Scotty Swingler: The Table

image_pdfimage_print

Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact eric.black@baptiststandard.com.

Scotty Swingler: The Table (Luke 14:5-11, John 17:20-21, Revelation 19:6-9, Romans 12:2)

Scotty Swingler, associate pastor of students at Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land, tied together the image of the Thanksgiving and Christmas table with the biblical imagery of a table. And then he whet everyone’s appetite with his passion for smoking Texas BBQ.

“I don’t have to look very far for friends who will come to my back patio and sit at the table to enjoy that meal with me. You see, BBQ leads to good friendships, good conversations and good times at the table,” Swingler said.

The table is significant in Scripture as a whole, and it’s significant in Jesus’ story, he explained. Why is the table still so important today, he asked. “The table stands for an ethic or a value system that we are to hold as Christians,” he answered.

Swingler challenged his hearers to “put the values of the table at the forefront of your mind, because … there is nothing more relevant, nothing more radical, nothing more countercultural and nothing more hopeful than the table.” He then explained lessons the table teaches.

This sermon was delivered Nov. 21, 2021, for the 9:45 morning worship service of Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land.

A sermon manuscript is available here.


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard