- Below you will find notes from a sermon preached by our Planting Pastor, Michael Caffee, at First Baptist Church in Byhalia, MS on January 15th of 2023.
- Intro
- Well thank you worship team for helping us to have higher thoughts of Jesus through song
- And thank you First Baptist Church of Byhalia for allowing me the opportunity to preach from the Word of God this morning
- My name is Michael Caffee and I currently am on staff part time at Great Commission Church in Olive Branch, MS as a Missions and Pastoral Intern
- Great Commission Church is a 23 year old church that was planted in the middle of the Olive Branch population boom by First Baptist Church.
- I’ve been serving at GCC as a volunteer since 2009 and been on staff since 2015
- I first served as our church’s youth pastor and then in 2019 our elders approached me and told me I was no longer young and cool, which put another way meant I was old and boring (it’s ok to laugh at this)
- But because I was now old and boring I could not serve as the youth pastor any longer
- Joking aside – the elders of GCC approached me and stated, we believe God is preparing you to be a shepard, a pastor of a local church. Is this something you desire?
- My response, with fear and trembling, was absolutey
- At that point I had tasted the joys of Ministry
- Of seeing God save people and change their lives!
- I desired to serve the Lord in Ministry more, not less.
- So my humble response was yes.
- To which the answer was – seek the Lord and tell us where you think you need to go. And we will help you discern this and support your efforts in serving.
- Wel at first my wife and I were selling everything and moving around the world to bring the Gospel to an unreached people group.
- We actually began pursuing the island of Malta in the Mediterranean as a strong potential location
- But God began showing us the answer was no
- Between language barriers and strong and deep roots here in the US we believe God closed the door for us to go international.
- So then the question was stateside – should we go somewhere here
- Should we go to Utah to reach out to the mormons and the naturalists with the true Gospel?
- Eventually God made it clear – no moving far from the mid-south would not be the best
- Going without a team would be hard and maybe unwise
- So how could we go close – and pray that God gives us a team
- The first choice – Lewisburg
- It’s exploding with growth
- Best school in the state
- Money oozing out of every wall in every neighborhood full of 4,000 square foot homes
- It would be easy, right
- It’s the obvious choice, right
- But – going out there, interacting with the people, to be honest – it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like the spot.
- Now I know a preacher who has a block of lead on his desk – and every time someone comes to him and says ‘I feel led to this that and the other thing’ he points to the block of lead and tells them to touch it.
- Afterwards he says, well now you have felt lead – can we talk about what God has to say about this in His word?
- So with care we began to seek what God wanted.
- And as I prayed, and as I reviewed the area, as I looked around
- Byhalia came up
- Byhalia – a town with industrial growth all around it
- Byhalia – a town with church street – but not much beyond that
- Byhalia – the town closest to DeSoto County that had booming rural neighborhoods full of people trying to escape collierville or desoto county
- Byhalia – a town with many, many hurting people
- Byhalia – a town with a tougher crime sheet than Olive Branch
- Byhalia – a town with a notoriously under performing set of schools
- Byhalia – a town many don’t want to stop in as they fly past it on 78 or I-269
- Byhalia – left an impression
- And to be honest – my first reaction may have been a bit like Jonah – God you want to do a work in that town? God you want us to go to Byhalia?
- I first shared this with my friends Alan Dupree & Tyler Francis shortly before Thanksgiving of 2021
- 2 men who stood on stage with me as I married my wife
- 2 men who i stood on stage with as they married theirs
- 2 men who faithfully served in our student ministry before and while I was the youth pastor
- 2 men who were regularly part of our various small groups
- 2 men who had become my best friends along with their wives and kids friends with my wife and kids
- Alan being the more spontaneous of the 3 of us jumped all in
- So much so he made an offer on about 2 acres of land just north of town the next day.
- I still wasn’t convinced but did believe God was at work – and Byhalia might be the place He wanted to send us.
- I brought this to a few elders – they had no reason to say no so we began to pray and seek what God had in store for Byhalia
- Still honestly hesitant and unsure – saying Why Byhalia – God put his foot down when I heard a sermon from Luke chapter 14.
- So at this time – I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 14 and we will start in verse 15.
