The Table Is Where We Continue Following Jesus | Jake Vayda

On April 13th, 1970, Apollo 13th was officially launched.

In fact, here's a photo of the three men who went on this mission.

As they were 200,000 miles away from planet Earth, they experienced an issue.

The issue was that there was an explosion on the spaceship.

So much so that they had to sequester themselves into just a small thing called the lunar module.

And that was a thing that was actually supposed to land on the moon.

It was a small craft made for only two people to last two days.

Because of this large explosion, there were three people in this module who needed to last four days.

Some would say impossible.

They had to shut off all the electricity, almost all of it, to the point where it was extremely cold.

They had to ration water six ounces a day per astronaut.

How were they going to make it home 200,000 miles away?

Because that was their goal.

They want to come home to their families, to their life, to the way things should be.

In a lot of ways, we all have a home, a way that life should be.

And many of us feel 200,000 miles away from that life.

You want a healthy marriage, a thriving career, margin in your finances.

You want to be generous.

You want these things.

And yet it can almost feel like you're sequestered in a lunar module.

How the heck am I going to get to that life?

In fact, today, that is the question I would love to answer with you.

In fact, if you're taking notes, which by the way is a great way to see how God and you encountered God during this 40 minutes that we have together, these 30 minutes is notes.

Here's what you can write down.

How do I change where my life is headed?

How do I change where my life is headed?

For you, do you actually think things are actually going well?

There needs to be some small course adjustments, but things are going well.

Or do you realize in the hecticness of life, you haven't even asked the question, am I actually headed towards the place I want to go?

Like I haven't actually thought about that for months.

Or right now, do you feel thousands of miles away and you have no idea how we're going to get there?

Here's what's at stake if we're not able to answer this question.

Uh, how do I actually change my course so I could head home?

Uh five years from now, when you look back, you're gonna realize the stuff that could have changed, but you didn't change, you didn't spend the time to consider what those might be.

Maybe you didn't have the courage to make those changes.

And now you're in a place you never thought you'd be.

We all deserve to answer this question because nobody deserves to look back on their life with complete regret of what could have happened if they answered this question.

Today, we are finishing our series at the table.

We are pulling up a chair to the life that Jesus has inviting us into.

Today, I want to give you three ways that we can change course so we can head home, the direction that we actually want to go.

If you're new, I met many of you before service.

So glad you're here.

We are a Bible-believing, Bible preaching church.

And today we will actually be in the book of Luke.

This passage we have been in for five weeks.

This is our last installment of our series.

We've been going verse by verse through this Bible.

If you're wondering, man, the Bible is so boring.

We have spent over a month with just these couple of words.

Like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of transformations have happened just with this little passage alone.

Here's what it says.

After this, Jesus went out and he saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes.

Jesus says, Come along with me.

And he did.

He walked away from everything and went with him.

Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus.

Everybody was there, taxmen and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner.

The Pharisees and the religious scholars came to his disciples greatly offended.

What is he doing?

Eating and drinking with misfits and sinners.

Jesus heard about it.

He spoke who needs a doctor?

The healthy or the sick?

I've not come.

I'm here inviting outsiders and not insiders.

An invitation to a changed life changed inside and out.

As we finish this series, I would love to end with that last verse.

In fact, I want to give you another interpretation of this verse.

The NIV version of the Bible says this.

Today I'd love to break this verse down.

He first says, I have not come to call.

What does he mean by call?

Well, the word that he uses here actually infers invitation.

That God is inviting somebody to a new life.

In fact, we can reasonably infer that Jesus was literally sitting around a physical table as he was saying, I've come to invite someone as a dinner guest.

Who that person might be, let's continue.

So he's come to invite somebody to dinner.

Who is Jesus calling?

Well, as we jump in, I want to give you the first way that you can change course, you can head in the right direction.

You can write this down.

You can't correct what you won't confront.

You can't correct what you won't confront.

Jesus says, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.

I've not come to call this a little confusing.

I've not come to call the righteous, but the sinner.

Like, wouldn't you want to call the guys who are like really doing well?

Raise your hand if you've heard this phrase.

Houston, we have a problem.

