Reclaimed - Part 4, by Pastor Robert Ketterling
How many have taken that serious to pray over every meal? Okay, once again, Apple Valley campus a little slow on that it. Little slow. I'm going to talk to you about that.
As part of our series I asked you to do three things. I asked you to use the hashtag #Reclaimthetable, and as you reclaim the table and do that, you're entering into the drawing for one of the custom-made tables we are going to be giving away.
We are also asking you as a family to eat three meals together every week. As much as possible, eat those three dinners together. And I can tell you every time I say I'm busy, my wife reminds me of my challenge. Connor and Logan are reminding me of my challenge. My mother is reminding me of my challenge. I feel like we have an Italian, Greek, Jewish family all rolled into one. It's good. It's good. But we're doing that.
And we're doing the third challenge, which is to pray over every meal no matter what. And I want to focus on that as we wrap up this series. We are going to reclaim the table and we are going to pray at it, and we are reclaiming the table for gratitude and thanksgiving, gratitude and thanksgiving. We are going to make sure we pray at every meal to stop and say thank you to God.
Now, I will say that I was taken aback a little bit the first time I asked the church if you were praying over every meal. And I think my highest percentage was at our Savage campus where fifty percent of the people. I was, really, are we not doing that?
Honestly, I'm trying to be very, very straightforward with you. I think we need to pray at every meal. Every meal all the time, everywhere we go all the time. And I think we need to capitalize on this. I mean, this is something that is not normal for a lot of people in the world. It's not normal in restaurants. It's not normal in the marketplace. But it is a way that
we can stand out. If there is one thing I'm looking for as a follower of Jesus Christ is a way for us to stand out in a good way. I mean, I don't want to stand out with a placard or a sign protesting something. I want to stand out for God doing something good, something so simple, something so nonthreatening, and see what God can do with it. So I want to reclaim the table and say let's pray at every single meal. And my hope is at the end of this service we will reclaim the table for that gratitude, thanksgiving, and say we are praying at every meal, every table, every place, and we are going to do this.
Now, I want you to let you know it is so normal for me as just a follower of Jesus Christ, not as a pastor, but as a follower of Jesus Christ, to pray, pray at every meal. I mean, I even stress about when I should pray at the meal. Okay, some of you know what I'm talking about. I mean, the bread arrives at the table. I'm like, do we pray for the bread? Okay, see, some of you -- all right. Now, okay, bread I don't want you have to pray for bread. Just be sure to get it before the meat. Then appetizers arrive, so you don't want to be the one that says, "Can we pray?" and they are like (nods head with mouth full). So apps are cool, just let them slide. Then how many know then salads come. Oh, we didn't pray for the apps or the bread, so let's just make sure -- is it just me? Okay? And then the main course comes, and you are like, "Hey, guys, we need to pray."
And they are like, "Oh, yeah, good thing we prayed. We almost forgot the
prayer."
So I stress. And so sometimes people get jumpy. So anyways, it is very normal, it is very normal for us to pray. And it doesn't have to be loud and it doesn't have to be long. You don't have to pray a long prayer at the table. It can be very simple.
And I'm told this is a true story about long prayers and short prayers. I'm told that three very well-known pastors were doing a conference, and they all had to pray over a meal during the conference. And then one said, "I want to see who can pray the shortest
prayer at the meal." I'm told it's true.
And the first one, the first day he got to the meal, and he said, "Bless it," and then started eating.
Everybody was like, "Wow, two words. Really good."
And then the next day the guy is thinking, "Okay, I've got to beat two words." So this well-known pastor, he said, "All right, I've got to beat two words, two words." So he gets there and all of a sudden he says, "Thanks," and he starts eating. So it's down to one word, all right?
So the third guy, he's got lots of pressure. He's got two words, one word.
Third guy is trying to figure out, "How am I going to beat this?" He gets ready to pray. He looks at everybody and goes (nods head), then starts eating. You know, so, yeah, really quick. Good, good. So, if you have to do one that goes that quick, it counts I guess. I'm told it's true. All right.
Why do we pray at the table? Why do we pray? Why are we going to reclaim the table and pray there? Because I searched all throughout the Bible. I looked for a commandment. I looked for a directive; anything that said you have to pray at the table. It is not in there. It's not in there. Neither is "Cleanliness is next to godliness." They are not in there. And I've looked. And so I'm preaching on this, I'm talking about reclaiming the table, about praying over every meal and making sure that we have gratitude and thanksgiving. So how can we do this if there is no scripture? How can there be just this cultural expectation that we pray over every meal?
