Guest Speaker: Brian Barlow

It's good to be with you., I'm for those of you who don't know me, I'm Brian Barlow. I'm pastor of Oasis Christian Fellowship in Plainfield, Wisconsin. Anybody been there before? Yeah. Was it a great experience? Whatever. I drove through the roof. All right., I've titled this morning's message, Come to the Table., when you think of Thanksgiving, all right, that's coming up soon, right? What comes to your mind? And where's the turkey? It's on a table, right? And that's kind of the focal point. Maybe for some of you it's a football game, but we gather around the table. So this morning I' just like to as the family of God just to gather around the table, but also to extend an invitation to come to the table.

As I was thinking this week about what in the world am I going to talk about in Oshkosh, I didn't come up with anything. So, that's the end of the message and you're No, Sunday school. What? Time to go. Sunday school. All right. Sunday school. Ready? Go. I'm working without a script here. As you can see,

It's his. It's his fault. Usually have a real five minute break. Okay. All right. We are into the official five minute break as everyone goes to Sunday school. All right. Thanks. Any other Okay. So, as part of this family gathering, it's a very relaxed situation this morning., but what came to my mind was a strange thing. If you know me, that's not unusual. Luke chapter 7 and it's it's the account the context. A centurion servant has just been healed by Jesus. A widow from the town of Nain has her son raised from the dead. And people are going, "What's this all about?

What's going on?", so much so that John the Baptizer has questions. So, he knows who Jesus is, right? Cousin Jesus, also the son of God, Messiah, but he's got some questions. He's maybe experiencing some doubts., and then Jesus responds in an interesting way. John sends two of his disciples to ask him who are you the one that's coming. And this is what Jesus said. When the messengers of John had departed, John, this is Luke 7:24. He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John, saying, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind.

But what did you go out to see?" So, I'm asking you that this morning, what we'll change the verb to come. What did you come out to see? What why did you come this morning? Why are you here this very moment? What condition are you in this morning? And what are you looking for? Or maybe who are you looking for? Hopefully, we can answer that question this morning. Before we go further though, why don't you stand

And you're seated by somebody, look at them and say, "I'm glad you're here." All right. It's good. All right. Before this gets out of hand, breaks into fellowship. So, I'm glad that you came. I believe that the Lord is glad that you came. Why start with that passage? Well what did you come out to see? But it he starts with it. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? I mean, would you agree that life can be a wilderness sometimes? Yeah. Sometimes in Exodus 20 and then again in chapter 35. first is the command and then is the reminder that God has set things kind of on a 7day clock, right?

We go back to Genesis 1 with the week of creation. And what do we know there? Six days you shall what? Work. It's labor. And on the seventh day you shall rest. So that seventh day is to be it tells us in Scripture, holy. It's supposed to be a time of rest. Maybe today you're kind of still in the six days of the wilderness. That has been your week. Let's let's hope that this morning that this hour or not even an hour gives us that pause that sa as the Psalms use that word to drink in the Lord as as a worship leader mentioned about the Holy Spirit.

And if you're in an unrestful state that you would find rest today. But I'm going to say this and I'll come back to it later. That rest in Christ is an it's a term I think I invented, probably not, but it's an active rest. It's an active rest. And we'll explain that., so what did you come out to see this morning? Well, as Jesus is answering the question to John's disciples, did you come out to see a shaky reed? Did you some come out to see somebody finally dressed? Maybe a prophet. Oh, if that were only true. I hope you came out to see the Lord.

So in most Protestant pulpits, especially evangelistic minded churches, they might do an invitation at the end. If you've seen a Billy Graham crusade, how many of you have not heard of Billy Graham? I'm getting so old that Okay, Greg Lori, you've not Okay, we got one hand back there. YouTube but would end with an invitation. An invitation to come to the table, to come to the waters, to come and receive Christ, or maybe to reacquaint with Christ because you went on a prodigal journey or something. Today, I'm beginning with the invitation, come to the table. I remember probably two occasions. Anyone heard of Ral Ree?

Okay, a few of you. He's a he's one of the as as my friend Ben Eckle says, one of the old heads. He's goes back to the very beginning of Calvary Chapel. He's pastor in Diamond Bar, California. He once taught on a Sunday night at Greg Lor's church and then I remember at a pastor's conference and he got up and he just grabbed the pulpit and he said, "We're going to do the invitation right now. Before the message you need to come. And I'm sitting there in the chair going that's not how we do it. It's in a manual. You do that at the end.

