Special Speaker: Ryan Copeland "The Table" (Sunday 6-15-25)

Welcome to Life City. This podcast was created to celebrate

what God is doing and what protects us. Our vision

is to reach the hungry, the hurdy, and the hopeless.

God has given us our heading. Join us today as

we listen to the Word and we pray that God

speaks to you in this message.

Well, I'll send you your money after thanks for that

nice stuff that you said, Cody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we

agreed upon a certain amount so you'll get that. You

know what's crazy is it feels like Life City feels

like home because this church culture feels a lot like

the church that I go to at True Life Church

in Joshua, which if you don't know where that's at

a lot of people don't, and it's it's South Fort Worth.

Somewhere, but it's it's really cool to be here.

And you guys have an amazing pastor and pastors if

you really do. I Uh, my first interactions with Pastor

Done were on a golf course, and that's how I

knew that he was a true man of God because

some of the shots he hit weren't great.

None of it, none of us, none of them were.

You know, we're all bad.

Uh, But he kept his holy Ghost and that was

just so powerful and such a testimony. But they you

know what, I really seriously, what I really do appreciate

most about the Duns is how real they are. They

they they lead with real, They're raw. It doesn't I mean,

there's no facade, no uh, you know, fake whatever going on.

They're they're not trying to be anybody other than who

God has called them to be. And I really appreciate that.

You guys are very very blessed. They're not they're not stuffy,

and they're easy, their joy to be around. And and

you guys know that. I'm just you know, I'm just

saying it, but y'all, y'all definitely know that. And I

think that reflects in this church. I've gotten to talk

and introduce myself to a few of you before church started,

and everybody in this room seems real and that is

so refreshing and so nice. The church needs real if

we are going to reach this world today, like like

they were saying, we have to be real.

We have to be real.

And so as I just kind of get settled in

here this morning, most of you probably don't know who

I am. My name is Ryan. You can call me Ryan,

you can drop the brother or whatever all that, and

I'm just Ryan. And my wife's name is Cheyenne. She

was here singing in the green dress. And my wife

is a marketing director for a real estate brokerage in

Fort Worth and she's also a real estate agent. And

I work for a bank called Happy State Bank. Most

of you have probably seen. It's right off of thirty

in Ridgemar, And yes, that is the real name of

the bank, and that's our nine to five, but our

five to nine is we are the youth pastors at

True Life Church. And be honest with you, were figuring

it out. We just we've been doing it five years

and every day I'm like, yeah, I still don't know

what's going on. Kids languages are changing, like they say

different things.

Now.

I was, I was, I guess you guys just got

back from camp and I was talking with some students

the other day and they walked up to one another.

They had this really cool handshake that you know, it

was like fifty eleven moves or whatever, and they did

like a dance.

I don't know.

It was embarrassing, to be honest, And there was this

other guy whom I had never seen before. And I

looked at him. He was probably my age or a

little bit older, and I was like, we have a

handshake too, you want to see it. They were like,

bet whatever that means. And I was like, here's how

we do it. Thank you great, Nice to me, you, sir,

nice me. I got out of there.

You know what are we talking about? Okay?

Anyways, we moved from West Monroe, Louisiana. And if you

don't know where that is, most people don't, and uh

you've probably driven through it. Or we're really famous for

Duck Dynasty. Anybody heard of duck Dynasty? Okay, all right, okay,

praise the Lord jeezuz. Okay, yeah, that's that's our claim

to fame.

Uh.

But I'll tell you what that that was. That's home,

Westnorth Louisiana's home. But when we moved to Texas, it

was one of the best decisions that we've that we've

ever made. We love it here. I got cowboy boots

now right and Weatherford that's a big deal. And and

I'll be honest with you though, Uh it's uh. I

was not a fan of the Dallas Cowboys when I

first moved here. Uh, but after six years of being here,

I can openly admit to you guys, I'm still not

a Dallas Cowboys fan, and.

So that's all right.

I just want to say, in front of everybody, go Tigers,

and now that's it. Okay, okay, that gets a bigger

hit in Louisiana, but.

That's that's a little bit about us.

And I just want to say Happy Father's Day to

all the all the dads out there. The role of

a dad is so important. I heard somebody say one

time that anybody can be a father, but it takes

a special man to be a dad. And I am

not a dad, but I have the best dad in

the world, my my dad, and none of you know him.

His name is Marcus, but I have the best dad

in the world. My dad isn't a preacher. He leads

a Sunday school department at a church there in Louisiana.

And he's a faithful, honest man. He has worked the

same job for thirty five years and his idea of

a good time is getting out on his Koboda tractor

and working on the land.

Like that's what he does.

Never understood that, but he's like, I'm just gonna go

get on the tractor and push them dirt around. Okay, Dad,

that sounds good. Dad, whatever you want to do. But

I can't think of a time I played sports in

high school. I can't think of a time that he

he missed a game one time. My dad, my dad's

you know, some of you dads are going to relate

to this. This is a goofy story about my dad.

He showed up to a game. Lady got off work

late and he showed up and it was a basketball game.

He got there at halftime and he told the lady

taking the money, he said, well, I'm only getting to

see half a game, so I'm only going to pay

half the cost. And they right, it makes sense. Uh,

but they didn't like that too much. So but he

ended up doing But my dad. I don't know why

I'm to guys all this. I just want to talk

about my dad for a second. But my wife and

I were really nothing special. We're just we just want

whatever God wants in our life. Well that's all we want.

And my prayer today is that whatever you have going

on in your life, that you'll just be open to

just whatever Jesus wants to do, whatever he wants to

pour out, whatever he wants to say, whatever he wants

to change, whatever he wants to challenge.

Whatever it is, whatever it is.

I just pray that you are open at today, whatever

walk of life that you come from, whatever struggles that

you face, you deal with, whatever mess is waiting for

you when you leave here today. I believe God can

do something in your life. I believe he can do.

You believe that. And what's cool about having a youth

pastor preach is that we have add and we don't

preach long. So you guys are going to get out

to those stakes or whatever it is that you're burgers,

whatever it is that you're eating today.

So let's get into it today.

I want to take you to a place that we

have all been before, a place that is one of

the most magnificent, life changing places that you will ever

be at in your life. And the great thing is

is you don't have to buy a ticket to go there.

You don't have to have a fast pass. I'm not

talking about Disney World. Some of you that's a nightmare.

I understand.

You don't have to buy a plane ticket, you don't

have to rent a car. It's not a travel destination

or an exotic vacation. Today, I'm talking to you about

the table. Today we are going to go to the table.

That's the title of my message, is the table. In

my house growing up, we valued sitting at the table.

And of course there were nights that we miss but

most of the time, most of the time, we ate

together as a family at the table. And I have

two other brothers. They're actually twins and they are five

years younger than me, and my mom didn't have to

drag us to the table because my mom can throw

down in the kitchen. Okay, I'm fixing the I'm fixing

to just make some of.

You really home.

My mom, we ate groceries. Okay, we weren't eating out.

We didn't have McDonald's. We wasn't like my mom. We

would eat fried deer meat, mashed potatoes, and gravy. We

would eat biscuits this for dinner. Like it was fried okra.

One of my most favorite things in the world to eat.

Love it.

My mom threw down in the kitchen, fried pork chops,

fried everything. Really, it's amazing. I'm still here today. And

she was feeding three boys plus my dad, and we

were like wolves, I mean, ravenous like it was after

I got married that my wife had to do some

correcting on my eating habits because I would sit at

the table and eat like I was in prison, just

like right. It was embarrassing for her. But I can

still picture that table, as most of you probably can.

Who could still picture the table that you grew up

sitting at? Yeah, you, it's crazy because I can still hear,

like when you pull the chairs back. There were these

wooden chairs and I can still hear them scraping across

that tile floor in our kitchen. And we had a

lazy Susan on that my mom put everything on, and

I still remember that.

It's crazy. We ate at the table.

We did homework at the table, and we had meaningful

family conversations.

At the table. And moving forward a few years, I can.

Take you right to the table where my wife and

I had our very first date at the five star

establishment known as Chick fil A. And yeah, that's right, amen,

come on, somebody run the ass here we go. I

am a firm believer that first date shouldn't be this

high fancy whatever. But we went to Chick fil A

our very first day, and I could take you to

the table right there on Thomas Road where we sat

right by the window, and we had our first date.

And I remember going home and telling my mom after

that first date, I'm gonna marry that girl. And I did,

and we're still hey girl, how you doing Okay? It

was uh, it was kind of fun. I'm gonna telling

the story. I'm gonna telling the story. I'm gonna tell uh,

I gotta tell it now. I said something, you know, Uh, yeah,

thank you. I don't want I don't want to leave it.

So we had our very first date and my wife

was ordering eight count chicken NuGet meal with a doctor pepper.

That's what she always orders, and uh, she couldn't remember.

Now we were like sixteen years old. So she was

trying to be cute and I was trying to be

like air, how you doing h And she ordered that

and then she was like, I want some and she

was trying to say Polynesian sauce, and instead she goes,

I'll have some prum sauce. And I was like, huh,

what did you say. She's like, I'll have some pump whatever.

And so that's still like a running joke. And that

kid behind there, he was so confused I felt so

bad for him. I did about going hey, like like,

I didn't do this because of Jesus, but I did

think about being like, hey, man, get the pump up

pump us sauce right now, and like and like I

just imagined in my head this kid like running around

like like I can't. He gets on the phone with

Dan Cathy, Hello, I can't find the pump up bump

us sauce.

I didn't do that, though, What are we talking about?

Oh?

Yeah, uh? The table?

But Shine and I would we would go on to

have so many meaningful conversations at the table, and we

still do, and it's important in our relationship. And I

like all of you have laughed, I've cried, We've grown together,

We've fought, loved and lost all around the table. And

throughout the New Testament, we see Jesus at a table

quite a few times. And if we understand the culture

of that region, in that area, sitting around the table

was almost sacred. I talked to this missionary a few

years ago. He's a missionary to an access challenge nation,

like I think it was oman Is where he was at,

and he said that they had been witnessing to this

guy in the Middle East, and they had been witnessing

to him. And one day, after months, thank you Lord,

months and months of trying to get this man to

come to church. It's a slow process in the Middle

East because it's illegal, and he was like, you know,

I just finally one day the man said, why don't

you come and share a meal at my house? And

this missionary was telling me this story, and he got

really excited, and I didn't want to be rude, and

I got really excited. I was like, oh, wow, that's amazing.

I didn't really understand that in that culture, being invited

to someone's house and being invited.

To sit at their table is sacred.

You are in the inner circle. They take the table

very seriously, and Jesus took the table very seriously because

the table was designed for a purpose. One time Jesus

went into a temple, a place designed for worship, and

he went and he turned over tables in the temple

because they were using the temple as a marketplace. They

were in there selling things. And Jesus went in there

and he said, the Bible says that there were money

changers sitting at their tables. And Jesus went in there,

and he flipped the tables. I'm not gonna flip it,

don't worry. And he flipped the tables over and and

he messed everything up because they were using the temple

and the table in correct incorrectly. The temple was not

made for lining pockets, but for lifting God up in worship,

and the table wasn't for commerce, it was meant for communion.

So Jesus sets the principle that we have. He sets

this principle of the table being a sacred place, and

we have several great examples throughout the Bible how Jesus

used the table to rescue others, to restore others, to

reveal himself to others, and how he used the table

to build relationships with others. And today I'm going to

go through three types of people that Jesus has a

chair for at the table. And the first person that

Jesus has a chair for at the table is the religious.

And Luke eleven, we see the Pharisees. If you don't

know what the Pharisees are, those were the people that

were They looked really religious, but on the inside they

were not really good people. They had all stuff together

on the outside, but on the inside they were dry

and not good. They thought they were more spiritual than

everyone around them. They would pray out loud in the

streets and make their faces look bad when they were fasting,

so people knew how much they were sacrificing. That's super

annoying to me. So this certain pharisee asked Jesus to

a meal, and before Jesus could even get really settled

at the table, the pharisee hit Jesus with the question

why didn't you wash your hands first? And COVID wasn't

even a thing. Then he said, why didn't you wash

your hands first? Then Jesus lets the pharisee have it.

He said, you make your plates and your cups clean,

but your hearts are evil and full of violence. You tithe,

but you don't care about loving God.

You don't care.

About justice add to people's loads without lifting a finger

to help them. Jesus goes just He just goes out

calling them out on their hypocrisy. He exposes them at

the table. But what's so good about our God is

that Jesus didn't expose the Pharisees because he hated He

exposed their sin because of how much he loved them.

I can remember when I was a kid, and we've

all been there. My mom she would make lima beans

and I hated lima beans, and I remember we would

have all this other good food and then I would

leave all the lima beans on our plate. And my dad,

the best dad in the world in my opinion, he

would tell me, son, you're not getting up from that

table until you finish those vegetables.

And I would.

You know, you know how kids do. They try to

fight it. You know, they're just sitting there and then

they try to like, you know, slither out of the chair,

you know, hide under the table for a little you know,

I gotta go to the bathroom. No, you don't sit there.

And he and he knew, he knew all the tricks,

and he was like, you have to sit there and

eat because those vegetables are good for you. And at

the time I didn't like I didn't want that. I

didn't like the taste, but it was good for me.

And sometimes we sit at the table and we start

pointing out how good we are.

We've all been there.

Oh I am the best, I know everything, I'm I'm

important because I'm assistant to the regional manager director who

cares whatever. Nobody no, no, Like, we just sit there

and we start. Lord, can you believe that they made

that decision? They didn't even ask me how I felt.

I'm the I'm the smartest person who's ever lived. Lord,

we get we we start hyping this up to God

and and and I think Jesus is probably going, okay,

uh huh. But there's a point where I think Jesus

gets really tired of listening to how good we think

we are. And I just picture Jesus pulling up a

chair and scooting really close to us, like where our

knees are touching, and he's looking at looking at us,

and he goes, hey, it's a good thing you didn't

lose your temper last week at work.

Huh.

I just I just feel like he he looks deep

into our souls and he says, how about you stop

using that reciousness that's really just as filthy rags. To

stop comparing yourself to others. We all have our own issues.

And if you would get that plank out of your

eye for one second and just listen and realize that

I'm God and not you and those people that you're

sitting here blasting and trying to keep your thumb down

on that I need those people to build a kingdom.

And we can get mad, we can get upset. That's

where we're faced with the choice at the table. We

can get up, we can slam the chair down, and

we can storm away from God because he's called us

out and we realize that we don't realize that he's

doing it out of love. Our pride can get in

the way at the table. And that's what I feel

like Jesus talks to me most. This is when I

have a lot of pride. Jesus makes us eat our veggies,

and it's important that we don't start putting up walls.

I've been there in my life. I've put up walls

and been like, you know, I'm just I'm mad and

I'm not gonna deal with this. And I know that

that's easier said than done. I believe me, I get it.

But sometimes Jesus wants to expose some things so he

can take us just a little bit deeper. He wants

to expose some some pain in our lives and some

things that we're struggling with, not because he hates us,

but because he wants to draw us closer to him.

And I get it right, the religious God, I'm doing

so much. I'm doing so much, and and God, I

think here's that. He says, Okay, you're doing a lot

for me, and that is good. But can I can

I say something that you're doing for me is outweighing

your being with me. You're doing all these things, you're

checking all these box mister and missus religious, I hear you.

Thank you for serving every single week.

Thank you.

But if we if we will get to a place

of pride and get to a place of thinking that

we're better when we're doing all these things and we're

checking all these boxes. But the boxes that we're forgetting

to check are spiritual disciplines. You're doing for me is

outweighing your being with me. And Jesus asked, when's the

last time that you actually sat down and communed with

me at the table? The religious, they get a little

bit of tough love. Moving on to the next one.

The next chair is the outcast. In Matthew nine ten

through thirteen, the Bible says, while Jesus was having a

meal at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and other outcasts

came and joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.

