SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Now I like to worship.
SPEAKER_01: And so you if you, you know, I like to throw my hand up sometime.
SPEAKER_01: And I got one of somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: My God in the mo, worshipper's hand.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I like to do, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I I like to worship because God has done some things in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And if you know that God has done some things in your life that you couldn't have accomplished without him, that'll make you worship, won't it?
SPEAKER_01: It makes you throw your hands up, it makes you say thank you.
SPEAKER_01: So if anytime you want to do that, just do that and let's just worship and praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Can we do that?
SPEAKER_01: We're going to continue as Pastor Neil has led us, and I'm grateful for Pastor Neil inviting me to come out and uh and work with you, uh, work with him and uh and being in his pulpit this Sunday to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with you.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll be reading uh and our the pew, I'll be using the Pew Bible this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's page 827.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll be going back to the parables, Matthew chapter 22, verses 1 through 14 is what we're going to be reading from this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And if you turn there with me and if you'd stand with me for the reading of that gospel, it's on the page 827.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Matthew, chapter 22.
SPEAKER_01: Are we ready?
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Again he sent another servant saying, Tell those who were invited, see, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.
SPEAKER_01: Come to the wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.
SPEAKER_01: While the rest seized the servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
SPEAKER_01: The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.
SPEAKER_01: And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they could find, who could be found, both bad and good.
SPEAKER_01: So the wedding was filled with guests.
SPEAKER_01: But when the king came in to look at the guest, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?
SPEAKER_01: And he was speechless.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness, in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: For many a call, but few are chosen.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Would like to give an outline on some key words that are key in this particular text.
SPEAKER_01: And it's four points that we want to look at carefully as we move and progress through the text.
SPEAKER_01: The king.
SPEAKER_01: The king in the text represents God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one that's calling for the banqueting, sending out for his people to come to the banquet.
SPEAKER_01: The bridegroom is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He has prepared this banquet, this celebration for his son.
SPEAKER_01: The bride is the church.
SPEAKER_01: The bride is the people.
SPEAKER_01: The feast, the feast items are the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's on this particular table.
SPEAKER_01: And the king has sent out a word.
SPEAKER_01: He asked his servants to go out and invite all his people.
SPEAKER_01: Initially, he was talking about his chosen people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure some of you have read this text, probably all of you have read this text, and he was primarily talking to his chosen people to come to the banquet, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he said that he sent them out and he told them to come to the banquet, for the table had been set.
SPEAKER_01: And before I go further with that, I want to stop just for a brief moment.
SPEAKER_01: The song that was being sung, that pass me not, that really speaks to my heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of my favorite.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that the musicians knew anyway that that was one of my favorite songs.
SPEAKER_01: Pass Me Not.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that it's one of my favorite songs is because I don't want him to ever pass me by.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been delivered from something, then you know what that's like to be passed by and to be looked over.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been delivered through something and you don't want to revisit that and you have been blessed to encounter and to have a relationship with God, then you, as I would understand that in the center of my heart, I don't want him to ever pass me by, ever, ever again.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pass me by.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a little history on the on the on the nature of that song, the origin of that song.
SPEAKER_01: And I do understand, and I'm glad to hear, I know you this church primarily engages in doing restorative justice ministry over at Caravance, is that right?
SPEAKER_01: At the Caravans Unit.
SPEAKER_01: Some call it prison ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Ministry is ministry.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if it takes place under a tree.
SPEAKER_01: Uh a lot of it take place in H E B when you when you go shopping.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right about it?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all might be in Kroger down there trying to evangelize to somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right about it?
SPEAKER_01: You don't call it Kroger Ministry, you just call it Jesus Christ Ministry, you know.
SPEAKER_01: But some folk like titles and they like to put names on things, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes those names they can either ascend people or they cause people to withdraw from it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, ministry is Christ's ministry, and it does not matter where it takes place.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, it's gonna take place in the parking lot when somebody gets out of here today, because you're gonna be telling somebody about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: On your cell phone, you're gonna be telling somebody about Jesus Christ today.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna tweet somebody today and tell somebody about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna follow me on Facebook and tell somebody about Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter where it happens, just long as Jesus Christ makes it happen and allows it to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: That was this church.
SPEAKER_01: They went in to do worship in a prison.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a true story.
