[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a Bible, turn to Psalm 23.
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be our third week in this Psalm, and it will be our final week in this Psalm.
[SPEAKER_01]: As you're turning there, if you are visiting citizens, welcome, my name is Jayman.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am one of the pastors here, and we are honored that you're worshiping with us this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: In my life, I have heard so many sermons, so many sermons.
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad's a pastor, I grew up in church,
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of the churches he passed, we had Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night services, heard a lot of sermons.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I graduated high school, I spent six years getting a four year Bible degree, and in Bible college I heard a lot of sermons.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, the majority of my job here at Citizens is preaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some pastors serve the church, because they're great at administration and executive leadership.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have those gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not the best preacher you've ever heard, but preaching is one of the things I'm best at.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I do it a lot, and that means being embedded in and seeping in, preaching, and sermons, and all that all that to say is a preacher's kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: As a Bible college student, and then as a vocational preacher now, I have heard so many sermons.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't say that I've heard more sermons than anyone in the room, because it's not a competition if it was, I like my chances.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's an illustration.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have heard so many times.
[SPEAKER_01]: All different preachers have used it.
[SPEAKER_01]: different styles of preaching, different denominations of preachers, different ages, different ethnicity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like it's an illustration.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every preacher has to use at least once, because I've heard it so many times.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's something like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about Abraham Lincoln.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he was a president.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was president during the Civil War.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wore hats, he delivered the Gettysburg Address.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about him, but I don't know him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The details changed depending on who the preacher is and what the preacher is into, depending on their age or their interests, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're into history as a preacher, you might use Lincoln.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the first time I heard it, it was baseball in the 90s.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about Nolan Ryan.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he's a pitcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: He played for the Rangers, seven no hitters, single season, strikeout record.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about him, I don't know him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't know my name.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've never met.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't call him if I'm in trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's information about him, but not relationship with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they are an especially godly, wise, thoughtful preacher, they will say something like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about Dirk Nmitsky.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know he was drafted by the match in the late 90s.
[SPEAKER_01]: He played 21 seasons for the same team.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's from Germany.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a professional handball player.
[SPEAKER_01]: He won the single greatest NBA title in history, according to everyone who knows anything about anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hosts an annual celebrity baseball game.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's married.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has three kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: guy can dream.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard this?
[SPEAKER_01]: You've heard something like this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what's the punchline of the illustration?
[SPEAKER_01]: The punchline of the illustration is that who God is to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know about him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or do you know him?
[SPEAKER_01]: You can say he's Trinity, Father Son, and Spirit, you can name some attributes about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you can tell the whole story of the Bible, but is he like that character in history?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he like that famous actor?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is he like that athlete that you know a lot about, can recite facts about, can say true things about or do you know him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have relationship with him?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a popular illustration.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's repeated throughout, because it makes this important point.
[SPEAKER_01]: It confronts something.
[SPEAKER_01]: It confronts something that we in our part of the world saturated with religion can just so easily get so wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is not just noable in an informational way.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is noable in a personal way.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's noable in a relational way.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I say I know God, I should mean it like I know my closest friend, I know my spouse, I know my children, that's a different kind of knowing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why friends, it's why I have been wearing out that quote, I don't even remember who first said it, Lord, protect us from being the kinds of Christians who love to learn but hate to change.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because to no God is not just information, it's relationship, and relationship with God does not stop at informing you, but goes on to transform you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what do you do when you hear that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Something like that?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the right response?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been in the chair, I've been in the pew, I've listened to that sermon as a churchgoer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've felt the conviction of Ogasio, okay, which one am I?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I know about God or do I actually know God and how do I know?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so step one is remembering the gospel, like if you're here and you're not yet a Christian and you're wondering how do I go from information about God to relationship with God, the answers to Jesus, the answers to the good news of the gospel of Christ, you'll hear that this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're like me and you hear something like that and like, okay, I'm a Christian,
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to fight against the pool to de-personalize my theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: What can I do to contend for a life with God that is knowing Him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just knowing about Him, listen with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is my shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: I shall not want.
[SPEAKER_01]: He makes me lie down and green pastures.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me beside still waters.
[SPEAKER_01]: He restores my soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You comfort me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: You, a noint my head with oil, my cup overflow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a simple change in the Psalm.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned it last week in a way that was very easy to miss.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord, third person, is my shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: He makes me lie down.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads.
