The Great Marriage Supper

Well, if you'd like a title to the main message today, the title is The Great Marriage Supper. Great Marriage Supper. And as always, I invite you to take up your Bibles, and we're going to turn to two passages of Scripture today to establish this foundation on this subject matter of the Great Marriage Supper. First, we are going to turn to Revelation 19, verse 1 through 9. Revelation 19, we're going to be in reading verses 1 through 9.

As here in Revelation, we have the great prophetic picture of a Great Marriage Supper that is to take place. And what we're going to read about here in Revelation 19 surrounds the time in which Jesus Christ will return. It's going to be a time in which we'll begin to read about that is going to be very chilling and very tragic as the great harlot, symbolic of those who turn against Christ, will look to fight Him at His return.

And Jesus Christ will subdue them. Very tragic and chilling, but also at the time that we're going to read about here, which describes great hope and encouragement as is then pictured a celebration. Evil is subdued and eliminated. Then we have the Great Marriage and marriage supper, this prophetic marriage supper that will occur.

So John writes of these things at Jesus Christ's return. Let's read this. Revelation 19 beginning in verse one. Here's the vision John was given. He wrote these things down. Revelation 19 verse one. After these things, John says, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.

For true and righteous are His judgments because He has judged the great harlot, who corrupted the earth with her fornication. And He, Jesus, has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. Again, they said, Alleluia, her smoke rises up forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down.

They worshiped God, who sat on the throne, saying, Amen! And Alleluia! Then a voice came from the throne, saying, Praise our God, all of you servants and those who fear Him, both great and small. So the great evil rain is now being subdued. Now this is going to usher in this time of celebration. Verse 6, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God, omnipotent, reigns.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. So this is prophetic symbolism, the Lamb. That's, of course, Jesus Christ. And His wife, that's the church, His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

That's you and I. Verse 9, Then He said to me, Right, right this John, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let's stop there. So awesome, prophetic occurrence here. This is going to be the time that is now going to usher in the end time events, the usher in the kingdom of God, where we will share a meal with our bridegroom.

We as the bride, this great marriage supper then will take place here. We can look forward to that time of coming together with the Lamb, Jesus Christ, at His return and having this great celebration, this marriage banquet, if you will, this future event. Now, this is the prophetic vision to come, and that will then now set the scene for us and set the foundation for our second and primary passage of Scripture found in Luke 14 verse 15. So if you'd like to turn there with me, Luke 14, and we're going to read verses 15 through 24. Why turn to Luke 14 verses 15 through 24? Well, this is Jesus Christ giving the great parable, the great marriage supper parable, if you will, pointing to that prophetic celebration that we just read about.

So it's awesome. Jesus Christ here in this parable, He's going to be speaking to those in His day, and He's giving this parable. And what we're going to notice here in this parable that He's given that ultimately points to that prophetic marriage supper is the fact that many are called to be a participant of that future marriage supper. Many are called to it. However, we're going to read about that only there are many who will not accept the invitation to it. They're going to reject it, and they're going to give excuses about it as to why they don't accept it. So we're going to here read these words, hear an echo from Revelation 19, and it's quite impactful.

So I want you to start picturing you and I were invited to this great marriage supper to come. And so we want to take heed to this parable. Let's see what it says. Luke 14, beginning in verse 15. Luke 14, verse 15. Luke writes, Now when one of those who sat at the table with him, with Jesus, heard these things, He said to Jesus Christ, Blessed is He who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. There's the echo from Revelation 19 there. Verse, continuing here, verse 16. Then Jesus said to him, here's the parable, A certain man gave a great supper and invited many.

And he sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, Come, all these things are now ready. But they all, with one accord, began to make excuses. The first said to the servant who was inviting him to this banquet, the first made this excuse, I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. And I ask you to have me excused. Then another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen.

I bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going to test them. And I asked to have me excused. Still another. Here's the third excuse. I have married a wife and therefore cannot come. So, verse 21, that servant came and reported these things to the master. The master here represents Jesus Christ. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets, the 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 there's still room. Then the master said, Well, then to the servant, Go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. That my house may be filled. Verse 24, now we need to hear this. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.

Let's stop there. So, impactful parable here. Impactful. And again, what we're going to endeavor to do is take a look at this parable here from Jesus Christ and the instruction from it to help us ultimately secure our seat at the banquet table. At the banquet table to come when Jesus Christ returns. We want to use this parable in this way. We want to be there. We have received this invitation.

