Are You Called Or Chosen?

This is Sam from the Mask and Journey Podcast, and our goal with the podcast has helped you to try to find your way in this difficult world. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk brought to you by TAWCMM, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Well, praise the Lord, Man Talk Radio listening audience. You do have Pastor Hardy here, and across from me I have Pastor John McCoy with Faith Fundamental Baptist Church in Eden, North Carolina. Welcome back, Pastor McCoy.

Thank you for having me. You know, last time we were here there was a lot of craziness going on. We were talking about the riots and all that going on there during that time, but today we have a subject audience that we're going to be talking about, and we want to ask you the question, are you called or are you chosen? Because, see, there's a difference between the two, and Jesus outlined this in Matthew chapter 22, verses 1 through 14. So, Pastor, why don't you start by reading 1 through 4. And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parable and said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not come. Again he sent forth to the king again he sent forth other servants saying tell them which are bidden behold I have prepared my dinner my oxen and my sheep excuse me my oxen and my fatling and are killed and all things are ready coming to the marriage. So when you read that, Pastor, what do you make of that? When we first get into the scripture, we have to understand that he's trying to show us two things by parable in a way that we would understand it. He's trying to show us how, before we go deep into it, the Jews refused to understand what he was trying to give them while he was opening the door for the Gentiles to come in. This is a universal passage because God wanted them to know here that he had opened the door for them to come in but he also was allowing the Jews, which at the time we always go by they were the chosen people, he was also he was also offering them a way to come in first and to be a part of this marriage which he was basically talking about Jesus Christ and he began to tell them the door is open for you come in it's almost like telling someone who says they are saved the door is open for you all you have to do is receive what i have for you i've already set the table i've already killed the feast see he's jesus has already died and the feast is set before us if we accept what he is offering us amen you know that's good because see that and i like what you said earlier because see the a parable is simply a natural illustration and we can go into deep deep deep dive but in simple a parable is a natural illustration that conveys a spiritual meaning so jesus is not going to use anything any examples within this parable that the people were not familiar with as you stated so that that opening of the door is an invitation and so when when he said when he said go out and call those that are bidden that means you have an invitation so the invitation is extended to you to come on come on and become part of the family listener come on and become part of the family if you're not part of the family come on we will welcome you with open arms but this is this is the the thing about it because we got to identify who who the people are in this passage too so the king is who the king is the jesus amen king is god the son is jesus the servants are the ones who that's you and me folks if you born again we are the ones going out telling the people that the marriage supper is ready come on you are invited you have an invitation but what happened pastor i was just looking at verse three and it says he sent out servants now now now we like you say we are the servants and he told us that the harvest was plenty that's right he said but the labors are few that's exactly right so he sent out his servants to bring in those that he be had already bidden to come in and you know we think about that sometime because when we talk about we're saved we already have got the the go ahead to go out and bring in those that have been those that he has already talked about so when we do that when we go out and talk to those that we god has sent us to talk to a lot of times we have to go out there and there's people who's already said that they are saved so we we go out there to talk to them to prepare them to even go further and take another step amen so so when he told them those servants to go out and get those who had already he had already said could come in all of a sudden we find out that those weren't ready to come in so so we find that a lot in our church work that's right when he said get those ready to come in we say okay we got this program going we got this ministry starting we need to get out here in the neighborhood the first thing they say whoa wait a minute yeah i said i was saved but i'm not gonna go out there yet i'm not ready i don't want to be apart i i'm really not wanting to come into the marriage right now i got time to do that yeah see they see they don't want to do the work that's the they don't want to do the work so when when the invitation is extended to you if you are if you are not saved and an invitation is extended to you you heard the gospel from somewhere somewhere because in order to be saved you got to hear the word so you heard the gospel from somewhere and then somewhere along the line there was an invitation given to you to come and be part of the family now if i have an invitation to come if i am invited to come and then i say uh no i got more important things to do then the question becomes where are you putting your priority see so we we don't even put a priority pastor in reading the word of god every day and the word of god is the only thing that can get you through if i if i miss reading studying or even hearing about the word of god on a daily basis my spirit is it just it's feel wounded it's like you because you're not feeding me so see that that invitation is an invite to come on and eat because the marriage is ready the food is sick come on eat well i i like the way you say that and i'm gonna step on this just because i feel that you know we're talking about the ones that he's the servants he sent out and he tells us a lot of times we hear servants that says i'm i'm a servant of god i know what god wants me to do and i look at a lot of young preachers i have to go this way because this stuff has to be taught that's right i i look at a lot of young preachers and they like the title of preacher but they don't want to go deep into what god has for them to do see when he sent his servants out to go get those that were already there and should be ready to come in you have to go out there sometime and remind them what this feast is all about so so so so so that's what he was trying to tell them you know go out there and get these people bring them in i've already invited that's right and see that invite i think it's the key because you're gonna make you have to make a choice then see you you're hearing the