[SPEAKER_01]: He restores all true, all beautifully true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I walk to the valley, I will fear no evil for you, are with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You comfort me, you prepare table for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I am about to say is so simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is at risk of falling on you like a spiritual shrug.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the park on your way to work that you don't even see anymore because you pass it every day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember something.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not mostly the new and novel truth that changes, but the old, simple truths deeply applied in faithfully obeyed that changes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of us don't need to learn more.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to obey what we know.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here it, here it.
[SPEAKER_01]: David stops talking about God
[SPEAKER_01]: If we want to be the kind of Christians who know God, not just know about God, we have to be people who don't just talk about God, but people who talk to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to be a praying people.
[SPEAKER_01]: A people who take what we know about God and turn it into conversation with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's that shift in the Psalm.
[SPEAKER_01]: David moves from He to You.
[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 23, it's significant in Psalm 23 for a few reasons.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first is that the language changes where in the valley.
[SPEAKER_01]: So often we don't own what we believe about God until life is very hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: The valley forces us to start talking to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that last week, nobody stays the same in the valley, but the other reason it's significant the change from talking about God to talking to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a condensed example of what all of the Psalms are about and what all of the Psalms are for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the very reason the Psalms are preserved for you and your Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Athanasius, he's a church father, he said this about the Psalms.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of the Bible speaks to you, the Psalms speak for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Psalms themselves are guides for our prayers to help us live a life that doesn't just know about God,
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's evident because we don't just talk about him, but we talk to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then even when we don't know what to say, the Psalms will come in and speak for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been preaching for nine minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a very long sermon introduction.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to spend our very last week in Psalm 23 with all of that front of mind, because to spend three weeks in Psalm 23 and never turn it into a prayer would be like spending three weeks talking about food we never eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: For this to take shape in your life, it needs to go past a sermon you listen to, hear me, it needs to go beyond a song that you're familiar with, it needs to culminate in prayers
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll consider these last two verses, unpack them together, and then just to heads up, I will stop talking and make space for us collectively to talk to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil,
[SPEAKER_01]: My cup overflows, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: These last few verses describe God in a really unique way.
[SPEAKER_01]: David has changed his metaphor from God as shepherd to God as host.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he describes God as this host who does two things, who serves and pursues.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here's the image.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God does everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's food because God provided it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The cup never falls past the brim because God keeps filling it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You smell good because God's anointed you with fragrance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your enemies are around but somehow God keeps them from ruining your dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does all that mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's been a lot of ink spilled.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of words said about what each item represents because the somsofamilir, what the cup is and what the oil is and who the enemies are and here's what's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: because we're not told.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we're not told, when it comes to the Bible, it's best not to guess.
[SPEAKER_01]: The meaning is not in the unrevealed details.
[SPEAKER_01]: The meaning is in what is clearly said about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what's clearly said about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we can know about God from this image, what we could say to God in prayer in light of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: The God of the Bible is a feast-throwing, table-filling, joy-loving host.
[SPEAKER_01]: At his table, he takes care of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: All you have to do is show up because he doesn't need your help, he enjoys your presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is hosts.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a way of highlighting right relationship with God, acceptance with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can tell the whole story of redemption as a story of in the beginning God created a home.
[SPEAKER_01]: sinful humanity leaves home.
[SPEAKER_01]: God and His mercy made away for His children to return home.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the story of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why the longing for home is so deeply and grand in us as a people.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why so many great stories and literature are about returning home or finding home or losing home.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Odyssey, East of Eden, Home Alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the table at Homewardbound,
[SPEAKER_01]: The table in verse five, he prepares a table for me, is connected to the house in verse six.
[SPEAKER_01]: I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's the connection.
[SPEAKER_01]: The dinner table is the very center of the home.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how many people this is true for, but even today, if a family eats together around the dinner table most nights a week, that's not just saying something about the importance of the meal, that's saying something about the priority of the family and the help of the home.
[SPEAKER_01]: A healthy dinner table is a microcosm of a healthy home in a flourishing family.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone was told you're not welcome at our table, it means there's separation of the family.
[SPEAKER_01]: If somebody refused to come to dinner, that means that something's broken in the relationship.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if the table is full and everyone's there and everything is right, that means something about the peace of the home, that God prepares a table for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: that God prepares a table for you is a sign of acceptance with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The host welcomes me, serves me, cares for me because he loves me and, and.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he prepares a table for me now, if he welcomes me now, if he hosts me, accepts me, feeds me, and fills me at his table now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I have a home with him forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acceptance at his table means belonging into his family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me spoil the ending for you, Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your story culminates around the table with the Lord in a new heaven and a new earth that God makes his forever home.
[SPEAKER_01]: Revelation 19s says it like this, let us be glad, rejoice, give Him glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: The marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride that's Jesus and His church the bride has prepared herself.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was given fine linen to wear bright and pure for the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what does that all crescendo into?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the climax of that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb, a final forever table that the Lord prepares for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of his enemies have been defeated, there's a feast.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what will eat, but I know Christ is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will have all you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will be satisfied in Christ for all of eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every day will be joy without sorrow and you never have to leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means, for God to be host and for you to be at his table, two distortions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, first, God's host does not mean God is a servant on my payroll.
[SPEAKER_01]: to speak of God this way because it's a subservient metaphor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It risks filling in all of our prosperity gospel errors into this metaphor and feeding in false metaphors about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about this two weeks ago, the Lord of Psalm 23.
[SPEAKER_01]: is the uncreated sovereign eternal Lord of Heaven and Earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has no beginning and no end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is not needy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not lonely.
[SPEAKER_01]: He lacks nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: That He sets the table and fills the cup and provides the meal means that He condescended from the heights of His glory and power and sovereign self-existence to serve us because He wanted to.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not a genie granting wishes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not a servant that we command, an employee that we pay to do our work.
[SPEAKER_01]: that he will give us an easy life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, the table comes in or right after the valley.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's not an image God has host, it's not an image that would justify us thinking less of God or thinking more highly of ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the second distortion, I don't know the best words for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: God as host is not who he is to sum people, but not to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not an image in which we see how God placed favorites.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my first trips to Israel, I've been four or five times.
[SPEAKER_01]: We took a small group from our church, but really what we were doing on this trip is we were tagging along with a group from my dad's church.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was their trip and we just jumped in with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we get to the first hotel.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm there by myself, none of my family was with me on this trip.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first hotel was on the Mediterranean Sea.
[SPEAKER_01]: I check in, I get my room key, buy myself, take the elevator up to the top floor, go to my room.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a sweet, multiple rooms, corner of the floor, overlooking the sea, there's food set out on the table in the living area, bottle of wine, and then a little note that said, Mr. Roller.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hope you enjoy your stay and it was signed by the travel company that we booked the trip through and I thought this is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We leave the hotel, we travel all day, we go to the next hotel, same thing, high floor, king bed, huge bathroom, living area, food, wine, another note and I'm like, I understand why they call it the promised land.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next hotel, same thing, but this one was the nicest one yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: The note, though, didn't just say Mr. Roller, it used the full name, but not my name.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was my dad's name.
[SPEAKER_01]: The tour company, my dad had traveled with this company a few times and the tour company was trying to honor my dad and my mom who was with him and thank them for choosing their company and then also they obviously wanted to incentivize them and continue to travel with that company.
[SPEAKER_01]: So at each hotel, they gave them the absolute best room in the hotel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was checking in because our last name is the same, I was getting their room instead of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I realized that was happening, you know what I did?
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't say a word.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the day I realized that my dad asked me, he was like, hey, how's your room?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, ah, I said, not enough pillows, you know, it was fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, and yet, the experience was very different after that.
[SPEAKER_01]: After I realized that it wasn't for me it changed how I felt lavish hospitality.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I could not enjoy it like I did because I knew it wasn't for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because it was a mistake I was there, it just wasn't the same as when I thought it was all intended for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: For many of us, this can feel like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just described the eternal table.
[SPEAKER_01]: where all Christians have a seat in the family of God, which is your forever future.
[SPEAKER_01]: In some, I don't know, some don't care, some distracted, some unable to connect with that because of whatever others though, some mini thought, that's not for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or that doesn't have my name on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We live these lives something about Christianity in this part of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: We live these lives of doubt and distance.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I'm here, I'm barely here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We add all these astrous and disclaimers to our relationship with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm part of the family, then I'm more like distant relative.
[SPEAKER_01]: God tolerates me, he does not enjoy me.
[SPEAKER_01]: He certainly doesn't serve me generously, just because he's glad to be with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So maybe this is kind of true for me, but it also might be a mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is good news, but this good news doesn't make it pass the disqualifying disclaimers of our own mind and heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we need always and again, what we need is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stay with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want us to see something that I think is just stunning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want us to see how much of Jesus' ministry is table ministry.
