Here For Him | Meals Together | Coleton Segars

It is good to see everybody.

I'm really glad that y'all are here.

Thanks for joining us today.

Teaching text.

August uh mentioned it earlier.

It's uh Acts 2, 42 through 47.

And this is what Luke writes about the early church.

He says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

And every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

And then they say it again.

They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with joy and singleness of heart.

Joy and singleness of heart, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

We're in a series right now titled Hear for Him.

And what we're doing is really seeking to just lay a foundation for the things that the church has historically done over the last 2,000 years.

The reason is, there's a number of them, but one of the largest or most significant reasons that we wanted to do this is because things can just become rote.

And when they become rote memory or rote action or anything like that, they lose some of the nostalgia and some of the importance and significance and the substance.

And we just don't want to see that happen in the church.

I've had a number of conversations with people that have said, you know, I've never really thought about why we do worship or why we preach from certain texts or why we do some of these things.

And uh and that's been my experience too.

I didn't grow up in the church at all.

I was a happy pagan until about 17 and came to faith and was in and out of church a little bit in my teenage years, but really began going and pursuing Jesus after I was 17.

And um and so I don't have any history that's that grew old.

Everything was kind of new as I was I was going into it.

And so I had to learn on the fly.

It was like going to church and then trying to realize why do we do this and asking those questions.

And I experienced a lot of people answering those questions, going, why do we do this at church?

And they go, I don't know, this is what we do.

And I don't like that answer.

I don't think it's a good answer.

I want to know why we do it because some of what we do is weird, and I'd like to know why we do it that way.

Um, and so this is just a space for us to look at and seeking to understand everything that we do here at church is for someone else.

Everything that we do here in a worship service is for him, it is for Jesus.

And so just looking at reading the scriptures, praying, why we have leaders in our church, deacons, elders, um, why we eat together, and that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

Um, and it's not just we eat together because the early church did it, I think there's something here for us as well, and I want to look at that.

Um but I started thinking about the importance of meals and like eating together, and I started to think about uh the most significant meals that I've had in my life, and it normally wasn't about the food, but really what happened around the table that I was there.

Uh one of the first was um that came to my mind was I was invited to a dinner party by a man named Larry and his wife Shiri.

And at that dinner party, I met this girl for the first time, and she sat across from me, and my mind just blew off.

You know, I was like, I just couldn't believe that I was sitting across from this beautiful girl that was talking to me, and she was funny and confident, beautiful.

And I was, I I said words.

I'm pretty sure I put words, letters together to form them in sentences.

And uh I just I was dating a girl, I'd been dating a girl for like two years, but I sat across from this girl, and uh that was not my girlfriend, and I was like, Well, I know what I'm doing when I get home.

I'm breaking up with that girl, and I'm gonna pursue this one for the rest of my life.

And that's when I did, and I married her.

Um, but it was at dinner.

Like I was just thankfully invited.

I was included in a group uh, you know, text, like, come to dinner.

I was like, okay.

And uh man, met that girl, changed my life.

Um the one of the funniest, I guess one of the best stories that uh of a meal that shaped me in my life was trying to get Rainey to date me uh after that initial meal.

I called this meal our first date.

Uh, she was currently dating someone else.

So for her, it wasn't that it was a very platonic friend zone thing that I was going into, which was fine.

But I flew to Chicago to like be with her for one meal and like just go to this meal, hoping that like, oh, it's gonna be this amazing thing.

When I get there, I realize she's dating someone else, and I'm like, oh, so it's not what I thought that it was gonna be.

I thought it was gonna end with like this moment, and it didn't.

But we had this meal and we go to downtown Chicago and go to this little sandwich shop, and uh I get there and I see her, I'm like peeking through the glass, just swooning, and she's reading the Scarlet Pimpernell because you know that's what you do, and she's brilliant.

And uh and I'm like, I didn't know that was a book.

But um, so we're going, and I I walk in and we, you know, I'm like, hey, let's get some food, and I was like, I'll pay for it.

And she's like, no, this isn't a date.

And I'm like, oh, cool, just stab me in the heart.

Uh she's like, I'll buy my own food, and I was like, okay, that's fine, whatever.

Um, but we had such a great time.

Like we sat down, we ate our soups and our sandwiches and whatever, and we chatted, we talked about nothing and everything, and it was beautiful, it was wonderful.

And then after that, we went ice skating and it was fun, and that was it.

It was like friend zone handshake, see you later.

