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Last Sunday we started a three-week series called Rest, Live, Work.

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We've always said from the beginning of the church when we planted that we exist to call

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Prodigals home, to invite people in, to adopt the spiritually homeless, to be a place

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where no one would be left out, so that everyone can feel like they can rest, live, and work

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in a great house.

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So last week we started with rest in what we are talking about when we say that.

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We talked about laying our burdens down, not coming from a place of legalism or thinking

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that God immediately has a bunch of work and stuff for us to do, but we come to a place

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of rest.

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If you missed that, you can check it out on our podcast.

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It's anywhere the podcast can be found out there in the internet, digital, ether, or

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you can watch the whole service on Facebook or YouTube.

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And this week we are going to talk about what it means to live in the house.

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I'll be honest, you can ask Cindy this is true.

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This is a really tough sermon to write.

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It took forever.

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Now there's no guarantee that means it's going to be a lot better, but it took forever to

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write this sermon because live can mean a lot of things.

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I kept on putting things in and taking it out and adding other things and I had to keep

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on going, what is it that we mean?

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What is the most important thing?

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What is the central thing?

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When we say live at the house, what is that one thing?

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For me that comes down to this.

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Becoming like Jesus and modeling the way that he lives at the table.

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Becoming like Jesus and modeling the way that he lives at the table.

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So with that, let's open up our Bibles to Luke.

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If you don't have a Bible, there's blue ones on the table and they're also on the shelf

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out in the lobby.

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Feel free to grab one of those and take it home with you.

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They're free.

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Or you can download a Bible from any of the digital app stores.

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Luke is in what's called the New Testament or the Second Testament.

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It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.

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So if you see any of those, you are in the right neighborhood.

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We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention when they're read in the

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context of the sermon.

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You can do that any number of ways.

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You can sit and give it your full attention.

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You can stand with me as you are able.

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And we read the scriptures.

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We're going to be Luke 7 starting in verse 36.

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Here we go.

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Now, one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him.

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And he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

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And a woman in the city who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's

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house, brought in alabaster jar of ointment.

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As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears.

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Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.

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When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, this man were a

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prophet.

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He would know who was touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.

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Let's pray.

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God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, we thank you that we have the

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scriptures that they have persisted throughout the millennia.

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We still have them to read and to consider.

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Whatever you have for us to learn today, I pray that it would stick.

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I pray that it would become a part of the framework of our faith, that our faith would

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become stronger as we become more like your son, Jesus.

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Amen.

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Amen, sweetie.

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All right.

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When I started high school in 1992, all right, my 96 crowd, raise your hand, you graduated

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in 96, right there, right there, we went to high school together.

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We didn't really know each other very much, but we went to high school together.

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So you might relate to some of this.

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I'm not sure.

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I had no idea where I was going to fit in at this school when I started high school.

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I was a small kid.

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It is a little bit of the Hampton genes.

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We grow after we graduate high school.

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So I was just a little kid walking into this giant school.

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Just the physical size of Moline High School felt intimidating to me.

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It was overwhelming.

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But nothing was more intimidating to me than the lunchroom.

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Then go into that cafeteria for the first time.

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Not because I didn't know what I was going to eat, because I didn't know who I was going

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to sit with or where I was going to fit in.

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My school had something like 3,000 kids in it.

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So by the time I got to the lunchroom, there was already four or 500 kids in there.

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I didn't have a bunch of friends.

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I know, shocker.

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I didn't have a bunch of friends waiting for me, saving tables, waiting to be like, hey,

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this is where you belong.

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So I had no idea where I was going to sit.

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Moline was saving me a seat.

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I remember weaving my way through the tables.

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They had round tables.

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Remember weaving my way through the tables with my tray, just like scanning the room.

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I had gone to both middle schools.

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I went to the one for a little bit, and then I went to the other.

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And so I was kind of like mixed up with who I would know.

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I'm looking around to scan the room.

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I was maybe even just looking for an empty table that I'd just sit down and get it over

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with.

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Just sit down.

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Don't worry about who's going to sit with me.

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And then some kind of cool happened.

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Kid named Mike Sweeney said my name kind of from the side, caught my attention.

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I turned and he waved, waved me over.

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I came.

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He invited me to sit at his table with him and his friends.

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It's something that I remember and is still meaningful to me 32 years later.

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Because Mike was a senior.

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Now, I don't know what it's like these days, but back then at the end of the last century,

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there was a social hierarchy in the high school lunchrooms of the 1990s.

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When you watch those old movies about the 70s, 80s, and 90s, that stuff was true.

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Like the way people acted in lunchrooms, there's some truth to that.

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And as a freshman, the idea of getting to sit at a table full of upperclassmen, it felt

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special.

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Now, I still had a lot to figure out, right?

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But at least I knew where I belonged at lunchtime.

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There's something about being invited to sit at someone's table when they didn't have to

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make room for you.

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2000 years ago wasn't all that different.

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During the first century in Israel, if you invited someone to your home for meal, you

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were sharing your reputation with them.

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Mike wasn't the most popular kid in the school.

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This isn't like the beginning of some movie where Greg becomes prompting because he sat

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down at a senior's table, right?

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But he was still a senior.

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There was still some of that social structure there that he was risking by inviting a freshman

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kid that didn't have any friends to come sit down at his table.

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Back in Israel 2000 years ago, if you invited someone to your home, you were lending them

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your reputation.

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You were putting your stamp of approval on them.

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You were saying, I accept you as you are.

