Who is Sitting at Your Table | Pastor Bianca Olthoff

my name is Bianca and I get the privilege I welcome you here to the father's house Oh Ciel can take a seat wow man I am so excited because this is the very last week of your invited series how many have been here for all four weeks will you please raise your hand the gold star students yeah the extra credit students oh I see you yes yes brother okay those are the ones that are gonna get preferred parking next Sunday okay start motivating y'all to show up on time right here you know where God's anointing is right here in the front row okay I swear to you you'll lose five pounds by the end of service not just kidding half kidding okay great you know what I love though in the you're invited series we are starting this church with the firm foundation and that foundation is the love of Jesus Christ you don't know love about Jesus and we're going through the Gospels that it's not just knowing Jesus for loving the laws but this is the Jesus that we get to discover as living life with the lost if you were with us last week how many was here with us last week yes okay so we see in the pages of Scripture but there's this man a demon-possessed man a demoniac man it was quite a kind of like a modern-day Tweaker and he's hearing voices and he's shouting after Jesus Jesus son of David and then he comes into his right mind in the presence of Jesus and he becomes the first Gentile missionary not to one city but to ten cities which was Decapolis tell me my God won't do it you can come in one day hearing voices and walk out hearing the one voice of God amen and then two weeks ago pastor Matt my handsome husband he taught on a brother that we know as Peter Peter was a disciple of Jesus Christ but see Peter was a fisherman became before he became a Fisher of men okay and I need us to go into the pages of Scripture and start getting visuals of who these people were see Peter was a shoreside man with a shore side accent tanned leather skin tattered seaside clothes you know he probably was like Pauly D from Jersey Shore and so when Jesus asked him Pete who you roll with me we'll give me a Fisher of men Peter was like yeah buddy gypped him laundry be right up with you Jesus and he cuts off the year of Malcolm I mean this guy is crazy and he had an encounter with Jesus and then in week one we spoke about the Samaritan woman she was like the New Testament version oh you know kardi because you're a little crazy oh god yes this is the woman that we see here as we end up this series I want to talk about Jesus's dinner-party ministry we really don't get to talk a whole lot about that but tonight I want to go through this because around the table that Jesus said he didn't care who he was with prostitutes tax collectors women men young old white black Asian Haitian Eurasian curation like he's all there and he is excited to be with God's people he loved talking about banquets and dinner parties and if you didn't follow the Ministry of Jesus even if you sat with him and you were too dense or dumb to recognize how much he loved dinner parties he even told stories about it called parables and this is where we're gonna camp out tonight the trailer before service started is this parable that we're gonna go through tonight so open up your Bibles get your Bibles let me see you moving your hands if you were here last week you know it gave a little pop out for those that didn't bring their Bible to the house of God okay you don't go to Ken's cast without your chemistry book you don't go to the market without your wallet you don't get to your car without your keys and you don't come to church without your Bible all right and if you don't have one we have a gift for you afterwards you can pick up that Bible turn with me you guys that was funny okay Luke chapter 14 you're like is she mad no this is how I talk okay this is me being loving Luke chapter 14 starting with verse 16 jesus replied a certain man was preparing a great banquet sir Mouse throwing a great party and invited many guests at that time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited come for everything is now ready if you know me I love dinner parties I love welcoming people into my home I love serving people I'm a seven on Enneagram so I love a good start up okay but also I was raised at a family of seven we're Hispanic and you know Hispanic people roll deep with all their kids and I lived in a small three-bedroom house at 8:30 Meeker Street and every night would clamor around the dinning dining room table and fight to see where we were gonna sit see the problem was there were seven of us but our table only sat six so inevitably one person had to sit the corner of the table in the worst position possible this person didn't even have a regular seat it was like a low like ottoman like a foot cushion and we referred to it lovingly as the nub no one wanted to sit on the nub you had to sit below the rest of the table you actually had to stand up if you wanted to grab your food if you want to sloppy seconds good luck with that one because you're at the nub right no one wanted to be there the question I always wrestled with it was doing homework or playing outside with my friends is in the sunset I would ask myself will I have a seat at the table we'll have a seat at the table man I would later on recognize that this question of will I have a seat at the table or do I have a seat at the table is one that I would ask her verbally through the rest of my life as a kid I grew