[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: I want to start first of all by just saying how grateful are we that we can be here today? You know, we just didn't know exactly what the weather would bring yesterday and our meteorologists trying to prepare us for what could have been the worst case scenario. And I'm thankful today that we can all be here and worship together. But we know that there are some people who went through some tough times and, you know, news is pouring in about people that will be in need and certainly we want to be sensitive to that and pray for those families. So if you don't mind, let's do that. Before we get into our message this morning, Father, we thank you so much for all that you are and for all that you do. We recognize, Father, that there may be people who are struggling this morning, going through tough times that have been hit with devastation or loss. And Father, we want to lift them up to you. We pray for your people to surround them and to give them the comfort that they need and to provide for them in ways that they need in this moment. Help us to be attuned to those things and listen for opportunities, Father, that we may be able to be of help as well. And again, we just thank you so much for the protection that we received yesterday through those storms and help us to realize that you're always there, even in the toughest of times, and that you help us navigate the challenges of our life every day. Help us to have confidence in that. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
We are continuing or actually wrapping up our series on Home Here and we've focused in on two specific things. One is fellowship and one is hospitality. And we want to make a distinction between those two. As you recall, we talked about fellowship and that is something that we enjoy in our relationship together as brother and sisters in Christ. We may be friends, we may be close, we may have a good relationship and companionship and those kinds of things. But what makes our relationship that more special is the reality that we have something that unites us together and that's the blood of Christ. And so that brings us to a deeper relationship with one another. And of course, hospitality is something just a little bit more assertive to the external, those maybe outside of Christ that we want to reach out to and that we want to open up our doors to them. Because the word for hospitality in the New Testament is that word of lover of strangers or a lover of guests. So the idea is that we look beyond ourselves. And so we wanted to make that distinction between those two things because, and I'll put a quote up on the screen a couple of weeks ago that I want to bring us back to, and it's simply this, and I may not quote it exactly, but it's something to this effect that says, you know, there is a. Hospitality is a key component of fellowship. And what I mean by that is when we invite each other into our homes and we already have a close relationship, there's something amazing about that. There's some hospitality that's a part of that, right? Bringing someone in, like giving them the red carpet treatment, those kinds of things. But that's a special relationship that we enjoy in fellowship. But the goal of all fellowship must be as an end result, or the goal of every hospitality effort should be that of fellowship, meaning that when we bring people into our homes, whether we agree with them or not agree with them, that the aim and the goal is to love them so much that they begin to ask questions. And we can have an opportunity to teach and encourage them and share with them some of the things in our life that are most valuable and most important to us. And so that's what we're encouraging everybody to do. So we've been putting this up for the last several weeks, and we just want to remind you that this week we're encouraging everybody. And I think about this. There are 600 plus family units in this church. And if all of us are inviting our neighbors, our friends, our co workers, we're bringing them into our home and investing in them. Just imagine the kind of reach that will take place in this city and in this county as a result of your efforts. And we're looking forward to that. And we can't wait to see exactly what's gonna come as a result of that. So I want you to right now begin opening up your mind. If you haven't already, if you haven't already thought about who you would invite if you haven't make that invitation. So right now, seriously contemplate what's that going to be like and how is God going to use this moment for good? And I want you to be thinking about that. This week. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about hospitality. And as we've been studying this, there have been several examples in my life that have popped up that I thought were pretty amazing and things that were, you know, where I really felt like I had been given the best treatment you could possibly be given. And I've shared a few of those with you, but I'm gonna share another one with you. When I was in college at Faulkner, several guys in my social club, we were going to do a service project and we were looking for a place to go and to preach and to do services for a church, but also kind of canvas their area and knock on doors and try to invite people to the church. And I had a good friend named Rob Gerganis, and several people in this audience know who Rob is. Rob is probably, and I'm not exaggerating, the kindest person you will ever have met in your life. He is just so kind. And I called Rob and I said, rob, is it possible that where your dad preaches, his dad's name is LT Gerganis? I said, is there a way that we could come and work that area, knock on doors and then maybe, you know, do the services on Sunday? And he said, absolute, you will come. Oh, please come, please come. And again, if you knew Rob, you'd understand. He is very just compassionate, kind hearted or what have you. And so we show up to his house and his house, it's in the middle of Cordova, Alabama, okay? It's in Walker county, the Jasper area, Carbon Hill, that kind of thing. People are spread out all over the place. There was all kinds. I got chased by a goose one time on a door knocking camp. That was it. This was that experience. But when we got to where Rob lives, he had this massive house, I'm talking old school house, like built in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Huge tall ceilings in the house, the creaky wooden floors, all those kinds of things. But it was really felt like you were at a really nice bed and breakfast type thing, you know. And so the moment we showed up, pulled up into the driveway, Rob is there at the door, opening up the door, come on in, come on in. And he's like, literally he's just welcoming us, like he's our own personal concierge, you know, and he Brings us to the place, says, here, let me have your bags. He takes them out of our hands and puts them over here. Let me welcome you over here for our. Our appetizers before dinner. So then we have our appetizers before dinner, and then surely we came to dinner. It was, like, on real fancy plates and all this kind of stuff. I'm like, man, we're like a bunch of guys. We eat at Taco Bell for a living. This doesn't jive. But he just kept going. And then he's like, okay, it's time for me to take you to your quarters. And I'm like, what is he talking about? He grabs my luggage and starts walking up the stairs, and he opens up the door, and I mean very dramatically, like, welcome to your quarters, you know? And I'm like, rob, what has gotten into you? And so he walks over, and I look at. And the sheets, they're pulled down, like they're turned down. And there's, like, chocolates on the bed, and there's, like, this silver basin with a silver picture of ice water. He's like, I wanted to make sure you had a snack, and if you needed anything to drink that you'd be able to do that straight from your bed. You wouldn't have to get up at all. Now, would you like for me to draw your bathwater? I said, hey, Rob, that's enough.
That's enough, man. Too much. But if you know Rob, you understand.
He felt like hospitality was his gift, and he tried to make everyone feel special. I was trying to find pictures to show kind of what this would have looked like. And you look at that and you're thinking, that's crazy. But when you look up stuff on the Internet, you sometimes get some interesting things, too. And I'm gonna tell you, if you invite me to this place, I'm never leaving. I mean, that's like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right? All at one time.
Hospitality, though, making someone feel incredibly special. And I hope that you're thinking about that with this week and that you're taking some time to consider how you could make someone feel that special. I was looking at all these stories in the Bible, and I spent a lot of time looking at each one of them, kind of picking some things out of them and drawing what is it that God gives us this whole picture of hospitality in the scriptures. And so, one by one, I was going through these things and trying to pull up different things that would have given us a better, broader picture of what hospitality is. And so I was looking at these. And Abraham, we talked about it, about how he ran out of his tent, you know, approached the people, fell down, kind of as a way of showing them respect and honor, went above and beyond what was required of him to take care of them, provide meals for them. You know, he just really showed them what it meant to be a special person to him. Rebecca, you know, Abraham sends a servant to go find a wife for Isaac. And he gets there, and this woman, Rebecca, this young lady, she is getting water for her family.
The servant asks for water. She provides not only water, but provides water for his. For all of his livestock. And then says, hey, we have plenty of straw. We have plenty of places to stay, and invites them into their home. Beautiful expression of taking care of a total stranger. And then you got the widow of Zarephath. You remember this, how Elijah shows up there, and it's kind of a famine going on, and there's not much food to be found. And he shows up at this place, and this woman has just a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil, and it's it. Her goal was to find a few sticks, you know, get a fire going, take that final bit of flour and oil, and make something for her and her son and for her to die.