Some Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, why does

your teacher eat with such people. Jesus heard them and answered,

people who are well don't need a doctor, but only

the sick.

Go and find out what.

They meant by this year when it said I want kindness,

not animal sacrifices, I have not come to call respectable

people but outcasts. And if you don't know, Matthew, one

of Jesus' disciples, was actually an outcast. He was a

tax collector, which kind of made him a social pariah.

People didn't want to hang out with him. And now

we see Jesus sitting at a table with such people.

And from the POV, from the point of view of

the Pharisees, those outcasts were such nerds, they were such weirdos.

There were such geeks, such hippies, such emos, such rednecks,

such Republicans, such democrats, such fill in the blank. From

the Pharisees, that was what they were. They were such,

and Jesus said, I see them as such people, outcasts

as defined by society. But Jesus was ready to use

those outcasts to build a kingdom and Jesus. I love

this because the Bible says that Jesus and his disciples.

That's cool because that's kind of like us. They were

sitting at the table. It's important that when people come

here that they find Jesus. That's numero uno. That's the

most important thing. But I love that the Bible says

that Jesus sat at the table with his disciples because

it's it's important that people come here and get connected

to God and they get connected to you. Jesus wanted

them connected to the body, connected to the church. And

I would imagine, right, the disciples were humans. We always

say Bible characters, and it kind of takes the humanity

out of some of these biblical these people.

In the Bible.

But they were people just like you and me, And

I would imagine that at first, the disciples probably thought

it was super awkward sitting at the table, were like,

I can imagine them whispering between themselves. Do you know

what this is gonna do to us? People are gonna

think we're crazy, we're following this guy.

I mean, this is.

Gonna be We're We're not supposed to hang out with

these people. This is a mark against our social record.

There were people that they had very link common with,

and we've all been there. But if we take the

time to listen to the story of somebody that may

be deemed as an outcast, if we take the time

to sit down at the table with somebody, the outcast

may be a little hesitant to sit at the table

with the Lord because they may say I'm not made

for that. But Jesus is at the table and he

looks at them and he says, I made you exactly

the way that you were supposed to be. Jesus has

a place for the outcasts at the table, and we

sit there with him, and we love these people and

we help them, regardless of what they look like, where

they come from, what they're interested in. We're called to

be at the table with Jesus with the outcasts. Moving

on to our last one, see I told you we're

rolling fast, youth pastor stuff. The last one is the

broken and in Luke seven we see a very prominent

story Jesus again at a table with a group of people,

disciples and pharisees. They were all around the table and

in walks a woman with a reputation. She walks in

and everybody immediately knows this woman is a sinner. The

Bible says that when she heard that Jesus was at

the table, she went and she grabbed a very expensive

jar of perfume. And I can just picture this as

at this time, you know, g Jesus is very popular,

and he's at the table with these people, and it's

probably a packed room, you know, workers and stuff, and

they're all sitting around, and I can just picture this

woman making her way into this room and kind of

pushing by some people trying to get into it. And

the Bible says that she stood behind Jesus weeping, and

in this moment, I can imagine all of her past failures,

all of her trauma, all the things that she's been

struggling with, all of her broken pieces were exposed in

that moment as she stood behind Jesus weeping. And again,

because we know that these were real people, I can

imagine that she probably thought for a few minutes, what

am I doing here? Just a flood of emotions, but

instead of fleeing, instead of running away with that brokenness,

instead of retreating, instead of feeling like she's beyond help.

Instead of fleeing, she falls at the feet of Jesus.

She worshiped him by putting the oil on him and

washing his feet with her tears, enjoying them with her hair.

And what a beautiful picture of a sinner falling at

the feet of a loving God. And Jesus looked at her,

and he said, your sins are forgiven. Your faith has

saved you. Go in peace. There's a powerful point to

somebody who feels like they don't have any faith left,

that falling at the feet of Jesus is all the

faith you need. Jesus has a place for the broken.

