Hot Seat Model: The Table (Mark)

In this episode of the Village Church sermon podcast, Pastor Mark continues unpacking the Hot Seat Model. This week, he turns our attention to what is called the Table of Decision.

He begins with a familiar image from the Gospels—the moment when friends tear open a roof to lower a paralyzed man into the presence of Jesus. Mark invites us to consider where we find ourselves in that story. Are you the one being carried? Or are you one of the ones doing the carrying?

From there, he moves to a different kind of table—the one set in Psalm 23. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The Table of Decision isn’t just about choices—it’s a place of presence, of trust, of being seen by God when the world feels hostile. It’s a space where the Spirit invites us to pause, listen, and respond.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:13

Hello, my name is Harry. And I am one of the pastors of the Village Church. The following podcast is a ministry of the village church. We hope that it inspires you, that it draws you closer to Jesus. And it opens your eyes to the possibilities of living in the kingdom. Enjoy and God bless.

SPEAKER_10: 0:33

Alright. Ooh, hello. It's on. One or two other things. One is uh the Kalers had their baby. Yay. And uh if you go on your email, there's a link to uh their take them a meal, and there are still some spots available to sign up for that, so you can um check that out. Uh the other thing is obviously the road is being dug up out front. Um if you come during the week, don't park your car on the street. Sounds good? Awesome. We shouldn't have to worry about it on Sunday, I don't think, especially since they already started on our road. I don't think they'll be high be behind working on the weekends. So we should be okay. But awesome. All right. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for this time that we have to spend together to consider your word and how we might encourage each other towards you. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and redeemer. Amen. Amen. Alright, so we are in a series on the hot seat. Um this is week three. Um, and before we dive into the hot seat, I just want to offer. Um, we want we're gonna look at this story. We're gonna start here. Mark chapter two, verses one through five. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man carried by four of them. Since they could not get to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven. This is one of my favorite stories in the Gospels. Um it says that Jesus came home to Capernaum, um, which means he was he was living in Capernaum, so is this his house? Is it is it is his mother's house? Um we're not really sure. Uh but there's a bunch of people they hear that he's home, and a bunch of people gather, they fill up the house to the point where the door is like blocked because there's people outside the door like craning their necks trying to see in. Um and some men come and they've got their friend with them who's paralyzed, and it's I just want to I want the backstory. I want to fill this in. I want to know like, was this like these five guys were working together and the one guy fell and he got paralyzed, and so they're carrying him, or was it just like their friend that they've they've known for years, and he's just they've been helping him out, and they're like, hey, can we go get him healed? Whatever it is, these four men carry their fifth friend to the house, and they realize that we're not going to be able to get through the door. So they go around somewhere and they climb up on the roof and they start digging a hole in the roof. And when I was talking to Eric about this this week, he said, hey, maybe that's why he said the Son of Man has no place to lie his head. Because they dug a hole in his roof. Great. I don't know. Why not? But they dig a hole in his roof and then they lower this man down to the feet of Jesus. And as we look at the hot seat model, this is what we are doing. Is we are coming together, and if you are, as we get into this, if you haven't been with us, this will make more sense. But um, as we go through the model, if you're the person asking the questions, um, then what you are doing is you're lowering ropes so that people can go lay at the feet of Jesus. And if you are being asked questions, then you are being lowered down to the feet of Jesus. In the end, this is the end goal of all encouragement together as we walk together, as we are in community together, the end goal is to lay at the feet of Jesus and be healed by him. So if you're lowering the ropes, if you're asking the questions and you feel like, well, I have to ask the right question, and I have to ask, I have to know what the right way to go is, and I have to have this idea of this is what's going to help them, and this is what you can there's there is no pressure because in the end, all you're doing is trying to bring your friend to Jesus. And if you're being asked questions and you're like, I don't know, maybe it was this emotion or that emotion, or maybe that false belief kind of sits with me, or I don't know what that is, or it's just you don't have to have the exact right thing. You just have to seek Jesus. So this is what we're doing together is we're lowering the ropes so that we can lay at Jesus' feet. Because in the end, every every model, every discipline, every practice that we engage in in this life is empty without Jesus. So let's dive into the hot seat model. Let's look at um what we're doing here. Alright. So here is the hot seat model. We