And I flew back to Memphis, and that was that.

Um, but little did I know, the next day she goes on that exact same date, really, with her actual boyfriend, and I found out later, months later, that she had a better time with me than she had with that guy.

So she broke up with that dude because she had a better time with me.

And so that was a strong meal, in my opinion.

I'm really good at dinner, apparently.

But I do think, I do think that meals are significant.

I think if you were to ask, if we were to ask you the question, like, what's the most significant substantial meal that you've ever had in your life?

Like, what has happened in your life based on the meals that you've had?

I think we could all go around to some extent.

And just to share some stories, and you go, like, man, my life came back together over a meal, or I met this person over this meal, or I got this job based on this conversation over a meal.

Meals are just important.

The things that happen around the table are really significant.

And I think Jesus understood this.

I think consistently he modeled the importance of meals together.

Robert Karras in his book, Eating Your Way Through Luke's Gospel, which is this really short book, and it's really it's more academic than anything else.

Um, but it's a really clever title, Eating Your Way Through Luke's Gospel.

This is what he says.

And we would normally have all these quotes on the screen, because I have a bunch of things I want to say about food from other people, but I'm gonna read them rather slowly just so that we get them.

But this is what Robert Karas says about Jesus.

He says, in Luke's gospel alone, Jesus is either on his way to a meal, he's at a meal, or he's leaving a meal on his way to another meal.

The man ate some food.

Like he was kind of like criticized for being a glutton and a drunkard.

Like, that's my king, that's the one I serve.

And uh I just I love that idea.

To him, meals were super important.

Tim Chester, uh, in his book, A Meal with Jesus, um, talks about how Jesus used meals in the life of people.

And this is what he says.

That there are three statements.

Uh, the Son of Man came.

And he says, Jesus says about himself, the Son of Man himself came to seek and to save the lost.

And then he says, the Son of Man came to not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

And then he says this he says, The Son of Man came eating and drinking.

And he says, those first two statements are a reason of purpose.

Why did I come?

I came to seek and to save the lost.

I came to I came to give my life a ransom for many.

But the son of man came eating and drinking.

That third phrase doesn't tell us why he came, it tells us how he seeks to accomplish his purpose.

Eating and drinking is Jesus' what uh how he's going to accomplish his purpose.

How did Jesus extend the kingdom into people's lives by inviting them into relationship with him normally over a meal?

And so we just use the table as this space to be a space where people could just meet with him, get to know him, figure out what God is like, to share their story and be known by this God who's come to dwell among them.

And it was just a space for them that he wanted to use.

And so what I want to do today is just give you three things that I want for this meal.

I don't, I do want it to be a potluck, and I want us to bring food and just enjoy and eat our faces off with food that's gonna put us in an early grave.

That do want to do that.

But uh I really do want this to be something that that mimics the early church, that aligns to the vision that Jesus had for the meals that he was partaking in with people.

I want it to be a space where it's not just a potluck, but it's like, man, we're there's an encountering thing here that's happening for us as a community.

And so, three things that I want for our meals together.

The first is that I want our meals here to build deep friendships among us.

Deep friendships among us.

The early church, it says this in the text, the early church, they were together all the time.

They ate with joy, they ate with singleness of heart.

They were constantly unified and deeply bound together.

And I was talking to Matt and Christy at dinner on Friday night around a table, and uh I was like, I know I make the joke a lot of like, I want to be best friends with you people.

I was like, but we genuinely mean that.

Like we really, really want to be close with this community.

Um part of the reason coming to a smaller church was for that purpose and knowing some of the people here, wanting to build deep relationships with people here.

And the truth is, I think we need that.

I think all of us need that.

I think y'all don't, and I don't want to sound like, please be my friend.

I don't want to sound desperate.

It's not that.

Uh, but I because I do think that there's this space for us where we actually really need to be close together with one another.

Uh, there's this man named Johan Hari, and he did this TED talk about addiction and the importance of community and connection.

And he just mainly about this other thing, but then he just has this anecdote that I wanted to share with us about a study that he had read, and he says, the studies reveal that the number of close friends the average American believes that they can call on in a crisis has been declining since the 1950s.

The number of friends has been declining since the 1950s.

But on the other hand, the amount of floor space in an individual home has been steadily increasing.

Number of friends decreasing, floor space increasing.

And he says, to me, this is a metaphor for the choice we've made as a culture.

We've traded friends for floor space.

We've replaced connection with stuff, and the result is that we are one of the loneliest societies that's ever been.