And Elijah comes in and says, hey, give me a morsel of that. And she's like, well, okay, if it's what the Lord wants. And so she sacrifices and gives him that. And of course, the Lord continues to multiply that flower and that oil, so she never is wanting. Just a powerful story. The Shumanite woman. Think about how she was wealthy enough to be able to build a separate room on top of the roof of their house to make provisions for Elisha to come and stay there whenever he was passing through. Just think about the acts of kindness that you see the Good Samaritan looking past the differences of the person that's hurt, and instead of looking down and saying, well, you deserve this, you pig, you. You know, he binds him up and bandages him, takes him to a place, puts him in good place to stay for the night, promises to come back and pay for any extras that may need to be covered. In the midst of all that, what a beautiful illustration that is of hospitality. At least this mindset of hospitality. Think about Mary and Martha, two very, very different viewpoints about what hospitality is. You know, Martha's over there worrying about logistics and cooking and taking care of everybody and doing all those kinds of busy things. But what does Mary think about hospitality? Well, she thinks maybe absorb Everything about the person that is our guest. So she's sitting at the feet of Jesus, just wanting to hear more from him. Both are good things. And obviously Jesus preferred that you soak up who he is in that moment. But they both had different views of what it meant to take care of people. Lydia, she and all those ladies are by the river.
They're having prayer time together. And Paul and his companions show up and they're all listening and he teaches them and they're all converted, and he. They invite him into her house. She says, you can't go anywhere. He's looking to move somewhere else. But she says, no, you must come and stay with me. Let me show you that kind of gratitude for what you've done for us.
And then I think about the Philippian jailer just a few verses later. How poorly must that Philippian jailer have treated Paul and Silas as they were thrown into prison? Have you contemplated how that must have been, that relationship strained and their, you know, what they did as an act of compassion when he's about to kill himself and they're about to be released from prison, how they call and say, hey, we're all still here.
And he begins to teach them about Jesus. And it leads to a conversion of all of his household as they bring him. As they bring Paul and Silas into their house to say thank you. Well, I was looking at all this, and I was just thinking about all the lessons, and these are not even all of them. These are just the ones I could fit on the screen. But think about what hospitality is in the greater scope. Not so much just sitting at a table and eating and those kinds of things, but this idea of attentiveness, like the idea that I'm dialed into what your needs are, the idea of sacrifice and to be thankful that God has given me enough that I can share this with someone else. How about this one? Compassion for opposition, meaning people that don't necessarily see things the same way we do, they don't feel the same way, they don't talk the same way, or they don't have the same purposes in life. Think about the differences that we might experience with them, but having compassion for them. Think about listening and just learning, finding out what these people are all about and investing your love and your support in them. And then think about the safety that we provide for people. Come in out of the heat, come in out of the cold. Come to our table and let's have a meal together and enjoy this good conversation.
But then finally, to me, perhaps the biggest Part of all this is the spiritual momentum that you see almost with all of these stories is that hospitality led to an appreciation for who God is. And so I was thinking about all that and I was like, man, I've studied so much about hospitality. There's gotta be a word for that. What was that? Hospitality. And so I came up with that word thinking I was real fancy pants, you know, like I just invented a new word. And imagine my frustration when I found out that there is a word hospitality and it means something different.
But as I studied it, folks, it couldn't have been better. Like, I didn't mean for. I meant to be like the study of hospitality. Let me tell you what hospitality is. It's a mindset that takes the precepts of the hospitality industry. And we're talking about, like, you know, high speed hotels, okay? We're talking about the high end, where they do have that concierge, where they have that red carpet treatment, where they do turn down the sheets and put the chocolates on the bed and all those kinds of things. You know, I grew up going to the Days Inn, if we were really lucky, you know, that kind of thing. This is, we're talking about, like high end hotels, right? They're taking the concepts and the attitudes that guide their care for their guests and they're translating it over into the hospital industry.
