WISDOM FOR LIVING DAILY DEVOTIONAL
JUNE 25, 2022 Â
TOPIC: THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT COMING TO JESUS
BY T. O. BANSO
âThen He said to him, âA certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excusesâ (Luke 14:16-18b New King James Version).
When people are not willing to do something, it is easy for them to come up with different excuses. In Luke 14, Jesus tells the story of a great feast that was about to suffer a setback because the invitees refused to attend even though they had received an earlier invitation.
At this time, it was customary to send out two invitations to a party. The first invitation to announce the party and invite the guests and the second invitation to inform them that everything was ready and they should come.
Luke 14:16-18b says, âThen He said to him, âA certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excusesâ (Luke 14:16-18b New King James Version). This was the second invitation and these guests who were already invited started making excuses.
How painful it could be when you invite guests to a party and everything is ready and they begin to make excuses that they cannot come! If they had told you this earlier, there wouldnât be a problem. You would be able to make alternative arrangements. But at the Eleventh hour, these guests started making excuses, which could threaten the success of the party.
Hear the excuse of the first guest: âI have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excusedâ (Luke 14:18b New King James Version). How tenable is this excuse considering a prior notice? This man could have gone another day to see the land he had bought. He had already bought it; he only wanted to go and see it. There was no emergency to call for rejecting the invitation to the supper. Some things are more important than others.
This is the excuse of another guest: âI have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excusedâ (verse 19 New King James Version). Just like the first excuse, there is nothing urgent about the transaction he had made. This guest had already bought the oxen. What he wanted to go for was the after-purchase inspection. This could be deferred till after the supper he had been invited to. The supper would not last forever! Itâs just a matter of getting oneâs priorities right. You always find time for whatever is your priority.
Another guest who rejected the invitation said, âI have married a wife, and therefore I cannot comeâ (verse 20 New King James Version). This is another lame excuse. How does marrying a wife become an excuse for not honouring an invitation to a supper? The invitation was not a call-up to military service or any other duties that Deuteronomy 24:5 exempts newly married people from. This invitation was for a social function, which could not affect the marriage negatively. But because this guest did not want to come, he used his marriage as an excuse.
The servant of the host of this supper came and reported to his master everything that the guests said. Expectedly, he was angry because all things were ready and the guests who didnât hear about the supper for the first time refused to attend. To avoid the supper from flopping and everything prepared wasted, he told his servant to go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. The servant carried out his instruction and reported that there was still room. The master told him again to go out into the highways and hedges and compel anyone he saw to come in so that the venue would be filled. He said none of those men initially invited would taste his supper.
The story Jesus told was not about a social event; it was about the kingdom of God. He only used the invitation to supper as an illustration. Just before Jesus started the story, a man, who was sitting at the table with Him, had said, âBlessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!â (Luke 14:15 New King James Version).
In Matthew 22, Jesus told a parable similar to the story of this supper and introduced it by saying, âThe kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to comeâ (verses 2-3 New King James Version). In this parable, the king invited the guests three times but the guests made untenable excuses and refused to come. They made light of the invitation and went their ways.
Some of the guests even did worse things by seizing his servants, treating them spitefully, and killing them. On hearing this, the king, visibly angry, ensured that they were punished by sending out his armies, who destroyed the murderers and burnt up their city. He then sent his servants to go into the highways and invite to the wedding as many as they found. They went and gathered all they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
People make different excuses for their inability to honour the invitation to enter the kingdom of God or come to Jesus Christ. But there is no tenable excuse such as the flimsy excuses of these guests. They had their way and if they thought the events would flop, they were wrong. Others who were not originally invited were invited; they honoured the invitation and filled the venue.
You have no excuse not to come to Jesus Christ if you havenât. Jesus has already paid the price for your salvation and is inviting you to come to Him today. Come! If you reject the invitation, know that many others have honoured the invitation, are honouring it, and will still honour it. Jesus says, âCome to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you restâ (Matthew 11:28 New King James Version).
Donât make any excuses such as your age, success, background, business, church, or status. Paul said, âBut what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faithâ (Philippians 3:7-9 New King James Version).
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2b). Anyone who comes to Him, He will by no means cast out (John 6:37b). Get your name into the Book of Life today by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Revelation 20:15 says anyone whose name is not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Will you be at the marriage supper of the lamb in heaven? You should not miss it. Those who make excuses here on earth and do not come to Jesus Christ, accepting Him as the Lord and Saviour, wonât be there. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb! (Revelation 19:6-9). There is no excuse for not coming to Jesus now. Come!
TAKE ACTION!
If you are not born again, you need to give your life to Jesus now. I urge you to take the following steps: *Admit that you are a sinner and you cannot save yourself and repent of your sins. *Confess Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. *Renounce your past way of life â your relationship with the devil and his works. *Invite Jesus into your life. *As a mark of seriousness to mature in the faith, start attending a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church. There they will teach you how to grow in the Kingdom of God.
Kindly say this prayer now: O Lord God, I come unto You today. I know I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to save me and God raised Him on the third day. I repent of my sins and confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I surrender my life to Jesus now and invite Him into my heart. By this prayer, I know I am saved. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me and making me a child of God.
I believe you have said this prayer from your heart. Congratulations! You will need to join a Bible-believing and Bible-teaching church in your area where they will teach you how to live your new life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar of Lebanon. May you grow into Christ in all things and become all God wants you to be. I will be glad to hear from you. The Lord be with you.
PRAYER POINTS: Father, I pray that sinners will understand that there is no excuse for not coming to Jesus and stop making excuses. They will act urgently and give their lives to Jesus today. I shall not miss the marriage supper of the Lamb in Jesusâ name.
(For over 800 in-depth and powerful messages by T. O. Banso, visit www.cedarministry.org).
T. O. Banso is the President of Cedar Ministry International, Abuja, Nigeria.
Phone No: +2348155744752, +2348033113523
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Email: cedarministryintl@yahoo.com,
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