Now, I don't know if he's like a good person to have at a dinner probably.

Sounds like a downer to me a little bit.

But I do think that he's on to something.

That he's not just randomly talking about this thing.

Like he's he's like, I've just researched this and found the number of friends a person has that they can call on in times of crisis, not just people that they go to dinner with, but like, I need somebody to help me.

That number is just declining at a strong rate.

But we're buying bigger houses and getting more stuff.

It's just our stuff doesn't come to us and comfort us like a friend could when someone dies.

Like our iPhone just isn't there for us the way that somebody actually can be.

And there's this space where it's like, man, the table where we're together and we're doing this thing, where it's supposed to develop deep, abiding relationships and friendships with us.

And I want that to be a space for us.

I don't want us to get lost in the, well, I got a bunch of stuff, but no friends.

I got a lot of friends on Facebook or Instagram, a lot of followers and all that stuff, but but nobody that's really close to me.

I don't think I've ever had a Facebook friend come and visit me after my uh sister's husband died.

None of them did that.

But I had real friends come and visit me, I had people.

And so I think there's this space for us where we need, as the culture becomes more individualistic, we're a hyper-individualistic culture, is what they call us.

As the culture becomes more individualistic, we need to become more connected, deeply bound to one another.

And I have a I have a lot of pastor friends, uh, people who give me a lot of advice and say, like, hey, don't get too close with your people.

Like, don't get too close with the people in your church.

Like, you have a job to do, you can't be friends with them.

You need to find friends outside the church.

And I understand that they've been burned by the church and people in their church, and it's coming from a good spot.

Like they're actually trying to help me.

Um, and I want to be wise and listen to the people who have gone before me.

But the issue with that advice, every time I get it, is I don't see any of that advice in the scriptures.

Like they don't point to a text and go, you know, the Bible says, thou shalt not get be friends with their church people.

Like it doesn't, there's nothing there.

But what I actually do see is Paul saying things that are actually really sweet about the people that he is in ministry with, the people he's serving in their churches.

This is what he says.

This is in Romans.

I'm just gonna read a couple of them.

He says, Greet my dear friend.

There it is, right there.

Greet my dear friend Epinetus, who was the first convert in Asia.

Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord, greet Urbanus, a co-worker in Christ, my dear friend Stachus, greet him.

Then he says, Greet Rufus, who's chosen in the Lord, and greet his mother, who has also been a mother to me, like a mother to me.

Like he's just constantly going, like, I have dear friends in the church, dear friends in the church.

I have I have someone in the church that's been, that's basically become a mom to me.

That's how close I am.

It's the Apostle Paul talking about how close he is to the people in the church.

And so to me, when they're going, like, yeah, don't get too close to them, you have a job to do, I'm going, yeah, I I hear you.

I just don't see that.

And I think for the Apostle Paul, what he would say is like, be as close as you possibly can.

Yes, you will get burned and they will hurt you from time to time, and you'll hurt them because the people you love the most can hurt you the most.

But don't let that be the reason why you're not close with your people.

Be close with them.

I have dear friends, I have all I have a second mother in the church.

And so if you're a lady in the church, don't get nervous.

I'm not gonna come to you like, mother me, please, I'm not gonna do that.

But I do think that it's sweet.

And I do think the scriptures actually testify to this idea.

Paul is constantly saying, I long to be with you.

He's writing letters to them, going, I long to be with you.

I'm praying that the Lord will open the door that I can come to you.

I don't want, and then in one space he's like, I'm not just gonna, I was gonna pass through and just pop in, but I didn't want to do that because I needed to spend real time with you people.

I need to sit with you for a while, I need to hear your stories and encourage you, I need you to encourage me.

He's constantly asking, I want to be with you, I want to spend time with you.

And so for us, as Rainey and me and just this church in general, I want that to be the space that we enter into here.

And I think to some extent it is.

Like we we love being together, and I love that.

And I have to tell you like, please sit down, please sit down, we have to continue the service, please sit down.

So there's a space in there where it already exists.

But I do want that to continue and to build and to grow deeper and deeper.

Max Lakato, I'm gonna skip that one.

I'm gonna read this one instead.

Sky Jathani.

Sky Jathani says this, he says, our tables that we sit around are to be operating tables, the place where broken souls are made whole again.

When we lower our defenses, when we remove our facades and our peepholes, and we begin to be truly present with one another, then the healing power of the gospel can begin its work in our lives.

