Who Are You Inviting?

A Glutton

If you've read the gospel of Luke - have you noticed just how often Jesus is depicted as eating?

It's everywhere - there are 19 meals in Luke, 13 of which are unique to this gospel.

In fact, Robert Karris, a Christian author and professor, puts it like this:

“At just about every point in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is either coming from a meal, going to a meal, or at a meal.”

— Robert Karris, Eating Your Way Through Luke's Gospel

Now there's a guy worth following, right?

In fact, this was such a theme in Christ's ministry in Luke that we see his critics in the gospel calling him a glutton (Luke 7:34).

Just gotta say - on this note - how great of news is this? I don't know for you, but for me that means that there's an area of Christlikeness I didn't know I had already mastered. You know, as believers we pray things like, "Lord make me more like you," - and somehow there's Cinnabites at Sonic, right there in the bag when it shows up. It's amazing.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "This guys just a master at interpreting the Bible. Right into year two of seminary - and it's just doing wonders for him."

Well buckle up.

Extending the Invitation

Last week we saw how Jesus had invited us to the party of His kingdom and what keeps people from it. Today, we’re going to see how he uses us to extend that invitation to others.

Let's look at where we left off:

“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

— Luke 14:25-26 (ESV)

We talked about how tough a statement that was. Compared to how committed you are to Jesus, every other relationship—even your most intimate ones—should look like hate.

Can you honestly say that compared to your commitment to Jesus, your commitment to your friends, family, and desires for your life look like hate?

Today, Jesus is going to give us a picture of what that looks like in action.

A Warning

Now, let me give you a warning. Last week I told you right from the beginning that I was going to be transparent with you - and today is no different.

Today is going to be difficult for some of you - maybe for all of us. Today may challenge you and me at some pretty fundamental levels. You might find that by the end of our time together today that you're thinking something like,

"I.. may need to rethink my approach to life..."

And that's not a scary thing - that's an amazing thing.

Because Jesus’s message today also has the power to set you free onto a journey which is going bring you so much more joy and purpose into your life than what you are currently experiencing.

You might be thinking, "okay - these are some pretty big claims here" - yep. They certainly are. But they're certainly not anything out of the wheelhouse of Christ, are they?

Restoring joy? Again - something that's pretty characteristic of His entire ministry, right?

But let me ask you something, a real question. It's a question that I've thought and asked myself many, many, times in my life.

Do you ever wonder, sometimes, if anything about your life matters? And I mean really matters? Question like, ‘Am I making any real difference?’ Or, ‘Has anything that I've been doing have any eternal significance?’

Are you tired of feeling like you just get up every day, trying to make ends meet? Or maybe your day is you get up, go to work, come home, watch a little TV, maybe distract yourself with some hobbies, and then just look forward to vacation at some point?

Maybe you hop online and look at vacations you'd like to go on - and that's where it ends. You go to dinner, go to bed, get up, go to work, come home, watch a little TV...

And really it just becomes the same year after year - rinse and repeat.

Eventually that question comes back, "Am I making any real difference?" I'll tell you - I've been there before. For years this question haunted me: "Has anything that I've been doing had any real, eternal, kingdom growing significance?"

Here's the truth: those are pretty normal questions to have.

God created you, me - everyone that you've met - He created us with the ability to see our life in terms of eternity. King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:11, that God has "set eternity in the human heart."