SAINT
The Power of Invitation - Ryan Rodrigues
Welcome to the same podcast. Thanks for joining us. Our vision is to bring hope to the people of East London, and I'm praying that you would feel so encouraged by this week's talk. But right now, if you have a Bible with you, would you open it with me to Luke 14? We're going to read a few verses from Luke's account of Jesus' life. The words are going to come up on the screen behind me as well. This is Luke 14, picking up in verse 15. "When one of those at the table with him," that's Jesus, "heard this," he said to Jesus, "blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God," Jesus replied. A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who'd been invited, "Come, for everything is now ready." But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, "I've just bought a field. I must go and see it. Please, excuse me." Another said, "I've just bought five yoke of oxen. I'm on my way to try them out. Please, excuse me." Still, another said, "I just got married so I can't come." The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant. "Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame." "Sir," the servant said, "what you ordered has been done, but there is still room." Then the master told his servant, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them." "To come in so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who are invited will get a taste of my banquet. I want to speak this morning on the power of invitation. Receiving an invitation is possibly one of the most exciting things that can happen to you. I want you to think for a moment of the best invitation you have ever received. It might have been for a birthday party or an engagement or a wedding or a graduation, birth of a child or even just an invitation to meet up with an old friend. Giving and receiving invitations carry with them a sense of anticipation, joy, excitement, celebration. Invitations bring people together. Invitations carry with them, generally speaking, an opportunity to deepen or even to make a connection. And if you think about it, most of the significant things that you'll do with your life, forging a career, creating a relationship, raising a family, they take a lifetime to do. But an invitation takes just one moment, a few seconds, and it has within it an extraordinary, dynamic potential to change the course of someone's life, to even change the course of someone's destiny. Growing up, I didn't believe in God. I thought the idea of God was a bit far-fetched, a bit outdated, a bit kind of pie in the sky and growing up, I didn't really have a faith, but that all changed when I went to study at university and some friends of mine who had so much joy and peace and hope they invited me to church with them. I went to a talk, a bit like week two of Alpha, where we look at the historical evidence for the person of Jesus, and I became so compelled that if this really was true, if Jesus was who he claimed to be, everything would change. And I've never looked back. That one invitation has changed the whole course of my life. You know, we'll all have people in our lives that we long to encounter God's goodness, his love, his joy, his peace. It might be a friend, it might be a family member, it might be a boyfriend or a girlfriend or someone you wish was your boyfriend or your girlfriend. You might be here thinking, you might be watching online thinking, actually, that's me. I want to know Jesus, I want to know his goodness, his peace, not just as an abstract figure or a name that I've heard a little bit about, but as someone I've encountered for myself, what if, as a result of your one invitation, that person might even be you. This Christmas for the first time in their lives, when we sing the songs, when we sing the carols, they'll know the one to whom they're singing about. And what if I told you that that wasn't only possible but was probable as a result of your invitation? And the first thing we see in this story we read earlier is to experience the wonder. Jesus tells this story, he's at a table having a meal, the Pharisees have invited Jesus to test him. They're not really sure about Jesus and Jesus looking out at the table. I just realized that they've assumed the prominent roles at the feast. And Jesus challenges that, he says, when you throw a banquet, don't invite just people you know, he says, invite the least, the last, the last, those and the fringes of society. But then one of the guests at the table says, "Blessed is the one who will feast at the kingdom of God." These were people at this feast who understood the promise that we read in Isaiah. Isaiah 25, "On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats, the finest of wines. This promise of a great heavenly banquet was a real expectation that the people of God had that one day, no matter how dark and bleak times would get. One day in the fullness of eternity, God would gather up his people to celebrate the party to end all parties. And so the man asked Jesus this question and Jesus responds by telling this story about a person who throws a great party, a great banquet. And this was in a culture in the Angelman East where eating together in celebration was the focal point of community. The whole purpose of community, the way you connect with people, the way you honored people, the way you celebrated people, was around a meal. And if you're holding a banquet like this in a culture like this, you know, it wasn't just like today where you could call up Uber Eats and Deliverun or we'll be there in about half an hour. This took so much preparation, months and months of preparation. You'd send out invites. People say, "Yes, we're coming." And then you'd go out, you'd buy the meat, you'd fatten the calf. I'm sure there were vegan alternatives available to you'd get the wine, you'd gather all the food, you'd gather all your team together, you'd lay the table, you'd get the musicians in, you'd have everything ready at your house, elaborate expense. And then when everything was ready, the perfect moment, you'd send messengers out, servants, if you could afford them to the highways and the byways. And the messengers would go and they would tell everyone, "Come, now is the time." The table has been set, there is a seat prepared for you, "Come, now, now is the time." Jesus says, "There are hope of eternity." No matter how bleak times might seem, no matter what dark days we might face, Jesus says, "Our hope for eternity is an invitation to the great heavenly banquet, the party to end all parties." In this city, 9 million people, less than 1%, know that invitation. That's what we're inviting people to. That's what inviting you to, to discover that invitation that Jesus extends to you and to me today. But I have found if you're going to extend the invitation, it really helps to have experienced the party. For me, when I was 18 years old, all I wanted to do was be a musician, and my mum wasn't really too keen on the idea. My dad's from India, my mum is from Sri Lanka, and I kind of wanted to be like, you know, the next Indian Bruno Mars. That was what I was going after. My parents were a little less keen on the idea, they moved to this country amidst the civil war in Sri Lanka, and I don't think my mum was too pleased with the idea of me busking on the streets of South London. I wanted to be a musician, mum was like, "No, would you just go to university?" So we compromised, and I applied to university, and I actually applied to five universities, the way you did. You applied to five choices, and I actually got all five rejections. They all said, "No, so I was forced to take a year out, a gap year, which, full disclosure, I mainly spent on my sofa watching daytime TV loose women this morning. They got me through that year. I'm very grateful for those people." But at the end of the year, during that year, actually, I had friends of mine from school who'd gone off to study at all these amazing places up and down the country, and they'd all invite me to like, "Oh, would you come for a dinner? Come to me, and friends?" And the truth is, I really just didn't want to. I didn't want to go see them having a great time while I was still stuck on my sofa in two things in Southwest London. And so I kept on saying, "No, they'd say, would you come visit me?" I'd say, "No," I'd say, "No." And towards the end of that year, after my friends had done their exams, a friend called Andy, who'd gotten in to study at uni, he invited me. He said, "Ryan, there's a party. You've got to come. Just come for the party." And I was like, "Look, I'm not really feeling. I've kind of got my TV schedule planned, the logs unloaded. I've got things to do. I'm not coming to this party. It's like, "No, Ryan, trust me. You're not going to want to miss this party." I was like, "Andy, I've been to parties. I'm fine. Thank you so much." He sent me a link. I opened the link. There was some Time magazine, and this party had been listed as the seventh best party in the world. And I scrolled up, and the sixth best party in the world was the Oscars after party. And I was like, "Maybe I should go to this party after all." So I got on a train, went to visit my friend Andy at university, like I had to buy a suit and everything. And I've been to parties before. I've been to some dodgy nightclubs before. I never been to a party quite like this one. There were thousands of people all dressed up in their best, kind of queuing up. And it was at this amazing castle. And you walked through into the first area. There's a huge venue with a giant stage, and there was incredible musicians just playing tune after tune. And you walked through the next area, and there were boats just full of drink, and like stands full of food. And it was all free. And you just go up and you just take a drink, and you go and get some food. And then you walk to the next venue. And there was a DJ, just dropping, banger after banger. And you walked to the next venue, and there was a stand-up comedian absolutely nailing it, just landing all his jokes. And you walk out to the outside, and there was a field with a river in it. And there were boats sitting there. You could just go in and ride the boats along. And there was a fun there with dodgems on this side. And it was amazing. The whole time I just remember looking around thinking, "This is amazing. This is epic. This is the best party I've ever been to." He said, "Well, you can come back next year." And I was like, "I want to come back next year." He said, "There's only one catch. I can get you a free ticket." But you've kind of got to know some musicians, because they let you in for free if you can play music. And I said, "Well, I know some friends who are musicians." He said, "Fine. You've got to bring them next year. You've got to apply to the university first getting." So I applied, got in, brought my friends from home. And the next year, we all rocked up, and they were in awe. They couldn't believe what they had seen. They were like, "Rime, we need to tell our other mates. We're all around the country." So the year after that, we all came back for this party, and our band, and grown for like three people, to about 30 people in the final year, because we'd all been so blown away by this party. And on our final year at university, just before graduation, I went up to my friend, and then I said, "And you probably don't remember this. You probably don't know this." But actually, I was in a really sad place that