Day 180 "Blessings are not disguised; we just often overlook them."

Day 180 Matthew 22:1-10 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The 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 come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.’” But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. If we keep the message of this passage in context (as we should always first view every passage), we see that, once again, Jesus is warning and at the same time predicting the Jewish peoples response to Christ's proclamation as the coming Messiah. The chosen people, the ones on the guest list, didn't want to come to a banquet that would cause their thinking to be challenged or changed; therefore, they rebelled, and as a result, those who were considered unworthy to receive were now chosen to do so and, hence, replaced the once-honored guests. Yet today, if I may, I would like to relay to you a story of how a very similar situation was played out in our own community a few years ago. We had invited a very dear and talented young lady and her husband to come and lead two nights of worship and ministry as a way of blessing the body, as well as lifting up the name of our Lord. While our intention and hearts were to minister to the body, the body was not who God had intended this to be for. Realizing this, we went out to the streets, the local mission, and the poorest areas of our city and invited everyone we could to a free concert. When I showed up at the mission with our van, I immediately realized that we needed more help. The people were lined up around the block waiting to go out for the night; they were genuinely excited and honored to be invited to the event. You see, for them this was something special, something they would not feel comfortable attending; however, now they were the honored guests, and they, as well as we, were truly blessed as a result. During the two nights of ministry and worship, one woman who needed hip surgery was completely healed, many were delivered from drug and alcohol dependency, there were countless people who made both first time and re-commitments to the Lord, broken families were united, and lives were truly changed! One man we ran into 6 months later who had been homeless, destitute, and separated from his family, told us how he had received Christ that night and now has a home, a job, is a full-time student at Chico State and has his entire family living with him. Praise God! You see, far too often, we forget that those in the church can become numb to the things of God. If you are constantly given the opportunity to be blessed, you are more likely to take the blessing for granted. However, if an opportunity for blessing is a rare occurrence, you will often take advantage of any opportunity to be blessed, no matter how small or large. Be cautious and protect yourself from becoming numb to the opportunities around you to bless God, others, or even yourself. You may be surprised at how selfish you’ve been or what you have missed out on as a result. Daily Prayer: Father, may we never miss the blessing you have in store for us because of our lack of faith, inability to sacrifice, or for any other reason. Father, may we always be ready to feast upon You, Your Word, and Your blessings. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. "Blessings are not disguised; we just often overlook them." Pastor Gene Burroughs