COMING TO THE TABLE OF THE LORD:

All of Luke 14 basically is a teaching that many are called but few are chosen.

Luke 14:12-14 ESV He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. (13) But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, (14) and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Luke 14:16-20 ESV But he said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. (17) And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' (18) But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' (19) And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' (20) And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'

Luke 14:22-24 ESV And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' (23) And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. (24) For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'"

It is not the intent of our Lord for us to be the ones who fill the table with meat and food for the guests to eat. We hear a lot about "what do we bring to the table."  Our Lord Jesus Christ has already set the table. It is filled with His abundance. 

Our job is to communication to the masses the Lord's invitation and fill the table with guests, not food. Our Lord wants to be assured that there are enough guests at the invite to fill the table. The invite of our Lord is not to be received lightly. We have been invited to dine in His life at His table. It is not an easy decision to make a willful choice to renounce everything for the sake of the Gospel of the Kingdom. It cost us our will, our schedule, our routine, and our selfish desires to respond to the invitation of our Lord to come and dine with Him.

Luke 14:33 ESV So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Think about this statement by our Lord. This statement was to Jews and was an intensely radical statement that went against everything that they hold to be true culturally and socially. Family and friends were everything! Yet our Lord states that we are not prepared nor fit to be a Disciple and come to His table to eat until we sacrifice all else.

THE TABLE IS SET AND READY
THE INVITATION HAS BEEN GIVEN
WILL YOU COME AND DINE?