Keeping The Kingdom

Man! I sure enjoyed the holidays. I loved getting together with family and tossing the football with my grandson, in a game we made up called Footbase. It was great having Nichole up here to stay with us in what has become a Christmas tradition. I enjoyed seeing my kids and grand-kids on Skype. I enjoyed going to the museum with my Sis Mo and Richad, eating at Brandy Ho’s in San Francisco, twice! Once with them and once with Nichole and Michelle on another trip to the city. So many things to “celebrate” the holidays, but, I really think the best part was the excuse to eat what I want, spend what I want, sleep late and not shave.

But now it’s back to reality. I was made shockingly aware of that when I got on the scale this morning and I had gained a “few” pounds. See, I could handle one or two, but when it creeped up over five I was suddenly made aware that I had lost touch with the discipline that had changed my life.

Over the past year I had lost forty, count ‘em forty pounds. I am proud of that fact, I am healthier and I went from XXL clothes to L, no more X’s. People commented everywhere I went how skinny I was getting and that really stroked my ego. But just like anyone else who has lost weight, I have this nagging fear hanging over my head, I don’t want to go back to the way it was and lose everything I had gained.

This is a great season for excuses.

Now it is the New Year, and the party’s over.

There isn’t another holiday to use for an excuse to do want you want until Memorial day in May

The beginning of the New Year is when resolutions are made.

What would the statistic be on kept resolutions?

This month marks 21 years since the day I got saved and determined to follow Christ. It is ten and one half years I have been Pastoring the church in Sacramento, CA. In all those years I have seen lot’s of imperfection and failure in my life, but I have pursued the faith.

I have seen people come and go, people better and more successful than me that no longer are serving God. I have seen people gloriously succeed and miserably fail to

“Keep the Kingdom”.

The only sure way not to fail is to not try.

The best way to not break a resolution is not to make any.

Luke 14

Jesus happened to be at a dinner with one of the Pharisees on the Sabbath, and maybe you know if you mix Pharisees, the Sabbath and Jesus you are going to get some fun kind of trouble.

It says they watched him closely.

If you are a follower of Christ people are watching you closely too. They are either waiting for you to screw up so they will feel better about themselves, or farther down in their soul they want you to succeed so they can have some shred of hope that it is true.

Knowing they were watching Him closely, He put them in a spot. One of those in attendance had an edema, a swelling of the limbs. He asked them if it was lawful to heal someone on the Sabbath, which they did not believe it was, so He healed him just to get the party started and threw out a question that would uncover their hypocrisy. I imagine that it got pretty quiet at that table.

Then He told them a parable that illustrated just how self centered and power mad these guys were. His conclusion was that they should lower themselves to serve and invite the powerless and people that can’t possibly invite them back or do any favors for them.

We get a front row seat to this glorious show, but if we were there we would probably be squirming in our seats just like these guys were.

^{Luke 14:15} Meanwhile, back at the ranch, one of these self important people needs to break the ice so he lifts his goblet and offers a toast hoping to look like an eloquent *** or “donkey.”

"How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God's kingdom!"

Of course, Jesus takes His opportunity to dig down in their soul with a story of another great supper just like the one He was at.

All the invitations had been sent out to all the proper people that “should” be there. All the R.S.V.P.s had already been returned. They had all promised to be there.

So, when the time came, He sent His “servants” out to tell all the “invited ones”.

It’s time to eat! Come, everything’s ready!

BUT……….

they all began to make excuses.

It isn’t the right time I have things to do. I wasn’t expecting you to come now.

One of those invited and called said “I have bought a piece of land and I need to go see it”.

His land was more important than not insulting the host to whom he had already sent his promise to attend.

Please excuse me!

"Another said, 'I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.'

Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’

This is the only one with a half an excuse. The Old Testament gives him a year with his wife to do no business or go to war ^{Deuteronomy 20:7, 24:5}. This was a wedding party.

Remember they were invited to a dinner party, they weren’t invited to work, church or help their friends move. It sounded like a good idea at the time of the invitation, but when something else got their attention, dinner got upstaged by property, cows and wives.

I just can’t imagine anything upstaging the dinner in the kingdom. But it does, doesn’t it?

Today we have all received our invitation, Many of us have responded, and when we gave lives to Christ we said we would be at the party. We are now waiting for that announcement that says “It's time to eat”.

If we will live for the purpose and path of the kingdom we will “keep the kingdom”.