If you're hearing these words and your heart is pricked and God is calling you, then you've received this invitation. Will you be there? Can we look at this parable to help us to that end? Let's see. That's what we're going to endeavor to do today. Now, as we have said before, good biblical students will not just come to a passage of Scripture like here or come to a parable and remove it from its context and decipher it that way.

No, a good biblical student will, of course, look at the overall context and see what is. What is led up to? What were the circumstances in which this parable emerges? And what's fascinating here, if you allow your eyes to go up to verse 1 and 2, the context in which this parable emerges is that actually Jesus himself is sitting as invited to an actual marriage supper.

Jesus Christ was invited to an actual marriage banquet, you can see that in verse 1 and 2, by a Pharisee. It was a prominent Pharisee. It was a ruler, ruler of the Pharisees. So he didn't crash this wedding banquet here. He's not a wedding crasher. No, he was invited here. And so this is the context in which Jesus Christ finds himself at this wedding supper by a ruler of the Pharisees.

So your mind should automatically be racing. Why would a ruler of a Pharisee invite Jesus to this celebration? We know that he and the Pharisees did not get along. You know, the Pharisees were on the receiving end of some of Jesus's most stinging rebukes. Why would they invite? So we can have a little skepticism here, as I'm sure Jesus Christ did. Now, one more note to make as far as the context, the environment.

What did this, when Jesus Christ entered into this banquet, what could we say characterized the moments leading up to this parable that begins there in the middle of the passage? Well, Luke, with an eye for detail, actually describes that there probably was some surprising, perhaps eerie silence that led up to Jesus Christ giving the parable there.

Silence. And that's very odd because you would think a marriage supper, the beginning, it would have sounded like church sounded before services. You know, a buzz in the air, lots of conversation. Well, maybe not so.

Look at this. Verse 4, Luke, with an eye for detail, actually mentions here in verse 4 that they kept quiet. So Jesus enters into this scene, into this banquet invite, and immediately he's confronted about issues surrounding the Sabbath and what's appropriate on the Sabbath. And he asks them a question, is healing on the Sabbath acceptable? And there in verse 4, they kept quiet. So we have silence from the crowd. Verse 5, there's a follow-up statement and question regarding if an ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, you know, who would not pull them out?

And there in verse 6, once again, they could answer him. They could not answer him. Struck silent. There probably was a little bit of just unusual silence here at this marriage banquet, which should have been buzzing here. And what you find is that feeling is correct. Something was odd about this particular banquet, this marriage supper. Something was odd about Jesus Christ being invited to it. We begin as readers of this to begin to feel that. And we begin to feel that there's something more happening here than maybe what is on the surface.

Verse 1, they were watching him closely. We see that's very telling. Why were they watching him closely? Well, we know the Pharisees were always looking for something to say, Aha! We caught you breaking one of our man-made laws, and they were looking to dispose of him altogether. So there's really three things to note leading up to the great marriage parable that we begin with.

The first thing to note here is really found in the first six verses. They're watching him carefully. And in verse 2, we see that there is a man there at this banquet who was identified with the disease of dropsy. There. A little bit odd, you know? Does anyone know what the disease of dropsy is? I had to look this up. It actually is swelling. So this individual had not just any kind of swelling. It was crippling swelling. That was one of the conditions of someone with this disease. Crippling swelling. So very, very likely unable to even move. And I think I can confidently say, knowing the Pharisees, this man was planted there.

Absolutely planted there, I think. That's my opinion. It doesn't say that, but I think we could say that. Because the Pharisees, they often didn't concern themselves with individuals that were in need. You know, they were much too lofty in their own opinion of themselves to perhaps ever invite someone with dropsy and play some front and center watching Jesus very carefully when he came in.

Is he going to heal this man on the Sabbath? That was the question I'm sure that they were all wondering. And they wanted to use this man as a means by which to get Jesus. Of course, the Pharisees, they added all kinds of ugly prohibitions on the Sabbath. They weren't part of the original intent by God.

They added things like, you could only walk for so much distance. And they added their own laws, which were ugly, not intended as God intended, laws regarding the fact that you couldn't heal someone on the Sabbath. So they added that. That was not part of God's original intent with the Sabbath. So they were watching to see what Jesus would do. Watching carefully. And of course, we uphold the Sabbath. The Sabbath is holy. It's sacred. It should look like no other day. The Sabbath should be separate. It's the sign of God's people.

