Feed On the Vastness of Christ

My kids are now threatening to hold me hostage to a story they're telling me they're going to tell you when they get the opportunity. I figure the only way I can handle this is by telling it myself. I'll tell you this story in the form of a question. Did you know that if in the course of a pursuit, a police officer loses sight of you, that you can't get a ticket? Okay, Luke 14. Actually, this is a disguise, and that's what this is. If you're new today, you're wondering, what is this comfortable look? I'll tell you about it this morning. We began last week a series of messages, and I've changed the name so many times because each time I sit down to think and pray through this, the Lord opens something new to me. I called it Running on Empty because it was describing my condition prior to my study break time, and what the Lord did in my life as a result of being away with Him. And I began to share last week how many people indicated to me that that's what they were experiencing. And I talked about the prayer requests, and the enormous numbers of people who are saying, you know, I just don't feel full of God, I don't feel satisfied in the sense of being complete in Christ, and I'm struggling with problems, and I talked about that and related it to my own life in many ways. And I affirmed last week, you may want to get the tape about all this, how Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. That's my life's verse, and I can't really say I was experiencing it the way I believe God intended. And as I was saying this more and more over the weeks, I couldn't help but be impressed by the number of times God talked in the Bible about eating, feeding. Do you know how many... and we're going to love this as a church, because we love to eat and feed around here. But the Bible, all the way back in the beginning, uses the analogy of food and eating to teach us about what it means to commune with God. Did you know all the way back in Genesis 2, verse 16, the Lord first talks about... He says this, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All the way back in the very beginning with Adam and Eve, He was talking about eating as a picture of communing with God. And then we just pick it up and it gets hotter and hotter from there. Isaiah 55, do you have that one close enough that we can flash it up? I was going to use this as my text, but let's look at it. First verses, read it with me out loud and together, please. Isaiah 55, go ahead, one and two. Read with me. Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money, and without cost. Wouldn't that be nice, huh? Why spend money in what is not bread, and your labor in what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest affair. Give ear and come to me, hear me, that your soul may live. You see, all throughout the scripture, I could have taken the minor prophets, the major prophets as here. In the gospels, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Somehow God united the idea of eating and communing together with Him. Why did He do that? Why did He paint a picture about eating and fellowshipping? Well, think about it just in the natural. How many of you, when you sit down to a meal, like to just sit there and eat it by yourself? I mean, isn't that one of the loneliest things that you could do? Isn't it much better to just have some people around and eat? So it's a picture of that. And another reason, I think, is the Lord just wanted us to know that knowing God and being intimate with Him wasn't all that mysterious. It was sort of spiritual life that made some sense to people. They understood the analogies. And so I've been sorting through this, thinking, well, Lord, if eating is what this is about, why am I so naturally inclined to eat physically and find it so difficult sometimes to be motivated to eat spiritually? How many of you have a hard time reminding yourself that it's time to eat? I mean, do you set your alarm and say, oh, you know, it's 12 o'clock, it's time for lunch? Huh? How many of you find that, boy, it's 7 a.m., ready to eat, noon, 6 p.m.? What's our problem when it comes to eating physically? Oh, boy, oh, Lord, it's 9.30 a.m., I need a snack, it's 2.30, I need a snack, it's a quarter, we eat too much. But spiritually, do you find that nothing automatically drives you to want and to feed on God? Do you find that more often than not, there's just not any sense of desire there? Well, I want you to see what the Lord says about feasting on Him. It's very important. Are we ready now? Luke 14. Turn your Bible, keep it open. We're going to go right down the verses and use your outline. You haven't gotten lost yet. Here's the first point, alright? Jesus, look at this. He teaches this lesson while sitting at a table eating with someone. Verse 15, Luke 14, 15. When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast of the kingdom of God. He was talking about way down in glory someday. Jesus replied, look at this. A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. The first thing I want to talk about