year. Like all these rejections, I kind of thought nothing would change for me. But your invitation changed everything for me. And I remember Andy saying to me, "Right before graduation, Ryan, I knew if I could just get you through the doors to experience the party, you'd want to come back for yourself." Because if you're going to extend the invitation, it really helps to have experienced the party first. And I wonder for some of us today. I wonder if it surprises you, the only person who's ever experienced heaven, the only person to have ever existed to know the end from the beginning, the only person who spent eternity with the father when he comes to earth. And when he wants to tell you and me what it's like, the only words he can use to describe it is as a great party. I wonder if that surprises you today. I wonder whether maybe at one point in your life, you'd experience that wonder of a relationship with Jesus. But maybe over the years, you know, life happens. Maybe the embers of those flames have begun to burn out a little, if we're honest. And maybe if we're honest and no one would really know, we've started to follow Jesus at a distance. Or maybe you're here today and you've never experienced the wonder of a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is saying to you today, he's saying to me today, would you come? Would you experience the wonder? In a few moments, we're going to pray for people. We're going to invite you to the front. If you've never been filled with the Holy Spirit, it's a foretaste of that heavenly banquet, a foretaste of what that party is going to be like. Experience the wonder. Experience. Jesus is saying, come and see. Come and see. So same words that Jesus gives to his first disciples when he calls them by the shoreline. He says, come and see. It's the same invitation that they give to one another. It's the same invitation that the apostle Peter receives. Come and see. Three words at the heart of our discipleship to Jesus. Come and see. Experience the wonder. But then the second thing we see from this story is to extend the invitation. Extend the invitation. You know, not every invitation we make will be successful. And actually, it can be a bit disappointing. Maybe you've invited people to church before. Maybe you've invited someone on an alpha. And maybe they haven't come. But can I encourage you? Don't let that deter you from making an invitation for people to encounter Jesus. There's too much at stake. Every invitation to encounter Jesus contains within it the risk of rejection, but also the opportunity of life in all its fullness. You know, if people rejected Jesus to his face, they're probably going to reject him to mine. But I wonder if it's ever occurred to that person, that you long to see next to you at church, that family member, that friend, that colleague, that neighbor, that flatmate. I wonder if it's ever occurred to you that Jesus is infinitely more passionate about them experiencing life in all its fullness than we are to know his hope and his joy. You know, it's fascinating. In this story, people reject the host invitation. The invites go out. The messengers come back and they say, people have brought excuses all alike. The first person said, "I've just bought a field. I've got to go see it." And on the face of you might think, well, that makes sense. He's busy. He's got plans. But if you think about it, you wouldn't buy a field and then go see it. That'd be like putting a deposit down on a house and then going to have the first viewing. I mean, what are you going to do if there's moulds there? Or the neighbors are really noisy. It's too late. You've already bought the place. So this doesn't really make sense. The second excuse the person gives is, "I'm so sorry. You must excuse me. I've just bought five yoke of oxen. I must try them out." That would be like buying in a car and then going for a test drive afterwards. It doesn't make any sense. The third excuse is even worse. He says, "Sorry, I can't come. I've just got married." I mean, don't be that guy. That's just rude. The excuses don't really make sense. But actually, each one rejects the messenger and the invitation in such a way that actually they're rejecting the host. No, I can be really bad. I can be really bad at inviting people. I don't think when I invite someone to church, the first thing they think of is a party. And if I'm one of them a bit shy about these things a bit coy, a few weeks ago, we shot the video that you saw. We went out to East London, me and some of the team, Zoe and Andrew. We had a bunch of these outfit invites. We took a camera with us and we asked people in East London, "What do they think of the idea of God, or Jesus, or faith?" And we had some fascinating responses, actually, if I'm honest. We were a bit nervous doing it a bit shy. But people seemed really open to having these conversations. There was one guy called Sam. We met and he was out on a lunch break with one of his colleagues. We couldn't quite work out if it was a date or not. And we thought, well, best opportunity to interrupt this moment. We went up to him and his friend next to him, she looked kind of like a bit of talk. So he kind of spoke to us and we asked him, "What do you think about faith?" And he started off immediately saying, "Well, actually, no, I don't have any faith. I don't think there's anything more to life than this." We're like, "Great. It's going well. We're about to kind of turn away." And as we were kind of getting ready to end the conversation, he said, "But actually, if I think about it, it's probably a bit close-minded of me, actually. And maybe there is something. I mean, look at outside. We're in nature. Nature's pretty beautiful. Maybe there's something that