Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Michael fueling of the lead pastor here at the village church. We're taking a four week hiatus from the book of Exodus and we're in a series called practical evangelism. And so the reason we're doing this series is very simple for the last 16 months, the vast majority of Americans and even Christians, um, have kind of secluded ourselves. We've done our thing. We've protected our bodies. We protected our homes. We protected everything. And, but there's a cost to this. And, and honestly, as I engage a whole lot of believers, um, what has been lost over the last 16 months is intentional evangelism opening up our eyes, picking up our head and the heads and seeing the real people all around us who need Jesus Christ. And the fact that we have been given the good news of Jesus Christ, which is the only hope of salvation.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 And so really this series is kind of just, uh, an encouragement for those of us who have been maybe slumbering on our spiritual calling to wake up and open our eyes and see that we have the greatest gift in the world to give to people, which is the hope of Jesus Christ. You might be here and you might have been dragged here by a family member or a friend, and you might not even be a Christian. And how hilarious, hilarious is that, that you are at a church service on evangelism. I hope that it helps you at least understand, uh, maybe the Christian faith in our heart a little bit better. All right. So, um, last week we talked about practical evangelism in an ambivalent world, a world that just kind of does not care next week, come back. We're going to talk about practical evangelism, um, for a hurting world.
Speaker 1 00:01:37 There's actually more pain and heartache all around us than we have ever seen or known before all the studies and stats are out. It is clear. And then the last week is going to be practical evangelism for a confused world. We're going to look at what is the gospel and want to make sure that we do not add or take away from the purity and the power of the message of the gospel. We're going to look at different threats to the gospel ways, subtly that even in Christiandom, we want to add to, or take away the gospel and want to make sure that we have a clear crystal clear, pure gospel message. Today is practical evangelism in a lonely
Speaker 2 00:02:15 World. So
Speaker 1 00:02:17 The average individual spends 80% of their waking hours in the company of others. Yet Americans are statistically right now, the loneliest we have ever been. So let's define loneliness. Loneliness is very simply when these social relational and spiritual connections, a person needs are left unfulfilled. So if I were to ask all of you in this room, raise your hand. If you have felt severe loneliness in the last month or even right now, don't worry. I'm not going to have you do that. Statistically, the of you in this room would raise your hands. If you felt safe enough to do it. And I have good news for you, your body and your soul are not created to be enduring perpetual loneliness. So physiologically prolonged loneliness is having devastating consequences since 2010 and 2020 multiple studies have been done on the epidemic of loneliness. And I want to just share with you a handful of the highlights that we're watching loneliness increases the risk of high blood pressure, loneliness and social isolation are associated with an increase risk of developing coronary heart disease, disease, and stroke, loneliness, living alone and poor social connections are as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Speaker 1 00:03:49 Loneliness is worse for you statistically than obesity, loneliness and social isolation put individuals at greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia and loneliness is likely to increase your risk of death by 26%. So in 2018, the UK, uh, launched the loneliness experiment. It's the largest study ever conducted on loneliness, 55,000 participants from all over the world that I want to draw your attention to some of their pre COVID findings. So the study found that young individuals between the ages of 16 to 24 years old are more lonely than anyone else in the world. And especially in the west 40% pre COVID, uh, of individuals 16 to 24 years old would say that they feel very often lonely. And then you add to that words like disconnected, not seeing unknown and for many unloved, what's surprising is that if you were to break down between male and female, most people would expect that the females are more lonely, but the stats are out.
Speaker 1 00:04:58 It's actually young men who are the loneliest people in all of American culture. So as you'd expect, COVID has not been kind to the loneliness epidemic, it has gotten worse. So I want you to grab these news statistics that are coming out on loneliness ages 18 to 35, 80% of people reported significant depressive symptoms during the pandemic 80%, they're 18 years old to 35, 30% of those reported harmful and dependent levels of drinking of those who previously before the pandemic dabbled or use drugs during the pandemic, 38% that their drug use was severe and for a drug addict or a drug user to self identify as severe, you know, it's not good. There's also been another unexpected side effect of the pandemic and it is people's decreasing ability to maintain and carry on normal every day conversations. So one of the hard realities is that people will find themselves in conversations and because they're not doing much and they don't have much to talk about, and they're afraid to talk about things.