begin, we began two weeks ago with a problematic event. Something that happened in your life, or some issue that you're dealing with on kind of like a regular basis. I'm getting mad at other drivers as I as I drive, I'm um snapping at my wife, I'm whatever the thing is. Um and at when we talked about this two weeks ago, Eric offered some really helpful questions to dive into each other's lives because we have really like canned questions and canned responses, right? How are you doing? I'm fine, thank you very much. How are you? Great, right? This is that the meme of like, you know, enjoy your food to the server, and you say, you too, right? And the person's like, okay, great, and they sit down and start eating with you. That's what this is like, right? Because we don't ask good questions. Right? And we just have these automatic responses that we want to say. So if you want a really good list of questions to ask your friends, to ask people here at church to help dive deeper into people's stories, dive deeper into people's lives. If you want to be in that awkward place, or if you would like to be to be asked those questions, then you know, how are you doing? Well, let me tell you about the worst thing that happened to me this week. Whatever it is. Go back to the sermon, look at those slides, they're very helpful questions. Second piece, negative emotions. So this is what we talked about last week. Negative emotions, and Eric brought up primary emotions. Um, so happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise, as like the things that just rise up. Something happens and that rises up. So someone cuts you off in traffic and you are angry. Right? Someone you find out you weren't invited to a party and you are sad. There's an immediate emotion that rises up in that place. And those emotions often lead us into false beliefs. So the false beliefs are connected to statements like I am, they are, God is. So I am unlovable, they are always unkind, God is not present. There are these lies that we hear about ourselves, about others, and about God that are connected to like character, the character of that person, or the character of myself, or the thing that is essential to me and who I am, those are where the lies are. Um those are where those are rooted. And so we take all of this, our problematic event, our negative emotions, our false beliefs about yourself, others, and God, and we come to you. Who are you? Who are you as you come to the table of decision? This is what we're going to talk about today. Um, but at the table of decision, we um in the model we talk through that there's the enemy side of the table where the enemy offers an affirmation of your false belief. He says, here's all the ways that this came up before. Yeah, they were mean to you yesterday, and they were mean to you last week, and they were mean to you last year. These are the tapes that come up again and again. Then there's a relief. There's a relief that you engage in. Something happens. You you go and you engage in, you know, you you zone out and look at your phone, um, you go eat a bunch of ice cream, whatever that thing is, you go and you relieve your negative emotions so that you don't have to feel them anymore, and then you have a justification. And the justification often is, well, I felt better after I, you know, zoned out for two hours and didn't engage with anybody, or after I, you know, I the ice cream tasted really good. Like that's our justification for our selfish behavior in our relief. Um, and that just loops us right back around to a problematic event. We walk through all this stuff and we go right back around to a problematic event. And what happens here, and what we're gonna look at a little bit today, is that there's a negative emotion. I feel something, and then I go to relief. So think about you're driving in the car, someone cuts you off, you feel angry, and you shout at them. That's your relief. And it feels like there's no time there, there's no moment of decision in between I feel something and I'm gonna go do something about it. Right? I feel sad, so I'm gonna snap at this person. There's no time there, but we're gonna try to stretch that apart a little bit and come to the other side, which is Jesus' side of the table, where we see the gospel story, identity, kingdom. That we have we are loved, that we have impact, and then we're invited to repentance, which leads us to worship. And so what we're doing today is not the enemy side of the table, and not Jesus' side of the table, but we're gonna talk about the table and who you are. So this is this is the the awkward place that we are in this moment is we've come in and I said, when I when Eric said, okay, you're gonna preach on the table of decision, I said, okay, great. So the enemy's side and Jesus' side. He said, No, just the table. And I was okay. What what? Yeah, good primary emotions there. So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna explore who we are according to God, what happens when we come to the table, and then how we begin the process of slowing this moment down, the slowing down, the instantaneous moment between negative emotion and our relief. So we are just talking today about the table of decision. When we come to the table, I would argue that we come to the table, we look at the table, right? We look at this and we say, okay, the table of decision, and there's the enemy, and there's Jesus. And so the way that we come to the table is like this. This is how we come to the table. Right? We come to the table and we're like, okay, so here's