat guys coming to help us with this. And so he's cutting off, and we're getting, you get two or three, they're they're ginormous. And I'm like, oh, they just fall off the bone. And while we're eating, I'm looking over there, and there's like two and a half racks of ribs left. And I'm like, and they already said, we're going out of town, blah, blah, blah. And in my mind, I'm thinking, what you gonna do with them ribs over there? Cool. That I'm just like, I'm not being, I'm just like, what's he gonna do? And halfway through the meal, he's I said, How I said, Oh, these are incredible. And then this gracious host says, Well, good, because all those ribs over there are going home with you. And my wife, who's got manners, she goes, Oh, you don't have to do that. I kicked her under the table. Shut up. Let the man do that. Because basically, what he was saying was, My dinner, my oxen, my fat ribs have been slaughtered, everything is ready. All you gotta do, Neil, is show up and eat. How hard is that? Now, hey, don't get lost in ribs, okay? Reel yourself back in. Some of you are like, We're going to salt grass for lunch today. Reel yourself back in. This is Christianity. This is the invitation of God. He says, Hey, my dinner, my oxen, my fat calves have been slaughtered, my son has been sacrificed. All you've got to do, everything's ready, is come to the wedding feast. This is why you should stop trying to fence the Lord's table and make it so hard for people to come to Christ. Don't ask questions like if you come to the point in your life, you know for sure if you died tonight, you'd go to heaven. And if you did die and you stood before God and he said, Why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? Somebody asked me that when I was about 17. I had no idea what they were talking about. But my boss related to me in such a way that the more I was around that cat, the hungrier I got. And the more I realized he's feasting and I'm starving. What does this guy know that I don't know? What I didn't know then was that somebody else had made every sacrifice necessary. And I was invited. Here's a third thing the text tells us people have always been in indifferently hostile to the gospel. Look at verse five. You would think, how hard would this be? I mean, he sacrificed all his animal, the feast that you heard about, it's now ready. Come and chow down. Look at verse five. But they paid no attention. They went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, John the Baptist and Jesus, treated them shamefully, and killed them. Uh-oh. What do I mean when I say people have always been indifferently hostile to the gospel? We act like this is a 21st century phenomenon. Someone said to me recently, you know what? Life is so busy. I wish it could be like it was in the biblical times. Seems like it was so much slower and more slow-paced and laid back. In some ways it was, but in some ways it wasn't. People always find something to obsess themselves over and busy themselves with instead of the things of God. These people in the Bible, they just said, hey, uh, hey, I'm paying no attention. I got to go check out my farm. Another one, hey, you know, it's a global pandemic. I got to manage my business. Things are down a little bit. I'm down 4% this quarter. People always find something besides God and gospel. So it's not a 21st century problem of busyness and a lack of priorities. It's been going on since the first century. And so not just busyness, but also hostility. So much to the point that they killed the servants. Now, by the way, these other parables that Jesus told, the one right before this one, it's the same, it's the parable of the tenants, and the son gets killed. And the king is not happy. We'll get to that in just a minute. But people are always going to be, you know, hey, I'm I'm kind of too busy for that, or I'm really hostile towards that. Like someone recently said to me, you know, I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything. And I'm like, I laughed. I said, What makes you think you would hurt my feelings? Well, I mean, I just I kind of doubt. I doubt that you and I are on the same page. And I said, Well, what page are you on? And then I'll tell you what page I'm on. And the person proceeded to tell me that how intellectual he was, and how he reads a lot of books. And I've read Richard Dawkins and I read this, and I've read blah, blah, blah. And he even brought out Stephen Hawking. And I thought, well, we're going there, huh? Like you can't attack a guy in a wheelchair. I said, I got nothing against Stephen Hawking. I think he's a brilliant man. I said, but let me just, you said you don't want to hurt my feelings. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I want to tell you this, okay? He goes, sure, go ahead. I said, now, if there is a God, let's just start with that. If there is a God, and there is, he goes, okay, I'll allow it for this for this discussion. I said, I appreciate you allowing God to exist. Uh, if there is a God, now think for a little bit, people, you're smart people. If, because his whole thing was, I just doubt. I've just, I, I, I just, my, my, my mind is, I have really, really high critical thinking requirements. And I just thought the whole time, no, you just think a lot of yourself, bro. Uh, he says, Well, I said, so I I just I live in doubt. I said, okay, that's great. Now, you said you don't want to hurt my feelings. I don't want to hurt your feelings back, but I want to lay this down for you to think about. He