Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 <inaudible> village
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Church, Vicki basing you're here. And I'm studying with pastor Michael fueling. And we're going through this sermon Q and a for June 13th, 2021, where he talked about practical evangelism for a lonely world. And in this sermon you talked a lot about hospitality. And so the question that we have today is what are some good reasons not to practice hospitality? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:00:30 There, there are some people particularly come out of COVID who are like, can you please give me a reason to not open up my home? Pretty pleased with it. You're going to cough, which I appreciate after the sermon, a couple of people came up and they're like, so
Speaker 3 00:00:40 What about, because it's realistic objections in first,
Speaker 2 00:00:45 Peter four, he says, show hospitality without grumbling. You know, and it's, it's interesting because I love how he anticipates that there is going to be, uh, a resistance to this, you know? And, and so I, I just am always amazed at how intuitive the authors of scripture are, were as if they were inspired and filled with always spirits.
Speaker 3 00:01:07 Just that long though.
Speaker 2 00:01:08 Um, so I just appreciate little things like that, and I'm going to be honest and, uh, I don't think anybody's going to see this until well, after the experience, but there, there is. Um, th there is an experience in our family where, uh, there are people coming to our house. Now we have people at our house all the time. So this is not like our home is like, I'll go all the time. And I was super resistant. And I mean, to the point where I've given my wife a pretty hard time about this one,
Speaker 1 00:01:37 Which is crazy since you're so extroverted and love people, correct. Um,
Speaker 2 00:01:41 Correct. Well, I have tasks I need to get done this week. Yeah. Literally like, you know, and I'm like, you've got a list for me and I want that list to get done, and I'm not sure how that's going to happen with, uh, with a whole bunch of more people in my home after we've already had weeks and weeks of people in our home. So, uh, so I was preaching this message and, oh man, I was convicted. I was like, oh, you're so selfish. Like, this is, you're the bad person who was like, no, you may not come to my home. I want my space, you know, anyways, so I was convicted personally, but hospitality is, um, uh, more than just how we use our home and our resources. It is about, um, our heart being open to people. And it is about our home being an extension of that.
Speaker 2 00:02:22 And yeah, and, uh, this is such a beautiful illustration of the gospel and anybody is welcome in God's home. If they come through the door of Jesus Christ and period, there is no exclusions, anybody. It doesn't matter how bad you been. If you trust in Christ, you're welcome to sit at his table. So, um, this is a great, beautiful illustration of the gospel. So, um, we made a list of six big reasons why, uh, and I hope this gives clarity and maybe if you're like me this past week, and you're just kind of being selfish. Um, I don't think any of the reasons here are selfish, think they're realistic, life happens. Um, and so what's number one, number two,
Speaker 1 00:02:59 Number one that we talked about was health. So maybe you just went through a surgery or you have a major injury, or maybe it's a mental health issue recovering from something. So going through a season where your body or your mind is in that space where you either can't have people coming into your home. So I, my family went through this personally last year, both my husband and I needed surgeries within two weeks of each other. You don't
Speaker 3 00:03:22 Want to have like a whole, you don't want a missionary family staying with you for that week. I don't understand
Speaker 1 00:03:28 When I have people coming over very often. I mean, we were blessed with, you know, some help ourselves, but, uh, from a health standpoint, we just, we couldn't open up her
Speaker 2 00:03:35 Home. Totally. Um, so there issues of health, like chronic illness, severe mental health issues. I mean, when we think about like health, I mean, that's, there's a lot of reasons if you're in the middle of a schizophrenia bout, you know, like probably not going to have people over, over to your home. And so here's the second category, which is trauma. Um, this is a broad category, but trauma would be an experience that sorta cripples your life, your normal experience of life. Um, traumas usually require quite a bit of time to recover from. And, uh, so a trauma might be like, if we're talking biblically speaking, it could be, um, there has been a war and you and your family are refugees. That that is a traumatic experience. Um, your spouse has died. That is a traumatic experience. Um, it could be, it could be a surgery that has had really terrible ongoing implications. That's like a traumatic experience. You might've gone through a divorce, that's a traumatic experience. And, and so even as Peter says, show hospitality and stop grumbling. Yeah. I have a hunch of, you told him my entire life is falling apart right now. Could they go to someone else's house? And he would say, totally get it. In fact, right now you need hospitality. Yeah. So a third category. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:04:46 So the third category we talked about was seasonal, right? So sometimes we go through seasons where either we have like a lot of travel maybe for work or otherwise, perhaps we have, you know, a major project or a launch at work and we're just kind of, you know, bogged down and we can't open up our hearts. And there would be that kind of like entrance for grumbling grumbling. And like Satan would kind of have a nice little, you know, foot in the door where we could have a situation arise. Um, but we have talked about like, there are seasons, now it should seasons be five years long. No. Um, but it is kind of one of those things where there can be grace extended in certain seasons. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:17 If your job has a huge deadline and a project you've been working on for two years, you know, and for
Speaker 1 00:05:22 Acquisition or something like that, like that, that happens. That's a thing. Yeah. Interesting.