What? And people began to come forward to do business with God to receive healing and encouragement and salvation. So if you're nervous right now that I'm going to stand here and wait for you to come forward, it'd be okay if you were, but I'm not going to do that to you this morning. I promise. But keep in mind that the invitation is already open. Okay? And they said, "Okay, invitations. Not like an invitation to the grand opening to maybe the latest Starbucks in your town, but more like it's the last call to get on the flight and it's the last flight out to your destination.

So pay attention. This is important. Come to the t come to the table. Who will come? Well, I know that there are some answers to that in Scripture in Matthew 5, the first part of that chapter sermon on the mount, several chapters, but it's we call them the Beatitudes, and it lists those that will be blessed, those that are happy, but some some curious things those who mourn, those who are persecuted will be the blessed ones. It says in verse 6 "Blessed is the one who hungers and thirsts, hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for they shall be filled," or it can be translated satisfied.

So that tells me that someone may set the table, but if the people aren't hungry enough to come, they miss they miss probably a whole lot more than the blessings. In Matthew 20 22 some someone comes to Jesus with a great need and Jesus Jesus asked this question. He says what do you want me to do for you? He might be asking that question this morning. But it brought to mind a sermon I did years ago and I had this great PowerPoint show that you don't see behind you because I couldn't find it. Could be because of my age be whatever.

But I set it to a song. Don't remember the song either, but it was a series of pictures I found on the internet of illustrations of some person's idea of what Jesus is. So there was a host of them the famous lost sheep holder Jesus, angelic there was a bodybuilder Jesus in a tank top, businessman, Jesus, monk, Jesus, politician, a kind of an allen Jesus, an Arnold Schwarzenegger Jesus, a hippie, a hipster. These were all supposed to be Jesus, you know. So, as as that question comes out, what do you want me to do? He's inviting us.

What do you want me to do? I think all of a sudden going off in our heads are all of these different pictures of who Jesus should be to us., let's let him just be son of God, savior., back in the Jesus movement, there was a lot of excuses. Anybody know an exus? Yes, I'm speaking Greek. Jesus. It's five letters Greek. And they represent Jesus Christ, son of God, savior. That's who is inviting you to come this morning. You have heard of Billy Graham. Okay, for the for the one who hasn't, he had a radio program, I think probably still does, and also online called the hour of decision.

Just making that point that it's now, it's today that you are to come., do you remember when your mom would call you to the table? It's kind of a command, right? Because she had to call you at least three times. Come to the table. Jesus is an invitation with force, but also with great great compassion. If we'll receive it, it's life and peace to us. Jesus who Thanksgiving is turkey. So who's the meal at this table that we're called to? Amen. It's the Lord himself. What did he tell us in John 6? I am the bread of life, the bread come down from heaven.

So receive him this morning. I and my wife just got back four or five days ago from a couple week trip out to the northern tip of Idaho. The brother-in-law and his wife live about 40 minutes from the western gate of Yellowstone. Anybody been to Yellowstone? All right. So, I don't have to explain to you. Wow. And they live in Island Park. I have never heard quiet like I heard there, which was exactly what what we needed. We needed some rest. And but on Sunday, two Sundays ago, we got to go to West Yellowstone Baptist Church. I was saved in a Baptist church, so I've got Baptist roots.

These would be black and shiny, but that's another story. So the pastor there taught from a text I want to read. If you want to go there with me, turn to Psalm 90. and I believe a psalm of David, I'm sorry, of Moses, which might be a familiar passage to many of you. And what what really spoke to me is I had just taught from that passage about a week and a half before at Calvary Chapel Waka's men's gathering and it reads Psalm 90 verse 10 the days of our lives are 70 years and if by reason of strength they are 80 years.

Few of you this morning that sounds like light years away., from where I'm standing, I'm right in the middle of it., yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, and it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath? So teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. In other words, pay attention to this hour. Pay attention to this invitation. You might not have another one, especially if you're in extra innings like I am., how's your heart this morning?

So, there are some in this room who I'm sure are on fire for the Lord, as we sometimes say, all in, right? I can give you some names of that you may recognize that's kind of warriors and so thankful that some among this list are young because the church is aging in a way I think she never has in America. But Charlie Kirk, Seth Gruber, Josh Howerton, just some that I have run into seizing the moment. Little older, Frank Turk, Ray Comfort, Jack Hibbs, Tony Perkins, Franklin Graham. Hopefully some of those names you're familiar with, but we just screened Seth Gruber White Rose Resistance film, The Last Stand, about two months ago.