goes, Okay, great. I said, if there is a God, okay, and there is, and he's moral, and he is, then if you're engaged in any form of immorality, you have to doubt that God's existence to give yourself space to be immoral. He's like, say that again. I said, if there is a God, and there is, and he's moral, the Bible says he's holy. He's moral. You got that? And he is. He goes, Oh, oh, okay, I'll allow that. I said, Thank you. I appreciate it. Then if there is a God and this God is moral, holy, like the Bible describes, then in order for you to engage in immorality, you have to doubt his existence in order to give yourself space to be immoral. And he said, Are you saying I'm immoral? I said, No, I am asking you, are you involved in any form of immorality? That's not just sexual, that's ethically. Well, that's a very personal question. Your response makes me think that the answer is yes. And I'm not attacking that. I'm not here to make you feel bad, believe it or not. I'm just here to say that's why you are honor bound to doubt. You have to deny the existence of God. Because there, if there is a God and He's moral, you're in deep trouble, my man. Well, this has been a good discussion. Are we done? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got to go. I'm sorry, did I hurt your feelings? No, but you made your point. And I said, hey, let's finish the conversation. No, we talked enough. The phrase never came out of my mouth, but okay, we'll let it go. See, this is my thing. I don't take that personally. His hostility towards God is moral because his heart is hostile towards the things of God because he wants to live the life that he wants to live. Here's the fourth thing the text tells us that unbelief will always be consequential. Unbelief. Verse 7, the king was angry. Have you ever noticed in our country that people act like we're the only ones that can have feelings about all this? Like we don't want God to be able to have any kind of response to us. The king was angry. Look at this. And he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Think 8070 and the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Rome. Jesus is standing in the now talking about then, and these religious Yahoos don't even realize it because unbelief will always be consequential. Think of it like this: if God doesn't punish the wicked, then on what basis can he reward the righteous? If God does not punish the wicked, on what basis can he reward the righteous? I mean, if nothing comes of not believing the gospel, then how can we know that anything comes from believing the gospel? See, this is what the text means when it says, hey, unbelief will always be consequential. A lot of people are like, hey, I see, and I see people nowadays, they just thumb their nose at God. They don't give a rip about God, they just kind of go about doing their own thing and they're getting away with murder. Nothing's happening to them. By the way, you're not the first person to think that. If you've ever thought that. There's people in the Bible, there's psalms that are written by people that were like, hey, God, the wicked are flourishing and the righteous. Are down here sucking wind. This seems kind of backwards, don't you think? But remember this Martin Luther King often quoted this, but it's not original with Martin Luther King. It actually comes from an older preacher named Theodore Parker who said the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Let me say that again. The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Now, this is not about political activism because politicians like to take that quote and talk about their agenda. This is about the justice of God. This is about people that think I can just live in unbelief my whole life and there's no consequence. And to that I just say the king was angry. And he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Here's the next thing the Bible tells us the world is invited. Unless you think, see, the Bible checks us up because we hear something like that, we're like, oh my God's a God of love. He would never hurt anybody. Your God's not the God of the Bible. No. But unless you think God is some capricious, short-tempered uh despot. Look at verse 8. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. See, they the the Jewish people are like, we're God's chosen people. You know, we ain't got to do anything. And Jesus says, they're not worthy. It's not that they're not interested, they're not worthy. Those invited were not worthy. Verse 9, go therefore to the main roads and invite them to the wedding feast, as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. By the way, don't you love that bad people get invited first? That's what the Bible says. They went out. Look at it, it's right there. Verse 10 those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, so that the wedding hall was filled. What I mean when I say the world is invited, the gospel, stop me, this sounds familiar. The Bible says that Jesus came unto his own, the Jewish people, and his own received him not. And so what happens? Then the gospel goes to the Gentiles. This is what Jesus is talking about here. The gospel is now moving from the Jews to the Gentiles and the rest of the world. And he says, Hey, you go out there to the main road, get out of this little religious suburb right here of all these hustling, bustling religious people who are experts on the truth and dropouts on the way, and go out there and find me some real life sinners, okay? Some bad people and