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At The Table With The Outcast · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Good good morning.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, good morning.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is such a good, good morning.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: The weather's good.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no matter what you may be dealing with in life, God is good in the midst of all of that, and and uh He will he ever let you down?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: He won't.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you're in the safest place you can be, you're with Him, you're living forever, and God is with you always, and you are having a human experience, but God is with you, and in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um what good news we sing about here.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um do you realize?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Are you aware that we are in, when I say we, I mean planet Earth, and some of us more aware of it than others, we are in a good news revolution.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: That not only do we know that there is a message about God's grace, his goodness, and his love that is expanding, but it's it's it's the word of God happening in us, that God is revealing goodness to us.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's revealing something really wonderful to us.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we're in the baby stages of this.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a revolution, and so it's changing things, and it's changing things in me.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Is it changing things in you?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is it still changing things in you?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this thing's actually changing things, it seems more daily and weekly than it did early on when I first began to see that wow, God might be better than I thought he was.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a revolution happening, and those changes are making God ever look more beautiful, more powerful, more wonderful, more amazing.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what we're doing is we're getting more and more of a God's eye view of things.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing uh his heart, and we're seeing from that heart of God that's beating inside of us.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can expect, even in our own lifetimes, we can expect a lot of beautiful, wonderful changes.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what that means is, whatever it means, is it will be more and more Christ-like, won't it?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be more and more like God, and and we're we're we're coming more and more to the center of God's heartbeat.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we find out is that the center of his heartbeat is it's it's all about who he is, the core of who God is himself, and it's this thing called love, not human love, not just being nice, but something bigger than our minds can comprehend.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it is love, and it's beautiful, and it's powerful, and that's that's central, that is the main thing.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And while there are a lot of other peripheral things that we can talk about, excuse me, um, and we there's a lot of things that the Bible talks about.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: What God is showing us is that everything really revolves around that love.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that needs to be the thing that we um we center on, that we focus on more and more, because that's where the life is.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: We should be majoring on that.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um I would say that in the American church of the day, though things are changing for the better, um, that overall, when it comes to this love thing, in many ways it seems like it's it seems like so often we barely really even try.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I think we're we're wonderful at loving those who love us.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think we are we are so generous and we're giving and we and we we even reach out to those less fortunate.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: We we do so many loving good things.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying that we're void of it at all, but when it comes to the parts of love that only the love of God can really do, that it really takes something different than human love to do, like, like forgiveness at times, like giving mercy at times, like like the way that we see other people, the way that we uh like like like like the accusing that happens a lot in the modern American church.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we're we're we're not the accusers of the brethren.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: That we have the spirit of the of the advocate, but it seems like it's easy for a lot of Christians to, even though love is, let's say this is the central part, this is love himself, if this is the central part, it's like it's easy for us to focus on some of these other aspects.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can focus on eschatology, we can focus on terminology, and we can and we can we can focus on so many things.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul, even in 1 Corinthians 13, gave a list of things, and he said, I can do this and I can do this and I can do this, but this is where it's at.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because without this, none of this really uh uh is very powerful.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh in a and uh and and in another area of this, I'm getting to this because this this is this is I I have loved this table talk series that's been going on for a number of weeks.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've loved it so much that I don't want it to stop, so I'm continuing with that today.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a table talk, and you'll see this because God spoke to me something uh uh uh a couple of weeks back, revealed something to me that was just beautiful that I want to share with you.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: But but the modern American church has actually um we're all aware that there's a lot of isms and ists that go on, that there's a lot of pejorative tags that we give each other, like he's a he's an issue, she's an issue, he's a he's a uh a futurist, he's a a preterist, he's a dispensationalist, he's a uh dominionist, he's uh this that you know, this, that, and the other.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And usually when that's those terms are used, it's in a negative sense, as a pejorative to where it's like they're they're less than, they're not, they're not not as good, or they don't have it together as uh as us.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, in many cases, I can't fellowship with them because they are part of this ism that I'm not a part of.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So rather than having the spirit of Christ about it, we almost actually delight, it seems, in separatism.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Very easily label and push people away that are because of there a certain a certain group, even groups within Christianity of people that really love Jesus and are trying their best to worship him but have different ideas, but we actually will accuse them of something wrong and therefore push away from them, and something in us says, I just I can't be around those people.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's the spirit of this world.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to expose that.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got to get right into this because we got some fun things going on today.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But we are called to the ministry of reconciliation.