The Greatest Excuse Ever Given

The title is, The Greatest Excuse Ever Given. Have you made it? Will you make it? Are you good at excuses? Because a lot of people are. We all make them. Do you have a go-to excuse you use? I'm not seeing any hands going, that's good. With even our relationship with God, do we sometimes have excuses? Yeah, I meant to pray more. Too busy. Too many things going on in my life. Bible study. I'm too tired. I forgot. Well, there are quite a few excuses in this old world. Some of the most favorite excuses as I looked them up, and they were, my grandma died. And they even said, that one man said, my grandma died at work, that's why I can't come in. Well, I thought your grandma died last year. Well, that was my great grandma. And then if you were ever in school, maybe the thing was, the dog ate my homework. Oh, it's like they, people look like they've used that here on the front row anyway. I won't call out any name. Dog ate my homework. To which a teacher once said, well, let me go home and see your dog. I died from eating too much of my homework. It was such a long dissertation that the dog ate it and he died. How about, that's not my job. Had that at a store not long ago. I know when I go to Home Depot, they are all trained to, no matter where you're at, they're supposed to be trained. Let me put it that way. I knew the manager once. And every person in there is supposed to be trained. So if you go up to an employee at Home Depot looking for something, and you don't know where it's at, you should be asking because they're supposed to go down all the aisles and know where everything's at. Or they even have these little things now they can pull up and check. But how many of us has gone into a place, gone into a place and people say, oh that's not my job. That's not my section.

It happens. How about to a policeman? I didn't know I was going that fast. Matter of fact, a friend of mine, police force in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Bob Speck, he's retired now, did a lot of work for him, knew him pretty well, but he stopped me a second time.

And he said, Chuck, do you know how fast you were going? I said, I'm not sure. He said, well, you were doing 60 and a 45. Did you know that? I said, no, I actually thought I was going faster.

But Bob let me off with a warning, as he did the first time. But he also told me, stop by my house, I have something I need you to do. Ah, coincidence? Don't think so.

The Bible is full of excuses. Quite a few of them. Think about it. There are a lot of excuses in the Bible. Anybody know the very first excuse used in the Bible? Oh, very good. It's that woman that gaveth me. You know the second. The first one was Adam and the second was Eve. It's that serpent. First it was the woman, then it was the serpent. And then you had those two got together and had two sons. And then Cain had one of the most profound statements even used today. Am I my brother's keeper? An excuse? Absolutely, it is. And it didn't work with God, though. That's the thing. He knows everything. But we still have a Bible full of excuses. As a matter of fact, the definition of an excuse is a psychological defense mechanism to shift responsibility or blame. Absolutely correct. We usually want to shift that. The responsibility wasn't my job. My father and mother, when they were gone, they would leave me and my older sister to take care of the house that we want to clean up when we get back.

And then we say, well, what time are you getting back? And they would tell us. And so then we would play until about five or ten minutes before they were to get home, and then we'd fly like a couple mad people into doing these things. Oh, am I the only ones that ever did that? No.

But usually we would make up and say, well, that was her fault. Well, this wasn't cleaned over. That was her fault. Well, I thought he was going to do it. You know, the amazing party worked most of the time. I guess that's why we used it so much. But it didn't fool my mother. Matter of fact, she may be watching today. She's probably sitting there laughing. No, nothing got by her. There is a scripture in Proverbs 26 and verse 13 about somebody that was so lazy, they needed an excuse of why they couldn't go out into the yard or out into the street. Remember what it was? Lion in the yard. There's a lion in the yard. Now, that's pretty lazy.

I made up quite a few excuses in my life on the farm, but lion wasn't one of them. Well, lion was, but lion wasn't. I can put it that way. But I'd like you to go with me New Testament in the book of Romans. Romans chapter 3. God mentions excuses. Oh, Romans chapter 3 and verse 19. I'll read this from the New Living Translation. It says, Obviously the law applies to those whom it was given. Has it been given to us? Yep. For its purpose is to keep people from having excuses. Well, I didn't know there was anything wrong. I didn't know. No? Lays out the law. Lays out rules. So that really when we have them, because it's both said that the law, even the Ten Commandments give us what? Tell us how to love God and how to love our neighbors. So you keep these Ten Commandments. You have no excuse because you know them. The only excuse you have is, I didn't keep them.