this little this is uh Emperor Kronk from Emperor's New Groove. Uh I love this scene, it is hilarious. Kronk, but this is a common trope. There's actually one from when I was little, we used to watch a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and Pluto has the same thing happening, except that the the devil Pluto and the angel Pluto talk, which is weird because Pluto doesn't talk. Anyway, we come to the table like this. We come to the table and there's this little evil me and good me. Right? There's this little evil me and good me, and those are both inside me. And I'm gonna come in and they're gonna have an argument, and they're gonna say, Well, you should do this because you know you gotta do this. And then the other one's like, no, no, no, don't do that. That's a bad thing. And then we make a pros and cons list. Well, this is what would happen if I did the bad thing, and this would is what would happen if I did the good thing. So which one should I do? And we weigh it out and we say, Okay, well, I'm gonna choose the good thing today. Yay, I made a good choice, right? This is the argument that happens in us. This is a very um, this is not a Christian thing. This is not actually what happens when we come to the table. So I want to take the table and we're gonna look, take a little bit bigger understanding of what happens when we come to the table. So the first thing that we have to look at is who are you? And in that, I pulled this slide from Eric's sermon a couple weeks ago. You were created for relationship. You're created for like relationship. You have a longing for love and impact, or if you like, security and significance. And you are broken. You are broken, and the the image of God that is in you has been distorted by the sin um in you, by the sin in the world, by the sin um in our culture, in our society, by the sin here in our church. There's a distortion of the image of God in you. Um that was the the image of God that's put in you by God has been broken and distorted. And you, in that, you seek false fulfillment and you're in process. So the uh there's a verse, and I'm blinking on the description, but it says uh the old you are a new creation. The old has gone and is going, the new has come and is coming. It's the mid-kid verse. Yeah, which one is it? 2 Corinthians 5.17. That's right. Um so this is who you are. So to explore this a little more, we're gonna look at this verse. Jeremiah 2.13. My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. You and I were created to be connected to God. To go to God for life, to be connected to the spring of living water. In uh when Jesus offers the Lord's Prayer, he says, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Sometimes that that father word, sometimes we connect to the word Abba, which means like it's a it's a term of endearment for your father. So instead of saying father, you say dad, right? Or daddy, or whatever it is. That's that's the it's the term of endearment for your father. But that's not the word in the Lord's Prayer. The word in the Lord's Prayer is giver of life. Father who gives life. Our Father, giver of life, who art in heaven. We were created to be connected to the spring of living water, and we have walked away from that. And that brings me to this. Here's a picture of me in the middle there. That's me holding the baby. The baby is Caleb Davis, who none of you know. Um I don't know Caleb Davis. I just know that that's Caleb Davis. Uh the girl on the swing is my little sister. The boy next to me, his name is Angel, and the other two girls are his sisters, Annalie and Annabelle. Um, when I was little, uh, my parents were missionaries in Mexico, and we would go down to the ranch, um, which is down, it's it's this camp that's an hour and a half south of the border. It's down outside of um Santana, and you go past Santana a little ways, and then you turn into the desert, and you just drive out a few miles into the desert, and you end up at this camp. And there's a big water tower, and there's like a uh basketball court and a soccer field and um a swimming pool and an eatery and cabins, and this is where I grew up. It was there was not as much stuff when we first started going there. There's a lot more now. Um, but I used to run around with Anko at the at the ranch, and we would run everywhere. We'd go and help groups out who were there doing work, we'd get sodas for them, or we'd help them dig in the dirt as much as six, seven, eight-year-olds can really help dig in hard desert dirt. Um, but we would I I would run around and get hot and sweaty and dehydrated. And by the basketball court, there was a big mesquite tree. And by the mesquite tree, there was a water spigot that in my in my mind is sort of like it looks like it's growing up out of the roots of the mesquite tree. It's like that close. Like, right, and I would like climb up on the mesquite tree to like drink from the water spigot. So I'd run everywhere and get hot and tired and sunburned, and then I would come back and I would just chug water from this water spigot. And I was tied to this water spigot. Have you ever so we drink a lot of um purified water, right? But you know that water has flavor? It has really good flavor, depending on where you are. And uh Tolkien in Lord of the Rings talks about this with the ents um in the books, not in the movies. Um but uh when I was growing up in in Michigan at the lake, you drink the water from the tap, and it was like lake water, like there's a flavor to it. At the ranch, it was deep well water, and it it felt substantial in