some good people, and invite them. And they did. And the Bible says that the wedding hall was filled with these people. This is the beauty of parables. Jesus can summarize in 10, 12, 14 verses, he can summarize the history of God's dealing with the Jewish people. Now, why do I say that? I love what Philip Yancey says. He says this about parables. He said, Jesus did not give the parables to teach us how to live. He gave them, I believe, to correct our notions about who God is and who God loves. And if anything is on strident display here, what we see is who God is. Just like there's a consequence for believing. The world is invited. So we can understand who God is and who God loves. Let me say this: God loves bad people. So if you're here in this room and you're like, I'm not a good person, I want you to know there's a feast and you're invited. If you're watching this at home right now on your couch and you think, man, my old lady made me turn this on, but I'm not much into religion. I'm not a very good person. You're invited. I was watching TV last night, uh, 48 hours. It's got some news program. And basically it's a story about somebody kill somebody else, but I couldn't stop watching it. I was fascinated. There's a story right here in Texas, up in the Metroplex, of a woman who was 20 and she has an affair with a 40-year-old man, and then she gets bored and she lost a lot of weight, started feeling good about herself. And and this lady arranges with one of her boyfriends, we'll call it, uh, uh, to kill her husband. Just crazy. And the night her husband was killed by one boyfriend, she was gonna hook up later that night with a different boyfriend. And by the time 48 hours was over, I was incensed. I was like talking to the TV. Oh my gosh, you are whoa blah, oh my! Come to find out, they they got her phone records. By the way, when you text anybody, all that stuff is stored somewhere. And so they're reading the phone. She had six boyfriends at one time. I am so angry because her husband, one of the boyfriends, shot her husband, fled, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And after it's over, I'm decompressing for like 10 minutes. I'm like, I'll tell you why, man, man, that woman deserved to be put under the jail. They they sentenced her to life, and she doesn't get parole until 30 years. She comes up for parole. And I'm thinking, that's you don't even deserve parole, lady. And I'm sitting in my bedroom because my wife does not like it when I get compressed. I'm just like staring at the TV. And this little voice says, Hey, what are you preaching on tomorrow? The parable of the wedding feast. That's what I'm talking about, by God. Now remember, bad people like her are invited. What? Yeah. Bad people who are ruled by their appetites and arranged to murder who manipulate men with their body so they'll kill their husband so she can get his life insurance. Yeah. This is the preposterous nature of the gospel. Unless you think it's just for all you Fox News Republican watching people. And Democrats are invited too. Yeah. Nancy Pelosi is invited. Oh, the only thing worse is that you got invited. Thank you. I've missed you too. If you're watching online, stop throwing stuff at the TV. He doesn't pick and choose. He says, right there in the Bible, you got a copy of it? He says, and those servants first sin went out to the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. See, I want to determine the level of badness that gets to come to the feast. I don't get to do that. I was, I'm not kidding. I was in a bad mood for 30 minutes. What kind of woman? Just money. Sometimes I walk out and I look at my wife and I say, You women are just manipulative, trying to kill us and get our life insurance. And she's like, Really? What have you been watching? I'm on to you. And the Holy Spirit is, yeah. Bad people like that woman there, they get invited to the feast. Here's the last thing the Bible tells us. Are you still with me this morning? I know it's been a while since we've been together, and you're like, oh proper attire is required. Proper attire is required. Look at verse 11. But when the king came in and looked at the guests, he saw there was a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he, the man, was speechless. And the king said to his attendants, Bind him hand in foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. Proper attire is required. I don't know if you've ever been anywhere that has that sign, but that sign changes everything. Years ago, a friend of mine was interviewing at a church in Fort Worth, a very prestigious, large church with a famous pastor. It was like a big deal, and he was going there to interview as a youth pastor. And so he said, Man, I mean this guy wears jeans and flip-flops and a t-shirt every day if you can. And so he said, I dressed up, I put on khakis and a polo shirt, just a short sleeve pullover shirt, and I had some deck shoes on. I was looking good. I was fresh. I was ready to go. And all of a sudden, we pulled up, and the guy that he said, meet me here. And I pulled in, he said, it was some exclusive country club. And I was like, man, this is really nice. And they had this private, separate uh dinner club, and that's where I was meeting him. And now I walked in and I saw, actually, I knew I was in trouble when I saw this bronze plaque that was screwed into the wall that said, proper attire required. He goes, I walked in and then I realized what that meant because a man in a tuxedo walked over to me and said, Sir, come