And God's not real good on excuses.

For its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God because basically most of the world knows. That everything is right and wrong. They know there's something wrong with killing people. They know there's something wrong with adultery. There's no something wrong with stealing. But people make excuses. Think of the Bible. I mean, here we're to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And yet we see time after time after time after time after time that even some of the greats in the Bible had excuses, didn't they?

Did God just let that slide? Most of the time he didn't. And it may have taken a while to lay that out before them. I remember David took a whole at least nine months to a year before Nathan came before him and told him this incredible lamb story. And he said, that's you, David. When David was upset, you took that lamb. Remember Esau? Can you imagine Esau's excuse? But God, I would have died without that red stew. Or if he was from Jamaica, the red pea soup.

And it is good, so I can't complain about red pea soup. But he sold his birthright. But I'm sure in his own mind, well, my brother, he tricked me or he forced me to. I always thought that story was interesting, right? And that excuse was very lame if you grew up on a farm or in the wilderness.

Esau was a hunter. He was out hunting, and he got so tired. And he couldn't make it back in. He was so tired. And there was Jacob cooking this soup. And Jacob had a deal for him. You think Jacob would have let him die?

But wait a minute. Jacob wasn't a hunter, was he? But Esau was, and he was out hunting. I'm sorry, the carnal part of me would have said, you want to bet you're not going to give me that stew with the spear? You think I'm going to give out my birthright? How about if I carve a little of my initials in you? But that's not what happened, is it? Well, he just handed it over. In fact, it's referenced in the Testament. He didn't even consider it much worth. One writer even said he despised it. I don't believe that. But a writer said that. But he gave it up awfully easy. Well, he didn't. How about Moses? Moses? Excuse? Now, you know Moses didn't want to go to Egypt. Moses was a general in the Egyptian army at one time. Broker peace did the brokered peace, did this, conquered, was educated in Egypt, which had the top schools in the world at that time. We've known how to speak different languages. And now God says you're going to go there. Now, I think he'd probably say, Minos, speak good. Minos, speak good.

No, he used the excuse, I don't speak very well.

An excuse? Yeah. Did God accept it? Yes, he did. God accepted it and said, okay, I'm going to bring your brother in. Let him talk for you, but you're still going to go.

How about Saul? King Saul, he had excuses more than once and quite a few excuses. Oh, wait a minute. Samuel? Wait a minute. It's only a few animals back there. Remember the story? He told him to wipe out every man, woman, and the Amalai guys. Wipe out every man, woman, and child. All their animals. But he kept some. What's that sound I hear? Oh, I was keeping them for God. I was keeping them to sacrifice to God. Excuses. They're all through the Bible. By people, sometimes we don't expect. But does God know that? Does God know that you're going to have excuses? Yes. And reading the Bible, it looks like you can't expect them sometimes, because they're all through there.

Peter? I don't know that man. Excuses or lies? Is there a lot of difference? Three times. And then finally, you had to put some adjectives or curse words in.

He's trying to get them to understand. I don't want any part of him. How about, though, a prophet of God? Did Jonah get lost?

Five hundred miles this way, and you take a boat to go two thousand miles this way.

Bad GPS. So what about Jeremiah? Here's this little tyke. In fact, God said he knew him before he was born. He was in the womb. And later on, you want what Jeremiah said? I'm too young. I'm too young. I'm but a child. How can I do this? Did God accept that? Did God accept that excuse? Nope. He didn't bail Jeremiah out.