SPEAKER_01: They went in to do worship, and they invited the inmates to come out to the worship service, and most of them went, but that was one on this particular block.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't want to go.
SPEAKER_01: And some of the other farmmates, some of the inmates, they were saying, Why don't you come on go worship with us?
SPEAKER_01: And you know how some folk be.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't want to go down there.
SPEAKER_01: They they they they be jumping, you know, you know, some folk talk about Christians, you know, they talk about us, you know, they holy rollers and all that stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_01: That you know that's what they get.
SPEAKER_01: They be all over you and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, all over you.
SPEAKER_01: Throwing their hands all up and stuff like that, you know, throwing their hands all up like that, and and and and talking about how awesome this and awesome that, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_01: You know why that's good to me?
SPEAKER_01: Because it reminds me I used to be one of those people.
SPEAKER_01: But when Christ came into my life and turned my life around, I saw the benefit of why those people were throwing their hands up and jumping up and down to serve Jesus Christ and tell Jesus Christ, thank you for coming into my life.
SPEAKER_01: You need to come on, go with me this morning.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the first service.
SPEAKER_01: See, the first service when you're a new preacher and you're at a new church, you kind of have to break the ice, get used to the folk.
SPEAKER_01: But the ice has been broken, so it's coming off, and I want y'all to come on and go with me and worship with me this morning because somebody in here ought to be glad that he didn't pass you by.
SPEAKER_01: They went in to do that worship service, and that was a woman, she was singing this particular song, and he, you know, he could hear the worship service, you know, from his from his cell.
SPEAKER_01: You know, see, God has a way of getting to you when you don't even want to get to him.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how to get to you, he knows how to reach you.
SPEAKER_01: And he he was down there in his cell, he didn't go with everybody else, you know, and he was they were worshiping in that chapel, and that lady got up and started singing that song, pass me now, oh gentle savior.
SPEAKER_01: And that song from her voice, from her heart, that song must have had legs on it because it went to his cell block, knocked on the door, and let him and he went in.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what the prisoner started doing?
SPEAKER_01: He said that he stuck his hand through the bomb and was letting them know, keep on singing and keep on preaching because I don't want the Lord to pass me by again this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Good God, somebody pass me not, oh gentle Savior, and hear my humble cry.
SPEAKER_01: While thou the calling.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he was doing this morning in this text, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Said that he sent a word out.
SPEAKER_01: He was calling for his people to come to the banquet.
SPEAKER_01: I set a table for you, and it has a top chef spread on it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about one of those top chefs.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Beef welling.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if we think about it in terms like that, you know, it's beef welling down there.
SPEAKER_01: Might have some shrimp and all kinds, you know, good stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this wasn't the type of food that we eat, though.
SPEAKER_01: This gospel feast.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: See, it this wasn't the type of food that that nourishes physically.
SPEAKER_01: This was what we would call soul food.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: See, Jesus was breaking off soul food when folks thought that he wasn't.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew what it was to feed the soul.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew what soul food was for a whole lot of us knew what it was.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, God said, I'm setting a banquet.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to go out and tell my people to come to the banquet.
SPEAKER_01: Tell them that the table has been set.
SPEAKER_01: He wants them to know that he has some good dishes laid out for him.
SPEAKER_01: Said that he took his best fatted calves, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: And slaughtered them and laid them out on the table.
SPEAKER_01: He took his best, using the calves, the fatlings, using them to symbolize, I've got some choice items on the table for you.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't get them.
SPEAKER_01: You can't get them at TJ Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go to Marshalls because they don't carry.
SPEAKER_01: I know Walmart beats everybody with prices, but it's not on their shelves either.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the gospel preparations that are referred to in the feast were prophesized in the book of Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Go read that sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: It'll tell you that the gospel feast is really speaking to the gospel preparations.
SPEAKER_01: There are things on the table that you can't buy.
SPEAKER_01: You can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: You can't get them down at neither one of those stores.
SPEAKER_01: God is excited.
SPEAKER_01: You got a banquet.
SPEAKER_01: Go with me.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, go with me.
SPEAKER_01: You see the table?
SPEAKER_01: Just picture that.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty piano.
SPEAKER_01: Just picture it like that's a table.
SPEAKER_01: And on it is the gospel preparations.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get to what's on that table, those gospel items in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_01: But the table is set.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine, you know, going to the table.