I think there's a space here that exists around a table where the friendships that we enter into and the stories that we share and the encouragement that's shared from others to us.

It's supposed to be this thing, yes, that deepens our friendships and our relationships, but it just brings healing power that actually shapes us and encourages us and comes alongside us to pick us up and allow us to continue moving forward.

And that's what I want.

I want that for the space here.

And so that's the first one.

I want to be best friends with you people, even if you're brand new and that's weird for you.

I want to be good friends with you.

I thought that would be funnier.

Okay, the second one.

The second, I want our meal together to display the good news of what Jesus has done.

I want our meal to be a space that actually displays the gospel and what Jesus has done.

Robert Karris, in his book, again, he says that Jesus got himself killed because of his eating habits.

Like he just ate with people and everybody hated it.

They hated who he ate with, they hated how he ate.

You're a glutton and a drunkard, you're constantly partying, you're partying with the wrong people.

Like, what are you doing?

And he was eating with the tax collectors and the sinners and the prostitutes and the in-class and the outcast, like everybody, the Samaritans, he was eating with everybody.

And there was the religious people in his day, the church folks of his day, were like, we don't eat with those people.

And he's like, I do.

And God wants to as well.

And so he just began eating with these people, and he got himself killed by who he ate with.

Tim Chester in his book, he says, When Jesus eats with the tax collectors and sinners, when he eats with them, the message is clear.

He's come for the losers, he's come for the people on the margins.

He's come for the people who've made a mess of their lives.

Jesus has come for you.

And if he goes to the bottom of society or whatever, then it's like, then everybody's included.

And that's what he shows in how he eats.

And I think this is this really beautiful space that we have this opportunity in a church where you can sit there across the table from people that like, I would never normally eat with you, but here I do.

And I want that to be what our meals look like.

That when people come in from the outside, that they would almost look at our tables and be like, why are you eating with that person?

Like y'all have nothing in common.

Why are you eating with them?

Why you don't even you're a Democrat.

He's a Republican.

Why are you doing it?

It's 2024, folks.

Like, why are you eating with that?

Ugh, like why?

I want it to look like that.

Because that's because Jesus overcomes and he's greater than our political beliefs.

He's greater than anything that we could possibly do.

And we have more in common than we don't.

And he over he overarchingly like supersedes any of those things, and he's more important than that.

I want our tables to look like that.

Y'all don't make the same amount of money, y'all don't eat at the same places out there.

Why are you eating together now?

It's because Jesus has changed my life.

Jesus is my king, and he's king around this table, and I follow him.

This is how he ate, and so this is how I'll eat.

I want our tables to look like that.

The early church looked like this.

Rich and poor ate together.

They constantly, all of them they potlucked it too.

And the rich brought their potluck style food, and the poor brought theirs, and everybody ate and had plenty.

Gentiles and Jews would eventually eat together.

Women were served by men versus the other way around that it wasn't culture.

Slaves ate with their slave masters, and the slave masters served their slaves.

Like it was completely unorthodox, and it was completely different and countercultural to what was going on in their day.

But the table looked different in the church.

And it was supposed to be this beacon of hope to the culture outside, to everybody going like, this is what it's supposed to look like.

The kingdom of God, everybody is equal.

We're all sinners, loved by the friend of sinners, and he loves us, and so we're gonna mimic and reveal, really, reveal what it's like to be a part of the kingdom of God.

And that's what I want our tables to look like.

And I think truthfully, you're probably sitting in that capacity right now, but I want us to actually pursue that.

I want us not to be in a space where we sit with our best friends and only our best friends, but we actually take a risk and step out and sit with people that's like, I don't know that I have anything in common with them, but we're gonna eat food together, and I have that in common with them.

And so I want that to be a space for us.

This is how the early church did it, and this is how I want to do it.

For Jesus, as John Tyson says, for Jesus, the table is used to announce God's great welcome.

I want our table on Sundays, once a month, to announce God's great welcome to anyone and everyone who wants to have a seat at the table because everybody does.

I think one of the reasons the church grew so quickly in the early church, and it says they were the Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved.

I think in reality, the Lord felt safe to send anybody and everybody to this church.

Everybody has a seat at the table, and so he's just constantly flooding people in there.

Go, you'll love it there.

Well, I don't have enough, you'll be fine.

I don't know if I agree with, you'll be fine.

Go in there.

You're gonna love it there.

And so the Lord is adding to their number daily because he's like, that's a safe place.

