Reclaimed: Resetting The Table Pt 3 Series

Reclaimed - Part 3, by Pastor Rob Ketterling

Well, we are continuing the series Reclaimed, and we are reclaiming the table, and I'm really enjoying this. And I hope you are participating all the way with this and you're doing all the things we asked you to do. Remember, we asked you to use the hashtag with social media, #Reclaimthetable. And any time you use that hashtag on any form of social media you're entered into a drawing to win one of those custom-made tables. And staff is not eligible, but everyone else is. And I love seeing this. I love just going on to Instagram or Twitter and seeing #Reclaimthetable and seeing how it's just going viral. And, as a matter

of fact, churches around the nation are saying, "Hey, we want in on this and we want to do the series, too." It's just been fun to see it go around. So we are using the hashtag.

Remember, we are praying over every meal; breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Doesn't matter if we're in the marketplace, the school. Doesn't matter where you are. We are praying over every meal. It doesn't have to be a vocal, out loud prayer, but if God tells you to do it, just be obedient, and say, "Hey, can I lead us in prayer?" But it can be a silent prayer, but it is never an ashamed prayer. It is never something that we are ashamed of. We are going to pray over all the meals.

If you are doing that, here and at all of our campuses, if you're praying, and I know sometimes you might forget, but if every time you remember and at every meal possible you are trying to pray over the meals, would you go ahead and raise your hand? You're going to be a part of this. Go ahead and raise your hand. Excellent, excellent. And if you're not doing it, it is not too late to start. Let's jump in on this. Go for it. If you miss a meal, "Oh, now I'm out." You know, don't do that. You're still in it.

So we're using the hashtag, we're praying over every meal, and we are going to try to have three family meals together, three family dinners per week together. And I

know that's a challenge. I know that it's hard. A lot of you are busy. You're going here, there and everywhere, but we're going to do this. Because the importance of this is so strong, so strong we have the family meal together.

And I'm enjoying this series, because as I do this, how many know, when you do a series like this everything you start to see looks like the series. It's like that food, that scripture and everything. I was reading -- this is funny -- I was reading 2 Kings 4 about Elisha, and the oil keeps flowing, right? And so the oil keeps flowing to all the vessels that this lady has, and I'm sitting there, and as I'm reading that I'm like, "That's like unlimited refills. Reclaim the table." You know, it's just the way my mind goes.

And then, of course, Slate magazine recently had an article by Amanda Marcotte, and she talks about the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner. And she said it's really a tyranny. It's like it's too much stress. And she said the stress of the family meal outweighs the benefit. Now I have to say this as I saw this article, I was like, "No, you couldn't be any further from the truth. You couldn't be any further."

The value of the family dinner, of eating at least three meals together, remember we talked about the studies have shown three meals together lowers the rate of drug abuse amongst your children. It lowers the teen pregnancy rate. It lowers depression. They get better grades, have higher self-esteem. They have a better vocabulary than if you read to them at night. It says that the stories that you tell give them a resilience. It helps them to understand, the stories around the table, that God is in control, they are going to make it. Sometime it looks bad, but they are going to make it through life. All these things are so good. I say we need to reclaim the table. I don't know care what Slate magazine has to say. We are going to reclaim the table. This is an important thing. God gave us the

table, and he gives us the ability. We are going to use it for discipleship. We are using it for outreach.

And today we are going to use the table to help us to remember. We are going to use the table to help us remember. And if we can, we are going to let the food preach to us. The food will preach to us today. The food will be the message, and it's going to speak to us just by the things God uses in the Bible when he talks about certain foods we should use in holidays and special days.