Invitation and the Call 1982

When we come to the moment of our death, and this body ceases to function, and our naked, unshielded spirit stands on the threshold of another world, suddenly all the things that seem so important to us in this world will drop away. Our reputation, our achievements, our possessions will vanish like a morning mist. One thing alone will remain as important, and that will be our relationship with the living God.

In a mystery, this God, with infinity stretched beneath Him, will pay personal attention to us as if we were the only thing He had to be bothered about. And He will remember down to the last detail everything about our life, every wound we ever felt, every injustice that was ever inflicted against us, every day we ever went hungry. And if we have it coming, He will see to it that we will be comforted, the same way Lazarus was comforted in Abram's bosom.

On the other hand, if our life was a sham, we spent our years chasing after idols, trampling His mercy under our feet, turning away from the cries of the hungry, then, like the rich man, we will begin to reap what we sow. But the blessing or the curse which waits for us on the other side of death does not begin there. And it's important for us to see clearly that it begins on this side of the grave.

In this world, already, the door to glory opens wide. And if we pass by that open door, blazing with God's glory, knowing what we're doing, we soon find ourselves on a road which is already hell. Most of us in this gathering are able to look back on a time in our lives when we saw that door to glory wide open.

And for a brief season, entered it, we heard the Lord calling us by name, and we can remember the joy as we answered that call to follow Him into His kingdom. We dropped everything, and with our whole heart and our whole life, for a while, a few months, a few years, we put everything into it. During that time, we were already in heaven.

And then, for at least most of us, many of us, and in some sense, all of us, our vision of heaven and our experience of heaven once again began to fade, and heaven once again became something off in the future. On the other side of death, perhaps, or when Messiah comes back in glory. What we still haven't grasped is that the experience of heaven on this earth, which comes as we respond to the call of the Lord, is not meant to survive only a few months, or a year or two.

But the experience of heaven on earth, which belongs to all who respond to the call of the Lord, is meant to go with us our entire life. On the day of his call, Peter heard Jesus say to him, follow me. Peter followed.

Some years later, as Jesus was just about to take leave of this earth, in that resurrected body, he says the same thing to Peter, follow me. And Peter followed. You can be sure that those words, follow me, throbbed and beat inside his heart and in his soul, and it was those words addressed to Peter by the Lord himself, follow me, follow me, follow me.

Tremendous joy, which were the source of Peter's life, and kept Peter on the track which for him was heaven on earth. From Luke chapter 14, verse 15 through 17, when one of those who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, to Jesus, he said, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But Jesus said to him, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many.

And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for all is now ready. Now the man who said, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God, thought of the kingdom of God as something off in the future. Maybe when Messiah comes, maybe after death.

And Jesus said, no. The kingdom of God is now. The kingdom of God is right here.

A certain man gave a great banquet, a wonderful banquet, banquet of banquets, the kingdom of God, knowing God face to face. At the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for all is now ready. You can eat bread now in the kingdom of God.

God has come to you, opened the door, opened his heart, welcomed you into his purpose. You don't have to wait till after you die. You don't have to wait till the end of the age to enter the kingdom of God.

The door of the kingdom of God is open now, and God calls you to enter it now. But to enter the kingdom of God now on this earth, in this life, we have to drop everything and go. The kingdom of God has to be the single passion, passion, the one commitment of our whole life.

Is the kingdom of God the single commitment of my life right now? Is Jesus, knowing him, serving him, loving him, following him, doing his will, the single burning commitment of my life right now? And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for all is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go out to see it.

I pray you have the excuse. Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. I pray you have the excuse.

Another said, I've married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And now I have my invitation. See, I got it.

And I really plan to come to your banquet, Lord, eventually. But I had no idea you were going to call me so soon. I mean, I have a lot of things that I have to take care of first.

Wouldn't this be, I mean, this would be stupid. It would be silly for me to drop everything and commit myself utterly to your banquet. Anyway, I'll get there eventually.

It's one thing to hold the invitation in our hands. It's quite another thing to hear the call and answer the call to come to the banquet. The invitation to the banquet is like having a sense of God, interest in the things of God, knowledge of how those prophecies are going to be fulfilled.

But you can have all those spiritual blessings and still live your own life and go your own way, because for you, God is still off in the future, perhaps after we die. But then the God who wrote the invitation to his banquet on your heart before you were born suddenly sends a servant to you to announce, come, for all is now ready. It's not live a good life and then if you've been good enough, after you die, you get to heaven.

But come now. Heaven is now. Now the door of heaven is open.

That's not an invitation. That's the call. The invitation is a religious feeling that you carry around in your soul.

That invitation, that religious feeling will never save you. In fact, it may be your downfall. Because if I have that religious feeling tucked in close to my heart, I just feel the things are all right when they may not be.

The call is a word from God which requires a response now. For instance, Isaiah. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I. Send me. This was Isaiah's call.