And literally the call to say it's time to come to that table. And make a stand in a very dark time. So there are some on fire, there are some are kind of smoldering or in danger of just going out altogether here this morning. I believe it. I don't have a list of names there, but perhaps categories maybe you're in this process of what they call deconstruction usually doesn't have a good end. Maybe you're brokenhearted this morning. You're tired. You're weary of the six days and longer in the wilderness, discouraged. I know for a fact that there are a few of you in here, maybe as a body, you've experienced some hard blows in the last few months.

And you're wondering where's God? I think that one of Satan's most potent and effective tools against the believer is discouragement. It certainly has been the case in my own life. And when I get discouraged, guess what happens? The Lord keeps setting the table, but I just might find myself not showing up for the meal. And if that's where you are this morning, let me discourage you further. And then there's encouragement. But I've seen this has been all over the internet, at least in the pastor world. The title of is the a tsunami of church closing is poised to remake America.

A recent report that's always spurious, but I think there's some meat to this. Recent report on Christianity in America estimates that 100,000 churches could be closed or repurposed over the next decade. We already see that happening and have been seeing that happening for a while. Right now estimates are roughly 4,000 churches are already closing each year. If the 10,000 estimate proves accurate, that would mean roughly this. That would be 10,000 churches closing or being repurposed a year. That's 192 churches a week. 27 churches a day or more than one church every hour. Hour of decision, right? They go on to say this is a generational change.

Talk about the pastors who are in the pulpits. You're blessed. You got a young guy, Clint., many of the Calvaries in Wisconsin, dinosaurs who are getting tired and who are concerned for is this church going to be there tomorrow? It says Bara report in 2026 24% of senior protestant pastors said they've seriously considering leaving full-time ministry in the in the past year., and it goes on to kind of be an a just encouragement to the church to be the church, to be engaged, to be in your word and the in his word and the word in you and then giving it hands and feet and a voice.

Here's another report I just saw yesterday says that 43% of Americans are now warm to socialism. It sounds real good. You don't read the fine print. Here's another report., well, that's the last report. One quote, and I heard that just this morning., I've been trying to catch the sessions of the Prey Vote Stand 2026 conference with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. And this particular session they were talking about as Israel goes so goes the world and prophetic implications. Tony said the table is set. We just don't know when we'll be called to the table. So he's speaking prophetically as that time when the Lord intervenes and takes his bride home and the world is left to go through hell with that without the influence of the Holy Spirit through the church for seven years.

We call it the tribulation. So that's another table. Now I bring it back to the encouragement., 1 Timothy 1:7, God's not given us a spirit of fear., 1 Peter 5:7 says to cast all your cares on him because he cares for you. Isaiah 53:7 says that he has borne our griefs and sorrows, taken them upon himself. Matthew 6:8, he says, "I know your needs before you even ask." The ask part, that's the coming to the table. That's the coming to the water. Listen to these words from the Psalms. I will lift up my eyes to the hill. From whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Some questions going off in some of your heads. Yeah, but that thing that just happened two months ago that was in the papers. So sometimes the temporal the temporal doesn't go the way we hope. But in an eternal sense, God is working out his perfect and good will. Psalm 73:25-26, "Whom am I in heaven but you? There's none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may feel fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." And listen to Isaiah 45:18 and 19.

The Lord speaking, who create? For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it. Listen, who did not create it in vain? He did not create you in vain, who formed it to be inhabited. He says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other. I've not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, "Seek me in vain. Come to the table, but I won't be there. I did not say that. I the Lord speak righteousness. I declare things that are right."

So, we look to his word this morning. Come to the table. Maybe this morning that table is the exam table or the operating table. That's okay. We have reference in Matthew 21:17. It doesn't actually say this, but it's inferred. He is the great physician. Spiritually speaking, he knows exactly where you are. You've you've had disappointments. You've had devastating loss. You've been betrayed., disillusion, church hurt. Who hasn't been hurt in church? I didn't see anybody raise their hand. So, that would say you all have at some point. You will because we're living in a broken world., some of you need healing this morning. Now, if I asked for a show of hands, they'd probably be reluctant to raise them up, but I'd raise mine.