up and I shopped at thrift stores and bargain bins not because we were hipsters living in Costa Mesa we were broke stirrers okay like we were so poor we couldn't afford the Oh are we just PO okay that's I'll quote we were so I asked the question would I sit at the cool kids table as a brown girl from the hood who couldn't read write or spell at the age of 12 I asked would I have a seat at the academic table my dad is an immigrant to this country with a thick accent and dark skin would I fit in at the American table I was obese at the age of 11 I weighed more than my father would I even fits at the table as I that was also funny you can laugh at that okay but do we laugh yes we do we can have fun in the house of God if you're sitting here and you're bored is because you're boring okay I got older I began to incessantly fight against the lie that I would never have a seat at the table I thought to be successful and to be a leader and to be American I had to be perfect and polished and pretty and my thighs could never touch this was what I thought and so going through high school I excelled I played varsity sports I was captain of two varsity sports I was class president I was Bible club vice president I became school president I was gonna excel I went on to college and in college I have a stellar GPA I was actually a bill Gates Millennium scholar and then went on to graduate school and graduate a graduate school with a 4.0 because I was gonna prove to the world and the statisticians who put me in a category highest prone to failure that I was gonna sit at that table the problem with that equation is that it was me trying to nuzzle and fight and shoulder my way in without recognizing that there is a God who has control over all I thought that I can earn my position I thought that maybe with enough charm and charisma and dedication and blood sweat tears I would get there but that all changed when I started serving in ministry for the first time in my life I was told I didn't have a seat at the table I wasn't even allowed to sit at the corner on a nub I wasn't allowed to be at the table I remember wanting to get my graduate degree in theology and I didn't think that I was gonna be a problem to get in because I had done so well in undergrad and my GPA was great and my letters of recommendation were great and so imagine my shock when I received a rejection letter from the school and I was it was confused so called the school and it was connected to the Dean and the Dean explained to me that I was indeed rejected from the school and I said but but I don't understand why and he said well there's certain coursework that you need to take in order to get admission into the program but then I explained but those courses are only open to men and he said then you're not allowed into the program essentially there was no room for me at the table for the first time in a really long time I couldn't work harder I couldn't be smarter I couldn't be lighter I couldn't be faster I couldn't be talented enough I remember being flashed back to this moment as I'm on the phone with the Dean of the school feeling the way that I felt in fifth grade Sunday school I remember going into Sunday school and looking at the cool kids the cool kids were the ones that had money and they had charisma and they were cute and they could read and they all wore this brand la gear now you don't know nothing unless you know about I'll lay here okay your life is incomplete unless you know about alla gear and I would walk in by the way it's the 90s don't judge me okay I would walk into Sunday school and see these kids and feel like ding if I get la gear I'm ready set then one glorious day something happened my mom and I were shopping at a store called picking safe which is now Big Lots which is basically a ghetto version of Walmart and I'm walking by myself down the clearance aisle and I see something that catches my eye on the clearance rack in my size a white studded triple laced pair of Michael Jackson alig year I was like the heavens open and Michael the Archangel moonwalk down for me I've got those shoes that I read to my mom and I said mom if you get me these shoes I will never ask for anything else ever again and she said I could get them that day I walked out of Big Lots with a white plastic bag and my MJ shoes like a baller and like yeah Church get hailing me now I put on my kicks on Sunday morning and I walked into class and I saw the cool kids and I walked over cuz I like hey can I stay here and they looked at me and they said oh no these these seats are taken so me and my triple-a studded Michael Jackson's shoes walked to an empty table by myself the rejection from seminary that day revealed the same thing that I experienced in Sunday school my greatest insecurity wasn't that there was enough room but that I wasn't enough as some whole life trying to shed the stigma being too fat and too dumb and to brown and too poor and too much and not enough and yet when it came to something like my faith I was told that I couldn't be there the I wasn't enough the reason why I'm passionate about this parable is because Jesus invites everyone to sit with him let's read the text in context pick it up in verse 17 at the time in the bank it he at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who have been invited to come for everything is now ready but they all like began to make excuses for the first time the first said I have just bought a field so I must go and see it please excuse me another