I've I've found a space to send my people.

And I think for us, we need we can be a church where the Lord finds a safe place to send people that are just desperate for community and desperate to be loved.

And in a culture where it's not, where you say the wrong thing and you're canceled, it's like, not here.

Say the wrong thing.

We might steal a piece of chicken off your plate, but we're gonna love you anyways.

I don't know why I said that.

That was weird.

Some of it's just flowing, you know, whatever.

But I want our meals to be a space that reflect what Jesus has done for us.

There's no one more different than God is from you.

We were sinners and he is holy.

And he chose to become like a sinner.

And he literally took on our sin.

That's what he did.

And so we need to sit with people who are completely different than us because we we reveal and reflect what Jesus has actually done for us.

He became like us so that he could ultimately lead us into freedom and to save us.

He could change our lives by becoming like us.

He's not like us, but he became like us so that we could be invited to the table of the kingdom.

And I think for us, we have this space every week or every week, every month, where we can do that around a table.

So I want our meals to reflect the gospel.

Sit with people that you don't normally sit with.

We're not gonna have a seating chart.

Y'all are adults.

Like that'd be weird if we did.

Like, you have to sit here.

We're not gonna do that.

Um, but I encourage you to do those things.

Get to know people you normally never get to know because they just you would never rub shoulders or bump into those people.

Where you eat isn't where they're they eat, and it's just never gonna happen.

You may be a vegan, it's like, I don't see any of you people at my food place, like nobody eats there.

Wow, that was not a good joke.

Okay.

Whatever you eat that nobody else eats, but here we have a space where we can do those things.

I'm gonna stop making up random jokes.

I want friendships to develop with people that pre-Jesus you, pre-Jesus you, you would never have that friendship.

Like the only reason you have that friendship is because Jesus has done something in your heart and in your life.

I say this a lot, and I meant to ask him about talking about it today, but I forgot.

But to me, Colin's in my friendship is that way.

Like pre-Jesus Colton, I'm not hanging out with Colin.

I used people.

I had people in my life that made my life better in a way that could make my sport life.

I was a jock, I played baseball.

Anybody that was not a part of my team and couldn't help my team win, I don't have time for you.

And pre-Jesus Colton was that way.

And so to me, like Colin and I actually we have a ton in common.

We didn't know that, but I never would have pursued that relationship.

I would have seen him and he's into art and I've been like, sorry, man, do you play baseball?

No?

Okay, then we're done here.

But Jesus has changed my life and he pursued me when I was completely different than him.

And so we have this relationship, and now it's really sweet.

And we actually have more in common than we ever actually I ever would have known.

But Jesus has done something in me.

I want our friendships and our tables to look like that.

That they look like Jesus has actually done something in our lives.

I want it to be where no one could walk in and tell who's best friends with who.

It's like, I don't know.

They seem to really love each other.

I don't know who knows each other better than whoever.

I want it to look like that.

Alan Hirsch says that uh through our meals, we can eat our way into experiencing what the kingdom of God is like.

You can eat your way into experiencing what the kingdom of God is like.

And I think our what he means by that in some ways is like our tables just look like the kingdom.

They look like the early churches' tables.

Like people who would never be together are together here and they share and they get to know one another and they're known by each other, and there's deep bonds that are formed here.

So Jesus changed the world by who he ate with, and I want our tables to reflect those things as well.

That's the second.

So first, I want to be best friends with you people.

Uh, second is I want our tables to actually reflect and be a reminder of like this is how Jesus has pursued us.

I don't just sit with the people I know, I sit with the people that I don't know because I want to get to know them.

That's what Jesus has done for me.

And then the third, I want this meal that we eat to remind us of how good God actually is.

I want it to remind us of how good He actually is.

There's this um space in Deuteronomy where the Lord is giving commands to the people of like, here, you need to go and do this.

Um, and one of them is on tithing the food, which sounds like just a terrible command.

Like, who wants to?

You can almost skip over it, like in that in Deuteronomy, and be like, I don't know why he's talking about this.

But it's really beautiful what he's actually asking them to do.

So I want to read what he says.

He's he's telling them to take a tenth of their food throughout the year.

Like just set aside a tenth of your best food.

And this is what he says Be sure to set aside a tenth of all your fields and produce, and then go, take it, and go to the place the Lord has chosen to dwell.

And there I want you to eat the tithe of your grain, I want you to drink your new wine, and I want you to take the choicest of your herds and flocks and eat it in the presence of the Lord and rejoice.