with me, please. Walked him over to a room, opened up a door, and he said, We require a coat and a tie, and we'll let you pass on the coat, but you must wear a tie to enter into our dining facility. So my friend with a short sleeve pullover shirt was given a tie that didn't match, it was just a tie. Just you got to have this tie on. And he said, I had to, and he said, Man, I'm not really dressing. He said, Sir, this is required. He puts it on, he ties it, and he said, I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. I looked down at myself and I and he said, I fixing my collar. He said, and I just walked in, and this famous pastor is sitting over in the corner where he's got his own table, which is always reserved for him, at a club that the church pays for. Hello. You feeling convicted yet? Just checking. Uh, you shouldn't pay for that. Churches should not pay for pastors' country club memberships, just for the record. But if you individuals want to chip in, uh he said, I walked over there. He said, Neil, I knew I didn't have a job. Just by the way, the guy looked at me. He looked up at me like, what an idiot. Didn't you know how to dress to get in here? He said, I'd never been at a club that was that nice in my life. And people had coat and tie on, and I was like, dude, we're just eating lunch. Proper attire required. What does that mean? Clean, respectable. Normally, white clothes at a feast were mandatory for all the guests. And were they not available, the host would provide the wedding garments, typically a white robe. So, regardless of how you came, you could put on the white robe, and everybody realized, oh, not only is this person invited, but this person is dressed properly to be here at this feast. Now, remember this, and this situation is even more simple. Allow me to explain. These people were out just doing life. They were like, hey, there's a big royal fancy, some king is giving like a wedding feast for his son. It's a thing they stand around and talk about because they think, we'll never get invited. All of a sudden, people come up and go, hey, you guys are invited. Come on, come on to the feast. Everything's ready. Everything, come on, just enjoy the feast. And they're like, okay. And away they go. They get there and they realize, oh, we don't have proper garments, but the king, the host of the uh uh of the feast, is the one providing whoever provided the feast, in this case, the king, would provide white robes for all the guests to wear at the feast. And so here's the problem. Here's what you gotta understand about this. This guy was kicked out because he refused to accept what was freely provided. Let me say that again. This man was kicked out because he refused to accept what was freely provided. He thought he could be there of his own accord. Now, when people say to me a lot, I ask people every once in a while in conversations, hey, how do you plan to get into heaven? And they're like, Well, I hadn't really thought about it. Well, if you think about it, what's your plan for getting into heaven? If there is a heaven, what's your plan for getting there? And they typically say some form of, well, I'm a good person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We shoot that down. Ultimately, here's what most people go to. Well, you know, my God's a good God, loving God, merciful God. My God would never send anyone to hell. And I said, you know what, there's a story in the Bible where Jesus tells about a guy got kicked out of a wedding feast because he wasn't properly dressed. And not only did he just kicked out, he got sent to hell. And they're all like, Where is that? I'm like, Matthew 22. It's hot out of the mouth of Jesus himself. Now, why do I tell you that? I tell you that because if you're going to appeal to God's goodness, you have to understand that God has other attributes. And one of them's on full display here is he says to his servants in verse 13, then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. That sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? No, it's harsh until you realize that this man refused to accept what was freely provided, and what was required and necessary to be at the feast was to be dressed in white. Why is that? Well, for the believer, if you look forward to the end, to revelation at the marriage feast of the marriage supper of the Lamb, white represents repentance, those who've repented and not trusted in themselves, but those people who've accepted and put on what's been freely provided. And it also symbolizes repentance and the righteous deeds of the believer. Say, I don't know what you mean. I'll close this morning with this from Revelation chapter 19, verse 6. This is a description of this marriage feast of the Lamb. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty pills of thunder crying out, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, Write this Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to them, These are the true words of God. Again, how do you plan to get into heaven? You think you're going to get there of your own accord? You're like this wedding guest that was not, did not have the proper attire on, and therefore was not only kicked out, but sent to hell because he trusted in himself. What he didn't do is he wasn't willing to accept what was freely provided. That's the question before you and I this morning. Have you ever accepted what God has freely provided? Have you ever got in touch with a deep gnawing hunger of soul that you live with? Has anybody ever told you that Christianity is not a list of rules and regulations and do's and don'ts? It's a feast. And here's the last thing you're invited. Bad people, you're invited. Good people who could never be good enough, you're invited. Let's pray to God. We like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it. Saw a voice of prayer, some questions will come up on the screen. Use this time to think about what the Bible said to you and what you do with that. It's one thing about Jesus. Whenever he talked, it was compelling, it was thought-provoking, it was life-altering, but it was also accessible. The only people who didn't want it, didn't understand it were the people that did not want to understand it. But I promise you, if you'll say to God today, you know what, I really want to understand what you're saying, He'll break it down to you in a way that's very simple. Let me voice a prayer and let's think about this this morning. God, thanks for your word. Thanks that it's it doesn't just stir our emotions, it engages our mind. And we're better for it. Thank you that there's a feast that you are king have provided. And everyone's invited the good, the bad, the religious, the non-religious, because none of us can get there on our own effort or accord. We all have to put on that white robe that's freely provided. Let's the Holy Spirit brood over us while we think about these things this morning. God thanks that you say things in an accessible way. You're smarter than all of us. You're always Jesus, the smartest person in the room, and the only perfect person in the room. So we don't have to try to be either one of those. We can just be hungry, bad, religious, prideful, arrogant, good, quote unquote people. We can just be all of that and yet be in touch with our deep God hunger that's in every one of us. Now that we know there's a feast and we're invited, what do we do with that? God thanks that you're available. You're available in ways that the seventh grader understands and the 70-year-old understands. You're available. We're humbled by that. Let us respond accordingly, we pray in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here, either online or in person. Uh both are welcome. And so you you move at your own pace. We appreciate that. Coming in person is not a litmus test of your spirituality, but you're always welcome here, okay? Uh, we have a lot of things going on. One of the things that's coming up is our promotion Sunday. Uh, so give your attention to the screens and let's take in a video about that now.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Hi, I'm Cheyenne Burge, Girls Student Ministry Associate. And I'm Deanna McKee, Children's Pastor. We're glad to be back in person and know you and your kids are looking forward to having classes again too. We are watching things closely to determine when we can safely reopen our kids and student ministries.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

Until then, we are going to virtually promote our students. This means that beginning next Sunday, your kids will be in their new grade or class here at Church 2. This particularly applies to our new first graders that will move up to kids at the park.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

And our fifth graders that will move to bridge and seventh graders that will move to student ministry. You can expect to hear from new smaller leaders, so be sure to check your email in the coming days.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

We have a new series with interactive classes, including some calls of the kids that we think people are going to love. We look forward to when we can meet them in person.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Speaking of meeting in person, if you're interested in volunteering in kids or student ministry, now is a great time to get involved.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

That's right. We have a variety of ways that you can help us in the ministry. So if you feel like something that now might be a good time to jump in, kids at gramparkway.org or students at gramparkway.org. And we would love to talk with you about the ways that you could be involved.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Yes, we have a variety of opportunities. So ask the Lord how he might want to use you to make an internal impact in the lives of Grand Parkway students and kids.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

And there was always opportunities to volunteer. And I remember I just found myself my hands just going up all the time because I would always go back to that breakfast in my mind and the way that man talked about volunteering with three-year-olds. And I just thought, I want to experience that, helping my church be and become everything they can. And I can say this: I've volunteered in many roles over the years. And I've never, ever, ever walked away and thought, I wish I wouldn't have done that. And so I strongly encourage you to think about how you could help our church be and become all that God's calling us to be, okay? We'd like to close our service with a spoken blessing. So stand to your feet if you would and hold your hands out. There's a feast. And not only are you are you invited, but many of you have already tasted and seen that the Lord is good. So depart now and look around for hungry, bad people who don't think they deserve it. And invite them to the feast as well. In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.