SPEAKER_01: And the table has been prepared.
SPEAKER_01: I can see them when they were setting that table up.
SPEAKER_01: Can't you see him?
SPEAKER_01: Go with me now.
SPEAKER_01: Can you see him?
SPEAKER_01: This is God's table.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's celebration for his son, the bridegroom.
SPEAKER_01: And he's sending for us.
SPEAKER_01: He's sending for us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, initially the call went out to those that was invited, but those that was didn't invite those that were invited, they decided that they wanted to go and do something else.
SPEAKER_01: Even though this was written a whole long time ago, does this sound familiar today?
SPEAKER_01: When it comes to going to church?
SPEAKER_01: When it comes to going, as you said, Bible community?
SPEAKER_01: Is that kind of familiar?
SPEAKER_01: Some folks sometimes figure out ways not to go and worship.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to go to church today.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to go to Bible, you know, today.
SPEAKER_01: I don't feel like going today.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to go do this.
SPEAKER_01: One said that the farmer went to tend to his farm, another businessman went to take care of his business.
SPEAKER_01: You know how the daily rigors of life pressure us into doing things that we can perhaps wait.
SPEAKER_01: They were disobedient.
SPEAKER_01: There's no merit in disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the one thing that God calls us to do is to cause us, He calls us to obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Go tell them I said I want them to come to the table, and they decided to go do other things.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't sin for them once, but he sinned twice.
SPEAKER_01: Not once, but twice.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I was growing up, I can remember, you know, I mean, you know, we it was a lot of us.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he could have started a small congregation with us.
SPEAKER_01: It was nine of us.
SPEAKER_01: Small congregation, that's a small church, ain't it?
SPEAKER_01: And we were poor.
SPEAKER_01: But we ate together.
SPEAKER_01: We ate together.
SPEAKER_01: And when one of my sisters, maybe some of you all had some siblings in your family, they would come out and they would call you, you know, and they'd call and they'd say, Mark, it's time to come to dinner.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody would call for, you know, calling maybe your sister, your brother, it's time to come to come and eat.
SPEAKER_01: And if you were playing basketball or baseball or something, you know, you didn't respond too quickly, you know, so you kept hitting, and the next thing you know, you played two more innings and she came back again, and then it says, We fixed it to get ready to eat.
SPEAKER_01: You need to come now.
SPEAKER_01: And then she put on it, Daddy said come.
SPEAKER_01: If daddy said come, if she said daddy, daddy said come.
SPEAKER_01: That took a whole different meaning, didn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It took a whole different meaning.
SPEAKER_01: And if you disobeyed the word of daddy, that's almost well, in fact, that's worse, that's just like disobeying the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I'm saying that is because he said it twice.
SPEAKER_01: He said, go tell them, like he gave them an order.
SPEAKER_01: He gave them an order the first time, but the second time he was really explicit about it.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he he was vehemently about it, he was profoundly about it.
SPEAKER_01: Go tell them that I want them to come to the banquet because this is a celebration for my bridegroom who is my son, and this is the celebration of the church, my people.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you at the table.
SPEAKER_01: But again, they refused to be obedient to the word of God, and they would not come.
SPEAKER_01: They chose to do other things, and it made him angry.
SPEAKER_01: It made him angry.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, the Bible says that some of the servants that he sent to tell the people to come to dinner, to come to the banquet, some of them beat the servants up.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them beat them up, some of them slayed them, some of them killed them.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they did to God's ministers, to God's servants.
SPEAKER_01: They beat them up and some they killed.
SPEAKER_01: So he decided, he says, I tell you what, told his servants.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, I can see them.
SPEAKER_01: Can you see them?
SPEAKER_01: The servants.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they probably came back to God and probably, you know, probably, you know, this is me and God right here having a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a servant.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one to win our time.
SPEAKER_01: You sent us down there twice.
SPEAKER_01: And uh ain't coming.
SPEAKER_01: In our language, we would say something like this, the especially, you know, and we would say something like this.
SPEAKER_01: They ain't having it.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right about it?
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: They ain't having it.
SPEAKER_01: They ain't coming.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they ain't they ain't coming.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them got some, some, some of them, some of them gave us some choice words down there now.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you a new set of orders.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go on main street.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go back, uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: I got a main street.
SPEAKER_01: Me too.