- Now prior to this Jesus is at a luncheon – a luncheon being put on by some Pharisees
- Pharisees being the legalistic rule followers of Jewish society
- Pharisees being the in corwd, the first pick of the litter, the first picks in recess kickball if you will
- And these pharisees wanted to capture Jesus and make him look bad by causing him to break a law and ‘work’ on the sabbath by healing someone
- Well Jesus did heal the man and then told the Pharisees – which of you wouldn’t get an ox or your own son out a ditch on the sabbath –
- The pharisees had little ot nothing to say in response to this so Jesus continued and told them humility is the best way
- When you go to a feast – sit in a lowly place
- When you throw a feast – invite people who cannot repay – the poor or the outsiders of the community
- This act of kindness this act of humility will be repaid in eternity
- And now we continue our account in Luke 14 verse 15
Luke 14:15-24, ‘15 When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”16But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ 20 Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”
- Let’s pray – God – we thank you for today – we thank you for your word, we thank you for your Gospel – for the way of reconciliation bought by the precious blood of your son Jesus. Lord I pray today that we Do not Neglect the Invitation of the Gospel – and that we Do Not Neglect the Reach of the Gospel. Help us respond with humility and as we go, go with zeal to make the name of Jesus known. In Jesus name we pray. Amen’
- So here we enter our scene with a pharisee, one of the in crowd
- Somewhat snarkily responding to Jesus
- ‘Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God’
- After all – that pharisees were the legalistic religious elite jumping through hoop after hoop to maintain their alleged standing as the righteous ones in town
- IF anyone in town was going to be in the Kingdom of heaven – it certainly would be the pharisees
- But their legalism prevented them from reaching out and being a light as God had instructed Israel to be to the World
- These pharisees in their day to day life were full of tasks to maintain ritualistic cleanliness
- But elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus refers to their souls as white washed tombs.
- Jesus responds to the pharisee’s prideful snarky comment with a parable.
- In the parable we have a wealthy man readying a feast
- Now please be sure to understand a feast of this magnitude would have been all the talk. It would have been the thing everyone would know about and talk about.
- And the reality is, because of the careful planning involved the guests would have already agreed to attending
- And yet when the time came – when the feast was ready we see them decline their attendance
- We see them decline their attendance for
- Stuff – I’ve bought some land – please have me excused
- Work – I’ve got some oxen – please have me excused
- Family – I have a new wife – please have me excused
- And on their own – caring for our things, caring for our work, and caring for our family are not bad things
- My wife and I have 3 children. Cozette, Jude, & Ezra.
- We try to keep our house rules fairly simple.
- 2 of those rules are
- Take care of our family
- Take care of our things
- These are good things to do – but in the moment of this feastly invitation – these people chose the lesser option
- Famous pastor & theologian Warren Weirsbe explains it this way in his commentary, “They delay in responding to the invitation because they settle for second best. There is certainly nothing wrong with owning a farm, examining purchases, or spending an evening with your wife. But if these good things keep you from enjoying the best things, then they become bad things.”
- Now this feast is a comparison to the Kingdom of Heaven
- Back in Isaiah 25 we see this prophesied – turn there now
“The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine. 7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. 9 And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
- Jesus was the one to bring the lavish banquet to fruition
- Jesus was the one who would wipe away the tears
- Jesus was the one who would remove the reproach
- Jesus is the one who would swallow up death
- And yet the Pharisees were wanting to trap him
- They were distracted from the Messiah
- Distracted by their hoop jumping and perceived righteousness to see he was sitting in front of them
- And today we too can be distracted from the Gospel
- If you’re a note take I would encourage you to write this down
- Do not neglect the invitation of the Gospel
- Let me say that again – Do not neglect the invitation of the Gospel
- Like the pharisees of yesterday we can easily ignore the loud proclamation of the Gospel and the reality that Jesus is coming
- We ignore the reality that none of us know the day or hour of our death should the Lord tarry
- And so I ask this room – have you made your calling and election sure?
- Do you know that you know that you know that you know that Jesus paid your bill in full
- I’m not talking about acknowledging that Jesus was a person
- After all in James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
- Good theology doesn’t mean saving faith
- Acknowledging God is saving faith
- The demons also believe
- The point James was making – is has your life been changed
- Starting with a Romans 10:9 moment “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”
- You get out of the drivers seat
- You get of the throne of your life
- Use whatever analogy you need to
- Have you confessed Jesus as Lord
- Have you said Jesus you’re the boss
- Your way is now my way
- Have you said, Jesus – when your Word says jump I jump and when your word says don’t jump, I won’t jump
- Have you believed that Jesus really did die? And really did rise from the dead?
- This is salvation
- Trusting in the person and work of Jesus by the grace of God
- Today is the day of salvation
- I’m not naive enough to think that everyone in this room is alive to the truth of the Gospel
- Consider Jesus
- Do not be distracted any longer by the ‘good’ things of this World and miss the savior!
