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Episode Transcript
[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.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: One of the blessings that I enjoyed all these years here at Madison is that I had an opportunity to work in the youth ministry and to go on mission trips with those kiddos. And it was always so much fun putting together a team, putting together materials. We'd load up a big 6 by 12 trailer of VBS material and we would hit the road and go to somewhere here in the continental US Try to find a church that we could go and encourage. And I don't know how many of those trips were took, I guess 12 or 13 while I was doing youth ministry here. And it was always so much fun and always great. But as you can imagine, if you go and you transplant yourself in someone else's place, you're asking them to take care of you, right? And so there'd be a lot of conversations leading up to that to try to make sure that when we went on these trips that someone was taking care of our kiddos. You know, I'd have to tell the parents as we're leaving and driving to Maryland or, or Iowa or South Carolina or some other place, I have to say, I'm going to take care of your kids. We're going to make sure that they are well provided for. And I remember sometimes the places that we went to did an unbelievable job of that, and there were times where it wasn't quite as good. I remember in particular the kids coming and complaining to me that they had to sleep in a place that looked like a taxidermist hall of fame or something. Like they had dead animals hanging everywhere. And they talked about, like, a light coming in from a window and shining on an owl, that the eyes followed you everywhere you went around the room, you know, and so they, you know, they said, we can't stay in this place anymore, Brandon. We can't do it. You know, But I would say, hey, you can, you can, you can handle it. You'll be okay. There was one time where we arrived at a place where we had everything worked out in advance, but we showed up on the scene and they did not have enough housing. And so their plan was. And they brought me into a room and said, we just need to tell you things have changed a little bit. Here's what we're gonna do. All the girls are gonna just spend the night, every night in the church building. And then there's a high school about three blocks away that every morning they'll get up and walk and take their showers and then walk back to the church building. And I'm like, no, we're not doing it. I can't look at moms and dads back home and go, that was our plan to take care of your kids. So I protested a little bit, and we worked it out and got into some good housing arrangements and that kind of thing. It worked out fine, right? But sometimes it was good, sometimes it was not so good. It's the kind of thing that this phrase reminded me of this. It's like some folks make you feel at home and others make you wish you were right. That's sort of how it was sometimes.
Some churches and groups were better at welcoming us in, and some had some struggles to do that. But I want to share with you one in particular that was just amazing.
To my best memory, this is 2003. We went to the church, Mount Vernon Church of Christ in Alexandria, Virginia, and they were so receptive to us. They were so kind to us. They were so thoughtful about how they received us. I remember driving in and then immediately getting their people to help us unload all of our stuff. They were just shaking our hands and hugging us as if we were family. They just really made us feel special. And here we are. We're rehearsing for a skit that we got coming. Michael Bowen was our intern there. He's the one with the weird looking head. And he was weird for sure. We loved him. He was great. And you'll see a lot of faces in that lineup of people that are still here in this audience with us today. But I not only remember how they, as a church family, took care of us, but I also remembered just how close we got to some of the families. And as I look at these pictures, it just takes me back to the warmth that they provided for us. You know, imagine you're a family. You have three small children and you bring in four teenagers to come in and to be a part of this trip. And they're there for your family all week long, and the way they invested in us and poured love into us. And there were several families that we got pictures of where they just. They couldn't leave without getting their picture together. And there was emotions and tears. You can't see it in this picture, but this is just after crying, about to say our goodbyes. And you'll notice some familiar faces in that audience as well, but one you will not know is the man in the back. His name is Terry Wilson. And Terry Wilson, I'll just say this, he reminds me so much of our John Walton here. Compassionate heart, love for people. Shepherd. Oh, man. Just such a loving and hospitable person. I can't even begin to express to you how much love he poured into us day by day, like, in my ear, just saying how much he loved and appreciated the things that were going on on this trip. But I want to take you to something that we did together, Terry and I and a bunch of our teen mission team.
We went and did what was common in our work. We would go from place to place, and we would hit assisted livings and nursing homes, and we would go visit people. But this was different because when we started to go to this place, I said, well, which member of the church are we going to go visit today? Who are we gonna try to encourage? And Terry said, this is not a member of our church. I said, okay. So we go and we make a few visits. And it's not uncommon for us to go into a room like this and sing a few songs, have prayer with them, you know, get a good photo with them and kind of, you know, take a stamp of that moment and appreciate it and all those kinds of things.
