[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the way community church podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name's Ahmed Gordon, I'm the podcast producer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to join us, need prayer or worship through giving, you can find the links in the transcript of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This service was recorded during Pastor Hall's sabbatical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reverend Xavier Kriegmer joined us at the way and he made the statement choose your table.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came from the book of Mark chapter six verses 21 through 22 and verses 38 to 39.
[SPEAKER_00]: Open your Bibles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's join the service.
[SPEAKER_01]: Scripture Mark chapter six verse 21 and 22 and then verses 36 through 39.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mark chapter 6 verses 21 and 22 then verses 36 to 39 I want to read and see your hearing The Word of God says there
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reading from the English Standard version.
[SPEAKER_01]: But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and leading men of galleys.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when Herod his daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guest.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the king said to the girl, ask me, for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the round of verse 38, 39, it says, and he said, Jesus, that is, said to them, how many loaves do you have?
[SPEAKER_01]: Go and see.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they found out they said, five and two fish, then he committed them all to sit down and groups on the green grass.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word of God, the people of God, thanks be unto God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: This morning, I want to share from this subject.
[SPEAKER_01]: Choose your table.
[SPEAKER_01]: choose your table, but since growing up, I was blessed to spend a great amount of time with both sets of my grandparents, my paternal and maternal grandparents, and as I spent time with them, I enjoyed the experiences of sitting around the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: This table experience was a moment where there was much laughter, a whole lot of love in some life lessons that helped me along the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, fast forward to a time when I grew up a little bit older, it was in high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: I began to have a whole new experience of tables in the cafeteria, that high school cafeteria where I began to realize that the tables that I appreciated growing up were nothing like the tables I was now experiencing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you probably are familiar with what the cafeteria tables were like.
[SPEAKER_01]: The cafeteria in itself was sunlight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some were like a kingdom in itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Had various groups of people who sat together and hung together and they found their community amongst what another.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had those who sat at the table who were the smart people.
[SPEAKER_01]: All the smart people, the nerds, seemed to gather together and have a good time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I sat with them too, don't worry about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a nerd, join with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then there was a table where the athlete sat, all the football players, the basketball players, the wrestlers, all those who play sports, the track runners, they all had their table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even there was a table for the in crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know some of them are probably those who sat with the in crowd.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody wanted to be around you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They liked you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted to dress like you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They wanted to be like you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had that table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there was a table for everybody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we're gonna say some God, those tables in that cafeteria, there was some that appeared to be better than others.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were tables where the laughter was louder, the places where some who appeared, more important seemed like they had more going for themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even though you could not sit at every table, you wanted to sit at the best table that you thought would do something for you in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we came to realize sometime later in our lives, perhaps you got to that point like I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: You realize those tables all came with a cost.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those seats had a price tag on it because to associate with people at certain tables that you had that act like they did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes you had to treat people like they didn't exist.
[SPEAKER_01]: You had to go along just to get along just to be along with some people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you had to turn a blind eye.
[SPEAKER_01]: to some things that were happening at your table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you probably can't remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trying to get in with the incroyal, the incroyal didn't let everybody sit there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when they gave me that chance to sit down with them, you thought you was the coolest thing, since this side of the pillow.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm here to let you know, say some guy, those seats came with a cost.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even though that was dinner, this is now we live in a current context, a present table challenges.
[SPEAKER_01]: These tables that we experienced today are tables of uniformity over unity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tables of maintaining a self image over having integrity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tables of having a viral going viral at the means of compromising your values of who you are and culture over character.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the tables that we presently have an experience in our world today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even as you said it for the July summer y'all said it tables who were people who did not accept the 4th of July But did mine eat in your ribs they rejected the idea of freedom But they didn't mind being free to go up and get another hot dog off the grill and other people took the time to reflect We find ourselves shooting out tables even sitting amongst those
[SPEAKER_01]: who should be trusting and believing in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we find from Mark's gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mark introduces us, my mother sisters, to two tables.
[SPEAKER_01]: One table was ruled by greed and the other by grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first table is that a birthday bash inherits palace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Herit threw a birthday bash like no other.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had the VIP list.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had all that a list is the hoos who have yall alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: The music was jumping, played to a full, and the sister was dancing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was no shortage of entertainment at that table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of y'all thinking about that table, right now you're watching.
[SPEAKER_01]: That table, however, was hosted by corruption and had an aroma of arrogance and it was more destructive than delightful.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've all had our time at those part of our experiences.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had that moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know we're in church this Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know we're holy and we're being made.