Speaker 1 00:06:21 They might be most passionate about, whether it's religion or politics what's happening is all of these very awkward, weird conversations like you're talking to. I don't know a nine-year-old boy, right? You're like, Hey, and they just stare, you know, that feeling. You're like, I don't know what to do right now. Why do you make me feel uncomfortable? But like, that's real. But now this is happening to adults. So what's happening is that adults are finding themselves in awkward social circumstances. It increases anxiety about the next circumstances. So the next circumstance, understandably, it gets worse and worse. All of this is adding to the loneliness epidemic. So let me just kind of summarize all of this for you. If you were to pick almost any body off the street and ask them, do you feel disconnected? Do you feel not seen? Do you feel socially and relationally empty? If they're being honest, the vast majority of people are going to tell you, yes.
Speaker 2 00:07:26 I think the devil loves this. The evil one is having a blast. You give
Speaker 1 00:07:34 Him somebody who has the concoction of feelings of Discontentment feeling unloved, unwanted, left out sad. Self-loathing add to that. No, holy spirit resident in them, no daily filling up of truth from the word of God, no communing and connecting to other spirit-filled believers who encourage them and build them up. You take this concoction and I'm telling you, he is having an absolute field day and is taking great pleasure in isolating people. One from another and leaving people desperate, sad, and lonely. 80% of people, young kids, 18 to 35 years old. But I have great news for the lonely, which I'm guessing is many of you in this room and his name is Jesus. And Jesus loves you. And when your soul need for connection with God is not right. Nothing else in life works. The way it's supposed to work now is Jesus is going to get rid of all of your loneliness issues.
Speaker 1 00:08:31 Definitely not. But what he does is he brings redemption to your life and he builds the most solid foundational, relational connection that your body and your soul needs. And that is with your creator. I can help somebody deal with their loneliness, especially if I know you have a relationship with God, you have a spirit of God in you. You're living under the authority of the word of God. You're willing to hard things. You're willing to connect yourself to a local church. We can do something with that. In fact, many of you are actually here because you really have not been able to connect anywhere else. Some of you, you left your last church and you're hoping you find some kind of connection here. And what you're finding is that you felt disconnected and you're coming to another church with a bunch of people who have felt disconnected, all trying to find connection. And many of you don't know how to talk to each other, right? So how do we effectively bring the gospel
Speaker 2 00:09:29 To a lonely world who needs it more than ever
Speaker 1 00:09:33 Before? So let's talk evangelism. If you're a Christian, here's what I know. You want people to know Jesus, because you believe he is life. You also know that never before have people been less responsive to having conversations about Jesus, the message of Christ seems to be falling on deaf ears. We talked about this quite a bit last week, that the things that used to work historically, the things that used to draw people to Christ don't seem to be effective anymore. In fact, they seem to be offensive and insulting. And the word we used last week is that generally speaking in America, people are ambivalent and we described ambivalence like this.
Speaker 1 00:10:16 That's how they feel about the thing you are most passionate about and the thing their soul needs the most. But over the last 2000 years, the church has had three primary evangelism strategies that they've had to use in different, different cultural climates. I'm going to share them with you. And there is a beautiful answer to how we bring the gospel to a lonely world in this. The first strategy is this. When Christians are the cultural majority, our primary evangelism method or strategy is simply proclamation. Uh, back in the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, when Christians were the cultural majority in America, you would do different things like crusades and you would go door to door and you would give people tracks. And, and it was interesting because the reason people did that is because they historically worked. Now, when you go do those things, there is greater and greater offense and less and less responsivity to them.
