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Our scripture reading this evening comes from the Gospel of John chapter 13.

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It was just before the Passover festival.

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Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

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Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

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The evening meal was in progress.

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The devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

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Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come up from

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God and was returning to God.

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So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

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After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, drying

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them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

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He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?

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Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.

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No, said Peter, you will never wash my feet.

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Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part in me.

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When Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well.

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Jesus answered, those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet.

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Their whole body is clean.

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And you are clean, though not every one of you.

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For he knew who was going to betray him, and that is why he said not everyone was clean.

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When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place.

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Do you understand what I have done for you, he asked them.

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You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.

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And now that I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you should also wash one

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another's feet.

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I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you.

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Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater

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than the one who sent him.

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Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

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When Judas was gone, Jesus said, now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in

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him.

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If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the son in himself and will glorify him at

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once.

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My children, I will be with you only a little longer.

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You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now, where I am going,

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you cannot come.

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A new command I give you, love one another.

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As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

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By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

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The word of the Lord.

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It's gotta be one of the most iconic and famous paintings in all of history, really.

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It's Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper.

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And when I look at that painting, I mean, there's so much to see there, but one of the

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things that I am struck with is the contrast, right?

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Because on the one hand, you've got Jesus sitting in the middle and da Vinci has like

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almost painted him like an equilateral triangle, right?

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He's this perfect picture of peace and divinity.

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But in contrast to that, you look around him and you've got all these characters, some

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are up and some are down and they're jumbled and they're facing this way and they're leaning

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that way and there's this confusion and chaos associated with these people who are with

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Jesus.

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And I look at that and I stare at it and I look at all the different shapes of these

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people around him and I can't help but just think, you know, who are these people?

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Who are these people who are sitting at this meal with Jesus?

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You've got Judas there in the shadows.

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You've got Peter, who apparently, if you look closely, he's got a sword in his cloak.

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You've got Philip, who's asking some questions and you've got Thomas, who is pointing his

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finger almost prefiguring when he'll point his finger at Jesus and say, I can't believe

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unless I see his wounds.

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You know, it's a masterpiece.

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Some people have said though, Leonardo da Vinci didn't get everything quite right.

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For example, the table isn't right because a Passover meal, they would have eaten that

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at what was called a triclinium, which is a table that actually has kind of three tables

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that make a U shape.

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It wouldn't have been one long table and they wouldn't have been sitting on chairs either.

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The meal was eaten as you reclined.

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You reclined on your kind of left elbow and then you ate with your right hand.

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So it's true, da Vinci didn't get everything quite right.

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But I think one thing that he did get right is just this strange and odd and surprising

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mix of people that are seated around the table with him.

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If you were to have a dinner party, you'd probably be pretty careful about the people

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you invited.

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And if you were to have a very special meal, like the last meal of your life, a symbolic

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and highly charged meal like Jesus was organizing here, you would probably be very careful who

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the folks were that were on your guest list, which is why it's so strange that these in

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fact are the people who are seated at the table that night.

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I've done a little bit of reading this past week in preparation for tonight, trying to

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just remember again, who are these disciples, this ragtag bunch of people that are gathered

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around the table?

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And frankly, I'm surprised any of them got an invitation.

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If I were there, I'd be surprised I would get the invitation.

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But the more I look at these guys, it's surprising they made the guest list.

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And here's the amazing thing.

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Jesus invited each one and each one had a place at the table.

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You know, if you've ever been to a, you've ever been to a banquet and you're wondering,

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Oh, do I belong here?

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Am I, am I supposed to be here?

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Was I really invited?

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Yeah, it's happened to me a few times.

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I just crashed parties and you know, I, you know, but no, actually, there's a short

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far way to tell whether you're on the guest list.

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And that is you just walk around to the tables and you look at all the place settings and

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you look for what's called a place card.

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And that's, that's a card that's got your name on it.

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And if you see that place card, it lets you know, ah, I was invited.

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I was supposed to be here and there is a place for me at this table.