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to I want to look at uh jump into this and look at Psalms chapter 23, and particularly verse 5.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms 23, most of us, if we know any psalm at all, we know something about that one.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in those verses, he gives us all these things where something seems like it's happened in David's heart here, where he has received peace from God.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he restores my soul, and so on.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then in verse five, excuse me, he says, he says, he prepares a table.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Table talk.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You like that verse?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've I have looked to that many, many times in situations in my life.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there's two ways we can look at this, and both of them are right.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the primary way is the way that most of us think about it, and it's correct, I believe, is that I always saw myself sitting here, and God has prepared a table before me, and I got this trouble all around me.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Something or someone that wants to do harm to me in some way.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I've got this table set before me, and it's almost like God says, you can have peace and go ahead and eat your meal.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and have this and celebrate with this feast, and just let the enemies watch you because you're gonna be okay.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that was that's always the way that I took it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's right, that's proper, and that's correct.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: But there's another way that we can look at this, as we're having a table talk here.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of seeing David sitting here eating his meal and saying, Ha ha, you guys, look at me.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm okay.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing that can happen with that table that's been set before us is that David could say to the enemies, come over here and have a seat with me and let's eat.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that would be a ministry of reconciliation.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, Yeah, but I don't think that's really the kind.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, maybe not, but but I'm I'm not so sure.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is, and it's okay if it's not.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I can I can show you, and I'm gonna do that here in the next few minutes, where even David himself believed in some things, where David himself was the type that would do that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And not only David, but certainly our Lord and Savior Jesus.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we do know that there's something about the table.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I like what Clark was saying about the table, how the family they sit around the table.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: We have those times, and there's something about sitting at the table, something about sharing the meal, right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's very precious and it's very connective, isn't it?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in business, any of you guys in sales or anything, what do you, you know, it's it's it's a good investment to take somebody to eat.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a connection that's made that's a whole lot better than just a phone call.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is something powerful about sharing the table.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we also know that when we think of the stories of Jesus, we think that there are a lot of instances where Jesus was sitting at the table with people.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them is found in Luke chapter 5, in verse 29.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And a reading from the New Living Translation, and in verse 29 says, Later Levi held a banquet in his home.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Levi was Matthew, Luke calls him Levi.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, Matthew is a tax collector, and let's not forget how despised tax collectors are.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are the lowest of the low.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: They are right there on the level with the prostitutes, with harlots, and their Roman soldiers actually, they gave more honor than they did to tax collectors for various reasons.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus called one to him and said, Follow me.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so he Matthew did.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then Matthew gives this banquet.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He gives this banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests all ate with him.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now, this tax collectors don't probably have very many friends, but he does have co-workers.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so he's inviting people to come and meet Jesus, essentially, and it looks like most of them are other tax collectors.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, tax collectors, remember, Jesus is a good Jew here.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the Jews don't, they hate the tax collectors because tax collectors are working against their common good.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: They are working on the side of an oppressive government.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know we're concerned about oppression from government right now.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's not a new thing.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And they had an oppressive government over them.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And they are these people that are not working, it doesn't seem for the good of these Israelites or the Jewish people, that they're actually working for the oppressive government, working against the common good, taking money from these people, oppressing when they even believe, many of them believe that we shouldn't even be paying taxes to this oppressive government.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not right.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not morally right, it's not godly at all.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're to serve God, and I don't think God would even like that.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: There was a big move about that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, they would have to force themselves to, they would have to force the tax collectors, would have to force themselves on the people, so they would have thugs or soldiers or people with them to come and take the money from people, so they were also thieves, and they were, many of them were corrupt and they were stealing, actually, more than they even should have.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: They were taking, taking from these people.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And these are enemies of the people.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: These are not helpers of the people, these are not on the side of the people, these are working for the enemy.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is invited to come, and he's sitting at the table, and he's sitting there with enemies.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: People that are against the common good of those who are like Jesus, a Jew.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 30.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisees and their teachers of the religious law complained bitterly to the disciples, and they said, Why do you eat and drink with such scum?