Would it bother you if I told you I was very busy this last week and was unable to get a lesson together for today? I knew you would understand and would be glad to accept my excuse. Maybe we could just sing or take the Lord’s Supper and go home. Before some of you get excited, that is not true. I just wanted to get your attention before starting the lesson.

Excuses – Martin, part 1

Excuses – Martin, part 2

Excuses – A great way of getting out of our responsibilities!

• Everybody makes them.
• We spend too much of our life making excuses.
• From the time we were young we made excuses for why we did not get our chores completed, why we failed to finish our homework, why we were late for dinner, why we didn’t get home when our parents set a time, etc.
• As we grew up we continued to make excuses.
• Most people feel the need to make excuses rather than facing up to the truth.
• Let’s look closer at the excuses used in the bible.

Definitions

• Verb
  • To release from obligation or duty
  • To seek or obtain exemption or release for oneself
• Noun
  • The act of excusing someone or something
  • A pretext or subterfuge

Excuses – Around since the beginning of time.

• “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (Adam) – Genesis 3:12
• “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (Moses) – Exodus 4:10
• “The land… devours its inhabitants, all the people are giants, we were like grasshoppers.” (10 spies) – Numbers 13:32-33
• “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” – (King Saul) – 1Samuel 13:11-12
• “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.” – (King Saul) – 1Samuel 15:20
• “There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!” – (The sluggard) – Proverbs 22:13
• “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” – (Jeremiah) – Jeremiah 1:6
• “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” (Jew) – Luke 9:59

Luke 14:15-18a – “Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!“ Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.‘ But they all with one accord began to make excuses.”

The Invitation

• “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”
• Come to a great supper (dinner, chief meal)
• Invited many (well ahead of the meal)
• To make sure they remembered, he sent his servant out to those who had been invited
• “Come; for all things are now ready.”
• All that great food and “with one consent they began to make excuses.”
• Great food and great company are very difficult to turn down.
• The excuses had better be very good, very realistic very believable.
• Have you ever planned some event and were disappointed when no one came?
• How then do you think God will react to our excuses?
• Ecclesiastes 5:4-7 – “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed-Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.”

The Excuse

• Matthew 7:22 – “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” – (Many)
• No matter what we use as an excuse to not do what God wants, it is still just an excuse.
• What is your excuse?

Lesson 2

Excuses – A great way of getting out of our responsibilities!

• Everybody makes them.
• We spend too much of our life making excuses.
• From the time we were young we made excuses for why we did not get our chores
• completed, why we failed to finish our homework, why we were late for dinner,
• why we didn’t get home when our parents set a time, etc.
• As we grew up we continued to make excuses.
• Most people feel the need to make excuses rather than facing up to the truth.
• Let’s look closer at the excuses used in the bible.

Luke 14:15-18a – “Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!“ Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.‘ But they all with one accord began to make excuses.”

Luke 14:18b-24 – “The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.‘ “And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.‘ “Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.‘ “So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant”

Luke 14:18b-24 – “‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.‘ “And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.‘ “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ‘For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'”

Those Excuses Are Ridiculous!

• “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it.”
  • Who would buy a piece of property and then go look at it?
  • Today that would be like buying some swamp land in Florida or desert in Arizona
  • Luke 18:8 – “sons of this world are shrewder in their generation than sons of light.”
• “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them.”
  • Who would buy one yoke of oxen and not test them first, let alone five yoke?
  • Today that would be like buying a tractor or piece of equipment without testing it.
• “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”
  • Who would get married and not want everyone to meet their spouse?
  • Wouldn’t they need to eat?

Our Excuses For Not Obeying God!

• I have bought a piece of ground.
  • Possessions keep us from God.
  • What about us? 2 Peter 2:20-22
  • The cares of this world – Matthew 13:22
  • Money & Things – 1 Timothy 6:10
  • Covetousness – Luke 12:13-21
  • Our Pleasures – James 4:1-4
  • God or Riches? – Matthew 6:19-34 (24)
• I have bought five yoke of oxen.
  • What about us? Ephesians 5:15-17
  • More Important than truth Acts 19:23-28
  • No Time For Learning Hebrews 5:12-14
  • Live To Please Self 1 Timothy 5:5-6
  • Failed To Use Time Wisely Matthew 25:14-30Our occupations (how we occupy our time) can keep us from God.
• I have married a wife.
  • Relationships keep us from God.
  • What about us? Matthew 10:34-37
  • Spouses 1 Peter 3:1-6
  • Ahab & Jezebel
  • Ananias & Sapphira
  • Mother, Father or Children Ezekiel 18:1-20
  • Friends 1 Corinthians 15:33; 1 John 2:15-17; 1 Kings 12:6-15

Our Excuses Continue

John 15:18-25 – “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

John 15:18-25 – “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. “He who hates Me hates My Father also.”

John 15:18-25 – “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.'”

Possessions

• I’m busy with the house
• I’m busy with the garden
• I’m busy with the lawn
• I’m busy with the car
• I’m busy with the boat, etc.

Occupations

• I don’t have time.
• I’m working today.
• I need some relaxation.
• I’m going fishing, hunting, hiking, quilting.

Relationships

• My spouse
• My parent
• My friends
• … don’t want me to assemble, to teach people in our home, to study the Bible, etc.

The Excuse

Matthew 7:21-23 – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?‘ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'”

What is our excuse for not obeying God today?

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