Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table - Louie Giglio

I love the power that nine words can have to change

your

life. You know that when God speaks to you, he doesn't need 909 words, just one sentence from the Almighty can change the direction of

your

life and I know this to be true for me. life because this message that I carry in our house and that we share today is not just an idea that we had. This was a life-changing, game-changing word from God and it is a word that I still hold on to and live by even today and it all resonates with what God is trying to tell us in Psalm 23 and the invitation that It's on the

table

today for you and me and I know when you say Psalm 23.

Most people say, yeah, I have that in mind somewhere, if you go up to almost anyone in life and say that the Lord He's my shepherd, they'll know I won't want him He's in the movies, he's in the culture, people know Psalm 23. But I just want to make sure again today that when we get to Psalm 23, you're not thinking about the cross stitch hanging on the wall behind Grandma's dining room

table

, may you not be thinking about Olin Mills' Jesus photograph. In the Sunday school classroom where you grew up, does anyone go to that church besides me Hello, would you like to be in that photo session with Jesus when they tell you that you could lift your chin and maybe turn a little this way? his robe was clean and ironed his beard was trimmed his hair was perfect everything in the photo was great he is also looking into the distance maybe you know the land of Canaan from heaven he has a little lamb on one of his shoulders and that staff and the other hand and it looks so far from life, anyone who goes there, anyone knows what I'm talking about, you can Google it and when you're in seventh grade and you walk into your Sunday school classroom and that's the guy that's in the wall and all the stories and all the focus is on him, you're thinking, okay, that's my man, that's my pastor, but then you grow up and you do life and you live life and you realize that there come seasons of life in which you are not sure about that. the boy in the olin mills photograph is your boy you need someone more present more tangible more three dimensional more real braver braver more powerful because you are in a mess and that is what psalm 23 is about psalm 23 was written by a pastor And so David knew the relationship between a shepherd and a sheep and when he begins with The Lord is my shepherd, he knew what it meant to be a shepherd and that is a great perspective that you and I have to understand in our hearts if' Today we will receive this message: a shepherd gave his life to protect the sheep and when God says in this particular context and elsewhere in Scripture that we are the sheep, he's not really paying us much of a compliment, he's not trying to criticize us. he's not trying to put you down he's just telling it like it is if you've been around sheep this is what they can't see well they don't have good balance they're not fast or agile they don't make the best decisions eh in fact they have mosquitoes They crawl up your nose, this is so beautiful, and lay their eggs in your nostrils, wouldn't that be amazing?

They get stuck in a bramble, wander away and lose track of the rest of the flock. You are easy prey for the bear or the wolf or the lion or the fox and that is why the sheep need help the Lord is my shepherd David said and when he said that he said more than many people are willing to say he said I need help I need you Someone do what a pastor would do, what does a pastor do? a shepherd guides the sheep and feeds the sheep and protects the sheep and provides for the sheep and that's why god is entering the story today he is in the equation today he is here right now and he is offering an invitation to all that they can hear my voice.

I would like to be your shepherd. Would you like me to guide you to feed you, protect you and provide for you? Because if you wanted it, I'd love to be in it. type of relationship with you and each of us today we are going to have the opportunity to say yes to that invitation and enter into Psalm 23 to get out of the mentality of a small bookmark that I had and that my aunt gave me when I was a child and in this moment of saying I need you in my life, you know a sheep doesn't always make the right decision and sometimes it's not because they tried to make the wrong decision, they just ended up not making the right decision, like for example.

If a sheep saw running water and was very thirsty, you know what a sheep would do, the sheep would go straight to the most of the running water and stick its head right in the river. It seems like a great idea, but not the sheep. I realize that he had a quilt on his head and as soon as it got wet the whole sheep went into the water and now the sheep is going down the rapid and now the sheep finally looks back looking for the shepherd and the sheep has the long staff, remember why, so that I can grab the sheep by the neck, pull it to the side, grab it and carry it to the shore and then I can say: if you let me, I want to make you lie down in green pastures, I want to guide you along the water Calm down, I want to restore your soul.