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was one instance of Jesus sitting with a group of people that would be considered those guys.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they were the publicans.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not the republicans, but they were the publicans.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: The re would come later on.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: But he's eating with those people, that those scum, that group of people, those that everybody knows that those are those people.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're against us, they're working against us, the people of God.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're if they're against the people of God, then they're against God.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're God's enemies, then they're my enemies.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 7 of Luke.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Another instance, two chapters later.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 36.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he went to the Pharisee's house and he sat down to eat, sits at the table.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he's with this group over here.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And these guys are saying, Why are you eating with such scum?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're eating with that group of people, those kind of people.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: In one translation where he's sitting with some of these people like this, the word that I where it says that he receives sinners, the word there, when you look it up, it means that he like like he validates them.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's sitting there with them like they're okay.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever let them feel look like they're okay.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a war against these people.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: But he does.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 7, this group that's saying, Why are you eating with that scum?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: This group invites them to come and eat over here.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees ask him to eat with him.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's over here at this other group.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus does.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: He sits at the table.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason for sitting at the table because sitting at the table means I want to make a connection with you.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: You sinners, you tax collectors.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting over here, I want to make a connection with you, you Pharisees.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, you know what Pharisee means, right?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where the word means.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody know?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Separatist.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Separatist.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, so he went there and he sat to eat.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 37.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And behold, somebody else comes in the house, a woman in the city who was a sinner.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: They just call her a sinner, but everybody knows that she's obviously got a reputation.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And when she knew that Jesus sat at the table at the Pharisees' house, she brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, began to wash his feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the fragrant oil.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So no oil.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, excuse me, I said oil.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody corrected me when not they didn't correct me, they just made fun of me.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, I'm gonna say it right next time.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oil.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: But she but he's with these Pharisees here, and then another sinner comes in, and the Pharisee, like, what's she doing in my house?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what makes her think that she can come in my house?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what's she doing with this guy here?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if he were really a prophet, why would he allow, you know, all of that's going on.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: But he's having connection.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Never the disconnection, but the connection.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And even though there was headbutting sometimes with what Pharisees were doing as they were coming to try to accuse him and to trap him, accuse him, accuse him, accuse him.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And he would counter what they were saying all the time.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: They were still the ones that he wept over and cried.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I wanted to gather you to me.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted the connection.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget the Samaritan woman.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: What about her?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: The woman at the well.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have a table necessarily.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: We have a well.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we have Jesus coming to share a drink.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a drink.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: She says, Why are you asking me?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You guys don't have anything to do with it.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: You don't drink after us.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Here she is, this unclean woman with this unclean vessel that she has drank out of that she uses.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Let me have some of that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, You guys don't do that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: You don't drink after our water fountain.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're those people.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're not good.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're unclean.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: According to you guys.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And remember that in part in that story, you know, after he says some things and she goes, Wow, I can see you're a prophet, so settle this issue because we say that we worship over here and the Jews say you worship over there, which one's right?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he essentially tells her it's not about that, it's about relationship.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's worshiping in spirit and truth.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And she got changed through that whole interaction.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: But have you ever thought of this?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: What if Jesus would have said, you know what?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews are right.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jerusalem.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you're supposed to worship, not that mountain.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this woman, who I believe is sincere, would have said, Okay, then I'm gonna start going to Jerusalem.