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Well, tonight, all I want to do with you is I just want to go around that table with you

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and I want to look at the place cards.

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I want to look at the people who were seated at Jesus table that night.

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And I want us just to see a couple of things.

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I want us to see, first of all, how diverse they were, how different they were, how unique

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they were.

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And actually in many cases, how broken and messed up they were.

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You see, some of us might feel, you know, I'm too sinful to be invited to Jesus table.

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I'm too messed up, too broken.

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My faith is way too small.

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I would never be invited to the table with Jesus.

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But I think that by the time we are done tonight, you'll see you've got a place at this table.

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You belong at this table and actually not just you, but Jesus invites all sorts of people,

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all different kinds of people.

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And it's actually only when we're all present, only when we're all there with all of our

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differences and our diversity and uniqueness, I think it's only when we're all gathered

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around that table that the table is actually complete.

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So let's do it as we go down this table.

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Let's look at the place cards.

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But as we do, I want you also to look at yourself and ask yourself, who of these disciples do

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I most resemble?

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In what ways are they just like me?

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As if that's true, then I too have a place at this table.

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Let's start with who other than Simon Peter, Simon Peter has a seat at this table, which

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perhaps isn't all that startling because Simon Peter is often held up as an example of great

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faith, but let's be honest about Simon Peter.

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He's a bit of a mixed bag.

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Sometimes he's great.

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Another time he's a total flop.

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I'll give you a couple of examples.

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It was Simon Peter who, when Jesus said, Hey, who do people say that I am?

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You know what Simon Peter put up his hand and said, I know who you are.

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You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.

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And Jesus says, you got it.

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And then in the very next breath, you know what Simon Peter does?

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He completely misunderstands that Jesus mission so much to the point that Jesus says, Simon,

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get behind me, Satan, talk about a hit and a miss.

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It was Simon Peter who had faith enough to walk out on the waves to, to meet with Jesus.

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What faith?

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It was the same Simon Peter who, who got totally scared out of his wits and started sinking

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in the very same water.

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What a mixed bag.

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It's Simon Peter who, as he sits at the table with Jesus, he's got a sword in his cloak.

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He's ready to die for Jesus that night.

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That same Simon Peter, he's the one who will run away and deny that he even knew Jesus

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in the first place.

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Simon Peter, he's unreliable.

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He's, he's unpredictable.

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Do you see yourself in him tonight at all?

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Is there a little Peter in you as you come to this table tonight?

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On the one hand, you're full of faith and you're full of passion and zeal.

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And yet on the other time, man, you surprise yourself at your mistakes.

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You surprise yourself at your lack of faith and your, your own weakness and your own screw

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ups.

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And yet Peter and you and me have a place at this table.

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Absolutely, absolutely amazing.

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Well, listen, every story has to have a villain, right?

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And while none of these 12 disciples are perfect, if you had to pick the bad guy, it's got to

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be Judas Iscariot.

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We don't know the full story of Judas.

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We don't know the full story of any of these guys really, but apparently at some point,

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Judas was overcome with evil.

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He was overcome with darkness, overcome with demons, overcome by Satan.

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It all got a hold of him and it caused him to betray Jesus to the death.

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It is horrible, but here's the crazy thing.

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Here's the crazy thing.

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Jesus knew this would all happen and he still makes a place for Judas at his table.

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How does that even work?

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There's Judas, he's sitting at the table.

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He's got the 30 pieces of silver in his pocket ready to betray Jesus and he's here at the

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table.

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Why?

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Why?

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He's like, well, maybe he's here because deep down we all know there's been times when we've

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been the bad guy.

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There's been times when we know darkness has gotten ahold of us, where evil has gotten

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into us and there are things we have said and things we have done that we'd be ashamed

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to tell anybody about.

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It's that dark and it's that deep.

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And so I wonder is the reason that Judas is invited to this table.

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Is that so we may more fully come to Jesus table as well with all those parts of our

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humanity that betray him and deny him and sin against him and may even murder him for

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Jesus.

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The table was not complete without Judas.