Some of you need healing. Some of you need healing for that list I just gave you. In other categories, it may be you're arrogant, you're spiritually proud, you need healing, maybe weary, maybe you're angry, maybe you're tempted, maybe you're lonely. Come to the table. I had a dream, said Martin Luther King, Jr., which I'm not. But I had a dream just about 3 weeks ago and it was one of those dreams that was so powerful. I kind of know that God was somewhere in the mix. You know, everybody had a dream like that. And in this dream, it was chaos. It was confusion.

I think I was at a pastor's conference. That shouldn't be the case at a pastor's conference, but it was in my dream. But all of these words were being spoken. Brian, you need to do this. You should do that. That's wrong. That's right. What's the matter? And suddenly my pastor showed up. Now, the amazing thing about that is he went home to be with the Lord about a year and a half ago. And yet I had such a sense of almost as if it was his presence. I won't say it was, but and I said, "Mike, Pastor Mike, I don't know what to do with all of these words, everything that's coming at me.

I don't." And he just looked at me and very calmly said, "Brian, just do the word." And he emphasized, "Do he didn't say, Pastor Brian, just preach the word." Although I can give you chapter and verse for that. He said, "Just do the word." Well, what is that? He didn't give me the rest., heavens opened and he went back home. But that has so stuck with me. Just do the word. And that doesn't mean go back and follow the law. Every jot and tit and all that important, but just do the word. Well, we have the written word, right? Yeah. It's called the Bible.

He's also referred to the second person of the Trinity is also referred to as the word just do me. Just follow me. Just be with me. Can Can we do that? There's great healing in that. If I will stop trying to come up with my answers, come up with my defenses, just be with the word, be in the word. There's a there's a passage in Exodus 15 where Israel's just been led out miraculously out from under the 10th plague out through the Red Sea, and now they're walking in the wilderness. Here we are back in the wilderness again. I think 3 days and they're in the desert.

If you ever been to that part of the world and they are thirsty. So they come to this place called Mara where there's some water but the water is kind of like the septic tank. It's just not good. Well, God provides a healing for the water. But he also gives an ordinance to them and basically he says if you will diligently heed the voice of the Lord I will not bring these diseases that the Egyptians have suffered upon you if you'll just do the word. And then he says this for I am the Lord who heals you. In Hebrew, it's Jehovah Rafa. Jehovah Rafa.

I am the Lord who heals you. Is he still that today? Yeah. I need healing. At our church, for the last 5 years, we've done a word of the year. We have kind of one that sets a theme for the body. And then I ask each person to ask the Lord to give them a word or to choose a word. Sometimes we draw them. And I didn't get to draw the word out of the bucket this time. I knew what the word was that the Lord was giving me. And it was uncle. What? Uncle? What does uncle mean other than you know your dad's brother could it has it has that idea of can't do it right is that a bad thing for us as believers so I would say there's a difference between give up and surrender when the Lord says follow me.

You may be giving or you may think you're giving something up, but you're surrendering to the one who gave his life. We celebrated communion this morning and just that reminder of but the difficult part is that receives faith requires faith. So it's first week of October. I've been doing uncle. It's also a TV show for those of you may remember for 10 months now. And there have been these points several times throughout the year where it's like, "Oh, that's what was coming. That's what I was going to uncle. Nope. On to the next one." And it has been that all year. And I think what the goal is is to get me to the point where I'm done with my agenda, where I'm done with coming up with my solutions and fixing the things that I haven't been able to fix and just saying, "I'm here at the table, Lord, Uncle."

And then he takes me up. Come to faith. And I'm talking way too much. We're only on page two. This u referring to the first part of Luke 6 where we started the centurion brings his servant who's who's dying and he's Lord, I know that you can do this. Please heal him. And Jesus is going to go and he says, "Look, I'm in charge of a lot of people here." I tell them go, they go. So I tell them stay. They stay. If you will just say the word I know that he will be healed. God has the same word this morning. If you want to hear it.

If I want to hear it. It led me off into a really interesting study. Have you ever had the question come to your mind of where is it first written or where is the first example of what we call faith of a relationship between a human and the creator? Okay. Well, now the question's in your head. Go figure it out. So, I went to Genesis. It would be good to start at the beginning. Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, and Genesis 6. When we get up to Noah, in each case, God's either creating or placing or giving a commission or presenting something to them.