SPEAKER_01: I got a main street.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go down to the main street, the main thoroughfare.
SPEAKER_01: See, because usually it's on main street, it's the main thoroughfare, you know that where everything takes place.
SPEAKER_01: You can go to whatever you need.
SPEAKER_01: You need your tires balanced, go get them balanced.
SPEAKER_01: You need discount tie, you need MTB, you need H E B, you want Kroger, whatever you want, it's down on Main Street, am I right?
SPEAKER_01: Some things down there that we should not want.
SPEAKER_01: You get it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: On Main Street, he says, I want you to go down there and I want you to invite everybody.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they can come to the banquet, they don't have to have an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody ought to be glad in here that you don't have to have an invitation to come to God's house.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody ought to be glad that you don't have to have an invitation to praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody in here ought to be happy that you don't have to have an invitation to tell somebody about God.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody in here ought to be happy and tell them and tell somebody I'm glad that have an invitation that I can walk in God's house and I can throw my hands up and I can say hallelujah, I'm saved because I'm a sinner, but I've been within.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody tell somebody what God has done for you.
SPEAKER_01: You better tell somebody what God has done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hands and tell somebody today when you see them in H E B.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're going to heat when you're going down that line at Lucas.
SPEAKER_01: Just when you see that banquet line laid out, think about God's table that he laid out for you.
SPEAKER_01: I just come to worship God today.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Go and tell them.
SPEAKER_01: Invite anybody.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it says, and verse 10, and those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they could find, both bad and good.
SPEAKER_01: Because I wasn't always a preacher.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in church under my foot grandfather, who was a Baptist preacher.
SPEAKER_01: East Texas.
SPEAKER_01: Marshall.
SPEAKER_01: Country as a hill corn.
SPEAKER_01: I am.
SPEAKER_01: All I know how to do is keep it plain.
SPEAKER_01: And growing up with my grandfather in the country, I had a good time.
SPEAKER_01: My mama, my mama died.
SPEAKER_01: My mama passed when I was three.
SPEAKER_01: And my daddy was shot and killed when I was six, so I had to go to the country.
SPEAKER_01: And live with my grandmother and my grandfather.
SPEAKER_01: I was about five or six years old.
SPEAKER_01: And then as I got to be about 11 or 12, my sister and her husband, they came to Marshall and said, okay, we're going to take you back to the city.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to take you back to Houston.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to be a family.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't want to go.
SPEAKER_01: I want to stay with my grandfather.
SPEAKER_01: I want to stay with Big Mama.
SPEAKER_01: I said, no, you're going to Houston with us.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to be a family.
SPEAKER_01: And I did go.
SPEAKER_01: And as I began to grow up, I began to also realize that we weren't a family.
SPEAKER_01: I began to call whatever that family you told me about.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever that told me.
SPEAKER_01: And I ended up running away from home.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still talking about the text now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about me, and I don't mind using me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mind being transparent in order to convey God's word and God's gospel on just how good He is.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, I wasn't one who would have gotten an invitation when they first sent him out.
SPEAKER_01: I was not one of those who would have gotten the first round of invitations.
SPEAKER_01: I ran away from home and I began to grow up on the streets of Third Ward, Texas.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: Me.
SPEAKER_01: He got close to it when the writer was writing it.
SPEAKER_01: He said he told him to go get the good and the bad.
SPEAKER_01: Clinton Eastwood answered another and said, ugly.
SPEAKER_01: I was out there among the good, bad, and ugly.
SPEAKER_01: That was that third round that he was sending word to.
SPEAKER_01: All of y'all can come now because those that ought to serve me and ought to have the right heart, all those that say they have the heart of Jesus Christ, they won't come.
SPEAKER_01: So you know what God says?
SPEAKER_01: I'll find somebody that will serve me, and especially those that's been delivered from something.
SPEAKER_01: Go get those that's just hanging on the street.
SPEAKER_01: Go get everybody from wherever they've been.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the jail bird.
SPEAKER_01: Because one thing I can tell you about the jailburn, when I set him straight, he's gonna fly right.
SPEAKER_01: They can tell them that.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one.
SPEAKER_01: You better hit me up here.
SPEAKER_01: Go get him a hurry.
SPEAKER_01: Because when I set him right, they'll fire right.