[SPEAKER_01]: Holy through Christ Jesus, but don't you forget, you had your time.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you want to be at the table or where the party was going on, you want to be in the social moment and the event, and you enjoy those environments, you enjoy that atmosphere.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you sat at that table, then that table sometimes comes into our lives even today.
[SPEAKER_01]: when we remember how things used to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's the table at Harris, but there's another table I need you to see.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's another table that Jesus prepares of a banquet on a hillside.
[SPEAKER_01]: It had no table settings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't say you had to have an invitation to be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no drip, no fanfare.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just people who were in need.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that table that Jesus prepared on that mountainside was a table where people were there and they just came out of a knee, they came because they come to know Jesus, they came because they were trying to figure things out in the life and that table was a place where power was present, but it was power to provide for the hungry, healed, the broken and helped the hurting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mark was two of these tables side by side for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of corruption and the other of compassion because he wants us to see that the seek we choose at the table determines the king that we serve.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna say that one more time for the people in the back.
[SPEAKER_01]: teach you that the table determines the king that you serve and we ought to consider this today taking this devotional word or preaching into our hearts and minds because we just part took and communion we just took of holy sacrament to remember the death and suffering of Jesus and we ought to remind ourselves that when we do this we're choosing our table.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to know that that choice determines the kingdom that we serve.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my question to you is one of my brothers and sisters, which table are you sitting at?
[UNKNOWN]: I'm at.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which table are you sitting at?
[SPEAKER_01]: First table, we see in the text that the table that is set of the two, there's one that caters to self and one that's compelled to serve.
[SPEAKER_01]: The table that caters to self and the one that's compelled to serve, there's a table that caters to self because it lacks
[SPEAKER_01]: the self-awareness that you should have spiritually.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means you're being more self-centered and self-centered as high as true motivations.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only the motivations of self are hidden from you, but also the motivations of others that are around you.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know where I'm going, I'm in verse 21 in the text, because Harriet decides that though this big birthday party, he thought it'd be all about him and he was all under the assumption that everybody showed up was all there to see him have a good time.
[SPEAKER_01]: However, among them would be Herodius, his brothers' wife that he took for himself, said to get Herodius, his brothers' wife that he took for himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took something from somebody else because he was all about himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be careful about people who will take, plug them down belong to somebody else and take it for themselves because those are dangerous people to be around.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he thought he had to go and own to take his brothers' wife for himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when he took her for himself, he began to live life like he lived large and in charge.
[SPEAKER_01]: only to discover he was so self-sense and he couldn't see the motivations of the people around them even the one he took his wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took this woman as his wife, say some God, and here's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has this bash, she sends her daughter to dance and he thinks that when he says you can have whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: that he was still getting the best of things for himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not realizing that Mama said door to the dance because she wanted to deal with John the Baptist.
[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be careful because some people were smiling your face, celebrate your gift, give your hugs and say, thank you, I appreciate who you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: All about themselves because you're so self-centered.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't realize what they're really up to.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need some faith that don't mind Thank you God that he gave you some ability to see about yourself to examine yourself to look at you I said I know who I am because I know my Jesus and if I know my Jesus I'm a trust in him because he makes sure I don't get caught up with people like that
[SPEAKER_01]: You lack awareness of self-spritially.
[SPEAKER_01]: You not able to discern the danger that sometimes around you, you'll miss pride, disguise as confidence, control as leadership, competition as ambition because you're so focused on what and who cater to you that you could not see the risk of being around them, which is why you should not be so consumed with yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says, if you're going to choose a table, you might want to pull up a table at this banquet, I've got out in this pasture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now it doesn't have all the glamouringlets.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now it ain't all that fancy and fly, but it's a table where you can come to know who you are and know that I've called you to do my will, not to go in your own way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says at this table if you come to this table I want to help you because I want you to know who you are and the way you're coming Know who you are because you come to know me because if you come to know Jesus say some God That's when you begin to realize that Jesus says you coming to know him begins to evidence you because the more you are around Jesus The more you walk with Jesus the more you talk with Jesus the more you start looking like Jesus I need four five saints on this Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say I don't mind walking with them because every time
[SPEAKER_01]: I take a step in him, I see more love in me, I see more patience in me, I see more kindness in me, I see more grace in me, and I thank Jesus that He keeps me close at His table and He's feeding me, so I start feeding my ego because my ego has a way of giving to me for me, but He says, no, I'm a big dead star, I'm a feed you spiritually, so you can be more like who I am, and the world that needs to know more about who I be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you sitting at the table that caters to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or the one that's compelled to serve?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because service is not all about what you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's who you become.
[SPEAKER_01]: We ought to all want to be more like Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: What table are you sitting at?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you at the table that's committed to your agenda or his agency?
