“Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.’” —Matthew 22.1-3

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’” —Matthew 22.4

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” —Matthew 22.5-7

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So, go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So, the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” —Matthew 22.8-10

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.” —Matthew 22.11-12

The

is that he doesn’t have on the

Reveal Answer

.

Grace: the gift of God’s unconditional, undeserved, unmerited favor and blessing.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” —Apostle Paul, Ephesians 2.8-9

Costly Grace & Cheap Grace

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘ye were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

You can

as you are, but you can’t

Reveal Answer

as you are.

Jesus’s invitation to

includes an imperative to

Reveal Answer

.

“Nobody believes God wants everybody to stay the same. God loves serial killers and child molesters; ruthless and arrogant businessmen; mothers who damage their kids’ emotions for life…but He always wants them to change. God hates what they’re doing and how it affects others, including themselves. So ultimately, a good God cannot allow a person who refuses to change to remain forever in the party He’s throwing for His Son. God wants us to be grown-ups, not babies; and part of being grown up is that we learn that actions have consequences, that moral choices matter, and that real human life isn’t a game of checkers, where even if we do badly, the pieces get put back in the box at the end of every day and we can start again tomorrow. The great, deep mystery of God’s forgiveness isn’t the same as saying that whatever we do isn’t really important because it will all work out in the end.” —N.T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone

“But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” —Paul, Romans 5.20b-21

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” —Apostle Paul, Romans 6.1-2

Grace isn’t just a

; grace is also a

Reveal Answer

.

1.

of your sin.

“Repentance means to change—to change your mind, change the way you’re living—and determine that, with God’s help, you will live for Christ.” —Billy Graham

2. Clothe yourself with

. (Put on the wedding garment.)

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another, as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues PUT ON love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” —Paul, Colossians 3.12-14

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness” —Isaiah 61.10

“Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.”

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”’” —Matthew 22.13-14

God’s grace is unconditional, undeserved, unmerited, and unending…until it’s

.