And I want to point this out. Just because the Bible is silent on it, it doesn't mean that it's over. Okay? When you have a topic or an issue or something you're struggling with, if the Bible doesn't directly talk about it, you have to look at the practices and the principles. The practices and the principles. And so you look and see what did people
do? Specifically, what did Jesus do and what are the principles that are there? So with that in mind, I want to look at the life of Jesus.
In Matthew 15:36, Jesus is feeding the multitude. He's feeding the five thousand people. And in that moment, you know what he does? He stops and he prays. In Matthew 15:36, it says, Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. So
we have Jesus doing this.
Not only that, in Matthew 26:26, while they were eating, the Lord is doing the Last Supper with his disciples. It says, Jesus took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” So we have Jesus practicing this. And so we are saying if Jesus is doing this, this is something we should look at. It's a practice he did, but it doesn't stop there.
The apostle Paul practiced this in Acts 27:35. He's in a storm. It looks like there is going to be a shipwreck, but he tells them that God has spoken to him in the middle of the night, they are going to be okay. He's like, "Let's eat something because we are going to have to swim for shore, but we're going to be okay. It says, After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Isn't that interesting? He gives thanks to God in front of them all. He didn't say a private prayer. He gets done telling them about the goodness of God, that they are going to okay. He stops, get's ready with the bread, gives thanks to God in front of them all, and then he broke it and began to eat.
So we have a practice with Jesus and we have a practice with Paul that they would stop and say this. So this is where it's building from.
And then we look at the principles, the principles of prayer, that prayer is all throughout the Bible. But also in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 it says, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So we should be thankful. We
should stop and have that moment of thankfulness.
We also have in the Old Testament, we have in Psalm 119.164, it says, Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws. And they are saying seven times a day. When did this person thank God seven times a day? When they got up, when they ate their breakfast, when they ate their lunch, when they had their afternoon snack, when they had their dinner, when they went to bed, and if they woke up in the middle of the night for a snack. Seven times a day. Okay. Some of you are like, see, I wake up in the middle of the night, those Twinkies are Biblical. All right. But that's what they did seven times a day.
So we have this principle of stopping and thanking. We have a practice of Jesus saying thank you. We have a practice of Paul saying thank you. We have the practice of others saying thank you. And because of this, we now say grace. We say thank you, God. We say we love you and we want to stop what we are doing and slow down and reclaim the table to say thank you. We are going to reclaim the table to be full of gratitude.
And I just -- some of you will know how to do this and some won't. I just want to let you know one of the struggles as I pastor this church and lead it with all these other wonderful pastors, we have people that are new, new, new to the faith. Very new. As a matter of fact, you might even be trying to figure out what all this faith in Jesus is. We are glad you are here. So I try to make sure we explain everything for you. Then we have people that have been in the faith for years and years and years, and sometimes when I say simple things, they are like, "We knew that." But you've got to understand, I'm trying to speak to everybody. But on this one I just want to be so practical. I don't want to assume that you know all this. I'm going to do something very basic.
How do we pray at meals then, if we see the practice and the principle? If we see the practice and the principle, what would be some guidelines on how to pray at meals?
Okay, I would tell you this. The first thing is to pray at the beginning of the meal. Pray at the beginning of the meal. Let's slow down, and I think it would also like improve your manners. It shouldn't be throw the food on the table and everybody jumps in, you know. There should be a definite starting moment to the eating.
And I can tell you that at our home, you know, it's all of a sudden we all sit down. And we don't pray when somebody is still over by the sink. We wait until everyone's there, and then we pray. And we start it out at the beginning of the meal.
People ask me this, should we hold hands or, you know, should we fold our hands? Again, you do what's comfortable in your family. You do what's comfortable in your group setting. You can fold your hands. And sometimes I intentionally fold my hands.
Specifically, like if I'm on an airplane and I'm eating a meal, I specifically fold my hands. I want people to know that are around me in that moment I'm stopping and thanking God. I don't want them tapping me on the shoulder. I don't want them, you know, asking if they can have my dessert. I want them to know that I'm praying at that moment. Again, our family hasn't held hands, and the other day when we were at the restaurant we weren't planning to hold hands, but the server just grabbed our hands and did that. Nothing wrong with it. So you're free to do whatever.
There is no blanket blessings with prayer. What do I mean by that? You don't bring the groceries home and then pray over the groceries and then forget about it at the table. Okay? Some of you are like, "Is that possible? That would save time." If you're doing that, you need to reclaim the table. You're too busy! All right?