Like he did Moses. But the greatest, sorry, I guess there's, to me in the Old Testament, there's no greater excuse than one single solitary excuse. Anybody? This one, so bad, it's laughable. Absolutely. Absolutely. These people forced this gold in my hands, and I threw it into the fire, and now I'll pop this golden cap. Wonder who laughed first. God or Moses? Or did Moses go, I can't believe he said that. I can't believe the high priest said that. And it was formed. And it was formed. And it was formed. And it was formed. And it was formed. And it was formed. And it was formed. And it was formed. Gold! Excuses. Perhaps you've made some that God has laughed at. I'm pretty sure I have in all my time. Excuses. That God probably laughed and go, Stupid boy. Dumb boy. Go with me to another one in the Old Testament before we leave that and jump into the new. How about joining me in Judges? Judges 6 and verse 15. New Living Translation. But Lord Gideon replied, How can I rescue Israel? My clan, my tribe, is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh. And I am the least in my entire family. So can't go with even my tribe, but you can't pick me because I'm the least. I'm the weakest. Remember how that story happened? Remember what God had to do to him? Because he made excuses. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. If this happens, then I'll believe. Oh, wait a minute. Yeah, that happened. Okay, how about if this happens? Okay, okay, okay, okay. What patience God has with all of us and all of them. My purpose today is to bring up about excuses because we've all made them. We're all guilty of them, and I can pretty much guarantee unless you die tomorrow, you'll make them next week. Because... Well, cover that in a minute. Let's go to Romans. Let's go to Romans. Because God is saying there that Romans 1 and verse 20. Romans 1, where am I? Verse 20. For since the world was created, people have seen the earth, and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, so they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Look up at the sky. Study nature. It's easy to do now. But before, it was easy to do back when this was written. This stuff just magically appeared like the golden calf, I guess, in the world. No. So, Paul is telling the church at Rome that the world around them, because they could really say at that time, well, Paul, we live in a very worldly society, and they're polytheistic, and they don't know that there's a God. And Paul is telling them, mm-mm, that's no excuse. That's no excuse, especially now that there is a church in Rome. The church is in Rome at that time. The world has no excuse, do we? Do we have any excuse? Yeah, we have doubts sometimes. We see things, and we think God's going to handle them, and he does it in that amount of time that we feel like, if I were God, I would handle that. It's an excuse for not waiting. Waiting on God. I like what Albert Einstein said. What Einstein... because people used to tell him, well, you know, you're just a genius. Well, he was. You're just smarter than everyone else. You've won a peace prize. You've won all these things, and every government wants you involved in this, and no wonder you have it so well. I like what Einstein said. He said, if you feed your mind as often as you feed your stomach, then you'll never have to worry about feeding your stomach or a roof over your house... over your head, rather. Pretty smart words, because that's true. Benjamin Franklin. Remember Benjamin? Do you know he's a Sabbath keeper? Most didn't. Most don't. Do not realize that. He said this. He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. Why is that? Because excuses are habit forming. A habit that is very hard to break. Because once they work, you will use them again and again and again, and you will make them again and again and again. It's kind of like that great saying. It's not my fault I make excuses. Yes, it is. We all make them. So I'd like to take this down to us with what time I have left to get my 47 minutes exactly.

Yeah, I have a clock here, two different clocks. That's going to be my excuse, Mary, if you're listening. I didn't hit the 47 minute mark. Go with me if you will. I'll be reading from the New Living Translation. I'd like to go to the book of Luke. Luke, Luke chapter 14, and I'm going to go down to verse 15. Luke 14 and verse 15. Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the kingdom of God.

Jesus replied with this story. He was a great storyteller. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guest, Come, the banquet is ready. But they all began making excuses. You think this banquet's picturing something? You think Christ is just giving this out of, Oh, I think I'll tell this story. No, it's about the wedding supper. It's about that great banquet, the greatest that will ever exist. One said, I've just bought a field and must inspect it. I've got to measure it, step it off.

Please excuse me. Another one said, I just bought five pair of oxen. Boy, they look good. I want to try them out. Please excuse me. Another said, I now have a wife, so I can't come because she won't let me. No, I added that. I never supposed to add or take away. The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, Go quickly into the streets and the alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. After the servant had done this, he reported, There's still room for more.

