New & Popular: Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table by Louie Giglio

Show Notes

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We're kicking off our New & Popular season with one of our most-watched studies on Study Gateway, Louie Giglio's Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, a fascinating take on the twenty-third Psalm.

 

Watch the video of Session One

Get information on the Study Guide

 

We've all been in circumstances that cause our minds to spin with thoughts that are unproductive, destructive, and harmful. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and wonder why we keep falling into the same thought patterns. but these thoughts are not from God, rather, they're from an enemy lurking who wants to seize every opportunity to lie his way into our minds and claim control over our lives.

Rooted in the timeless truth of Psalm 23, the Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table Bible study will help you discover God's plans for you to experience rest from your striving, joy beyond your circumstances, and intimacy with him.

Study Gateway is a streaming video Bible study service that gives instant access to video studies taught by hundreds of the world's most influential Christian authors, teachers and pastors, published HarperChristian Resources. Subscriptions plans are available for personal use, for small groups, and for whole churches. Learn more at StudyGateway.com.

Creators & Guests

Guest

Louie Giglio

Louie is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.

What is Study Gateway First Listens?

Study Gateway's First Listens: Find your next Bible study! Join host Shelley Leith as she curates first sessions of Bible studies on various themes each season, taught by some of the world’s most influential Christian authors, teachers, and pastors. To learn more, visit https://StudyGateway.com.

First Listens Season 1: Episode 1
Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at the Table
By Louie Giglio

Hi there! It’s Shelley Leith here, host of Study Gateway First Listens, where you get first listens of the first sessions on Study Gateway so you can find your next video Bible study.
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This season of First Listens is called New & Popular, where we’re listening to the audio only of the first sessions of the newest and most popular video Bible studies from HarperChristian Resources that are streaming on Study Gateway. You’ll hear sessions by Louie Giglio, Jennie Allen, Michael Todd, Sadie Robertson Huff, Lysa TerKeurst, Anne Graham Lotz, and Sarah Jakes Roberts, and with these new and popular first listens, you’re going to get some great ideas for choosing your next Bible study!

Speaking of popular, we’re kicking off with one of our most-watched studies on Study Gateway, Louie Giglio’s Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table. This one has held a solid first place on our list for pretty much this whole year. Louie has a fascinating take on the twenty-third Psalm that I guarantee you’ve never heard before. Let’s join him for Session One.
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LOUIE GIGLIO: Hi. It's Louie Giglio with Passion City Church and Passion Conferences, and I just wanted to say welcome to "Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table." I'm so glad that you decided to take this journey with us, and I'm really believing today that this message has the power to totally change your life. I know that that was true for me, and I'm believing it can be true for every single one of us today.

So welcome to the study guide journey. I'm really glad that you're here for session one. I'm standing in Atlanta, Georgia right now with some friends from our church at Passion City. And we've already prayed and asked God if he will meet us in this moment in a powerful way.

And we're praying the very same thing for you, whether you're in a church building or a dorm room or sorority house, or you're in someone's living room or den or out on the back patio-- wherever you are right now, we're believing that God is going to be in the midst, and that he's going to speak in such a way that you're going to know this message is for you. So welcome to session one of "Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table."
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A few years ago I got a text that literally changed my life. And when I say literally, I'm not saying literally like we almost always say literally when we mean figuratively. I mean this text has impacted me almost every week of my life in the years since I received it. It wasn't the longest text I've ever received, but it was one of the most powerful texts I've ever received. It stopped me in my tracks and completely changed my focus.

And just to give you a little back story, we were planting a church. We were starting on some new ventures together. We were plowing new ground. And we ran into some headwind not long into the process, and we were in a place like a lot of us end up in life, where you're not sure who's with you and who's against you.

And you're like, are these people on my side, or are they on the other side? And I felt like arrows were flying my way. I don't know if they really were as many of them flying my way or not, but the enemy has a way of convincing us that one arrow is 100 arrows or 10 arrows or 1,000 arrows. And I was sort of living in that protective bubble of wanting to know who's got my back.

Have you ever said that before? Man, I love this guy. He's got my back. I don't know if I can count on those people, but she's got my back. And the process was playing out over time and over months. And I was a believer then, and I'm a believer now, if you give things time they normally play out, right?

And so something had happened, and it had played out in my favor. And I was pumped about it. I'm sorry to admit that today, but I was excited that something had played out in my favor, and I wanted to share that with someone else who could appreciate that good news. So I texted someone who I knew had my back.

And I'm of the demographic, as you can tell, that a long text takes a minute. So probably 30 minutes later I had formed this very long, can you believe this? This is amazing. This is exactly what I thought was going to happen text. And I hit Send, and it was the kind of moment where you don't hit Send and then go back about what you're doing. You hit Send and you stare at the phone. You're waiting to get the reply.

And a minute went by. Two minutes went by. I can tell you right where I was standing-- at the top of our driveway staring at my phone. Finally, the little wheel starts turning around. I'm like, yes, something's coming back to me now.

And here's what I'm thinking. I worked on this for a while. It's lengthy and wordy and there are no emojis in it. So I don't want any fist bumps back. I don't want any thumbs up or praise hands back. I want a commensurate response.

And so finally the text appears. And I don't even read it, but I can tell by looking down at it it's not very long. And I'm like, OK, surely this person did what I've done before. They started sending the message, and then they accidentally hit Send before they finished the sentence. So surely another text will be coming any minute now to complete this thought. Nothing happens. The wheel stops turning, and I realize this is it.

And I read the words. Nine words changed my life. And the nine words in the text said, "Don't give the Enemy a seat at your table." I stood right in that moment, and it became as clear as day that I had allowed the Enemy, my adversary, access to my conversation, to my thoughts, to my attitudes, to my emotions, to the way I was responding people, to the way I was viewing the situation. I had allowed the Enemy into my story. And worse, I was having a conversation with a killer.

And in that moment, God just arrested me with the simplicity of those nine words. And those nine words have come back into play in my thinking and in my processing life almost weekly in the decades since that text came to me. And that's what we're journeying into in these weeks together-- the power that those nine words can have for your life, the power that I know they've had in my life. Don't give the Enemy a seat at your table.

Pretty soon, that text led me to the text. Because you don't get set free by texts that people send you. You get set free by the word of God. And so the text on the phone had led me to the text of the living word. And I ended up in what is probably the best known passage of scripture in all of the Bible, and that is Psalm 23.

And I want us to look at that a little bit in this session. And then obviously, we're going to unpack that all the way through the book, and it will find its way weaving in and out of all the sessions that we do. But before we do that, I just need to jettison all of us from our preconceived ideas of Psalm 23.

I grew up in the church. Maybe you didn't have that experience. But my earliest days, I'm talking two, three weeks out of the womb, I'm already in the kids ministry at the church. And I've been in church my whole life. And if we're not careful, when you say Psalm 23, I can go back to grandma's house and the cross-stitch pillow that's on the sofa in the den, or hanging in the frame behind the dining room table. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

I can go back to that photo-- looks like an Olan Mills photo session that we had in the middle school boy's room, where it was Jesus with the faraway look in his eye, and the shepherd's crook and the lamb on the shoulder. I can go back to there, and all of a sudden, I can miss the power and the grit and the possibility and the promise that is in this Psalm.

This is a Psalm of David. David was a king. He was a warrior. He was a leader. He was a fighter. David was a shepherd, and he knew what it was like to be in difficult situations and see God deliver. So this isn't some quiet super-soft, fluffy, spiritual Psalm. This is a gritty Psalm from someone who lived a life of really seeing their whole future in the balance, and seeing God come through. The invitation is powerful.

David opens with this line, "The Lord is my shepherd." Now, I know we all know that phrase, and you want to just hurry into the next line, which says, "Therefore, I shall not want," or I shall not be in want. But I want us to stop just with that thought for a moment.

He said, I have a shepherd, the Lord. And here's the key thing about this text that I don't want us to miss. All of us have some kind of shepherd in our life. We were created by God for God, and if God isn't leading our life, that doesn't mean someone else isn't leading our life.

We were made to be led. So if he's not leading, somebody else is leading-- somebody else's opinion, somebody else's position, some kind of internal desire. Or somebody is just saying, hey, I'm leading my life. I'm calling the shots. I'm the one in charge.

To that we would say, congratulations. You are your shepherd. So your 23rd Psalm is going to read, I am my shepherd. And I can promise you the next line is going to read, and I am in want.

Because whenever I get in charge of my life, things don't go great. Whenever I get control and I decide that I'm going to be the one who knows best for me, things don't go great. But you and I have an opportunity. Can we just pause right here for a moment? You have an opportunity today at the beginning of this journey to say, Jesus, I want you to be my shepherd. I want you to be in charge of my life.

If the creator of the universe is inviting me to be in his flock and under his care, I want to say yes to that. And if I do, I get to lean in to what David has experienced in that process. Number one, I shall not be in want. It doesn't mean, David is saying, if you read all the Psalms and you know David's life, he didn't always get what he wanted every day. But he never lacked what he needed any day of his life.

And then he talked about how it plays out. We won't dive into the whole Psalm, although I really, really want to. But just look at some of the things that happen when "The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down in green pastures."

Now, that is amazing, by the way, because we all need green pastures. The frustrating part is he's telling us right away, when I'm referring to you as sheep, I'm not paying you a compliment necessarily. So I'm not saying, oh, you're so fluffy and so cuddly and so cute and so wonderful, and when you "baa," it's just is such a beautiful thing.

He's saying, you know, sheep, if we're honest, they don't see good. They don't always make great decisions. They're not super steady on their feet. They've got like six duvets worth of wool on top of them, and they need help. And you need help, so much so, Louie, that you're not even smart enough some days to know how to find a green pasture. So I'm going to have to-- I'm going to have to make you lie down in a green pasture.

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I’m so glad you’re joining us here at Study Gateway’s First Listens, and I hope you’re enjoying the first session of Louie Giglio’s Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, published by HarperChristian Resources and streaming on Study Gateway. Study Gateway is a streaming video service, and we’re the only one that has a subscription plan especially for small groups. For our First Listens listeners, we are offering an exclusive rate on our small group plan. When you use the promo code FIRST at studygateway.com, you’ll get a small group plan for up to 20 people for only $15.99/month, a 20% savings. And, for a complete experience with Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, take advantage of our publisher-direct pricing on the essential Bible study guide designed to be used with the videos. You’ll get the group discussion questions and leader materials, the Scripture text and key ideas, and personal Bible study and discipleship activities to do between sessions. Get all the details at Studygateway.com.
And now, back to Louie Giglio.
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Now, right off the bat, somebody is jumping out of this study going, hey, I didn't come here to have anybody make me do anything. Well, what is he making you do? He's making you do the one thing that's going to ensure that you don't crack and crumble.

You need rest. You need a break. You need the good stuff. And sometimes he'll use a circumstance that we don't like to get us into a green pasture that we really, really need. So he's going to make me lie down in a green pasture.

But then look what else he's going to do in my life. Look at all of these operative words. He's going to "Lead me beside quiet waters. He's going to restore my soul, guide me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Why? Hello? "For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." We're going to talk about that in a session to come, what that looks like in real life.

And then this great capstone. Surely-- that's I'm convinced. I know this is going to happen. This is a reality. You can count on this. Goodness and love are going to follow me all the days of my life-- all the days, not some of the days, all of the days. Not the best days, but all of the days. The good ones, the hard ones, the high ones, the low ones-- every day goodness and love are going to be right behind me.

And then what's the ending? I am convinced that I'm going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's what you get when you trade whatever shepherd you've got going for Jesus leading your life. And I love this verse, verse 5. And I want us to focus on it for a moment because it's really what this journey is all about.

I have to be honest and say that if I had written the text, I would have written this verse different. Have you ever been honest enough when you got to a verse in the Bible and said, hmm, I might have changed that one a little bit. I would have written this verse, if you're my shepherd, then I want to say, and you will prepare a table before me in your presence.

I would like a window seat, where I can look out and see all my enemies being scattered while we eat. This will make it a double blessing. I have you and an incredible meal and an incredible table, and for entertainment's sake, I can watch all my enemies being destroyed.

But God said, no. I'm not going to do it that way. I'm not going to sequester you or extract you from a broken world. But in the middle of it, whatever it is, circumstances, arrows that are flying by day or by night, whether it's persecution or difficulty or a cancer ward or a diagnosis or family strife, I'm going to prepare a table for you right in the middle of whatever it is.

And here's the beautiful thing about it, and why we put this table here today. It's a table for two. And I want you just to have a mental picture of what it looks like. You guys are not bad people, by the way. But you just became the enemies today.

The table is in the presence of the Enemy. So just imagine that the arrows are coming from you. The stress, the hardship, the difficulty, the challenges, the trials, the bumps in the road-- all the things we're not sure how they're going to play out, and sometimes those are real.