But Terri wasn't done.
See, this was a friend or a member of the family from a person there. So it wasn't a member of the church there, but this was a person whose soul was in jeopardy. She'd had a stroke. Her life was not gonna be here much longer. And they really had begun to say she has very little time left. And in that moment of understanding how time was of the essence, Terry took our group there to encourage that woman.
And then this is what happened afterwards.
And until you've seen something like this, you can't appreciate the beauty of it.
You know, he leaned down to this lady, had his Bible in hand. He clasped her hand, and he never let go of it.
And for what we thought, you know, we had already been in there a while. We thought we were leaving and moving on to something else.
But he Said, these young people are here from Alabama to tell people about Jesus. Do you know Jesus?
And so he began to ask her questions. And right there, holding her hand, getting closer and closer on his knee for, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes, he turned page after page of the Bible to teach this woman about Jesus. Now, as I understand it, we left maybe a week or so later, this woman was baptized into Christ because this man took a situation, found a stranger, and he taught her the truth, and she was moved by it.
You know, as I think about this, what Terry Wilson taught me and is teaching us even today, it's the same thing that Andrew said a couple of weeks ago when he said, the goal of our walk is not just to make the righteous people more righteous. It wasn't for us to take that youth group and to go there and for them to suddenly get extra stars in their crowns, so to speak. No, the objective of that trip, the objective of everything that we do in this life, is to invite people, strangers, people that are outside our walls, people that are sinners, that are on the outskirts. Those people, we bring them back so they may get to know Jesus. And he taught such a beautiful lesson in that. And so today, I want to pivot our minds a little bit toward hospitality. We talked over the last several weeks about fellowship. And what that meant was that we would find time to be in each other's homes, that we would enjoy a special relationship of being in Christ together, that we would encourage each other. We'd get to know each other in deeper ways, more intimate ways, but that we would also take. Take this as an opportunity to find comfort in bringing people into our family life and into our homes that maybe we weren't as familiar with. All of this is leading to something else, and I hope that you're opening your minds up to this. The songs we've sung this morning, the scriptures that we read, have all led us to this really kind of tough conviction. And that is, And I'm speaking maybe just for me, is have I done enough of what we're gonna be talking about? And so, as I think about this, I hope you'll join me in this conviction, but also the reality and. And the need for us to get better at this because we're the body of Christ and because God has given us so much. So let's talk about this. What is hospitality? Well, if you look up Webster's, it's gonna say something like this. The friendly and generous reception entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers. And underlying in all that is the Idea that there's like food offered or there's lodging or some kind of place for them to stay. That's why you see the words like hospital and hospitality as representations of this. You know, if you're sick, you go to a hospital, what do you have, you have lodging, you have food, they take care of you while they're also nurturing that health crisis that you're going through. Right? But the same thing for the hospitality industry. It's like places like hotels and, you know, bed and breakfast. They, they bring you in, you're a stranger into their place, but you come in and you're invited into all of the luxuries and all the blessings of the place and what it has to offer, all the amenities that it can give you. Right? So that's kind of what hospitality is based on as our understanding here in our country and how we as Americans sort of understand it. But Henri Noen says this about it. He says, you know, hospitality is the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.
You know, and let's not even think about it necessarily as enemies, but just people that are different than us, people that see things differently, people that have different viewpoints in life, people that have different ideas, ideas that they, you know, that they profess.
It's the idea that we create a place for them that come and they feel the safety net of that, they feel the warmth of it. And those kinds of things in the Leviticus, as God is giving us instruction in Leviticus 19, understand what God is doing to help open up the minds of the people of Israel to how they should treat other people. He says this, don't take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native born Israelites and love them as you love yourself. Well, why is that? Hey, because there was once upon a time, let's don't forget, you were foreigners. You were, you know, in the land of Egypt. And you weren't, you were not surrounded by your own, your own countrymen and your own, you know, culture. You were in some place differently. You remember how that felt? So use that as a way to maybe touch other people. Deuteronomy 10 says something very similar to this. It says, God shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you too must show love to foreigners. For you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. Now, before all of this takes place, and these are all passages in the Old Testament, I want you to see an example of this in Genesis 18. So if you got your Bible and you want to turn there, read real quickly in Genesis chapter 18 to give you an idea. God has already told Abraham that they're going to have Isaac. And these men come and end up on the scene in Abraham's area, and he treats them a certain way.