ways, like it was like minerally and um like almost like thick water. I don't know how to describe it. It was really good water. So you're running around everywhere and you're thirsty and tired and dehydrated, and you're going, you just I would just chug water, and I was tied to that water spigot, running everywhere and then coming back, and then running everywhere and then coming back. And one day, When we were there, I think it was the first year we were there. When I was six, there was a girl who was a couple years older than me. And she really liked playing with the older boys, my brother and his friends. And so she said, Let's go find them and play with them. So we went out into the desert. And we went out and we walked along this wash for a little ways, and there was this big giant tree out there that she knew that they were building a fort. And so we went out to this tree and we found out that they weren't there. And she turned around and said, I think there. And she ran off. And I did not know where she had gone. I did not know really where I was. I knew generally what direction to go. Um, but I was pretty much immediately lost. Um also in a wash that you know you have to walk a little ways to be able to climb out of a wash, especially as a six-year-old. So I had to find my way back, and I was out there lost for an hour or two hours, something. And um, my dad's here, so he can confirm the story. I wandered around in the desert for an hour, two hours, and I got super sunburned, very dehydrated. I eventually found my way back to the road and walked along the road past the goats, and I think at the time they had pigs. Um, and went down the road and eventually found the house that we were staying in with the swamp cooler, and walked in, laid down on the couch, and passed out for like two hours. Makes sense. This is what it's that's what it's like when we wander is we're just thirsty and thirsty and thirsty and we don't know where to go. And yeah, I was six. Got lost in the desert. But we're often lost in the desert, and we are thirsty and dehydrated and trying to find our way back to the spring of life. Trying to find our way back to that water spigot growing out of the roots of the mesquite tree. So we are created to find life in the spring of living water. Our safety and significance, our love and impact, our meaning and purpose are derived from God. And Jesus in John chapter four says this. He says to the woman at the well, he says, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. Jesus says, He is the spring of water. We're created to find life in him. That safety and security, that the love and impact is all derived from our relationship with Jesus. But we wander and we seek life from other places. We seek life from broken cisterns that cannot hold water, that cannot satiate the thirst that we have for love and impact. And so we go to our addictions, we go to numbing out to our phones, to rage to try to find something that will help that thirst. Jesus also says, later in John in chapter 10, he says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. See, Jesus, though, is a good shepherd who walks with us in the desert when we are lost in the dust and the thirst. And so I want to read through Psalm twenty-three. I shall not be in want. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. I am provided for. I am loved. I have what I need. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He walks alongside me, shows me the right path, the good way to follow him. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. This is us now. We walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That shadow is ever present. We know that we will die. We do not know when, but we live in the brokenness and the darkness and the pain and the sin of this world. Just simply in the sickness of this world. The reality that we are walking towards death, that we live in the shadow of death, and yet David in Psalm 23 says, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. You have protected us, God. You have prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. We have been anointed by God. We have been named children of God. We have been given purpose and direction. We have been commissioned to work in him. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is what we look to. This is what we look forward to with the Good Shepherd. He has provided for us, he walks alongside us, even in the shadow of death in this life. He has anointed us and given us purpose and impact. And there's this verse which I skipped. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. A table has been prepared for us. You think about Jesus at the end of the Gospel of John, they're out fishing, and there's a man on the shore and says, Have you caught anything? So they say no. He says, Throw your net on the other side, and they pull up fish. And John says, It's the Lord. And Peter dives into the water. They've caught nothing the whole night. They've caught nothing the whole night. They find out it's Jesus. Peter dives into the water and swims to shore and gets there. And what does Jesus have? Fish. He has fish cooking for them. He has prepared a meal for them. And I just, when I think about that, I was thinking about this week about the meals that have been prepared for me. The table that has been prepared for me. And I think I want to tell you three short stories. The first is when I was in high school, um, and we went on this youth group trip down to this tiny town in Mexico. Um, there's a church there, and we stayed with members