This is what David said. He guides me along the paths of justice through his namesake, and even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you are with me, your rod and your staff comfort me, prepare a table before me. of me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows and surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life every Monday every Thursday every high day and every low day all the days of my life love and Goodness follows me and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

The Lord is my shepherd. I will lack nothing and today I had invitations on the table. Do you want? be guided you want to be restored you want to be guided you want to be protected and provided for the invitation is on the table and you say yes, but right now life is crazy for me

louie

and I love how God sees and knows it and it doesn't affect his promise to you today, in fact, in verse 5 it's a little bit backwards. If he had written Psalm 23, he would have written verse 5 completely differently than the way David did.

David said you prepare a table beforehand. I in the presence of my enemies now if I had written the verse and perhaps if you had written the verse you could have written the verse in this way you prepare a table before me how in your presence you forget the enemies you make the enemies fly you expel me outside of the circumstances outside of the situation outside of the pressure outside of the darkness outside of the pain outside of the cancer award I want out of all that and I just want to be in your presence and he says no I can't hit the eject button still because you are living on a broken planet, but what I promise you is that no matter what is surrounding your life right now, right in the middle, I am going to prepare a table before you anoint your head with oil and no matter what Whatever is happening around you, it is still possible for your cup to overflow.

He is setting the table in the middle of the enemies, kind of crazy, right?, but there is such a powerful reason why he did that for you and there is such a powerful reason. which is why God did that for Himself because remember that all of God's history ultimately has a benefit for you, but all the glory ultimately goes to God, so everything that God does benefits you, brings you kindness, it brings you grace, it brings you goodness, it is the best for you. you, but the end result of everything God does is to

give

glory to God, so you become good and God receives the glory.

This is the way the kingdom of God works and we will see it at the table, but I just wanted a little picture. I hope you never forget that so for now you are my

enemy

not in real life but you know you are my enemies guys I am so sorry I mean how can you be my enemies? the nicest people on the planet a brand new teammate on our staff here, I mean, but for now I don't like any of you and I don't like you, okay, you're a problem and I didn't ask for you, your problems, that I was not looking for their situations.

I wasn't planning on your interruptions in my plan that I didn't see coming your pressure your criticism you're hitting me from behind you sold me out on the business you called me with the prognosis you gave me the news I didn't want to hear that it was death and not life. It didn't end the way we wanted it to end. The financial situation was not what we were counting on. That's all you and right in the middle of it all. of that the king of the universe said

louie

I prepared a table before you think about this for a moment the god of heaven the almighty god the alpha and the omega the creator of all that exists prepared a table for you if you let him be your shepherd and you don't have to let him be your shepherd.

We are not inclined to let ourselves be guided by the pastor and we don't like it when the first thing he says he is going to do is force us to do something. Did you notice that the Lord is my shepherd? I won't want him to make me lie down in green pastures people say I don't want God to make me do anything I know he is a horrible god who will make you find a nice green grass to lie down in. What's horrible and why is he going to do that because I'm not smart enough if you leave me alone to find a green pasture to lay down on if you let me run my life and be in charge of my life and some of you are.

I keep saying that here and now you're saying I don't know who this guy is, but I make the decisions, I make the decisions, I'm doing it, thank you very much and if I need God, I'll do it. Let him know, okay, I'll tell you how that will work for you. Are you ready? You're going to burn and you're going to collapse and you're going to collapse all the people. around you because left to myself I'm not even smart enough to find a nice green pasture and know when it's time to lie down and breathe deeply and enjoy the goodness of God.

I need a pastor to say, “hey, we need to chill out.” for a minute and I know a good place for you and he offers himself today to restore who needs to be restored in this place today, it would be 100 of the people in the room that right now need some kind of restoration in their life and he says I will restore your soul no one else can do that but I can do that and I will I will guide you whoever wants guide today anyone needs guidance today says I will guide you but I will not guide you on any path in all the paths I guide you on will be a path called justice and the end of that path is your good in my glory for the sake of my name he said I will guide you that way and if you go through the darkness yes Go through the valley, if you were in a place of danger, I will be there with you and I have a stick in one hand and a cane and a cane in the other, and I'm telling you, a lot of us skip that, but the cane that we get that's how you guide and push and poke and grab and rescue if you have to, but the cane doesn't.