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Just as the table is not going to be complete without you or me, there is part of us that

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comes to the table like Judas does.

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Let's keep going around the table.

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We come across these two fellows, right?

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These guys, these, these brothers sitting beside each other, they're kind of inseparable.

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Their names are James and John, but actually Jesus has given them a neck and a nickname.

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It's Bo energies is their nickname, which basically means sons of thunder or, or thunderbolts.

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Now it's interesting what, what, what is, what kind of nickname like that tell us about James

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and John?

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I think it could tell us a couple of things.

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One it probably tells us that these guys were kind of hot tempered.

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They're probably the kind of guys that would snap just like that, get really mad, really,

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really quick or from zero to a hundred in like three seconds.

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I could, you know, there's a story where Jesus and James and John, some of the disciples

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got, you know, kind of rejected by some villagers in a town they were going to and James and

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John, you know what their idea was?

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They said, Hey Jesus, why don't we call down fire from heaven and burn all these people

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to a crisp?

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It's got some anger issues there.

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They also have pride issues.

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Another time when they're all walking along the street, James and John come up to Jesus.

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Hey Jesus, we got a great idea.

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When you become King and you're in charge and you're number one, how about you make

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me and James and me and James and John, how do you make us your number one and number

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two?

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We want to be right at your left-handed and one at your right hand.

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We want to be right up there with you, Jesus.

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What do you think about that?

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These guys, these guys, short fuses, big egos, and Jesus invites them to the table.

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Do you see yourselves in them?

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Pride, anger?

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I mean, maybe you look at James and John, you're like, Oh my gosh, that's me.

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That is so me.

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That's exactly what I would do.

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There's a part of me that is just like that.

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And that means, listen, there's a place for you at this table too.

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It's not complete without you.

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It's not complete without them.

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What about Andrew?

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You know, maybe sitting right beside James and, and John is Andrew.

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One thing we know about Andrew is at one point in his life, he was a fully committed follower

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of John the Baptist.

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He was one of John the Baptist's disciples.

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And then one day John the Baptist said, listen, Andrew, I don't want you to follow me anymore.

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I want you to follow Jesus instead.

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And so Andrew's beliefs in that moment must have had to go through a fairly radical shift.

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He had been following this guy and listening to his gospel of, you know, baptism for repentance

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of sin, prepare the way, da da da.

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And now he's got to follow Jesus and Jesus and the kingdom of God and all a very kind

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of different thing.

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And so he's been a disciple of John.

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Now he's going to become a disciple of Jesus.

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He's got to leave behind what was familiar and he's got to embrace this new way of thinking.

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And maybe some of that sounds familiar to you, right?

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This, this Jesus guy has shown him into your life and has challenged your thinking.

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It has caused you to have to kind of rethink everything.

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It's tossed your world upside down.

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You've always seen the world one way.

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You've always gone this way.

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And now Jesus is challenging you to see it and embrace the world in a different way.

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And that is unsettling.

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And that is very hard for you.

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Is there part of you who feels what Andrew feels?

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Even as you come to church tonight, you're like, I, I don't know what to make of all

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this.

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It's, it's unsettling for me.

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If so, don't worry, don't worry.

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Because Andrew had a seat at this table and you've got a seat at this table too.

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Or maybe it's, you might recognize yourself in Philip.

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Again, we don't know a lot about these guys, but, but one of the nicknames that the history

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books give Philip is Philip the curious.

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Philip is always asking questions.

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In fact, it seemed like Philip would ask, you know, ridiculous questions, even in the

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middle of one of Jesus's, you know, most profound teaching moments.

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They, these questions, he just can't seem to keep them to himself.

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And it's interesting, like it's okay though, because when, when Philip is asking questions,

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it actually ultimately leads them to deeper faith and deeper understanding of who Jesus

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is.

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And maybe you know how Philip feels because maybe you're, you're full of questions yourself.

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Maybe you've got questions about, about Jesus, questions about God, questions about suffering

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questions.