said I've just bought five yoke of oxen I'm on my trip on my way to try them out please excuse me still another set I just got married so I can't calm the servant came back and reported this to his master then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor the crippled the blind Lane served the servants said what you ordered has been done but there are still room then the master told his servant go out to the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full you know a love about Jesus oh jesus loves a good party jesus loves to get turnt up let me tell you at Jesus's table we are told another study for this message there's this theologian that writes that in the Book of Luke specifically Luke which is why I love Luke is Luke loves a party and Jesus loves a party and Luke loved to document it in the book of Luke Jesus was always going to a party coming from a party or about to go to a party so Jesus is sitting here inviting anyone and everyone come sit with me come talk with me I want to know you what's your name what's your theology what's your issue talk to me throughout the Gospels we see various of characters and we see the Heart of Jesus the reason why the community that we live in now is unmoved by who we are what we do is because we don't do what Jesus did we like to talk about it we like to read books about it we like to theorize about it we like to be real spiritual about it well let me tell you what I think stop no one cares what does Jesus do okay at Jesus's table he had Mary and Martha a warrior and a worshipper sit at his table but it's more than they were just sitting there in the table they were women who had audience with the teacher who we refer to as a rabbi women of this time were second-class citizens nonentities they had no intellectual capita they had no political rights that no voting rights had no property rights and Jesus says I see you one of them got to study under Jesus that was Mary who just loved Jesus so much and Jesus allowed her to sit with her I believe that there's women in here maybe might have grown up in a society and a patriarchal home where you felt like you weren't allowed to have big cake conversations or even faith conversations because of your gender you have a seat with Jesus what about cities here a man that we know as Judas Oh Judas was a betrayer Judas was savage Judas sold Jesus for 20 shekels of silver that's a common day amount of like 50 bucks he sold Jesus out and Jesus tore Brennan and served him wine and said you are mine go do we have to do go do you have to do well Simon the leper I love Simon I love that his name also includes like Simon the leper that's like say beyond kaatham xre kid because this was an identifier oh by the way I'm BEC sorry kid okay Mexican Puerto Rican we get the best of both worlds yes so here it's Simon the leper mark and Matthew both talk about this man because it is important that his name is included because as a leper he would have been not included in society he would have X nade he couldn't hang out with people of faith he definitely couldn't go to the church and yet jesus healed him and invited him and said come have a seat with me and the Book of Luke alone let me go through these as quickly as possible Levi was basically an extortionist he was a tax collector he sat with a Hebrew scholar by the name of Simon the Pharisee he said with a no-name prostitute referred to as a woman who is sinful Jesus fed anywhere from ten to twenty thousand with food that he just whipped up my God is a party planner Mary and Martha he sat with women religious officials Sadducees and Pharisees a corrupt tax official basically white-collar crime his best friends and road dogs were hot mess Express called the disciples he had food with two hopeless men on the way to Emmaus and he sat and had food with the fearful people who were after Jesus died and people of that day who would have been labeled sinners they love Jesus so why do people who we would determine and determine the sinners not like us maybe because we've made them feel like they don't have a seat at the table the disconnect of who Jesus was and who we are called to be is found here in this and you know people saw that people of the day in jesus's time they saw who he was hanging out with they saw that he was rollin with people of that time didn't accuse Jesus of being too Theological they didn't accuse Jesus as being too religious they didn't accuse Jesus of coming in to fight in war you know what they accused him off look at what Mark 7 34 don't turn there it's up on the screen the Son of man came eating and drinking and you say here is a glutton and a drunkard a friend of tax collectors and sinners they accuse Jesus of being a drunkard and a glutton what's a drunkard someone who likes to get crunk okay so who started up all the time what is it glutton someone who eats too much but we as Americans we don't understand that you want to know why because Americans spend fifty billion dollars on dieting every year at this point right now there are 20 men who are on a diet and 47% of women who are dieting we spend more on curing our overconsumption than we do providing food for those that are actually hungry in this nation but that wasn't Jesus see it wasn't just Jesus it was also his disciples because people were like chirping oh your disciples they should be praying and fasting yet they're drinking and eating all those heathen people you want to know what the mission strategy was for Jesus having dinner with people