In Noah, we find him speaking. So, in each of those, there's God's the initiator. God's still the initiator today. He's inviting you. Come back to the table. Maybe come sit closer to me at the table. When we get to Genesis 15, it says God spoke to Abram. Wasn't Abraham yet. God spoke to Abram and Abram believed and God attributed to or accounted it to him as righteousness, rightness with God. So there's that's the first time I think I see the word believed. And how did God respond to that?

And we are spiritually the children of Abraham, those who come to God by faith. Maybe you've been at the table or were at the table for a long time and it got too hard. It got confusing and you have not been there for a long time. God says, "Come on back." Here's one of the problems I see in American Christianity, even in my own life, and I did not invent this one, but it works for me. Is your faith a transactional faith or a transformational faith? In other words, am I coming to God? He's my vending machine. He makes things nice and that would be great.

Or transformation tends to come from going through some stuff, right? Some of it's just the discipline of opening the book consistently, letting him speak. If it's simply transactional, you're going to go away from the table. You're going to stop coming because you didn't particularly like the casserole that he set out that day for you. So again, the word of God has got to be everything., if Jesus word is not the last word, even in your worst trials and disappointments, then there will be no healing. Do you believe his word? Abraham believed God what he said and God accounted it to him as righteousness.

Good deal. Not always as easy. Way back in the Jesus movement, I've heard about it. We used to sing a chorus. Maybe you sing it here. Make me like you. Make me like you, Lord. Make me like you and whatever the rest of it is. But it's a beautiful little chorus. Love to sing it. Like the motive and the idea, but it's kind of like Zap Me. And God's tools tend to be letting us go through some challenges and trials. So maybe that's where you are this morning. So that's the group that needs to get healed of that just the devastation of life.

God's inviting you. There's another group. There may be some here this morning that simply need to get over it to get up off their owies or their good intentions or their no intentions. Maybe that's where you're sitting. Lord, I've stood for you. I'm all about righteousness. I'm this and that and everything else and a bag of chips.

And in a sense, you're not at the table either. You've set up your own table. If you need answers, here I am again. My word is worthless. If you've heard anything good so far, it wasn't for me. Anybody know what today is on the Hebrew calendar? Crickets. That's okay. What did we just finish? The last of the biblical fall feast known as Booth. The feast of tabernacles. The feast of booth suk. Well, that's a week-long celebration. And it talks it's looking at the second coming of Christ prophetically. They were having such a good time that they tacked on two more days to extend it out to nine.

And the ninth day is called simatra. It looks like simchhat torah. And it's called rejoicing in the law. And they gather together. They celebrate. They dance. They sing just like we are going to do here in a minute.

And they read the very last okay Torah books of Moses the Pentateuch right the first five books of the Bible they are on a reading cycle to read through that over the course of a year so in the synagogue they read the very last of Deuteronomy and then guess what they read from the beginning of the book of Genesis but it is rejoicing in the law We can rejoice in the word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. The logos who is present to us even here this morning.

So there are some this morning to come to the table. I think each group there's a humility that's required. One is the humility that you're smarting from the hurt. You feel like the Lord just let you down. He never leaves us or forsakes us. Right? That's what the word says. So he's with us. The valley of the shadow of death, he's with us. The other group you may be in, you need humility to say, "Yes, I've been zealous for you, but have I become a Pharisee?" Jesus is the one full of truth. We are about truth. The Calvary Chapel. Absolutely. Grace. Don't forget the grace.

Chuck Smith always said, "If I'm going to heir, I want to heir on the side of grace." So, there's a cost to us to come to the table. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, "Come come after me, deny yourself, pick up your cross or the cross, and follow me." No fine print. It's it's right there. So yeah, that's the decision to make the step to come. But listen to the benefits. Listen to the hope. Listen to the direction and the healing and the promises. Romans 12:1 and2 says he beseeches, he begs the reader to present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

That's your reasonable service of worship. And stop being conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. That's that's why we're here this morning to come., some of those come statements, I won't have time to read them all. If you take notes, Isaiah 55, I'll just read the first part. It says, "Hope yo, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, you have no way to purchase it. Come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price."

Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance or you can sit there starving alone but he says come table is set in John 7:37-39 celebrating a feast Jesus is there and he stands up and cries out. Anybody remember what he says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."

Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you labor who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Okay, you got the same Bible. The very end. Revelation 22, the spirit and the bride say, "And let him who hears say, come, and let him who thirsts, come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely." That sounds like what we just read in Isaiah 45. And then this one, and maybe there's somebody here that needs to hear this one today. Jesus speaking in John 6, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will in no wise or by no means cast out.

