Sunday Service – Today Jesus 99

20/8/06
<Luke 14:15-24>

REASONS FOR NOT ENTERING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

• A lot of us are sick or weak this week, but God did not say that we cannot be
weak. His instruction for us is we must pray when we are weak
• If the God you believe in is a living God, then have expectation on Him after
you’d prayed and be joyful
• We are already living in the time table of answered prayers today and at this
moment now
• God’s answers are literally bombarded at us. He wants us to receive answers
and joy today
• If you cannot see God’s answers and live in joy today, you will never see God’s
answers tomorrow too
• You have already received the answer when you praywith faith (believing)
• God is alive whether you believe it or not. God loves you no matter if you
believe it or not. God is working no matter if you believe it or not
• You will pray when you know that God will answer you.
• It is not God who refuses to hear our prayers. We face problems because it is
God’s method of repaying us and answering us.
• God allows us to face problems. He wants us to pray when we face problems.
He wants to give us the answers when we pray.
• Therefore, we must sustain a prayerful heart
• All the prophets had already received the answers that God prepared for them.
Since, they had come to past, it is our turn to receive the answers God has
prepared for us

Read <Luke 14:15-24>

v15 “Blessed is he who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God”
v17 “everything is now ready”. God has prepared everything. The things
that God has prepared are in abundance (more than we need). You will fall
easily if you think God has just enough for you
v21 “the streets and alleys of the town” There are a lot of people in the
streets and alleys of the town who are poor, crippled, blind and lame. They are
eager to enter the kingdom of God
v22 “there is still room”
v23 God is more eager than us to fill up the seats that He’d prepared.
Therefore, we must seek and love those whom God has prepared and loves

The parable had represented 3 types of people:

1) “the invited ones”: the Israelites, the Jews and those “in the streets and
alleys of the town” are the gentiles (e.g. the Romans, the Americans and us)

2) A lot of people have heard the Gospel and Jesus Christ before, but they refuse
to believe / are unable to accept.

3) They have received salvation and the grace of God. They will see God’s grace
and abundant love everyday. There are also some who are saved but did not
experience God’s grace. They are still living with lots of wounds, etc.
1. Everything is now ready
• Just like how the parents of a new born will prepared everything before the
child is born, God had also prepared everything for us before we receive
our salvation (i.e. born again)
• God had prepared our family, our parents, our background, the teachers
and bosses we’d met, and everything else for us
• And God has prepared the kingdom of Heaven for us.
• As you wake up each day, thank God for His provisions
• There are 3 types of kingdom of God:
1) The New Heaven and Earth <Revelations 21, 22> that will come next
time
• All those who are saved will be brought to the new heaven and
earth.
• The new heaven and earth is God’s conclusion, when He creates us
and gives us life
• We become worried, fearful, and do not have peace because we do
not have this conclusion
• The new heaven and earth is the most beautiful and amazing place
• The most blissful person is the one who has received salvation and
has left this world because he has entered the new heaven and
earth.
• The people who had seen this truth will not fear death and will not
be worried
• God told us that there will not be anymore tears or sadness in the
kingdom of God
• We will ever be joyful and there will be laughter in the kingdom of
God because we will see God face to face and be immersed in His
great love. This joy is immeasurable and beyond our imagination