Houston, we have okay, so most of you.

These days, this has been in the vernacular when you know you're missing three screws with the IKEA build.

Houston, we have a problem.

We use it actually a lot these days.

Where did it come from?

It actually came from April 13th, 1970, when these three astronauts called into Houston, which was the base of where all these people were helping them over the radio.

Houston, we have a problem.

We have a problem.

In fact, the righteous did not believe they had a problem.

They had no problems.

In fact, what does righteous mean?

Here's what it means: a theologian said this.

Go to the next slide.

Walking blamelessly in all the commands and the regulations of the Lord.

This is what it means to be perfectly righteous.

The Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, had all the power in the world, and they came up with all of these awesome rules to follow.

You have to wear this when you come into church, you have to make sure to pray this way, break bread, and when you sit down at dinner, they made hundreds of laws, and they followed them perfectly.

I mean, they really were righteous.

They were doing it great.

And and but Jesus says to these Pharisees, you know, you're kind of like a cup.

The outside looks really good, like really righteous, but the inside is really dirty.

Jesus literally said this to the Pharisees, saying, Your life appears to be righteous, but inside it's all messed up.

In fact, you're not righteous at all, but since you think you're righteous, I can't invite you to dinner because you think you're perfect.

I'm a physician.

If you don't feel like you need help, then I can't help you.

This is literally what Jesus means.

I am not come to call the righteous.

Do you know what this means?

When Jesus is saying this, it means he's using sarcasm.

Fun fact Jesus used sarcasm.

He's literally saying, I'm not come to call the righteous, right?

You think you're all righteous.

This is who you think you are.

And some of you right now are like, Man, I know Jake says that I've been made in the image of God, and now I know how.

I'm sarcastic, just like Jesus.

Awesome.

Jesus uses sarcasm.

I'm not come to call the righteous.

Who did he come to call?

He says he's come to call the sinners.

I've come to call the sinners.

In fact, the sinners.

Do you assume it just means those people who make some mistakes?

Yes, those are included.

But who Jesus is really talking about are the people that the righteous, the Pharisees, would disapprove of.

The people who wouldn't come to church with a tuxedo, right?

The people who wouldn't follow the perfect prayer recipe before a dinner, the people who can't really get all the laws straight, and can't really get it all right and mess.

Those are who Jesus is calling sinners in this way.

But it's interesting.

Because when Jesus calls these sinners, he's saying that these people are the ones that are calling back to Houston, saying we have a problem.

These are the people that are at least can admit the need.

You can't change something if you won't confront it.

At least the sinners know they have an issue.

Jesus is like, yes, those are the people I want to invite to dinner.

They know they're sick and they they need healing.

I've not come to call the righteous.

I've come to call those who are broken.

You could change the wording to say this.

I've not come to call the unaware, but I've come to call the aware.

Those who are aware of their need.

You can't correct what you won't confront.

And the sinners were willing to confront that they had an issue.

Let me give you one sentence.

Maybe this is the sentence that you're here for to hear.

And this is going to take some courage.

I'm going to ask you to do this privately.

Would you finish this sentence for me?

Jesus, the thing I've been afraid to admit is.

Don't say it out loud.

What would that be for you?

The thing that I refuse to confront.

The thing that I'm not really radioing up to God and saying, Houston, we have a problem.

I'm trying to do it by myself.

You can't change or correct what you won't confront.

And can I just say to somebody in the room, if you've been an experienced Christian, maybe you've been doing this for decades and you're feeling really good about yourself, can I just say we don't graduate past grace?

Like you don't graduate past needing help.

The Pharisees thought they were doing it so well.

This whole gospel thing, this whole Jesus, it's for that person, not for me, right?

So if that's you, we don't graduate past grace.

In fact, there's a saying that says the closer you get to the sun, the more you see the dirt.

Actually, the closer you get to Jesus, the more you see your need for the healing that Jesus offers.

So I hope and my prayer is that you didn't just skip past what I just said because you thought that was for somebody else.

We all need to answer the question, Jesus, the thing I'm afraid to admit is.

So what is the way that we can change direction so we can actually head home, back to Earth's atmosphere, despite being 200,000 miles away.