So in other words, it's not just that you are getting cared for in the sense of medical procedures and treatments and those kinds of things. No, there's a compassion that's given, there's an investment in the person, there's a bedside manner and there's an approach that says, hey, you're not just here to be taken care of from a medicinal standpoint. You're here because we want to care for you, want to get to know you and, and to take care of you in a way that will make you feel so, so special. Well, I was just thinking about that, like, from a spiritual perspective. Isn't that exactly what we are trying to do with hospitality? Isn't it? I mean, we talk about this all the time. We are not a country club. We're not a place where all the spiritually elite come and gather and high five each other and pat each other on the back for all of our goodness. No, we are all here because we're sick.
We're all here because we have a struggle. We're all here because we need each other in these moments. We come together for worship together to spur us onto love and good works. That's what the Bible tells us. But we need it because you and I, and here's the news flash of all of us is every single one of us are sin sick.
You're either sick in temptation, you're sick in action, you're sick in thought, you're sick in attitude, you're sick in decisions that you've made, sick in your pattern of life.
Can we just all raise our hand, say, that's me.
One of those that you said is me.
And I don't mean to make anybody feel terrible about yourself. I guess what I'm saying is that's why we're here. We're here because the only way we get the healing that we need is when we listen to what Jesus has to say.
And those words infiltrate our heart and they cleanse us from within.
And they challenge us to make better decisions. They challenge us in our attitude, they challenge us in our thought processes. And it encourages us to think deeper about who we are on the inside. And that's why we come together, is for that boost that it gives us and the joy of worshiping God together and that fellowship that we enjoy. But all of that is meant to remind us that we need to be right with God and to bring us back where we need to be. No longer visitors or patients, but guests.
That's exactly why Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 9 when he said, healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do.
Isn't that a good reminder that Jesus came for a very specific purpose? That's why he said, go and learn the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy and not offer sacrifices. For I come to call not those who think they are righteous, but. But those who know they are sinners. That's us. If we could just all admit it and say, I'm broken. I'm messed up. I don't always do things the right way. I don't always think about people the way I should. And if we just open our minds to that a little bit, we're gonna be made aware of areas in our life that we just need to adjust, that we need to let Jesus kind of work on our hearts a little bit. So when I think about this with regard to hospitality and you bringing people into your home, which we're excited about, you know, the question came to me is like, am I going to be eating with people that I disagree with?
Well, yeah, you are probably so. In fact, I would say that if all of us got together and we paired up, we'd probably sit across the table. When there may be something that comes across the conversation, we're like, yeah, I don't really see it that way. You know, we would look at each other that way. Right. Even in this number of people who are, you know, moving in the same direction in life, we would still have some disagreements. So, yeah, you're probably going to have a conversation that you don't necessarily agree with. Well, what do we do with that?
I think we'll be reminded of what Jesus did in Luke chapter 15. These words are said. Tax collectors and other notorious sinners came to listen to Jesus teach. And of course, this made the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. You know, they.
And I think this is where we have to get really kind of inward looking here. There's a couple things that convicted me this week as I was studying. This is, you know, is it possible that we've become religiously elite in our mindset?
And I know, listen, the Bible says in First Corinthians 15, verse 33, that evil communication corrupts good morals.
We know that if we hang around people long enough that are not doing the right thing and we just accept what they're doing and approve of what they're doing, that those things can begin to have an effect on us and they can begin to change the way we live. And so that warning is there for us to not let someone come in and do that.
But Jesus had no problem with this.
In fact, you see that it is his point of all of this. In Matthew chapter nine, the passage that we first started with, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. I think about even just that terminology means that people had judged these folks to be maybe, you know, ruffians in society, people that we wouldn't have been wanted to be around.
But when Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with such scum?
I sat and thought about this a long time.
Have I been guilty of that?
Have you been guilty of that?
That we place a value on people that says, you're not worthy of the gospel, you're not worth, you'll never change. So there's no reason to pour into you. There's no reason to say something to you.
I'm afraid I've been guilty of that.