Speaker 2 00:05:27 Because when that happens, it's usually the husband or the wife who gets left doing all of the work. And if you have kids in your home at the same time, and there's one, you know, it's, it's just a recipe. And so it's, you have permission to say, this is literally a bad season and we're not going to be able to really give you our best. Um, but in those moments, what I would do is I would say, Hey, what about these people? I'll call some friends and say, Hey, could you help us? Um, because I can still be hospitable by opening up someone else's home, if they're willing and
Speaker 1 00:05:53 Coming back to what you said in the onset, it's a heart situation necessarily just like opening your front door.
Speaker 2 00:05:59 Amen. All right. The next one is, uh, familial. So you might have a child who screams all night long, and if you're going to have a missionary family come in and they're just never going to sleep, you might have a spouse who is not a believer or they're in a really bad season. And they're just like, no, we don't like, like what I was this week with Melanie, not an unbeliever, but just apparently not being hospitable and loving when I did have the margin for it. Technically, you know, uh, I literally had to rebuke myself. I was like, Michael, you cannot
Speaker 4 00:06:29 Get up and preach without like repenting
Speaker 2 00:06:32 Of that. Um, but, um, yeah. And then, I mean, a spouse, if you have a spouse who's resistant, um, that will make, they're gonna, they're not going to hide it. And it's gonna make the people in your home feel very much like they're in a company. I
Speaker 1 00:06:44 Think that we've all probably experienced something like that, where you've walked into a situation. And one of the two people potentially, if they're married, living there, one of them doesn't watch it all day.
Speaker 2 00:06:53 Yep. Yep. Been there, been there. Yep.
Speaker 1 00:06:55 All right. Uh, number five is just EEQ reasons. So maybe you've invited people over a lot or extended yourself, you know, in a hospitable manner and people just keep saying no. Yep. So what about then Michael, is, are you pushing back? It's one of those situations where, you know, are you, are you reading the room, right? Do you know who you're talking to you? Um, are you working with them in the way that they need that hospitality? Right. It's not about you, right? Like if you want to have a giant, you know, party in your backyard, but you're talking to people who don't like being in big crowds, don't like barbecue food, you know, like just kind of make sure that you are not thinking about yourself in this house, hospitality mode. You're thinking about the people on the other side, if you're taking in a refugee family or you want to, and you aren't asking the right questions, you aren't preparing for them. You're like, oh, I've made all of these things the way that I would like it. Um, that would be kind of a big thing that would be,
Speaker 2 00:07:49 And that there, there are people who want to the one open their home, they want to open their life. And, um, and for some reason, people keep saying, no, I think it's always fair. If you keep getting rejected on something, ask somebody that you feel safe with, that you love. Is there something going on with, you know, what's going on? Um, our last reason, and there's a little funny one. Um, you should not be hospitable if you are a prosperity, preacher,
Speaker 3 00:08:14 Let me tell you why though. Let me tell you why. So,
Speaker 2 00:08:17 Um, if, when you bring someone into your home, we talked about how it softens their heart to the gospel, right. But if you were preaching a false gospel, I don't
Speaker 3 00:08:24 Want them in your home.
Speaker 2 00:08:27 We talked about, we talked about Mormonism and, um, it's interesting that when people convert to Mormonism, they don't convert to Mormonism because they read the Mormon Bible because it's nonsense. Right. And I, and I love, I love my Mormon friends. I'm just like people they even
Speaker 4 00:08:41 Know. They're like, yeah. You know?
Speaker 2 00:08:43 Um, but like people convert to Mormonism because the Mormon people are so hospitable kind and relational and connecting, and it's a very powerful thing. And when you're in their home, you're hard to soften. And so if you're a prosperity preacher, which you're not listening to this anyway, that was my own entertainment. Maybe this, how about this? If you have a false gospel message, any of them go to a Christian House, don't go
Speaker 1 00:09:09 At them. Be hospitable to you. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's awesome. Well,
Speaker 2 00:09:12 I want to, I want to thank you for joining us again. Um, we had a little fun on this, but, uh, the
Speaker 5 00:09:16 Command is to show hospitality and yes, there are exceptions. Then God's very gracious and understanding. You might be in a season where you need hospitality, but if that is not your season right now, show hospitality, open your heart, open your social lives, open your home, open your table. Um, because the, the gospel is planted in soft hearts. And that's what hospitality does. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.
