The Table Boston - Weekly Sermon

This week, Ryan Murphy shares a message from 2 Samuel 7 titled “The Commission of the Presence.” As the final message in the People of the Presence series, which has traced the ark of the covenant since September, Ryan invites us to dream wild dreams about where the presence of God can go through us, in our city and in the nations.

Ryan begins with the story of King David as he dreamed to build a house for God. Ryan reminds us of own own childhood dreams, including a story about his five-year-old daughter and her dreams for her own life. He then names two postures that keep us from dreaming well: fear and apathy, and an idolatry of ambition that rushes ahead of God’s timing. The turning point comes when David says, “I want to build You a house,” and God answers (through the prophet Nathan) that He will build David one, ultimately pointing to the Messiah who would come through David’s line. Ryan argues that our culture has discipled us toward radical individualism and self-fulfillment, and calls us instead to multigenerational dreams, remembering D.L. Moody’s conversion in Boston and George Whitefield preaching on Boston Common. He draws on Frederick Buechner’s idea that vocation is where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger and urges us to begin with service. Finally, because the prophet Nathan first affirmed David’s plan before God sent him back with a correction, Ryan warns us to beware of voices that cheer on our dreams without helping us seek God’s heart on them.

The anchor of the message is that God is a dreaming God. His dream runs from Eden to Revelation: to dwell with His people. In other words, the commission given to Adam and Eve to fill the earth with His presence is the same one Jesus renews in the Great Commission. Our dreams matter because they join His, and that is why Ryan says they must also be surrendered. Every biblical dreamer, from Abraham and Joseph to Moses, Hannah, and Jesus Himself, passed through death before seeing resurrection.

Ryan invites us to dream bigger than ourselves, to serve the need in front of us, and to do whatever we do for the glory of God. If you have lost a dream or had one stolen, you are reminded that He is the God of resurrection. The message closes with prayer commissioning those called to the nations and those called to write songs of heaven.

This week, Bekah Sankey shares a message from 2 Samuel 5:17–6:23 titled “The Cost of the Presence.” As a church named The Table, we’re learning to prepare a place for our city, and Bekah asks what it means to host the presence of the Lord so that when people sit down, they find Him seated across from them.

Bekah walks through David’s two very different encounters with the Spirit breaking out: at Baal Perazim, where the Lord breaks through David’s enemies, and at Perez-Uzzah, where that same presence breaks out against Uzzah as he reaches for the ark. From these, she draws three costs of carrying God’s presence. First, we lay down our false understandings of God, and she shares a journal entry from age twelve, when she was so unsettled by manifestations of the Spirit that she waited out ministry time in the church lobby. Second, we lay down our preferences and strategies for how things get done. Moving the ark on a new cart was a good idea, but it wasn’t God’s way, and David later returns to carrying it on the shoulders of the Levites, as 1 Chronicles 15 recounts. Third, we lay down our honor before others, as David dances before the Lord in a linen ephod while Michal, shaped by the house of Saul and its need to save face, despises him.

The anchor of the message is that God’s presence is both infinitely precious and genuinely holy: He is “not safe, but He’s good.” Because He is a person and not a program, He gets to decide who He is and how He is hosted. Put simply, stewarding His manifest presence means trusting a God we can fully know and who remains a mystery, learning what He prefers, and giving Him what He is worth. Bekah offers a pastoral caution as well: as a kingdom of priests, we must never keep for ourselves the glory that belongs to Him alone.

Bekah invites us to become a people who live and move “before His face,” carrying heaven with us into workplaces, neighborhoods, and community groups. What might it look like to ask, “Lord, what do You want today?” and then give Him what He likes, even something as simple as our own voice? Because Jesus has torn the veil, the presence that once struck down Uzzah now dwells in us, and He is magnetic. We don’t need a better strategy to draw people in; we can set a table where He is welcome and let Him do what only He can do.

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from 1 Samuel 4–6 titled “The Conviction of the Presence.” Continuing the People of the Presence series, Ryan traces the Ark of the Covenant into battle and into the temple of Dagon. He shows that hosting God’s presence means walking with conviction, because we are hosting a holy God.