you know where he spoke about theology and life and love and truth he did evangelism and discipleship over fish bread and a pitcher of wine Jesus is called if you look at that verse in Matthew seven eight a drunkard and a glutton and a friend's sinners and tax collectors the excessiveness of drinking and eating and the excessiveness of who he hung out with de straigh displays and demonstrates the excessiveness of it's great for humanity people are like all that's so extra why you got to be so extra because I serve an extra God Oh Bianca you always do the most I'd do the mostest I serve the Most High God come on somebody the question is it why do you do so much the question is why don't you do enough look at verse 21 oh I come to get her tonight okay go out quickly into the streets in the alleys verse 21 of the town and bringing the pole or the crippled the blind and the lame why this has been shocking then why would this have sucked the air out of the room at the dinner table where Jesus was because any good religious person any good religious Jew would have known what our fathers taught us in the Book of Leviticus the lame the blind the crippled the poor they were not allowed in the temple they were not allowed in a congregation like this why is this shocking now friends we are the lame and the blind and the crippled and the poor and you're sitting here thinking oh no we're not really I believe that we say in our nomenclature today as well that's your truth and this is my truth and that's their truth and we are nothing more than spare she blind people because we're unable to see the truth of who God is here here in our great nation we nip we tuck we pluck we freeze we lift we tighten why because we're spiritually lame we are unable to see that God loves us just the way that we are and we can come to him with our ugliness that we who have all that we have and and we charge all that we want are spiritually poor unable to offer anything for our salvation thanks to Jesus we don't have to be afraid of coming to him with our fear or our failure our sin our shame you have a seat at the table look what revelation 3:20 says behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come to him and dine with him and he with me you know I love when we dine with Jesus Jesus is the one that creates the meal this is important to me because I'd a great learning lesson my husband was a missions pastor at Mariners Church we love that church in port beach and we would house missionaries from across the world and one time we were asked a host a pastor a young pastor from Egypt we were so excited and Matt came home and he said B I'd love to invite him to come into our house would you please make Mexican food Matt loves when I make Mexican food if I want my husband to love me I just got to make some salsa okay he told me Amen baby I hear you don't wet dirt oh don't earn extra credit points tonight so he said hey we make Mexican food I said absolutely I said will you please ask him if you like spicy food well he said yes so I turn up all right I made enchiladas with homemade red sauce homemade rice and beans I made salsa kamala which is a roasted salsa I threw down I stuffed the enchilada with chicken and cheese and roll they covered it with sauce topped it with cheese baked this when they arrived I pulled it out like Suzy homemaker but the brown version cut it out goofy cheese cuz nothing says love like carbs and dairy okay I played it down and we were throwing down it was all good till about 10 minutes in our Egyptian friend excused himself to the bathroom and stayed there for about 20 minutes when he came out he asked for a glass of milk and didn't eat anything else off of his plate I found out later that he remained on the porcelain throne for the rest of the night and that Pastor has yet to call us back so Jesus doesn't care were a mess he invites us in he says come to me I want you to sit for me I want to talk with you come sit at my table why is this important because the political and it's actually a table invitation with a political or religious alignment who you sat with is who you wanted to be it was powerful and people generally wanted to sit with people that were like them then when the same status as them nothing has changed Kim and Kanye want to hang out with jay-z and Beyonce political pundits and political advisors want to hang out with their same political party nothing has changed when we sees that when you give an invite to those you want and invite back that was the custom of that time and dare I say it's the custom of today so you would give poor food to poor people but you'd ask the poor to go to the back so that they wouldn't come in so even though growing up in my household we didn't have a lot of money my dad taught us at a very young age this is not just something that I pontificate about it's my Esau's my dad told us you invite everyone and anyone to our house for dinner and remember growing up in our small house and no matter how many seats we had my dad always made room and space to invite others we pulled up chairs for everyone and I remember vividly this one night we had 16 people in our dining room and my dad made a gourmet meal of like Cheerios and baking soda I mean this guy was like a miracle worker until this day if you go to my parents house you will always find tortillas and cheese and homemade salsa because nothing says salvation like yes Father yes okay nothing says that this is the goodness right here until this day my best friends