The broken says, I can't make it, but Jesus says

with me, you can. Don't worry about your reputation, don't

worry about your past, don't worry about what other what

other people are saying about you. Don't worry about what

they're putting on social media about you. Don't don't worry

about that. I got you. And it's worth noting that

this woman. The Bible says that she came with and

her hair was down. She was trying his feet with

her hair. And in this culture, because we can't misread

Scripture through our western eyes, it was it was written

for us. It was the Bible's written for us, not

to us. So we have to understand the culture in

the time, right, So it's it's very interesting that the

Bible notes that her hair was down, and in that culture,

a woman with hair that was down was considered someone

to be of loose morals. That's not the case here,

So don't I'm not saying to say that, but I

love that the Bible points that out because what that

says to me is she didn't worry about getting it

all together before she came to God. She didn't worry

about making sure that everything unds the right. But how

many times have you have you talked to somebody maybe

you were in this position, well, well i'm gonna I'm

gonna come to church, but but I just got to

get myself a little bit better.

No no, no, no, no, no, you.

Don't have to do that. Fall at the feet of

a loving God. You have a chair at the table.

If you're broken, you have And maybe maybe I'm not

just talking to somebody who maybe you know, is new

to all of church and and just learned about Jesus.

But we can be broken people and then in walking

with God for years and we can still be broken.

And Jesus keeps that seat for us at the table.

You don't have to you don't have to wait. There

is a seat for the broken. There there's a seat

for the alcoholic. There's a seat for the porn addict.

There's a seat for the homosexual. There's a seat for

the drug addict. There's a seat for the abused. There's

a seat for the depressed. There's a seat for the widow.

There's a seat for the single parent. There's a seat

for people who have church hurt. There's a seat for

people who are in brokenness. And all are welcome at

the table. And what's amazing about God is when you

sit at this table and you bring your pieces, he

can send you. He says, go in peace. And I

like to play with words a little bit. And I

would change that from being pe a CE to p

e I CE because what He's going to do is

take you and put you back together. Music team. Can

y'all come back for me? When you sit at the

Lord's table, you will find rescue. You'll find restoration, revelation

and relationship. Rescue is salvation. If you're here this morning

and you need God to save you.

He can do it.

We believe in repentance and baptism in Jesus name and

God filling us with the Holy Spirit. We believe that

we believe in restoration. Jesus puts pieces back together. You

can find restoration at the table. If you need revelation

your life, you can find that at the table. Sometimes

I think we over complicate relationship building and communion with God,

especially those I've been in church my whole life, and

I'm thankful for that. I I've made very goofy and

dumb decisions, but thankful to again a dad who even

when I was making those goofy decisions Monday to Saturday,

on Sunday, my dad would always you know, he drugged

me down to the altar sometimes and he would say

I remember. He would be like, this is where, this

is where you always need to come, This is where,

this is where you need to remember where God. And

he wasn't beating me over the head. He didn't love,

but he was like, you never forget about this altar.

I think one story to point out is after Jesus

was resurrected, he walked with his disciples and he he

was with He was with two disciples, and the Bible

says that he was like supernaturally shielding himself from them

being able to recognize him. And he walked with these

disciples all day long and they were they were like Jesus.

First when he got there, he was like, why are

you so sad? And they were like, we're obviously not

from here. There was this guy named Jesus, walked on water,

healed a bunch of people. It was pretty awesome. Well

he's dead, and he was like, oh, tell me about

Then they started talking it and then Jesus was telling

them about scripture, and then the Bible says that there

was some stuff inside him that were like, oh wow,

this guy knows what he's talking about. And they came

to the end of the day and the end of

the road and they stopped and they were like, hey,

why don't you come in and eat with us? And

they Jesus went in and ate with him, and and

they didn't realize who he was this whole time, supernaturally hidden.

But the Bible says that when they sat down at

the table and they broke bread with him, their eyes

were open to see who Jesus really was. I can

tell you as somebody again who's walked with Jesus for

a while, and there's plenty of people in here who've

been walking with Jesus for a lot longer than I have.

