Let's Eat (The Marriage Supper) - Shane Willard

who likes Shayne Willard you know I asked I say that very intentionally because some we actually really like him we actually we actually do love the guy and I want to say to him and not just that not just a message not just the gift because it's really easy just to want someone to be with you to their gift but we've had chain for nine years this year and and I don't know too many guest speakers that get asked back to the same place nine years in a row and not only is the always fresh and always brings a fresh deposit of what God's you know doing in and through his life and his own journey but he's a genuine lover of people I want you to know Church like New Hope Church he's actually really invested in this place he actually is genuinely interested in how we're doing he loves to see the growth and each year he comes back he loves to see the changes he loves to catch up with leaders that he's met before and people that he's met before because to him it's not just a platform to preach off he actually really does love God's people and not just us but many many churches have had the exact same experience in a sense I'd say he's an excellent lover of people he actually loves people so we we want to honor Shane today not just for the message that he carries and that deserves all honor he's a phenomenal communicator phenomenal preacher but but chain himself is a wonderful human being would you stand your feet with me and let's honor him as he brings the Word of God to us this morning thank you very much thank you very much you could be seated it's so good to be here with you today it's always one of my highlights of the year to be it's New Hope weekend for me and so I love it I love my friends Chris and sue I honor them I honor what they do I honor who they are I honor the effort they put in in discipleship and moving the world to a better and better and better place and participating with the infinite possibilities to be a part of fixing our world and so it's it's a joy to be with you for those who don't know me this is all I do for a living I travel around and speak I've had the amazing privilege of being mentored by a pastor who just happens to have his rabbi training as well so my stuff comes from that but also have a master's degree in clinical psychology so I am qualified to sort your head out so careful what you say to me okay I can see through all that stuff afterwards and in between the services our resource table is on that far wall if you walk over there and can't find it seek medical help staking up the whole wall okay if you wonder why would you carry that around with you the reason is is because we make a lot of money from it right the reason we do that is because we live with the conviction that we're not simply called to go to heaven when we die we're called to bring heaven every place we see Hell here so a hundred percent of everything we've made from that for the last decade we've given away to the poor and the afflicted namely at this time of year we give it away to three orphanages in China that look after children with mental disabilities to an in yang one in Changsha which by the way is a four-hour drive from a place called Wuhan I don't I don't know if I need to explain why that's important so we have Annie and we're going to continue to meet those needs and do everything we could do and the way I do that is we sell audio and video downloads and USPS and then we give the profit to those guys because it's a good good thing you'll get something that'll change the way you look at God and and I get something else we feed clothes shelter educate mentally handicapped kids I I think it's a pretty good trade right so come on out there between let me give you it before we get going let me give you an authentic invitation back to the second service and tonight and then 7 o'clock on Monday and Tuesday we will honor your time will be out by 8 o'clock it will change your life if you come tonight put aside an hour tonight come check it out if it doesn't change your life I'll personally refund whatever they charge you to come ok so whatever that is whatever the tickets cost I'll give it back right so it's like a risk-free thing now let me run one thing by I'm gonna be doing brand new stuff I decided in November to try to take on the book of Revelation right because I'd gotten 500 questions about it and I thought well I'll just I'll just I'll just try to take it on I did it because it's so easy to understand right and so and so we're gonna be journeying through them and I've already done six parts of it four of those parts are available out there actually today this is the first place that's available and then the rest of it will be recording right here now here's why that's important um if you have a baby I love you baby I love you though yeah the one the one thing you cannot edit out of the recording is a baby screen now let me explain let me be very clear about that that doesn't matter a little bit of fretting cooing anything like that whatever right I'm talking about screaming right and let me let me let me you let me help you if your baby screams I'm not upset at you I'm not upset at the baby do not panic do not put your hand over the baby's mouth and nose at the same time too dangerous do not choke the baby nor put the baby in the headlock it's just not the time to let it cry itself out right and so if it starts screaming if you could just use calmly calmly collectedly not in any panic no one's upset if you could just use the exit and use the parents facility here until the baby's calm down that would be outstanding and it helps us with our recording I hope everybody understands my heart in that right I love babies I love you I love I just love life right right so all right so if you're the type of likes fall along an extra Bible revelation chapter three we're gonna start there I want to look at this amazing book my goal when I speak is I want Jesus to get bigger I want the cross to work better I want the resurrection to