Here's the second way if you're running it down.

A changed life begins with a changed direction.

A changed life begins with a changed direction.

Apollo 13, April 13th, 1970.

The explosion hits.

They're in the lunar module, the thing that was supposed to land on the moon.

They're somehow needing to survive.

They, at this point, rocket ship, literally like momentum around the moon and are heading back to Earth.

They're still 175,000 miles away.

They closed the gap a little bit, so have a long way to go, and they've realized they need a large, a large change of direction.

In fact, Houston said that what they should do is they should fire up the engines of the lunar module and keep it going for 15 seconds to change the direction.

They didn't have all the maps, they didn't have nothing.

They all they had to do is they looked at the sun, they looked at the earth, and they just blasted those engines to change their core so they could be on course to actually enter Earth's atmosphere these 15 seconds.

Jesus says this I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Repentance, a changed way of life, a changed direction.

You could say, what comes to your mind when I say the word repentance?

Do you immediately feel shame about all the bad things you've ever done?

Or do you think of all the bad things you've done and you've confessed to God, but you still keep doing them and you feel like God's tired of it?

What comes to your mind when I say the word repentance?

See, the biblical version of repentance is a little bit different than the 2026 version that you can think of.

Repentance in the Bible, when Jesus says this, it's a Greek word, uh, it literally means the first part is to uh change.

It points to a change, and the last part of the word says uh referring to the mind or to the heart.

So repentance is literally the moment your heart changes direction.

That's what repentance means.

Yes, it's leaving an old life behind, but it's also uh building a new relationship, saying where I'm going, I don't want to go, and where I want to go, I'm not going, and I'm gonna change my direction.

I'm gonna turn on my 15 seconds of the engine to literally change where I'm going because if I keep going this direction, I'm gonna miss earth and I'm ending up in a place I don't want to be.

I want to go back to home.

That's where I want to go.

I'm gonna repent, change my mind, change my heart, and go in the way of Jesus.

Literally, Jesus says, I am the way.

It's a path back home.

How do you know when you're drifting?

Like when you're a little, little off path.

That's where they were at, and they realized they needed a big change.

What does it say in the Bible that Levi, he got up when Jesus called him?

He literally went from tax uh his his life at the booth, and then literally got up and went with Jesus.

What would getting up look like for you right now?

What course correction do you need to make today?

And can I say this?

Repentance is a lifelong practice.

We don't just repent once and say yes to Jesus, although that's always where it starts.

Repentance is not a moment, it's a movement, something we regularly do in our lives.

In fact, one of my favorite mentors told me this spiritual maturity, it's just repenting faster than the last time.

And anyone who is a husband knows this is true.

All you need to do is just say sorry and we can move on with our day, right?

Just repent faster than the last time.

That's what spiritual maturity is.

So, repentance, a changing of the mind, a changing of the heart, a course correction.

It's not a bad thing.

It actually helps you get back home.

What is the course correction that you need to make today?

Do you need to apologize without always defending yourself?

Do you need to actually confess the thing that you've been working through but trying to battle alone?

Do you need to have the conversation you've been postponing?

Do you need to watch the boundaries that you keep moving?

What is the course correction that you need today?

Repentance, a change of the heart, a change of the mind.

And sadly, I'll say sadly because it's the most difficult part of repentance.

Repentance, a part of it, is evidence of a changed life.

That's a part of what repentance means.

It's evidence of a changed life, which means that things have to actually like shift a little bit for it to be true repentance.

Now that might happen the fourth, fifth time.

We start with saying I'm sorry.

We start here, and apology is a great place to start, but repentance is a changed life.

That's hard.

Like I don't know about you, but it's easy for me to say sorry to God without actually changing anything.

That's the easy part.

The hard part for me is actually changing my ways, shifting a habit, having that conversation.

So, how do we do this?

How do we actually change our course to enter back into the earth's atmosphere?

Uh, here's the last feeling if you want to write it down.

Staying on course requires staying connected.

It has to be that we stay connected.

There's actually no other way to stay on course than to stay connected.

Acts 2.46 says they broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, these three astronauts.

175,000 miles away, Houston, we have a problem.

