Live Free with Josh Howerton - Extending Your Dinner Table | Ep. 401 | Monday, August 19, 2024

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

This week, we are exploring the importance of extending our dinner tables. When we sit around the table, we laugh, share life’s moments, and show who we care for and value. Jesus intentionally shared meals and sat with those he loved, as seen in Matthew 9:9-13. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Bro, and man, it's great to be back with y'all. Always super grateful for the guests that we have sit in from time to time on this podcast.

Man, I always learn so much from them, as I know you do as well. Plus, you get a break from hearing the same old voice. But, man, it's good to be back to start this new week with you as we spend just a few minutes together. And we've been talking about family this month and for at least a few days. I want to talk about the value of eating together and extending the size of our tables. You know, as a culture, we're pretty serious about our food, aren't we? I mean, all kinds of television shows. We even have like a food network.

There are countless cookbooks. We got keto, paleo, whole 30 Mediterranean dash diet plans. We got podcasts about all of them. In our country, we even have eating competitions. Did you know they're actually professional leagues for competitive eating? Now, I'm sure you've seen the competitive, you know, Fourth of July, a hot dog eating contest before on ESPN, where they choke down hot dogs at an alarming rate. But did you know there are actually lots of different food competitions? There is a crawfish eating competition.

Now, my name is Bro, B-R-E-A-U-X. It's a Cajun name, so I might be good at that. But we're never going to find out. Or what about the onion eating competition? I'm just tearing up thinking about it. Or maybe you'd be up for the fruitcake eating competition, not at a million. years from me. Fruitcakes are gross. And speaking of gross, there's actually a mayonnaise eating competition. The world record for most mayonnaise consumed in a single setting is four 32-ounce

bowls eaten in eight minutes. Man, I want to barf just thinking about that. Now, I wouldn't mind entering a street taco eating competition, man, because they're the best. But Americans, man, we love to eat. We eat about 21 times a week, not including snacks. And a whole bunch of us are eating on the go and our cars or ordering Grubhub or DoorDash so we can sit in front of the TV or play video games. We're doing a lot of eating, but we're doing way too much of it alone. One of the values of my home growing up was dinner around the table, and it wasn't so much about the food as it was the people around the table. And as Debbie and I were raising our kids, we made sure that we had dinner together. Now, it wasn't always possible, but we would most nights throw something

on the grill or whip up some stir fry or something from the crock pot or we'd order pizza and sit down together. And we have a lot of memories around the table. So many friends and neighbors and small groups and basketball teams and extended family have spent time around our table. And again, I don't remember too many of the actual meals that we consumed, but the laughter, the friendship, the sharing, the significant announcements that were made, the important conversations that happened around that table, man, they're unforgettable. Did you know that studies show that eating with people has enormous benefits. For instance, research shows that when children and teenagers eat regularly with their families,

they experience healthier eating on into adulthood, they have a lower risk of developing eating disorders, they have less drug and alcohol use, they have higher self-esteem and less depression, they do better with school posting higher scores on achievement test, and again, it's not the food. It's the table, the community, the security, the sense of belonging that is fostered there.

There's just something about being around a table. I was thinking how Jesus being a carpenter probably made all kinds of stuff, houses, ladders, bookcases, chairs, tables. And even though he never really owned one, he made sure he was around someone's table a lot. Jesus recognized the importance of eating together. In fact, he was very intentional about it. I mean, a lot of Jesus ministry was centered around meals. He spent time around the table with people like Lazarus and, Mary and Martha, Simon the Leopard, Simon the Pharisees, Zach Keas.

He performed his first miracle at a wedding feast. He fed 5,000 people on the hillside. The night before his crucifixion, he sat down around a table with his closest friends. Then after his resurrection, he shared breakfast on the beach with them around the campfire. Now, as people who scarf down fast food while we're driving the car with our knees, I'm not sure we're capable of really grasping how central eating was to life back then. but eating was a major deal in Jesus' culture. You see, eating with someone was a statement

that you wanted to be with them. Eating with someone was an affirmation of that person's value, their dignity, their worth. In fact, who you ate with indicated who you liked, who you loved, and cared about, and who you considered to be part of your social class. And that's why it was so outrageous to the religious leaders that Jesus frequently ate

with the lowest and most despised people of his day. They would say, come on, if you really were from God, there's no way you would eat with those kind of people. You know, Matthew was one of those people. He was a tax collector, worked for the Roman government, the enemy to the Jews. He wasn't accepted by anyone outside of his despised group. The Romans looked down on him and used him,

his own people, the Jews, disdained him as a non-patriotic sellout. I mean, guys like him were looked at as scum of the earth. But one day Jesus says two life-changing words to Matthew. He looks them in the eye and says, follow me. And Matthew accepts the invitation to follow him. And the first thing he does is throw a party. He opens up his home.

He opens up his fridge. He invites Jesus and the disciples over to hang around his table. I think it's cool that Matthew himself actually writes this about this account of the life of Jesus. And I just bet as he was writing. this down in Matthew chapter 9. He got a little choked up. This is what he wrote. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in his tax collector's booth. Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him. So Matthew, or in other words, I got up and followed him. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guest, along with many tax collectors

and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with such scum? When Jesus heard this, he said, Healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick people do. Then he added, now go and learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices. For I have come to call not those who think they're righteous,

but those who know they're sinners. I mean, this is so cool to me. The first thing Jesus does after Matthew says yes to his invitation, he doesn't enroll Matthew in a class on how to be a disciple. He doesn't challenge Matthew to start studying the Bible and memorizing scripture. Don't give you wrong. Those things are important. But the first thing he does is to go to Matthew's house to eat.

By eating with him, he was saying, Matthew, you're accepted. You matter. You have value. You belong. I choose to hang with you. So who are you eating with today? Got a lunch plan with a friend. You're going to grab coffee with a neighbor.

Going to fire up the grill. Going to sit around a table with your family tonight. Hey, when you do, know that Jesus is right there. He chooses to hang with you today. Make room for him around whatever table you're around the day, and we'll pick this back up tomorrow. Hope you have a great day. We'll see you then. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital

ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.com slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out.