be central I want scriptures to get bigger not smaller and my goal with with talking about the book of Revelation is that it comes alive any any time you look at the Bible you want to ask at least two questions one what happened and two and more importantly what's happening in me right now be because of what happened I want to open this morning by looking at the beginning and the end of Revelation because it actually begins and ends at the exact same place and that's because it was written by a Jewish guy named John who was tortured by the Caesar Domitian and exiled on the island of Patmos legend has it no one knows if this is true or not this is folklore but but could be true that Domitian tried to kill him by boiling him in oil and that would have been common practice of what you would do to Christians in this day but but but Vogler has it that Domitian tried to kill john and he survived and the issue was was that you don't want to try to kill him twice because if he survives twice people will start to believe he has God on his side so what you do is you get rid of people like this by exiling them on an island and John decides to write a letter to seven churches seven real people at real places at real time dealing with real Roman oppression and he's Enys it grates in them and here's what we're gonna find that revelation mirrors our life that there that revelation opens with a call to repent that just simply means to change the way you think there's a new narrative the Roman Empire has been dominating the narrative and there's a new way to think about the world and we're inviting you to embrace that that the kingdom of this Christ will get the last word not Domitian and then there's a group of people who say yes to that and then they meet horrendous tribulation and oppression and resistance and then they're called to worship and in their worship they realize that they need to reaffirm God's way of looking at the world instead of donation and this happens over and over and over and over and over again in the book of Revelation sounds like my life sounds like yours and so Revelation is written by a Jewish guy and it's written in a chiastic structure this is why if you've ever tried to figure revelation out by putting it in a linear line even if there's well made charts all the way across the state the reason that's frustrating is because John is a Jew writing in a chiastic structure so you can't interpret a circular written book in a linear fashion it's not that you're wrong you're just gonna frustrate yourself because you can't interpret it that way so Revelation begins and ends at roughly the same spot and culminates in the middle and I want to look at the beginning and the end and talk about how revolutionary this idea was and then hopefully we'll find ourselves in the story what happened and more importantly what's happening in me right now because of what happened now this is Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 Here I am I stand at the door and knock if anyone anyone hears my voice and opens the door I'll come in and I'll eat with him and he with me this was a radical statement of a new way to think about the world the world at this moment was ruled by a guy named omission Domitian was a horrible narcissist who controlled the whole world under what here was there was the world in in John's day one world government one world currency and the people who controlled the one world government and the one world currency was controlling how people bought and sold with that one world government's currency this would have been horrendous for anybody under the underbelly and there's a new narrative being offered and this is the end of that new narrative and it comes down to he's talking about a new king and this new king is described to someone who knocks at your door and waits for you to respond this is diametrically opposed to how Caesar was running his empire Caesar doesn't knock at your door and wait for you if he wants in your house he knocks the door down he sends his military around the world to do forced confessions and forced conversions to what was called the propagation of the Imperial cult the idea that Caesar is God that the Roman historians by the way who were paid by Caesar and if they didn't write what Caesar wanted they would have died said that Caesar is the fullness of God incarnate and no other name on earth by which men can be saved other than the name of Caesar is that sounding familiar to some things we've read in the scriptures right this was a diametrically opposed narrative a God who waits for you to respond and what does he want to do if you let him in he wants to eat which is unbelievable in the Roman Empire and in Jewish culture to offer to share a table with somebody meant that you were admitting and acknowledging that they're of the same class as you the God revealed in Christ Jesus is a God whose divinity was found by him choosing not to be God he emptied himself considering himself of no reputation it did not consider equality who got something to be grasped but chose to take on the form of a servant the highest form of God as revealed in Christ Jesus is a God who chooses not to be God to suffer with Humanity in order to defeat death and that is a beautiful narrative that we're being invited into right and it is it is the imagery of a table evidently God just wants to eat so this is the the question how do I get to know God and intimacy is defined by two things happening at once one to be fully known and the other thing is to be fully accepted if you're fully known and fully accepted all at once you have intimacy if you only have one or the other you don't you have something hiding and there's a lot of people who are fully known but they're not fully accepted it goes something like this this is Who I am take me or leave me of course most people will leave you right so you're fully known absolutely but you're not fully accepted and then there's a whole lot of people who are fully accepted but actually they're not fully known they have