Chapter 18, verse 1. And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. As he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes and he looked and behold, three men were standing in front of him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and to bow himself to the earth and said, O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant. So they said, hey, do as you have said. Sounds great. He got up and approached them and all these kinds of things. The next verse says verse six. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said to her, hey babe, I just invited all these strangers, I don't know who they are. I need you to go in and whip up a seven course meal. I need you to kind of get after it a little bit. If you'll just chop, chop on that. That's not exactly how it went, but it says something like that.
He said, quick, three seals of fine flour, knead it and make cakes. Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf and all that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them, catch. As he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Now, I don't know how if you've read that before and really thought about the hospitality aspect of it. I mean, we've talked about it in our Angels series. We talked about, you know, who were these men that, that came and approached him and did they look different, all those kinds of things. I'm not necessarily concerned about that in the, in the context of what we're talking about, but the idea that he would do some things that were maybe even before God had given instruction on how to treat these foreigners, that there was sort of an understanding that when somebody came up, we as the people who owned the place would stand up and, and reach out to them and the idea maybe was that they would come in and have a meal together and be on their way. But it seems to me that Abraham kind of does a little bit more than that, right? He goes a little bit beyond that. First he jumps up to his feet and he runs out to them to greet them. You know, there's an eagerness that is, you know, kind of descriptive in this term, you know, that he would jump up and be so excited to go and have a conversation with them and invite them in. But notice it says that he went before them and he bowed down to them, maybe perhaps in a worshipful mindset, but if nothing else, just out of respect for them and to show them honor. So he fell down before them, and he even refers to himself as servant. And the next thing you see is he gets really excited about his opportunity to serve them. And he begins to work around and do some things and get some things set up in order. He brought water to wash their feet. He made his service that it was a privilege for him to take care of them. And he prepared a pretty fantastic meal for these folks. So he does all of those things. And then the next part of it is he stood nearby. Now, I don't know how many of you have been in, like, these fine dining places, like where you get, like a private meal or something like that. When Cindy and I got married, we went to New Hampshire. Now, not a lot of people do that, okay? But we did that and we went to New Hampshire and we were at this resort and. And one of the perks of it was we were gonna get. I think it was a seven course meal. You know, it's like they bring you, like, one green bean at a time. You know what I'm talking about? Like, it's most aggravating. I think we went to Burger King or something afterwards. I mean, we were still hungry when it was all over with. But one of the things about that fine dinner was that there was a person nearby kind of standing in a corner and just watching and making sure that we were taken care of. If our plate got empty, they were quick to come over and take that plate. If we needed something, they were quick to come over and to. That's kind of the posture that Abraham has taken here. He's standing over here while they are partaking of food, and he's just at their service.
He's just making sure that every need is taken care of. When I came to Madison years ago, the first Sunday that I came here to be introduced to the church family, we had A big fellowship down in the Madison Room. David Hargett was my private concierge. I'm just telling you, the guy walked me around, hey, have you met so and so? I'm like, yeah, it's like, blah, blah, blah. I don't. None of your names meant anything to me at that point. It was just a lot of talking. But he was so kind and so warm and bringing me in. That's what we're talking about here, the idea of hospitality. Someone who really cares for you and shows you your value here. There's a Jewish proverb that's in all these rabbinical writings that says this hospitality is one form of worship.
Why would they say that?
Well, this was something that was very important in their culture, that they took care of people who needed to be taken care of and extended beyond just the food that they were to prepare for them. It was more about how they made that person feel valued and accepted and loved and taken care of.