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Much as I hate it, I'm gonna do it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: But whether he would have said, that mountain or that town or that city, whichever one would have been, yes, she still would have been just as miserable.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: She still would have been just as carried just all that shame because none of those things would have alleviated any of that.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because it has nothing to do with, is this group right or is that group right?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they're and they've had that separatism all this time over which one of us are right, we're right, no, we're right.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you guys are those isms, believe in that ism, so you are those issue.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're those Mount Gerizists or you're the whatever that mountain was, you're those Jerusalemists.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, which one's right?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter, they're both miserable.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Neither one of those have anything to do with the new nature, nothing has to do with spirit and truth, nothing has to do with relationship.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus gave her something that connected her, and it changed her, and it brought wholeness to her, or we could say salvation.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 14.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now it happened, verse 1, as he went to the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, sitting at the table.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see that he's willing to sit with anybody?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see that he was willing to connect with anybody?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And not one time did he ever say, No, I'm not going to sit with those sinners, I'm not going to sit with those tax collectors, and I'm not going to sit with that group of self-righteous Pharisees.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is showing us something here that he sits down at the table that the Father prepares for him in the presence of his enemies.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't just just look at the enemies and say, ha ha, look at me.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: He always says, Come and dine.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Come and dine.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that table of the Lord.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: The table of the Lord is in the Last Supper or in communion.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: The table of the Lord is set when after his resurrection.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: When he asked Peter and those other guys that were fishing, he said, Do you guys have any food?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, No, he didn't catch anything.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, throw the net over to that to the right side, and you will.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so they did.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: They started catching fish, and when they come back, Jesus already got fish prepared and the fire going.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Come and dine.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's saying, He's saying, I've got everything prepared for you.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need anything that you've done.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about you, it's all about me, who I am, and what I've done.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: So he went into the house to eat bread on the Sabbath, and the people were watching him closely to see what he would do on the Sabbath, because there's a it's easy to break a lot of laws on the Sabbath, and we're watching it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to see when he dips his olive in the vinegar, is he just dipping it or does he hold it in there and does he start pickling that thing which is working on the Sabbath?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're watching.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, and behold, there was a certain man uh before him who had who had dropsy or palsy.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he he sees this guy, and I'm trying to picture because he's sitting at the table with these people, but I don't know if the guy was walking by and he sees him out the window or he sees him out in the street there or something.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: But he called him to him and he healed them in front of the people.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: He did something on purpose to show them something.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: There again, even though it's the Sabbath, there was no disconnect between him and this this person.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so they didn't like that.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: We know how the story goes.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't like that.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, That's not right, you shouldn't do that.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And there was some discourse that went on.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we go down to verse 12, and Jesus is telling this story.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: He also said to him who invited him, he said, Listen, when you give a dinner or a supper, don't ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, and your rich neighbors so that they can invite you back and you get repaid.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: You get a good meal too from them.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: You guys just keep being doing these things for each other.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, cross the line.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: See what I'm talking about, and please, I'm gonna try to wrap this up in a way where when you talk about things like this, we're not talking about a rule of law because that never gives us the power.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Remember what we're talking about is what God is showing us in our heart, and I hope to touch something there.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to open up, I hope to say, I hope that something that you've already been seeing, you can say yes, amen.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: To and say, wow, that is okay.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but invite those, cross the line.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we talk about the the lame, the blind, and all that, you gotta understand something else too.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: There again, these are those people, these the the those people.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: The blind, the lame, the mind, you know, the the the idea that the religious people had about those things were essentially that they deserved it.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: That that was a sign of God's disfavor upon these people.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who said this man was born blind?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody did something bad.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: They had to deserve this.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Either he did something bad or the parents did something bad.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: But God put this blindness on him, they thought, because he deserves it.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deserve the blessing that we have that have physical eyesight.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: But they must have deserved it.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: They must have done something something bad.