I’m Robyn. I should introduce myself. And yes. So I wasn’t I was obviously introduced as an international church planter and what that means is I planted a church in Mumbai, India with my husband Sanjay for a part of a much larger church called IC Church. And then he moved us back here.
The December of the year before COVID hit. And so we moved back to Australia for one year. We knew we weren’t weren’t supposed to stay long. And then the next thing I knew is God said to go to Hong Kong and so we moved to Hong Kong with our entire family. Three children and my husband and I.
During Covid the most severe part of COVID where we had to get permission to leave the country. And ah we did three weeks quarantine in a hotel together. So you can imagine it was crazy. But it was also wonderful. But we’ve been there just just on 2 years now.
And it’s been an interesting ride but I don’t want to move again I am tight. I’ve moved internationally three times now. I’m quite happy to sit and stay but we’re you know we’re looking we’re raising up pastors to plant churches in other parts of the world. So, we’re excited. I’m not going to go anymore.
I’m just going to raise them up and send them out. So, we still oversee our church in India. Um we still manage like the apostolic leaders over Avara Church in India and we’re excited about the next adventure but I’m you don’t need me. You need God and so I’m just going to get into the word. Is that okay? Awesome.
Well, if you can turn with me in the in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter fifteen eleven.
Okay, Luke fifteen. Luke 1511 to, we’re going to read from chapter fifteen verse eleven, okay? And it’s a very well-known parable. You’ve all heard it before. You’ve probably heard sermons preached on this particular subject scripture before but I assure you it’s probably something you’ve never heard before. Well, I hope it is.
Um but essentially, we’re going to read through this passage and then I’m going to just quickly share some some thoughts with you and some what what God wants to draw out of this, man. I’m going to fumble my word. I’m feeling God’s right now. Oh, okay. Alright.
Luke fifteen eleven and it says this, Jesus continued. There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, father, give me my share of the the estate. So, he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the youngest son got together all he had, set off, set off for a distant country and they squandered his wealth in wild living.
After spent everything. There was a severe famine in the whole that whole country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his field to feed the pigs. Everyone say pigs. Pigs.
He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. But noone gave him anything. When he came to his senses, everyone say senses. He said, how many of my fathers hired servants have food to spare? And here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So, he got up and he went to his father. You know, you’ve probably heard it in Kids Church or read it in the Bible after this part of the story. He then goes home to his father to apologize, looking messy, ratted, the worst he could ever be and God and the father embraces him and takes him back into the house and he becomes son again and it’s an incredible story and you you’ve probably heard messages preached from this about, you know, the father’s love or the heart of the, you know, the the lost sheep but really what I want to draw your attention to right now is found in where he found himself in the pig’s pen.
And the reason I want to call talk about the pig’s pen is because I want to draw you to this point where it says he was so hungry. He was starving. He was so desperate for food. He to eat the pig slop. Longed to eat it.
He thought if only I could have some of the pig’s slop. And if have if you’ve never seen pig slot before, I want to show you a picture of what pig slop looks like. That’s what pig slop looks like. It’s the leftovers. It’s the it’s the mess.
People have eaten it and thrown the rest out. So it’s got germs all in it. It’s not a pretty meal. If you came to my house for dinner and I served you that, would you not be offend absolutely. Pig slops, No one wants to eat it.
And it says in this this passage that when he was so hungry he can’t even have the pig slops. He it says he came to his senses and he realised he had a choice. I can either sit here starving, longing for pig slops or I can go back to my father’s table. See he had a choice to either eat the slop or eat the finest foods at his father’s table. And thankfully it says he came to his senses and thought I’m going to go home.
And so really what I want to draw out of this is that every day you are faced with a decision. Every day multiple times throughout the day. Am I going to eat from the pig slop? Or am I going to eat from the king’s table? And what I mean by that is this, the king’s the the slop is Satan’s table. Okay? Or God’s table. And Satan’s table is this, to kill, steal, and destroy.
He wants to destroy your life and we can either eat from his table which causes death or we can eat from God’s table that produces life, that produces faith, and produces hope. So, really what I want to encourage you today is always choose life. So, we have the option to either eat from one table here. Every day, we’ve got the choice to eat Satan’s slop. Or we have the choice to eat from the king’s table.
We are faced with this decision every day. To either come into the agreement of Satan which is rubbish or come into the agreement with God. Which is life. Which is every good thing. Which is more than enough.
Which will fill you to overflow. Have you ever eaten a meal and thought it wasn’t enough? It wasn’t satis didn’t hit the spot. Have you ever had a meal like that? That’s what Satan’s does. It’s like McDonald’s. Sorry, McDonald’s.
It smells amazing. It looks great. You eat it and afterwards, you’re like, ugh, I feel gross. You know why? Cuz it doesn’t ever fade away. It’s just this clump in your stomach but the kings but you’ve gone to a fine restaurant, a really good meal and you’re, it leaves you hungry for more but you’re satisfied.
So, every day, we have a choice to either eat from the Satan’s slop or the king’s table. So today, I want to draw your attention to this story and want to show you what it is to what you, Satan offers you on his table and what God and the and what God offers you on his table. So, I’ve got an acronym today. It’s just simply the word slop but S L O P. And I’m going to go through four things really quickly and then we’re just going to let God show up again, okay? I’m going to go real quick, real quick, real quick.
So, we’re going to compare the two tables. Okay, we’re going to compare the two tables today. The title of my sermon is simply this, two tables, okay? Two tables. You have a choice. Which one you going to eat from? Death or life? Out of you will either flow death or will flow life.
And I want to encourage you how you can always choose life. Okay? Turn to your neighbor and say get ready. Thank you very much piano. Amazing. Don’t go too far because I’ll get you back soon.
So, the first letter we want to start with is the letter S and really the first, that first one is slander. Oh, slander. Satan, every day we’re faced with an an opportunity to possibly slander another person. Let me tell you what slander is, it’s gossip, it’s rumours, it’s rejection, in other words, we reject someone. We judge someone.
It’s opinion where we we form an opinion about somebody and then we can start spreading that opinion or we it’s an insult. We can insult. It may not be to their face but we’re insulting them when we slander and we talk about them and gossip and gossip. I want to tell you that is the language of hell. It is horrible.
It doesn’t edify. It doesn’t lift because what is at the king’s table? The king’s table is this. It’s Edification. It’s encourage it’s acceptance of everyone. It’s where we we don’t form an opinion about someone according to what they’ve done because who knows we’ve all messed up.
We’ve all made mistakes but thank God God sees us beyond our mistakes. And what we need to be able to do is get that same spirit where we give other people not just one chance or a second chance. We give them all the chances. To change and to grow. We don’t speak badly of someone.
We speak hope into them. We speak the future in them. We speak vision into them. That’s what table of God does. The king’s table is edification.
It builds up. It brings life. People need to walk away from us and go, I don’t know why but I feel alive after having that conversation with you. Someone can either walk away from you and go, oh, I feel terrible or they can walk away from me going, oh my gosh, I’m ready to take on the world. They feel alive again.
I’ve heard a story of a a person who was who was actually going to commit suicide but then a conversation with one other person and then they decided not to commit suicide. You don’t know. Your power, your words have so much power. It can either speak life into somebody or it can speak death into somebody and what I encourage you today is always choose life. Always choose to eat of the fruit of God’s table.
Oh, wow. Uh when when I was living in Mumbai, I used to visit the slums a lot and do lots of pastoral visits and and you can the worst time to go was during monsoon because it rains for three months solidly pouring and you’re going to get wet and I would often wade into people’s houses with water up to here. You know and you’re just like God keep me safe. And because people fall down manholes. Yeah.
And disappear and die. Do you know what I mean? Or electrical wires fall. And if you’re in the water. Do you know what I mean? You’re going to die. So I’m just like God keep me safe.
Keep me safe. Keep me safe. But on this particular day it was sunny it wasn’t raining. And I was doing some pastoral visits. And one of our leaders a young woman called Priya.
She our children’s pastor in Mumbai. She comes running to me and she goes, Pastor, Pastor, Pastor Robin. Oh, I’ve gotta tell you, see that lady over there? She’s doing this at me and I said, she said, the old lady sitting down. I said, yeah and she says, she’s telling everyone that you’re from Satan. And I’m like, oh, is she? And she’s here, everyone.
Like, walking past her and she goes, don’t talk to that white woman. She’s from Satan and Priya is like, we should just avoid the area and I said, no, Priya. I want to meet her. She’s what? I said, yeah, I introduced me to this old lady. I I’m interested to meet her.
So she takes me across to this lady and you could see her face kind of thingy. She’s probably thinking she’s the devil. You know, but she’s like, oh, like this to me and I just walked up to her and I said, hello. My name is Robin. It’s nice to meet you and I just started having a conversation with her and chatting with her and encouraging her.
I spent probably 5 minutes with her. That was it but I was just loving on her and I was accepting her I was encouraging her. What was I doing? I was sharing fruit from the king’s table. I was sharing fruit from the king’s table. And and and then eventually I said, well, I have to go and see some other people now but I hope I get to see you again really soon.
It was lovely to meet you and I and I walked away. Anyway, I visit another couple of houses next minute. One of our other girls comes around and got, Pastor, Pastor, Robin, Pastor, Pastor, Pastor. And I said, yes, yes and she goes, that old lady, she’s now telling everyone that you’re sent by God You need to go see that white woman because she’s from God. What was the difference? I didn’t feed her slop.
I fed her from the king’s table. I edified her. I encouraged her. When oh. When you when you when you share from the king’s table it brings life to someone.
It mends relationships. It doesn’t destroy them. I encourage you. Always choose life. Turn to your neighbour and say choose life.
The next one is L. L. And that is simply this lies. This is a big one for a lot of women and men too. But women particularly.
I look in the mirror every day and it just lies, lies, lies, okay? Now, Satan will give you to feed you, I’m going the wrong way. Satan will feed you slop but the king will will feed you the finest food. So, what is lies? It’s assumption. It’s misconception. It’s misunderstanding.
Have you ever had misunderstood somebody and it’s caused a rift in the relationship but then when you actually talk, you realize it was all a misunderstanding but that’s what Satan does. He causes confusion and misunderstanding through lies, okay? You need to understand that. Deception, misrepresentation. Satan likes to misrepresent you and he likes to misrepresent those in your life. So, we have to always start to ask ourselves, is this, is this God or is this Satan Is this the truth or is it a lie? And the other thing is it’s fear.
It lies breed fear. And whereas the truth brings hope. Okay? And it it actually the lies are defeat. Cuz Satan doesn’t want to tell you lies that will build you up. He wants to tell you lies that will destroy you.
Okay but what’s the king’s table? It’s truth. Come on. I’m preaching well here guys. You can you can tell me that. Life.
It’s purpose. It’s faith. It’s courage. it’s victory, It’s the truth of God’s word. You have, you are favored, you are blessed, you are loved, you are formed by the very hands of God and his life was breathed into you.
So, therefore, you’re a carrier of his life. That’s the truth of God’s word. The question is, are you going to continue to feed on the slop, the lies of Satan, or are you going to grab a hold of the truth of God with both hands and you’re going to eat of it every single day. If your head is filled with lies, then you need to get into the word of God and fill it with truth. You’ve gotta make it the loudest voice that you hear.
My son, Ezekiel, he’s he’s now ten. He’s the youngest and he he is just starting to realize that deception is quite a good tool if you want to get your own way. So, one thing, he’s a very good boy, very sweet boy but one thing he is that he has an addiction to is his phone. We have a phone that has no internet, it has no Sim or anything But it has all these little games and things on it because I was tired of him using mine. So, I gave him a little phone.
It’s our second-hand one but see, he knows that he’s only allowed to have it for a certain amount of hours a day and at night when he goes to bed, the phone is a no no. But I often walk past his room at night and I said, Ezekiel, what are you doing? Oh, nothing, mom. Nothing. What’s under your covers? Nothing, mom. Nothing, mom.
I left this girl. Buddy, it’s the phone. You know your. Sorry, mom. and but he’s not really sorry.
He’s just sorry he got caught. That’s right. Cuz next day he’ll do it again. And but he’s going he’s going for you. This is his we’re teaching him through addiction.
But his addiction. Okay. That’s not a bad addiction. But you know anyway. But so Ezekiel he may be trying do it being doing these little deceptive things.
But he’s actually a really good honest boy on the inside. He’s so soft. He he’s just a soft little kid. And so what we’ve developed since he was two or three is that when we think he’s telling Alexis obvious. Okay it’s just obvious.
They think they can it but they can’t. It’s obvious to us. We say this thing to him. We say, now Ezekiel, honest to God, is that the truth? And his little face goes like this. And we say, is it honest to God? Is that the truth? And he goes, no, mom.
It’s not the truth. What we’re doing is we’re producing God’s fruit in his life. He has a softness where he realizes that before God, I can’t lie. Before God, there is only truth. In God, there is only truth.
Can I tell you that in that in God is only truth. So, if he tells you something, it is the truth and what we need to be able to do is when we hear something in our mind, we to go honest to God? Is this God’s word? Or is this Satan’s slop right now? And we need to actually begin to come to our senses, stop, and ask ourselves, is this eating of the slop or is this eating from the king’s table? Is this a lie or is it the truth? And we can choose every day which one we’re going to eat from. I encourage you, always choose truth. Go looking for it, defend it, go find it, hunt it down and you hold onto it and you do not let it go because it’s the truth that will set you free. It’s the truth that will transform your mind.
It’s the truth that will change your family. It’s the truth that will push you forward and never let you go backwards. It’s the truth of God’s word that will always build the kingdom in your heart and in wherever you are. Go after the truth. Turn to your neighbor and say, choose life.
Can I have the piano please? Sorry, darling. The next one is O. I’m going to be try and be very quick with all of this. O and this one is offence. Offense.
This is a tough one. Offence. Let me tell you what. Offence is. It’s hurt.
Unforgiveness. And what does it do? It creates disunity. And it’s it causes separation. It breaks families up. It breaks marriages up.
It brings dysfunction between a parent and a child. It wreaks havoc wherever it is, offense. But what is in the king’s table? Love. Where you just love even the most ugly unlovable people. You you show grace to someone as God does.
You show grace to them and you show mercy to them. Forgiveness. Not just once. Not just twice. But a lifetime of forgiveness.
Now when you forgive someone who’s hurt you, you don’t have to actually trust them but you need to forgive them. Yeah. Cuz it says, don’t throw your pearls before swine. So, you don’t give your pearls to swine but you still gotta love the swine. Yeah.
Does that make sense? You just don’t give em your pearls, okay? And so, but really what we want to be able to do is forgiveness is not giving someone a way out because that’s between them and God. It’s just not between you and them. Does that make sense? Offense brings unity. Romans 1218 says this, do all that you can, all, all. What does all mean? All.
All that you can to live in peace with everyone. Not just your family, not just the people you get along with but I’m talking about everyone, the grumpy ones, the mean ones, the horrible ones, the annoying ones, you have to do all you can to be in peace with him. Ephesians four to 3 1232 says this, instead, be kind to each other tender hearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Satan wants you to hold on to that hurt for your whole life but God wants you to let it go. When I was a kid, I remember I was really young.
I I grew up going to church and I remember one particular clearest day. I can still see it. There was one particular lady at the church. She was mean and I’m just mean nasty mean. She seemed to enjoy it.
She was terrible and every kid at church was scared of her. And I remember 1 day I was just standing with my mom and I was I remember I was holding her hand and I’m just looking out at everyone that’s at church. And I spot this lady and I’m rousing at kids everywhere. That’s all she was doing the whole time. And I’m just holding her hand.
I’m watching this lady. And I was like tree. And I said mom what is wrong with her? Is she so angry and so mean? And I’ll never forget this. My mom says she just does hasn’t learned to forgive. You may think that noone notices but let me tell you, forget unforgiveness comes out and it shines bright, okay? But God doesn’t want you to shine unforgiveness, hurt, hate, you know, but he wants you to share love.
He wants you to share goodness. He wants you to share kindness. He just wants you to love people and to show love towards people, to be merciful towards people. Everyone, I’m telling you today, always choose life. Slop will kill you.
Cuz that’s what it’s designed to do. Kills kills, steal, and destroy. But God’s table, life brings hope, encouragement, and it begins to mend people’s lives. The last one is P pride. Pride.
Ooh. Selfishness. Cuz it’s all about you and who notices you and who’s paying attention to you. Come on. We’re all got that in our hearts sometimes.
Especially wives to our husbands. Ah excuse me. It is all about me. Or is that just me? Independence. See, we’re not designed to be independent.
We’re designed to be in community and we’re designed to depend on God. That’s what we’re designed to be. That’s why he gave Adam a helper because they weren’t designed to do it on their own. Independence is a lie from the pit of hell. Okay, we’re meant to depend on each other.
Self promotion okay? Uh grab it, gratification. We’re looking for the gratification, the applause, okay? Uh ambition. There’s a difference between ambition and and vision. Vision tell gives you a picture of where God’s taking you. Ambition is as a is a is a desire for things you want.
Okay, there’s a difference and it’s okay to want things but in line with God. The next one is fame, self preservation, okay? We will tear someone down to preserve our reputation. Yeah, that’s what pride will do. It’s idolatry. Ooh.
What do you mean? What mean, Pastor Robin? What is, what’s, what do you mean idolatry? I’ll tell you this because you put yourself above God. Pride always puffs up and boasts and, and, and, and, and, and, it, it, it really wants to put ourselves in the position of God. Proverbs eleven two says this, when pride comes, then comes disgrace. It’s a lie. Cuz it destroys, remember? It doesn’t bring success, it destroys.
But with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 923 says this, a man’s pride brings him low but a man of lowly spirit gains honour. Honour. I shared this to the girls on the weekend but when I was at Bible College, we used to have to do these ministry treks where we would go to different churches and we’d all be assigned to sit in jobs. Some were to preach, some were to sing, some were to do other things but they’re always fun and and every time there was a different group of people who would go with you.
So, we we I remember going to this church once with a a young girl. I won’t say your her name in case you ever run into her but there was time, we were, we were all, you know, walking around, greeting people, meeting people, and she’d gone to the bathroom, and she was wearing this long, flowy skirt with some stockings, and she goes into the bathroom and and she obviously, you know, spends a bit of time fixing her hair and everything, and then she comes out of the bathroom, and from the front, she looked immaculate. She looked beautiful. But then she comes around and she turns around and her skirt is tucked into her stocking. So, it’s underwear and a skirt and it’s like, oh my, okay.
But then to make it worse, there is a big, long line of toilet tissue coming out of her pants as well. So, from the front, she’s looking beautiful and stunning but from the to everyone else, oh my gosh, that’s what they saw. That’s what pride is. Yeah. Pride does that.
Where you make yourself look good but everyone else knows. Everyone else sees. It’s not flattering because it brings disgrace. It doesn’t bring fruitfulness. I’ll have the entire band up please if that’s possible.
Who’s left? Who’s left? Oh, fantastic. I want to draw this one thing out in this story. The reason this young man who had who had spent his entire life feeding on the most choice of foods, he sat at his father’s table where it was plentiful and it was good food. How did a this, why did this young, why was this young man so tempted to eat pig slop? Why was he so desperate for someone to allow him to eat the leftovers, to eat slop? I’ll tell you why. Because he was hungry.
He starving. When you’re hungry anything looks appetizing. Any type of food looks appetizing. But when you’re full, you see the slop for what it is. It’s slop.
And you refuse to eat it. You don’t want anything to do with it. When you’re hungry, slop looks enticing. But when you’re a fool, you reject it, you push it away. This is what I want to tell you.
When you are full from eating at the king’s table, where you go to God every day and you receive from him every day. He puts peace into your heart. He puts joy to your heart. He gives you courage. He gives you boldness.
He shows you what true love looks like and you feed from him his table every day. You go out into the world and it doesn’t entice you because you’re a fool. You’re so full. You’re so full. You’ve got so much.