Every time we sit down to commune with him, we

realize him on a different level. We realize him. There

are things that I read the Bible. I'm like, I've

read that scripture twenty seven fifty twelve times and I

just saw that, and that's what keeps me coming back.

We're gonna wrap this thing up. If you don't mind,

would you stand with me all across this place. I'm

gonna tell you one more story. This is parable that

Jesus told of a great feast, parable of the banquet.

And Jesus was telling some people and he said this story.

He said, this master was hosting this banquet, this feast,

and he said, I want I want everybody to go

out and invite as many people as you can. Go

out and invite him. Tell him to come, go invite

the a listeners, go invite the celebs, the who's, who's,

the whatever's. And the servant goes out and he goes

and he tries to find people, and it was one

excuse after the other. It was, oh, I just got married,

or oh I just bought some land, oh this, oh that,

I can't make it. And he goes back to the

master or the servant goodness. The servant goes back to

the Master and he says, hey, I went and I

told everybody that you said to invite, and none of them.

None of them can make it. None of them can

make it. And the Master says, Okay, now here's what

I want you to do. I want you to go

out into the highways and the hedges, to the byways,

go to the slums, go to the places where when

you pull up to the stop sign you lock your

door because you're a little scared. I want you to

go to the places that a lot of people won't go.

I want you to invite the people that sit by

themselves at the lunch table. I want you to go

invite the people that are a little socially awkward and

they're hard to talk to. I want you to go

invite the people that have a lot going on in

their lives. I want you to go invite the people

that you don't even like. Go and invite them. Go

invite those people that need a family, and I want

you to tell them. Their table is ready. And Jesus

is waiting at the table. Single parent, your table is ready.

It's hard. I can understand it. I can understand that

the struggle every single day, sick, hurting. Your table is ready.

If you're dealing with a diagnosis, or if you're dealing

with something in your life, God can heal it.

I believe it. Your table is ready.

Outcast, you feel like you're just on the outside of

the social norms, are outside of society, and you don't

quite fit in anywhere. And Jesus is sitting there and

he's saying, I have touch for you right here at

the table. If you're broken, if you just can't get

it together, your life's falling apart. Maybe you're making bad

decision after bad decision. Maybe the decisions of someone else

are causing you to break. The table is ready for

you this morning. Faithless, your table is ready. Addict, your

table is ready. Here lonely, Jesus has a chair for you. Fearful,

your table is ready. If you're bitter, your table is ready.

If you're struggling, your table is ready. If you're abused,

your table is ready. If you're depressed, if you're a doubter,

your table is ready this morning. And as it begin

to sing, I just feel so strong that I've I

know that we've probably hit somewhere for somebody this morning

that needs to just pull up a chair at the table,

and we can do that right here. We can do

that at this altar, and I know that I will.

If everybody wants to come, that's perfect, if you whatever.

I don't want to embarrass anyone, but what I do

challenge you to do is that when you step out,

leave the leave the facade behind, leave the mask back,

and just come up here and just be real with God.

We went through a lot of struggles when we first

moved here. I don't want to get into all that,

but there was there was some things that we dealt

with and it was very tough. It was very tough,

and I had a lot of talks. My wife and

I had a lot of talks with our pastor. And

I was the type of person to push things down,

I kind of stealing them that way. I don't want

to talk about it, I want to face it. It'll

be okay after a while.

And I would.

I had conversations with my pastor and he said, he said, Ryan,

going to ask you a question. He's like, do you

believe that God is big?

And I was like the biggest. He was like, do

you believe that God can handle anything? Yes?

Amen, Hellelujah? And he said do you think that God

can't handle your emotions? And I was like, oof, never

thought of that. But God can handle whatever it is

that you've got going on, and we've all got junk

in our lives.

God can do it for you.

This morning, the question is are you going to pull

up a seat at the table so this altar is

open this morning if you would like to step out,

and when you step out, I just want you to

be over.

Thank you so much for being with us today. We

hope you were blessed in some way by the message.

To learn more about us, check out www dot Mylifecitychurch

dot org, or you can contact us at info at

Mylifecitychurch dot org. Thank you once again for joining us,

and we hope you have a great week.