No More Excuses

No More Excuses

(Luke 14:16-24)

But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ “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.’ “Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ “Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

“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.’

“And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ “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. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

In this parable we see many things. First I think that most of us could see that the man who was giving the banquet is God and the slave that He sent out is Jesus. The people that Jesus was sent to are the Jews. So it is the Jews that got the first invitation to the dinner and those are the ones that made the excuses. Each one has an excuse as to why they cannot come, they think they are good reasons but we will see that they are not. Then moving on in the parable we see that the man sends His slave out into the streets and lanes of the city. Now we should understand that in the streets and the lanes of the city there are only other Jews. The man (God) has not yet given up on the Jews, even though the first chosen ones have rejected his invitation. It seems as though there are some of the Jews that the slave has gone out again to have come back with the slave to the dinner and have accepted the invitation. But what is next, we see that there is more room, all the chairs around the table are not yet taken. So next the man tells the slave to go out into the highway and hedges, meaning go out into the world and compel the Gentiles to come to my dinner. You see there is room for them at the table as well; as a matter of fact there is a lot of room. In other words here, God is telling Jesus to go to the Jews first and then go to the Gentiles as well. Go tell everyone Jesus that I want to see them in my kingdom, and the room is bountiful.

But God is angry here because He has invited His chosen people to come to His dinner and they all made excuses after excuses. The parable only give three excuses but I would say that the man invited many and they all had excuses along the line of the ones given in the parable.

We have many excuses today, just like the excuses that were given back in Jesus day. I came across these excuses given by the insurance companies when I use doing research for this sermon; let me share them with you.

(Insurance excuses)

Well that is all in fun, but God doesn’t make light of those that have given excuses, you see in verse 24 it says: For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner. God is angry with those people and rightfully so. When the creator, our creator invites us to come to His dinner and we make excuses, how do you think He feels about us? Do we today make the same excuses as they did in there day? Lets take a look at their excuses and see.

Excuse number 1 was I have bought a piece of land and I want to go out to look at it.

Point 1: Don’t let the affairs of personal belongings keep you from the Lord.

In Sedalia you see this all of the time. It’s the first thing I think about when I think about people’s personal belongings keeping them from the Lord. On Friday afternoon and night you see car after car and truck after truck pulling their boats and campers down to the lake. The traffic is so bad in Sedalia that people that live there don’t want to venture out on Friday afternoon and night so they can avoid it. Now what has most of those people done. Now I don’t want you to think that I am judging these people or that I’m saying that having a boat or a camper is wrong. But I know from personal experience what most of those people are doing on Sunday morning. They live for it; they live to go out on the lake and ski or to fish. Again there is nothing wrong with that, but I do believe there is something wrong with that when you put it before God. You see it time and time again. How do you think that makes God feel when so many are taking the time that they should be worshiping God and using it as personal enjoyment time. A time for rest, relaxation, and recreation.