And Isaiah had to decide right on the spot, would he answer it or would he not? He answered it, and from that point on in his life, his life belonged not to him, but to God. Ezekiel. End of chapter 1, beginning of chapter 2. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. And he said to me, Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak to you. When he had spoken to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet.

And I heard him speaking to me, and he said to me, Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The people also are impudent and stubborn.

I send you to them, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God. Whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that there has been a prophet among them. This was Ezekiel's call.

Same thing. To answer that call meant a complete turnaround. The relinquishing, the giving up of his rights to himself.

From this point on, Ezekiel's life, as he answers the call, belongs to the Lord. And what things the Lord leads him through. What glorious things the Lord does through him.

Mary. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. From Luke chapter 1. To a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and he said, Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.

The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. For you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, since I have no husband? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child born will be called Holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And is in the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.

Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Here again, Mary's call.

And her response, I'm your handmaiden. Let it be to me according to your word. Let it be done.

I'm yours to do with as you wish. The apostles. Passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea.

For they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately, immediately, they left their nets and followed him.

And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in their boat, mending their nets. And immediately he called them. And they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Now, in each case, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Mary, the apostles. There was an immediate response. They didn't say, Can I really afford? Can I really afford to change my lifestyle at this time? What will my husband think? What will my wife say when she finds out? I'd like to, but I don't know if I can handle it.

In every case, it was, Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Behold, I'm your servant. Do with me as you will.

Well, you say, Wait a minute. That call came to only certain select people. I mean, they heard angels, they had visions, but it didn't come to everybody.

But that's not true. During Jesus' ministry on this earth in flesh and blood, there was not a man, woman, or child in the whole land of Israel to whom the call did not come. Come, for all things are now ready, was Jesus' gospel.

Come to the banquet of the God who heals the sick, opens the eyes of the blind, raises the dead, tears out his own heart, his beloved son, and offers him up as an atonement for sin. Jesus started out in the synagogues, the churches, for them. When he was rejected, he took to the streets.

In the synagogues, organized religion, they made excuses. The first said, I bought a field, but I must go out and see it. I pray you have me excused.

Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen. I go to examine them. I pray have me excused.

I've married a wife, therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder, in anger, said to his servant, Go out quickly, right away, don't waste any time, into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame.

The servant said, Sir, what you've commanded has been done. Still there is room. The master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled, for I tell you that none of these men who were invited shall taste of my banquet.

Everybody who responded, no matter who they were or what they were up to up to that point, was received into the banquet, was incorporated into the kingdom of God. But, in every case, to be incorporated into the kingdom of God meant more than waving your invitation around and saying, I'll get there eventually. It meant an immediate response.

Now, what God is doing, what's happening, and I'm sure that all of us can see this and sense it and know what's going on in this place today, and in many places across Detroit, and out over the whole planet, God is causing His voice to be heard afresh and anew, and He is calling all of us to leave the things that have held us back and come to the banquet, no matter what kind of changes that's going to mean in our lives. Now, if we're already answering that call, surely we don't get resentful. We don't say, Lord, look, I'm coming.

Why do you keep hollering at me? When we are answering that call, we just say, Lord, keep saying it. Keep calling me to follow you. The more I hear it, the better it is.

I'm coming. I'm coming to help you. But, if we've not been answering this call, or if we got ourselves sidetracked on the way to the banquet hall, He causes it to be heard clearly again today.

And He says, come on. Now, put your life at my disposal. Let me have it.

Let go of everything that hinders. Turn your back on anything that competes. Tear yourself free from whatever stands in the way, and come with me now into the Father's kingdom.

Let me have your life entirely. And that call means that God will call the shots. We don't know exactly how that's going to work out, but it means that whatever changes in our lifestyle have to take place in the coming days will take place, and God will show us, and there will be changes.

And right away we get ahead of ourselves and say, wait a minute, Lord, wait a minute. I'll give you two nights a week. That's all I can afford.

Fifteen minutes a day in prayer. Five percent of my income. And I'll even join a church if you insist.

And the Lord says, wait a minute, you don't understand. I'm not here to make a deal with you. I'm calling you to turn yourself over entirely to me.

I'll show you what comes after that. Give yourself to me. Follow me now.

The Lord is not waiting on the other side of death to get our whole life. He's not waiting on the other side of the battle of Armageddon to get our whole life. He's in our midst now asking for our whole life, calling for us to come all the way with Him.

We will only know Jesus, walk in His power, live in His light, manifest His light to the world as we answer that call and keep answering it. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus says to Peter, follow me. Peter follows.

At the end of the ministry on this earth in flesh, says to Peter, follow me. And Peter follows. Somewhere in our past, most of us here heard Him say, follow me.

And we follow Him. He calls us again today with those same words. Follow me.

And the only time we have to answer that invitation, which is no longer an invitation but now a call, is now. Right now. God help us to forsake everything.

And follow Him. Let's wait upon Him now. And do whatever we have to do.

Respond in whatever way. If anyone wants to use the altar rail, come on up. Let's just take some time alone before God.