It was for the sheep, the rod was for the lion and the bear and a shepherd knew how to use it so that you need to take God out of the cross stitch and into the center of reality because he is big and bold and powerful and he has authority and he He cares about you and will defend you if you let him guide you. and the comfort is in the rod and the staff, that is, when I go to sleep at night, he has me and when I wake up in the morning, he will guide me, that is the comfort the world is looking for in this moment, everyone on planet Earth. looking for that comfort from time to time he says I will prepare the table in front of you right in the presence of your enemies imagine that imagine the god of the universe saying would you like to sit down hey come take a

seat

and then sit down He comes down and then sits down and says something as ordinary and miraculous as this.

You're thirsty. Could I get you a glass of water? How are you so cool to see everything? Good man, I love you, thank you for coming. Hello, someone got an amen. Amen, we're talking about the god of the cosmos inviting you to the table he reserved, prepared the food, sat down and paid the bill and look, isn't this cool or what I'm not going to skip, no, really, it's amazing I'm going to have a breadstick thank you you look great I love it when you bring these you are amazing you bake them you know you have someone to do that amazing crazy it's the Christian life and this is the invitation but you I have to say yes and you have to sit down.

What we're most likely to do because we're busy is um, do you mind if I borrow your coffee? Sorry, what we're most likely to do is leave, I had no idea, oh. Oh my god I had uh wow I wish I had I wish I had come sooner this is amazing do you mind if I do it to go to the cup though really but before I go can I borrow your phone just for a second thank you ? Mind you, this is amazing the way this is so phenomenal, let me make sure my Bible is on that side, oh man, okay, okay, I'm going to go, I'm going to go in portrait mode, I'm using the celestial filter , oh wow, this is going to be it. best at brunch with the king im tagging you on almighty thats great this is amazing and by the way i think thank you for all this everything looks amazing you just go overboard every time amazing uh yo .

I have to go and I'm so sorry, but I'll be back and you guys are great, you're amazing, you're incredible, thank you great and thank you for the coffee, you guys won't believe it. Did you see my post not really like I was on the table and like he was there like God and I and like all this time it was unreal and I was like amazed I couldn't believe it did you see it here like check it out?look at the post , isn't it amazing, this is our life, we're invited to a table, oh, sorry, it's not yours, let's leave this here for now, let's stop that madness, we'reyou are not enough.

I know when I said that before. I could feel it. in the room, everyone in this room looks amazing, I mean look at them, they all look amazing, but I wonder how many of us in this room right now in a place of worship where we came to sing songs of praise and this is not a negative space. It's a positive space, but I still wonder how many people are sitting in this space or your living room right now and you're still living the narrative. I'm not enough. I invite you to enter the word of God and I invite you.

You literally have to take a pen and paper and write down the narrative that you've been living and it might be something like this because first you have to identify the lie and then maybe your narrative has been: I am defined by my scars, therefore. It's a shame, because if you sit there long enough, you'll sink and focus on that spot and say, "let's keep this in mind and the way you'll know you've heard it." is that you are going to operate since I failed, I have, I have done the best I could since, but I can't get over it, how I failed and I have tried to get rid of it, but I can't. get rid of the shame and the

enemy

keeps taking me back look let's not forget that that's you man but the pastor has a different word so you gotta find it you gotta eat it.

You have to believe it and then you have to write it on top of this narrative and I'm going to write this narrative on top here. I'm defined by your scars, how do you know he has scars? Because when he said the other morning, would you like bread? some bread and when he gave it to me I noticed the scar on his wrist again and I knew it was for me. I saw it again yesterday and I knew I'm defined by your scars, not my scars, oh my scars are real. I did it. I fail, but your scars define me, so my new story is that I am for

give

n and loved and then I want to encourage you to take that same pen and cross out your old story and circle your news and when someone says to you, so tell me about your life, you say, well, I had some bumps in the road, in fact, I had a big train wreck in some places, but you know, my main story is that I don't see myself defined by my scars I see myself defined by the scars of my king Jesus carried my scars to the cross for me and I know that because of that, even no matter what is in my story, I know that I am forgiven and I know that I am loved and I am living by forgiven love, not by failure and shame, and I discovered that in his word, I loved that place where he told me, Louie said, you have to understand this again today, therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and I was I have a new story I have a new narrative and I tell you you can do this for every lie for everything the enemy has told you for every narrative no one ever wanted it you write it no one ever loved me, they abandoned me and left me behind and then you write right on top of it.

God chose me before the foundation of the universe and left heaven and came to earth on a rescue mission because I matter to God and then to you. cross out the bottom and circle the top and say I have a new story that some of you have been living in I just can't I just can't I just can't I just can't I'm sorry but I can't write it I can't therefore I'm weak and therefore I won't do it and then right above you can and you live in me you are capable and you are my god that's why I'm crossing out I can't and I'm going around you can and today I have a new narrative because I'm not going to give the enemy a

seat

in my table you've been here long enough you've been lying to me long enough You've been trying to lure me into a failure story for quite some time.

No, you're out and you're in. Thank you Jesus for inviting me here. I close my eyes on you. I close my gaze on you. I close my heart. I will trust you as I am asking you. Can anyone leave this building and believe again that you are not enough when he tells you that the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep? This table is not about what is on the table it is about who is at the table and the one at the table paid everything to be able to sit here with you so why do you put him in the middle of the enemies? weird right, hey, your enemy will have a front row seat, that's great. the king of it is so that then they can have a revelation everywhere so that they can know that they have abundance.

Hey guys, I'm not sure if you like me or not, but guess what, I brought a charcuterie board here, please don't take the. the whole board I'm fine everyone would like to have one of these little ones here have one all of you not everyone gets one everyone in this row gets one yes you absolutely have something on me why I'm good I'm fantastic I'm great I dropped one but I have one left, is this the last one? Oh no, you can have another orchard enjoy it so they can see what the kingdom looks like. God is not operating with a scary scarcity mentality.

God is operating with an abundance mentality. And God. He wants your enemies to see that he wants them to see that you delight in him even in the storm. Are we downplaying the storm today? no pain is real cancer is real death is real the real struggles of depression are real life is real we are not minimizing any of it we are just maximizing the fact that God is in this and if I'm looking at you the stress, the pain, this struggle, then guess what's on my face, struggle from stress, but in the middle of it all I'm looking at him. what is the psalmist saying the psalmist said those who look at him are radiant and listen their faces are never covered with shame and that is why now, in the midst of this, everyone can see, look what I, oh, they will begin by look at you.

I want to go back to some people and say what the heck you can broadcast that whether you want to or not, either way, they'll start by saying, How are you doing this? Why don't you hit them all back? Why don't you receive? down on her level why is she being so nice why how is she getting over this situation what is going on with her what is her problem and eventually they will stop looking at you and asking questions about you and they will start looking at the person you are looking at and Ask questions about it and they will tell you what's going on here because whoever is in that chair is making a big difference to the person who is in that chair and I want to know if that person in that chair can make the same difference in my life because The same things happen around me as they do and at the end of the day this table brings you all the good and at the end of the day this table brings you all the glory and then he said: I'm going to put it right in the middle, right in the middle , and I am going to give you the authority in the name of Jesus to take back your table from now on, this is not so. a message for you to go home and think about this is not a message for you to have coffee with a friend on Thursday this is a message for you to say I will not give the enemy a seat at my table one more day.

I'm done, you have planted that seed for a long time, you have had that root in my heart for a long time, you have been stealing from me everything that God has given me, for a long time you have been destroying the good that God wanted to bring. In my life you have been driving me crazy and making me hateful and making me spiteful and making me terrible and making me lose trust long enough. I'm not an orphan. I am a son. I am the daughter of the king of the universe. I'm at a table with the almighty God and he's with me, so right here today I got the text message.

Did anyone receive that message from heaven today? I am very grateful to that friend. Honestly, maybe I wouldn't be here preaching this message without that friend and me. I wonder if anyone got that kind of message from heaven today and you may not be able to change everything in a minute, but I think in a minute everything can start to change and if you want to say today, I'm done, I'm done. I am taking back my table in the name of Jesus, so I want to pray for you and I want to pray with you because that is the first step.