You begin to share it with everyone because it’s plentiful. But when you neglect going to the king’s table, when you neglect going to sit with him and spend time with him and read his word and hear from him and spend time with him and worship him and praise him. If you neglect that, you become hungry, you’re starving, and you go out into the world because we have to live in the world and those things that are from Satan, you’re enticed by them. You’re tempted by them. When you don’t know the love of God, you’re so hungry and desperate for love, You find love in all the wrong places, the wrong guy or the wrong girl, you’re attracts you you because you’re just so desperate for love.
You’ll take the slot. If we’re so full of God, with confidence and hope, you don’t go looking for recognition at all these places, looking for someone to notice you, give you a promotion. You just know God’s got it all under control. It’s okay. It’ll all turn out.
I’m God’s child. I’m favored. I’m blessed. You’re lucky to know me. You don’t know who I’m related to.
I mean, I have the king’s ear wherever I want. When you know that because you’ve been in his room where he’s intimate with you and he’s and he’s and he’s whispers to you and he just hugs you and he embraces you and he he speaks to you. He he don’t even notice the lies. Uh I hear people talk badly about me. Usually passed Christians.
They’re offended at God. Not but it washes off. It doesn’t affect. Why? Because I’m so full, full of the word of God. I’m so full with his presence.
I know who I am in God. You need to stop looking for other people to tell you who you are. You just need to get to the king’s table. Start eating of his fruit where he encourages you and he tells you things. He shows you things and he and he pulls the best out of you.
and what happens is you become the best you. When you are full, nothing excites you except God. I encourage you church From this moment on, you walk out of this place and you say, I reject death and I only accept life. Choose life every day. Ask God when you get up in the morning.
God, help me to come to my senses at work where that person is irritating me where I love them. I forgive them. I speak life into them instead of criticize them and gossip about them and hope that they get fired. You know, we can actually we can go these places and we can bring life wherever we go because we’re full. Church, why don’t you stand to your feet? This is what I want to ask you.
Do you want to choose life? You want to choose life? Some of some of us have neglected the king’s table. We come to church but that’s it. We treat it like a fast food restaurant Pass through and take it into our day but it doesn’t last. It’s a daily thing. We come every day to eat of his table.
But I want to tell you something. It’s okay. He’s waiting there. Tables with plate, knives and forks waiting for you to come and sit. He’s not condemning you, he’s waiting for you.
This is what I want to do is I want to give you the chance to come and eat at the king’s table. Some of us are so have a have been eating rubbish for too long. We’ve been eating lies for too long. That’s it. We just go, that’s disgusting.
I’m, come to our senses. I’m eating from my dad’s table from now on. Some of us have been, you know, eating Satan’s we’re slandering. We gossip more about people than love people. That’s okay.
We all have things that we struggle with. No one’s perfect. I gotta tell you that. No one is. But you can make the where you going to eat.
If you’re going to eat from the king’s table or sloth, I want you to come forward and say, God, I’m spitting it out and I’m eating from the king’s table. Where some of us might be full of pride and it’s usually becomes from insecurity. We need, we want someone to notice this. Can I tell you something? God notices you. He sees you.
He knows you. He called you by name. He appointed you. He he he loves you so much. He created you with he was on the cross with you and his mind.
Jesus you. That’s who you need to come and remind yourself. My dad knows me. Some of us are hurt. And we need to let it go.
We need to just let it go. Let God be the judge. Let God deal with it. You’re not going to live with it anymore. Nah.
Taking that out of my mouth. I’m going to eat from the king’s table. The band’s going to start playing and what I want you to do is just come to the forward. This is about you choosing. I’m going to go the king’s table right now.
And I’m going to just I’m going to I’m going to lay down the slop and I’m going to get I’m going to pick up the king’s table. I’m going to pick up the truth. I’m going to pick up unforgive. I’m going to pick up forgiveness. I’m going to pick up humility and honour and worship and I’m going to adore God.
I’m going to live for God. And we’re going to we’re going to put down anything else. The all the lies, all the slander, everything.