It starts with confronting the need.

Uh, and then it's repenting, right?

They turn their engines on, they're kind of back on course.

But did you know that they needed a lot more course corrections as they were heading back home over those days?

They turned everything off.

Do you know what they didn't turn off the radio because the radio is what helped them stay connected to the people that could help them get home.

For every astronaut, there's 10 to 15 scientists and engineers back in Houston doing crazy equations that you couldn't even imagine for the sake of these people.

In fact, Apollo 13, it was a movie.

And one of the astronauts said the movie was good.

Like it was good.

The biggest issue the biggest issue is that they didn't talk about Houston enough.

They didn't talk about the people that actually got us back home.

Those are the real heroes, it's not us.

That's literally what the astronauts said.

Houston, this is how we must stay connected if we ever want to get back home.

You know, what do they say?

We have a problem.

But they said, Houston, we have a problem.

The first thing that they did when they realized something went a little wrong is they went to somebody to say something happened.

They confessed to a real person.

They literally said, Houston, we have a problem.

Imagine, just imagine for me with a second.

Houston, I've been listening to a lot of navigation podcasts.

We're good.

I'm in a good good spot.

Houston, I know you have a lot going on.

You guys got a lot of families.

I just won't bother you with this right now, right?

Houston, uh, I've done a lot of training.

I should be past this, I should know what to do.

Just go home.

It's fine.

That sounds crazy! That sounds crazy in space, but here on earth we do it all the time.

We do it all the time, right?

I mean, I you're busy.

I I don't I I should be past this by now.

So we we actually don't stay connected.

In fact, we stay isolated, and this is a sure way to get off track is to not stay connected to someone who could help.

So my question that I asked earlier is how do you recognize when you're drifting?

I don't know about you, but I'm not really very aware all the time when I'm drifting off course.

How do you recognize when you're drifting?

Tim Keller, he says this the gospel, which is Jesus saving us, creates community.

Community.

This is a little scary.

I don't know if I even want to say it.

I'm just gonna say it community.

It's not an option for Christians.

In fact, if you're not a Christian, you can totally just close your ears here.

But if you are a Christian, I just want to say this one more time.

Community is not an option for Christians.

In fact, when we baptized 20 people right here just two weeks ago, a question that I asked you is do you accept them into our family?

That's what I asked you.

And you said yes to all of them, besides one.

Just kidding.

You said yes to all of them.

Do you know why I did that?

Because Jesus, we get Jesus, but we get a family as well.

That's what we get.

In fact, baptism is literally repenting of your old ways.

I'm dying to my old stuff.

I'm coming out new.

And now I'm being adopted into a family that helps me stay connected, stay on course.

You are my Houston.

And I am your Houston.

We work together to stay on course.

And this is how, and do you know how like you don't ever become your best self alone?

How can you practice patience if you don't have people?

How can you be able to learn if you're never talking to people?

How can you be encouraged if you're not for whatever reason?

God has decided to use human hands to delegate the kingdom of God.

And can I say I'm so grateful that you potentially you connect to God vertically?

But we always say circles are better than roads.

This is good.

This is not where God has us ultimately.

He has us around a table encouraging one another.

So that's why.

That's why I'm so excited to start groups.

And by the way, we're not doing groups because we need another thing to do as a church.

We're not doing groups because we've grown by 60% year over year.

We're not doing groups because we baptized 80 people.

This is not the reason we're doing groups.

We're doing groups because this is what Jesus commands us to do because we become our best selves by doing it.

In fact, uh, we have a video that I'd love to show you about what this group season will look like starting next week.

The first group are those who are exploring.

Can I just say this there is no better curriculum to start with than answering some of these big questions?

And the whole point is, yes, around dinner and with food.

Uh, the whole point is that you cannot say anything you want.

And can I then address the second group?

This is for the experienced Christian.

Like you feel like you're on varsity now.

Uh awesome, glad you feel that way.

And we never graduate past the basics.

In fact, this is gonna come as a shock to you.

But today you'll see Justin Herbert throw a football, and it's something that he's been doing all of his life, and you'll see a defender tackle, and you'll see Joe Alt block.