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: There was a scripture from the Old Testament that quoted where it was like the lame shall never enter into the house, into the palace.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Bring them, invite them, invite them.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: See, what we what's happening inside of us is this love is doing some beautiful things within our heart.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, it liberates us from so many of the religious things that put us in boxes and saw the world with dividing lines.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: We'll eat with these people, but not with those.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: We'll connect with these, but not with we can't connect with those.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can connect with these people because I speak in tongues, but those people don't believe in it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, but they love Jesus and they're trying they're serving him the best way they know how.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they they don't believe in a rapture of the church, or if they do, they don't believe it in the right time, and I just uh I can't.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do that.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they use this terminology and they say shibboleth, and I say sibeleth, or they say sibeleth, and I say shibboleth, and I and I I can't.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: I just I'm sorry, I can't.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that is not only is it the spirit of the world, so we can we naturally gravitate to that, and that's why most of us, a lot of us got in, you know, our default religion that we got into this, it had a whole lot of this separatism in it.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's those people.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's got to be a dividing line somewhere.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Even with our salvation, we we do these things.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's got to be, there's got to be these lines, there's got to be these separations and all that, and we but we we look into the word and we see a God who so loved the world, who reconciled the world to himself.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you mean everybody except those, right, God?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus saying, the Messiah, he's coming, he's coming to the to the lost, to the sinners, to the poor.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: What would a messiah be doing with sinners?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: What would a messiah be doing with poor people?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's God's displeasure on those people.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: God blesses.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: They believed over overall, there was a big belief that that even financial blessing, it was it was God's approval upon their lives.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why why Paul was talking about, and he says they perceived that gain is godliness.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's always us and them.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And at the table of the Lord.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Even what we religiously did with this thing called communion, we're talking about the bread and the wine that we partake of sometimes.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do we do?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not you guys.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Be careful.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys can have this, but boy, you better look at yourself.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's any little thing, any little thing wrong with you, you better not do it because God will curse you and you may die.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we did with the table of Jesus.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: When it's called communion or common union, based upon him.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This is my blood, this is my life, this is the new covenant in my blood.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Take it, all of it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: But because of our mind, our separatism, and it's them, and it's them, and it's us, and it's them, and it's them, we, we, we, we, we've we we've perverted so much of it.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Myself very, very, very much included, and all I'm saying is that changes are happening in us, and they're happening in me, and I like, I love the beauty of what I see and what I feel inside of me as I see people differently, and the walls seem to be disappearing, and these dividing lines seem to be disappearing, and I see a precious someone that God loves, and I can look past what all what they're doing and what they're saying and thinking and all that, and I see the pearl that Jesus sees.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, The one, the pearl that I sold everything for, so I could have this pearl.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the feeling of seeing that.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love the feeling of staying in the home, this was years ago, of a of a transgender person at a time when I was struggling with these ideas.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things we may still not have clarity on, but sitting at the table with this person and talking in this person and and and being willing to connect in a way where this person felt like, oh, I can bear my soul to these two Christians that I was leery of when they walked through my door.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: The connection was made at the table, so to speak.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Rachel told her story, and something happened to me because while Rachel was talking to me, while we were connecting, I didn't see a male who was trying very badly to try to pass as a female.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't see a freak show.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I saw what Jesus sees.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the beautiful pearl, I saw the person, I saw the preciousness.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that feels good when that can get in there.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, Father, I feel your heart.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this feels so much better than what I was feeling 30 minutes ago.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I never want to feel like that again after my tasting and seeing that you are good.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Does it answer all my questions?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: But man, it brings salvation to me.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, many of those questions grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: I start, I'm tasting more and more of heaven.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm liking what I'm feeling and tasting.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm liking the power of this love where many of us were clamoring, we're praying for, and we're wanting in this time because we got all the uses and thems, and they're doing this, and they're working against us, and we are the church, and and we shouldn't stand for it, and they're doing this and that, and we're praying for a God who loves power to show his power and do something about this.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than praying for the power of his love that can do something.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because that, whether we like it or not, is where this is going.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's the power of his love to save.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say save, I don't mean, oh, take them from that club into this club.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: When I say save, I say make the human whole to become their authentic self, whatever that is.