The King's Invitation

I'm going to be reading from the book of Revelation uh the third chapter and the 20th verse. And here is what here is what it says. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. And I want to share with you from this thought today, the king's invitation. The king's invitation. I'm not going to ask you to stand again, but would you just close your eyes and bow your head and in your own way, would you pray for the spirit of God to give you revelation of his word?

Can we open up our heart for that right now? It matters not how comfortable you are with praying, it's just very simple. Father, we come to you and we're thankful for the opportunity to gather together. You know us better than we know ourselves. We know what we think we need and you know what we really need. And I'm asking that you would allow the power of your spirit to do a work and give us revelation. In Jesus' name, again, the church say amen. Amen. Invitations uh can be very special in our life depending on why they are given. Now, we probably all received invitations where we knew they just wanted a crowd.

And you know, we were a body that could help in their crowd count. And I understand that and you know, that that has its place. But when you get a legitimate invitation that really means something. The invitation that I received to stand here on this Sunday morning is a very special invitation. I never take an invitation to stand in a pulpit lightly. Uh it it shows that people trust you, and I would never do anything intentionally to stand in this pulpit and and violate that man's trust of this pulpit. When I think in my life about about invitations, what I have realized is is that the invitations of people in my life has been what has shaped my life.

It's been people that have um invited me into a larger level of their life. And what I gained from it was absolutely amazing. It started um you know, I didn't realize, obviously, when I was born the kind of a home that I was being born into. But as time has gone on, I've realized, man you know, yes yes, my parents loved me. Yes, they fed me and clothed me. Yeah. Thank God for that. But but my parents invited me to a um a better way of living. They they invited me to a level of living that was not low-level living or thinking. Uh they they gave an invitation by how they lived for me and my three brothers to experience greater things.

We we didn't realize it at that time. As a matter of fact, from time to time, we would go spend the night with someone else and we'd come back and try to tell our parents that there was a better way for them to parent. Uh, we've seen the light that we had we gained great revelation at that home. You guys are doing it too hard. We can make this easier. And and they would always remind us of what our last name was and and they can do whatever, but this is what we're doing here. And and so that invitation, it's taken me years to realize the power of that invitation.

There was a man named uh, James Lumpkin Sr. who was my pastor in my formative years. Um, that man uh, invited me to a a different level of of seeing the ministry and seeing the kingdom of God. The the opportunities he gave me, the connection. I mean, I look back on it now and I'm like, ah, wow, mercy. Uh, he was he was so very special to me. Um, just no way. I don't have words. I was able to say some words at his funeral and and I just talked about that that scripture where it says, you know, you just don't have too many fathers.

You know, it's it's it was that. I was about 18 or 19 years old. He was the he was what was called the district superintendent in our organization. In our organization, each state is a district and it and we elect the ministers elect a superintendent. He was the superintendent of Arkansas. And there was a church fight that was that was going on. A bunch of people got crazy and and so he needed to go over and calm the craziness down. And he asked me to drive him. And I think I was about 19 and and I was driving him for hours, you know. We get there, I'll never forget, we pull up to church and we get out, he's putting on his jacket and I'm putting on mine.

He said, "Well, Terrance." Why he called me that, I don't know, but he said he said, "Well, Terrance." He said, "Whenever we leave here, there will be people here that will be wishing that I was dead." So we're walking around the front of the car and I looked at him and I said, "Well, that's what they wished about Jesus." And we took a few more steps and then I said, "And eventually they killed him." I I think it was at that point that he wished he would have left that smart alec Terrance at at home. Uh he he invited me to a level there's no way to thank him to thank him.

I was in the 11th grade going into the 11th grade finishing the 10th grade. And a very courageous man named Bill Patrick who was um he was the mayor of a little town in Arkansas. He was a pastor of another denomination and he gained the revelation um not even that there is one God because I mean even the devils believe that, but he gained a revelation that God is one. And um he was courageous enough to walk away from everything. Family, tradition, religious tradition. And he came he was an educator and so he came and and he and brother Lumpkin and my father started a Christian school.

