Room For One More

If you’ve ever wondered why church can feel messy, cramped, and awkward, we think you’re closer to the truth than you realize. We lean into Luke’s gift for detail and zoom in on Acts 2:42-47 to see a real snapshot of the early church right after Jesus ascends and the Holy Spirit moves at Pentecost. It’s not a polished institution yet. It’s a brand-new community trying to figure out how to live the mission together, and somehow that imperfect, hungry, learning-together church becomes a place where God adds people daily.

We talk about what made that community work: devotion to the apostles’ teaching, genuine fellowship, breaking bread in homes, prayer, shared resources, and a kind of generosity that costs something. Then we bring it down to one picture you can’t shake, a table. Who gets a chair? Who feels out of place? What happens when you’re the one who has to scoot over, give up your seat, or let go of preferences so someone else can belong?

We also name the tension honestly: closeness can get uncomfortable. People can irritate each other. Unity takes effort. But we keep coming back to the point that the kingdom of God is bigger than our room, our group, or our comfort. You don’t need perfect Bible answers to make an invitation. You need presence, courage, and the willingness to keep making space for “one more.”

If this challenges you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation. Who is your “one more” right now?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:04

To bring others to the knowledge of who you are. I would love you. Thank you. So then we pray. Amen. You know, Zacchaeus is a it's a fantastic story. And you know, Seth asked me uh during lunch, and it's a valid question. He's like, Why are you teaching on Zacchaeus? He's like, I know the story of Zacchaeus. I'm like, I know. But that's the beauty of scripture. Is as many times as I've studied the Bible, there's always something new, man. Like God is like I've never read a story, and God's like, yeah, not today. Like he always gives me something. Like that. That's the spirit. That's how it works. And so again, we're talking about Luke, and Luke's a man of detail. He's a physician and well educated and wants to make sure that people understand context. And that's one of my favorite things that I say is context is king. That's

Opening Prayer And Focus

SPEAKER_00 2:07

not my idea, but but it's so important to understand. So we get to Luke's other book, the book of Acts, and you know, Jesus has uh ascended, the resurrections

Why Familiar Scripture Still Hits

SPEAKER_00 2:21

happen, he's he's kind of had his last important conversations. And uh and so we find ourselves in in the middle of a church that it's it's it's brand new, man. They're they're infants. And the man who's been leading them for a couple years is gone. Now, the beauty of this is Jesus says, I'm gonna send with you, uh send onto you the Holy Spirit, and we see this in uh Peter's uh preaching on Pentecost. The Spirit comes down and he preaches a sermon. So powerful it cuts to the heart of the audience, and there's uh 3,000 people give their life, they get saved the same day, right? I can't even imagine that. Can you imagine like preaching with such an intensity that like everyone within your vicinity is like, I'm gonna give my life to Jesus? Like I think I would quit. Like it if I that ever happened to me, I quit. Like that's the last thing I want to know that I ever did in ministry. Like, dear God, take me now. Like I'm good, right? And so they have this kind of newfound passion and love for what's going on, but but the problem is is they're all new.

Acts 2 And The New Church

SPEAKER_00 3:36

I mean, the disciples have spent time with Jesus, and some of these other people have heard conversations, but but this whole idea of coming together is it's a new idea. What's it gonna look like? Where are we gonna meet? Who's gonna teach? Like, who's gonna teach in place of Jesus? Like, can you imagine like your church, your the pastor of your church is Jesus, and then he leaves, and you're like, well, who do we bring in now? Like, who who follows this? But but the beauty of this is this is this was the purpose and the the intention of this moment. So the church comes together, and and I love what Luke writes in Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47. He gives us a snapshot of what the church is doing and how it's operating. He says, Throughout this weekend, oh, I lied, said uh, starting in verse 42, he said they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and everyone was filled with awe at the many uh wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and they had everything in common. They sold property and possession to give in uh to anyone who had need, and every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes, and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. This this isn't some fictional account of what's happening. This is a real life moment. Luke is describing the early church, and it says they're working together, they have everything in common. They're sitting with the apostles' teachings, they're breaking bread together, they're praying together, they're they're continuing to just see wonderful things happen, wonderful things happen, and daily God is just bringing more and more people into their presence and into his kingdom. I have never, I don't want to say never, maybe that's not the right word. I can't think of any church that I've ever walked in, and I was like, man, these people just are getting it a hundred percent. Like they're just everything's right. And and and that's not to be a cynic because it Paul addresses this later on that we're we're humans. We we've talked about this in our discussion time. We're not we're not perfect, but but but Luke paints this beautiful picture of people who have come together for one purpose. One thing connects them. Hey, you guys want to come sit up here? Hey, Billy, you want to come sit up here with me? Dawson, you want to join us at the other end, man? Let's have a seat.

One Purpose In A Mixed Room

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Can you imagine the room? All these different people, different backgrounds, different thought processes, and they're all have this one thing in mind. Billy just wants to eat. That's that's all that's all he's thinking about. And and they've they've come together for the sole purpose of trying to figure out what this how do we carry on the mission, the purpose of what we've done. Can you imagine if for a moment the first house they sat in and they thought to themselves, well, that's enough. Six people. We're good. No more. Can you imagine if if they were so short-sighted that that they thought, well, now what? Did you bring the bread?

unknown 8:09

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Come on, man. We know we need the bread for the juice. Did anyone bring the apostles' teachings with no? Any anybody no? But what I love about it is that's not what the Bible tells us. It says that they shared everything in common, right? They did everything together and God added to their number daily. So here's the thing the rest of you, and I'm not going to tell you how to do this, I know how I would do it, because in my mind I have a picture. You, all of you, have to figure out how to make sure that everyone else in this room has a seat at this table. Go now. Go. Okay. All right. I want to see everyone at the table. Act like you love each other. I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you how I would have done it when we're done. Because I think my thought process was a little bit different. But I like this though. Okay. Everyone button. Yeah. Everyone here?