We dedicate ourselves to God on this day. We don't work. Again, we use the Sabbath to be a delight to God. We don't delight in our own activity on the Sabbath. But, as I mentioned, the Pharisees added ugly additions onto it to make it a burden here. And so there in verse 3, we have Jesus answering. He spoke to the lawyers. That's the Sadducees and the Pharisees saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Silence follows. Verse 4, Jesus took the opportunity to take a hold of that man and heal him and send him away.

And then Jesus has this stinging rebuke here. Verse 5, He answered them saying, Which of you? You know, He just healed this man, sends him out. He's healed. And He looks at them and says, Which of you, having a donkey or an ox fallen into the pit, will not immediately pull it out on the Sabbath day? Stopped there. In verse 6, it says, they couldn't say anything to it. They couldn't answer him.

What hypocrisy? What hypocrisy? Of course, every one of those Pharisees would have taken the time to pull their ox out of a ditch. Oh, they would do that. But their kind of Sabbath, with their ugly additions, would have been content to let this man stay crippled. Amazing. Amazing. So I want you to be thinking about what are the characteristics of this group that were initially invited, that were kicked out and not able to eat of the supper at the end? What are some of the characteristics that we invited to the supper want to avoid?

Well, one of them is hypocrisy, where we profess one thing, but our actions say something very different. Right? And Jesus Christ knew they were trying to trap him in this way.

And just know, it is proper, it is proper, and demanded that we heal people on the Sabbath when there's a need. How do we heal people on the Sabbath? Well, the Sabbath is a great day to go and hold someone's hand and give them comforting, healing words. We can heal that way. We can heal with words, you know, and pray with them.

The Sabbath, of course, it's appropriate. If you have one of our brothers and sisters flat tire on the way to services and they call, it's certainly appropriate to roll your sleeves up and help them get that tire on their car, you know, help them get to services. That's healing. That's healing on the Sabbath. And you can add all your activities. And again, we hallow the Sabbath. We honor the Sabbath. We glorify God on the Sabbath. And this was not a characteristic of those who were invited to this banquet here. Second incident here begins in verse 7. This is the second incident leading up to the Great Parable here. Not only were they watching Christ, but Christ was watching them. Verse 7, he took the opportunity to tell a parable prior to the Great Marriage Parable, and he told the parable, verse 7, to those who were invited when he noted, Jesus noted, how they chose the best places here. So he's now going to point out that another characteristic of those who were initially invited was that they were prideful. They didn't have humility. They were looking for the best places to sit. Middle of verse 8, he says, when you come to a wedding feast, middle of verse 8, you don't take the place of honor. Do not sit at the best place, he says there. You know, allow that. Put other people ahead of you. Don't have in your heart the desire to be seen. Elevate yourself in this way. Now, humility is an aspect that will ensure your seat at the great banquet. Pride will get you removed, we could say. So again, it's always better Jesus is putting forward to be asked to move up rather than move down. Now, on a side note, this isn't the unintentional sitting at the wrong table. If you've ever been to a wedding meal, it's really easy to sit at the wrong table. Sometimes, not that that's ever happened to me. I hear other people. This happens to other people. But, you know, I was just sitting there for a minute. I didn't realize. But very gently, I have been asked, Oh, this is for the fam. Oh, I'm sorry. But this is not an unintentional. This is very intentional. I want to be seen at the most prominent table. In other words, what we're seeing in these two, these two rebukes by Jesus, as far as their characteristics and what not to be, one of the ways you can ensure that you have a seat reserved at the great marriage supper to come is that you're always moving through life to look to lift others up. And you're always content to lower yourself. Lift other people's up. Lower yourself. I think that could be a great takeaway. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. Everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. This is what we're learning about here. And again, this is concerning our imitation to none other than the great banquet feast at Jesus Christ's return. And we're going to get to that great parable in just a moment. I want to look at a third incident here. Something to learn about the character that was existent in these first invitees that we want to avoid. The third incident is there in verse 12 through 14. Jesus Christ actually addresses the Pharisee that invited, the ruler that invited him there, concerning the guest he invited. Verses 12 through 14 here. Then he, Jesus Christ, also said to him who invited him, he turns to the host, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers or your relatives, nor your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you will be repaid.

No, but when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. So this is, speaking of the future resurrection, turning the value system on its head here.

Whenever we're dealing with men and women, whether we're dealing with each other or those of our neighbors outside of our fellowship, we want to go to them, to serve them with the intention of not expecting to be recognized or repaid in any way. In fact, we want to be so stealth in our service, perhaps only God knows.

And if our service then evokes some where it's seen, and there's any kind of repayment or accolades that are coming our way, we want to do our best to give the glory to God. You see? You know, oh, if there was any good that happened out of that, God gets the glory.