And so I left um public school going into my 11th grade year and and went there. When I tell you that the invitation that Bill Patrick gave to me wow. I'll never forget it I met him I was on the I was on a riding lawnmower at brother uh Lumpkin's house and this man starts walking over toward me. He came over he was in a meeting with brother Lumpkin. He starts walking toward me and I so I stopped. I knew who he was because I had seen a picture of him or something and he walked over and from our first conversation he looked at me on that lawnmower and 11th grader and immediately started speaking vision into my life.

He told me one day few years later he said I'm I'm going to take you on a trip. He he he me and his two kids and a doctor and his two kids and two boys and we drove from uh Fort Smith, Arkansas down south to Mexico City and and it was the first time I'd ever been out of the country. I had no idea what God had in my future as far as a world view. Uh we stayed in rest areas. We we slept I mean it it it was dangerous. It It a mess really what we did. And and the things that we saw, I came back from that trip totally changed because now I had a world vision.

A world vision because of an invitation. I could I could go on and on. I mean, those were just what I call the big three in my life because of in my formative years. Uh there were others that that really impacted my life in a major way. I could take every one of them. I could I could I could go on down. I could talk about uh well, so so many preachers, so many situations. Uh uh Pastor Anthony Mangan giving me the invitation to be the youth pastor at POA. Uh uh years going on, different different ones that gave me invitations. And I could look at every one of those people that have ab- absolutely had a role in shaping my life.

And I trust that the sub message that I'm talking about right now, that somebody will understand the power that you have in your individual life to an extend an invitation to somebody to help broaden their entire world, that you could you could be a part of shaping someone's life. That's that would be a sub message to this. I look at every one of them. I look at my father, my father was an amazing man, my mother an amazing woman, but I have to say they're flawed. I look at Brother Lumpkin, and I have no respect for any minister in the world more than Brother Lumpkin Sr.

to this day, but he was flawed. And I look at brother Patrick, the man that just absolutely gave me a world vision, changed my life in a very practical way, and but I know he was flawed. I can even look back and tell you some mistakes that my dad made and my mother made. I could tell you some mistakes that brother Lum can senior made. I could tell you. I could tell you some mistakes that that brother Patrick made. But the invitation that they gave me was so life-changing, but then whenever you think about the King's invitation. The King's. I'm not talking about a king.

I'm talking about the King. I heard it said one of the one of the praise leaders or someone reading a leading earlier, um they they quoted this in Revelation 19:16. They didn't quote the first part. The first part says, "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written." They quoted this part, "King of kings and Lord of lords." There are there are a lot of kings, but but not not to uh not to equal this King. Cuz this King is the King of kings. And he is the Lord of lords. And an invitation from this King is the King invitation. You won't get a greater invitation ever.

I don't know what kind of an invitation you want from whoever, but there will never be an invitation that we could get that would be greater or more life-changing than the invitation that comes from the King. It's revolutionary. You accept this and it's sent to all and your life will never be the same. When you look at the ministry of the king, you see that that he gave invitations through his ministry. I'm only going to deal with three because of time, but wow, are they something else. I see chronologically in the ministry of the king that the first invitation was come and drink. Come and drink.

In John 7:37-39, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Get this. "But this spake he of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." The king gives an invitation to receive his spirit, and this is where it all starts. And when you receive it, you will know it because you will speak in a heavenly language.

We refer to it as tongues. Now, what I just said right there is brings great controversy. Great controversy in the church world today. Because many many people believe that that um when you believe that that happens. But he said, if you believe, you should receive, not if you believe, you have received. This is not something that that we're trying to offend people with. It's just do just do not believe that conception is birth. Believing in Jesus Christ, putting your faith in Jesus Christ is powerful. And I promise you, when you believe in Jesus, and you put your faith in Jesus Christ, change will happen at that point.

You're you're looking at an apostolic preacher. There's no way that I'm going to minimize belief and repentance, and somebody putting their faith in Jesus Christ, or even someone saying, I accepted Jesus Christ. Whenever I hear somebody say that, I say, "Praise be the name of God." Because there's powerful change that happens right there. I promise you, whenever Melanie told me that she was expecting, when when we realized that she had conceived and we were going to have our first child, I promise you, everything changed at that moment for me. The way I thought, the the way I was thinking, the way I was thinking about the future, the way I was thinking about, "Okay, I've been a husband, but oh my God, now I'm going to be a father.

How in the world does that work?" There was many things changed, but there was not a birth. And so, when we look at this, we see that that he says, "Come and come and and drink." And he's speaking of the spirit. And it was that that spirit that would be the power source. And I'm speaking to somebody today that that I'm saying, "Please, don't allow family tradition or religious tradition to hold you back from coming and drinking deeply of the spirit of God that he has for us." And shall I say I'm not just preaching a Pentecostal thing. I'm preaching a Bible directive. And so we we realize when we're looking at this invitation to come and drink that that that thank goodness we have that opportunity because the Holy the Holy Ghost is also it's also spoken of as a comforter and a guide.

And this is powerful. We we need to understand this. Hear me. Because where the spirit guides, comfort will be needed. This is where a lot of people walk away. This this is where a lot of people is like, "No, no, no, no, I don't want that part of it." Um uh God is more he is interested not just in us being born again. He would like for us to grow up. It'll be a great day when we realize that it's the new birth, not the new retirement. It it will be a wonderful day when we embrace the fact that there's justification. There is sanctification and glorification.

It when we understand we've been justified, we've been born again, now we're going to walk with him day by day in a process for the rest of our life to be sanctified holy spirit, soul, and body. This is so important for for us to understand and and we need it we desperately need it. We we must get in the apostolic church where we where we quit treating kindergarten like a graduate degree. These basic things and it's like come on. Yes. Yes, we've been born again, but it's but it's time to grow. It's time to mature. It's It's time to be useful in the kingdom. And and there's not a stopping point until we are glorified.

And it's a good thing that he said come and drink. Because that's second invitation shows us how important the first one is. Because that second one is come and die. That's what he said in Matthew 16:24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And accepting self-denial includes cross-bearing. And you can believe in those days when he said what he said, nobody was wondering what he meant. They understood crosses. Because nobody came back from taking up their cross. When they saw in the street somebody carrying their cross, taking up their cross, this is what they knew.

Life was never going to be the same for that family. Because that person was never coming back because the cross was an agent of execution. You say, "Well, uh this is really encouraging today. I'm I'm glad that we got up and got dressed to uh come. We were really feeling the spirit of God. Now, look what you've done to it." This is where a lot of people stop. Denying our self is a continual series of choosing. The spirit is not asking any of us right now to go take up a piece of wood and let people take us and crucify us physically, but we had better believe that self-denial is a part of this and a lack of self-denial and a lack of embracing and accepting the invitation to come and die is what is keeping so many people on such a low level of unfulfilled living.

And so it's choosing God's commands ahead of personal comfort or popularity. It's choosing forgiveness instead of revenge. That's self-denial. Now, now if we're going to talk about taking up our cross, it's it's choosing forgiveness and I promise you I have had situations in my life that I have needed to come and drink of the spirit in order to forgive some people that I even got to where I hated them. And it would have been fine with me if I would have heard they were dead. I have needed the drinking of the spirit to be able invitation one is the only thing that can empower me to be able to accept invitation two.

And choosing a willingness to suffer for the cause of Christ. And choosing to war with sinful desires and selfish ambitions. And choosing to refuse our minds to run free inside of our heads. I am telling you that whenever we are going about our day and and the things from the past or the things from the present or what what is fighting us, what is trying to bring us down, what is trying to trap us in those past problems, we engage in self-denial whenever we say, "Oh, no, in the name of Jesus, I'm not going back to that same old merry-go-round." I will not allow the dog leash.

It could even be tied to a grave. I will not allow that and I'm and I I know that the only way that I'm going to have the power to come and die is going to be if I have been coming to drink. When we're talking about this in our mind, 1 Peter 1:13 says, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." We have to understand something. We have more than one reproductive area of our body. There's a reason why the scripture says gird up the loins of your mind.