is the feast itself. The feast, alright? First point in your outline, the feast. Jesus talks about a certain man. Who's He talking about there? Who's the analogy He's talking about? The Heavenly Father. He said there was a certain man, meaning His Heavenly Father, who was conducting a great banquet. The word great in the New Testament Greek is a word you may have heard of. It's the word mega. Where have you heard the word mega? We use it all the time, don't we? Mega dose of vitamins and mega calories and mega paper tiles and so on. Alright? It means huge. When God throws a banquet, make no mistake, it's huge. It's big. It's not just some little chicken bones and a couple things. It's big. Alright? So Jesus is painting this picture. To me, in my mind, you know what I see? I see a banquet like our Christmas banquet. In the late 80s, when we had 4,000 people sitting at one gigantic hall for a big banquet together. And notice this. The Bible says that He invited many guests. People tell me, You know, this God that you love doesn't seem to be that open to people. And I want you to know, God wants many people to sit down at His table. He wants many guests. He wants many to come. He wants to fellowship with many people. And look at this, the next verse. At the time of the banquet, verse 17, He told His servants to tell those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. Dear ones, we don't have to stretch this interpretation very far to understand what Jesus is saying. He is saying that now, today, God has spread out a great banqueting table, a great feast for all that He would invite to come. And He's laid out the table with the richest of foods. He's put out the milk and the meat of the Word. He's put out the fruit of the Spirit and the bread of life. And best of all, God Himself is seated at that table. And do you know what? You have a reserved seat at the table of God. Now, I've never had this experience, but I know some of you have. Of going into a nice restaurant and having the maitre d' come up to me and say, Mr. Passavant, we have your table ready. I wish I could, I don't know anyone. But I've been with some of you when that's happened. How do you feel when someone says, we have your table ready? Yeah, yeah, big shot, right? Take me up, seat me down at my table. I want you to get the picture in your mind. There's a table that God has set with the choicest of spiritual foods. And you have a reserved seat. And the maitre d' is the Holy Spirit who wants you to know that day by day, your table is ready to come, dine, and eat. It's the same picture that Solomon used back in the Song of Songs, chapter 2, verse 4. He brought me to his banqueting table and his banner over me is love. It's the same picture that we read throughout the Scriptures all the way from Genesis to Revelation in the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 20. Jesus is speaking and he says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Whoever opens the door, I will come in and eat or sup with him and he with me. God wants to have a meal with us. He set the table. David Wilkerson, many of you know, is an evangelist and an author and a pastor, says this, The one thing our Lord seeks above all else from his servants and his shepherds is communion at his table. This table is a place for spiritual intimacy and it is spread daily. Keeping the feast means coming to him continually for food, strength, wisdom, and fellowship. More than great achievements, more than witnessing here and there and everywhere, more than just kind of doing good deeds, God wants to fellowship with you and me on a daily basis. In fact, this table has laid out the best of things that you can't buy with money, as Isaiah 55 says. It has wisdom laid out there. I'm going to need a little wisdom today. It has peace laid right there on the table. I was talking with someone this week whose life is a total upside down wreck. They want peace so badly, they've gone from counselor to doctor to every one imaginable, looking for peace in their life. And I had the privilege of telling them, There's a place you can go to find peace. The table's set. Your name's on the chair. There's so many scriptures that outline what God has put on that table. Listen to Psalm 63. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods. How many of you know God doesn't put out health food on the table? Just want you to know that. Get that health food away from me, alright? I've tried the, you know, the carob and mallet seeds and that stuff that you all think is so wonderful. God puts rich food on the table. I mean, we're talking cheesecake, mounds of strawberries here. Amen? The richest of foods. It says later on in Psalm 36, They feast on the abundance in your household. Folks, God isn't talking about health food and fast food and junk food like last week. He's talking about a feast. Every single day He sets the table for us. But, let's look and see what happens here. Something happens. The servant goes out and makes the announcement. And then we find, Roman numeral 2 in your outline, the