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it's happening more and more to me.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: I go to 2 Samuel chapter 9.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here's David.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let me show you something about David.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: David had an enemy.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he was so much an enemy in David's heart, but he was an enemy in the other guy's heart.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Saul, King Saul.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: King Saul was afraid of David.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, like I say very often, fear brings hate.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: The steps are fear to anger to hate to suffering.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Saul was afraid that David was getting too popular, and David wanted to take his throne.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people already were wanting David to have his throne.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because Saul was afraid of David, he was angry at David, and he began to hate David, and then he tries to kill David.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Wants to kill David.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he wants to kill him so bad, he's chasing him all over the desert.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And David spending a time, spending a good amount of time dwelling in caves and hiding and all that, because he's got an enemy that wants to take his life.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: We also know that David had an opportunity to take Saul's life, and he didn't do it.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: But finally Saul dies.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And David has become king.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he's in the palace.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I love what he says in 2 Samuel chapter 9, verse 3.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, of the house of my enemy, to whom I may show kindness of God?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the word chesed for those of you that study these things.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's that loving kindness.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's the parallel of our Greek word agape.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ziba says to the king, Well, there's still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, something about this lameness.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: David was going up to battle against a city, and they come to the walls of that city and threaten to take it.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: They holler down at David from the walls.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they were talking about this thing is so such a strong fortress, the guy says, even the lame and the maimed will not, you know, would be able to keep David out of it.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: So David tells his men, Well, let's just go kill all those lame and those blind and maim.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they go in there and they do that.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, it says, I believe this is in chapter 5 of 2 Samuel, it says, Therefore, there was a saying that said, The lame shall never enter into the palace.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Attributed to David.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because the idea was that David hates the lame.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: And there's an idea that God hates certain people.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because of certain things that we that are attributed to him.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because of things we've heard or even read.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we assume, like they were assuming, that David hates the lame.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we assume that God hates them and hates them and hates them and hates them, but we see him setting a table in the presence of all these enemies.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Come and dine.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of months ago, I had a loose end in my life that I'd been thinking about a lot lately.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: I had a person that had hurt me many, many years ago.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, probably the biggest pain in my life.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and over a little bit of time, I really felt like I got it right.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I believe I did.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I meant that I found forgiveness, found grace.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had a good attitude about the person.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you brought them up, I didn't feel compelled to say something bad about him.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was settled in my heart.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: I was fine with that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel like I needed to try to get forgiveness because I had found it.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I realized I'd never told this person, and I didn't know how what this person was thinking or going through or anything.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it just kind of felt like a loose end.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And as you grow in Christ, see, you simply become more Christ-like.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is that we've been given the ministry of reconciliation.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is something that happens in our spirit.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a rule, this is not a law, this is why you cannot compel, say, well, you need to forgive this person, and that guy's person is like, well, I've been trying because trying to force it doesn't empower, you know.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: But this is all about the spirit.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is all about the Christ heart in us.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that Christ heart in us was working in me.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to tie up that loose end.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I didn't, I don't like feeling that there's just something over here.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then this would be easy to do.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, one of these times when we have a Sunday and we're home, I said, let's go see.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: The guy's pastoring a church in another town in Florida.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, let's go over there.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we finally it finally worked out where we could do that.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I go and listen to the man preach.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: He was, I I saw him, I met him at the door when we walked into the service.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: He was immediately awkward.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: He felt nervous.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to put him at ease.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Afterward, after he's after his the service, he was saying, like, I just thought when I saw you, I thought, oh dear God, what are you doing?
