Several years ago, the London Transit Authority had a problem. Buses were going right past passengers who were waiting at designated places to be picked up. They were at the bus stops, and the buses were sailing right past them. The London Transit Authority released a statement to explain their actions. The statement said it was impossible for them to maintain schedules if they always had to stop and pick up passengers (Dave Stone, "Keep the Dust Off the Highchair," Preaching Today, Tape No. 143; www.PreachingToday.com).
They substituted a good thing—being on time—for the main thing—picking up passengers. And if you’re not careful, you can do that too! You can substitute good things for the main thing.
So that raises a couple of very good questions: 1st, what is the main thing in life, and 2nd, how can I keep the main thing the main thing. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Luke 14, Luke 14, where Jesus tells a story about some people who prioritized good things over the main thing.
Luke 14:15 Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (ESV)
Jesus is at a dinner party hosted by a “ruler of the Pharisees” (Luke 14:1). Now, the Pharisee and his buddies tried to humiliate Jesus, but Jesus humbles them. Then He urges them to take the lowest seats at the table and suggests that the host invite the poor and the disabled to his party, people who cannot repay him. The conversation has gotten uncomfortable, so one of the Pharisees tries to change the subject.
Instead of talking about the banalities of this life, he wants to talk about the blessings of the next life. Now, no doubt, this Pharisee expects to be at God’s feast in the coming Kingdom, but Jesus tells him, “Don’t be too sure. God invites many to His feast, but only the humble choose to go.”
Luke 14:16-17 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready’” (ESV).
Now, in Jesus’ day, it took a long time to prepare a banquet, and people had no watches. So the host would send out two invitations—1st, to get an idea of how many were coming, and 2nd, to let those who had accepted the first invitation that the banquet was ready.
The host in this story is God, who invites you and many others to His banquet. That is, God invites you to eat with Him and to enjoy His company forever. This is more than just an invitation to God’s house. It’s an invitation to an intimate, personal relationship with the Living God of the Universe!
It’s the main thing in life. Nothing else is more important than knowing God personally. Now, if that’s what you want, then…
HEAR HIS CALL TO YOU.
Listen to His invitation to fellowship with Him. Understand that God wants a relationship with you forever!
Bonnie Crawford was in danger of missing a connecting flight for a board meeting last year (2024) when a United Airlines customer-service rep saved the day. She got rebooked on a pricey nonstop flight in business class. For free.
You’re probably thinking, “No airline ever does that for me.” Crawford isn’t just any frequent flier. She has United’s invitation-only Global Services status.
The Wall Street Journal says, “It’s a semi-secret, status-on-steroids level that big spenders strive for every year. American and Delta have souped-up statuses, too, but the airlines don’t like to talk about what it takes to snag an invite, how many people have such status, or even the perks.
“Get into these exclusive clubs and you get customer service on speed dial, flight rebooking before you even know there’s trouble, lounge access, and priority for upgrades.
“United invited Crawford to their Global Services in 2017 and she was hooked. ‘It was the first taste of this magic, elusive, absolutely incredible status,’ she says. United invited her again last year, but she fears not being invited again due to fewer costly international flights in her new job” (Dawn Gilbertson, “This Airline Status Is So Exclusive, Even Elite Fliers Aren’t Sure How They Got It,” The Wall Street Journal, 6-2-24; www.Preaching Today.com).
If you’re a frequent flyer, it’s wonderful for an airline to invite you to their super status. But even more wonderful is God inviting you to enjoy super status with Him. Please, hear his call to you!
John 1 says, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11-12).
Now, that’s super status—a member of God’s own family, a beloved child of God, which was also a title for kings in the Bible (Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14). That’s God’s invitation to you! All you have to do is welcome Him into your life. Just trust Him with your life and you will enjoy super status with Him! So, if you want to enjoy fellowship with God forever, 1st, Hear His call to you. Then 2nd…
PUT HIM FIRST IN YOUR LIFE.
Make your relationship with Him a priority, and set aside the excuses which keep you from Him.
In Jesus’ story, life interrupts the invited guests before the second invitation.
Luke 14:18-20 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come’ (ESV).
Three excuses, all which seem to be pretty lame. After all, who buys property or farm animals without first inspecting them? And since weddings in Jesus’ day took a year to prepare, certainly the man knew not to accept the first invitation if he was about to get married. These are not real reasons for skipping the banquet. Rather, these reflect the priorities of the invited guests. Property, work, and relationships took priority over going to the banquet. For the guests didn’t really want to go to the banquet, so they came up with excuses to stay home.
Billy Sunday once said, “An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.” And that’s what these invited guests were doing—lying, but making it look reasonable. Sad to say, that’s what a lot of people do when it comes to their relationship with God. They don’t really want an intimate personal relationship with God, so they make excuses, putting other things above the main thing.