The Seat At The Table Exercise

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Does everyone have would you say that everyone here has an equal chair at the table? Yes. Oh, yeah. We're all equal? Except for like these three. Well, we could shoot up the bigger. Looks like they're maybe days. Listen, I I think we should. It says they shared everything in common. So in my mind, they're equal. How do we how do we get everyone equal? Now we're a table bigger. Well, we all got a stack on top of the head of the table. Why are you pulling the table? Now it's not equal. You just took the table from me. Stop it. This is my table. Yeah, but that's not equal. Okay. There we go. But here's the thing. Anybody uncomfortable? Me? No. Be honest. I am. Okay, now I am. Anyone feel uncomfortable? It's okay. A little closer problem. So I guess we're all set. My thought was I would have grabbed another table and stacked them, and then we could have all sat around the table. Would have the house. But but here's the thing. Church sometimes is uncomfortable. Church sometimes requires us to maybe do things that are out of place for us, right? Maybe we we give up our own seats at the table. Right? That's the beauty of this moment. When the church works like it's supposed to, when we really live as if everyone belongs with a seat at the table, we make ourselves uncomfortable. We invite people in that maybe they don't fit the mold, right? We give up our place of prominence. Maybe we're not sitting up front anymore. Maybe it's not that, maybe it's a preference. Maybe it's a lighting style, or maybe, you know, you've a preacher that uses the, I'm not knocking the KGV and now he's using the NIV, right? Or but what I'm what I mean is like when we truly are the church, it's uncomfortable. It stretches us. That's the beauty of this is you and I come to the table from all different places. But the goal

Discomfort As A Mark Of Church

SPEAKER_00 11:59

is always the same. Come on, Cameron, get in here. We can fit one more. Come on. We all have to. Come on, we can fit one more. One more. We had one over here. Hey, Joel, we can't have you here anymore. Start my own table. Yeah, go ahead. Start the kids' table. We'll call that kid's church. That's how they start the kids' church. But but sometimes it's hard. Sometimes we we have to try. Oh, Alison's coming in? Oh, who's that? Is that Allison? Allison, come join us. Come on. Come sit. Come sit at our table. Eat while you can. Eat while you can. Oh, look at that. He gave up his chair for you. He wasn't even here in here. I know. I know. Sometimes to make sure that everyone has a seat at the table, we gotta work at it. We have to be intentional. We have to be inclusive, right? And it requires sacrifice. Sometimes it's uncomfortable. That has to be okay. The most beautiful thing about what Jesus did is he sat with some of the some people that made people feel so uncomfortable. Because he saw and understood that there was a bigger picture. It's always about whether or not we're getting people to Jesus. If we're not careful, we can become content with the size of our table. We can justify why we don't have any more room for two more people. We can choose not to work with other Christians, we can choose not to work with other churches. We we can choose to shut it off and say enough is enough. But the kingdom is so much bigger than that. Someone was asking, who was talking about heaven? Yeah. I don't

The Kingdom Must Keep Expanding

SPEAKER_00 14:10

know what heaven's gonna be like. I hope there's a table that just keeps getting bigger. Every time someone steps in, there's one warm chair, one more room, one more person. They work together, they believed in the apostles' teachings, they broke bread together, they prayed together, and when the church functions as it's supposed to, people were added to the kingdom daily. It's not about your church, it's about whether or not the kingdom of God is expanding. My goal in life, and I don't even know if I get this, but if God would give me the grace when I die to see all the people that I've invited to the table, I'd be good with that. And you guys, you guys set the tone for what the church can be. This is beautiful. Is it awkward? Absolutely, man. Well, he touched me. That was awkward. Can it be what? I don't know what you just said, but we're is it awkward sometimes? Can it be uncomfortable? Yeah. Is it easy? No, man. Sometimes you gotta give up stuff, and that's okay. I just want to bump Michaela so bad and mess up her handwriting. And and listen, what what I love about this is is as far as proximity goes, sometimes when you spend this much time to people, it gets nudgy,

Presence Matters More Than Answers

SPEAKER_00 16:04

right? You get frustrated with each other. You just want to shove people away from you. I have a space thing, like you don't know, but I think God sat you next to me on purpose for a reason. But but sometimes when you work this closely with people, it it gets weird and and it's hard and it's difficult, but but we can never lose sight of the fact that there's always room for one more. God's table never gets smaller, only gets bigger. The kingdom should never be shrinking. It should always be growing. And you and I make that happen. Every conversation, every moment, every opportunity is a chance to invite someone in to the greatest meal that they'll ever have for their entire life. And that's my hope. That's my prayer for every single one of you. Don't ever discount the importance of your ministry. Don't ever assume that you can't bring people to knowledge of who Jesus is. Don't think you have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know the Bible back in front. You don't always have to have the right answers. You just have to be present. Presence is so, so powerful for people. But as you get older, always make sure there's room for one more. That's right. God, I thank you so much for who you are. I thank you for the fact that your table's always getting bigger. Sometimes it's awkward. Sometimes we have to give up things. God, it's worth it. If one more person can sit and dine, if one more person can meet you and be transformed by you. May we continue to seek the lost in the same way that you do. May you continue to give us opportunities to invite people in, whether it's the to have coffee or to come to our church or just come to our house. Whatever that looks like. Whatever that that that looks like in our life, in that in in our context, God, I