And I say that not with pride. I say that as in embarrassment, that there are people who just go, well, there's just no hope for them. But what I want you to see is that Jesus made those very people, the ones that he was reaching out to. That's why he said, healthy people don't need a doctor. It's the sick people who do. Luke chapter 15 is a whole series of stories of somebody going after something that is lost because and in fact leaving the people that are saved, or leaving the animals that are saved or what have you to go and find the one that was lost. What's Jesus trying to tell us? He's trying to shape our mentality about things, is he not? He's saying, hey, there's a focus in your mind that I need you to grab. That's why he says, I want you to show mercy and not sacrifices. Now, I want to be clear about this. This is a passage that comes back from Hosea, chapter six. So Jesus is quoting an Old Testament prophet.
And the point of all this is our sacrifices of worship can come off very empty if our heart is not in the right place. You know, it could be that we come together and we feel good because we got dressed up and we came together as a family, we're sitting on our pews, we enjoyed worship, we sang out, we hit all the notes and all those kinds of things. But if my heart is not concerned about the people that are outside of these walls, then that falls kind of flat. Isn't that really what First Corinthians 13 is about? You know, it says, you know, though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am nothing, I think is the word that is used there, right? And it talks about doing all of these things. If I do all these great things, but I don't have love, what am I? I'm just a big noisemaker. I'm just a blabber mouth. I'm just a person who talks about these things, but it's not reality. And so as we're thinking about this and we're talking about hospitality for all of us, man, it's really important for us to stop for just a second and say, how do I see other people in this world?
Jesus says, I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices. No, what we do in here is super important and it is important. But what he's saying is, make certain that the part of your heart that seeks to please me is looking out for someone else who may be in need in some way. So Jesus prefers us to be internally benevolent over performing those external religious duties, even though those religious duties are Important to us. He's saying, get this part right.
So that's why this story, Zacchaeus is so amazing to me. I won't belabor the point. You know, the story. You know, Jesus is walking through towns, and I can't help but think that maybe Zacchaeus was over in different places listening to him teach, because he's very curious about him, right? He goes and he chases after him. And if we were to do a profile of Zacchaeus, you know, you're going to have things like this. He's a chief tax collector. Well, what did that mean? Well, these guys would have to go over into Rome and bid on certain areas. So I guess in the Jericho area, this is where Zacchaeus would have been. And he would have said to the people in Rome, I can assure you that I can garner these amount of taxes from the people in this area and I'll present these to Rome. And then the Roman governance would say, hey, we choose Zacchaeus to go back over and to pull those taxes. Now Zacchaeus is going to have to establish a group of people that are going to help him collect all these things. So he's got his own tax collectors. He's the chief tax collector. They're the tax collectors. So when they go into the homes and they demand taxes, they're thinking in terms of what they've got to get versus what Zacchaeus cut's going to be, plus what they expect to receive in Rome. So you can imagine how the abuse would take place and how these people would be so overtaxed. So when you looked at Zacchaeus, and it must have just really irritated him because he's this little guy that you feel like you could just, you know, and yet he has so much power over them that he's enemy number one. You know, he's not a guy that they would have cared too much about.
But through all that, he still had some kind of disregard for dignity. I mean, he pulled up his cloak and started running. That looks like silly. Climbs up in a tree, which is really something that kids would do, not an adult. It's kind of frowned upon, like behave yourself type thing. And he does that because he's really curious to see who Jesus is. And maybe the biggest part of this story is not just that he would climb up into a tree, but that he was open to change. And I think about all the people in our life that may be open to change that we just haven't given them enough compelling reason to follow Jesus. But he was open to this. And I can't help but think, was he following? Because just before Luke 19, Jesus tells that parable, you remember, of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Remember how they're in the temple and they're praying, and one of them, you know, he can't even look up to heaven. He's a tax collector and he's sinner. He's. He can't even look up. He's beating on his chest, and he's crying out to God to forgive him. And you got the Pharisee over here looking down at him going, lord, I thank you that I'm not like this man, you know, a tax collector.