People are saying things about you, yes? People are trying to undermine you, yes? People are misrepresenting you, yes? You're all of those people, and right in the middle of it all he says, Louie, I've prepared a table for you. Here, come sit down. We're talking about the King of the ages by the way.

And imagine this. When he sits at the table with you and says, how are you? Are you thirsty? So good to see you. Really, really glad you came. I got everything I could out of the kitchen. How's life? How are you?

Think about the invitation that David is calling us to, that God is inviting us to, a table with the King. Yes, it's in the presence of the strife, right in the middle of the battle, but a table with the King. And we're going to see in this journey that we have an opportunity to do one of two things.

We have an opportunity to accept this invitation to the way I want to call it, intimacy with the Almighty. Or we can make the mistake that a lot of us have made in our lives, and that is we can be so busy doing amazing things in our lives, that we end up with only a drive-through with the King.

It would look like this. And I know no one would ever want to do this, but can I borrow your phone just for a second? It would look like this. You mind if I borrow your coffee? It would look like this.

So we would go, wow, this is incredible. The God of the universe-- he wants to be my shepherd. He wants to lead me and guide me and restore me. And he wants to be with me and protect me and provide for me and anoint me and overflow in me. He's going to follow me. This is unbelievable. Are you kidding me?

Are these ginger snaps? I love ginger snaps. Oh, my word. Those are incredible. This is so good. I've got to let everybody know what's going on here. And I need my Bible so people will know that I'm spiritual. So I'm going to put my Bible in here and my glasses-- I want them on-- I think I'll put them over here. Well, I like them over here.

This is so good. This is unreal. No, that's not good. Oh, my-- this is so good. This is great. I'm going to put a little soft light on it. Hang on. Dinner with the King-- boom. And people are going to love this. This is going to blow up-- me at a table with you. Unbelievable.

By the way, thank you. This is-- I have no idea. If I didn't have two-- I thought I had a meeting, but I've got two meetings this morning, so I've got to jet. But you're awesome. This is awesome. It's all amazing. Praise you, by the way, and I'll check back in with you as soon as I can.

That was great. I hope you don't mind if I just took a to-go cup. And that's going to be the difference, I believe, ultimately, between whether or not we experience the freedom that is packed into those nine words. Don't give the Enemy a seat at your table.

And I know it sounds simplistic, especially if you've been around church for a minute. But the main way that I don't give an Enemy a seat at the table is by taking my seat at the table, and receiving the invitation that's being extended to me.

Because there are a lot of things in life that you cannot control. There are a lot of situations in your world right now that you cannot control. But you absolutely can decide whether or not you want intimacy with the Almighty, or if you'll be happy with just a drive-through with the King.

And I love how Jesus said it in his own words. He said, taste and see that the Lord is good. So that's where we're starting this journey. We're starting it with a good God, with a gracious God, with a God of abundance, with a God who says, hey, I put the whole spread out. We know right away we don't have a God of scarcity, but we have a God who has a storehouse that is full.

And here's the main takeaway. We know at the end of it all, that it's not what's on the table, it's who's at the table. And we know that he is always going to be everything that we need.
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You have just enjoyed a first listen to the first session of Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, a video Bible study by Louie Giglio published by HarperChristian Resources and streaming on Study Gateway. Here at Study Gateway you can find your favorite authors, pastors and Bible teachers, all in one place. We’re the only streaming video subscription service that offers a small group-sized plan, AND has user-based pricing for churches, no matter what the size. And don’t forget, you can use the promo code FIRST to get a 20% savings on a small group plan. What does 20% mean to your pocketbook? It means you’re going to save $4/month, so instead of $19.99/month, you’ll pay only 15.99/month for your entire small group of up to 20 people, which works out to only 80 cents per person per month!

With Study Gateway, you also get a direct link to our store, where you get publisher-direct pricing on the essential Bible study guide for Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table; a study guide designed to help you remember what you’ve learned in the videos, guide your discussion of your insights with others, dig deeper into what the Bible says about this topic, and apply what you’re learning to your life. Is Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table going to be your next study? Get started right now by going to studygateway.com, click start free trial, choose the monthly small group plan, and use the promo code FIRST.

Make sure you rate and review this podcast so other people can find this show too. We’re so glad you’re here. Be sure to join us next time on Study Gateway’s First Listens.
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