Speaker 1 00:11:09 When Christians are oppressed, our primary evangelism strategy is simply martyrdom. In fact, what we find is that when Christians are oppressed and the government or social forces seek to break us down the church, actually through the sacrifice, to the killing, to the persecution and the oppressions of Christians at times to just rising ground. In fact, in the second century, there's a pastor. His name is Tutelian. He lived from 1 55, 80 to 2 25 a day. And here's what he said. After watching Rome, try to stamp out the church through sacrificing believers. Here's what he said. The blood is the, of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Every time a Christian was killed for their faith, more and more people would come to Christ. It was amazing. But today we are the cultural minority. And when Christians are the cultural minority, our primary evangelistic method is not taking people to crusades. It is not the shedding of our blood because that's not happening. At least in America. It is the ancient Christian discipline practice of hospitality.
Speaker 1 00:12:18 If you avoid this, the chances of you watching someone come to faith in Christ and your sphere of influence is very, very, very low. If you want people in your life to know Jesus, to have open conversations about spirituality, I'm telling you, figuring this practice out is going to be one of them. Most helpful tools for you. Open up your Bibles. First, Peter chapter four, first, nine and ten first Peter chapter four, verse nine and 10. I'll put it on the screen, but would love for you to open up your Bibles and watch this. So Peter is talking to everybody. This is not a special letter just for pastors. This is for the church. Everybody is going to hear this. Here's the command. If you feel like it, show hospitality. Is that it? Nope. Okay. If your house is clean show hospitality, that's not it either. Okay. Okay. If you don't have money, don't show hospitality. No, he doesn't. It doesn't say that. I mean, it doesn't matter who you are. Here's what he says. Show hospitality to one another. And I love, I love the prepositional phrase here without grumbling the heat so much. Every time they come over, they live in the basement of Madison.
Speaker 1 00:13:55 Do you know what God thinks of? Grumblers can't stand them. He's like Israel. You have to go in the promised land. Grumble, grumble, grumble. No you're going to die in the wilderness. That's going to be, we're pretty much done with you. New generation, like tried grumbling with God. He's not a fan show hospitality to one another, without grumbling, as each has received a gift. People do this and other things different ways. Use it to serve one another as God's as good stewards of God's varied grace. So in this message, we're going to get really practical. The whole series about helping you get as practical as humanly possible with evangelism. So we're gonna ask for three questions. Number one, what was hospitality in biblical times? Number two, what is hospitality? Hospitality look like in a post COVID world because our homes are closed in ways they never have been before.
Speaker 1 00:14:45 And then, so what, how can I obey this command and really bring the gospel to a lonely world? All right. What was hospitality in biblical times? Most people's notion of hospitality is that it's just kind of like, you're good at having people over to your house. And the Christian tradition is so much richer than simply having people over. It comes from a Greek word, Philo Zenium, uh, two words, phylosophy loss, which means, um, love brotherly love, affection, and then Zenoss, which means a stranger or a guest or someone in need. So let me just give you a definition of hospitality that I think takes all of this into consideration. Hospitality is providing someone in need with the experience of home. Hospitality is providing someone in need with the experience of home that someone might be a missionary, maybe friends from out of town. It might be your in-laws.
Speaker 1 00:15:50 It might be people from out of town. Somebody might call and say, we got a, we got somebody who's visiting the church. We, they need a place to stay for a couple of days. They're believers from a different community. Maybe they're not show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Let's let's examine the significance for a moment of the word home in the Bible. The home was designed to be where my family lived and played where I cooked. And I ate with those that I love the most, where I stored my most valuable possessions, where I slept and just ponder. This
Speaker 3 00:16:33 Were unconscious for
Speaker 1 00:16:35 Up to eight hours. Some of you like 12 a day, totally vulnerable. This is the place where you go to be unconscious and most able to be killed in your sleep. But think about that thousands of years ago, you bought that before electricity. Think about that before locks on your doors,
Speaker 2 00:17:02 Different world. Yeah. Your home is
Speaker 1 00:17:05 Where you were the most safe physically, relationally. I mean, your home is supposed to be the place where you, you could be yourself. If you have kids. I asked my teachers, kids, teachers, how are my kids at school? Oh, they're so wonderful. They're so good. I'm like really? The, why are they? Why are they so crazy at home bakery? And with each other, then I asked one teacher, have you ever seen like my, my, my daughter's bicker with each other? No, never. That's actually a compliment. They are their most authentic selves when they're in the home. But aren't we do you fight with your wife or your husband in front of other people, some of you do. And it's hilarious for the most part. No, you don't. You go home and you shut the door and that's where you do get out because home is the place where you're the safest I want
Speaker 2 00:18:06 To, I want to just, I want you to hear me for so many people around you. Their home is not this
Speaker 1 00:18:17 She's not. So where do they go? Just
Speaker 2 00:18:21 To be home. Some
Speaker 1 00:18:24 People are so much more at home and other people's houses. If you have a semi functional home, let's just set this bar really low. If you can fake it for a couple of hours, no, but if there's a little bit of love and functionality in your home and you bring somebody into your home, I am telling you for the vast majority
Speaker 2 00:18:50 Of people, their home, isn't their home.
Speaker 1 00:18:55 And as a Christian, when you have the privilege to do is to give them the experience of home, where they're safe, they can be fully themselves, war in all. And you lead with that same transparency is they come into your home. This cultural moment of whether it's a meal, having them stay at your home.
Speaker 2 00:19:18 It's a sacred time and just never underestimate
Speaker 1 00:19:22 The small gift you give to give someone the freedom to be home. Hospitality is an incredible, incredible gift. So I wasn't so vital in the ancient world. Let's just go back. Why was it so essential? A couple of reasons. They didn't have hotels. Like we think of hotels right now. Imagine if you had to travel for hours and hours and hours without an automobile, and then you had to find a place to stay. When there are robbers and thieves and people who want to take your money, like where are you going to go? And so hospitality was this ancient near Eastern principle and practice. That was really important. In fact, if you did not provide hospitality, you were just a terrible person. You were literally a bad person, but number two, people had to travel. They didn't travel as much as we do, but things like a census would make them travel.
Speaker 1 00:20:09 For some, the religion required would require traveling. Family needs would require traveling. There's a whole nother level here, which is flight from conflict. You might've lived your entire life in a village. And there was a neighboring tribe that came over and took over, killed your family. And you're fleeing for your life. You're running in the middle of the night for hours. You come to a village and what do you need? I need the experience of home. I need to be safe. I need to rest. I need to eat. I need to sleep. I need to be with somebody who can just let me be who I am. I mean, in the ancient times, this was essential.
Speaker 1 00:20:44 Okay? Goodwill. Imagine somebody comes to your tribe and you open your home to them. Then they go back home. And what do they speak of your tribe kindly or mainly no kindly. They welcomed us. And it actually prevents future battles and wars. It provides comradery against what could be competing tribes with each other. But there there's a, there's a fifth reason that people of God do this. And I think this is one of the most important for today. It's the spiritual impact. When you are welcomed into someone's home, your heart is soft to them. When, when you're not an inconvenience to someone and they want you in, you're in their home. And they're providing for you a place where you can be authentically yourself, your heart is going to be tendered to them. And if you feed them and you give them sustenance for life, I am telling you that is a double whammy. Our hearts are softened to those who feed us my love language. I am convinced as you feeding me
Speaker 2 00:21:55 And many
Speaker 1 00:21:56 Of you have fed me. And when I am in your home, my heart is just soft and tender to you. A soft heart. I want you to hear me. It is ideal soil for planting the gospel. So you take a hard heart to Christianity. Their heart might be hard to the religion, but if they are in your home and you give them the freedom to be fully themselves and safe, and you feed them, their heart can be soft to the gospel. Even though they hate religion, even though they hate these notions of Jesus. Do you know why people become Mormons? Not because they read the book of Mormon. No, that book is weird. They become Mormons because the people
Speaker 2 00:22:42 Are so nice
Speaker 1 00:22:45 And they have mastered hospitality. And what they know is that when you're in my home, your heart is tender and soft to me. And it's also tender and soft. The things I value, I become a human to you and you become interested in my story. It is a powerful, powerful practice. So what does hospitality look like in a post COVID world? I want to share with you three new rules for hospitality and a post COVID world. Here's rule. Number one, a healthy and open home is imbued with more spiritual power than ever before. Okay. Let's, let's actually change the words. A semi-functional and open home is imbued with more power than ever before. Let's, let's revisit this notion of home in the west, which is where we live the home, our home. It is a retreat. We go there to get away from people. This is my place all day long. You try to get my attention. I go home as a westerner to get away. But in scripture, our home is also a place of refuge
Speaker 2 00:23:54 For others. So
Speaker 1 00:23:56 Yes, I go to retreat, but when people need refuge, my home is a place for them. And the west, our home is a commune. It's closed, right? But in scripture, our home is a place of community
Speaker 2 00:24:10 Where the doors opened,
Speaker 1 00:24:12 Where people want food, there's food for them to eat. You guys, I'm going to date myself. So forgive me. Uh, for some of you, I'm like a little child for some of you I'm ancient. So do you remember the eighties? I was alive in the seventies, so I don't remember those, but I remember the eighties. Let me tell you what happened in the eighties. Kids meandered all over the place. Nobody called the cops on them. You see a bunch of kids, like 10 miles from home on a bike. It's like sweet homes were open. You could go to people's door. Anytime you wanted. I did a paper route and I had, I had a couple of hundred customers. And so I I'd go collect at their house. I was never anxious to go to their door. In fact, if they didn't answer, I'd see if it was unlocked. I'd be like, Hey, you home. Now. I have a different issue, which is uncomfortable wherever I am. And if you feed me, I'm immediately at home and I have this really bad practice. I put my feet up on the table. I know it's terrible. You're like, you're a slob. I know I get it. But you know, I'm comfortable because I have this subconscious thing I put my feet up. And then you tell me, put your feet down. I do. Cause I honor you.
Speaker 1 00:25:20 But do you remember the eighties? Do you remember that? Now? It's like the only person welcome at my front door is the Amazon guy. And that is that you are welcome. Anytime. Come by. We love you. You bring gifts. Even how we approach our home, it's actually changed. And let me, let me just tell you why this has changed. It's very simple. Social scientists have put their brains together and figured it out. It didn't take much energy
Speaker 2 00:25:44 With the
Speaker 1 00:25:47 On-ramping of 24 7 technology where you can be accessed anywhere. Anytime you must leave your phone on and respond, be a super responder all the time. All the time, you're always available. It is the one place we can go and shut out the world. And let me, let me just be clear. Sometimes you need to go home and you need to shut out the world, but not at the expense of someone who's in need. And if we keep our home shut, which is becoming over the last 16 months, the practice of Christians everywhere, we're losing the wonderful opportunity
Speaker 2 00:26:20 To love on people in need to give them the experience of home
Speaker 1 00:26:23 And to plant the gospel in the soft soil of their heart. The vast majority of children coming into our churches and homes. I want you to capture this. They do not know what a healthy home looks like. I don't know if you're totally aware of that. We had, we had one on Monday nights and there'd be a couple hundred kids in this, in this place. The vast majority of them were loved so well here. And they kept coming back because this was like a second home for them. And that's special. We have the opportunity now to create these environments and give someone the experience of home and to love them really, really well. Most of most, most kids were learning. They have not been in other people's homes for like a year and a half for many kids. What they know of homes is simply what they see on TV.
Speaker 1 00:27:16 And that is, that is the extent of it. Let me, let me empower you for a moment in your home. Would you ever go to the home of a Muslim and ask them or expect them to not like a Muslim? The answer of course is we'd never do that. It's incredibly rude. So why is it that Christians act like they're not Christians when they have people into their own homes? Why is that? We're afraid to talk about the most important thing in our life. When we people are in our homes, there's an interesting, like aggregation of authenticity that we'd often do. When people come into our homes, we're like, we don't wanna, we don't wanna offend her. Let me just give you great encouragement. It is socially acceptable for you to be you in your home. Now, if you're a jerk, is that socially acceptable?
Speaker 1 00:28:02 No, don't be a jerk. Be nice, but don't ever not be a Christian because when you're in one's home, they set the culture, the rules, the boundaries, the expectations. And when you're in my home, Jesus is the leader of this home. We pray before meals. We talk about spiritual things. We talk about our lives. We tell funny stories, our homeless should be a real place. It's not just a place where we go to be superficial. It's a place we go to be kind of raw and honest and real. And you will see my wife and I bicker and you'll see us have a blast and tell funny stories. You'll see us ask people who come in really invasive questions because we love to get to know people, but it's our home.
Speaker 2 00:28:45 And we can do that. And it's your home. You set the rules and that is socially acceptable. Rule. Number two, an open table is an accelerant
Speaker 1 00:28:54 For the gospel. Like never before. I want to tell you two stories. The first is pastor Tom stark university reform church in Michigan state. I got there my freshman year, I got a phone call and somebody says, Hey, I'd love to invite you to dinner. And I said, where are you at? I said, look out your window. And out my window was university reformed church. And I said, I'll be there. And I showed up and it was a church just like this intergenerational and a whole bunch of college students. You know, they did.
Speaker 2 00:29:25 They fed us every single week and it was awesome.
Speaker 1 00:29:32 He didn't even love. Jesus just went there for the food and they would do this thing where the worship pastor would get up. And, and he would, uh, lead a song before and they would pray and they would have spiritual discussions. But guess what? They're feeding me. Who am I to say, I don't want to do that. So we just stayed there and we sang and we did what we did. And they had complete control over everything because they were the hosts. And then I go to church, you know, they did a church. They fed us. Do you know why we have food out there as a university, reformed church and Lansing, Michigan. But they taught me, was that food softens, people's heart. You walk into a church. It might be your first time. And it's like, this is the last place you want to be going to.
Speaker 1 00:30:11 A church is really anxiety feeling for a lot of people. Am I going to know anybody there? Am I going to stand awkwardly? And there's something about food that just disarms you. That's why we do that. And because we're hungry that's but mostly because of the spiritual purpose, Tom, pastor, Tom, he invited me and four other guys to his house every Tuesday night for pizza. Because in his words, my wife makes the best pizza ever. And it was delicious. And every Tuesday night we would go to pastor Tom's house and he was in control and there were things we were not allowed to do. We had the habit of telling inappropriate jokes. He would always rebuke us and say, that doesn't happen in my house. He would do a Bible study with us. And in fact, one of the more influential moments in terms of my calling to ministry happened in his home.
Speaker 1 00:30:57 I was asked to teach a couple of weeks prior. And I was like, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to, what to teach on. And I went to Tom and I said, pastor, Tom, how do you get up every week and know what to preach on? I'll never forget his big Bible. And he's quiet. And he walks over to the big Bible and he picks it up and he just starts thumbing through all the pages real slow. And he looks at me and he says, I never run out of things to preach. And I was in that moment, I was like, I was struck and the Lord put in my heart for the first time in that moment, like, I think I want you to be a Bible teacher just in pastor Tom's home because my heart was soft to anything. He told me because he's so faithfully
Speaker 2 00:31:45 Fed me and he opened up his home, especially
Speaker 1 00:31:49 In a time when you're in college and you're away from your family, it was one of the most meaningful experiences. The second is pan Dan Selvaggio. Many of you know them for 15 years. We had meals at their house every Tuesday night. And let me tell you what would happen every Tuesday night. It seemed that there were, there were young men and young women and adults, and they would just knock on the door and they would show up. And guess what? Dan always had more than enough food, always spiritual conversations left, right? Why? Because it's their home. And they opened up their home. They opened up their table and people came in droves. Can I get an amen from any of this voucher clan in the back? And it's a powerful gift and blessing. People who had really dysfunctional homes could go into their home and they could have health. They could have reality. It was authentic. It was real. They hide anything. And it was just a wonderful place to be. And I watched
Speaker 2 00:32:41 Firsthand a family, just faithfully opened up their home
Speaker 1 00:32:46 And invite anybody into it. I'm telling you it's softens. People's heart. If you want to see people, you love know Jesus, invite them over. And if they're willing to come into your home, provide a meal for them. Here's the third rule. An open social life is the new frontier of biblical hospitality. The vast majority of Americans are looking for
Speaker 2 00:33:05 Friends
Speaker 1 00:33:07 And the vast majority of Americans are not finding friends. Now homes are closed, like never before many people still do not let you come into their home. So what's happening is people are going out. And I just want to encourage you, your social life. What you do outside of your home is one of the most powerful tools you have in your arsenal for a lonely world, people are dying to be invited to anything. And then they go on social media and they scroll and they scroll and they see these people have friends. And these people have friends that bitterness and hatred and frustration and just contentment and the evil one is a yes. Keep doing that. Keep doing that. You're alone. Nobody loves you. They don't want you. There is something powerful about an invitation. Some of you know, some of you know, somebody I should have been inviting them out with us sooner, just a hangout. It is incredibly powerful.
Speaker 2 00:34:06 Take them out to eat.
Speaker 1 00:34:07 And now hospitality is wherever you are. There are two great social pains being experienced right now, more than ever before. Number one is the pain of being left out. But number two, and this is even more so it's the pain of having no friends to be left out of. So do not think for a moment that that neighbor friend of yours or the person you work with has real friends that they feel known, heard, understood, loved invited or welcomed in you. The Lord may put one person on your heart and now hospitality is in this new world. It's way beyond your home. It's now going to your social life. I want to share with you three. So what's number one, kill grumbling everywhere. But especially in hospitality first, Peter four nine show hospitality to one another without grumbling. I'm going to say this again. God hates grumbling. I'm like, Lord, I want to see people come to know Jesus, but I'm going to do something that you hate, which is grumble and complain the whole time about it. Like no stop grumbling. It is a privilege to be able to open your home and perfect as it is and give someone else the experience
Speaker 2 00:35:26 Of home. It's a privilege
Speaker 1 00:35:29 And nothing is more on hospitable in hospitable than a grumbler. Well, I mean, if I have to have you over, I will, I guess, right? You kill all the power. You just make someone's heart hard. You make them feel like an inconvenience. And in my home, you're not in inconvenience. When you're in my home. I want to give you the experience of being home. Now I can hear your brains already. There are a thousand reasons why you're the exception to hospitality.
Speaker 2 00:35:58 I'm broke.
Speaker 1 00:36:00 I'm poor. I don't have enough money. I'm single. I can't do that alone. That's weird. If I invite people to my house, like I've heard it all. My home is a mouse. My kids are crazy. It's my space. There are a million reasons. And I'm not even going to like, just discuss all of them now. Like that's something they're one-on-one if you've got major objections, like I am the exception to being a hospitable person, right? Like talk to somebody that you respect and love and you guys can work it out. Let me encourage you though with a second. So what hospitality is a hallmark of a mature believer. The early church actually understood this really well. Did you know that it is a requirement? If you're going to be an elder that you have proven hospitality, listen to first Timothy chapter three, verse two, he says, therefore, an overseer pastor, elder Bishop, all the same thing must be above reproach. The husband of one wife. Sober-minded self-controlled respectable, all good things, right? Hospitable. Why? Because if you had an inhospitable, elder, it brought shame on the entire church. And they also knew that this is the most strategic way for people's hearts to be softened for the purpose of the gospel.
Speaker 1 00:37:14 Now, unless you think this is just for pastors, Romans chapter 12, verse 12, here's what he says. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Now pause is that for everybody? The answer of course is yes. Should we all be rejoicing in hope and patient and tribulation, everybody say yes, right? Yes. Then he says, be consistent in prayer. Does that apply to everybody in the room? Yep. Contribute to the needs of the saints. And then he says, and seek to show hospitality. It's interesting because this is not a suggestion for the church. This is actually a command. It's interesting that show hospitality comes right after be constant in prayer. Hebrews chapter 13, verse one and two says this, let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Why does this command even have to be given? Because people were prone to neglect hospitality to strangers, and then he says, here's a crazy verse. You can study this later on your own for thereby some have entertained angels
Speaker 2 00:38:27 Unaware. If you're a widow
Speaker 1 00:38:30 And the church, and you wanted financial aid, I want you to hear the, for widows to get financial aid from the church, let a widow be enrolled in financial aid. If she is not less than 60 years old, having been the wife of one husband, having a reputation for good works. If she has brought up children and has shown hospitality. If your home was closed, when you were married and then your husband dies and you want the church to provide for you, they would say, no. If you were in hospital, this is interesting. This is not a suggestion. The next step is okay. How do I take my
Speaker 2 00:39:11 Front door? My front porch, a fire pit in my backyard, my car, my table,
Speaker 1 00:39:20 My social life, and begin to leverage these to love people, faithfully and well, especially those who don't know Jesus. And then first Peter four nine show hospitality to one another, without grumbling, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards.
Speaker 2 00:39:42 Lastly.
Speaker 1 00:39:43 So number three, never has the practice of Christian hospitality been more needed than now.
Speaker 2 00:39:51 Never. So all the opportunities are right in front of you.
Speaker 1 00:39:57 You have the loneliest people all around you than has ever been in American history. As far as we
Speaker 2 00:40:01 Know it, there are more hurting
Speaker 1 00:40:04 People now than ever before in American history. As far as we've been able to study it, there's never been a greater need. And yet this singular practice for 2000 years in church history has served the church well to help soften people's hearts. So they might have the gospel planted
Speaker 2 00:40:22 And their souls. So what's your next step.
Speaker 1 00:40:29 It's a question we ask at the end of every one of our services, but I want you to start thinking right now, is there a person that God has put in your heart? Is there family that God has put on your heart or their kids in the neighborhood that God has put on your heart? Are there different things that you can do to begin to open up your heart, your home and your
Speaker 2 00:40:46 Life so that
Speaker 1 00:40:48 People might know Jesus. Now the end of our services, we celebrate communion together. Uh, the communion cups are not under your chairs. We're going to do something a little bit different today.
Speaker 1 00:41:01 But as we talk about hospitality, this is such a beautiful reminder of the gospel because God's house is open to anybody who will come and eat with him through faith in Christ. God's table is open for anyone who trusts in Christ. There is no one that God will turn away if they would trust in Christ. And our hospitality is a beautiful shadow and image of the gospel. And today we're going to celebrate communion and communion as this moment where we come together and we look back and we remember what Jesus did for us. Remember that God has opened up his entire home to us, through faith in Christ because of what Jesus did on the cross for our sins. We remember that there is no reconciling our relationship with God, unless it is through faith in Christ. And so if you're here today, maybe you're visiting for the first time.
Speaker 1 00:41:52 Maybe you're from a different church. I want to invite you. If you have trusted in Jesus personally, I want to invite you to partake of communion with us because we are one in Jesus Christ. Now there might be some of you here and you have personally never trusted in Jesus and you are sensing today's the day you need to trust in Christ. And here's what I wanna encourage you to do. And, and just a little bit, we're going to go get elements if you didn't get them already, when you came in and we're going to sing a song and we're going to have a Thomas silence, and here's what I wanna encourage you to do. If you are ready to trust in Christ, I want to encourage you to partake of communion because partaking of communion, when you do this, you make a declaration. Here's what you're declaring.
Speaker 1 00:42:30 When you partake of communion, I believe I'm a sinner. I believe Jesus Christ is my God. And he died on the cross for my sins. I believe God raised him from the dead. I believe he's coming back. And I, I do not believe it is my good works at all. That are my salvation. Jesus was good for me. If you were here today, you believe that and you want to give your life to Christ. I want to invite you to partake of communion with us, and then after the service, if you'd be so kind of, I'd love to just hear that. Pray with you, resource you encourage you. We'd love to help you take a next step in your relationship with God. So here's how we're going to do communion today. We're going to have a time of silence and then the band's going to come up and we're going to sing, um, as they come up, if you didn't get the elements, when you came in, there are elements in the back corner by the beam here.
Speaker 1 00:43:12 There's elements in the back corner by the beam there. And there's some right between the two double doors here during the song I'm gonna encourage you. You can get up, you can go get the elements. And then I want to ask you to hold onto them to the end of the song. When the song is done, I'm going to come up and I'm going to read some scripture and then we're going to partake together as a symbol of our unity in Jesus. So let's have a time of silence as we remember what God has done. Yes.
