Consider Well
The scripture that came to me today was several verses. It's Luke 14:16-24
"16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bade many:
17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
18 And they all, with one consent, began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
19 And another said, I have bought five yokes of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
21 So that servant came and shewed 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 hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, yet there is room.
23 And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."
All the ones who he had bidden in the beginning are not going to taste of his supper. They had excuses; they had other things to do. This certain man that made a great supper obviously invited the wealthy first. They were the ones who had the wealth to sustain a wife, the wealth to buy five yoke of oxen, and the wealth to buy a piece of ground. I don't know if you've noticed this, but when you have a lot of money, you're able to buy things.
If you've been in the situation that I have, where we've had no money, you don't typically have as many toys. When we've had a lot of money, there are more things in your life, and it takes more upkeep. When you're able to buy new things, you're busier because you have more stuff and more opportunities to go places. There's more stuff to maintain. When you don't have a lot of money, you might have to patch things up or fix things if they break down. There are going to be expenses here and there, but you may not have money to take your jet skis on vacation. The time, energy, gas money, all that stuff that it takes to do that…in this scenario, I could easily say, if somebody bid me to come to dinner, "I am going to the lake to go jet skiing with my family, please pray me to be excused." I could easily say that. Now, there's nothing wrong with being wealthy and taking your family to a lake for a jet skiing trip. I even have a course called *The Lord's Way to Wealth. I know that wealth is something that God wants for us. The problem is that a lot of times, we get wrapped up in things and our to-do list. Gift buying or planning our parties, whatever we do when we have the wealth, sometimes we lose sight of, or we overlook and even say "no thank you" to some of the invitations that could bring us spiritual upliftment…that could bring us sustenance…being filled beyond the event that we were invited to.
That's what I wanted to talk about today. I wanted to share a couple of different experiences that happened to our family when we had no money. Clint, I had decided that we would make all of our gifts; I had a fabric stash. My kids still have some of the things I made that year for them and that Clint made for them. They are sentimental handmade items. It was really fun. As I was taking the time to make these gifts for our family, and even friends and neighbors, it really helped me to be able to think about them the whole time that I was making these gifts.
I'm not advocating that every Christmas should be a homemade Christmas. But I do love going out and choosing gifts for people. When I go shopping, I give that gift-buying time to thinking about that person. I think it's as blessed to share store-bought gifts as it is to give homemade gifts. But for us that year, that was the only choice, to make homemade gifts. It was a wonderful experience. One night, we went to the mall. It was the only time we went to the mall during Christmas. I remember it was nighttime, it was dark, we got out of our car and started walking to the mall. The purpose of going to the mall was so the kids could sit on Santa's lap. That was the only reason that we were going to the mall.
We were going to see Santa and then leave. That was the whole purpose of the trip. The kids understood that. As we started toward the mall, this woman ran up to us. She was well dressed. She looked clean. She was like any one of your neighbors. It could have been anybody who lived in a lovely house on your street. She had a bag filled with homemade ornaments. She said she was earning money for Christmas because her husband had lost his job. She wanted us to purchase one of her ornaments; they were $3 or $5, a really small amount.
The problem was that neither Clint nor I had $3 in our wallets at the time. We had nothing. We told her that. In this situation, it was a positive experience. We felt her. We were in the same situation as her. We had this common bonding moment. I remember other times when I've seen people on the street with cardboard signs, and I don't give up, but I don't remember those moments. This was a moment when I didn't give that I remembered it. This was a sustaining moment. It was a moment of being filled…for both of us. We parted, and she went to another car of people that were going to the mall; we went in, saw Santa, and went home. At that moment, we couldn't say yes to an invitation. But it still created a significant experience that has lasted throughout all these years. That was probably at least 25 years ago.
That same year we received an invitation from a friend who was doing an open house. She and her husband invited us to come, and we accepted the invitation. We accepted the invitation because we knew that there would be a spread of food—kind of embarrassing to admit that literally was the reason we accepted the invitation. We took the time to drive over; we took our family in and filled ourselves. This was an exciting experience to accept an invitation as if we were beggars.
As we walked into the house, we realized we were completely underdressed. This woman lived in a large home right on the golf course. It was in a nice neighborhood. We had dropped by in our regular clothes, and everybody else was dressed to the nines in their holiday best. I didn't realize we were supposed to be dressed up when I received the invitation; I didn't catch that for some reason. She might have said it, but whether she said it or not, it was the perfect experience for me that I attended that event as a beggar, not as someone worthy of being at this fancy place. The lesson I learned in comparing these two events is that the time when I couldn't accept the invitation to purchase an ornament for $3 from a sister in need was a positive experience. Both of us were uplifted; our family and the woman were uplifted. That was an experience where we are sustained and filled. It was like being filled with the spirit, as Christ fills us with Living Water. In a God-filled invitation, even if we cannot accept it, the underlying feeling is, "if I had, I would give." Even if we're poor, if we had, we would give, we would accept the invitation. There's still a spirit of humility there; there's still a spirit of charity there. We did exchange a feeling of charity at that moment. But if we accept invitations with this underlying feeling of not having enough or even getting an invitation, possibly even being above the one who is giving the invitation, we leave not feeling filled; we go with a feeling of lack. It feels like, "well, that was a disappointment, or I got filled for the moment, but now I'm hungry again."
I want to give you an invitation today, to try this exercise that I feel would be appropriate for us. Maybe there's already something that you can apply this to. And for sure, we will have opportunities to receive invitations and use this exercise throughout the Christmas, the holiday, and the Thanksgiving season. Maybe it is an invitation from someone trying to earn money for Christmas. Perhaps it's an invitation to come to dinner, and you want to show up as someone worthy rather than a beggar. Even if you know you're financially different from your host, you can be together.
The exercise is that no matter what the invitation is, you only accept those where you feel you're going to go and be able to feel as one, and that you're going to leave feeling sustained, feeling fed, feeling fulfilled, and that it lasts beyond the event.
Another part of this exercise is that you, the spirit that you bring of this oneness that you feel with these people that you are going to give, even if it's not monetary, that you're able to give something that will uplift, sustain and fill the people that you're interacting with. So there's an equal exchange that's happening, being edified together.
So when you receive an invitation, don't say yes or no immediately. Instead, say, "let me get back to you." If it happens to be somebody in a mall parking lot, you can say, "give me a minute; let me get back to you." They're not going anywhere. Take a moment, and check in. Will this fill sustain you beyond this interaction, beyond this event? Will my presence sustain these people beyond the event or beyond the interaction here? If the answer is yes, this is the Lord inviting you to his table. If it's no, then it's a waste of time. You need to go somewhere else that will sustain you more. Then it is easy to say yes or no. Rather than turning down the invitation because you are too busy with your five yokes of oxen or because you already spent your wad…making the choice based on how much time, money, or energy, we have, we are making choices based on whether it is an invitation from the Lord to dine at His table to be filled and sustained beyond what the event can offer.
That's my invitation to you today. Be more conscious about your choices and accept the invitations that will sustain and fill you beyond the moment itself.
*start on the Lord's Way to Wealth with the 21-day Challenge https://mentoring.wylenebenson.com/offers/bGBXRF7j
