SCRIPTURE
11"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. 13"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.' 14"For many are invited, but few are chosen."
Matthew 22:11-14

OBSERVATION
In this parable Jesus is pointing out the process in which people come into the Kingdom of Heaven. The first step is to invite people to the wedding. Some will come, some will not. The second step is to get more aggressive and bring people. The servants had to go and not just invite but to bring people to the wedding. Sometimes merely invitations don't work. His servants need to be persuasive in bringing people to relationship with Him. Now, the last part of the parable is very important. It's a clear indication that there is more in our relationship with God that just showing up to the wedding. When people are brought to the wedding, they are probably not prepared and dressed for the party. But the tradition for the host was to provide wedding attire for unprepared guests. But some guests were either lazy to change or unwilling to leave their clothes behind. It was a sign of disrespect to refuse the wedding attire offered by the host. In fact, a host would ask a guest to leave if they were not dressed properly. That's why Jesus says that many people are called, but few are chosen. Only those that come AND change their ways are the ones chosen.

APPLICATION
When reaching people for Christ, our job is not done when we invite someone to church. It's not done when we are able to persuade that person and bring them to church. We are not done when after hearing the gospel, that person raises the hand to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. That is just the beginning. True discipleship making has to do with helping people to leave their old ways and to embrace the new ways - to dispose their old clothes and to put on the garments of righteousness. We bring people to Jesus when we take them through a wardrobe intervention. Certain things need to be gone, new things need to be embraced. The old nature is gone, the new life in Christ is embraced.We can get a ticket to heaven when showing up for the wedding, but we may loose the ticket if we are negligent to accept the new life God offers. God accepts us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, let me discard anything that is not appropriate for the wedding banquet. Let me always put on my new nature, my robe of righteousness. Also let me lead our church with that vision. We are bringing many people to Christ, but we need to do a better job helping people to make changes in their life, to leave the old sinful nature behind, and to put on the nature of Christ. Please help us to have an incredible passion for both: evangelism and discipleship. Amen!