feeble excuses. And I want to get here just a little bit of a response from all the moms. How many moms are here today? How many of you moms have had the experience of starting at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, buying groceries, preparing the food, working throughout the day, stirring that thing on the stove, burning your finger, pulling out this, cutting it, doing that. And 6 o'clock comes and you've got this incredible dinner prepared. And then you lay it out on the table and you walk out to the family room or the living room or the den or basement or backyard and you say, Hey, dinner's ready. Come on and get it. Moms listen to nothing. And nobody came. If you want to see my wife get angry, that's the only thing. How many of you moms have said what my wife has said on more than one occasion? If I spent 3 hours preparing this food, at least you can spend 3 minutes eating it. How many moms have said that? Is there more of a sinking feeling than that? I mean it just gets you kind of a little ticked. Look at verse 18, the first excuse. I have just bought a field and I must go and see it. Please excuse me. This is the business man's excuse. This is the business man saying, Hey, I don't have time to go to your table God because I've got business to attend to. I'm sure it's valid business, but hey there's a table set there. And then we go on in verse 19, another said Hey, I've just bought 5 yoke of oxen and I'm on my way to try them out. Hey, I've just purchased something cool and got to get on it. I don't know what that's parallel to except it's stuff. It's the transportation mode of the year 33 AD. So stuff is another excuse. Look at number 3, the third excuse. Still another, verse 20 said, Hey, I just got married. Ha ha ha. So I can't come. Come on Jesus, don't you have any family values? I'm going to spend a couple years with my honey. I can't come to your table. I'm busy. I've got relationships to deal with. And as corny or as noble as some of these responses may be, they still fall under the same category. God calls them an excuse. An excuse. You know what Webster calls an excuse? He says it's to release from an obligation or duty to seek or obtain exemption or release. It's an excuse. It's nothing more. It's nothing less. Interesting to me, dear ones as I think about it, it's the same excuses that I hear today about not going to God's table. I hear the business man's excuse. Hey, man, I've got to get to work early. They're looking for me in the office at 7.30. I don't have time to come to God's table. Or I have my stuff needs attention excuse. You know what? I've got to take care of my I've got to wax my boat. I've got to take care of my tractor. I've got to get my car in good running order. Golf clubs need shined up. I don't want to just... Yesterday was a gorgeous day. How many of you had time to take care of some of your stuff but somehow or another you just missed the Lord's table yesterday? Is that far-fetched? And then I hear so many people give God the, hey, I've got some important relationship excuse. You don't understand God. I've got a wife. She wants to be with me all the time when I'm home because I'm not home that much. I've got kids that need me all the time. I've got fishing buddies who are waiting for me. I've got golfing buddies who are there at 6.30. I've got shopping to do. I've got all this stuff with people to take care of God. I don't have time to go to your table. And we hear these excuses and they just keep growing. And you see day by day by day the Lord Jesus Himself comes to this table that He's set and He's put a chair down there for Himself and a chair down there for you and He sits at the table day after day after day and we don't come. And He eats alone. Dear ones, if you've been wondering why you struggle so with loneliness, with depression, with drugs, with anger and bitterness and unforgiveness, family problems, can I submit to you? It's because most of us are trying to work these things out in our own strength. Not nourished by the table that God has set. You see, I've discovered something when I sit down at the table. Personal problems don't just get answered by a prayer. Personal problems like many of us have are swallowed up in the vastness of who God is. God comes in the fullness of His person and He reveals Himself as El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One to more than consume our problems. He disposes with them by the glory of His presence. That's why Lee, as we sang that chorus today. But the Holy One. That was from Isaiah 55. Did you catch that? God tells us many different times in His Word that He's much greater than we could ever imagine or think. Paul writes about it in the book of Ephesians in chapter 1. Let me just read it for you. He says, That power of God is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. You see, the resurrection is the promise that no problem is close to standing in the way of God's power. And seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that can be named not only in the present age but