What does that say to you? He hasn't forgotten. He was there in the storm. He was in the boat, right, when the disciples were freaking out. So I come and I want to tack one more on that. We're told in John 4 that the father help me here talking to the woman at the well. Jesus has just revealed her life. Discussion discussion about the right place and right time to worship. And Jesus says, "Time's coming when those who worship God will worship him in spirit and truth." And then listen, he says, "The Father seeks those who will worship him in spirit and truth." Did you get that?

Maybe you haven't been at the table for a while. The father's looking for you. The prodigal story, right? Luke 15:16. He's looking down the road until you're so tired of the pig slop. And then what does the father do as the prodigal returns? He runs to him.

Shared this at communion this morning. With fervent desire. Jesus said, "With fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you.", that sounds like he wants to have a meal with you and with me this morning, right? And then he says, "Until we do this again in the kingdom," there's a really big table that's being set. Marriage, supper of the lamb. Be good to get to well acquainted with him. Now, here's the point. He is with you. Now, what does Emmanuel mean? God with us. But I'm going to give you one better. He's in you. If you're in Christ, if you're a believer, if you're born again, he is in you.

Colossians 1:27 says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Maybe you have been struggling with a name that the enemy has given you this morning or in recent days. Through your trials, you've become convinced that you're a loser or a failure. Or maybe he's appointed you as the avenger, a doubter, a dodger. The Lord in you through all your trials has a new and perfect name for you. And I give you a list of a whole bunch. Abram becomes Abraham, exalted father, father of multitude. Jacob becomes Israel. The suppler becomes God prevails. Saul desired becomes Paul small seems God had to not bring him down to his right size.

Sarah, Sarai and Sarah, princess becomes noble woman. Simon son of Jonah becomes Cephas which is translated Petros or Peter. So Peter goes from hearing to a piece of the rock. Then there's Brian. You probably haven't found him in the Bible. I'm all over. You're in there too by the way. But just what is that name? Little plaque on my wall says strength and virtue. And I laugh at it, but I hope it's true. But what will that name be? Have you read Revelation 2 and 3? He's got a new name for us. But I think he's looking at us with that new name now.

Sure, that's what you were. That's what you think you are. That's what you feel like you are. But to me, you're beloved. You are precious. You're equipped. You're empowered. And you're purposed. You are repurposed. Maybe some of us of the gray snowy roofs here this morning or the dirt roofs are Caleb's haven't figured that out yet. Maybe some of the younger of us here this morning haven't figured out that it's God who really is driving the car and you just need to find out where he wants you to go. Wherever you're at today, whoever you are or have come to believe yourself to be, the invitation is before you this day, this hour, this moment.

If the technology works and my voice doesn't fail, I'd like to close with a song. Is that all right? You mean that old geyser can still sing? We'll see. In the early 70s, there was one of the first contemporary Christian music groups, Children of the Day, sang a song, Come to the Water. Used to love to sing that song to death, campfires and all that. Straight from Scripture and it's Jesus speaking, come to the water., a little closer to our time, a group called Sidewalk Prophets sang a song, come to the table., so stop toiling and spinning. Jesus said that's pretty worthless and rest in him.

And then it's time to trust. There has you have to exercise a measure of trust to come to this table with the son of God and a whole bunch of the rest of us. Trust doesn't always come easy, does it? I have a quote trust. T R U S T. If you take the T out of an Englishman, he loses his English. Tea. If you take the tea out of trust, you get rust. So don't rust out for Jesus. Put the tea back in and let's trust him. Amen. I want to share with you a song that I have to plug in. So give me a second.

Hopefully this is muted. It's a song I wrote and recorded earlier this year and it's actually built around the bridge of a Christmas song that I recorded about eight years ago that I also wrote. It just speaks about bringing your heart before the Lord.

Another way of saying come to the table. So, we're going to close with this song. And what I want to do is just invite you. Maybe you need to get out of your seat. Maybe you need to come up and as I close just pray or maybe just where you are, come to the table. The Lord is good. The Lord is pure. The Lord is holy. The Lord is true. The Lord is trustworthy. And he knows exactly where you are and wants to dine with you. Remember Revelation 3:20, church, behold, I stand at the door to knock. If anyone will open the door, I will come into him and dine or s with him and he with me.