[SPEAKER_01]: Your agenda or his agency.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says, I've come to discover that when we choose security and try to control outcomes through it, we also attend a managed circumstances and safeguard our own personal interest, which puts us at the table of fear rather than faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes though, we don't always want to acknowledge that we're at a table of fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: rather than faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: But all of us in the room from the youngest to the eldest, we all experience this table of fear, rather than faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: And here's why.
[SPEAKER_01]: We experienced this table because life demands exhaust us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Life, day in, day out, get up, lay down, go to work, get off work, cook some dinner, clean the house, take etiquettes, all of these things exhaust us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we get tired and when we're tired, we're still trying to work out of what we don't have no more in us, rather than entrusting Christ's efficiency for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: You do know in Jesus Christ, you have all that you need.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He will supply all of your needs according to the British and glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got it all in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes because what we've had in Jesus, we don't always reach out for, we don't always take hold of, we don't always trust to Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can find ourselves in our circumstances, dealing with the reality that hits us all.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get tired.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you get tired, that's when you start talking strange.
[SPEAKER_01]: You start keeping people different.
[SPEAKER_01]: All because you're trying to control the circumstances of life around you and for you because you don't want things to get too far from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the text, you see, that's the first reason why Jesus has the disciples with them in the first place.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, come away and get some rest, and mind the text.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, he told him where to get some rest when they got to the other side.
[SPEAKER_01]: They found that there was a crowd waiting on them, and this crowd that was waiting on them, say some God, what we begin to discover is that Jesus has compassion for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this compassion means that he decides to take up the assignment of taking care of the people while the disciples were in a place in Jesus' cinema wake, or we just tired.
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds like us some time ago, y'all got to amen me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ain't got to shout right there because I know that one part hit your toes, didn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: That phone call once you walk in the door and drop work off and took off them shoes and pulled that wig off, and kicked your feet up.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to that point and then your phone rings and somebody said, I need some help You really don't want to go help on that moment because there's about your agenda not his agency That call you get because somebody said can you come sit with me and have a cup of coffee But you're looking to schedule your schedules for and you say no I really don't have time left because you're in your agenda not his agency Well, what is Jesus agency?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is agency is his authority is authority is that which is great over all of creation
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has authority over all creation that means we have to scratch out our agenda and trust his authority This is authority when give us what we need when we don't have it our sales I'm in the text because there's a miracle that works out where Jesus feed these five thousand with two fish and five No, that ain't much that ain't nothing really significant But yes it is because they were willing to say take this little bit of what I got Jesus and do more with it
[SPEAKER_01]: And I need some sense that don't mind, test the part that I've given my little bit of me to Jesus and he did much more to me than I could do for myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gave my little bit of my mind to Jesus and he gave me some new ideas.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I got the job I got.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, I gave him the things I could work with, the labor of my hands that when you gave him your labor, Jesus, I'll make your labor multiple.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now you got people working for you and you don't have to work for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need some sense that don't mind, test the part that you gave Jesus your little bit
[SPEAKER_01]: out of his agency, then what you could do on your agenda.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can shout right there, but I need you to catch this, because even as we can trust his agency over our agenda, sometimes we show up at the table, trust in these authority with our
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't call you here, and I just said we're here at Ish.
[SPEAKER_01]: That mean we got some hair and ways in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have behaviors that are driven by what benefits us, and it preoccupies us, but outcomes that we try to manage and handle on our own, but we say we trust Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't say your trust Jesus and keep trying to do your own thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't say you believe on Jesus and keep on going in your own way.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you've got to say, when I trust him, that means I will take my not much and me of my things I have, the things I'm blessed to have in my life and give them into his hands because Jesus can multiply what you got abundantly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody need Jesus to do his multiplication in your life?
[SPEAKER_01]: take him at his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: You want the multiply something your family to talk about more time for each other, trust him with it intake.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus be in our family, be in the midst of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Raise up your family, trust in your him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when you give Jesus your little heal make much of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I hear it like Tennessee still show up, don't they?
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear it like Tennessee's mean that we focus more on accumulation, rather than trust Jesus and his faithfulness to multiply.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're accumulation means you're trying to do everything and anything you can that gives you what you think you need.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of trusting that Jesus can give you everything that you're going to need.
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows how to supply knee.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't even talk about knee.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't even consider knee joint.