would come over and know that my dad is gonna serve them food why because my dad knew that meals were a mission field that meals mattered he was the first person to demonstrate food multiplication like Jesus and people who were rejected by friends and family are confused about who they were or what they were doing my dad invited them in and he taught us welcome people up close so that love doesn't feel far our attitude towards those that are marginalized or ostracized should be shaped by experience of the grace that God has given us there's something that happens when we sit at a table across from someone we become equals we look at them and we hear their stories I remember being at the Los Angeles mission and sitting across from a homeless woman and she said I'm grateful for all the things that people have given me and done for me but what I really want is for someone to listen to me and be my friend people don't want to be projects people want to be seen we have the power of the life-giving word of God living within us and the words that we speak can bring faith to people I know that because I remember sitting across Gina Mitchell she worked at our church an African American woman chocolate brown skin so beautiful and she was married to Stan Mitchell an architect brilliant both of them were dynamic and powerful and I looked at them and I said one day I'm gonna be like Jeana Mitchell Jeana Mitchell invited me to the mall with her she actually picked me up from our apartment on Badillo Boulevard and took me to the West Covina mall and she bought me a turtleneck with floral print and I thought like I was so G what made me think I was gangsta with the turtleneck I don't know I was young and then she took me to aww root beer and we had we split a root beer and fries and she looked at me and she said Bianca one day you were gonna go to college one day people are gonna look at you and think if she got out of the hood I can get out of the hood one day God is gonna use you and your story and your voice and for the first time across from Jeana I thought I am a child of God does she open up the Bible does she call theology or give me some reference on what some theologian said no she spoke life so I believe that people need a sense of community and what I offered to you is that we have the best community through Jesus Christ so how do we do this how do you open up our doors how do we make people feel welcomed number one if you're taking notes say yes to hosting or having a meal with someone all you have to do is having meal and share your story it's not that meals save people but the conversations that happen are open opportunities for us to display the goodness of God number two pull up a chair be willing to engage in a card conversation be willing to disagree be willing to show up because what you put in is what you get out don't give up at those conversations you never know where you're gonna find your community and lastly this empty seat here was left intentionally because once we have a seat at the table we have to recognize that we make a seat for someone else this is not the holy huddle us for no more we've made it thank God we'll be in the heavens after the rapture but there are people that are crying out and saying do I matter who is this God that you serve can you tell me that there's hope for me once you have a seat at the tape we'll make room because there's a banquet waiting for God to have with you how do we know this Isaiah prophesied it I say it 25:6 says the Lord of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all his people on this mountain a banquet with aged wine choice pieces of marrow that's meat that's so good an age refined wined Jesus when he sat with people he's saying I am the banquet I am the party I am here and I have welcomed you so you and you and you you have a seat at the table here at CF hoc you absolutely do but I need you to hear whether you come back or not God is waiting for you to come pull up a chair and then pull out a chair he wants to see you and recognize you and believe that there's but there's good yet to come so you who have no money whatsoever college student you are welcome to have a seat at the table you business owner entrepreneur moneybags with zero relational collateral you have a seat at the table you have loans and debts you have a seat at the table you who have all the money in the world and no one to enjoy that life with look at what Isaiah 55 1 through 2 says everyone who thirsts come to the waters and you who have no money come by eat come buy wine and milk without money and without cost why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself abundance as the band against to sing over us this is your opportunity to respond here at TFA Josie we believe that God is going to do something big in our community we believe that the vision that God has given us outmatches heart resources but that's not gonna stop us it out matches the people that are here that are gonna stop us we are preparing those empty seats in the back with seat covers and table cloths because we believe that there are people out there they're spiritually hungry spiritually thirsty that are saying do open matter plate and guess what if you ever see the table now is your opportunity to create and

Channel: Bianca Juarez Olthoff

Views: 10,906

Rating: 4.8939395 out of 5

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Id: WtLKY_-g_eQ

Length: 28min 44sec (1724 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 23 2018