a lot of secrets and those secrets came out well they wouldn't be fully accepted so to have true intimacy you have to have full knowledge and full acceptance going on at the same time and this is what's being offered here by the new narrative and the truth of it is this how do I get what must I do to be fully known and fully accepted by God this was a question dominating the first century in Jewish culture what do we do to be fully known and fully accepted by God and the New Testament Christians were rebelling against the old sacrificial system and they insisted that Jesus did not die to forgive and solve the sin problem rather he died to show you that the sin problem was taken care of before the foundation of the world that Jesus did not die to inaugurate a new reality he died to show you what God was always like from the beginning of time and invite us to embrace that name that's been going on since before the foundation of the world now if that's the question then then the answer is evidently all through Scripture is that God just wants to eat God is offering a meal which some quick Bible stuff here that's some politics now let's talk about the scriptures what's going on in this story is Hebrew ideas in Hebrew a meal is a Sheol good job whoever did this right I asked them for a bit of food on the table and they took me seriously this is a Sheol a table is a Shulkin so you eat a Sheol on a silicon now here's the issue with that in he ancient Hebrew they only put so many words so one word could mean a lot of different things so the Hebrew word for table Shokan is also the Hebrew word for reconciliation without one letter difference there's not even a letter difference it's table or it's reconciliation it's also a lamb skin the reason is is because Israel found its roots in Egypt and in Egypt they didn't have any tables so when they killed a lamb they would clean the skin and spread out it's picnic like a picnic blanket so the lamb skin was a table do you see no light with Psalms it says we all know that it's the blood of a slain lamb that brings reconciliation it could easily have been translated we all know it's the blood of a slain lamb that gives us a table to eat on translators had to decide what's the cut is the context theological is the context social what's going on here and so you eat a soul on a table of reconciliation you have related words like the root word for forgiveness is shelach shelach is to forgive but it literally means to remove weight in other words whatever is weighing you down let's set it on the table of reconciliation so you don't have to carry it one more day we're going to remove that weight from your life and how do we remove it a table the table was central in Jewish culture actually next slide the meal was primary even over worship now that's interesting to think about listen to Jesus's words this is Jesus Christ therefore if you're offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there in front of the altar first go and be reconciled the word in Hebrew would be table shokan first and go be tabled shokhin reconciled to your brother then come back and offer your gift in other words Jesus is saying what good does it do for you to lift your hands and be a part of an amazing worship service if if the response to your meaningful experience with God doesn't reconcile you with people you have problems with that this happens again in Paul's theology this is listen what he says therefore if anyone is in Christ that's us he is a new creation the old has gone the new has come we voted that our whole life here's the next verse all of this is from God who show conned reconciled us to himself through Christ and then gave us the Ministry of reconciliation so what's the primary Ministry of the church tabeling reconciling the primary Ministry of the church is letting people know there is an offer to wait to take the whatever's weighing you down and set it on the table the short con is central that God hears the Ministry of reconciliation here's the definition of it that God was reconciling who us no is there any us in them no God was reconciling the whole world to himself in Christ choosing not to count men sins against them and then he is committed to us the message of reconciliation in other words what's the primary message of the church the primary message of the church is that the sin problem was taken care of before the foundation of the world and you are now invited to eat God just wants to eat with you he wants to take whatever is weighing you down and let's set it on the table and let's be reconciled and that is the show cont in the show con is central over worship Paul mentions it later he says some of you have been sick it because you have forgotten the body of Christ and he's talking about communion he's not talk about the elements he's saying you're taking communion which is supposed to remind us that God is in the center of all things that's supposed to remind us at any time there's a moment where we remind ourselves that Christ as the set of all things we'll talk about that in a later message it's in communion but yet you're taking communion and there's still something against you and somebody else we have forgotten the main message of the show con that was the point and this is a pattern in Scripture I just did a a simple word search for the word for the use of the word table and Shokan throughout scripture it's everywhere let me tell you a few stories about it like there was this guy named Abraham and he had an encounter with a guy named Melchizedek and here was the context 5 Kings were at war with 4 kings in that day that's called world war 1 ok 5 Kings are fighting for kings and Abraham is wondering whose side should I take and he encounters a king of peace named Melchizedek and Melchizedek says I have an idea let's not choose sides let's set out a meal and invite everybody to put their stuff away and let's be reconciled there's a guy named Jacob and a guy named Laban and there's so much lying going on in this story it's not even funny Jacob tricks Esau out of his inheritance which admittedly was mostly Esau stupidity not Jacob's Jacob does lie to his father pretending to be so to get the blessing he ends up having to run from the situation and then people start lying to him he's a guy named Laban he says hey worked for me for seven years and I'll give you one of my daughters people didn't live that long back then right and he says all right I'll do that and then after seven years Laban tricks him and gives him the wrong sister right gives him the wrong woman but but Jacob doesn't realize it till the next morning which I don't know how much alcohol and mushrooms was involved to work for someone for seven years and you don't realize you're in the tent with the wrong woman come on unless she was a twin which is then a whole nother set of cool but nonetheless this was lying then he works another seven years for the right woman then he starts tricking Laban and there's this back and forth escalation he ends up running from Laban and then what happens is is he's running from Laban Levens chasing him from one side Esau gets word where he is and he's coming from the other and this is a conflict sandwich and then what happens is when they all get together it could have been a clan war but instead of that they all looked at each other and they said set the table and serve the food in other words all this that's weighing us down let's set it on the table Psalm 23 he prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies in Jewish culture that doesn't mean gods feeding you and not them that's just more us than them thinking ridiculous it's hey even when you're in the presence of someone you have conflict with if you're paying attention God will always make a way to reconcile with somebody that there's conflict with God is a peace maker there's there's a story about a guy named David and a guy named mephibosheth which would you agree with me that if your mom named yuma Fibby chef you've already started behind the eight ball right good lord and the story is is that david ends up taking over the kingdom from saul who died by suicide so David takes over the king and custom in that day was if a new Kings lineage took over you find all the possible heirs of the old king and you make sure they die so that they can't make an uprising there was one guy left his name was Mephibosheth Mephibosheth was crippled because when the whole takeover was happening a nurse grabbed him thinking David would kill him and she ran and fell on him and broke his legs and with medical technology not being where it is today he ends up crippled for life and so David figures out where he is mephibosheth knows he's going to die but watch David's response this is second samuel chapter and the King s is there's still anyone left of the house of salt to whom I can show kindness that is soaked that's a person who has dealt with things in their heart to know that just because society says it has to be a certain way doesn't mean God says it has to be a certain way and he's agreeing with a certain narrative that brings life not death it's not about right or wrong it's about life and death it's about wise and useful and ziba answered it well there's still a son of Jonathan but he's crippled in both feet where is he the king asked and zebra answered well he's in the house of maker that's on a meal and lo debar which is a play on words lo debar means the place of no bread in other words there's no Sheol there's no Shogun he's carrying the full weight of his of his handicap he's carrying the full weight of his crippled feet so King David had him brought from the place of no bread from the house of maker in a son of a mule when mephibosheth son of Jonathan the son of Saul came to David he bailed down and paid him honor and David said Mephibosheth your servant he replied don't be afraid who David said to him for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather saw hang on he was the king how much land is that a lot and you will always here's the sentence eat at my choke on whatever is weighing you down come put it on the table I have every right to kill you but I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna show you kindness for God's sake come and put what weighs you down on the Shogun there's a guy named uh just one time there's this there's this guide this Jacob guy who had a history of lying he ends up having twelve sons you don't know how many daughters he has doesn't mention his twelve sons and eleven of those twelve sons sell their brother in to Egyptian slavery only to need him later to save their sorry behinds from an Israelite famine right and so they end up having to plead with him for mercy even though they're the ones that sold him into slavery and Joseph has a choice do I take revenge and kill them or do I show them mercy now watch Joseph's response this is Genesis 43 then Joseph hurried out for his compassion grew warm for his brothers and he sought a place to weep now think about this if you're the 11 brothers you're panicking at this moment right this guy's got the authority to kill you and you can hear him wailing outside the door this is not a good sign right and he entered his chamber and wept there then he washed his face and came out and controlling himself he says serve the Sheol serve the food what would have happened in that instance is the Egyptian authorities would have been standing behind his brothers Joseph would have come back into the room and there was one of two signals which they all would have died or let's reconcile Joseph had every right to hurt them and take revenge but he responded with a Shokan serve the food this will not weigh our family down one more day we are putting this all behind us the Shah Khan was the answer for the conflict there's there's Passover Passover Tsar where God hasn't spoken in 430 years and his first time he speaks in 430 years is it's killing he says kill an animal and have a meal together that is such an odd command until you understand what's going on he's fixing to move