word and the word should be doing something to you and if it's not doing anything to you then you're letting your heart become hardened as a result of it and so the word of god is not going to bust through unless you open up the door and and i'm always told that the knob is on the inside so i gotta i gotta open the door from the inside if i'm gonna let him in now if i if i deny the word of god if i turn from the invite then that also tells me about again what where my focus is you know sometimes i i i uh when i counsel couples and and one of the first things they'd be talking about is is money they say oh i don't know where the money going you know my check is going into the savings account checking account but i don't know where it's going well if you open up that checkbook or look at that statement you can follow where the money's going and wherever the money's going pastor that's where your priority is that's where your priority is so so when when jesus give that invite and if you refuse the invite then that's that your mind and your will is telling you that i have more of a priority than to listen to you telling me to come on into the church because you know all the folk all the folks in there you know they they sinning just like i am what do you say to that well going back to what you said as a priority yeah i what i was speaking of like young minister that priorities a lot of time is not on god that's right their priorities on a title so when you spend all your time what playing these games and getting on these games i don't know they got all kinds of games you call your friend and y'all play the game but they never spend time doing any service for the lord they're not out there telling people about jesus there they're not telling those that say that they are saved to come on in also when you go to verse three you see that he said that hey wait a minute they didn't want to come in anyway that's right you know it wasn't what they wanted had no desire exactly and see if you have no desire again that tells me i got a different priority this is not my priority now the where the problem comes in is when we get ourselves in such a deep hole that all of a sudden we realize i have dug myself such a deep hole i can't get out myself now i need some help for somebody to lower a ladder down put a rope down in there somebody to help me get out of this hole because what has happened now is i will not be able to do it on my own we're coming up on the break right now we'll be back in a minute more with man talk ta w cmm would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third friday of every month they have bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town the meeting location is at their gracious host church first christian church in kernersville 11 30 north main street in kernersville they have a hard start at seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock first time visitors eat for free join your hosts will hardy and roy jones jr a black guy and a white guy so we are talking about whether or not you are called for whether or not you are chosen and jesus is breaking this thing down for us right here you know so when we left after the break we want to talk about now pastor the ones who said ah this is not for me so now where do we go next the scripture said but they made light of it and went their way one to his farm another to his merchandise see so so they they went they went now and they're saying yeah see i got i got things i gotta do and i ain't got time for god i ain't got time to come into no marriage i got a business i gotta run i got a farm i gotta keep up the the goats need to be milking the chickens need we need to pull them eggs from the chickens they need to be fed so they had all these other things to do and see that's what happened to us pastor today we have our priorities mixed up and what we're doing is we're denying god god for the sake of materialism now now that's not to say that these things don't need to get done we ain't saying that but what we are saying is when you put them over the thing that's going to carry you eternally and bring you to the next level in the lord you better be focusing on jesus well i i just want to say when i was reading that i what i thought about was when it said they made light of it when people go to church and all they want to hear a preacher preach is how they should be prospering oh look out now they don't want to hear about you got to work for the lord you got to give your life over to the lord you you got to have a relationship with the lord they want to hear about how the lord is going to fund their mission look out but see they don't want to hear wait a minute they make light of everything but what the church need to do this well i can't do it well we need to go see the homeless oh i ain't gonna go there you know it make me sick to go in them house you know they they always got an excuse but they always want god to give them something to make them better and never want to give back exactly so as soon as god opened up the windows of heaven and start pouring them out a blessing then they find some other use for whatever blessing they get to do something else that is not beneficial for the kingdom of god and and they makes it goes back to what you were saying they dig their self a hole uh when they when they don't understand that their their main priority should be god what do you want me to do for you now exactly now when i go out here you send me out here to get these people lord how do i go out there see they never ask that question you know what do i say to them what do i remind them of he said go get them and they just went and just half-heartedly will y'all come to the marriage the bible tells us we must go out and compel people to come inside that's what the scriptures say compel that means you got to let them know that there's something going on that they need to come in and see that's right and see there's a way there's a way to to tell them how to do this because we can't approach everybody the same way but when god places on our heart to go do this and see in that next verse he said that they they took grab hold of these servants and then some of them killed the servants now when i look at that and i say okay lord where in scripture or what is jesus saying in reference to what's going to happen well look what happened to the apostles history tells us that most of them died a violent death for the gospel for what they believe now i look around the world in my lifetime and i've seen missionaries being slaughtered people who were part of one religion and then all of a sudden they come to the lord jesus christ through christianity and then all of a sudden people want to kill them because you abandoned whatever faith that they were believing in so what i'm saying to you listener is are you ready to give yourself over to the lord even if it comes to things like this because pastor it's coming it's coming it's here yeah to where to where to where truly if you go out and you start