At the Table Part 1: Invite Others to the Table

At the Table
Part 1: Invite Others to the Table

Matthew 9:9-13

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:8

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with them and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
Matthew 9:9-13

1. Leave everything else behind.

"As went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”
Matthew 9:9

“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.’”
Luke 9:23-26

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:1-2

“Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Cost of Discipleship

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.”
C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity


2. Seek out those who need Jesus.

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with them and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”
Matthew 9:10-11


“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’”
Matthew 9:36-38

3. Show mercy and compassion.

On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
Matthew 9:12-13


“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Hosea 6:6

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:20

“Spiritual formation is the process of being formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others.”
M. Robert Mulholland - Invitation to a Journey

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”
Psalm 103:8

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30