SPEAKER_01: They say all they want to.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that's tricky that has that drug challenge.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that's trying to overcome that drug.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that's trying to stop smoking that stuff and snorting that stuff up there.
SPEAKER_01: Get him, get her.
SPEAKER_01: Go down on Main Street.
SPEAKER_01: You know it's not on Main Street.
SPEAKER_01: Good, bad, and ugly.
SPEAKER_01: Go get them all.
SPEAKER_01: Tell them they're invited.
SPEAKER_01: Those that are marginalized.
SPEAKER_01: Church, you know, they're happy when they get a call that I can go into a banquet hall where I know I wouldn't be invited.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all in here know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: That I got it, I've been invited to a banquet and at a banquet hall where I know I wouldn't have gotten an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: But because he loved me, because he saw my need, because he loved me first.
SPEAKER_01: He said, go get them and gather them up from everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I don't matter what they look like, it doesn't matter where they've been, it doesn't matter what they've done, it doesn't matter what they've been into.
SPEAKER_01: Does not matter.
SPEAKER_01: Go get them.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to go back to the outline.
SPEAKER_01: This is the king, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is his banquet, right?
SPEAKER_01: The king.
SPEAKER_01: This is God talking.
SPEAKER_01: It's not me talking.
SPEAKER_01: This was Jesus teaching the people, teaching his disciples, using parables about the kingdom of God and what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, everybody get there.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone we get, we're gonna all look alike.
SPEAKER_01: But he'll know who we are.
SPEAKER_01: Because we all be dressed in blah, in red.
SPEAKER_01: Some say white.
SPEAKER_01: And some like to talk about the white and getting the robes and getting the shoes and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right about it?
SPEAKER_01: But God also wants us to know that before you get there, there's some good on this side that I want you to enjoy as well.
SPEAKER_01: Come to the banquet and be saved now.
SPEAKER_01: Get what you need now.
SPEAKER_01: Don't wait till tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Don't wait till next week.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't know the hour.
SPEAKER_01: Come when you can.
SPEAKER_01: He sent and said, Go get everybody.
SPEAKER_01: And this ought to be somebody like me.
SPEAKER_01: I was one of those anybodies.
SPEAKER_01: Me.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get a witness?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: For your being, just be candid with me.
SPEAKER_01: Just be, you know, we don't want to be, you don't have to be shaming here.
SPEAKER_01: Just be candid with me because I wasn't always in church, even though that I went to church, but sometimes it was a place I didn't want to be.
SPEAKER_01: On Sunday, I mean, you know, I grew up in the Baptist church, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And my grandfather was the preacher, Mark.
SPEAKER_01: That meant I was in church Monday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday because we down there to cut the grass.
SPEAKER_01: And on Sunday, you know, man, I was before he even get up.
SPEAKER_01: I was trying to figure out where to go hide.
SPEAKER_01: I even had made me a place in a chicken coop.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in the chicken coop in the country, you have certain hands, they lay.
SPEAKER_01: You take eggs, you put them on and they lay, you know, they hatch you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and that that that row and where I grew up, that row was always in the back of the chicken coop.
SPEAKER_01: You know, so you go about go around there and get behind that, you know, because it's built up.
SPEAKER_01: You kind of hide a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: He might think my uncle brother, I got an uncle, we call him uncle brother.
SPEAKER_01: He might think, brother, come got me.
SPEAKER_01: That's his boy.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, I just try to hide from him.
SPEAKER_01: My grandfather on old coveralls and old big old red bandana he had hanging out his pocket, back pocket, you know.
SPEAKER_01: He'd walk in and he'd be out there and he'd walk over the chicken coop sometime.
SPEAKER_01: He knows where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01: And I can see him pull that old chicken coop, that old red bandana out of his back pocket.
SPEAKER_01: He'd pull it out, he'd pop it, he'd wipe his mouth, he'd say, Marvin, come on out.
SPEAKER_01: Because we got to get to service this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Come on out.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't know, I don't know how this man know where I'm high.
SPEAKER_01: How does he know it?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that when the king came in after the banquet hall had been filled, after they gathered all of the people from all walks of life.
SPEAKER_01: The sinner as well.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, good and bad, right?
SPEAKER_01: Said that the when the banquet hall was filled wall to wall, I can see it right now, just like we're filled in here this morning, people everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Some people was probably over in the wall.
