Luke 14:15-24 :

When one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is he who will feast in the Kingdom of God!”

But he said to him, “A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people. He sent out his servant at supper time to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ They all as one began to make excuses.

“The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.’

“Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go try them out. Please have me excused.’

“Another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I can’t come.’

“That servant came, and told his lord these things. 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 the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’

“The servant said, ‘Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.’

“The lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste of my supper.’”

Many of us who have come to believe in Jesus as our Savior have gone through troubles. This parable tells us that those who are hoping in this world have a big problem shaking free of their connections to worldly comforts in order to accept the salvation that Jesus has to offer.

If you take this story and compare the feast, to salvation, and those who were given an invitation, to the world, this story shows that those in the world who have property, business, or pleasure just can’t bring themselves to accept salvation instead. In fact, Jesus says that people who love this world instead of accepting His invitation will never be saved but will be replaced with lowly people.

Perhaps that is why God gave some of you great trouble in your lives. It could have been that someone was praying for you and as a result, God tore down your world until you could see that salvation was the only real thing that anyone could gain in this life. Not always is this caused by a lack of wealth. Sometimes, wealth can reveal a great void that demonstrates that there is no hope in money when everything has been tried and nothing fills the void inside. The point is that you can either feel hopful in this world, or you can realize that you are actually poor, maimed, blind and lame without Jesus. Jesus offers us a real future. The world simply does not. Everything the world has to offer ends in sadness and loss but when we end our lives as those who are saved by Jesus, we have everything yet to gain when we show up at his dinner table someday.

Today God is compelling as many people as will come to accept His salvation and join His family, even those on the highways and in the hedges of life.