Sermon Series: Getting to Know God 

God's Zero Tolerance Policy, Part 2 

Luke 14:16-24; 25-33

8/19/01

In a nutshell: This parable shows that God has a zero tolerance policy for excuses for not following Him completely. He demonstrated this toward the Jews, when they rejected His Messiah. Through this parable, He also demonstrates zero tolerance toward His disciples, if they refuse to "give up everything" to follow Him-especially in the areas of possessions, careers, and family.

I. Introduction

A. Rhino Rider

Most of you know that I'm an avid motorcycle rider. I belong to several clubs and organizations involved with motorcycling. I'm an officer in the Christian Motorcyclist Association, here in the valley. I'm part of a ride club called the Southern Cruisers, here in Riverside county. I belong to the American Motorcycle Association which is an umbrella organization for a lot of motorcycle events across the country. And I'm a member of the Rhino Riders.

The Rhino Riders are quite a unique organization. According to our bylaws, "Rhino Riders is a motorcycle club that is for those that enjoy good food and motorcycles. We travel the countryside on our motorcycles looking for good cafes, and restaurants. We don't have meetings, we don't pay dues, we just love to ride and love to eat." The motto of the Rhino Riders is Live to Ride, Ride to Eat. Instead of membership numbers, like many clubs, we have plate numbers-as in dinner plates. Our plate number determines our place in line if we ever eat together at a buffet. I'm plate number 101.

I tell you that because I find that sitting down to a meal with a complete stranger, who has nothing in common with me, except a love for motorcycles, is a fascinating adventure, and presents many opportunities to be one of God's links in the chain of events that will eventually lead a person to faith and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

B. Last Saturday

Last Saturday, I went on a "Rhino Ride" with about 24 other people from all over southern California. Two guys came from the Barstow area, several came from Orange county, others from Riverside county, and some from the Pasadena area, and so on.

We all met for breakfast at Tom's Farms near Lake Ellsinore. Then we went to the Lookout restaurant which is 3000 feet above Lake Ellsinore, for a snack. Then we rode out to the Lake Henshaw area near Warner Springs for lunch at a biker restaurant called the Hideout. Then we headed out to Julian for apple pie. Then we went home, very full and very satisfied!

I was sharing with the Board on Monday night how during the week prior to that ride, God set up two appointments with guys that I've been riding with and praying for during the past 3 or 4 months. One fellow wanted to talk with me at breakfast, and the other asked to talk with me at lunch. Both men were wrestling with significant problems in their lives, and they wanted some spiritual input on what they were going through. Both encounters really did turn out to be great opportunities to be a link in the chain of events that I'm trusting will bring both guys to faith in Jesus Christ.

But it was at the restaurant at Julian, when we were having apple pie, that I got to talk with three guys I had never met before. Now, when I'm in a situation like that, I love to start the conversation with this statement, "Tell me about yourself." And that usually breaks the ice and people start to talk. Two of the guys were from the Barstow area, and one of the guys was from Anaheim. The conversation went something like this…

Harry from Barstow said, "I'm a motorcycle rider from way back. I own a '63 Harley and that new Kawasaki Vulcan that I rode today."

Tony, from Newberry Springs said, "I'm a trouble shooter for a warehousing company. I'm 50 years old and I hope to retire in another 5 years. Then me and the wife are going to buy a big rig and drive that truck across the country for the next five years, and see the sites. Then I plan to retire when I'm 60."

Then Tom, from Anaheim said, "I'm a divorced father of one. I'm re-married. And I'm a detective for the Anaheim police department."

C. Defining Ourselves

Now, friends, I found that fascinating. Each of those three men defined himself according to at least one of the areas of life that Jesus makes mention of in the parable of the Great Banquet. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Luke 14:16.

Harry defined himself in terms of his possessions-his two motorcycles. Tony defined himself in terms of his job and his future retirement plans. And Tom defined himself in terms of his family situation and his job.

Now, that's not unusual. Possessions, careers and/or retirement, and family are the three things that most people will use to define themselves in our world today. It shows what we human beings value. And these are the three areas that Jesus touches on in the Parable of the Great Banquet. We started looking at it last week. To get us all thinking in the same direction, let me read the parable again…

Luke 14:16-24 16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' 18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' 19 "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' 20 "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' 21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' 22 "'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' 23 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"

D. Review

As with all the parables that Jesus taught, there is a single concept of God taught in this parable. And it's important that we know that concept in order to understand and apply the parable to our individual lives. It's like finding the beginning of a ball of yarn. If you start unraveling that ball of yarn from the beginning, then the ball of yarn becomes useful. If you try to unravel it from the middle you have a big mess. The beginning point-the single idea of God that's taught , is that God will not tolerate excuses.