But Jesus shows that story as a way to say it's this person who's. Who's ready to change his life that receives the blessing that is promised. Like, he's more acceptable, he's more righteous because of his attitude, even though he may have some sin in his life, that attitude of change is what is there. So for the other person who holds himself spiritually elite, think about how that's sort of a condemnation of us thinking too highly of ourselves. So maybe Zacchaeus heard these things as he's coming to this area, and he wants to hear more about Jesus and mercy and forgiveness.
So Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and Jesus, he went with Jesus to his house with great excitement and joy. But then still, people around were displeased because, you know, he's going in there to hang out with a notorious sinner.
So Jesus, I want us to be aware of this because I think we get caught up in this too. Sometimes we're worried about what other people are thinking or saying about us.
But Jesus was unconcerned about their social challenges, their prejudices that they may have. He was more concerned about the person who was lost. And so what takes place, right? He goes in there and he has this conversation with him. So I'm looking at it and I'm thinking to myself, maybe there is a sense in which, you know, we need to be careful about who we invite into our homes and those kinds of things because we don't want bad influences and those kinds of things. But this passage that we keep bringing up, this passage that we keep sharing From Romans chapter 12, is an evidence of the way to go about this. How do we invite someone that we disagree with? How do we overcome these challenges? Well, first of all, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. It doesn't mean you're going to Accept everything that they do in their life. It just means that you're gonna show them love. But the next part is, don't be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. In other words, be focused on the thing at hand, which is that love for them. And then finally, seek to show hospitality. Just overdo it. Make sure that you are kind and that you are gracious and you are loving to these people. And so I was thinking about this story, and I was looking at. And I found myself going, okay, where is the format? Where is the playbook, so to speak, of Jesus teaching Zacchaeus? What was it? Because we know later that Zacchaeus responds very well, right? So why do we not have the context of that conversation? All we know is that he goes into Jesus, goes into Zacchaeus home, and then Zacchaeus makes some pretty powerful expressions. Why is it that we do not have that conversation?
And so that gave me another question in my mind. Could it be that our love for our guests is the accelerant of our Christian influence? Do you know what I mean?
That our love and our compassion and our thoughtfulness toward them is the thing that begins to open their heart, to listen a little bit. We don't know what Jesus said, but we know who Jesus was.
So it may just be that the appearance of Jesus in that room is the thing that changes the heart. And that's something for us to be reminded of as well. We don't have to accept every person's behavior or approve of those things, but we accept them where they are. Jesus gives us example after example after example of coming across people, whether they are brought to him or whether he comes across them and he meets them right where they are. And sometimes I'm afraid with us, and correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like I've been guilty of this. I want someone to be where I want them to be before I give them that kind of attention. Oh, you're receptive. Well, then let me talk to you.
But we don't start with where they are, which may not be very receptive. And show them love, show them mercy, show them compassion. Just something for us to be reminded of. And thinking about this, I found this quote about Jesus and how he treated Zacchaeus in this moment, but how he also stayed true to who he was. And this quote says, Jesus loved broken people extravagantly without ever watering down his values and convictions through. Think about that. He loved them unwaveringly, but didn't feel like he had to sacrifice teaching or the way he thought about things in life that were based on truth.
He accepted them where they are at and compellingly guided them towards wholeness. And that's where we are, right? We're here to be brought closer to wholeness. And that's the whole point of all of this.
So Zacchaeus, affected by all of this, says, I'll give half of my wealth to the poor. Now, just for a moment, the Bible says he's a wealthy man. We don't know what that means, except for he had a lot of money. So let's say that this is the total picture of his wealth. Half of it, this half is immediately given away to the poor. And then this other half, what does he do with that other half? Well, says, hey, if I've offended anybody or if I've cheated someone out of taxes, I'm going to restore that four times as much. What I want you to understand is all of this is probably gone by the time it's all over with.
Why do I say that?
Well, Jesus had some kind of effect on him, right? Some kind of deep impact that caused him to say, this stuff is not worth it. But a relationship with Jesus Christ yields treasures in heaven, and that's where we all want to be.