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You're here with me.

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You belong.

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Maybe that's what the Pharisee wanted from Jesus when he invited him over for dinner.

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Or maybe the Pharisee thought that was what he was giving to Jesus.

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Other way, if you listen to what we read and if you read the rest of the story, what becomes

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very obvious is that that Pharisee definitely did not want to lend his reputation to that

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woman.

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But that didn't stop Jesus.

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Didn't stop Jesus from lending his reputation.

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Didn't stop Jesus from making room for her.

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I don't see Jesus catering to people with reputations they're afraid to lose.

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I think he's setting a place at the table for all the people with nothing to lose.

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He's making room.

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That is how we are supposed to live at the table.

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I guess what I'm trying to say is that if we can look around this room and spot the

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person that doesn't belong, then Jesus still needs us to learn what it means to live in

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a great house.

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Because becoming like Jesus, living at the table means that we model the table manners

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of Jesus.

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Jesus is making room for anyone that shows up.

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Now this is really important to understand for spiritual reasons, yeah?

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But there's also something that's incredibly important about it, just practically speaking,

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because I don't know if you have noticed, but there are a lot of lonely people in the

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world.

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Research says that more than a third of Americans are suffering from serious loneliness.

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And that research was done before COVID.

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What we also know is that loneliness increases the risk of an early death by 50%.

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People need to know that they can belong somewhere.

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People need to know that there is a community that will embrace them.

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People need to know that we will make room for them.

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This is real.

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Research shows that doing something as simple as playing cards once a week with some friends

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or meeting people weekly for a coffee can add as many years to your life as quitting

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a pack a day smoking habit.

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That's real.

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If cards and coffee can do that, imagine what living in a great house could do.

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If cards and coffee can add that much life to your physical existence, imagine what finding

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a community in a church could do.

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Imagine what finding a healthy church could do.

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Now a couple weeks, we have two what we call community tables starting.

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Community tables are our version of small groups, but they're laid back.

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There's no book.

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There's no homework.

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There's food.

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There's a meal.

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There's conversation.

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Because community tables aren't like a Bible study for a reason.

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It's on purpose.

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Nothing against Bible studies.

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Y'all can get together and study the Bible together as well.

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That would be great.

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But community tables are intentionally social for a reason because we don't just need to

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learn more about the Bible.

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Jesus wants us to learn about each other.

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Jesus wants us to know more than just each other's names.

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Jesus wants us to know what's going on in our lives.

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Community tables are one of the ways that we try to make room for people here at the

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house.

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Jen has the sign up somewhere.

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You can sign up after service.

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They start in two weeks.

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But then next week after church is kind of like a kickoff for community tables starting.

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We're going to have a house party potluck after church.

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You'll get an email about it this week.

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You can bring something to share.

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And everyone is invited just to stay afterwards and eat, enjoy each other's company.

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We'll kind of model some of that time after what a community table looks like.

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Just giving you a theme to discuss.

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Getting some highlights from your conversations.

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Giving you the opportunity to be with each other without an agenda that feels like you're

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going to have a test at the end.

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Then we have something that we call Tuesday activities.

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There's something that happens every single Tuesday.

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First Tuesday, worship and prayer.

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Second Tuesday, green bush walk.

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Third Tuesday, spiritual conversations.

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Fourth Tuesday, facility care.

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And then on two of those Tuesdays, Robin leads something called the worship dance crew.

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If you want to learn how to dance to music and worship God with that.

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We have more ways to connect to this community than we have had in over a decade.

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Since we started, we have never done this many things all at once.

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And it is specifically because we are trying to make room at the table.

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Trying to help people find the connection point.

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Because not every Sunday is going to work out.

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But if you can find something that is a weekly connection point with people that you know

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care about you, it literally adds life.

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I believe that God does something spiritual with that as well.

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In the scriptures, even when you get to the very end of the scriptures, when you get to

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the book of Revelation, there's a really famous verse in there that most of you have probably

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heard.

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Seen some meme about it online.

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The idea is that there's been this letter that's been written to a church that has started

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to wander away from the Lord.

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And it says, I stand at the door and I knock.

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Whoever lets me in, I will come in and I will eat a meal with them.

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That's what it says.

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Jesus is just trying to get us to sit down and eat.

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Jesus is like a really good Greek mother.

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Just trying to get us to sit down together.

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Just trying to sit down, look at us face to face and talk.

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I think we live in a great house when we sit down with Jesus.

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When we become like Jesus.

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When no one is left out.

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When we're always making room.

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Making sure that there is an open spot for someone new.

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Maybe even especially for someone that didn't know that they could sit there.

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Maybe even for someone that came in.

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Holding all their problems on a tray.

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Walking through these tables.

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Just looking for a table where they can sit down with somebody.

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Hoping that they'll hear someone say their name.

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Wave them over and say you belong here with me.

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That is what I mean when I say live in a great house.

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Amen?

242
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Amen.

243
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Let's pray.

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God, thank you for Mike Sweeney.

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I pray for him today.

246
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Pray that you pour out your blessings.

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I pray that you would fill his table so full with all the blessings that he needs.

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For what will feel like no reason at all.

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And I pray that each of us would have our eyes open to see the person that is scanning

250
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the room just looking for a place to belong.

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Whether that room is our work, whether that room is our neighborhood, our own family,

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or this church.

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Give us eyes to see.

254
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Hearts to feel.

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And a willingness to sit at a table with someone new.

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And make old friends.

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Amen.