created all this." And we were like, "Okay." And we started to have this incredible conversation with this guy on this bench about faith and spirituality and meaning in life. And then just as we were getting to wrap up, you know, I had the outfit invites in a hand getting ready to wrap up, he turned to me and said, "Wait. Where are you guys from?" And he said, "Oh, we worked for the church down the road." He said, "Oh, are you Christians?" And I was like, "Well, if you want to put a label on it, I suppose technically, yeah, we're Christians." And he said, "Well, why do you believe in God?" I wasn't really prepared for this. I told him a little bit, you know, I didn't go up believing in God, came to faith in university, friends, and buying me to church. And, you know, really, everything has changed. And I've still got loads of questions and I have all the answers that actually I've experienced hope and peace and purpose in life. And we kind of were winding things down. And the final question we were going to ask him was, "If someone were to invite you to hear more about who Jesus is, would you be interested?" And he was like, "Yes." And we were like, "That's amazing. Bye." And we turned around and I realized I had all the outfit invites still in my hand. And Zoe and Andrew from our team, they're very kind, very polite. They kind of looked at me, half confused, half disappointed that I hadn't invited this guy to Alpha. And one of them turns and says, "Well, what a real shame. I wish someone would have invited him to Alpha." So we kind of ran back, sorry to interrupt you too again. But just so you know, actually, you could continue this conversation this Wednesday, 2nd of October, Hackney Church House. We'll have a meal together. We'll have a small group, great chance to meet great people. And then there'll be a chance to kind of ask life's big questions exactly like we'd be doing now. Would you be interested? And he kind of plucked it out in my hands. He's like, "This is amazing. Yes, I would love to." We kind of walked away thinking, "Yeah, I wish I would have asked him at the start." But it can be so daunting to kind of drop the J-bomb in conversation. But actually, we have found that people are increasingly curious about faith. They're much more likely to come to church now than they were five years ago. The latest research shows that 74% of Gen Z would come to church if someone invited them. Seven people. I mean, that is brilliant. That's like seven in 10. People right now are curious about faith. They're longing for connection to a higher power, something more meaningful, some purpose. Now, I think of the stories we just heard. People getting invited to church the first time. Six months ago, not church goers. Now, worshiping, knowing who Jesus is. Now, I think of the friends who invited me to church when I was at uni. I actually tried to work this out this week. I think she invited me six times in that first year. Five times, I said no. Five times, I rejected her. Five times, she went away having a no. Five times, she went away rejected. Probably a little bit embarrassed. What, lost a bit of social capital? But I'm so grateful she didn't give up after five, because everything changed for me. I wonder who could we be inviting today? Who could we text even today? What are you doing on Wednesday? Seven o'clock. How many church house? There'll be pizza. Elton's going to play. It's going to be amazing. A chance to meet new people. The host's response to rejection in the story is to open the doors even wider. He says, "Go out to the alleys, bring in the lame, the poor, the blind. Go out to the highways and the byways. Fling open the doors. Compel them. Don't just invite them, bring them. Maybe you're here today and you think, well, if you're honest, in your innermost place, why would Jesus want anything to do with me?" I understand why that person in my left or to my right, I can see why he would want them. But if he really knew what I was like, what I was thinking, the mistakes I'd made, what I had done, Jesus wouldn't want anything to do with me. But Jesus is saying to you today, in the great, heavenly banquet, there is a seat for you. There is a place card with your name on it. The host says it's now. This is urgent right now in a people all over the city, all over this world, experiencing dark times, hopelessness. You'll know the crisis in our mental health, loneliness, depression. They need to know that they're the honored guest, that they're loved, they're seen by their heavenly Father. And invitation can take just the moment. Come and see. And you've got these on your chairs. You can tear and share them. You can write the name of the person you're going to invite. You've got pens in your seats. You can take that, you can keep that, put it on your fridge. You can pray for them. You can give them the invitation. You can scan the QR code. You can book on. It can be easier. The QR codes at the back, come chat to the team. This Wednesday, seven o'clock, Hackney Church, one invitation. What if your best friend, your family member, your colleague, was just one invitation away from encountering Jesus for themselves? What if your one invitation, come and see, can change the whole trajectory of someone's life, the whole trajectory of someone's destiny can start a chain reaction through the generations? So in years to come, people you have never met, still being influenced by that one invitation you made. Now is the time. The banquet is ready. The place has been set for you. Come and see in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to this week's talk. If you'd like to find out more, give or connect with us, visit our website saint.chat. Have a great week and we'll see you soon. (upbeat music)