[SPEAKER_01]: ministry done around the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to say pay attention to what kinds of people he welcomes to his table who does get a seat with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Luke 7 verse 36.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He entered the Pharisees house and reclined at the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to summarize what happens next.
[SPEAKER_01]: A woman of the city who was a sinner comes in.
[SPEAKER_01]: That she was described as a woman of the city who was a sinner means her vocation was egregious, sexual sin, and she was not invited, but she comes in anyway, and she walks up to Jesus with a few years salary worth of perfume, and breaks the whole thing over his feet, and cries tears of repentance that fall on his feet, lets her hair down, and uses her hair to dry his feet, and the people at the table want her gone.
[SPEAKER_01]: They grumbled and they judged, and then they grumbled and judged that Jesus should allow all of it to happen, and so Jesus tells a story that turns the room around.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the punch line of the story, verse 44.
[SPEAKER_01]: Turning to the woman he said to Simon, do you see this woman?
[SPEAKER_01]: I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair.
[SPEAKER_01]: You gave me no kiss, but she hasn't stopped kissing my feet since I came in.
[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't annoy my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, I tell you her, many sins have been forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why she loved much, but the one who is forgiven little loves little, then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: He exposes Simon.
[SPEAKER_01]: for how loveless his hosting was, and then he takes over as host.
[SPEAKER_01]: The host was the one who decided who was welcome and who wasn't welcome, and Jesus in this reversal of grace assumes that role in says to the woman, not only are you welcome where I am, you are forgiven of all that you've done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ, in this beautiful sense, prepared a table for her and the presence of her enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: And turns a table of judgment into a table of goodness and mercy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she left that night, and she was probably unsure if she was ever welcome back in Simon's home, but she was very sure that she was welcome wherever Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are here.
[SPEAKER_01]: new Christian, not a Christian, old Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: And your story is a story of a grieges sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Things you wouldn't want named out loud in a room like this in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a place for you at the table where the Lord God is host.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have been forever welcome into the home of God because there is no sin stronger than the mercy of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Luke 15, all the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him and the Pharisees and scribes were complaining and what was their complaint.
[SPEAKER_01]: This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is at another table, surrounded by the morally bankrupt of his day, tax collectors and sinners and the religious people grumble in what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus at that table tells the most well-known stories of his entire ministry, and you can't help but see Psalm 23 in all of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: A shepherd has a hundred sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leaves the 99 to go after the one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when he finds that he rejoices, he invites all this friends over and they throw a party.
[SPEAKER_01]: A woman has 10 coins, loses one and when she finds it, invites all of her friends and she throws a party and man has two sons.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one son rejects the father and runs off to the far country and he ruins his life and he squanders his inheritance and he comes home asking if he can be a servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what does the father do?
[SPEAKER_01]: He celebrates his son's homecoming.
[SPEAKER_01]: And how does he celebrate?
[SPEAKER_01]: He prepares a table.
[SPEAKER_01]: best food, best drink, robe, sandals, ring, the sun is fully restored to the family, but that's actually not the point of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not where it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: The older brother won't join the party, he was the rulefaller, he was the one who did all that the father asked, he hated his brother for leaving and he could not tolerate that his brother was back at his father's table verse 28.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he, the older brother, became angry and didn't want to go in, so his father
[SPEAKER_01]: completed with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's just as much grace in that verse as the verse that says the Father met the younger brother on the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: His father came out and pleaded with him, but he replied, it was Father, I've been slaving many years for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never disobeyed your orders.
[SPEAKER_01]: You never gave me a goat that I could celebrate with my friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: This son of yours came who devoured your assets with prostitutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: You slaughtered the fat and calf for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The father says, son, you are always with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything I have is yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had to celebrate and rejoice.
[SPEAKER_01]: This brother of yours was dead and his alive again, he was lost and his found which son.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the father pursue in the story?
[SPEAKER_01]: The unrighteous son or the self-righteous son?
[SPEAKER_01]: the Father runs to meet the younger brother and leaves the table to go find the older brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is the unspoken invitation to the older brother?
[SPEAKER_01]: You're always with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything I have is yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have to celebrate the unspoken invitation is come back inside.
[SPEAKER_01]: come to the meal, I want you at the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus tells these stories, sitting at a table with sinners, full of younger brothers, as an invitation to the religious people to join them at the table, because the father desires both his unrighteous children and his self-righteous children to join him in his home.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are here and you cannot shake your pride,
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot shake your own self-righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: You haven't sinned in ways younger brothers sin, or the woman of Luke 7 sin, but you fail to love, and you can be bitter and judgmental and proud and hypercritical in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a place for you at the table where the Lord God is host.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have been forever welcomed into the home of God because there is no self-righteous pride that is stronger than the mercy and goodness of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: One more.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will be very familiar with this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Matthew 26, 26.
[SPEAKER_01]: As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples and said, take and eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is my body.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took a cup and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and he said, drink from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where is Jesus again, seated at a table with his friends?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he and his disciples that eaten together hundreds of times before this moment, that even eaten the Passover meal together before.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here, he tells them something that he wants them to remember that he commands us to remember your presence at my table is costly.
[SPEAKER_01]: welcoming you into the family of God is costly.
[SPEAKER_01]: But instead of it costing you, it's going to cost me.
[SPEAKER_01]: My body will provide the bread you eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: My blood will be the cup you drink.
[SPEAKER_01]: The price for sinners to sit forever at the table in God's home is the broken body and shed blood of the host.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all who buy faith eat that meal, unrighteous or self-righteous.
[SPEAKER_01]: All who buy faith eat that meal, have a seat at his table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian, God didn't get your name wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: relationship with God at home at the table of God is not a room that was meant for someone else that you stumbled into.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have a seat at the table and that seat is covered by his precious blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is reserved by his unfailing promises and it is as secure as his tomb is empty.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why it's why we take communion every single Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord, hear me,
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord prepares a table for you every single Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: A table of remembrance that you might know, this meal now, even in the presence of sin, my own, even in the presence of failure, even in the presence of death, and the presence of all that still haunts this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: This meal now tells me I have home with him forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if that is an encouraging enough,
[SPEAKER_01]: If that doesn't provide enough assurance for six as this, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those two words, goodness is who God is, it's who He is to His people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mercy is God's covenant love, His has said love for His people, and what does God's goodness and covenant love do, it follows us, and that's not the best word for it, it pursues us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It chases us down in the absolute best way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's how one day loaded described that his name's Christopher Ash.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no day.
[SPEAKER_01]: There can be no day.
[SPEAKER_01]: When one who is in Christ is not actively pursued by the covenant, goodness, and covenant, mercy of God in Christ, even if we try.
[SPEAKER_01]: By sin through discouragement in the dark valley to shake off this gracious pursuer, we cannot do so.
[SPEAKER_01]: People pursue happiness, but happiness pursues the saints.
[SPEAKER_01]: And see this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that we have the whole Psalm in front of us, it starts with Christ as shepherd leading us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in front of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Christ in the valley and His with us, He's beside us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Christ as our gracious pursuer, He's behind us, Christ before me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ beside me, Christ behind me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are literally surrounded by Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I know?
[SPEAKER_01]: I will dwell forever in the house of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I know I'll have forever home with God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ has by his body and his blood secured my seat at his table.
[SPEAKER_01]: He surrounds me in his love.
[SPEAKER_01]: He leads me, he's with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even when I try to run his goodness and covenant love will chase me down and bring me home.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know about God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or do you know God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you say these kinds of things about God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or do you say these things to Him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you speak to Him in this way?
[SPEAKER_01]: What would it sound like, beloved, to not just hear or think or even agree with all of this about God, but to say it to Him, to speak these things to Him in conversation with Him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you just assume a posture of prayer with me?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to contend on our behalf that we would have the full assurance that in Christ we are accepted by God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know the frenetic pace of fall is already taking.
[SPEAKER_01]: steal from you, and have you check out in a moment like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you by the grace of God lean in?
[SPEAKER_01]: And would you turn what you know about God into conversation with God?
[SPEAKER_01]: Turn what you know about Christ into conversation with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Use the whole song.
[SPEAKER_01]: Start two weeks ago, call him your shepherd who cares for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you need last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in the darkest part of the deepest valley and you're with me, help me to believe or simply, simply.
[SPEAKER_01]: From these,
[SPEAKER_01]: It may be, it's helpful for you to use the rich theological words that describe all this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God if you know those, God you have justified me in Christ, you are sanctifying me, you have made perpetuation for my sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you talk like that, talk like that to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if all of you have, if all you have,
[SPEAKER_01]: Our words that sound like a child that say, God, you love me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You accept me in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want me in your home at your table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can have confidence of that because of the broken body and shit blood of Christ or host.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you say all that to him?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna stop talking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you talk to God?