And our minds are by far the most reproductive area of us. And many people are taking a beating in their mind. When we look at this and and we accept this this challenge, we we have to understand that we live in the screen age and the screens are winning. And so what we have to do is is we understand that the unguarded mind is revealed in our scrolling and in our channel surfing. And and when we engage in that, we're just throwing our minds wide open for whatever the algorithms have learned about us. You say, "You're you're really getting out there, preacher." Well, I'm really talking about coming and dying and I'm talking about taking our minds back and I'm talking about allowing our minds to be to be healed through the power of his word and his spirit.

And I'm talking about us refusing to live life in the gutter and just letting the gutter lead us every Sunday to have, as I say so many times, a little snack pack happy meal with Jesus on Sunday when we've been eating at the table of the devil all week long. And then we wonder why we're frustrated. I'm speaking to somebody today and saying you answer the invitation to come and drink and you answer the invitation to come and die and everything changes. Everything changes. And then we see the power of Philippians 4 and 8. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of a good report and if there's any virtue, if there's any praise, then then we think on these things and we must accept the invitation to come and die.

And what this means is is we deny ourselves, we put his will above ours, we take up our cross, we accept the cost, and we follow him in obedience, faith, and love, and we accept the invitation. I only have one more left to talk about, but let's let's make sure that we've got this right. Come and drink of the spirit. Drink to get the power and the direction, to have the guide, to have the comfort, to accept that second invitation to come and die. To where it's not about me. I'm not the big deal. I don't have to learn how to walk into the room and command the room.

Um I I don't have We do not have to be narcissists. It does not have to be about us. Everything does not have to be working great around us for us to be a decent person. It's not about us. Even Jesus Christ, the son of man, said, "I didn't even come to be ministered to. I came to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. Please, GET YOURSELF OFF THE THRONE." GET YOURSELF OFF THE THRONE. Let's Let's accept the invitation to come and die. And then thankfully, this last invitation come and rest. Come and rest. Matthew 11:28 and 30, "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." And when we look at this, it's it's absolutely revolutionary. It's it's revolutionary. He says, "Come unto me. Learn. Learn of me. I am meek and lowly. Learn. Learn to be meek. Learn to be gentle. Learn to be lowly. Learn to to not demand your way and have to have your way and and and you know, gray hair in the Bible, it talks about uh you know, that's where wisdom should be found, but it's no guarantee.

And and there are people that that are that are old enough to be mature, but they've not matured. And and it's this learning of him. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. When when the when the Bible's speaking about labor, it's talking about just just the job has worn you down. Just life has worn you down. When it's speaking about heavy laden, it's it's speaking about um uh us people putting spiritual things on you that's so hard they're not even doing. I mean, Jesus was was going at at at people in their natural life, and he was also taking a shot at the Pharisees at that point.

But he was saying, "Come unto me, learn my yoke." When two animals are yoked together, uh one is the strongest. And we have to understand that Jesus is our pulling partner. And whenever we're yoked to him and we're seeking to learn of him because he is meek, he is lowly. We have to learn that. That does not come natural. We have to enroll in the class of being yoked to King Jesus. So we will know that we will learn to be meek. We will learn to be to be lowly. But here's the powerful thing about being yoked to him. He'll decide the direction. He'll decide our direction.

Here's another thing that is so great about being yoked to Jesus. He will decide the weight. And then he even says that cast your care on on me. He will not allow us to be broken if we are connected to him. He won't put more on us than we can bear, but we can I have seen people put things on themselves. There is no way that they can bear. But not not with him because if we're yoked to him, he's going to decide the direction. He's going to decide the weight and he's also going to decide the speed. There's a verse that comes to my mind.

They that what? Wait upon the Lord shall what? Renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings of eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So we see that there's flying with him. We see there's running with him. We see there's walking with him. But if we don't wait on him, if we're not yoked to him, if we're pulling behind him, if we're trying to go in front of him, that it's then it's not going to work because there are days that we should be flying that we're going to run and we're going to choose to run. There's days that we should be running, we're going to you know, be walking and the key is what?