them from slavery in Egypt to freedom and it's gonna be some time in the wilderness essentially God says before y'all get walking around out there make sure you handle all your conflict in here before you get out into the wilderness get it all straight here everybody's invited to the meal and get it all on the Chacon before you go out there then they get into the wilderness and Moses disappears which is quite anxiety provoking Moses gets them into the wilderness and then he disappears no cell phone no pagers no no nothing they don't know where he is and so they create an idol to start worshiping in case the other tribes show up and say hey there's no God protecting them so here's what they do they start creating idols to worship Moses comes down and catches them worshiping an idol and he loses the plot which was his pattern he was a premeditated murdering sort of guy I looked this way in that and seeing no one I killed the man and hit him in the sand the problem was the next day the sand shift did you got this leg sticking about us and Moses was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but he changed the world right right because perfection and being mistake-free is never ever ever the issue he loses the plot melts the golden calendar powder makes them drink it he does all the stuff and gods response is I've had it get native a by who and the rest of the 70 firstborns up this mountain now when you've been caught red-handed idol-worshipping and God calls you up the mountain what do you think is gonna happen to you you are so dead bro that would have been the slowest walk up that mountain ever they'd be really starting be be stopping to use the toilet for no reason anything to delay the inevitable but watch God's response to this here's what it says this X is 24 Moses Aaron made AB by who and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel and under his feet was something like a table made of sapphire Shokan clear as the sky itself but God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites they saw God and they ate and they drank and they did not die in other words God's response to idol worship was you want to eat you guys ready - you guys ready to put all that weight on something and put it behind us what you see in the pattern in Scripture is is that the mistake the sin it never it never seems to put God off wanting to eat with you never like this is where phrases we made up or hurtful like God can never be in the presence of sin really it seems like all God does is engage disorder to bring order chaos to bring creation he enters in to your mess and brings out new life fresh start second chances and the opportunity to write a better story it's called resurrection there's another example there's Jesus remember their big problem Jesus was he had dinner with tax collectors and sinners why because in that world to have dinner with tax collectors and sinners meant you were calling them of the same social class he was declaring them clean and the religious people like we're working real hard to be clean and Jesus like you understand God handled that before the foundation of the world I'm not concerned about their mistake I want to enter into their mess and bring out new life fresh start second chances so what better way to do that than to sit across a table where there's no weight let's watch what he says while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house that's a tax collector many tax collectors that's his friends and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples when the Pharisees saw this they asked to decide why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners well on hearing this jesus said it's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick but go and learn what this means I desire mercy not sacrifice I've not come to call the righteous but sinners in other words the message from the beginning has not been get yourself cleaned up and then come to God it is that God is willing to enter into your mess and bring new life fresh start second chances and new creation how does he do that there's a table waiting and God just wants to eat there's there's the feeding of the 5,000 remember the disciples come to Jesus they say hey it's 5,000 people they're getting hungry you know obviously a metaphor for a lot of people right no one was going one two three four right right Jesus goes Jesus goes are they hungry the disciples say Ya Ya Ya Ya we probably need to call it close to the meeting he goes no no you give them food even when Jesus was preaching his preaching centered around everyone knowing that the show and the Shokan were available to them now to us that just means I'm hungry to them that meant you're okay with me you are okay with me and I invite you to embrace you're already there is no ritual you can do to get okay with God what you do is you engage the rituals to remind you that you're all okay with God God just once to eat remember there was this Canaanite woman she was from Sidon by the way by the way there were six scriptures six Bible verses that says all cited Knights are cursed o side a Knights six Bible verses if Jesus just wanted to be right about one Bible verse the side a Knights were stuffed man and Jesus has this encounter with the sighted night woman who wants to eat the problem is is Jesus's present company would not have allowed it and she knows her she knows her place so instead of coming to the table she kneels by the side it's an actual beautiful story it watch it watch what happens she says yes Lord but even the dogs because they would have called the sighted Knights the dogs it was a racial slur it'd be like using the n-word or something it's something no intelligent person would ever say but even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from the master's table what's where Jesus says and Jesus woman you have great faith your request is granted and her daughter was healed from that very in other words I'm sitting with religious people who have the whole table and they still are