of the church. And so me and four other high school boys stayed with this woman in this tiny little house. So it was like her kitchen, her room, and then one other room where all five of us slept. And I don't know what I expected in the morning in this tiny town. Um, like I hadn't brought food with me. I don't know how I expected to have breakfast. And when I got up in the morning, this woman had gotten up early and made chilaquiles. Chilaquiles are um tortillas that you cut up and you fry in a red sauce. And they are delicious. And usually you have them with like eggs and beans. Um, this was just the chilaquiles because this woman did not have a lot. This tiny, poor little town in Mexico, and here's these five high school boys sleeping in her in her like living room, and here she comes with these plates of chilaquiles for a seat for breakfast. And I just remember thinking, like, man, this is so good. That was so loving. And I don't know what I expected, but it was an amazing breakfast. When I um about 12 years ago, my mom and my sister and I went to uh Switzerland and we stayed with this couple named Silvano and Susie. And Silvano and Susie had run a restaurant um in Neuchatel, Switzerland for like 20 years. And so when we stayed with them, they prepared every meal for us. And Silvano would walk out with these plates. He didn't walk out, it wasn't like, you know, like here's the rice and here's the chicken and here's the, you know, and you just scoop it on your plate. He had plated everything. So he had made this meal that all went together and had plated it and came out and gave it to us and then poured us wine, and we sat and we ate. And then after a little while, he would say, Do you want some more? And I would say, Yes, the chicken was delicious. I would love some more of that chicken. And he'd say, Okay, great. And he would take the plate and he would go inside, and then he'd come back out with everything on the plate again. Just, you know, slightly smaller portions. Because the meal went together. He had crafted this meal and prepared this meal for us. And it was every meal that we had with them was like this. A few years ago, I was when I was diagnosed with um diabetes. I was wrestling with what to eat, what not to eat, what can I do, what can't I do, how do I, what this is like an entire life change. I don't know how all this is going to work. And David and Lauren invited us over for dinner. And I've told this story before, but I David and Lauren invited us over for dinner, um, and I was very anxious about going over for dinner because I didn't know. I have this rule, like, if you give me food, then I will eat it. Like if I go to your house for dinner and you make a meal for me, I'm gonna eat the meal. Like, that's just the rule. And so I was like, but I don't know how this is going to work because I have diabetes and I don't know, I can't eat these things. And we went over, and Lauren had made this meal and had looked up like four different recipes on like how to make chicken diabetic friendly and how to make uh she had made riced cauliflower, and um, which honestly is not like rice, but it was good. Uh, it is not, but it was really good. And I it was this moment of like sitting down at the table and realizing, oh, I can eat this without reservation. Like, I can eat the table that is that has been prepared for me. Jesus has prepared a table for us to come and sit with him and eat with him. He's prepared this table for us to come and sit with him and eat with him so that he can sit with us and tell us a story and talk to us. And we're like, okay, but I'm gonna go check this dry well over here first. And we go over there and we wander in the desert around the cactuses, and he's like, hey, let's go sit at my table. I've made this meal for us, and we're like, no, I'm gonna go check this thing first. I'm gonna go see if I can find some dirt to chew on. This is it's what it's like. We're like, no, Jesus, it's okay. I'm gonna go over here first. We wander from drywell to dry well, and Jesus walks with us, inviting us to sit with him, to sit at the table that he has prepared for us so he can tell us a story and care for us. So when we come to the table of decision, what we're doing, or we're trying to do, is this. Uh I wanted to use a scene from X-Men, but I am a village pastor and therefore I'm contractually obligated to use the matrix. This is a shot from the matrix. Um, those little squiggly lines going by him are the bullets that are being shot at him. And so he's getting bullets shot at him, and he is dodging out of the way of the bullets. And in cinematic terms, now they call this bullet time, where you can see the bullets going by and watch them like what we're trying to do is we're trying to take this moment. This moment where we come to the table and we have all of this stuff that's up here, all these negative emotions and false beliefs, and all the stuff that we believe about ourselves and others and God, and we come to the table, and we're trying to stretch this moment out so that we can watch the bullets go by and figure out why we respond the way we respond and what it would look like to sit with Jesus at the table. Because if we can but sit at the table with Jesus, then we can worship, and we can be filled with the richest fare and the best stories. So what story is Jesus telling you? As you think about all the stuff that you carry with you to the table of decision, and Jesus says, Come here, come sit at my table. What story is he telling you? Amen. Some time if you have thoughts, questions, pushback.