Ryan starts with Israel carrying the Ark into battle like a good-luck charm, borne by Eli’s wicked sons, and losing anyway. He warns against treating God’s presence as a superstition to sprinkle over our lives, or mistaking emotion for encounter. In his words, God is not your goosebumps. Drawing on A.W. Tozer and G.K. Beale, he argues that God’s kingdom is established through submission to His Word. Then comes the comic image of Dagon falling face-first before the Ark again and again. From it, Ryan names three idols that still rule our city: sex, money, and power. He calls each one to bow before Jesus.

Ryan anchors the sermon in the holiness of God. Holiness is not just one of God’s attributes. It is who He is. God doesn’t conform to a standard; He is the standard. So allegiance to Jesus can’t follow our own feelings and preferences. It has to follow His ways as revealed in Scripture. And because even God’s joy is holy, Ryan calls the church to a “happy holiness,” not a somber one. Freedom from lesser loves is the pathway to pure joy.

This sermon is an invitation to repent and run in the opposite direction. That might mean fleeing compromise, giving generously in secret, or choosing the lowest seat at the table. It also means finding two people to confess to, not for forgiveness, which is already ours, but for healing. Recalling Charles Finney and the Hebrides revival, Ryan casts a hopeful vision: a church so marked by God’s holy presence that the streets, classrooms, and workplaces of Boston feel it too.

This week, Adam Narciso shares a message from John 1:29–46 and Luke 19:1–10 titled “Invitational Grace.” Adam is a prophetic evangelist who has preached the gospel across many nations. He calls us to join Jesus in his pursuit of people who are far from him.

Adam starts with stories of inconvenient invitations. He shares the gospel in sixty seconds with a Hindu Lyft driver in Nashville who had never heard it in thirty years. He also describes a night when a young woman, wounded and caught in addiction, tried to break into his home. He let her in, gave her a seat at his family’s breakfast table, and washed the mud from her back. Turning to John 1, he traces a chain of invitations: John the Baptist cries, “Behold the Lamb of God,” Jesus says, “Come and you will see,” and Philip tells Nathaniel, “Come and see.” Adam then shares about gospel campaigns among Muslim-background university students in Cyprus. There, dreams of a man in white, the presence of God in worship, and simple proclamation have led more than sixty young people to Jesus.

Adam anchors the sermon in one conviction: the presence of God is the chief apologetic. Many people practice devotion without ever encountering God. But when the people of God exalt Jesus, others can taste and see that the Lord is good. In other words, the grace on our worship is meant to overflow into invitation. Jesus also models a bolder kind of hospitality when he calls Zacchaeus down from the tree and invites himself to dinner.

Ultimately, this sermon is an invitation to receive the invitational grace Adam believes God is pouring out on Table Church. That means setting our phones down, settling the fear of rejection, and inviting ourselves into the lives of others. As we do, we can expect to grow in joy and let go of anxiety, trusting the One who came to seek and to save the lost.

This week, Abigail Dundore shares a message from Isaiah 44–45 titled "Free to Receive." Speaking into Israel's exile in Babylon, Abigail shows why idolatry is more than loving the wrong thing. It means loving something that cannot love us back.Abigail starts with Isaiah's almost comic picture of the blacksmith and the carpenter. They work hard to shape their idols and end the day hungry, thirsty and cold, still taking care of themselves. She connects this to the idols of our city: career success, financial security and intellectual achievement. Each one demands everything and gives nothing back. In contrast, God pours water on dry ground, plants the willows and carries His people from birth to old age. Abigail tells the story of giving up her plans for law school and discovering the justice work God had already given her. She also opens up about the shame she carried for years after a long season of chronic illness in her childhood, and about hearing the Lord say He never needed her to perform. Finally, she shows how blindness keeps us from seeing what enslaves us, and how God sweeps it away like mist.The sermon rests on a simple distinction: idols are pursued, but gifts are received. The same good thing can be an idol that enslaves us or a gift that delights us, but it can't be both. Shame enters when we overreach, trying to prove ourselves wise and self-reliant. From the beginning, all God wanted was for us to walk with Him as His sons and daughters. His Spirit does not disappoint, and shame cannot stand in the face of His love.Ultimately, this sermon is an invitation to put down the burdens we've learned to call normal and let God carry us. Some of that freedom comes in a moment, and some of it takes years of formation. Either way, God is working toward our joy. As we say yes to His redemption, He widens our capacity to receive His gifts with open hands and to break out in song.

