We're glad to have you here with us as we begin this brand new collection,

a brand new season in our church that we're calling the table.

And we're going to be talking about how God wants to use a spirit of hospitality

to expand the kingdom, to bless your life and your family, and to change the world.

That's the series. You made it. Thanks for being here. It's going to be incredible.

And we're going to start in 2nd Samuel chapter 9 if you have a Bible or a way to get there.

And I'm going to bring to you a message today that I'm calling your presence is requested.

Your presence is requested. You know, the gospel is best understood in the context of an invitation

being accepted to come to a meal, to come to sit at a table. To be invited anywhere is,

is should be an honor. It's not always feel that way. Jenny got an invitation to be on the

the jury duty pool this year. Her presence has been requested. It didn't quite strike the same

feeling as being thought of when someone's having a wedding or someone's having a birthday party.

To be invited in though, to have your presence requested is language that is gospel through and

through. I've had some strange invitations to appear in some odd groups. I've got to invite

it once to come and speak to all the Christian psychologists in the country coming together.

And I thought to myself, that's exactly how many psychologists it would take to sort out the

problems going on in my life. I can't miss the chance to be in a room with 3,000 psychologists.

I got invited one time to give a chapel before a professional boxing match in Las Vegas.

Manny Pacquiao had heard me preach to the church and he wanted before going into the ring to fight

to have a Bible study as he would often do before fighting. And so he said, would you come?

And what was so weird about the timing of it all, I mean it was a huge honor and I did it and

it was awesome. And then to get to watch him fight was amazing. But it was during our yearly

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