2) The Kingdom which is with me, today. <John 3>

• The kingdom of God is in our hearts as we are born of water and the
Holy Spirit
• <Ephesians 2:6> we are seated with Jesus Christ in heaven today
• <Matthew 18:10>
• <Matthew 18:20> the heaven of God is with us when we
gathered in 2 or 3
• <Romans 14:17> the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating
and drinking. It is of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
We can only affect the world when we have this righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
• <John 14:16-21> The Holy Spirit is with us and He will enable us
remember God’s word
• No matter how successful you are, if you do not know or remember
the Word of God, you are a failure in reality.
• On the other hand, you are successful when you remember God’s
Word in all your days of troubles, etc
• God’s grace is abundant and is upon us today
• God’s grace are:
(1) We are able to call up to God as “Abba Father” with a righteous
and frank heart
A lot of people call God as “Father” but they’d not known Him or
believe in Him
(2) Our sins will never be judged
• Although we still sin, our hearts must not be judged or
accused at all
• We should never be fearful again because God will never
judged us or accused us because of our sins
• Blessed is the person whose sins are forgiven. He will
acquired the eternal life
(3) Receive the eternal covenant
• God will bless us, our family, our children, etc
• How can we live without God’s covenant?
(4) Able to see that everything is God’s grace
• It is not a matter of how much problems we have. It’s a
matter of how much God’s grace can we see in the midst of
problems.
• Why do we become disheartened or complains when we
face problems? God’s grace is sufficient for us. It means
God’s grace is bigger than our problems
(5) We will receive strength from Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can do
anything
• We can be victorious over everything as long as we have
heard the voice of Holy Spirit once
• When we have strength from the Holy Spirit, we are able to
cope in times of riches or poverty, in times of health or
sickness.
• We tend to fail because we always use the same or
minimum strength to overcome our problem (i.e. we have
limited the strength/work of the Holy Spirit).
• Grace means we can have answers for any problems.
(6) Work of the angels must rise up
• There are strongholds in our lives or family. Some problems
are passed down from generations to generations. All these
happened because the work of the angels had not started in
your family and your life
• All these strongholds, problems, evil roots will be eliminated
only when the angels cast them away.
(7) God will add on to us.
• God will add everything that we need to us when we
experience the work of the angels and if we ask for His
works first. Do not ask for the success of this world and He
will add everything on to us
• When we worship God, we must do it with a restored heart that
we’re the Master of the Universe. We can have the pride that we
are the Master of the Universe, be it in the presence of Satan or the
angels. Only then, they will fear us.
• Some people are living in grace and they ask God with faith. Thus,
they can see answers in all their prayers. On the other hands, some
 people ask God whilst complaining to God that everything they
possess are bad
• We are already living in the time table of answered prayers

3) The kingdom that is ever expanding

• If walking in the wilderness for one day has become unbearable for
us, we will never see, or enter the Canaan Land.
• However, if we have the expectation or vision of the glory of
Canaan Land while still travelling in the wilderness, we will surely
enter the Canaan Land.
• This is the principle of God.
• However, how many people can really understand the principle of
God? How many people are able to see the Canaan Land whilst
travelling in the wilderness that is hard to cross?
• How many people are willing to enter the kingdom of God? Today’s
verse tells us that a lot of people had rejected the invitation to
Heaven.
• The Kingdom of God will expand if we have received this principle.
You will have more joy. Your family will be more blissful. Your career
will become better.
• We must discover the Kingdom of God in our lives today. When we’d
discovered it, it means that God is using you. If not, you are still
struggling in your problems.

• What we really need is strength. We do not need a diligent heart.

• When we look at a person, we must observe:
(1) How is the relationship of this person with God (i.e. Master)?
(2) Does he/she love to pray? It’s not about whether he or she
prays. Only those who continuously receive answered prayers
will love to pray
(3) Is he/she able to receive the wisdom and answers of Immanuel
in all things?