[SPEAKER_01]: Know you will go half the next day.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we can even shout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even on the testimony of Jeremiah Oberlin, the taces that new mornings we see new mercies because we didn't know how much mercy we're going to need for the new day we got to face tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_01]: but you gotta get out of your herit light tendencies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your herit is ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Stop focusing on accumulation because that stuff will fade, that stuff will fail, that stuff will not last and trust Jesus multiplication and your accumulation don't add up to how Jesus multiply.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought I have a few more say shout right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me say it one more time.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're accumulation, all the stuff you try to do in your agenda will never, and that is automatically equate to what Jesus multiplies in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can take your little and make it more.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can make you great when you've been small.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can take your little bit of faith for this and make you rule over much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have any say stack in shout and test the fire on this Sunday morning?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna give it all to him because I know he'll make a difference in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that means you've got to choose your table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you at the table of your agenda?
[SPEAKER_01]: Keeping up your own thing, or at the table of his agency, where his authority takes even your little and does great work in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And lastly, there's a table.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a convenience or compassion.
[SPEAKER_01]: The table of convenience or compassion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Say, say, God, sometimes it's easier to ignore the needs around us that's acknowledged them, because meeting those needs demands our effort at times and sometimes being discomforted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Table of convenience is always looking out for what protects, preserves, and provides for self.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rarely does it consider the struggle somebody else is going through.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just as herit cared only for himself, as disciples we too can sometimes fall into that same pattern.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you can say amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: We sometimes fall into the same pattern as the disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're caring like heret for ourselves, and we're not always considered of others.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this happens when we choose convenience over compassion.
[SPEAKER_01]: And therefore, with shoes convenes on compassion, we see Jesus powers a means to satisfy our needs, what we want, what we ask him for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we believe he's supposed to do right now, rather than seeing what his power does of revealing to us who Jesus is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we're so focused on what his power can do, how his power can make us, when his power can make people say about us that we're so caught up in it that we're not focused on what it reveals to us about who Jesus is and we need to know more Jesus for us than we know about ourselves and all the things we want.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us got to list the things that we could ask Jesus for but everything on that list is something that you need to go to him with.
[SPEAKER_01]: reason why you only go with him to him with him is because sometimes it gets in the way of your knowing who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he already know the stuff you want.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to trust then that way you trust his provision, you have to know that his provisions that he makes towards you are for you to know him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that your life can be changed by your experience
[SPEAKER_01]: serving him then for us as believers should never be down to whether as a matter of convenience and not compassion.
[SPEAKER_01]: We ought to always be ready to show the same compassion that Jesus showed to us to everybody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: That compassion begins to make others know that we have Jesus not only with us, but we got Jesus in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there would be a lot of Jesus in us, not just for Sunday morning, but for Monday through Saturday that people can see Jesus when we're in the store.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus when we're in the streets.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus when we're sitting with somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are not put Jesus down and pick a muck on Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus are the always be in us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And therefore, when he's always in us, we show forth this compassion, regardless of what convenience presents to us as a possibility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, y'all, look at me, stranger.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me help you from all the personal experience I had.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did share the past of this share that I were my army veteran, 22 years, I served.
[SPEAKER_01]: But early in my career, when I was young, I was one of those soldiers that was always late.
[SPEAKER_01]: Till the truth, I was late.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would get up late, I would short the formation late, I would get on the installation late, and I was one more late moment away from being this major trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just so happy that when I slept in, I slept like a baby, I hit snooze by four five times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of y'all hit a six or seven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't look at me strange.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I hit that snooze button that one more time and I woke up and it was really, I mean, lately.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when I got up, I'm rushing through the house to get ready so I can get to my supervisor because I know I'm in trouble and I got the face to heat.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get there on my way and I'm driving.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm speeding, trying to go through a gust of trying to get to Fort Gordon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm rushing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm moving y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm tanning up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaks you probably said oh my goodness, is he really the yes I was over a hundred moving quickly and as I'm approaching the Anastasia our 20 y'all know that y'all got that down here too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on our 20 fly I see this sister on the side of the road and she's trying to change her tire
[SPEAKER_01]: I look at her and I look at high by time, I got to beat her, I'm already late.
[SPEAKER_01]: I look at her again, but by time I'm in trouble, I got to get there, I'm going to be late.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so here I am trying to figure out which way I want to go because the convenient thing for me is to get on installation so I can face the music and deal with what's before me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But my heart of compassion said, pull over and help this system.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I pulled over and helped her change her tire, I hop back in my truck and got on post wearing it to the office of my supervisor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Said to my supervisor, hey, I'm sorry, I'm late.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, don't worry about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta go, my wife is on the side of road because she just had a flat tire.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I need somebody to know, it was compassion that brought her miracle that saved me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when I showed up for somebody else over my convenience and gave my commitment to Jesus Christ the serves somebody else, it began to bless somebody else and work things out for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we can say, and we know that all things work together, but a good of those who love Jesus who are called according to our purpose, I need some sense that a shout right there says, Jesus, I'm going to show compassion over convenience because I know what it'll do when you're blessed
[SPEAKER_01]: I came to share with you that you got to choose your table, but you got to ask the question of the choose your table, which table are you sitting at?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you at the table that canes to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you at table that compels you to serve?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you at the table that's committed to your agenda?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or are you at the table of his agency?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you at the table of your convenience?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or are you at the table of his compassion?