also in the one to come. Is there a name that's above cancer today? It's the name of Jesus. Is there a name that's above depression today? It's the name of Jesus. Is there a name above bankruptcy today? It's the name of Jesus. Is there a name that can stand above everything that would oppress us and stand in our way? Absolutely, it's the name of Jesus. But it only comes to those who sit at the banqueting table. The Lord wants to demonstrate, He wants to show forth His power to us. This morning I read in Isaiah 64, Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you for when you did awesome things that we did not expect you came down and you made your name known to your enemies and caused the nations to quake. Dear ones, God swallows up our problems in the fullness of who He is. If you have big problems, it's only because you have a little God. If you have a big God, you just have little problems. Amen? They're real but they're small. Jeremiah 32, 17 Our Lord God thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power. Nothing say it with me, nothing, say it again nothing is too difficult for thee. Absolutely nothing, the chorus says. Perhaps if we spent more time feeding on God's greatness our problems wouldn't seem so overwhelming to us. Now I know some one's gotta be out here thinking, yeah but you know, my problems are still real and this pie in the sky stuff doesn't really change anything. I wonder if that's true or if I wonder if we just haven't eaten the pie in the sky. Listen to this little story about a pastor named John Piper who has written a number of good books and this one story he tells this, he says, during our January prayer week at church, I decided to preach on the holiness of God from Isaiah 6. I resolved in the first Sunday of that year to unfold the vision of God's holiness found in the first verses of that chapter and that's where I saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple and the angels cried holy. So I preached on the holiness of God and did my best to display the majesty and glory of such a great and holy God. I gave not one word of application to the lives of the people. Now application is essential in the normal course of preaching but I felt led that day to make a test. Would the passionate portrayal of the greatness of God in and of itself meet the needs of the people? I didn't realize that not long before this Sunday one of the young families of our church discovered that their child was being sexually abused by a close relative. It was incredibly traumatic. They were there that Sunday morning and sat under that message. I wonder how many advisors to us pastors today would have said well pastor can't you see your people are hurting? Can't you come down out of the heavens and get practical? Don't you realize what kind of people sit in front of you on Sunday? Some weeks later I learned this story. The husband took me aside one Sunday after a service. Johnny said these have been the hardest months of our lives. Some of you would say that today. These have been the hardest months of my life. Call in the poor and the lame and the crippled and the blind and those who don't have much. Tell them to come in. You know what I found as a pastor now for almost 20 years? People say to me does God love poor people more than rich people? No. He loves them all the same. But you know what I found? Rich people are usually too busy to give God the time of day. They've got too much going on. And so God who calls to them the same as he does to the poor finds that the poor recognize they need God. And I want to ask you a question today. Has your success gotten you to the point where you think you don't need God? You've been too busy for Him? Do you feel like working harder and trying more that you'll get ahead more and therefore maybe make it? It's a delusion and a lie. God says just bring in the people because I don't want to eat alone. I want to have fellowship with you. I found this as much as it's hard for us to hear. God Almighty the maker of heaven and earth will not compete with our schedule. He won't. He said it this way. I will have no other gods before me including our jobs, including our you call it our stuff, our relationships. God wants us more than anything else. And then the father tells the servant and this is the scary part. He said these people won't even get to sit down and have a taste of my banquet. Now you know the application in the broad sense. He was talking about the Jews and the Gentiles wasn't he? He was talking about the Jews that he called unto himself and they had forsaken him. And he's saying well if the Jews won't come then bring the Gentiles. But can I make one last application to us here? I think he's talking to this church today. I think he's talking to those of you who've been good hearted sincere Christians and tried to walk after God but you've allowed yourself to sort of believe that it's okay to drift. And I want you to know it's not. I'm not serving you as your pastor just to sort of wink and say well go ahead and try to make it on your own