10 Awesome Invitations from God to You
Summary: God is not stingy! He tells us to “forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:2). From start to finish the Bible is filled with marvelous promises from God to you. Below I’ve listed ten awesome invitations from God the Father or Jesus the Son of God to you personally. Accept these invitations and walk in them, and your life will be immeasurably bettered.
1. God invites you to experience His great salvation
There are only two kinds of people on this earth—the
Long before Christ came to earth, God the Father was already appealing to lost mankind to “look to [Him] and be saved, all you ends of the earth.” It is the very heart of God to save, not to condemn. And to make that salvation freely available to us, He sent His Son to earth to die on a cross for our sins and to rise again as the Savior forever to all who will “turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21).
2. Come and have your sins fully forgiven by God
The guilt of sin weighing upon your soul can be devastating. And yet that weight of guilt can, as mentioned in invitation #1 above, be lifted from us by repentance for sin and faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
When you do come to Jesus as Lord and Savior, there is a full forgiveness of sin. Full! God says to you, “Let’s reason” about that. And in that conversation He mercifully promises you this: your sins may seem to you like scarlet and crimson—very bright, very visible, and very terrible. Yet…when you come to the Lord for His gracious salvation, those same sins in God’s sight are fully forgiven and appear to him to be “like wool, white as snow”!
Come to Jesus, receive His forgiveness, and you’ll feel the weight of sin’s guilt lifted from you.
3. Jesus offers you rest for your soul and a lightening of your burdens
Life is not easy. Jesus Himself pointed out the reality of life in this fallen world. To His followers He said, “In me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). But in the very next breath Jesus encouraged them, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Thankfully, as the song says, for the believer in Jesus this troubled world is not our final home. And, while we live out our life serving Him in this world, we have His promise of peace, of rest for our souls, and burdens that He helps us to carry, thus making even heavy burdens light.
4. Are you sick? Jesus says to come to Him for healing
I recently turned 79. To the best of my recollection I’ve never personally known an adult who had never at some time(s) in his or her life been sick. Biblical Christians understand that sin, sickness, and death entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve (and their descendants).
Thankfully, through His Son Jesus, God the Father has provided the remedy not just for our sins (see above), but also healing for our sicknesses — “He himself [Jesus] bore our
If there’s any doubt in your mind about God’s willingness to heal, I encourage you to read my article: “Divine Healing Today? Absolutely! YOU Can Be healed.”
5. Jesus promises answered prayer to those who ask, seek, and knock
The Amplified Bible (Classic) in those verses says, “Ask and keep on asking … seek and keep on seeking … knock and keep on knocking.” Just prior to that Jesus had taught them the Lord’s prayer and had also exhorted them to persistence in prayer.
Jesus promises answers to prayer for those who in faith persist in prayer. Even Jesus Himself, in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed the same prayer to God His Father three times (Matthew 26:44). Contrary to what some wrongly teach, persistence in prayer is exactly what Jesus both taught and modeled for us. And to those who “keep on” asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer for those things that are consistent with the will of God, then God’s Word promises: “…we know that we have what we asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).
6. The Lord invites you to let Him make you effective “fishers of men”
My fellow believers, do you long to be a better witness, a better soulwinner for Jesus? I’m confident that most of us do desire that. Well, Jesus told His disciples then — and us now — how that can occur.
“Follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you become fishers of men.” Walk close to Jesus, study His Word the Bible, listen for His voice within, and He will lift you above your own natural abilities and will impart to you His grace to “make you fishers of men.” Are you feeling, “I can’t do that!” He’s saying to you, “I Jesus will make you able” to be a good witness for Him.
7. Jesus invites you to come and dine with Him
Some translations have Jesus saying, “Come and dine.” I see at least two significant points here:
(1) Jesus desires fellowship with His followers. We are not imposing on Him! He loves us. He died for us and for our salvation. Now He loves to have close communion with those who in turn love Him. He is always willing: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20).
(2) Jesus cares about our natural needs. Here some of His disciples had just finished fishing all night, with no success (John 21:1-13). So Jesus, with divine wisdom, called out from the shore to them in the boat to cast the net in a specific direction, and they hauled in 153 large fish! Then they came ashore and He fed them bread and broiled fish. The Lord Jesus does indeed care about meeting our natural needs.