SPEAKER_09: 37:03

Uh I mean that's the Psalm 23. Right. I'm a little bit confused what the answer to that was.

SPEAKER_10: 37:18

What happens when you come to the table? Well, um that's what Eric's gonna talk about in um oops, what did I do? Oh, there we go. Sorry. I mean, that's what Eric's gonna talk about with Jesus. But you come to the table and you've got all these things that you believe or that they are true about you, some of the things that you believe, some of the things that you hold on to. Um, and we come like that with these things that are like, oh, I I think this is how I interact with the world. And the reality is that we wander in the desert in thirst, and Jesus is saying, Hey, come sit with me. Um so the table of decision, as a picture, it's like, yes, I'm gonna come sit at the table, and here's the enemy's side, and this is what I'm looking at. This is how I respond, and here's Jesus' side, here's what he's offering me. Um, but I think in practice, it's actually much more like we're wandering around trying to find our own way, and Jesus just wants us to come sit.

SPEAKER_07: 38:27

Thank you. And talk to him So I did want to just jump in with the uh Matrix analogy. I like that, and what came to mind for me is I often when going to the enemy side of the table, I feel like I'm doing this really cool acrobatic thing, but really all the bullets are hitting me and it hurts a lot. And uh yeah, that's okay. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01: 38:59

So I was looking at your flowchart, and it seemed to me for most determines that you go from the fourth box to the table of decision rather than to the enemy. And then it got me thinking that in Jesus, maybe we start at Jesus and then we are moving to the table of decision right there.

SPEAKER_10: 39:19

Well, uh, and this is this is what we do is that we go problematic event, negative emotions, false belief, the enemy, relief. We jump from these places straight to relief. Um that's why that arrow is going straight over to the enemy because that's what happens in reality, is we we go out and we live our lives, someone cuts us off, and we just jump straight to like being angry and flipping them off or yelling at them or whatever it is. Like we that's what we jump to. Um and what we're trying to do is make that arrow, yeah, go to the Jesus side. Say, okay, like what's Jesus have to say about this? What does story, identity, kingdom look like? And we'll be Digging into more of the enemy and Jesus' side, what those two different sides look like more in more detail.

SPEAKER_04: 40:06

Well, and I was gonna add, like, I think actually, like this sermon being distinct from the splitting up the sides, like, because that is what we do. Like we go find our really dry wells, like I whatever movie where it talked about like we drink the sand because we don't know the difference. Like, that's what we're doing. Like, we don't want to repent, we don't want to confess, we don't want to be wrong, or we're ashamed and we don't want to face Jesus at the table because it's so intimate and it's so vulnerable and so scary, we refuse to do it. So we wander and we're like, okay, I know your way, Satan. That's fine. It's at least familiar, so I'll go that way.

SPEAKER_13: 40:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 40:53

And because it's so scary to sometimes like they're in the Calvin Miller book where it talks about the table, and he says, like, imagine like the person you most enjoy, but like it's really vulnerable, you know, first date style, but like setting up this beautiful feast for you, like in the forest, but it's just you and them, and it's alone and it's it's scary. So that's where Jesus and or maybe even like in the presence of your enemies, people around who you don't trust. I don't know. I'm just like struck every time because it feels like there's there's such risk to come to the table, and we we think we know the way is better, but it's not. So I I just was reminded as you talked about that.

SPEAKER_10: 41:43

Yeah, the um that the book is The Table of Inwardness, and it uh in it he says repentance is not the exposure of our evil hearts, but a turning inward in weeping agreement with Jesus at our condition. His response to our dry wells is not shame or disgust, it is love and compassion and an invitation to sit with him.

SPEAKER_06: 42:22

So I think I'd I looked at this model and generally viewed the table of decision very much like the Kronk picture, right? You know, and it's funny because the physical layout, as I imagine it, as the picture kind of implies, is like we're the judge sitting in judgment between two people in a court case, you know, who has the better case. But I think if I'm hearing you, your argument is that the table is the table that Jesus has prepared for us. That beautiful meal, and the enemy is there to disrupt what Jesus has tried to create. He's he's not like an alternative. He's the one who's trying to tear apart that which is good, which is available to us. Is that I'm I think that's what I'm hearing from you.

SPEAKER_10: 43:20

Yeah. Yeah, there's a there's a distortion. And I I mean, I do think I I come to the table looking at this a little bit. Slightly different from and we're gonna talk about this in a few weeks when we do, we're gonna do a panel in a few weeks with Eric and Corey and Sue. Um, and we all there's this thing about the table that we all sort of approach differently. And the way I approach it is Jesus has prepared the table and the enemy just wants to say, Hey, let's go check out that drywell over there. Because you know that one. You you know that one, or you know that one, or you haven't tried that one in a while. You should go try that one.

SPEAKER_02: 44:03

Um what Lane was saying reminded me of the Israelites coming out of Egypt. And the first thing they did was, hey, let's go back. At least we had three square meals. And um so they were already facing that table and wanted to go back to what was familiar, even though it was slavery, and in a way, what the enemy offers us with this um really wicked cycle is slavery.

