SUCH GREAT MISTAKES: NOT ACCEPTING GOD'S KIND INVITATION
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Such Great Mistakes
a) We consider another theme evident in many of the parables, namely the great and terrible mistakes that people make.
b) The parables that Jesus told often portray people making tragic and terrible mistakes, or on the other hand, being wise and avoiding such mistakes. People generally seem blind to the terrible mistakes they are making in life. Christ's poignant stories so vividly show up these mistakes, that it is hard to remain blind once the point of a parable sinks in — if only you will let it. A burden of Jesus's teaching is to enlighten humankind, to help us realize the mistakes we have made, and how we can overcome them.
c) Usually the wisdom of our times tells us that the mistakes we are making are things like not thinking positive, not managing our time and money, not practicing meditation and relaxation, not planting trees, or not giving up smoking.
d) Those, and a hundred other things, may well be serious mistakes, but they do not compare with the enormity of mistakes made on a spiritual level. These mistakes are utterly simple. Even a child can understand them. Yet people go on making them whether blindly or deliberately.
2. Not Accepting God's Kind Invitation
a) The Excuse Makers
Luke 14:16-24
16 But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ 20 Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”
b) God has kindly invited us to partake of eternal life in his heavenly kingdom (Revelation 22:17), and it would be a terrible mistake to knock back that invitation, for we have no real excuse to do so. Jesus likened this mistake to people's response when the head of a household put on a big banquet and invited many to come. Everyone turned him down and made flimsy excuses. This made the man angry and he withdrew his gracious invitation to them.
The End ...
1. Such Great Mistakesa) We consider another theme evident in many of the parables, namely the great and terrible mistakes that people make.
b) The parables that Jesus told often portray people making tragic and terrible mistakes, or on the other hand, being wise and avoiding such mistakes. People generally seem blind to the terrible mistakes they are making in life. Christ's poignant stories so vividly show up these mistakes, that it is hard to remain blind once the point of a parable sinks in — if only you will let it. A burden of Jesus's teaching is to enlighten humankind, to help us realize the mistakes we have made, and how we can overcome them.
c) Usually the wisdom of our times tells us that the mistakes we are making are things like not thinking positive, not managing our time and money, not practicing meditation and relaxation, not planting trees, or not giving up smoking.
d) Those, and a hundred other things, may well be serious mistakes, but they do not compare with the enormity of mistakes made on a spiritual level. These mistakes are utterly simple. Even a child can understand them. Yet people go on making them whether blindly or deliberately.
2. Not Accepting God's Kind Invitation
a) The Excuse Makers
Luke 14:16-24
16 But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ 20 Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”
b) God has kindly invited us to partake of eternal life in his heavenly kingdom (Revelation 22:17), and it would be a terrible mistake to knock back that invitation, for we have no real excuse to do so. Jesus likened this mistake to people's response when the head of a household put on a big banquet and invited many to come. Everyone turned him down and made flimsy excuses. This made the man angry and he withdrew his gracious invitation to them.
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