That's a good phrase. Put it in your own words. Oh, I thank you for that. I appreciate your words. But if there's any good that came out of it, God gets the glory. We want to be that kind of people. We're not looking for immediate gratification. So while it's not wrong, it's not wrong to invite friends, brothers, relatives, rich neighbors. It's really about the heart here.

The host invited these particular individuals because he knew, if I scratch your back, you'll scratch mine. See? That's why I know the man with dropsy, he was just put there as a plant. No way would he have been invited out of just the kindness of the Pharisee ruler's heart. So if we operate by the means to not be repaid as we serve, the wonderful thing is we can't outgive God and he will reward us with the first resurrection of the just.

At his return, he's going to place us at that great banquet table. You can't outgive God, but that's not the purpose we do it by. It's just a wonderful benefit of moving in this way. So everything we do should have eternal implications, not physical immediate gratification. You'll be helped if you move about life in that way. So the banquet, the guest list, should include the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.

Why? You know, well, there's no way they could pay him back. That's the characteristic of that kind of guest list, you see. And while it doesn't state it, I think at the end of verse 14 there would have been also an eerie silence that followed that, no doubt. So they're all being confounded by Jesus Christ here. They're all looking around the room. They get that Jesus Christ is not speaking about that banquet.

He's speaking about the one that their prophets foretold. And they're beginning to put two and two together, and they're realizing that Jesus Christ is speaking of them and the eternal implications. So they quickly would realize the only person that would fit the bill of what Jesus Christ was outlining as those present at the banquet, the only person that would have fit this description would have been the one with Dropsy, who they brought there just to, you know, catch Jesus Christ.

So I'm sure more silence here as Jesus had corrected them in this way, confounded them. Now, what happens, which often happens, anyone who doesn't like awkward silence will always usually speak up. I don't know if you're one of those.

I kind of sort of am. If there's silence, you got to break the silence somehow. You can't deal with it. I kind of feel like that's the individual that belted out this phrase, verse 15. And I think he was belting out the fact to let Christ know he knew what Christ was speaking about. Verse 15, he says, perhaps out of the silence, Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Now, I don't know what tone it was there.

Perhaps he was getting it and he was convicted of heart, and that just came forth from his heart. Perhaps he's feeling a little guilty and he's needing to quiet his conscience a little bit. I don't know. But this man may have thought that Jesus was going to say, well, at least one of us, one of you here gets it, you know, and perhaps he did. But Christ then uses that statement belted out here at this wedding banquet to then launch into the parable of the Great Supper. And I'm sure Christ thought, well, that's good. That's it. I'm glad you brought that up. That's a good transition, you know.

Because I'm not done with you. I've got one more big parable to give you. And the purpose of this parable is that you'll be cut to the heart so that you won't be like those who are uninvited. You know, Christ wants repentance. And sometimes he gives these stinging rebukes to shake us up and to wake us up. So we move into this prophetic parable here. Again, they understood now at this point, every one of them, what Jesus Christ was speaking about.

Particularly when he says, verse 17 here, verse 17, if there was any doubt, I'm talking about the marriage supper to come. He says, verse 17, he sent his servant out at supper time to say to those who were invited, Come for all things are now ready. So he is saying, the king is in front of you. The king is in front of you. The time is now. I am the king. Are you going to be at this table or not? That's the point here.

And everything had new significance from this point forward here. They were all pricked of the hearts and listening here. This is the invitation. This is the invitation. Are you listening to this? Are we listening to this? We're receiving this invitation. God willing, we are the first recipients of this invitation. And what's remarkable here, and what's so significant about this parable, is despite the proclamation, now is the time, now is the time, remarkably, one by one, of those to whom the servant went to with a desire to bring them into the banquet, they began to give excuses.

What kind of excuses do we put forth in our invitation to the great banquet? Perhaps it's akin to some of these. You know, you look at these excuses beginning in verse 18. They're kind of acceptable, really, on physical terms. I mean, I don't know if they're egregious, per se.

Verse 18, well, to the servant who came to invite them. Well, I bought a piece of ground. Verse 18. So I bought this field, and I'm going to take a look at it. Okay. Okay, well, can you go look at it and come back? You know, how long is that going to take? So we begin to see that these excuses aren't really... they're not really valid. They're just delay tactics, per se. You know, I appreciate the invitation. I want to come. Thank you.