SPEAKER_01: Say, you did you get an invitation?
SPEAKER_01: Said, no, I ain't getting no invitation, girl.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to have an invitation to get in here.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, man, no, you ain't got to have no invitation to get off in here.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that ought to be glad.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, well, come on, we can go up there to the front of the line.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't have to be shamed no more.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to be shamed no more.
SPEAKER_01: I can go to the front of the line now and they can't talk about me, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't have to have an invitation anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And I can see all the people gathered around for God's banquet, this celebration that he has thrown for his son, his wonderful son, the son known as Jesus Christ, the one we call our Alpha and Omega, the one we call El Shadi, the one we call El Shaddai, the one we call him who sets on high, the morning star, the redeemer, my savior, my glory, from which cometh my head.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm one I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He gave, given a party for his son, his one and only boy.
SPEAKER_01: Good God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: And he sent for me.
SPEAKER_01: He sent for me.
SPEAKER_01: He sent from somebody that wouldn't have gotten an invitation on the first round.
SPEAKER_01: He sent for me, one that was down on Main Street doing all of the things that I had no business of doing.
SPEAKER_01: He sent for me.
SPEAKER_01: There was a time in my life.
SPEAKER_01: As I told you when I ran away, I got in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Got in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Doing things that I ought not, that I knew I shouldn't have done.
SPEAKER_01: My grandfather taught me better.
SPEAKER_01: I don't make any excuses for me.
SPEAKER_01: My grandfather taught me better.
SPEAKER_01: My grandmother taught me better.
SPEAKER_01: But when you're a confused child and you're on the streets, as the temptations would say, somebody knows something about the temptations in there.
SPEAKER_01: Runaway child, run away.
SPEAKER_01: That was me.
SPEAKER_01: And I began to do some things that I ought not to do.
SPEAKER_01: Things that was more detrimental and hurtful to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I found myself in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: I found myself in some trouble that I couldn't get out of.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus saw fit to deliver me.
SPEAKER_01: I know what it means when he says, go get everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Go get those that don't know a whole lot about me.
SPEAKER_01: Go get those that's not that's not in church on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Go get those that does not have a fellowship with the church close by.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that has not worshiped me.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that does not praise me.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that does not really know me.
SPEAKER_01: Go get the one that does not have a right relationship with me.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one that I want you to go get.
SPEAKER_01: Because those are the ones that will know how to praise God because God will deliver them from things that they themselves cannot do for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And when you've been through some challenging times in your life, somebody in here knows exactly what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us in here have been in some tough, tough spots.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right about it?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us in here has been in some dark places.
SPEAKER_01: We've had some dark things in our heart.
SPEAKER_01: And our heart condition has not been right with God.
SPEAKER_01: And God knows it, church.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that when the king came in, out of all of the people he was there, and said that the king walked in and he looked at a sauce, he saw a man and he says, Friend, how did you get in here?
SPEAKER_01: With no robe.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have the right garment.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the condition of his heart as far as being a Christian was not right.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a lot of folk that show up for church, but church ain't showed up in them.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: You might be setting in church, but how much of the church is in you?
SPEAKER_01: Have you allowed the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: Have you allowed the Jesus Christ to do in your heart what he came to do?
SPEAKER_01: Have you turned your life over to Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Are you obedient to the word of the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Do you follow me morning, noon, and night?
SPEAKER_01: Do you seek me out?
SPEAKER_01: Do you try your best to do what I asked you to do and be right with each other?
SPEAKER_01: Friend, how did you get in here with no robe on?
SPEAKER_01: The robe was his heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he was speaking to.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't matter, it could be thousands, and God will figure he'll point you out because he can see into your heart.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke to his heart and he told the servants, bind him hand and foot, and throw him out where he will be experiencing the darkness and the gnashing of the teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us in here ought to know that this text speaks to us.
SPEAKER_01: Does it?
SPEAKER_01: Does this speak to anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Does it speak to anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Did it speak to anybody?
SPEAKER_01: We ought to be glad that he says, go get all the people and just open the doors.
SPEAKER_01: And let those who will come.
SPEAKER_01: And receive the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Banquet.
SPEAKER_01: And receive the gospel preparations.
SPEAKER_01: Now the gospel preparations for those who need it.
SPEAKER_01: You know what's on that table?