But there is a story that Ben Franklin actually said that. He said to his dad, he said, "Dad, can't we just pray for the pig before we butcher him and then we are covered, we're good to go?"
His dad was like, "No, we've got to stop and pray at every meal."
There is no blanket blessings here. We are going to pray every single time, every single meal.
I know these are simple things, but I really believe our prayer at meal time should be from our hearts. It should be from our heart. And I know culturally this one might rub people the wrong way. But we have wonderful memorized prayers, but I think that God would love to get more out of us in those moments. I mean, you sit down for the meal:
"God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for this food. Amen." How many know that is almost like, "Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engine." I mean it doesn't feel like you're talking to God, right?
How many know that, you know, "Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen." You know, it's just kind of r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.
And even like the singing, and, again, you know, it is like, "Oh, the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord." You know, and you're like, what's wrong with that? Again, it's just kind of from memory.
Could you imagine going up to your parents? Kids, can you imagine going to your parent and be like, "Dad is great, Dad is good. Thank him for my allowance. Thank you, Dad." You know, (holding out hand.)
You'd be like, "Okay, Robot Son. Where do I oil you?" You know what I mean? Do you get the point?
"I love you, honey. Give me money." (Holding out hand.)
Okay. And, again, I thank God for the wonderful traditions and the things like that. And I thank God for the prayers that we had when I was a kid and I learned some of those things. But I think that we can do it from our hearts. I think that we can do it from our heart, and we can pray and share what's really there.
And I will say this, that you will notice in your family who has the gift of
intercession. You know, like if you -- and I'm not joking -- but if you sit down with my mom and you're at a meal and you say, "Mom, why don't you pray the blessing?" I'm just serious, all of a sudden she is just like, "Lord, we just come into your presence," and you're going somewhere. I'm just telling you. And if it is not cold food, it might be at the end. I'm just -- because it is coming from her heart. And you feel like you are touching God, and you're slowing down and you're acknowledging God. I mean, it's just, it's something that we need to do. And even the kids notice this.
I remember we were on a Global Team, and I forget what country we were in.
But Becca and I had Connor and Logan and we were on the Global Team, and whatever was served to us was a little sketchy. I mean it just looked like, wow, and the place was kind of dirty. And the boys pulled me aside, and they said, "Hey, Dad, when you pray over the meal, pray a real one, pray a real one." Okay, how many know that you know what they meant, you know? Okay.
I think a prayer from your heart can set the course for dinner. Think about that. You can pray a virtue in that moment. "God, we thank you for mercy. And we pray today we be merciful as we get ready to eat this meal." Think about that. You're discipling your family in a virtue, and that could lead the course of the meal.
Think about if somebody is there that doesn't know Jesus, and you're there and you the table is full of people that don't know Jesus, and you're like, "God, I thank you for the faith you that have given to me and the grace that you given to me, and the grace that you give to us and the food and the blessings we have. Thank you, God, for grace.
Man, it's great to have grace, and we thank you for this food. In your name, amen." And people are like, "What is so amazing about grace?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked." The prayer set the course for where it was going. You can pray honor. "God, we thank you for grandpa and grandma being at
this table, and we are so thankful that they found faith first in our family. And we are so glad that they lived in a godly marriage for years. And, God, today we pray that that would be
our legacy on our family and our children."
Do you see what I'm saying? It sets the course of the meal. And all of a sudden how many know that instead of like, "What's on TV?" the kids would say, "How long have you been married, Grandma and Grandpa? How did you stay together?"
The prayer from the heart can set the course of the meal. And I think we shouldn't just go through, "God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food."
I think our prayers should never be irreverent. It never should be. It should never be, you know, "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub." You know what I'm saying? It should never be that. It should never be like all of a sudden you're trying to be funny. "Oh, dear six-pound eight-ounce Baby Jesus." You know what I mean? It shouldn't be those moments where you're like, "We thank you for this smorgasbord day by day by day by day, Sweet Lord." How many know what I'm talking about? We shouldn't try to be funny with it. But there can be moments that are funny. Okay? It is okay if it's natural and spontaneous.
I remember, and it must have been after that Global Team, and one of the boys -- you know, Becca cooked the meal -- and they said, "Lord, we pray you will purify the impurities out of it." He wasn't trying to be funny, but at the end of it we just burst into laughter, you know, because I could just see Becca, like, throwing impurities in there, you know. It was funny in the moment, but he wasn't trying to be funny. I don't think we should make it cute and funny like that.