trying to earn their way to okayness with God but you a side and I understand that you don't even need the whole table all you need is a crumb and God makes you the rest of the way it's like a faith of a mustard seed it's brilliant in in in the rich man and Lazarus remember what's happening in that story Jesus is sitting at a table with rich people refusing to share their food they're refusing to show come with poor people what because to show come with poor people meant you would be admitting that they are the same class and he says hey we got a lot of extra Scholl here we got a lot of extra food what do we do there's all these poor people outside and remember that member the rich people say we don't eat with people like that Jesus said is that your final answer and they said yes he said aw but the kingdom was like a shepherd with a hundred sheep that goes outside the gate to get them it's like a lady was like oh oh by the way um when rich people overlook poor people sitting outside of their gate in the afterlife they're the ones that end up in hell the whole story around that was a failure take knowledge the call for the Ministry of reconciliation the show con it was people refusing to reconcile in John 20:1 remembered this is after Jesus died and rose again he shows up on the beach and find some people who had betrayed him in his time of need they had run for the hills and one guy at XI Kurt cursed his name three times and what was Jesus's response hey you got some fish like I want to cook you breakfast anybody want to eat and I'm sure they were like but we ran we denied you he's like yeah yeah yeah do you still love me after all this yeah yeah then let's just eat let's let's take all that weighs you down and put it on this show cun now back to the book of Revelation here's the end of the book of Revelation this is revelation 19 let us rejoice and exalt and give Him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints now if anything is the personification of discipleship it's that that that Christianity is not about passively sitting on your butt waiting to go somewhere else it's about waking up that every day actively becoming more and more what God has called you to be it's what that song said that our life is a response to that great love it's not doing something to earn the acceptance the acceptance was already done before the foundation of the world it's when you profoundly connect with that you can't help but be teachable and move forward into a better version of what God has called us to be and watch watch what happens next slide and the angel said to me write this blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb these are the true words of God so the Bible begins and ends with an invitation to eat regardless of mistake regardless of sin regardless of weight regardless of failure regardless of shame the invitation of Revelation and the entire narrative of Scripture is that your sin and your failure and your shame was settled by God before the foundation of the world for all people and all people are now being held together by this risen Christ and we are invited to show kaan and we have been given the Ministry of Chacon which is God is reconciling the whole world to himself through Christ Jesus by choosing not to count their sins against them this is the message of the church which leads me to this final scripture from revelation 22 this is how it all ends down the middle of the Great Street of the city each on each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing twelve crops of fruit yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation in other words heaven there's a new heaven there's a new earth hell's been destroyed all things have been made brand-new God is now one with the earth and there's still an offer every day outside the throne of God to come and eat the message from the beginning - literally the end is God just wants to eat God wants to eat and he wants us to take that message not in an S&M way but in a Christ is holding the whole world together way your theme for the year is come together it's literally that it's when people come together and remind ourselves that this is the story the story is the table and the table is the story that the wait the send Shane's done it it's God just once to eat which leads me to these questions when is the last time you responded to the Lord knocking maybe he's knocking and you haven't answered and the reason is is you're worried he'd be ashamed and you'd be ashamed what he'd find but what you find in Scripture is that God never asked us to clean our house he engages our disorder to bring order he engages our chaos to bring creation he engages our mess the weeds and the wheat grow together and he engages the crop and he brings order and beauty and new life and fresh starts and second chances all the way back from Genesis 1 and ending in revelation 22 what are you scared of turns out the message of the gospel is God just wants to eat forget the ritual rituals have their place as long as they're reminding you of what's already true but it's when rituals become the thing that make the truth it becomes religion idolatry terrible oppressive horrible thing the message of New Hope Church in Toowoomba is the Ministry of reconciliation that God is moving the whole world to a table let's say this way number three are you committed to the reconciliation of all things or just your own salvation this is something Isaiah referenced he says it is but a light thing that you call Jehovah God but the heavier thing is that you be my salvation for the whole world that that Christianity is not an exercise in individual salvation it is an exercise and collective coming together community celebrating the Shokan in the invitation to be reconciled number four who do you need to cook breakfast for Jesus cooked breakfast for the people who abandoned him in his time of need what did they do to you it may be the best way we could show the love of Christ to the world is to show the world what it looks like to eat together