strength because we won't. What we're saying to God is I believe in me more than I believe in you. And let me end by telling you one last story of how God made this alive to me. It was fairly early on in my study break time. It was a beautiful day much like this one but a lot hotter. I remember the hot 90, mid 90 days in July. And I'd spent the day just kind of reading and working through things and as I finished the day I found myself just rehearsing some of those pains and things I told you about last week. Some of the disappointments and the problems and the things that had hurt. So that evening I got in my car and took a little bit of a ride. It was such a nice evening. I put the windows down and opened up the top and it was wonderful. It was great. And I drove off to this field, parked the car and walked out and just was kind of musing on all these things. And when I got out in the center of this field big open field up on the mountain I looked up and was totally overwhelmed by what I saw. I saw the handiwork of God. I saw stars like I haven't seen stars for 20 years. It was the combination of being high up in the mountain, clear air, away from city lights. Now I studied astronomy some in school. I know that you can see about 6,000 stars in a clear night. I know you can see a fourth magnitude, maybe a fifth magnitude in a really clear night. And folks, I could see stars that I hadn't remembered seeing for so long. I could see the Milky Way like a swath of salt on black velvet. And I realized there's a billion no a hundred billion stars in our galaxy. And I could just see a little section of them. And I realized that the one star that's closest to us four light years away, 186,000 miles a second for four years. How far is that? Someone from the IRS can tell us. That's a long way. And I'm looking at all this and I'm thinking, I don't remember it being like this. You know, scientists tell us that the best guesstimate about our universe is that it's still growing. It's still expanding. They can't find the end of it. They tell us that some have, and I've read this in a number of journals, there are more stars in these heavens than there are sand on the beaches of the earth. You think about that sometimes. Sometimes when you're on the beach. And then I remembered a scripture that I pondered long ago, Isaiah 40, if we could flash that very quickly, please. I remember what God said about these stars, Isaiah 40. Here it is. Read it with me. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. And I had this thought in my mind, God, you've put a name on every single one of those billions of stars. And then I heard the Lord speak something to me that I'll never ever forget. It has to be in the, if you're going to rate things, in the top three experiences of my walk with God. I laid down on that field. I put my hands behind my head. I was looking at these stars, just thinking about all the stuff that I was dealing with. And I don't know when God speaks to you, you just know it's God. And he said this to me, and I'm going to use two different words, because what he said to me, I have to hold in my heart. And I can't share it with you, but I want you to know what he said. This is the interpretation. He said, Son, look up and see all of this and recognize that you can't even begin to get a handle on what's going on here. And he said, Son, trust me. Trust me. I've got it under control. You're not helping things by carrying all this around on your own. You're not making one bit of difference by carrying these burdens. You're not going to help me figure things out. Trust me. And as I lay there, and I thought, you mean, God, because your powers at work, not one of those stars has moved unless you said so. Not one of those planets has gotten out of orbit unless you gave it permission. Why do I think that God can't take control of my little puny, tiny world and deal with it? Trust me. And I have a question today. How can we learn to really trust God with those big issues in our life? I said, Lord, I'm going to go back and if I share this with my people, they're going to say, well, how do I do that? God said, come to my banqueting table and I'll teach you how to trust me. Jesus said, this is the work that I've called you to, to believe in me. And I've discovered over the last month since that experience in my life that every day that I come before God and lay out my life before Him and just get before God He feeds me. He builds in me the confidence that I need to trust Him. And the things that I thought could never happen are happening. Problems that I couldn't figure out He's taking care of. And I'm learning how to trust Him. I want to put that before you today. Are you trusting Christ? Are you feeding at His table? Your name's there. Your chair. Set right there. Come before Him. Let's stand and pray together. I've asked our music team if we might just sing together a hymn that's meant so much to me. It kind of says in musical form what I believe the Lord wants us to know today. It's called How Great Thou Art. Let's sing it together.