I think our prayers should be out loud. I think it should be out loud. Unless you're by yourself, you know, you don't have to be out loud. And I think this is a neat thing. This is a safe place to learn how to pray out loud. I was leading a Lifegroup once, and I was getting ready to close the Lifegroup, and all of a sudden I said, "Is there anyone here that
has never prayed in front of a group before? I think you're supposed to close in prayer. I
felt like the Holy Spirit whispered to me that somebody else was supposed to close in prayer and you've never prayed out in front of other people. You need to pray in a safe place and learn how to pray out loud."
One of the guys was like, "Ah-h, that's me."
And so we are like, "Go for it." I said, "Hey, we are going to be cheering you on. We are not judging your prayer. You just talk to God. Go ahead and do it." So at the Lifegroup he did it.
At the end of it we are like, "Great prayer! Great prayer!"
And you could just see it was like a sense of, "I finally did it. I prayed in front of other people. I prayed out loud." And I think it would be a safe place to train your family, train kids to pray out loud.
And I think we can pray anywhere and everywhere. The apostle Paul prayed on a ship in front of sailors that I'm sure had, you know, a roughness about them, and it don't bother him. It says he prayed in front of them, right there in front of them and he prayed. And I think we've let a spirit of intimidation keeping us from reclaiming the table.
Let's reclaim the table for gratitude and thankfulness.
So let me go back to the why. We need to pray at the table and stop and say thank you when we get ready to eat a meal because God is so good to us. God is so good to us. You may not realize this, but when I read the examples of prayer and I talked about giving thanks, and all throughout the Bible the common word that is used for giving thanks is eucharisteo. Okay? And it means to show that one is under obligation to be thankful, to
feel obliged to thank. Okay? It means you understand that you've been given something, and you feed obligated to say back that you want to say thank you. But there is more to it. The second meaning is to express an appreciation for the benefits or blessing.
So let me explain to you. The first definition says this, that God has done something for you, and you owe him something in that moment of prayer. Now I want to let you know that's not where God wants you to stay. And that is really not how come God wants you to pray. But I want you to know in Bible times and in the Old Testament, the way that it was, if somebody did a favor for you, you owed them, you had to say thank you to them, you had to speak well of them in the public place. And in modern times the best illustration of this would be the opening scene of the The Godfather movie. In the opening scene of The Godfather movie, you know, Marlon Brando, the Godfather, he's like talking to Enzo the Baker, and Enzo is asking him to do a mafia-type favor. And so finally Marlon Brando does that. And you know, he's like, "Some day, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you for a service. Accept this justice as a gift."
And in the moment Enzo leaves, like, "Yes, thank you, Godfather. Thank you, thank you. I receive this as a gift." And now Enzo lives his whole life like, "Thank you, Godfather. Thank you, Godfather. I owe you, I owe you, I owe you."
And some people think that we pray in that moment to say, "God, I owe you, I owe you, I owe you." But that is not how God wants you to pray. That's not how he wants you. He is not saying it's, "I owe you, I owe you." He's so good to you, you could never pay him back. He's so good.
And so instead of that, you're taking the second definition and you're saying to express the appreciation for the benefit. You're saying, "Thank you, thank you, God. I'm so thankful for all the benefits that you've given to me. You've given me so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm so grateful for all that you've given to me."
Now, God is so good to you, God is so good to you. While you are thanking him during the prayer at your table, you know what's happening? God is giving you more blessings while you're thanking him. It's mind blowing, but think about this. According to
Robert Emmons, he's a scientific expert on gratitude, he said people who are grateful have a stronger immune system, lower blood pressure, you're more alert, and you're more forgiving as a person. So while you're stopping to say thank you to God and you're showing gratitude in that moment, he's blessing you with lower blood pressure, more alertness, the spirit and ability to forgive other people, and a stronger immune system. He's so good he's blessing you while you're thanking him for blessing you. Wow!
He's so good that the Psalmist understood this in Psalm 65:11. He said, You have crowned the year with Your bounty, And Your paths drip with fatness. What does this mean? It means you have given me so many good things, God, when I stop to thank you for it, there is so much good, it's dripping out on the paths. The fatness, the goodness of God is so amazing it's overflowing out of my cart that even on the path behind me people are being blessed from the overflow. Wow! That's how good God is. I mean blessing on blessing on blessing.
I'm thinking about this. When I was in Oman and I was eating dinner in the country of Oman -- Becca and I went there -- they keep bringing you food and they keep bringing you food. And I said, "They need to stop bringing us food. Like, I'm getting full."
And they said, "You need to stop eating."
I said, "Well, of course, that's obvious." You know.
And they said, "No, in Oman they keep bringing you more food and they want to have food left on the table because they want to show that there is blessing on blessing and blessing, and you even leave a table so full that there is fatness overflowing onto everyone else because we are blessed and have so much."
I said, "You should have told me that like two fish ago," you know?
Okay, buffets, they speak of abundance and abundance and abundance. And that's why, again, I think people love buffets. It's like there is an abundance. It's the
fatness. It's so good there is food left over that we didn't even get to.
The fatness of God is so good. The blessings of God are so good on your life, you should thank him. You know why? We live in fat houses. We have fat cars and fat clothes and fat families and fat jobs and a fat church. We have a fat life and a fat family
and we have fat peace when we sleep. We are overflowing with the fat blessings of God. Wow! We should stop and say, "Thank you, God. You are so good there is not even a scale that could measure the fatness of what I feel in my spirit serving you." That's what it is. We are stopping and saying, "You're good, you're good, you're good. I'm blessed, I'm blessed, I'm blessed."
Now let me say this, because we are very affluent. Where we live is very affluent. We are stopping in that moment, and we are remembering that every blessing we have comes from His goodness and His fatness and all the blessings that pour out on us. We didn't do it. 1 Samuel 2:7 says, The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. If you have strength, if you have beauty, if you have wealth, if you have smarts, God gave it to you. God gave it to you. And we need to stop and say, "I owe it to you, I thank you for this." And I know that some of you say, "Well, I did this and I chose this and I have this." Let me just be really straight here. Some of our campuses have some really
exclusive schools. Edina Area schools and Shattuck, I mean down at our Faribault campus, these are exclusive places. And, students, if you go there, you should not be proud. Your parents got you in there. You didn't work your way in there. Your parents got you there.
You say, "Well, my parents." Well, guess what? God gave your parents the ability to get you into those schools and to live in that community. God gave them the ability for wealth. Okay, we got to stop and trace it all the way back. God gave you the air to breathe, and everything you have comes from him. We should thank Him. We should stop and say that.
You realize, even the world knows that the success, successful people when
they really get down to it, they realize they didn't do it, God did it, and they owe him. But they don't always know how to say it. Sometimes they haven't connected all the dots. But I saw this when I was reading Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull. He's the president of Pixar. He talks about two inch moments. And he says, "Two more inches the wrong way there would be no more Pixar. It would have been gone." And he said, "I've realized this, that in leading this company, that there are two-inch moments that I don't see. I don't understand them.
They are behind the scenes, and there is something going on bigger than me, and I'm so thankful that the two-inch moments broke our way." He goes on, and he says, "You've got to be really humble, truly humble. Leaders need to first understand how many of the factors that shape their lives and business are and will always be out of sight."
That's like the Pixar paraphrase of Deuteronomy 8:18. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth."
And you're stopping and you're saying, "God you gave it to me. Everything I have is from you. There is so much blessing upon blessing. I am oozing over with fatness. And I'm going to thank you for the blessings that you pour out on my life."
So I think we need to reclaim the table. Reclaim the table and praying everywhere in every place in every moment. We have so much to thank God for. Think of the conversations you could have, even, you know, in a high-powered executive meeting and you say, "I thank God because he has given me the ability."
People are like, "No, I'm a self-made man." Think about where that could go.
Think about what could happen in the school, you know, where you would have the boldness to pray and reclaim the table and say, "Thank you, God, I have blessing upon blessing upon blessing."
And all of a sudden the other students are going, "How come you have so many blessings?" And where could that go?
Think of what could happen in just a simple restaurant where you stop and pause, and the server says, "Oh, I saw you pray."
"You know why I pray? Because everything I have is from God. He has blessed me and blessed me and blessed me. Let me say this, if that happens, make sure you tip your server well. That will speak volumes to them, too.
God has blessed us. God has blessed us. And we are fat in a good way, and we need to stop and reclaim the table and say we are grateful and we are thankful, we honor you and reclaim the table.
So, Lord, I pray right now you would help us to reclaim the table. We are blessed, we are fat in a good way, and we have so much to be thankful for. We have reclaimed the table for discipleship. We have reclaimed the table for outreach. We have let the food preach. And now we say today we reclaim the table to say we are thankful, we are grateful. All of our blessings come from you, and we thank you for that. Our ability to earn, our ability to get out of bed each day, we thank you. It all comes from you. And we will reclaim the table. We will reclaim the table for gratitude.
in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen.