So Zacchaeus came to a realization. And listen, this is what Jesus said. He said, salvation has come to this home today, you know, and he says he has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. What does that mean? He's a person who has confidence that God is going to lead him. Think about Abraham. Go to a foreign country. I'll tell you where it's going to be. Just take off. Grab all your family and just take off.
That's incredibly difficult to imagine that we would trust him so much that we would just follow that.
But that gives the impression that Zacchaeus in that moment said, I'm trusting God, period. And that's amazing for us to be brought to that.
But don't miss the conclusion of this text, which is for the Son of man came to seek and to save those who are lost. So if that was his mission, then certainly it's got to be our mission as well. We're his people. We're his instruments, right? We're meant to be his ambassadors. In fact, 2 Corinthians 5, 20 says that, right? We are ambassadors for Christ, pleading to others, you know, for God, that they will be reconciled back to him. That's our whole plan. That's the whole reason we exist as Christians, is To reach out to other people. So let's talk real quickly as you're preparing yourself for this. What can you do? Five quick things to get ready for bringing people into your home. Well, the first thing is pray for openness. Pray for your heart to be open. Pray for their heart to be open, and pray for there to be a great experience that, that you'll enjoy together. Good conversation, getting to know one another, and those kinds of things. Listen, we got to put God in the middle of this thing and trust him to help guide the whole situation. Then we got to not sabotage ourselves. Okay, don't go, man, I can't believe we're doing this at church. That's so much pressure. I can't stand that they make us do this. Like, don't sabotage yourself. Don't think it's going to go bad. This is going to be so awkward. I don't even know anything to ask about. Don't do that. Expect things to go well. Guys, people can see it when you open the door, come on in. You know, that is not going to bring anybody that sense of comfort, that sense of welcome. It's not gonna do it. So expect things to go well. You've asked for God's blessing. Have faith that he's gonna make those things come to fruition. The next thing is, and I'm saying this because I want us to be clear, the presence of Jesus is what changes people's lives.
So I'm asking you to invite Jesus to the table.
And I mean that in the sense of your attitude, your compassion for someone, his love for them. Let that be seen through your heart. Model his compassion to people who are different than us.
Then listen and share. Take in everything that you hear. In fact, Andrew and I have been talking about it. We would really love to see pictures.
We'd love to see a photo of you and the family that you brought in. We'd love to hear your great stories, give us a summary. We'd love to hear the good things and the bad things. We want to learn from this and want to know how to do it better. So share those things with us, with a shepherd. Let us know how these things go. But listen intently to find out who these people are and how we can find connections with them.
And then the next thing is commit to regular conversation. And what I mean by that is, like, build this experience up so much that when they leave, you're saying, hey, we've got to do this again. This was so much fun. This was great to get to know you guys. We can come to your place sometime or maybe you and I can meet for lunch sometime during the week when you get a break. I'd love to just catch up again. We don't need to wait too long to let this happen again. Just find a way to be positive in what you're trying to do. And I tell you, I just keep thinking about what God can do when all of us put this concept into action.
And I'm challenging all of us, myself included, to get beyond your comfort zone and to go out and to find these people that need to hear about Jesus. I'm not asking you to preach a five point sermon. I'm encouraging you to show them love like Jesus loved them. And I think we're going to have a great experience and I think you're all going to be blown away at what God does this morning. There may be some who just need the courage, want to come forward and let's pray. We're going to be praying for everybody anyway as we do this over the next week or two. But it could be that there's some who say this peace that you're talking about that comes in Christ Jesus, how do we get there? And I just want to tell you it's fairly simple. It's believe that he's the Son of God. It's be willing to change your pattern of life and turn to God.
It's being baptized into Christ. It's a burial. You put to death your old self and you bury them in baptism. And then, you know, you come up out of that water, your sins washed away into a new life in Christ. And the Bible tells us Galatians 3, we're all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ. That's how we become his heir. That's how we become a child of God. That's how we receive that fresh start and that peace in our heart that says, I'm saved.
If there's anyone who has a need this morning, I hope you'll come. While together we stand and sing.