And by this you will learn to stand in awe of the Lord your God always.

And I love that, but I want you to notice what he's telling them to do.

He's not like, hey, I need your stuff.

Like, give me a tithe.

Like go to our box in the back and throw your stuff in there.

He's like, it's not that.

He's like, I do want you to tithe.

I do want you to bring a tenth of all of your stuff to me, all your food, all your wine.

But he's like, but I want you, what I want you to do is I don't want you to give it away.

I want you to eat it.

I just want to eat it with you.

And so there's this space where he's like, I want you to have a meal with me, but I don't want you to just have any meal.

Take the best of your flocks, the choicest meats you got, take the best of your wine, the sweetest drinks you got, bring them to me, and let the best meal of your year be with me.

I want to be known and remembered by your best meal.

And when you think, what's God like, you're like, I don't know, he tastes like sweet wine and fatty meats.

That's what I want.

Like I he wants to be reminded of like what's he like?

That's like he's like a feast.

And so when you think of him and the kids are like, when do we get to go take the tithe to the space so we can eat the sweet food?

It's like they're like desiring to go see God because they're like the best meal of my year happens with him.

And that's how he's he's like, he's like, I want you to learn who I am just by setting aside the best stuff and come and eat it in my presence.

I don't want you to think of me as someone who's awful and terrible and taken from you.

I actually want you to see me as someone who is a God of abundance, who's blessed you with the food that you have.

And now when you eat the best meal that you have, you're eating that sucker with me, and you're thrilled to do it.

And you look forward to it every year.

Like, what do you look forward to?

Being in his presence and eating that food.

And I think that's how he wants to be remembered, and I want our meal time to be like that.

The meal is a time, and the food itself is a space to be reminded of God's goodness.

Um, I love what Tim Chester in his book says about uh a meal with Jesus says about food.

Uh he says, food is a central ingredient in our experience of God's goodness.

And he says, think of your favorite food, steak perhaps, or Thai green curry, or ice cream, or homemade apple pie.

He says, God could have just made fuel for your bodies.

He could have just made us be sustained by some kind of very savory biscuit.

Instead, he gave us a vast and wonderful array of foods.

And then I love this.

The world is more delicious than it needs to be.

We have a superabundance of divine goodness and generosity.

God went over the top.

We don't need the variety that we enjoy, but he gave it to us out of sheer exuberant joy and grace.

I love that idea.

The world is more delicious than it needs to be.

We don't need to taste something and be like, oh my, that was the best.

I've never, you have to try this.

Like we don't, that doesn't add anything to us other than it's like, man, it's just his goodness on a plate or on a fork.

Like it's just something about him that he's like, I want you to know who I am and the nuance of steak and then this and that.

I want you to understand that I am multifaceted, but I am delicious.

Like I am great.

You should get to know me.

He's trying to display his goodness for us in the food that we eat and the meals that we have.

And so I don't know what we're about to eat.

I know we're gonna have fried chicken, and I'm thrilled about that.

Very excited.

I don't think it'll taste as good as my mom's, but I am excited about it.

I love you, mom.

But I do think that there's supposed to be this space when you take it and you eat it, and it's satisfying, and it's just like, man, that was so good.

And you go through the thing and you've got this food and that food and this food and that food.

You're grabbing different tastes that you want to taste all the way through.

And you can sit there and you can salivate in the midst of it because you're like, I can't wait to just eat this thing.

Have we said the blessing already?

I'm ready to eat.

And we have this thing.

And I think for us, it's supposed to be this space where the Lord is like, be reminded of how good I actually am.

This is not something that you absolutely needed, it's something I wanted to bless you and give you.

We try, uh, Rainey and me, we try to attach food to the goodness of God in our home because I partake.

I love eating, it's a good thing.

Um, but we try and do this with prayers.

And so if God answers a prayer in our lives, we normally celebrate by getting cupcakes or some kind of sweet treat and then eating that before our dinner.

And uh, so Teddy came home one day from school and was like, the Lord answered my prayer about this girl that was being kind of crabby and she was really nice today.

And I was like, awesome, man, that's so good.

And so we this week we got donuts for dinner.

And we went to Gibson's and he gets his like like specialty donut with chocolate on the top and sprinkles and this whole thing.

And then we we we take our donuts and we just cheers our donuts together to the Lord who hears us and answers prayer.

And it's like it might be silly, but for us, I'm like, I want in his brain, I want it to be united with this vision of like, he what did he do?