8. Jesus offers the Holy Spirit to you if you believe in Him
To all who would hear, Jesus cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me…rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this, verse 39 says, He meant the Holy Spirit.
Jesus gave this invitation before the time had come for His crucifixion. He was referring to the Holy Spirit, “whom those who believed in Him were later to receive” (39). Then after His crucifixion and resurrection from the grave, Jesus did impart the Holy Spirit to His followers in
- (1) Before the Cross Jesus had told His followers that the Holy Spirit “lives [at that time] with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). Before the Cross the Holy Spirit was “with” them, but not yet “in” them. Then after His resurrection from the grave, Jesus appeared to His disciples and “breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). This is generally believed to be — and I agree — the time when the disciples were born again by the Spirit, as prophesied by Jesus in John 3:3-8.
- (2) Jesus told those same now-born-again-by-the-Spirit disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Immediately then (51) Jesus ascended back to heaven. The disciples obediently returned to Jerusalem and continued waiting upon the Lord until the Day of Pentecost arrived. Acts 1:4-8 summarized Jesus’ purpose in having them wait. It was for a second ministry of the Holy Spirit to them—not the new birth, which they had earlier received. It was for the baptism with the Holy Spirit — Acts 1:4-8 - “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit … [8] “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And they did receive that promised Holy Spirit power: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place… [4] All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:1-4).
- Further study of this great theme of the baptism with the Spirit can be found at my articles:
9. The Lord invites you to receive the free gift of eternal life
This simple invitation has eternal consequences! Are you thirsty for God? for forgiveness and salvation? for eternal life, not eternal damnation? Then come and take the free gift of the water of life.
To those who follow and serve Him — whom Jesus calls “my sheep” — the Lord says, “I give them eternal life” (John 10:27-28).
Come to Jesus, repent of all known sins, believe He died and rose again for you and your sins. As the Scripture simply says, “Come! Take the free gift of the water of life.” And that leads to our glorious, final invitation, right below…
10. At the end of a believer’s life, Jesus invites you to enter eternal joy in His presence
It has been some 2,000 years since Jesus died on a cross and rose for your salvation. Have you believed in Him and received Him personally as your Lord and Savior? If so, wonderful! The day will come when your life on this earth is over, and you will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’ve loved and served Him in this life, you’ll hear those marvelous words spoken by Jesus to you: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
You will enter into the glorious presence of God for all eternity. Theologians hold various opinions about the precise details of the eternal state. No matter, because the apostle Paul had himself experienced a visitation to heaven and said it is “better by far” than this earth (2 Corinthians 12:2-4 with Philippians 1:23). The Psalmist sums it up perfectly: “In Thy presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). For the committed believer in Jesus, that will be blissfully true for all eternity. Fullness of joy in His divine presence!
In Closing — a Heartfelt Personal Invitation
Summarized, the all-important invitation is Jesus’ appeal to you to come to Him. If God is speaking to your heart that you have not yet made that decision to come to Jesus personally as your Savior and Lord, now is your time to receive the greatest blessing there is—salvation and eternal life with God Almighty. It comes through sincere repentance for your sins and simple faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. To help you make that decision and to pray to enter into the eternal family of God, I heartily recommend to you the late, respected evangelist Billy Graham’s Peace With God: The Secret of Happiness.
-------------------------
You might enjoy reading more about God's supreme invitation at our sermon: 'Look Unto Me and Be Ye Saved, All the Ends of the Earth'
-------------------------
Subscribe (always free)
-------------------------
Shortcuts to Major Topics:
Christian Living
Doctrine & Theology
Evangelism
Faith
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Healing
Hearing from God
Holy Spirit | Pentecostal Topics
Jesus Christ
Ministry
Power of God
Prayer
Salvation
The Church
Various Topics Not Listed Elsewhere
Victory over the Devil
Word of God
Sharing is great!
If you've been blessed by our
sermon on Invitations from God to You,
please share it with your friends.
Email them the browser link. Or
you can post the link on your social
media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Thank you for sharing God's Word!
©2022, James H. Feeney.
Copyright statement.
Pentecostal Sermons &
Bible Studies by
Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.