You'll actually see all these things, and you'd say it's so awesome, but it always no one graduates past the basics.

Football, basketball, Christianity is just a series of the basics.

So can I just say, if you are on varsity as a Christian, awesome! And can I say this is a great place to be reminded in a fresh, new way in 2026 what the basics look like as far as being a Christian, to answer some of these big questions, maybe for the first time in a couple years.

So for all of us, this is for you.

Whether you're experienced, whether you're a brand new Christian, or whether you're just explorer, you don't even know where you're coming from, a different religion, you're an atheist, wherever you are, we never graduate past the basics.

Let's get around a table together.

So I'm gonna invite the band to come up.

We're gonna sing two more songs before we go party outside.

How do I change where my life is headed?

You can't correct what you won't confront.

Houston, we got a problem.

A changed life begins with a changed direction.

And staying on course requires staying connected.

For those that are stressing out right now, let me show you a picture.

They did make it home, those three astronauts.

What an amazing, miraculous story.

I'm gonna invite you to stand with me.

But did you know they did all of these three things?

They admitted they had a problem, they repented, they changed their course, they stayed connected to.

They were still 175,000 miles away.

They did all the right things, and yet they were far away from home.

Do you feel like that right now?

Man, I come to church, I've been going to church for a couple of weeks.

I began praying.

I even have repented, I've said I'm sorry, I'm taking steps in my faith, and yet the person I am versus the person I want to be is far away.

In fact, it feels like 175,000 miles.

How do I get there?

Can I just encourage you for a moment and say this?

Just because your location is the same doesn't mean your destination is the same.

Just because your location is the same doesn't mean your destination is the same.

Someone can look at your life and say, Oh, they're the same person.

Oh, you don't know what God's been doing.

You don't know what God's been doing in my heart.

I'm in a completely different way.

I'm still 175,000 miles away, and my friends remind me of this, and my parents remind me of this, and my spouse, but I'm a different person now.

The location might be the same, but your destination is not the same.

And I know in this room, we got 20 baptisms.

We've I know God has done so much work in a lot of your hearts right now, and there's no outside change yet.

You might go to a couple groups and actually say the same thing.

Nothing's changed.

I don't have no friends yet.

Can I just say, stay on course?

Stay on course because you'll enter Earth's atmosphere versus missing it eventually.

Stay on course.

So today, I just want to pray an encouragement over those who just feel so far away from the person you want to be.

In fact, I didn't do this first service, but I want to do it right now.

The spirit of boldness, if you just feel discouraged right now, like I'm just discouraged about who I am.

I'm living in shame, maybe a little even disappointment.

Would you just raise your hand?

It's not a boldness and courage.

Hey, you can't get healed if you won't reveal it.

This is the start.

Houston, we got a problem.

Houston, we got a problem.

Hey, can I ask?

If you're around someone with their hands raised, keep them hands raised in a boldness out of boldness.

Would you just uh maybe extend a hand towards them?

Maybe you can touch their shoulders as long as you don't get weird about it.

Yeah, we're a family.

We said that.

We stay connected to one another.

You're here for a reason.

Can I just pray over you right now?

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you for those who are confronting their need.

They're confronting the idea that they're a sinner in need of grace, in need of repentance.

Lord, I pray over every discouraged heart.

Over every discouraged mind, God.

This is not your heart.

You don't want it.

Lord, I know, I know, when you pulled up a chair at the table, when you invited us, you're not reminding us, inviting us reluctantly.

You're inviting us excitingly.

You like us and you want us.

Lord, I pray in a spirit of boldness right now, those who are discouraged, God, when they feel wanted by you, liked by you, and even loved by you in this moment, God, remind them that their location could be the same, but their destination is not the same.

God, so I pray as we make space for you over the next couple of weeks minutes.

Would you would you give us a word from you, Lord, for all of us right now?

A word of discernment?

For us who have been drifting, who us are discouraged, Lord, would you give us wisdom even right now as we make space over these next couple of songs?

God, we pray this in the name of the God who moves mountains, in the name of the God who brought three astronauts from 200,000 miles away back home.

You'll do it again.

You will do it again in Jesus' name.