Give Us This Day - 12

                                                                 Give Us This Day - 12

Subject – Thanksgiving and Compelling Them to Come In

By Rick Welborne

Matthew 6:9-15 (NKJV)
⁹  In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰  Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹  Give us this day our daily bread.
¹²  And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
¹³  And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
¹⁴  "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
¹⁵  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

--Today I want to share with you a modified sermon of what I shared with the Village campus on November 6. Thankful hearts are the hearts of servants.

Luke 14:16-23 (NKJV)
¹⁶  Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,
¹⁷  and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'
¹⁸  But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.'
¹⁹  And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.'
²⁰  Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'
²¹  So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.'
²²  And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.'
²³  Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

--It has been on my heart for years for Life Church to grow to one thousand plus and I still do. Sometimes dreams or visions come quickly and sometime you have to wait. But when the time is right:

Habakkuk 2:1-3 (NKJV)
¹  I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.
²  Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.
³  For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. 

--The vision, if it is God’s vision, will show up at the appointed time and it will be fulfilled. Though it takes some time, keep waiting for it because it will surely come.

--A thankful heart will trust the One Who said He would build His church.

--Back when God initially spoke to me about growing to one thousand plus we did not have a Spanish ministry or a Village Campus. Those dreams were on the horizon.

--Of course God in His sovereignty saw these two ministries and He began the process of building His church in a way that would bring Him glory.

--Our Spanish Ministry, La Vida Church was birthed and because Satan hates when the church advances, he tried to destroy the work of God. Jesus can take care of His church.

--When it looked like La Vida Church was on life support and surely about to die, God breathed new life into the church and it was revived and resurrected. 

--La Vida Church will be a major part of God building Life Church into a thriving ministry of over one thousand plus. Pastor Neftali and his team are being faithful to see the vision fulfilled.

--Four years ago this past August at General Council God spoke to me about a campus in the Villages and I was nervous about it but extremely excited at the same time.

--Again the dream or the vision seemed as though it would never happen and the thoughts of the campus seemed to be fading away. But God had a plan.

--Because we did not have the time or the energy to do the ground work to get a campus going, we brought Pastor Bob and JoAnn back from Wyoming (actually delivered them) to be our campus pastors.

--They prayed and feverishly went to work trying to find a place (a campus) for us to meet and for us to see the vision come to pass. They did more in a few months than we had done in a few years.

--God was expediting His vision and at the appointed time the campus was birthed. First, at Brownwood Hotel and now, at this location, First Christian Church. The church is growing and we give God the glory.

--Okay, Pastor Rick, thank you for the history lesson of what has brought us to this moment in God’s Kingdom, but where do we go from here? We must compel them to come in. 

Luke 14:23 (NKJV)
²³  Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

1. To see Life Church, the Village Campus, and La Vida Church grow, we must go.

--We must be convinced that there is an invitation from the Master, from Jesus, that is worthy enough for us to go into the highways and hedges. Plenty of streets and hedges to go into.

--No where do I get the idea from Jesus that His word to “Go!” is optional or just a pretty good suggestion. My assessment of what Jesus has said is that it is a commandment. The Word bears this out.

Mark 16:14-20 (NKJV)
¹⁴  Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
¹⁵  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
¹⁶  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
¹⁷  And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
¹⁸  they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
¹⁹  So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
²⁰  And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. 

--Because we call Jesus Lord, because He has the authority in heaven and on earth, we are commanded to go. We see they obeyed…they went out and preached everywhere. Lord, help us do the same.

2. To see Life Church, the Village Campus of La Vida Church grow, we must find Jesus worthy.

 Luke 19:10 (NLT2)
¹⁰  For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

--Please understand our hearts and vision for these ministries. This is not just another option for the people who are already saved to attend church or to have a free Sunday to play. 

--We are not starting our Spanish ministry and the new campus just because it seems like the trend in growing churches today. We are starting a campus here in the Villages because people are lost and they need Jesus.

--If our only purpose of investing into these ministries is just to provide Christians another choice for their worship experience, we have missed the boat.

--I don’t know about you, but I believe Jesus is worthy of us being obedient to go into our Jerusalem seeking and wanting to see saved those who are lost.

--Being with Him at His banquet, being with Him in heaven, should be our motivation for wanting to invite people to church, whatever campus it is. It is not just about more and more numbers.

--I am definitely okay with going after numbers and numbers are important to Jesus (A book of the Bible – Numbers) but it must be numbers of lost people. When you count church growth, count the lost being saved.

--Yes, it is okay for people who move to the area to find us or we find them and get connected but again it must be a campus with a vision to reach the lost.

--Jesus is worthy of our effort, heaven is worthy of our effort, salvation is worthy of our effort, the banquet is worthy of our effort. We must go because the banquet is ready and there is room at His table.

3. To see Life Church, the Village Campus, and La Vida Church grow, we must compel them to come in. 

Luke 14:23 (NKJV)
²³  Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Compel - to force or drive, especially to a course of action: to secure or bring about by force. to force to submit; subdue. To urge toward an action.

--What this is saying to me is this; Jesus is not playing when He tells us to compel them to come in. The Great Commission was never intended to be the great suggestion. 

--We get excited to hear about end-time events and we all acknowledge we believe Jesus is coming soon don’t we? If that is true, where is our urgency and obedience to compel them to come in?

--Question: Does Jesus take His invitation serious? Is it Life or Death? I think so.

Luke 14:23-24 (NLT2)
²³  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.
²⁴  For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”