SPEAKER_08: 44:54

I think for me, what it kind of all boils down to is control. And you know, I'm a total control freak, and I want to be in the driver's seat. And so, yeah, it the arrow goes straight to the enemy because the enemy is telling me you can be in control, you know, you you manage things really well, you can you can do all of these things, and it's just the the image of Kronk as as the judge between two people is well, you know, Kronk is in control, he has to choose am I going to do the good thing or the bad thing? But it's really all about Kronk, it's really all about me. Yeah, and you know, the table is the place where Jesus is saying, You can put that down, it's okay. You you can sit with me and I've got this, but it's terrifying to not be in control, and so it's like it's just automatic reflex. I'm not going to put it down because I'm managing this, I've got it. Yeah, I'm okay, but I'm not okay.

SPEAKER_10: 45:58

Yeah, and the control is a uh a fake control that is not actually to use a a picture from a uh an analogy I used a long time ago. It's the room in your house where you throw everything because you don't know where to put it, right? So you feel something and you're like, oh, just throw it in that room, but eventually you can't get in that room anymore. Like you can't open the door, like it feels like control, but you're really just like got this mess of tangled wires and broken furniture, and it's all just in there, and it's it's just as scary to try to go in and try to figure all that out, which is why we don't want to open the door and say, Hey Jesus, can you help me with this?

SPEAKER_03: 46:47

So I think another reason why we automatically go from our false beliefs and the negative events to the uh the enemy is because in our society we are very judging. Our society is a judging society. And so immediately the moment something happens, we automatically assume, oh, it's their fault, it's their problem. I think in other societies around the world, especially ones where they have like a more of a because we have a like our society values being by ourselves and being independent. Whereas I know a lot of Eastern societies like Chinese and Eastern Asian, they value being in a community. And so when you need help, you go to the community, you don't like just suck it up and deal with it yourself. And so it's something that's normal in their society, where as in our society, we just think, oh, well, I can deal with this. I don't need anybody else's help because if I ask for help, it's gonna make me look bad. And I think I've learned a lot about kind of why we go there just from taking my mythology class. And I think we automatically assume in our society that it's someone else's fault when often it's either they're just doing what they're supposed to or it's our fault that we got into that problem in the first place.

SPEAKER_10: 48:20

I think we often I think it's a good point. We do judge others a lot. We do also go to judging ourselves a lot.

SPEAKER_03: 48:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_10: 48:29

And when you talk about there's a there's a fierce independence, but there is also the aspect of like a shame culture, which then says, Well, it's my fault, and I have to go and figure this thing out, which again still leads us to the enemy side of the table often. Still leads us. So whether it I'm blaming it actively on someone else or I'm blaming it on myself, I'm still gonna go to relief in sin patterns, and I'm still jumping straight to that and not to Jesus. Because it's there's still a judgment happening, there's still a control element happening.

SPEAKER_03: 49:07

Yeah, and I mean a lot of what I mean most human societies, we automatically jump to the enemy's side.

SPEAKER_10: 49:19

We do. Yep, because we are broken. Yeah, thanks, Ellen. Got a couple more minutes for a couple more.

SPEAKER_12: 49:28

You know, back to like the Mark story. You know, when they bring this man on his bed, they've prepared for this. You know, because it says they drop him right in front of wherever Jesus is. So they obviously brought the ladder, they climbed up in the roof, they didn't drink a lot of holes, they they dug one and they kind of dropped him down right in front of Jesus, and it says Jesus saw their faith. Now we don't know if the the the guy on the mat had any faith at all, but they saw his faith, their faith, and they healed him. He healed him anyway.

SPEAKER_13: 50:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12: 50:05

But they prepared for this, they gave him, you know, they had ladders, they had, you know. And then, you know, so we when we I've never true confessions, I've never been at the table of decision, but if you we've seen what goes on and we're preparing ourselves for this thing, um, you know, yeah, we're gonna go automatically go to the enemy side of the table because not it is it not only do we have the control, but it's what we're familiar with. We go back to what we're familiar with, we do the things we've always done.

SPEAKER_10: 50:40

It's the well-worn path.

SPEAKER_12: 50:42

In in ministry, one of the seven deadly words of Christian service is it's never been done that way before. And so we go back to what we're familiar with. But if we're drawn back to what Jesus wants, he may turn everything on his head. And that's uncomfortable. That's not what we're familiar with. Yeah. Thanks, Dave.