- ‘The Lord is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance’
- But there will be a day – and we know not when that day will be –
- A day where you either breathe your last
- Or Jesus returns
- And on that day – it will be too late
- And I, like Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, implore you, I beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
- Because the wages of sin is death, but, oh but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
- DOn’t wait
- Thee feast has been prepared – no work is owed by you – Jesus did it all
- Come to the table an enjoy the great banquet
- Do not neglect the invitation of the Gospel
- 2nd point today
- Do not neglect the reach of the Gospel
- Again for you note takers
- Do not neglect the reach of the Gospel
- After hearing of the rejection of His feast invitation
- The wealthy man became angry
- And compelled his servant – go to the streets
- Go to the highways
- Go to the hedges
- Go to the outsiders of society
- Go to the people that would not get this invitation in the minds of the in crowd of Society
- Go to the ones who don’t buy fields but work the fields all day
- Go to the ones who don’t buy the oxen but tend to the oxen
- Go to and bring in the crippled and the poor – the ones who could never invite me to a banquet at their own place
- This would have been a slap in the face to the pharisees
- They were so self-righteous that to even walk near a reject of society was an abomination – let alone dine with them
- And yet Jesus – in this parable
- As the great banquet thrower – the one who paid for the feast
- Paid for the feast with his very life – Jesus wants the outsiders
- He wants the ones who could not repay the kind invitation
- Again I say do not neglect the reach of the Gospel
- Because it is far
- And it is wide
- There may be those in society around us that are great sinners
- But Jesus, our Jesus, My Jesus is a far better savior
- The feast is ready – it is time to dine
- Let us invite, as we go, all to the banquet table
- And this brothers and sisters is why Byhalia
- Because yes – I’ve had many people ask – why on earth would you move to Byhalia?
- Why on earth would you try to start a church there?
- Not that anyone who asks this was trying to be mean spirited or disparaging
- But I’ve been asked, and if I’m honest, I myself have asked why Byhalia –
- There isn’t much there
- It’s not the easy route
- It isn’t the obvious route
- In fact it might be the hard route – it may be slow
- But when I heard this passage preached
- It became clear
- God is throwing a banquet
- And our commission is to ‘as we go’ make disciples of every tribe tongue and nation
- And that includes the peoples that say “Byhayah”
- There is a field ripe for the harvest in the zip code 38611
- And there are not many laborers
- GO out to the highways and hedges the master said to his servant
- So we will go down 78, down 269, down 309, down 178 and every crossroad
- And invite people to the banquet
- We will go to to the broadmoor apartments,
- We will go the white oak apartments
- We will go to the devonshire apartments
- We will go to the beautiful homes along Deer Creek Road
- And we will go the disheveled houses along Deer Creek Road
- And proclaim the name of Jesus
- We will share the hope that is in His name and in His completed work on the cross
- To share the refuge that is found in Christ
- And we won’t go like a loud annoying gong
- We will go and as we go we will love our neighbor
- And as the Lord brings for the harvest we will baptize them and make disciples By teaching them to obey all that he commanded.
- This is our vision
- 18th century theologian Matthew Henry said this well, “Christ’s ministers must be both very swift and very earnest in inviting to the gospel feast: “Go out quickly lose not time, because all things are now ready. Call to them to come today, while it is called today; and compel them to come in, by confronting them kindly, … Though many have been brought in to partake of the benefits of the gospel, yet still there is room for more; for the riches of Christ are unsearchable and inexhaustible; there is in him enough for all, and enough for each; and the gospel excludes none that do not exclude themselves. (6.) Christ’s house, though it be large, shall at last be filled; it will be so when the number of the elect is completed, and as many as were given him are brought to him.”
- Again – do not neglect the reach of the Gospel
- As I wrap up today
- May I remind you
- Do not neglect the invitation of the Gospel.
- Do not neglect the reach of the Gospel.
- And may I beg you to pray for us.
- Pray for each of the souls on our team.
- That we would become more like Jesus
- That our marriages would flourish as we become more like Jesus
- Pray our kids would be saved young
- Pray we find a space to have outreach Bible Studies
- Our core team coming from GCC is 20 adults and 15 kids
- When we invite people to our vents – we need to be able to separate the kids safely and securely while the adults are involved in a Bible study
- So pray for a space with a large room and 2 small separate rooms that we can use to invite members of the community to in order to hear the Gospel
- Pray that God would prepare the field and we would see a move of God in the town of Byhalia
- That God would save many as we labor
- Pray for each of the souls on our team.
- We aren’t doing this to compete with anyone
- We aren’t doing this to get out from the leadership of GCC
- I’m not involved so I can preach more
- We are doing this because the lamb is worthy, He is worthy to receive the reward of his suffering
- As First Baptist continues – we ask that you cheer us on from your side of the rapidly growing and sometimes neglected pond that is Byhalia, MS.
- May I remind you
Thank you for your ears. May you walk away with high thoughts of Jesus – the banquet thrower Let’s pray