Last week we looked at this parable through the eyes of the Jewish leaders who were present at a huge banquet to which Jesus had been invited. And we saw that God was telling them that he wouldn't tolerate their excuses for rejecting His Son, as their Messiah. When they came up with a bunch of lame excuses for rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, God said, "O.K., I'll offer my Messiah to the less respectable people and to the Gentiles." And that's how we came to have salvation through Jesus Christ offered to us.

But there is a second set of lenses through which we can view this parable. And that's through the lenses of the followers of Jesus, who were listening in on this story, as Jesus taught it. For them, it had a whole other application, but it still had the same beginning point-God wouldn't tolerate their excuses for not following Him completely.

In the story of the Great Banquet, Jesus gives examples of excuses that people make for not responding to God's invitation to follow Him.

One guy said "I just bought a field, and I have to go and inspect it." Another guy said, "I just bought 10 oxen and I have to try them out on my farm." And the third guy said, "I just got married, and I don't want to leave my wife."

And those three things correspond to the three basic values that most people hold dear today-possessions, job/career/or retirement, and family. The exact three things that the three guys at my table at the Julian Pie Company used to tell me about themselves. And I would dare say that those are the three things that you would use in one way or another if I asked you to "Tell me about yourself."

And understanding all that-how important those three things are universally to human beings-Jesus goes on in the next section of verses in Luke 14, and applies the parable of the Great Banquet to those that are following him and listening to him tell this parable. He basically says, "This is how you must treat your possessions, your careers and retirement, and your family, if you are going to be my disciples."

And He proceeds to give four guidelines or standards for His disciples to follow when it comes to possessions, careers and what we do with our time, and our families. And don't forget the main point of the parable when it comes to these four things-God won't tolerate any excuses for not following them.

II. 4 Guidelines for Disciples

A. Love Jesus Supremely

Luke 14:26 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be my disciple.

When I was a junior high school student, and my youth director started teaching on this verse, my initial reaction was, "Yesssssssssss. God knows what a pain my parents are and my younger brothers are! I can hate them and still be a Christian!" But that's not at all what it's saying.

What this verse is doing is comparing our love and relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior, with the other loves in your life. Here Jesus specifically mentions family relationships, but it can also be applied to the use of our time in business and retirement, and how we treat our possessions. What God is saying is that He expects to be the supreme love of your life, not anything else. And He will not accept excuses.

Theologian John Cassian said the words on the front of your WIG's this morning… To cling always to God and to the things of God--this must be our major effort, this must be the road that the heart follows. (Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 3.)

And I believe a lot of your are saying, yes, pastor, that's right. But is it evidently right in your life? -Do you spend more time trying to connect with your grandkids than you spend connecting with God? -Do you spend more leisure time on the Internet than you spend leisure time with God? -Do you know your husband's or wife's likes and dislikes more than you know about what God likes or dislikes? -Do you know more about how a motorcycle or car or a knife or a gun operates, than how God operates?

What God is saying is that He wants you to cling to Him, and love Him supremely, over anything else. This love for God must be so supreme that anyone who looking at your life, or your family, or how you handle the ownership of possessions, or what you do in your career or retirement activities will see evidence of God being first in each one of those areas of your life. And He won't accept excuses for anything less. He expects us to love Him that supremely.

B. Take up your cross and follow Jesus

Here's the next point Jesus makes about following Him completely…

Luke 14:27 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

This is a negative way to say, that if you are a disciple of Jesus, then you will take up your cross and follow Him-no excuses tolerated. But what does it mean to take up your cross?

Does that mean you must suffer and die, like Jesus? Does it mean you have to willingly go through unpleasant experiences? Does it mean that you have to be a martyr? What does it mean to take up your cross?

Well, look at Jesus. His entire life was designed to follow a path that led to something. It led to Him being the sacrifice for our sins. His path led to the cross of Calvary, where He accomplished His purpose for living. That journey was His cross. His cross included His temptation in the wilderness, His teaching of parables, His birth in Bethlehem's manger, eating the Last Supper with His disciples, and so on. All those things were part of the path He had to follow to come to what God wanted Him to accomplish. Jesus' cross led Him to Calvary's cross.

Your cross, and my cross are nothing more than the paths of our lives. -Some of you have taken paths that led through college, then graduate school, then a family and a career. -Some of you have taken paths that have led through some tough circumstances of job loss, and facing the consequences of bad decisions in your personal life or your business life. -Some of your paths have led to separation through death or divorce. -Some of your paths have included unmet expectations. -Others of you are just starting out on your paths and are looking for jobs or preparing for jobs. -Still others of you have come to the final few miles of your paths.