SPEAKER_05: 51:07

Hannah, and then I have a couple of thoughts popping around in my head, but it feels like the spirit talking to me. Um I wanted to say, it was actually from last week while Eric at the very end of a sermon, I was trying to think like, how do we become people, community, brothers and sisters to each other that help each other fight for the larger narrative? That was like the big thing I was hearing in my head. And then a friend asked for prayer early in the week, and I like having a table of decision moment. And the thing I prayed for was like came out of that thought, like, what's the bigger story? What's Jesus saying right now versus what your person in your life is saying? And and then God used me praying that to help me through my table moments and my husband's table moments through the week. Like it, it felt like it was like through Eric, then praying for the friend of like, wait, what's the bigger story right now? What's the bigger story? And I feel like it was a really encouraging week because I think it slowed those moments down for me. And it wasn't all like perfect shining, but it was like because I think I was living more aware. And it makes me think about Eric's question like, where should the arrow go to? And kind of what you're saying, because I feel like is it that we're going straight to the enemy, or is it that we're because we're in Christ? Are we sitting at the table and we immediately pop up from the table? I don't know. I'm just trying to like play it out in my head, but something feels hopeful to me again, or like part two of the spirit talking to me of like, like, is it that I'm walking up to the table that's beautifully fed like laid for me, and then I'm like quickly turning away? Because I just like the picture of confession being turning back or saying, like maybe at the table of decision, like we're sitting down to what Jesus has laid for us, and then the event happens and I immediately stand up and I'm like ready to leave the table. I don't know, I'm just I'm kind of like playing it out in my head, but something feels hopeful to me instead of like I'm in Christ, and I've been walking with him for a long time, and I'm not just like a loser who immediately, I don't know, I'm just again externally processing with minimal sleep, but I just really uh I just something feels hopeful to me of like the Isaiah 55 imitation of come. Is it that I'm already in the camp with the enemy and I need to come and it's so hard, or am I in Jesus and I'm like, sit back down. There's a bigger story. I have this huge feast, and even though I feel like this person is so whatever I'm hearing, right? Like I've learned whenever I hear Steve's a jerk, I'm at the table because he's not a jerk, but that's become a uh um realization. So like sit back down and eat here, you know? So that um those are some of my thoughts. There was one more, but I think it went away.

SPEAKER_10: 54:24

But I I mean I do think Jill, Jill, and then we'll we'll need to pray. But I do think there's the um the reality that like we want even when we are wandering from well to well, that Jesus is still with us. Like we're wandering around and Jesus is saying, Hey, let's go sit down. Let's go like He's he's still walking with us even as we wander around in the desert and try to find our way. He's still saying, Hey, like I'm I got a table, like let's go sit down. Mark. Well it's in Luke 2, it's in Luke 5. Yeah, it's all about getting getting each other in front of Jesus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11: 55:27

That is a segue to my question. Um so I was you you talked about this on the podcast this week, and where I got stuck was how did they get him up that ladder? Because um, you know, someone who can't help you out at all because they're paralyzed would be really heavy. And so just the whole um difficulty of getting someone to the feet of Jesus and the commitment of those friends to do that. Yeah, but how do you think they did that? Do you have any thoughts?

SPEAKER_10: 56:07

Uh well, my first thought is um that the roof would be a nice place to sit. Um certain times of the year. Intermediate steps or there probably were some steps up to the the roof.

SPEAKER_11: 56:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_10: 56:23

Um then, you know, and it would still be hard, you know, you'd still have to maybe put him on someone's back and carry him up. But there's I mean, there is effort involved, but the end, the end of it is just we're trying to get to Jesus. Like we're just we're trying to get to Jesus. And I I can't get it wrong if I'm trying to get to Jesus.

SPEAKER_11: 56:44

But the word Jesus was in the comments.

SPEAKER_10: 56:47

That's a good question. It probably wasn't a huge building.

SPEAKER_11: 56:51

But the difficulty that those friends and the commitment of them, yeah, like you must get to Jesus. There's no other better place for you, whether you agree with us or not, we're gonna do this. Which seems a little forceful. But it it was a very compelling picture, and I'm really glad you you kind of camped on that, because yeah. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_10: 57:20

Yeah, and I mean we don't know we don't know where they're like, hey, we're taking you, we don't care what you think. Like, I don't I don't think it was necessarily that, but I I think that all five of them were like, Yeah, let's go get let's go to Jesus. Um or it may have been his idea, he may have said, Hey, I think Jesus, can you please take me? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but in that, let's go to Jesus in prayer. Jesus, thank you for your word, thank you for um the encouragement to come to you, to sit with you, to be at the table. Thank you for the table that you have prepared for us. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen.