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First Baptist Church Delray

Sermon Application Questions

March 1, 2026

Pastor Jimmy’s Message: “Table Talk”

Scripture: Luke 14:1–24 (ESV)

Review the Exegesis of the Scripture:

Read Luke 14:1-6

One Sabbath, when he (Jesus) went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees,

they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had

dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal

on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him

and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has

fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could

not reply to these things.

1. What was the only reason these hypocrites invited the man with dropsy?

Read Luke 14:7-11

Now he (Jesus) told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they

chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a

wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished

than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give

your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest

place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host

comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the

presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be

humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

2. What is Jesus trying to teach the guests who are scrambling for the best seats of

status, recognition, and honor?

Read Luke 14:12-14

He (Jesus) said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a

banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich

neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a

feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because

they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

3. What do we learn here about the kingdom of God?

Read Luke 14:15-24

When one of those who reclined at table with him (Jesus) heard these things, he said to

him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to

him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the

banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything

is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have

bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another

said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me

excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the

servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house

became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the

city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir,

what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to

the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my

house may be filled.    For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my

banquet.’”

4. What do we learn here about why Jesus extended His Gospel message beyond

the Jews who believed they earned it and deserved it to the Gentiles who

recognize they are poor, crippled, blind, and lame, and willing to receive it?

5. How does this help us understand that distracted delay to receive the Gospel is

as dangerous as open hostility to it?

Make Personal Applications of the Lessons

6. If Jesus walked into our church today, would he find excuses, legalism, and

tradition? Or, would He find people desperate for a relationship with Him?

7. In what ways do you see pride in your heart: comparison, self-promotion,

entitlement?

8. Do you need to practice humility, thinking of yourself less and trusting God with

your worth?

9. Will you serve in a role that receives little recognition and resist the urge to be

noticed?

10. In conversations, will you practice listening without needing to impress or to

correct? And will you, as a rule of thumb, ask two questions to allow the other

person to speak more before sharing your opinion?

11. While praying, will you begin with gratitude rather than requests, reminding

yourself of God’s grace rather than your achievements?

12. Will you forsake convenience as well as strict adherence to rules and schedule to

keep Christ’s greatest commandment to love God and love people?

13. Will you determine to make yourself available? This week identify one

inconvenient person who needs patience, help, prayer, or presence and make

time for them?

14. Will you create margin in your life and schedule a weekly 30-60 minute “mercy

buffer” to serve, encourage, or respond to needs?

15. When you feel the inner resistance, will you pray “Jesus, make my heart quick to

compassion.”

16. Will you break the habit of transactional relationships? Will you be generous with

yourself and your resources expecting nothing in return because you trust God

as the ultimate Rewarder?

17. Will you give financially in ways that stretch faith, not just what feels comfortable?

18. Will you stop delaying your decision for Christ, accept His invitation, and go all in

with Him, being fervent about the things of God, here every time the doors open,

studying scripture, loving others, and on fire for the kingdom?

19. Will you name and repent of your top excuse: comfort, busyness, career

pressure, family schedules, fear, secret sin?

20. Will you set a concrete step within the next 24 hours to address it: pray, confess,

join a group, reconcile, serve, obey?

21. Will you replace “someday” language with “this week” obedience?

22. Will you bring others to the table, the outsiders, the outcasts, the overlooked, and

the far off, not with pressure or by winning theological arguments, but with

urgency and love?

23. Will you keep trying and don’t give up with family members, friends, coworkers,

neighbors?

24. Will you practice hospitality once a month over a meal or coffee with intentional

spiritual warmth to discuss Jesus and ask them to come?