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So many questions going on in your mind, but it's important to know that Jesus never reprimanded

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Philip for his questions.

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Jesus never reprimands anybody for their questions and struggles.

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Instead, what Jesus does, he takes a little card out and he writes Phillips name on it

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and he puts it at the table and he says, there's a place for you, Philip at this table.

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And there's a place for all your questions too.

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And then there's one who's got even more questions.

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In fact, he has some serious doubts and his name is of course Thomas, but the history

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books have given him this nickname, Thomas the doubter doubting Thomas.

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Thomas demands proof.

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He demands proof of the resurrection.

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And when Jesus returns after his crucifixion, Thomas will not believe until he sees the

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marks in Jesus hands for himself and even touches them.

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Sometimes we see people like Thomas is weak, oh, they're so full of doubts.

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They don't have enough faith.

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And as a result, if we've got doubts, we don't even want to voice them because we're afraid

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that it'll make us look lesser in the eyes of other people and people look down on us

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for it.

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But Thomas's doubts are welcomed by Jesus.

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And it's actually through his doubts that he comes to have a deeper understanding and

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a deeper faith and a deeper reliance on Jesus.

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So if there is a part of you like Thomas and you're full of doubts, maybe you have doubts

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about maybe you even have doubts about Easter.

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Maybe you even have doubts about the resurrection that we're about to celebrate.

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Listen, that is okay.

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Just remember you like Thomas, you're invited to find your place at this table.

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How about Matthew?

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Do you guys see what a mix?

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What an odd assortment of people to invite to you.

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Matthew, a tax collector.

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Tax collectors were some of the most unpopular people in the first century Jewish world,

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right?

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Although they themselves were Jews, they had been contracted to ruthlessly collect taxes

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from their countrymen.

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And basically what they do is they would collect the taxes and then they would collect their

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fee on top of that.

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And then they might collect a little bit more just because, well, just because they could.

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And so tax collectors became some of the wealthiest people in town, some of the most hated people

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in society.

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That's why when I see Matthew's card sitting at the table, you know what I think about?

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I think about greed.

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I think about our constant desire for more, our desire to keep up with the Joneses, our

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lack of contentment with what we have, our tendency to divine ourself by our net worth.

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I mean, do you see that in yourself?

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This desire for more, your struggle with greed?

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Well just remember this.

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So did Matthew.

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And still you and he have a place card sitting at this table.

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We're getting through the list here, but listen, there's another guy named Simon.

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The Bible does not tell us much about this guy other than he's nicknamed Simon the Zealot.

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Now there was an extreme political party in Jesus' day that were known as the Zealots.

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And they wanted a Messiah who would violently overthrow the Romans and do it right now.

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They were zealous, they were zealous for God.

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And scholars maybe aren't 100% sure, but they think that somehow maybe one of the followers

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of this kind of radical political party also found themselves joining up with Jesus, which

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meant that he probably had one foot in this world over here where they impatiently wanted

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to see the overthrow of Rome.

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And then he had his other foot in this world over here with Jesus, which had a very different

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kind of agenda.

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So Simon is this really complex guy.

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He's a bit of a wild card.

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He's kind of probably got dangerous friends.

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He's kind of a scary guy to be around maybe.

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And yet here he was in Jesus' inner circle.

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I think it is safe to say he was conflicted.

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And maybe you feel the same way as Simon.

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You're conflicted too in your life.

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You've got one foot over here in your world of work, one with your family, with your friends.

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You've got a whole life over here.

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And then you've got Jesus who has a very radically different idea about how to live your life

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and go about your life.

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And you've got one foot in each world and you're actually not 100% sure you could actually

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ever take this foot out and be all in with Jesus.

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If you feel that way, if you feel conflicted, if you feel uncertain, misguided, then like

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Simon the Zealot, amazingly, you've still got a place at the table.

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Let me end with three others, three other people who have yet to be named.

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These guys, actually, we don't know anything about them, to be quite honest.

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Their stories don't seem to have been important enough to be recorded in the sands of time

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here in the history books.

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And yet their presence was important enough to be included at the table of Jesus.

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Bartholomew was welcomed at the table.

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Taddeus was welcomed at the table.

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James, the son of Alphaeus, was welcomed at the table.

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I wonder if they might actually represent those of us who feel forgotten, those of us

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who feel left out, those who didn't get the credit, those who didn't get recognized, those

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who feel like the world has overlooked us and life has moved on and we feel ignored

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by everyone.

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They were not overlooked by Jesus.

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Their presence was critical to the table that night.

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The meal could not start without James, Taddeus, and Bartholomew.

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So there you got it, guys.

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What an unexpected guest list.

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People invited to Jesus' table.

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Here at the table, you know what we see?

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We see the depths of humanity, both the highs of humanity, yes, but also the lows.

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Both the faith, yes, but also the denial, the betrayal, the hot tempers, the pride,

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the questions, the doubts, the greeds, the impatience, even our feeling of inadequacy

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and being forgotten.

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It's all gathered there at the table.

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What a strange table.

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What a powerful table.

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God knows all about us.

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He knows every hair on your head.

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He knows everything about you, your sins and secret thoughts, and yet He still wants you

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at His table.

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He knows you're weak, He knows I'm broken, and yet He still prepares a place for me at

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this table.

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Just think this through one more time.

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Jesus knew Judas was about to betray Him, and He still washed His feet.

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Jesus knew all these guys were going to deny Him, and that night He still calls them friends.

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What a table.

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What a guest list.

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What a host.

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It wouldn't have been complete without any one of them.

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And actually, that comes down to you and to me.

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This table is not complete without you and without your place card as well.

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You know what we're going to do tonight, something a little different.

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In just a minute, some of these ushers are actually going to come through, and they're

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going to be handing out little blank place cards to you.

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So I would invite you just to pass them down, the pews, as they come around right now.

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I want to encourage you to do something.

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You can do it in a number of ways.

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You could take off the little name tag that you got tonight, and you can stick it to that

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place card, or you can take one of the pencils in your pews, and you can write your name

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on that place card.

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If you are watching online and you checked in this evening, then we've already printed

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off a name tag for you, and we're going to put it on a place card for you as well.

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And if you didn't get a chance to check in, do we have a phone number that we're putting

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up?

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Maybe not.

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But if you didn't get a chance to check in, please go to our church app, check in, and

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we'll create a place card for you.

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Because here's what we're going to do.

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In a few moments, we are going to come forward and we are going to receive the bread and

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the wine.

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We're going to come to Jesus' table and to remind us of who we are and that you have

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a place in Jesus' table.

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We're also going to place a place card on one of these two little tables that are up

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here at the front of the church.

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And when we do that, and when you see those cards pile up, and when you see those names

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all show up, a couple things are going to become real clear.

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First, when you see your name on that card, you're going to become more aware of all that

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your name represents, all the strengths and all the weaknesses, all the faith and all

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the failures are in that name.

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And as we write our name and as we ponder our own identity there, so that means that

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when we come to the table, we are coming with who we are, the good and the bad and the ugly.

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But secondly, as we place these cards on these tables tonight, we're going to see something

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beautiful.

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We will see the beautiful diversity of Jesus' family, knowing that God's family is made

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more beautiful by our differences, not less beautiful, more beautiful by our uniqueness,

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our different names, our different people, our diverse backgrounds.

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If any of the cards are missing from those tables tonight, then the meal is less complete.

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Thirdly, as we look at the table covered in those cards, I think we're going to have a

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deep sense that we are God's beloved children.

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Welcome to his table.

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And it's not because of anything we've done to earn a place at the table.

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It's only because of Jesus' grace and sacrifice and love for us that we have a place at the

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table.

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And then finally, when we see the kind of table that Jesus sets for us, that we are

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invited to, hopefully we go forth from this place ready to set our own tables in our own

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houses for others, to invite others into our homes and invite others around our tables

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because that's how God's love is extended deeper and deeper into the world.