2. Reject (推辞)
• A lot of people can come out with lots of excuses/reasons to reject. This
can be seen from <Luke 14:18-20>
• The excuses that they come out with have to do with the carnal, worldly
things and temporary things
• The concern of everyone who belongs to this world is only on the carnal
and temporary things
• They are not interested in the heavenly things at all. This is true not just
for non-believers. It is true also for believers
• When these people read the newspaper, they are only interested in finding
things that can benefit them
• People may pursue religions. However, even if people go to the temples,
they do not go with a heart to seek gods. They go to the temple only to ask
for peace, health, money, better results for their children, etc (i.e. things
that can bring benefits to them)
 • <John 3:18> tells us that “whoever does not believe stands
condemned already”. This is because, people who do not believe are all
busy and suffering because of all these carnal and temporary things
• Of course, this does not mean the carnal, worldly and temporary things in
this world are all not important. In fact, they are very important for us.
• We will need all these things to acquire our crowns whilst we are still living
on this Earth.
• We will not be able to get any more crowns after we return to Heaven
• The things we have, the careers we have are all important because they
will enable us to have more crowns, and not because these things are able
to make us richer or earn praises from man.
• Our mouth is important because it enables us to share the Gospel with
others. Our eyes are important because they allow us to read God’s Word,
etc.
• When we share the Gospel to non-believers, do not keep telling them
that they can only enter heaven when they die if they’d received Jesus
Christ. People will tell you to look for them only when they are about to die.
• In other words, do not tell them about things that are of no interest to
them now.
• When we evangelise, we must tell them about God’s grace and work in my
life now and daily. This is our testimony. Tell them how God has helped us
to sustain our joy and peace even when we are faced with lots of problems.
• Do not just ask people to repent from their sins so that they can have
eternal life.
• We must explain clearly how sins are affecting us now, how sins are giving
us worries, nightmares, fears, etc.
• We must talk about how God is alive and how He is working in our lives,
our family. How our family and our lives are changed after we’d known
Him. All these are your testimonies and they are a reality.
• When we are sharing with believers, do not bring across message that
requires them to act. E.g. you must read the Bible, you must pray, you
must love God, etc
• It does not mean all these actions are not important. Just that, a person
cannot love God before he first experiencing God’s love on him. And how
would a person pray when he doesn’t have faith in the Bible?
• A person will not do all these because he had not seen God in his life.
• Therefore, evangelism towards a believer is to help him/her to see God’s
works in his/her life
• He/she will naturally do all these “actions” after he/she has seen and
experienced God personally
• Before we asked a person to pray, we must first tell them the reason why
he must pray
• A person will pray without any strength unless he sees how Satan is
attacking & affecting him always. Thus, without prayers, he will not be able
to overcome Satan

3. Being sent → person with a mission (must get God’s ferventness)

• Where is the ferventness of God?
 • A lot of believers have misunderstood. They think that they can only
evangelise after they’d become complete or filled with great faith
• Some people thought that they can evangelise only after they are freed
from all problems. In fact, we should share the Gospel when we are faced
with problems and weaknesses
• Evangelism is to testify how God is sustaining our faith & lives despite our
weaknesses
• If you evangelise when you have no problems at all, your testimony will
probably pressurise others because most people are filled with problems in
their lives
• An example for you to understand evangelism: You are injured by your
enemies in a battle field but made it back to the base camp. You will want
to warn your battle-mates and teach them how to avoid the enemies’
arrows. On the other hand, while a lot of your battle-mates were injured,
you continuously telling them how good you are and how you managed to
stay injury free, etc, it is not evangelism at all
• Paul told us to share the Gospel in season and out of season. It means we
should always be testifying God’s doing whether we are weak or strong
• The meaning of ‘sharing the Gospel’ is telling others the reasons why we
need God
• The responsibility is not on us if those with hardened hearts refuse to listen
to us or accept the Gospel when we share with them.
• However, not all the people around us have hardened hearts. There are
still a lot of poor, crippled, blind and lame people among us <Luke
14:21>. It means there are many people around us who have the desire to
search for a true God. We have the responsibility to pray and bless this
type of people.
• If you had come across such a person who is willing to seek God, you
should continue to minister to him, teach him, strengthen him, and feed
him. Your assurance of the Gospel will grow much stronger when you’d
done that for a few years
• Therefore, you should start praying for your own little sheep today.

PRAYER AND SHARING TOPICS

1. Just like people who had prepared a feast, went out to invite people,
our heavenly Father had also prepared all the blessings and joy for us
in the Kingdom of God when He called out to His chosen ones.
Moreover, the Kingdom of God will be here in the future, is now with
us and will continue to expand.
Format the following using God’s Word (Bible): What are the things
that He had prepared for His chosen ones (in the eternal Kingdom, in
the Kingdom that is with us now, and in the times to come)?

2. Those invited guests had all rejected the invitation. Therefore, the
master asked his servants to go out and invite those poor, crippled,
blind and lame, to fill up the seats.
Ponder: What sort of people can enter Heavenly Kingdom? Am I
already belonging to the Heavenly Kingdom? How can the chosen
ones who are still living on earth continuously see the Kingdom of
Heaven and enjoy all the blessings of the Heavenly Kingdom?
3. The chosen saints will also become servants sent out to find others.
Am I able to explain clearly how I’m enjoying the Kingdom of Heaven?
Am I able to find those poor in spirit, mourning and hunger & thirst
for righteous ones whom God had prepared in my daily fields? How
can I lead them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?