Yoked to him. Learn of him, wait on him. What is the thing the theme of all of this? Him. Him. And so, he says, come and drink, come and die, and come and rest. Let's not be guilty of of the invitation rejecters that we find in Luke 14. There's a great supper that is that is made is made and and he sends his servant out and they all with one excuse, one consent, they started to make excuses. One said, I've bought ground. Uh I've bought five oxen and I've married a wife. The first two said, I pray have me excused. I was reading that and I was thinking about it.

Uh I was looking at rejection by excuses. And um and even the fact that the first two were even nice. Okay, I've I've I've done this, I've done this. I pray, I pray, you know, kindly, please have me excused. And my mind went to um dead by friendly fire or dead by enemy fire is still dead. It and a nice excuse I I'm sorry. Or the one that got married, he didn't even give an excuse, didn't even pray. I just I guess it's just is what it is. I got married, I'm not coming. Whatever. But they were invitation rejecters is what they were. Today it sounds like I'm buried in work.

My life is out of control. I'm maxed out. I'll have more time later when I'm married, kids are older, retirement, whatever. Um sports, recreation, leisure. These things are are just are just more important. And we see that the leading excuses for being an invitation rejecter is possessions, career, and success, and relationships. That's what we see. And I say today that the king's invitation deserves priority. It deserves priority. It It wouldn't take much time for you to research the crazy, amazing things that people have done to get an invitation to something. Man, they have slept outside in uh venues for they've paid tons of money. They have networked with people, sent hundreds of emails to get this invitation, this particular invitation.

And and every one of us have the king's invitation. Because he says behold I stand at the door and knock. It's what the king I'm I'm not talking about a great person in your life. I Think Think about a very special person you love spending time with. If if spend TIME WITH ANYBODY IN the world, who would it be? If you have that person in your mind, they they do not rate at all compared to the one that right now in the spirit, if you would listen, you would hear. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any Well, preacher, you don't know me.

You don't know what I did last night. You you don't know. YOU YOU KNOW ANY WELL, BUT I HAVE FAILED. I HAVE TRIED. I failed. It seems like every TIME I TRY ANY IF ANY MAN, if any human will will what? Will hear my voice and will what? If they will open the door and THEN WHAT HE WHAT IS the king saying that he would do? If anybody will do that, then I will come in and sup. THAT'S WHERE THE WORD SUPPER comes from. It's the intimate meal. It's the meal where you talk about things. It's It's the meal where you just kind of settle down and you fellowship.

THE KING OF glory is saying, if any man will just open the door. If any man will just open the door, and I'm saying, "Please, people. Please. Please. Tune your EAR TO THE KNOCK. DON'T IGNORE THE KNOCK. IT'S NOT A CASUAL KNOCK. IT'S NOT ONE TO BE IGNORED. It is the King. It It is the king of kings. It is the lord of lords and he's saying, "LET ME IN. OPEN THE DOOR. I'M going to come in and we're going to talk." WHAT ARE WE GOING TO TALK ABOUT? WHAT'S YOUR ISSUE? WHAT DO YOU NEED? I'M GIVING YOU THE INVITATION. Come and drink. Come on.

Come and drink. COME AND DRINK OF ME. COME AND DIE. QUIT GO AHEAD. TRUST ME. Trust me to guide YOU. TRUST ME TO COMFORT YOU IN THE DYING PROCESS AND THROUGH ALL OF IT, COME and rest. Come and rest. And as we stand together right now, I'm going to give an invitation to the front. Does anybody need to come and drink? Does anybody need to come and die? Does anybody need to come and rest? Right now, the invitation is open. Will anybody answer that that knock? Will anybody open that door? Uh the spirit of God is moving in a in a major way right now.

Just respond. This could be the first time that you have ever walked into this sanctuary. Do not be intimidated. Do not be intimidated. The the king's invitation. The king's invitation. Come Come as close as you can and whatever whatever invitation you need to accept. Whatever invitation you need to accept, accept it right now. Do you need a drink? >> >> Do you need a drink of his spirit? >> >> Are you one that that the spirit flows flows pretty easily through you? Do you need to die? >> >> Do you need that spirit to direct you to die? >> >> Do you need rest?

King Jesus, in your name, right now, we're opening the door. We're opening the door. >>