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was already nervous about things, about his the message he was going to preach.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: He did a pretty good job, actually.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: But he looked at me and he said, I need to apologize to you.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I've been carrying these bad thoughts and these bad feelings about you.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, there were hurt feelings both ways.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: I said, but it's all good.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I can honestly tell you, I have zero bad feelings about you.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've had nothing but good feelings about you right now.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, and I feel like at this moment you don't have any bad feelings toward me.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I don't.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: He comes up and he gives me a hug and cries and he sits down and he says, I'm so glad you came.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I needed this.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: See, I didn't know how much he needed it.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just assumed because things were okay on my end, it was just okay, but this man had been carrying this thing.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And to have odd against something, I I kind of this has been a lot many, many years.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I was so happy that just this little gesture poof relieved him from that, and it was gone.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I needed it.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's the ministry of the reconciliation, it's not me versus him or them.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but Rick, I mean, we just can't stand for something.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to agree with anything.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: This God, love, has nothing to do with.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't have to agree with the tax collectors, he didn't have to agree with the Pharisees, but he wanted to connect, and he could if they would.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And David wants to connect.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't there anybody in the house?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: Of that other side.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that hated me, the ones that were chasing me, the ones that wanted to kill me, is there anybody over there that I can be good to?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 11 of Samuel, 2 Samuel 9 says, Then Zebah said to the king, Well, according to all that my Lord God has commanded his servant, so will your servant do.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And David said, As for Mephit and the Mephibosheth, he shall eat at my table.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Who's allowed at your table?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Am I allowed at your table if I believe in this while you believe in that?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Who's allowed at your table?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: Am I allowed at your table?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm a part of this community and you don't and you're a part of that?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Am I allowed at your table?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: He said, He shall eat at my table like one of the king's sons.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord has set a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what I say is not, ha ha.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you wish you were like me?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: What I say is, come and dine.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some of Phibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, and he ate continually at the king's table.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he was lame in both of his feet, but he ate at the king's table anyway.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: See, there is a spirit of this world that I think it would be it, that I think the Lord has been exposing in me.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Am I an advocate?
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have the spirit of the advocate?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that word is Paraclete, Holy Spirit.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or do I have the spirit of an accuser?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have words about you and you, or this person, or that group and this group, and those guys and this guys?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Of course there's many I don't agree with.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: I could I would bet a lot, I think, that I don't agree with everything that on that with anybody here, that that on 100%, that there's no matter who it is, I don't care if we we we fellowship and we talk about so many things and we say, Yeah, I'm like that too.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I believe that too.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: If we talk long enough, we're gonna find something that, like, oh, I didn't know you thought that.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now I can't sleep tonight.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's been in the closet about that Christian belief.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know he was one of those.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna do?
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: The next time I come to church, I look at you and oh can't talk to him.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm too nervous.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I feel a disconnect because of my spirit of the world that I'm operating in.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the spirit of the Lord is not the spirit of the accuser, not the spirit of the separatist, but the spirit of grace, the spirit of love.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And what's happening to us in this gospel revolution is we're coming into alignment and agreement with the spirit that's within us.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: And while the spirit's saying something, the bride is also beginning to say the same things.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, at the very end of the book, it's it finishes by saying, the spirit and the bride say, Come, come and die.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for the bigness of your goodness and your love, your grace for each and every one of us.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're all here because you've said come and die.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're all here because we came just as we are.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we came because of that.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: And changes have happened and happening, and I rejoice in those changes.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: But none of those changes are qualifying me for anything, but those changes are causing joy to arise and freedom to be experienced, and a close communion with you to be known, because we're learning your heart.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you for that goodness that's upon every single one of us here.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, that no matter where anybody is in this room, no matter what they've done, what they're doing now, what their lifestyle is, what they think, what they what their belief in this part of the Bible or that part of the Bible, whatever it is, the Spirit of the Bride say, Come eat at my table.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I thank you, Father, for creating a table here at this place, setting a table.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: For our words are come and dine.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Come and dine.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord has made all things ready.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: I give you thanks in Jesus' name.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you, church.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Have a wonderful day.