preaching the gospel they're going to want to round you up and throw you in prison and it's sad that even when you go out with the word i'm not talking about just talking that's right with the word that's right there's even people that say that they are religious or saved and they deny the word of god simply so that they can do what they want to do so so so just like here you know they denied it they went and got their merchandise they went and got this they had to take care of that and never did they say hey never did they say hey you know i'm gonna go here first and take care of the lord's business then i'm gonna take care of my business exactly so so so we we look into this scripture here and it's parable and we see it's a parable of telling us we must be prepared that's right to meet the lord you know when we look at the scriptures in matthew also you go a few chapters over and you see the version and you see five of them got prepared that's right and you see five of them do nothing they do like a lobby they played around you know like a lot of people say before i die i'm gonna give my life to the lord that's fine if you know when you're gonna die but but that's what they did they would not go out and prepare themselves and when the bridegroom came and they heard them knocking they jumped up and tried to prepare themselves then but it was too late too late you know what that also when you were talking about that you know so that also remind me of the parable of the sower because see when he went out to sow he sold some just fell off right out the bag some fell on the stony ground some fell on uh uh where the the the rocks and they didn't have any any root this is the same thing see people didn't have any root they received the word with gladness when they're in there and they say wow look at sister so and so or brother so and so praise the lord i wish i could praise the lord like that well you can because he's giving you life and with that life comes responsibility and the responsibility comes with his agenda first your agenda second just like you were talking about and see with these young preachers though pastor they don't understand that according to the book of james you are going to be you and i those who carry the word those who minister and preach the gospel we're gonna take on a harsher judgment just because of where god had placed us and so i say to the listening audience to that young preacher out there are you ready are you willing to say lord i'm going to go into this thing knowing that number one you call me and number one you chose me because see i can be happy have no root pastor and all of a sudden soon as a little trial and tribulation come now it's oh jesus oh lord oh my god and and we start calling on the lord and the lord was there in the good times for you to give your life over to him no you know you go back to jeremiah and and he said that god that god said to the pastor i'm tired of you saying that i have said and i ain't saying nothing that's right you see a lot of times y'all give it i'm gonna say i'm a pastor too so i have to put myself that's right a lot of times as pastors we have to be careful not to get out there and start saying what we want to say you see when we we're totally inviting people into this marriage supper that he's talking about here we got to make sure that we're inviting first of all the ones that he asked to come in now if they don't want to come in then he got upset like he was saying he got upset that people doing what they want to do people act like they wanted to do and he getting upset you killing people wait a minute you ain't got no business killing them he said but look here here's what we'll do for those who we did not invite first we gonna say i'm following that character the ones i didn't invite first now you can come in come on now and he said you come on in here now well i got a dinner i got a marriage set up they don't want to come you come they don't want to follow my word you come and follow my word you see see that that's what people got to understand god don't have to wait on nobody no we don't and he you know we act like sometimes if we ain't there god's gonna wait on us and do you know he's gonna just wait oh i gotta have this person god don't need none of us that train gonna keep on exactly so he said look here y'all come in go get them that i didn't say comfort you just get them all that's right you don't have to leave none of tell them i got to i got it ready see that's the way god did god said i'm ready for y'all he said i'm big enough to handle the jews and the gentile he said i don't need to sit here and say i can't handle y'all see you know how some churches be like i don't want this many people i don't want that people to come in i don't want white people to come in my church oh i don't want black people to come in god said hey if you're a child of god and you i put you in this position to go out and get people i want you to get them all that's right that's right bring them all in here and see this is a future again jesus is using this parable this natural illustration to convey what's going to be happening in revelation and if you go over to revelation listener revelation chapter 19 beginning with verse number seven and just go on down there you will see basically the marriage supper taking place and jesus christ who the church is married to is going to be taking place in glory so this is a this is the future spiritual illustration and conveying this meaning of what's going to be happening in the future we want to make sure we we give you that because we're what me and the pastor been talking about here is the application piece we're talking about how you can take these verses and apply it to your life yeah because when you start dealing with revelation and you you start dealing with what's going on there you start finding out that a lot of this turns right back into the scripture that's right that's right it's it's a the it's like the word of god said line upon line precept upon precept here a little there a little so the word of god interprets itself and and god don't need us we need him sometimes i think we forget that pastor well i tell you what you know we know you know we're not going to get through all this on this segment here so we got to invite you back to come back and we're going to continue talking about are you called or are you chosen and see if you don't know the difference we're going to be getting down to that as we break this thing down because god is so good to us listener we love you and we just thank god for you coming and once again giving an ear to man talk radio podcast we will see you next week god bless you as we wrap up today's show be assured that taw cmm talking and walking christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes communities churches and work environments check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future thank you for joining us on man talk today visit us at www.tawcmm.com men walking the talk this is the truth network you