Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

This is the second year in a row that I’ve had the privilege to preach for the Teen Challenge/Overdose Awareness Sunday. Last year I shared a little bit of my testimony, and today I’m going to try something a little different. Today I’m going to share someone else’s.

Earlier this year, I officiated a funeral for a man who died from an overdose. And as I was thinking about what I would say to you all this morning, I thought maybe there was no better way to bring awareness to the issue than to deliver the message I gave that day.

I’m going to deliver it exactly as I did that afternoon. The only difference is that I have changed his name.

Ecclesiastes 7 says,

“It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because sober reflection is good for the heart.”

And so, as sorrowful as we are today, it is a good thing to be here. It’s good to be together. As we remember Matthew’s life, we can reflect on where and how he has brought us together this morning.

I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Matthew, but I wish I had. I was fortunate to learn about him from some of his loved ones’ stories, and from what I heard, he seemed like a pretty incredible person. Wherever he was, people knew he was there—but in a good way. He exuded life.

I’m told he was active as a young boy. He tried everything, like he had to taste all that life could offer. And while he was exploring the good things in life, he discovered a passion for cooking.

From all the stories I’ve heard about Matthew, the one common thread is his love of the culinary arts. It’s incredible, I think, that he was so driven by this zeal that he put himself through school in order to pursue this passion, and this love took him around the world to work in interesting and varied restaurants, rubbing shoulders with interesting and varied people.

Keith Floyd, celebrity cook and restaurateur, said,

“Cooking is an art and patience a virtue… Careful shopping, fresh ingredients, and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing – love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table.

“With a combination of these things, you can be an artist – not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love.”

That’s the impression I got when I heard about Matthew.

Cooking, it seems, epitomized Matthew’s view of life. He took ordinary things and brought them together to make something more than the sum of its parts.

Cooking is an ancient tradition. It has been the staple of civilization for as long as recorded history has been keeping score. In the Christian faith, sharing a meal is especially significant. One of our most sacred practices, the Lord’s Supper—shared in remembrance of the New Covenant; His body broken for us and His blood shed for us—was initiated at a shared table amongst close friends.

In fact, a wedding feast is the grand finale of God’s design.

But there’s another story in the Bible that I think of when I think of Matthew’s ability to prepare a meal by bringing common things together to create something greater.

Luke 5:27-32 says,

“Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office and said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ So, after leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow Him.

“Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for [Jesus] at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were guests with them. But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, [saying], ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’

“Jesus replied to them, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”

This is why Jesus came into the world—to save sinners. And one way Jesus demonstrated His love for us was by sharing a meal with those who would have Him. Jesus took ordinary people and brought them together, making them something greater than themselves by bringing them into Himself.

Jesus doesn’t love you because you’re good; He makes you good because He loves you. He does not discriminate against anyone who wants to join Him at the table and share a meal with Him.

I was reminded of this story as I thought about Matthew and his life—his love of cooking. And, as I said, Matthew also took ordinary things and brought them together to make something more than the sum of its parts.

By far the greatest example of this, I’m sure, is his daughter. She was his greatest joy. She is the other common thread in every story I hear about Matthew. He loved her deeply.

While cooking may be the first thing I think of when I hear stories about Matthew, I think the greater quality about Matthew was love. I think everything Matthew did stemmed from love. I think love is why we’re all here today.

Matthew took the ordinary things and brought them together. He brought us all together today. Matthew has prepared a feast of mourning.

We all know why we’re here today. We all know why Matthew is not. And it all really has to do with love.

Saint Augustine was a theologian in the fourth century, and he set out to figure out why so many people are discontent in their lives. And the conclusion he came to was that we are discontent because our lives are out of order—that we have what he called “disordered loves.”

Augustine determined that what defines a person as “good” or “bad” is not so much what they do, but rather what they love. And all too often, we love the wrong things more than the things we ought to love, and this wrong prioritization is what makes us miserable and keeps us pursuing the wrong things.

Generally speaking, it is not our circumstances that make us unhappy, but actually the things we do that we think will make us happy. Our lives are out of order because our loves are out of order.

We use the wrong ingredients to create something that we think will be better than what the recipe calls for—like using salt instead of sugar to make a cake.

And what the recipe for a good, happy, fulfilling life calls for—what Augustine found and what the Bible tells us—is a right relationship with God. It’s dining at the table with Jesus despite our past decisions or current circumstances.

That is a life lived with well-ordered love: loving God supremely, above all else, and the other good things—our daughters, our families, our careers, our hobbies—in correct proportion to Him.

It’s just like the culinary arts.

The chef and author Michael Ruhlman said,

“A ratio is a fixed proportion of ingredients relative to another, and these proportions form the backbone of the culinary arts. A recipe is a specific set of measurements and instructions for combining those measured ingredients. These ratios are starting points.”

And as much as Matthew’s life could be defined by love, his ratios were out of order.

I don’t know if Matthew knew Jesus when he was on earth, but I know for sure that he knows Him now. And I’m certain that if Matthew could tell us anything today, it would be, “Make sure your loves are in order.”

Make sure that you have a right relationship with God by trusting that Jesus loves you, and reciprocating that love appropriately. Jesus loves you so much that He died for you—His body broken for you and His blood spilled for you. And He rose again so that He could be with you as  your Lord. And He invites you to sit at His table.

I do not know where Matthew is sitting today. I know that his loves seemed out of order. But if he trusted Jesus as his Savior, then he is sitting before Him now.

And although I do not know where Matthew is sitting, you can know where you will sit one day. Surrender to Jesus and put your loves in order. He is calling you to join Him at His table. There is a place for you there, regardless of past decisions or current circumstances. He does not discriminate.

“Whoever calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved” (Joel 2:32).

Know that your reservation is secure when you come back here for your funeral. Because we all come back here someday.

“It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

Choose today where you will go when you return to the house of mourning, because we all end up back here. Make sure your loves are in order. If you need to make that decision today, if you want to have that seat at the table, please talk to me. Put your trust in Jesus. Put your loves in order, and remember Matthew well.

Trust that Jesus has a place set for you if you choose to join Him at the table.