It's just right now. You know, I don't know if I'm ready right now, if you'll keep the door open, you know. And boy, you're dealing with some... from what we see in this parable, you're dealing with some dangerous territory there to delay, to put off the invitation here. And who buys a field and doesn't look at it first? You know, are you just going to go and stand? You know, okay.

It's obvious you just don't want to come. And if that's the case, just say it. Don't... you don't have to make up these excuses. Second excuse, verse 19.

I bought five yolk of oxen. By the way, a yolk is a pear. So this is tin oxen. And I need to go test them.

What good rancher, who's ever lived... ever rancher that's ever lived buys oxen and doesn't test them first, you know?

You know, it doesn't check them first.

Now, the third one might be the best... might be actually maybe the best excuse of all three.

I married my wife, versus 20 there. That's the third excuse. Why can't you come? Well, she won't let me. You know, she won't let me come. I would come, but she... she will not let me come.

You know, so there was a military exemption. After someone was married, they were able to have an exemption from serving in the military for a year at that time. But that's not this. I mean, this is just an invitation to a marriage banquet. I can't come. I married a wife. Why don't you bring your wife? I don't know, you know? So these are really excuses. So let's bring this to today. What are these categories? What are these excuses? What categories are they in that perhaps we, intentionally or unintentionally, are falling into as well to put off accepting the invitation to the Great Marriage Supper to come at Christ's return?

Land? Land. Where is your focus and is it balanced in priorities where you're trying to establish inheritance in a physical sense? This is land. Perhaps this is what this represents. What physical investments are you putting your attention in at the expense of investing in Kingdom Matters, you see?

So this can really be relevant to us today. Are you staying balanced? We do have to take care of physical considerations, take care of physical future investments. There's nothing wrong with that. Not to the expense or not to the detriment of our efforts we're putting in Kingdom investments, you know, into the promised land to come.

Ox? Perhaps this is something to evaluate. Your focus on your sustaining in the physical, you know, work. Satan loves to keep you in that cycle of getting up early, you work all day, you come home, you're exhausted. You don't have... you can't even think two thoughts about what you're going to eat, much less two thoughts about God.

And you're just surviving and you go to bed. Repeat the next day. Satan loves to get us in that cycle. The full unbalanced focus on sustaining physically. Do we have to sustain ourselves physically and clock into work every day? Yes, yes. Or clock into whatever your endeavors are to keep physical life going. Yes. Is our focus more intentional on clocking in to our work for God? So you got to clock into God first, you know.

So important. And what's interesting is if you put your investment in the Promised Land versus building investment here for the physical, which will go away, it's temporary. And if you clock into God's work before your physical work, you will find that some of these burdens will be lifted from you. On the strength of Scripture, I can say that. God will bless your efforts and He will lift some of these things that...

these physical things. He will lift those burdens as you're focusing on Him. And He'll make life... He'll make physical life lighter, lighter. And remove some of that heaviness. The demands of the physical. So whatever you're struggling with, one of the things you can really do is make sure your priorities and you're not unintentionally making excuses. And thereby rejecting this invitation to sit at the banquet table. The third one, marriage. You know, physical relationships. Are you feeling heavy, burdened, weighed down with some of the physical relationship situations that we deal with? And that's causing you to say, to put off the invitation to God. Put your relationship, your familiar relationship to God first.

You will find your physical relationships relieved and get better. So you might be sinking all your efforts and focus into making it better on your own. I'm guilty. All of us are probably guilty. You know, instead of putting your focus on the familial... on God, the family of God, spiritual family. And you will find all these things will be given to you. And some of these other things will be lightened from your load. Some of these stresses and anxieties. Have your priorities straight in that way. So these excuses hit home, absolutely. You know, absolutely. But we can't have anything other more pressing than accepting daily our invitation to the great marriage banquet to come.

And so it's no surprise that the host, which in this scenario of the parable now, is symbolic of Jesus Christ, who God the Father calls us through Jesus Christ in the scenario beginning in verse 21. Jesus Christ in this symbolism is the host. So that that servant that went out to invite these, that made excuses, he reported these things back to the master, verse 21, then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out, and it's not just go out, go out quickly into the streets, the lanes of the city, bring in here the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind.

You remember, that was the group that the Pharisee ruler should have invited there. That's the guest list. Go out quickly, bring them in to replace the smug and selfish and the complacent. Quickly, you know, what is this anger here? I was trying to kind of associate myself with this anger. If you've ever had kids, if you've ever been a parent or any familial relationship, I'll relate it to kids just because that's how I relate it. You can tell your son or your daughter, this is the way you should go.