If you take the excuses people make for not going to church and apply them to not taking a bath or shower, you’d see how ridiculous they are. For example, “I don’t take a bath or shower, because…
1. I was forced to as a child.
2. People who make soap are only after your money.
3. I shower on special occasions like Christmas and Easter.
4. People who shower are hypocrites—they think they are cleaner than everyone else.
5. There are so many different kinds of soap, I can't decide which one is best.
6. I used to shower. It got boring, though, so I stopped.
7. None of my friends take showers.
8. The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer.
9. I'll start washing when I get older and dirtier.
10. I can't spare the time” (InHis.com, humor archive).
The truth is people just don’t want to go to church. They don’t want to cultivate their relationship with God, so they make up excuses to pursue other priorities.
John Piper says, “The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18–20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable (John Piper, A Hunger for God, Crossway, 1997, p.14–15; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, if you want an intimate, personal relationship with the Living God of the universe, then set the excuses aside and keep the main thing the main thing. Please, don’t let the good replace the best in your life. If you want to enjoy fellowship with God forever, 1st, Hear His call to you, 2nd, Put Him first in your life. Then 3rd…
COME TO HIS TABLE.
Show up when He calls you. Take Him up on His invitation, and don’t let anything stop you from enjoying His company.
When the invited guests made their excuses not to come to the master’s banquet, he became angry.
Luke 14:21-24 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper’” (ESV).
Perhaps, they thought they might get another invitation, but the master makes it very clear. There will be no other invitation. They had personally insulted the master with their excuses, so the master excluded them from fellowship with him.
Kalina and Shane Pavlovsky had planned a beautiful wedding reception at the Barn at Scappoose Creek, Oregon, but were met with disappointment when, out of the 40 guests who RSVP'd, only five showed up.
Kalina told a reporter, “It was a feeling I can’t even describe, having to hold my smile and walk through… the biggest punch that I’ve ever felt.” Of the 40 guests who’d originally responded in the affirmative, Kalina said she’d made direct contact with at least 25 who promised they would come.
The couple’s disappointing reception entrance was caught on video, so she posted it onto TikTok, where it was viewed over 12 million times with more than 20,000 comments. Kalina says she posted it during a lonely moment, but she was also motivated to show off the venue itself, which was tastefully decorated with white lights and draping sheer fabric. She said, “It was just so beautiful, I thought someone has to see it.”
Pavlovsky expressed her feelings about the moment in her TikTok video post. “It just makes me think, like, why? What did we do? Am I that bad of a person? What did my husband ever do to deserve any of this? Why couldn’t we matter enough for people to show up?”
Despite the disappointment, the couple made the best of the situation, but had to cancel planned events like dances and cutting the cake. Despite the hurt caused by the no-shows, Pavlovsky said she's also been touched by the outpouring of support from strangers who saw her story and felt empathy.
“My hope is that people understand how important it is to show up,” she concluded (Aimee Green, “Despite RSVPs, Oregon newlyweds show up to mostly empty wedding reception, in viral TikTok clip,” Oregon Live, 11-25-24; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, please, just show up when God calls. Take the time to enjoy His company and you will never regret it.
Even if you don’t feel worthy, come to God’s table. Even if you are unable overcome your bad habits and clean up your life, come, because God blesses those who are totally dependent on Him! Even if you are spiritually poor, lacking in good works, come, because Jesus says the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that (Matthew 5:3).
When the self-righteous, proud Pharisees refuse God’s invitation, He invites “the poor and crippled and blind and lame” to His table (vs.21). In fact, He invites you to come to His table, you who are the outcasts and rejects of society.
The “streets” in verse 21 were broad, upon which a variety of people traveled. In contrast, the “lanes of the city” were the back alleys, likely to harbor the loitering outcasts of society (Liefeld, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Luke, Zondervan, 1984). God wants the world to come to His table, even those who hide in the alleys of the city.
That means God wants YOU, no matter who you are, to enjoy fellowship with Him forever. That’s why He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for your sins and rise again. All you need to do is acknowledge your sin and trust Christ with your life.
For the Bible says, “WHOEVER believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And “WHOEVER calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). That “WHOEVER” includes you, no matter how bad you think you are. Please, don’t make excuses to stay away. By faith, just come to God’s table and enjoy fellowship with Him.
In Christianity Today, several years ago, writer Virginia Owens described a Thanksgiving dinner she shared with her parents in a nursing home:
The tables have been rearranged, end-to-end pilgrim-style, for the Thanksgiving feast, and my father and I take our places on both sides of my mother. Across from us sit Norman, the owner of the Christian music boom box, and James, a black man in a Mister Rogers cardigan who moves with glacial stateliness to compensate for his halting, stroke-damaged gait. They maintain their usual distant reserve.