SPEAKER_01: Ain't no churches on there.
SPEAKER_01: Ain't no Kentucky fried on it.
SPEAKER_01: Ain't no KFC.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't got to worry about eating the bones.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: You know.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep it real.
SPEAKER_01: Keep the word alive.
SPEAKER_01: You know what's on this table?
SPEAKER_01: This is the only table that's set.
SPEAKER_01: Now imagine me at the table, right?
SPEAKER_01: This table right here.
SPEAKER_01: Table.
SPEAKER_01: You know.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been invited.
SPEAKER_01: We've been invited.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't have to have an invitation, but we've been asked to come.
SPEAKER_01: We've been told we can come.
SPEAKER_01: So that's being invited, right?
SPEAKER_01: Now, at this table, there are some things on this table that you can't get out of Walmart.
SPEAKER_01: You know what's on this table?
SPEAKER_01: When you're going down the line, you know how you have your plate and you're going down the banquet table, you know how it's been laid out.
SPEAKER_01: When you're going down this table, and one of the reasons that he wants you to come is because there are some gospel items on this table that you can't get from nowhere on planet Earth.
SPEAKER_01: These are the items that you can only get by way of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what, since you said that?
SPEAKER_01: Salvation is on this table if you're looking for some.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody needs some mercy, go on over up the table line and find you some mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy is on this table.
SPEAKER_01: Go on on down the line a little bit and get some redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Put a little bit of that on your plate because somebody needs to be redeemed today.
SPEAKER_01: Go on down the table and find a little bit of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Because I need to put some of that on my plate.
SPEAKER_01: Because I need to be forgiven for some things that I've done, things that I've been parted to.
SPEAKER_01: I need a little bit of redemption on my plate.
SPEAKER_01: I need Sister Grace.
SPEAKER_01: I need Brother Mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I need those, and these are the things that's on this gospel table: salvation, love, forgiveness, redemption, born again, brand new, brand spake new.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I can get from this table.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he wants them to come to the sea.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's on God's table.
SPEAKER_01: Redemption, salvation, grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, obedience, fellowship, and new life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's on the table.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of folk.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me closely.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people.
SPEAKER_01: Like the Bible says, many are called, but few are chosen.
SPEAKER_01: I want to paraphrase it.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Many people want gospel benefits.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people want the benefits of the church.
SPEAKER_01: They want gospel benefits, but they don't want the gospel responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: There's a responsibility that comes with being saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When we put Jesus on, that means I've taken off myself.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to get rid of my pride.
SPEAKER_01: I've got to get rid of my issues that I'm having.
SPEAKER_01: Because oftentimes the issues that we have, we subject them to other people, but they don't belong to other people until we give them to them.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is me.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is mine.
SPEAKER_01: And I've got to do something with it.
SPEAKER_01: And the something that I've got to do with it, I've got to do the right thing by it because of who I am in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If not, God says, I know what's in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no merit that will come to you because the condition of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this text is speaking to.
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned to love people?
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned to forgive people?
SPEAKER_01: Those that hurt me?
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned to forgive them?
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned that my brother doesn't necessarily look like me?
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned that?
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned that that's my brother sitting right there?
SPEAKER_01: Have I learned that that's my sister right there?
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to look alike.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to like the same things.
SPEAKER_01: But if we are in Christ Jesus, we're one body.
SPEAKER_01: We're one body.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what he's calling us to today.
SPEAKER_01: This text.
SPEAKER_01: So today I want to leave you.
SPEAKER_01: When you start setting a table at home, think about God's table.
SPEAKER_01: When we go to eat this afternoon and you're going down that buffet.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of y'all are going down the buffet.
SPEAKER_01: Be reminded of God's banquet in his table.
SPEAKER_01: And think about the blessing that he wants to give us if we would just obey.
SPEAKER_01: And not put him off.
SPEAKER_01: But continue to come and be a call, be a part of God's church, of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: One thing for me, I'll leave you alone.
SPEAKER_01: Look straight up for me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus just took your picture.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious Lord, we thank you for.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for being our God.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for saving grace.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your saving mercy.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your gospel preparations that you made available to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: And invited us to your banquet, to your table.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you, Father.
SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name we give you thanks and reverence.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you do me a favor and held your hands like this, I'm going to speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Your father's table is overflowing with calling and promises.