mmm if an outsider ever looks at our conversation may the Christ that holds us all together be glorified more than we need to be right about any one thing may we show them love and compassion by exemplifying in our world the message of reconciliation may we bring what weighs us down to the Shogun let me pray for you hello we love you we honor you we proclaim your king if you're here today and there's something weighing you down I would invite you to bring it to the table bring it to the table floor it and leave it there you're more than welcome if you're here and you've never accepted what's been true since before the foundation of the world you've never walked into that reality you're actually living in an illusion and you say you know what I want to I believe that Jesus's version of my life story is better than the one I've been writing on my own and and and I want to bring it I want to bring my life to that table you can make that decision today would you look this way thank you so much let me be your guest today I really enjoy my time here you're awesome I hope Jesus got better Jesus got bigger the Cross worked better at the resurrection is central hope scriptures got bigger not smaller but we have a little bit better understanding of what revelation and the whole narrative of the gospel is about may you my brothers and sisters be blessed to know that you serve a God who believes in you more than you believe in him may you not just be about your individual walk into heaven but rather may we carry the menís the message and the Ministry of the shulk on to our entire world until I see you later Grace and peace everybody god bless thanks shine come on let's really give it up for posture shine that is so good let's stand on our feet and so good so freeing and I just want to finish I guess today with an opportunity as Shane said you know maybe you have you've never come to the table you maybe you've never understood God in that way it's okay probably most of us in this room even having a relationship with God and walking with God you know that that clarifies things for us but if you're here and your journey hasn't included really I guess a a moment where you've intentionally connected your life with the life of God then I want to give you that opportunity this morning just as we close the service and in a few moments time as a church we're all going to pray a very simple prayer together I'll get the team to put it on the screen and it's just simply a prayer of dedication and commitment committing our life to Christ and but maybe you're here today and you've you've never had the opportunity or you've never taken the opportunity in a moment like this just to do that to very intentionally reach out to God and allow him open the door of your heart and literally I sit down at the table with him well friend I want to encourage you you have a fantastic opportunity to do that today it's not about joining a church it's not about getting religious it's it's literally about even God's offer to lay down the guns and sit down and and and spend time with him and so I want to give you that opportunity I'm going to ask everyone if you could bow your heads right now just close your eyes and if you're in this place and you'd say Chris that sort of my journey I've known a bit about God or maybe I haven't known a bit maybe I've known a lot and I've wandered away but right now today I know that I need to very intentionally connect my life to the life of Jesus Christ I need to open my heart and allow him in friend if that's you would you just raise your hand right where you are right where you are I'm looking for you and I'll acknowledge it and you can put it down yep god bless you that is awesome others in this place and you know you need to do that I'm not going to prolong it but friend this is an incredibly important moment for your life and I'd encourage you don't don't miss the opportunity if you're here and and you just know in your heart of hearts you know you need that sense of connection with God you want to experience that forgiveness that comes from him then simply raise your head fantastic yep that's awesome that's awesome okay cool so let's pray this prayer together and as you responded today if you're one of those people that responded and you know that that's what you need that I encourage you just make this prayer your own just use it to express the faith that you're sensing in your heart right now let's pray together Church dear Jesus I believe in you thank you for forgiving me come into my life and I will follow you amen amen that's fantastic why don't we encourage people who made that decision this morning that is life-changing for me it's--it's 30-something years ago now I was a young man of 21 hasn't always been the easiest journey following Jesus but I've never regretted one moment of it and so I want to encourage you and we as a church want to encourage you we feel the best way we can do that is to put a copy of Scripture into your hand give you your own Bible and you begin reading that Bible and allowing God to speak to your heart so these are available at our connections desk out in the foyer and along with some other little tracks and things in there that will just help you read your Bible and get the most out of it if you need to talk to someone about the decision you may please feel free to talk to them or a friend that brought you along today and that would be fantastic after the service of course we have our coffee our cafe I want to remind you that we've got pastor Shane's table out there so if you want to grab a hold of some of this incredible teaching then then I encourage you to do that don't forget if you haven't contributed towards our guest speaker towards Shane's life and ministry would you do that the the f boss is available in the foyer to you as well

Channel: New Hope Church

Views: 4,133

Rating: 4.9322033 out of 5

Keywords: new hope, church, toowoomba

Id: 76kN3ZXKgBc

Length: 44min 27sec (2667 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 15 2020