It will bring you blessings. Trust me on this. I know this is the way, this is the decision you should make. Follow this. This will lead to blessings. You'll be happier. And then, when they don't choose that way, there's almost an anger, or it's in the category of anger, because you long for them to go this way because you know that you know that you know it'll bring them blessings. Oh, and they don't choose it! And it's just like, ugh! And that's the desire, the deep desire that Jesus Christ has for us to remain at the great banquet that he's planning in the future to come.

He longs for us to put on the things and to walk the way to keep us at that table. So there is a righteous indignation here, you know, that we would accept this invitation. He chose us since the foundation of the world. I picked you out, specifically you. Oh, don't resist, don't delay, don't refuse this invitation. And it's the same. This is what God the Father, through Jesus Christ, is looking down to us.

He's prepared a great banquet, specific first invitations to whom he's chosen. At the expense of the death of his Son, I applied the blood of my Son to you. I'm offering this to you. Accept it here. Can you believe it? You know, that they would reject. And go therefore out and bring these other individuals in here. So the first that were invited rejected the invitation, and now he's going out to this other group. What are the characteristics of this other group? The lame, the blind, the maimed. What's the juxtaposition of the character that would likely be possessed, like to be contained in these individuals that had...what kind of character would they have?

Well, first and foremost, they would be blown away that a servant of the Master would even come and extend this invitation to them. And they would be very likely individuals who would have said, men and women who have said, Me? Your Master is sending you to me?

Oh, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to sit at that beautiful table. Surely you're meaning to invite someone else. And the servant says, no, the Master has sent me to you. So that's the characteristics of humility, right? Be low in our moving throughout this earth. Humble. Connect with others that are hurting and needing healing. So whenever we're in that space, we're quick to be sensitive to others who are in need of healing. We're very sensitive. If you're in that space, you can be very sensitive to others that need so we can reach out to those to heal them, to bring them into service, bring them into blessings and to serve them.

These are the characteristics who, in the end, will be at this great banquet. Example after example in the Bible, I'll just give you one. We won't turn there. The woman at the well. The woman at the well. Jesus Christ comes, sits next to her. She pushes back for a little bit. What are you even doing here talking to me? She says. And in the end, despite her having a sinful past and current in her poor decisions and relationships, Jesus Christ offers her forgiveness and He offers her to quench her thirst for eternity and to drink from that well.

And she's blown away. And she runs down into the city and she says, come and see this man. You got to come meet him.

See that's... she was... there was no haughtiness to her. Boy, when she was received that invitation, she'll never let it go. She would never let it go. I look forward to God willing talking to her, you know, after Christ's return. And we're at this banquet. I would love to see her there. Hear more about that story. It's awesome. There. She knew what was being offered to her. It's so precious. She was so much gratitude for what was being offered to her. So, the straightforward implication, those who expected to be at this banquet, they had their invitation rescinded and rejected. And those who knew they didn't deserve this invitation actually found that there was a seat there that had their name on it, you know.

A seat reserved for them. That's the spirit of those who were invited in. And the Master is... desires to make his house full, he says. To fill it up with those kinds of individuals. So, we just can't reject this precious invitation. I will tell you, it is an invitation that is demanding. Again, this invitation before we sit at that banquet where God's going to share his glory, the glory of the Father and the Son. We know Jesus Christ prayed for that before his crucifixion. I long that they share to share our glory with them. That's coming. But before that time, it is an invitation to accept, again, where we're going to reduce ourselves here in the physical and glorify God. So, there's sacrifice involved in that. We have to... as we follow Jesus Christ, we pick up our own cross and follow him. It is impactful to bow down. It's going to take everything we got in accepting this invitation. But what a precious invitation it is! And if you're already finding yourself low in posture, not thinking very much of yourself, that's good. It's good. But I want you to be strengthened and to find your worth in the fact that the Father through the Son has extended this invitation to you. He's placed his Spirit in you. To stay low, but know that you're valuable to God. And so you can stand up straight in your shoulders and do a work for him. And staying humble, giving him glory. But understanding that you have worth in God and you have a work to do. You have a work to do. So be bold as you move forward to this table. This table. Grace is there for you. And so gratitude really powers us as we move toward it. So I'm going to conclude today as the parable concludes here in verse 23. I love this word of the servant is to compel them to come in. I want to compel you today individually and we as a group. Let's move forward to this. I want to compel you to live a life in gratitude, worthy of this invitation. Put it first in your life. May I compel you to come. May we all come, for all things are now ready. Come to the Great Marriage Supper.