Due to audio issues, this recording does not include the full teaching.This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from Joshua 6 titled "The Courage of the Presence." Through the fall of Jericho, Ryan invites us to dust off our dreams and face a hard truth: as we grow in the Kingdom of God, we need more courage, not less.Ryan starts with his own early faith. He skipped theater practice for Wednesday night youth group and spent two awkward years praying for strangers at the mall, where God broke his fear of what others thought. From there he names three things courage requires. The first is risk, which is not recklessness but confidence in a good Father. Ryan compares this to securely attached children, like his son Hoxton walking into his first day of school. The second is initiative: rest is good, but it isn't God, and some of us are so afraid of burning out that we aren't burning at all. The third is obedience, and here Ryan gives four questions for discernment. Does this next step fit the whole story of Scripture? Do the people around me affirm it? Do I resonate with it? Is there an open door? Along the way, he also gives pastoral guidance on the harder parts of the Jericho story.Ryan anchors the sermon in Romans 8:14–15. We did not receive a spirit of slavery that falls back into fear. We received the Spirit of adoption. The spirit of slavery shows up as anxiety, scarcity, and control, including wanting God to act like a drill sergeant rather than a Father. Adoption brings us into relationship and gives us an inheritance. Put simply, we don't risk to earn God's approval. We risk from it.Ultimately, this sermon invites us to break up with fear and perfectionism and live as sons and daughters. God often gives us the big promise and the next step, and leaves out everything in between. As we trust Him step by step, in community and in peace, He forms in us the courage to dream wild Kingdom dreams for our city.

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from Exodus 40 and Joshua 3 titled "The Culture of the Presence," continuing the church's series People of the Presence. On the occasion of the church's sixth anniversary, Ryan traces how the Israelites followed God's glory out of the wilderness and into the promised land, and asks what it looks like for the church today to carry that same presence into the city of Boston.Ryan walks through Exodus 40, where the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle and the Israelites learn to follow the cloud by day and fire by night, and into Joshua 3, where that same presence leads them across the Jordan into land they have never walked before. From there he builds out three marks of a people who carry God's presence: they are followed, learning to discern the Spirit's leading rather than defaulting to human reasoning, even when that leading costs comfort and convenience; they are formed, pursuing holiness and guarding their words and relationships so as not to grieve the Holy Spirit; and they are filled, receiving the same outpouring described in Acts 1 and 2 and 1 Corinthians 14. Ryan closes with his own testimony of receiving the gift of tongues as a teenager, framing it as evidence of a Father eager to give good gifts to his children.The theological anchor running through the message is that the presence of God, once confined to a tabernacle and later a temple, now dwells inside every believer through the Holy Spirit. What Israel followed as a cloud in the wilderness, the church now carries as a person, meaning ordinary believers become, in Ryan's words, walking carriers of God's glory into their campuses, neighborhoods, and workplaces.Ultimately, this sermon is an invitation to stop settling for cozy, comfortable faith and to ask God for a fresh filling, whatever form that takes. As the church continues to follow, be formed, and be filled, Ryan casts a vision for revival breaking out across Boston, one life at a time.This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy continues our series "People of the Presence"

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from Exodus 24:15–25:40 titled "People of the Presence." Walking through Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai and God's detailed instructions for building the tabernacle, Ryan unpacks what it means for a church to actually host the presence of God rather than simply gather for an event.Ryan works through three key pieces of the tabernacle's furniture, drawing out present-day application for each. The Ark of the Covenant, God's royal seat at the center of the tent, reveals that God's heart has always been to dwell close to His people rather than remain distant — and it points the church toward submission to Scripture and ongoing communion with God, "like a person speaks to a friend." The lampstand, shaped like a tree and tied to the Garden of Eden and the tree of life in Revelation, reframes the church's call to be a light to the nations rather than a people who consume God's presence for private satisfaction. The table of the bread of the presence points to God as the only true satisfaction for the human heart, with Ryan sharing candidly from his own story about mistaking community and relationships for what only God can supply. Along the way, he calls the church to let go of shame, unbelief, and skepticism in order to step more fully into this way of life.At the center of the message is the conviction that holiness and freedom are not opposites — God sets His people free specifically so they can worship Him, and the tabernacle's layout, as Hebrews confirms, is not a relic but a prophetic picture of the New Testament reality that Jesus makes available to every believer. Because the veil has been torn, communion with God is no longer mediated through a priest or a building; every follower of Jesus now carries what Ryan calls a "tabernacle mindset," able to access God's presence anywhere, at any time.Ultimately, this sermon is an invitation to trade a small, event-based faith for a life fully oriented around God's presence — reading Scripture expecting to meet Him there, releasing shame at the foot of the cross, and carrying His presence into workplaces, campuses, and neighborhoods across the city. As the church leans into this identity, Ryan casts a vision far bigger than a single gathering: a community caught up in God's plan to cover the whole earth with His glory, starting right where they are.This week, Ryan starts our series on "People of the Presence"