He did something kind to me.

What does it taste like?

Donuts with sprinkles on them, baby.

Like, that's what I want it to, I want it to make this thing to the food itself to be this space where every time the Lord answers a prayer, that we have this space.

Actually, my personal vision is that we go to Gibson's so consistently to get these things, and they start going, why do you always order chocolate, a donut covered in chocolate with sprinkles?

Like, oh well, we do this thing in my family where the Lord answers a prayer and we buy some donuts, and I want them to be like, ah, it's kind of weird.

And I'm like, Yeah, I know.

But then one day I have in my mind that I'm gonna roll in there and make that order and buy those donuts, and they're gonna go, like, what did God do for you today?

And I'm gonna be like, You get it, you get it.

Just witnessing the Gibson's baby.

It's gonna become a Christian donut shop.

They're gonna start donating their donuts to us.

What a gift.

So if you guys just want to pray along those lines.

But I do I do think that food itself is supposed to be this space where it's like the Lord is trying to announce his goodness to us and he's trying to tell us who he's uh who he is and what he's like.

And the meals can be those things.

Jesus said, or Isaiah says this, talking about the Lord, and this is what he says.

He says, Come to me, all who are thirsty, come to the waters.

You who have no money, come buy and eat.

Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread and labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen to me and eat what is good, and then you will delight in the richest affair.

This is the invitation of God to us.

Come to me and delight in the richest affair.

And then heaven itself, we're gonna, I mean, the the whole point, like Genesis, the Bible begins with God laying and setting a table for Adam and Eve with food to eat.

And then all the way through the scriptures, you get to Revelation, and there's the marriage supper of the Lamb, where it's like, what is he inviting us into?

And it's like this incredible meal that he just wants to sit and eat with his people.

Isaiah talks about what the Lord says about it, this meal that he wants to eat with us.

He says, On this mountain, the Lord will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines.

Let's go.

Of rich food filled with marrow, well-matured wine strained clear.

Like this is what this is like the vision of heaven that people have and the vision of who God is, to me, sometimes when they're like, they tell me the God that they believe in, or they are really they tell me the God they don't believe in, and I'm like, man, I don't believe in that God either.

My God tastes like donuts.

Like he is phenomenal.

Like to me, everything is displaying his goodness.

And I feel like if you don't know him that way, allow this meal to be a space that just reminds you of his goodness.

When you are full and you go, oh my gosh, I'm so full, be reminded that he is the one who can fulfill us.

He is the one that can do those things.

When you taste something that tastes good, notice that you are tasting something and experiencing that the Lord is good.

I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

When those things happen, when you're around the table and you're laughing or you feel joy or somebody's encouraging you, or something like that, you feel known, let it be a space where it's like, this is what it's like.

He is joy-filled.

He knows you and wants to know you completely.

This is what he's like.

Robert Kappan is a uh he's a chef and uh episcopal priest, which is an interesting dynamic.

But this is what he says he says, to be sure, food keeps us alive, but that isn't it's only its smallest and most temporary work.

Its eternal purpose, food's eternal purpose, is to furnish our sensibilities for the day, then we will sit down at the heavenly banquet and see how gracious the Lord is.

Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness.

Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness.

And so I want that for us.

I want us to be reminded of who God is.

I want us to be reminded of his goodness.

Brennan Manning has this quote where he says, For many people in the church, for many people in the church, Christianity is not good news.

The gospel of Jesus is not glad tidings of freedom and salvation proclaimed by Jesus.

Instead, it's a rigid code of do's and don'ts and tedious moralizing.

It's a list of minimum requirements for avoiding the pains of hell.

And it's like, man, that should not be the church.

If that exists in the church, if in the church Christianity is not good news and what Jesus has accomplished for us is not good news.

I'm not shaming you, I'm just going, y'all, it's better than that.

And let the meal testify to how good he actually is.

It is not a list of do's and don'ts, a tedious moralizing for the minimum requirements to keep you out of hell.

It's not that.

It is a feast, it is abundance, it is richness and goodness.

He is chasing us down with goodness and mercy, that's who he is.

And in a meal like this, sitting around a table like this, experiencing friendships and all these different things, that's what he's like.

And he has called us to the table so that we experience more of who he is and less of who he's not.

So that the world out there may say that he's this way and he's that way, and that's fine.

And other people in your life may have told you he is scarcity and a rigid code of do's and don'ts.

He's not, he's a feast and he's calling us into one.

And at the end of days, we will sit with him at a feast and enjoy sweet drinks and fatty meats, and we'll just eat our faces off in the presence of God, and it's gonna be glorious.

That's what he's calling you to.

And if you don't believe that, read the scriptures, I promise.

He is testifying to that thing.

This is why they didn't like Jesus, because all of the religious people of their day was like, that's not what God is like.

And he's going, actually, I am God.

He is this way.

This is what he's like.

I'm gonna eat with tax collectors and sinners.

I'm gonna feast so much that y'all think I'm a glutton.

I'm gonna drink so much you think I'm a drunk.

I don't care.

I love these people, and they need to know that what I'm like is a feast for the masses.

This is who I am.

And we need to know that too.

And so I want that for our meal today.

Those are the three things that I want.

I want to be really tight with you guys.

I want to be very close, and we have years to make that thing happen.

And I know that we will hurt each other in the process because people who love one another hurt one another, and we seek to reconcile, and that's that's one of those things.

I want us to be close, though, and I want this meal to be a space for that.

I want us to actually have tables that look like the table that Jesus has set for us.

He is the God of who is holy, and yet he came to dwell with sinners.

And so our tables need to look as as unique and different as his was.

And then I want this space to be a time where, man, we're just reminded.

And we hold our cups of sweet tea or unsweet tea, or I don't know what kind of meal diet you're on, or whatever, but hold your food up and just testify to the goodness of God.

This is what he's like.

He wants to fulfill us and to satisfy us and to actually bless us with richness of his presence and all the rest of it.

And so that's what I want for us.

Let me pray.

Lord, you are better than I can put into words.

And so you made food to be this space where things taste awesome and delicious and unique, and things that look similar can taste completely different.

Even our palate itself experiences sweetness and savoriness on different spaces.

Like you have made us to enjoy yourself.

And our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

And so, Father, I pray today that the time that we have, that you would meet us in this space, that it would actually be a space where we are eating and communing, not just with one another, but we are eating and communing with you.

That you are here in this space with us and delighting when we delight.

You're encouraging when we are encouraged.

And you are satisfying us when we are satisfied and full.

Would our vision of you be uplifted from the one that it currently is to something that's far greater and far better?

I pray that today, literally, that we would taste and see that the Lord is actually really very good.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're gonna take communion.

Um a friend of mine had this quote that I really loved, and I just think it's so great.

He was talking about the table of eating together.

And then he was talking about the table of the Lord to take communion.

Um, and this is this is what he says about this table.

He's referencing communion.

He says, There are tables where we eat together, it's beautiful.

He goes, but but this table, the table of the bread and the wine.

He says, This table is different.

This table of the Lord isn't where sinners uh find Christ, but where sinners celebrate being found.

This table is where sinners celebrate being found.

He says, Maybe some morning instead of grabbing our elements and solemnly walking back to our seats, we should dance for joy.

Maybe we should sing every born-again song we know, and then tell our homecoming stories to one another and laugh like people who no longer fear death.

Maybe one morning we should ask if anybody wants seconds and hold our little cups high and toast to lost sinners found and dead brothers and sisters made alive in Christ.

That's a beautiful vision of communion, y'all.

Like, just like, could I have another?

Could I celebrate it again?

He's that good.

He doesn't want us to remember it with just solemn, it's not that.

It's like, celebrate my life.

Celebrate what I did for you.

And so to take our little cups high, I try to do this when I'm sitting down right before I take it.

I just want to toast to Jesus and be like, thanks.

Man, you did a really cool thing and you didn't have to, but you changed my life.

Everything good in my life begins and ends when I met you and when you chose to pursue me.

And so, cheers, thanks.

I'm really grateful.

And I'll spend my life saying thank you for that.

And so, for us, if that's not your experience with him, he is better than you think.

Allow this time to be a space where we toast of lost sinners found and dead brothers and sisters made alive in Christ, because that's what he wants to do.

So we're gonna say a liturgy.

Well, we're gonna say a liturgy that's normally on the screen, but um we'll do our best.

Um But uh Isaiah says this about the bread.

It says that he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our sins, um, and by his wounds we are healed.

And then this the beautiful song, um Nothing but the blood, it says, What can wash away our sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make us whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

So uh if you helped set up communion, I'd love for you to come and help serve the elements.

And Ella, if you can come help me over here.

But take some time in your seats, remember your homecoming story, and then come celebrate and take this, and then we'll eat together in a feast.