So his master said, Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come so that the house will be full for none of those who I first invited. Seems like we had a message about firstfruits being the firsts that are invited. Ooh. Does that hit a nerve? Are you going to say, Well, I didn't hear that sermon. I didn't have an excuse. For none of those I first invited will even get the smallest taste of my banquet. Pretty serious here. Pretty serious. How about the one where Christ, the creator of all this earth, creator of everything, was walking on earth, was standing with humans just like you and I.

He's standing there and this man says, I'll follow you wherever you go. And he said, Come, follow me. I, oh well, but there's got to be some ah's in there. Not as, well, I won't say that about, you know. Imagine that. He said, I have to go bury my father, who wasn't even dead yet. I think I explained that once before. Jesus Christ was offering this man a chance to be the 13th disciple. You want to travel with him? Go with him. He could have been the replacement for Judas. Imagine that offer.

Would we take it? But instead, he made an excuse. Isn't that sad? Look what he missed out on. Christ said, let the dead bury the dead. He wasn't accepting that excuse. We have to be very sure he's going to accept our excuse.

Because there can be very good excuses. Legitimate excuses. Haven't you had one? I did when I had my company. I had a young man that I told him, I have one pet peeve. Being late. If you're late, I can't use you. I said, I'm going to use like one of my old bosses used to say. Two minutes early is five minutes late. And so, you want a job here? Young guy just out of college. And he had worked a summer for me in college. I said, good worker! But he was late a few times. Part-time work, I didn't really hold him too hard with it.

But now, he's in full-time. I said, okay. You get three. Three late's in a year. And I said, the other guys don't get any, but I know you. You got to learn, and I'd like to have you. So don't use all your excuses up. The reason why you're late is because each time, my alarm didn't go off. Boy, did I hear that one quite a bit. They'd use it when we changed the clocks both ways. When it wasn't even legitimate. The second day, he was late. I said, that's one. Oh, yeah, but I was, you know, my car was slow and starting. I said, it's summertime. Why? I said, you know what I said? Two days later, he was late again. And he said, just two minutes.

And you know, the next week, he was there. Except there was a railroad track between us. And the train came just when he was trying to cross the track. And he had to stop. And the train was about three minutes. Three minutes long. Then he pulled in. And he got out of his car. You, you saw me. I said, you saw me looking that. Yes, because I knew you. Watching your watch. He said, so you know the train. I said, yes. I'll go in and write your check. He said, man, that's cold. I said, it hasn't just been barely over a week. And you use three excuses. These guys here, we're all here. If you'd have been here five minutes before seven o'clock, you wouldn't hit the train.

Is God going to be that tough with us? Because some people said I was too tough as a boss. Not the ones that stayed with me for 10, 20 years. Usually the ones I fired in a little time. Norm, does that sound familiar? I'm sure anybody that's had a business, you have to run the business. Hopefully I am more merciful because now. But it made me question what God, how God would handle excuses. Because you remember, you knew I was an austere man. You knew where I reaped, where I did not sow. Ooh, that's Dad. He's a heavenly Father. Remember Jesus has called that in Isaiah. We're answering to Him. An austere man, severe. Does He show mercy? Oh, man, that's one of His names, merciful. He shows a lot of mercy. But where does it draw the line? It draws a line at excuses. Are we good at them? Have we become so proficient at excuses that we see ourselves as something different? Let's go. I have this time I want to jump to. One last story Jesus Christ gives. Matthew 25. This is a serious one. This, one story here is addressed to the church. It's not really addressed to the world. It's addressed to you, and to you, and to you, and you, and me. All of us. And it's a beautiful story because you can't misread this one. Let's go to Matthew 25, and I'm going to start in verse 32. It says, I want to be a sheep. Don't we all want to be a sheep? We don't want to be a goat. We're butting heads with Christ. Okay? And He will place the sheep on His right hand and the goats at His left hand. Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the creation of the world. Wow, that's pretty big. That's a long time ago. And He's prepared it for us. Let's get excited, sheep. Bye. For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, you gave Me drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. I was naked, and you gave Me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me. Then the righteous ones, you remember those on the right, will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Are thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and showed you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King, our King, will say, Future, I tell you the truth. When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to Me.