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps some of you still trying to figure it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I start all telling you about my grandparents.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my grandfather, my father side, when we sit down to dinner, he would always ask us questions.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the capital of this state?
[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of land geographical places this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are some of the places that you know in your city?
[SPEAKER_01]: What street do we live on?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were young and we could always get it right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he asked his more questions, but one thing he did doing that test, and he would ask us questions at the table so we could learn a bit and grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he would give us clues.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I know that I came in with this devotional message to help you kind of wrestle with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you leave here after the communion you'll leave with more Christ for you and then you because the table you choose, the term as the King you serve, so I want to give you some clues because perhaps you still trying to figure out which table you sit in.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me tell you something about the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that you will choose over the other table that seems like it's got everything going for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here is table look good, don't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here he got airy body over there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here he got the connections.
[SPEAKER_01]: There everybody in no hair.
[SPEAKER_01]: There everybody in loyal to hair.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we have to realize is that why everybody here we're here and it looks good too was there's this other table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the past on a hillside.
[SPEAKER_01]: and the one who calls this bank with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't call us by what we do on our job.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't call you by the degrees you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't call you by the neighborhood you live in.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't call you by how people misreaded you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He calls you according to who he is and when you trust him, that might be the table where you want to find or see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You, you might want to slide in next to your neighbor and say, is this seetaken?
[SPEAKER_01]: You might want to find yourself comfortable next to the one that says, I'm trusting in Jesus, even through the trials, test and tribulations I'm going through.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to take a scene at this table because I know the one over here, he looks kind of familiar, he looks like us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks like he's on the side of us who are oppressed.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks like he's on the side of those who know the struggle is real.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks like he understands some things about me that hurt never knew about me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need those who don't mind saying that I gotta figure this table thing out and I need to know a little bit more about who set this table this banquet in the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I give you some more about him?
[SPEAKER_01]: See, they even called him the shepherd who prepares a table and the presence of our enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that give you a clue to who I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: And who table you should be sitting at?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay, okay, maybe you didn't get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Isaiah declared of him that like a shepherd, he'll lead and tend to his flock, and he'll gather health and his arms of care.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dude, does that help you figure out which table you should be sitting at?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay, maybe you missed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mark and our text calls this shepherd the suffering servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the one who came and died for us and took our place on that old record cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you still haven't got it yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: They better give you one more clue because John called him the good shepherd.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said he's the one who will lay down his life bus.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope y'all that got it by now, but y'all still sitting there trying to figure it out because I want you to choose the table Where Jesus is the shepherd Jesus is the king that provides for his people and I pray that the table where you sit yourself there and wait for him to serve you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his love He'll serve you out of his mercy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his goodness
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his abundance.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his authority.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his strength.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you out of his mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll serve you even though he had the suffer for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thank Jesus for the table that he set up for you and for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at show testimony.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that show sound is Sunday morning, go ahead and give God praise in His sanctuary.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give God glory in His sanctuary.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll have a new year.
[SPEAKER_01]: That glory to God, because that table is a table for us all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what you came from.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what you used to be, but that table is still available.
[SPEAKER_01]: But someone this morning, and I believe in that we all find ourselves, sitting there now and sitting there and glory after time when he comes again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give God praise.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to choose your table, the table, set by the King Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: He did mine coming down from his throne.
[SPEAKER_01]: His Paul says in Philippians 2, take on the form of a servant and serve us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus did mine being all that we need.
[SPEAKER_01]: but you gotta choose your table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a daily reflection for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because one morning we can get up, and the main thing I see like that table in the wilderness is giving us what we want when we want it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here's tables in the half, everything we like.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we do have things we still do like, don't we?
[SPEAKER_01]: But things you like don't last.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just like good food.
[SPEAKER_01]: You eat it, but it ain't going to last you always.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you ought to come to the table where you can be satisfied by the Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: The King, our Lord Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because like the Himalayas, He's the Savior, like the shepherd who will lead us and much we need His tender care.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as my prayer that you'll take into your heart, this word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: focus, meditation, reflection, so that you remain at the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus serves all who would put the trust in Him.