Along all of our paths or crosses…, family; career and how we spend our time after careers; and what we accumulate along the way…all figure into our paths. And Jesus says that He expects His disciples to follow Him every step of the way-no excuses will be tolerated. But let's define this idea of following Him…

Matthew 16:24 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Simply put, following Jesus equals denying self. Following Jesus means doing what Jesus says to do, not what I think I should do.

-Denying self means you write the check to support the causes God has told you to support, before you buy the DVD player or speaker system or motorcycle part or even fix the air conditioning on the car.

-Denying self means you make sure you spend time with God each day, despite the interruptions of family or the demands of your job or your need to "sleep in".

-Denying self means being pleasant and encouraging to your waitress, even though you didn't get the best service.

-Denying self means that you learn how to overcome your fear of talking about your relationship with God with other people. And it means you start praying for opportunities to open up for you to talk about the Savior with friends and family members.

-Denying self means that you think about how your actions will reflect on Jesus Christ and your relationship with Him, even when you've been slandered by someone at work.

-Denying self means you obey traffic laws, even when you're running late.

-Denying self means investing all or a portion of a tax rebate check in God's economy, rather than in the American economy.

Denying self simply means that you are following God's leading in your life, based on your knowledge of Him-especially in the area of how you handle possessions, how you spend your time, and how you handle your family.

C. Count the Cost

Here's a third thing that God expects us to do, in order to completely follow Him…

Luke 14:28-33 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

God expects us to count the cost of following Him.

Illustration: Merlin was a man in our church in Missouri. His 9 year old son Micah was very athletic, and was especially good in soccer. So, Merlin went to sign his son up for the local youth soccer league. But he discovered most of the league games were at various times during the day, on Sunday. Many of the schedule times for the games were during the Sunday School hour or the Worship service times of our church. So, Merlin had a talk with Micah. He told him that he could play soccer in the league, but no matter what, the first priority in their family was being at church to worship and learn about God. So, if a game conflicted with either Sunday School or Worship Service, the game would lose out every time.

Merlin taught his son that compromising what God said to do in… Hebrews 10:25…Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, …was not an option for their family.

Merlin was a man who made no excuses to God when it came to his family. That's what God expects from all of us when we are faced with compromise. Followers of Jesus don't compromise. Are you counting the cost of being a follower of Jesus? Are you making biblically wise decisions, even though they are tough? If you're not, you're making some kind of excuse that isn't going to be tolerated by God. The life of abundance that He promises, won't be yours. And the rewards in heaven, illustrated by an invitation to the Great Banquet, will be lost to you. Is that what you want? If not, count the cost.

D. Don't lose sight of your purpose

Look at verse 34 for the final standard for following Jesus completely…

Luke 14:34 34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Salt had two purposes in ancient times. One was to flavor things and make them taste better, and the second was to preserve things. But in either case, if the salt lost its saltiness, it was useless. It couldn't fulfill its purpose. And that's the final thing that Jesus taught those people listening in on this parable of the Great Banquet-if you lose sight of your purpose you become useless in God's economy, because you become a detraction from His will, rather than an attraction to His will. Jesus said…

John 6:40 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California says, "There are only two things we can do here on earth that we can't do in heaven. One is sin. The other is lead others to faith in Jesus Christ. Which one is the reason you think God has left you here once you become a Christian?"

Friends, -Why do you think you have the possessions you have. -Why is your house or apartment or condo or mobile home located where it is? -Why do you go to a specific mechanic for your car repair? -Why do you like a specific restaurant? -Why do you have the size family you have? -Why, out of all the gene configuration possibilities, are your children the way they are? -Why do you have the spouse you do, or why don't you have a spouse? -Why do you have a job or not have a job right now? -Why have you received the training you have? -Why are you attending this church right now?

If it's not to do the Father's will, then you've lost sight of your purpose, and you've accepted a substitute of your own making. And when you do that, you have failed to join God in what He wants to do through you, and your purpose hasn't been realized.

III. Conclusion

So, taking that same parable of the Great Banquet, and understanding the key concept it teaches about God-that He doesn't tolerate excuses-Jesus teaches every follower of His 4 important things about following Him completely…

If you want to handle your possessions; your work and what you do with your time; and your family the way a disciple should, make sure four things are going on in your life:

1. Love Jesus Supremely 2. Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus 3. Count the Cost 4. Don't lose sight of your purpose

And God says, "That's it! Do it, and don't give Me any excuses!"

Amen.