That's pretty good. Didn't even know. Didn't even know that they were... that Christ considered that you were feeding Him. Let's go to verse 41. Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, Remember, this is a church. He's got left and right. These are, Away with you, you cursed ones, Into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. We're talking, go ahead, we're talking like a fire. This is one and done here. For I was hungry and you didn't feed Me. I was thirsty and you didn't give Me a drink. I was a stranger and you didn't... You know these didn'ts? Didn't invite Me into your home. I was naked and you didn't give Me clothing. I was sick and in prison and you didn't visit Me. That's to us. Then they will reply, just like the other, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick in prison and not help you? And He will answer and say, I tell you the truth. When you refused to help the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help Me. Refusing to help Me. Excuses.

Doesn't that always become the dilemma of juggling somebody on the street? Somebody who needs help? Because many are just going to buy their alcohol or drugs with it. How do we do that? How do you judge? Or do you make excuses? They're just going to go buy something anyway.

It gives us something to think about. That's what's the empowering part of these verses. Is God expects this? Now, I love it because some of you in here, you're helping Guyana, you're helping Haiti. We're doing these things. And I saw going to Guyana, just what a benefit of taking some of the things that some of you have given.

Taking them to there. And how great it was. They have so little or less than we do.

I've got the repair. Why don't I just give one away? Sounds good. But is it good enough for Guy?

We have the opportunity in this life. And sometimes those that have the least help the most. I've seen that so many times. That's why God is so important about the offering when the widow gives the widow's might. He said she gave all that the others. Give all she had. Does God expect you to give all you have? No, it's an example for us. But would we be willing to? Rich young ruler. I keep all the commandments. I do all this. Okay, just one thing you lack. Tell me and I will do it. Sell all that you have. What did he say? Did he make an excuse? He just walked. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it.

We have a chance every day. Or most days. Say every day. To help someone. May just be a phone call. They didn't have telephones back there. They barely could write. We do. We have the chance. To drop a line, drop a text, we had this wonderful example, this wonderful man that passed away this week in our Fort Myers congregation. Ron Kremlis. Did anybody know Ron? You knew Ron. You knew Ron. And Helena's wife. That was when I first started. That was one of my churches. And I got to know them well. My parents knew them. And Ron set such an example, but then his mind started to go in the last few years. And they would always be there, deacon, deaconess, to help anybody. They helped me when I was young, dumb, and stupid in the ministry. They were older and wiser. He passed this week. And I didn't want to call her because I know how that is. But I sent her an email. I don't know if she read it or not. But I have the opportunity to go to the funeral, which I will do a week from tomorrow because I want to show my respect because she's hurting. He was 90 and she's younger than him, but I don't know how many decades they've been married. They're hurting. She's hurting. Spend that much time with someone. So we can find excuses of, well, that's not my church. You know, that's way over there. I don't even know the people. You know, many people have sent things to Mary and other various things. When I had my ballot, cancer people, I didn't know. They didn't make an excuse. So, what about us? Greatest excuse ever given by us has eternal consequences, doesn't it? We just read it. We're not going to do it. We're going to talk in the lake of fire to goats. Isn't that amazing? If it is important to you, you'll find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse.

I'm writing this book. I'm not going to do it. I'm writing this to myself because you know what happens to me? I've got an extra church now in the interior. I've got ten churches I have to oversee. I've got three, four, five hundred people.

I'm too busy. I don't have time or I prayed about those people. See, I don't want to be a goat. I don't want any of you to be a goat. This is written to goats because the word didn't is in there. Goats and didn't. And if I don't do a better job of what I've been doing, I'm going to be a goat. That's what we need to look and not use the excuse. I don't know them. Never met them.

Because no excuse will work. Because there is a phrase that happened, Christ happened to give to each and every one of us on the Sermon on the Mount. And it's the worst words we could ever hear, and it's not, don't give me excuses.

I never knew you. I never knew you. Forwards, we for sure never want to hear, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, as we do right now.