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from Galatians 6:7–9 titled "Don't Give Up Before the Harvest." Using the biblical metaphor of sowing and reaping, Ryan unpacks what it looks like to partner with God for breakthrough rather than waiting passively for a "lightning zap from heaven."Ryan walks through five principles drawn from the text: the law of sowing and reaping works because of who God is, not because of our effort or performance; everything in the Kingdom starts small, like a redwood seed or the eight people who first gathered to plant the church; a seed is worthless unless it's planted and watered, meaning dreams require participation, not just waiting; you reap what you sow, so planting bitterness, gossip, or fear yields more of the same, while planting love, joy, and gratitude produces a harvest of the same; and finally, that there's a real delay — a "summer" of watering and tending — between planting and harvest that demands grit rather than giving up at the first sign of difficulty. He then names five practical seeds believers can sow: finances, words, prayer, service, and tears, each illustrated with personal stories and testimonies from the church's history.At the center of the message is the conviction that sowing and reaping is anchored in the nature and character of God — He is a good provider and a good Father, not a distant force to be managed through effort or earned through performance. Ryan pairs this with a theology of redemptive suffering: because Jesus's own suffering was not the end of His story, our tears and hardship are never wasted either, but are transformed into the seeds of a coming harvest.Ultimately, this sermon is an invitation to keep sowing — in prayer, in community, in generosity, in the words we speak — even when the ground feels hard and the harvest feels far off. Ryan calls the church to trade discouragement for grit, believing that God is faithful to bring a harvest to those who don't give up in seasons of small beginnings and slow growth.

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy closes out the church's series on Colossians with a message from Colossians 3:18–4:18 titled "Joining the Mission." Continuing our study on the marks of a Jesus-centered church, Ryan lands on the final mark: a church centered on Jesus joins the mission of Jesus — not just through evangelism, but through every ordinary corner of life.Ryan walks through Paul's household instructions verse by verse, reframing them as an invitation rather than a rulebook. In marriage, he unpacks an egalitarian reading rooted in Genesis, arguing that marriage is meant to prophesy mutual co-reigning between husband and wife, not hierarchy — while also honoring Paul's high view of singleness as its own prophetic witness to a satisfied life in God. He then turns to parenting as training kids to steward authority well, to work as an act of worship where the kingdom breaks in through ordinary jobs rather than only "paid ministry," and to Paul's language about slaves and masters, which he contextualizes historically through the story of Onesimus and Philemon — showing how the gospel changes social status from the inside out. He closes with charges toward prayer, speech about the city, time management, and relationships, tying each back to the same mission.The sermon's theological anchor is the idea, borrowed from Christopher J.H. Wright, that "the church doesn't have a mission — the mission has a church." In other words, God is already at work redeeming and restoring the world, and the local church doesn't manufacture that mission but joins one already in motion. Ryan uses this to reframe everyday relationships and responsibilities — marriage, parenting, work, prayer, speech — as places where heaven is actively breaking into the city of Boston, not just personal disciplines to manage.Ultimately, this message is an invitation to stop compartmentalizing faith from daily life and to see marriages, jobs, parenting rhythms, and even small talk as places where God's kingdom is already advancing. Ryan calls the church to become a "signpost" of heaven in Boston — praying for open doors, speaking hope over the city, and building the culture of heaven wherever they are sent. As the series closes, the charge is forward-looking: this community, hosting God's presence, preaching the gospel, growing in maturity, and now joining the mission, is being sent — not just gathered.