“May we join you?” I ask, making my voice bright with what I hope they will see as holiday cheer. James inclines his head in a courtly manner. Norman says, “Sure,” and blinks several times in what appears to be welcome.
“Isn't this nice,” I say enthusiastically, gesturing toward the centerpieces—baskets of orange, yellow, and red silk leaves, accented with stalks of dried grass and little plastic ears of corn. James nods. Norman says, “Yes, nice.” My father grins encouragingly. …
Meanwhile, an aide is maneuvering the wheelchair of a woman with a rust-colored perm and a silk blouse into position across from my father. Her head shakes like Katharine Hepburn's, and in one hand she clutches a washcloth with which she continually dabs at her mouth. The washcloth, I see, is to mop up saliva pushed toward the front of her mouth by her tongue that squirms compulsively, like some small burrowing animal…
Over the kitchen clatter, I shout inanities across the table at Norman and James alternately. “Smell that? Mmm, turkey!” “What kind of pie are you going to have? Pumpkin or pecan?” “Want a roll to tide you over?”
Amid great bustle, the food is brought from the kitchen and laid out, buffet-style… I load a plate with turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, cranberry sauce—the dishes I know my mother has always liked. After cutting the turkey into bite-sized bits, I name the plate's contents, coaxing her appetite. “Take a bite of the dressing, Mother, you'll like it.” She ignores me, making her way slowly but steadily through the turkey.
“Would you like another roll? I'll butter it for you.”
She shakes her head and, after finishing the turkey, puts down her fork, leaving the rest of the meal untouched. The noise, I know, distracts her, the sounds a jumble she can't sort into meaning…
Telling my father to finish at his own pace, I wheel my mother back to her room. We're both relieved by the quiet that settles around us there. I press the call button for the aides to come and lift her into bed, then I sit beside her, holding her hand until she drops into a fitful sleep…
“How did the nursing home dinner go?” my daughter asked me the following week…
“You know that parable in Luke where the master sends his servant out to the highways and hedges to bring in the maimed, the halt, and the blind after the people he'd invited to the banquet don't show up?... Well, that's how it was. And I got to come too” (Virginia Stem Owens, “Thanksgiving at Fair Acres,” Christianity Today, 11-13-00; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, no matter your ability or disability, you get to come to God’s banquet! Please, stop making excuses to stay away! Instead, Hear His call to you, put Him first in your life, and come to His table. Enjoy fellowship with God. Then…
INVITE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME.
Compel others to come to God’s table with you. Offer God’s invitation to people who need Him the most.
That’s what the master said to his servant in verse 23: “Compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.” And that’s what the Master says to you and me, his servants, who enjoy fellowship with Him: “Compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”
When Steve Sjogren was pastor of the Vineyard Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was feeling particularly discouraged on a Monday morning. He announced to his wife Janie, “I'm quitting the ministry! And this time I mean it.”
Janie had heard this kind of talk before so she suggested, “Why don't you go for a drive and think things through? Usually that helps when you're stressed out. And while you're out, could you be a sweetheart and pick me up a burrito?”
Steve drove around for about an hour, complaining to the Lord the whole time. Finally, he was in the fast-food drive-thru to pick up Janie's burrito when he sensed the Lord speaking to him, “If you open your door I will give you a gift.” Even though he felt silly, Steve figured he had nothing to lose, so he opened the car door, looked down and saw embedded in the asphalt, a tarnished penny. This is what he wrote about the experience:
“I reached down to pry out the coin and held in my hand feeling less than thankful for this 'gift.' The Lord spoke to me again: 'Many people in this city feel about as valuable as discarded pennies. I've given you the gift of gathering people who seem valueless. Though these are the people that the world casts off, they have great value to me. If you will open your heart, I will bring you more pennies than you know what to do with.’”
Paul wrote to Timothy, “I can endure all these things for the sake of those whom God is calling, so that they too may receive the salvation of Christ Jesus…” (2 Timothy 2:10) (Steve Sjogren, from the files of Leadership; www.PreachingToday.com).
Dear discouraged believer, let God use YOU to bring those He is calling to His table. Compel people to come that His house may be filled! It will lift your spirits when people join you at God’s party.
If you want to enjoy fellowship with God hear His call to you, put Him first in your life, and come to His table. Then invite others to do the same. Don’t come alone. Instead, bring as many people with you as you can!
That’s the main thing in life. So, please, whatever you do, keep the main thing the main thing, and don’t let good things distract you from the main thing.