This Jewish scholar says it this way. He says, in Judaism, showing hospitality, and there's the word for it to guess is one is considered a mitzvah. And you may say, well, what's that? Well, a mitzvah was almost like, you know, taking everything that God has said and gelling it down to just the commands that we need to follow. It was kind of like their little Cliff Notes version, okay? And they would use it as a way of saying, these are the exact commands of God. It was considered to be one of those things that they must follow at all costs. In fact, it said, you know, when one knows of a stranger who's hungry or need a place to relax, it was a legal obligation to them to take care of that person. Now, that sounds, you know, like, wow, gotta do that. And I find myself, you know, going, well, what if I don't wanna do that? Like, maybe you would have a hard time with that because it's required of you, but if you'll roll over into the New Testament, you're gonna start seeing a change in perspective on this. Not so much that it takes away the expectation. In fact, I think maybe it elevates the expectation a little bit because God is talking really to our hearts and saying, hey, this is not something that we do out of obligation. This is something you do because you're a reflection of God himself. Listen to what it says. Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let's show the truth by our actions. That's how we do this. First Peter, chapter four, verse eight. Cheerfully share Your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. You know, it's not just the obligation.
It's the desire of your heart to be a reflection of who God is.
You know, in other cultures, this is the same kind of thing. This. Tim Chester has studied a lot of different cultures, and he says this. He said, food matters. Meals matter. Meals are full of significance. Well, what does he mean by that?
Few acts are more expressive of companionship than. Than the shared meal. We've been talking a lot about this because there's something that happens when you get across the table from someone that you care about or you know, or you have lunch with a buddy. I love it when guys from here call me and say, hey, you got lunch plans today? Or when somebody on staff says, hey, you do anything today for lunch? Oh, man, I love it. Because when we get together, it's like we're relaxed and we're just talking to each other and we're connecting on a very spiritual level and. And getting to know each other. We're finding out more about each other's lives, and we've done all of that in fellowship. But what the idea of companionship is, and if you look in the Latin word, it's this compound word, campanis. And the idea is that it's together with bread.
There's something that brings us to friendship and closer connection when we sit across the table from one another and we break bread together. And so this is something that's really important for us. We understand it from a fellowship perspective. But now let's dig into the hospitality aspect of it.
So what is the biblical term for hospitality? It's again, a compound word.
I knew I would do this. Philo zania.
That is the word that is used for it. And this word, when you break it down, has two components. One is a loving friend and a stranger and a foreigner. Now, you may have heard the term xeno. Xenophobia. We've talked about that a whole lot in our culture these days. What's xenophobia? Xenophobia is, you know, the fear of, or the rejection or the denial of people that are different than us. Well, this is. Right, the opposite idea here. This is God saying to all of us, people who are different from us are actually our opportunity for good. And so this is about welcoming people, bringing them into that warmth, expression of relationship, and bringing them close, reflecting again God's love and his grace. Romans, chapter 12, verse 9 through 13. Just kind of to get the context here, talking to church people. So there's a relationship aspect of it that we do together. But then he pivots a little bit at the very end to move over to a word that means, hey, loving strangers, inviting people into your home. So he says, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another, showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve in the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. All those things we understand from a fellowship, close connection standpoint, but catch us, contribute to the needs of the saints. So there may be someone who's in need, take care of that. But then this next part steps it up a little bit further and seek to show hospitality. Well, why would that be important? Because that's kind of the essence of the church, isn't it, that we move beyond just ourselves, that we open our eyes up to opportunities that are around us. So hospitality is a key component of all fellowship, right? I mean, we welcome people in and those kinds of things. That's one part of it. But understand, this next part of that statement is, but fellowship has to be the ultimate aim of all hospitality.
What are we saying?
That our goal is not just to spend time with somebody and, you know, to say, hey, we're buds.
The thing is, what God is calling us to is to love the stranger enough to bring them into relationship so we can share with them the faith that we have in Jesus Christ.
See, the goal of it is not just for us to be together and to welcome someone, but it's to welcome them into an understanding of who God is and what he has done for you.
That's the aim of all hospitality.
So in Hebrews 13, let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels, unaware. Again, we talked about this before, but what I wanna kind of nail down here is the idea, the reality that God is asking us to look beyond ourselves and to not be just so comfortable in our own environment around the people that think exactly like us. That's great friendship, that's great fellowship. But God is calling us to something that steps us to the next level in our relationships. So I guess hospitality is a form of worship, or at least it's our. It's our devotion to God on some level in that it seeks to put his mission at the forefront of our minds, right? Our awareness that, hey, God has given me this opportunity with a friend and I've built a new friendship with them. But what's the next step of this? It's me investing something even more important in their life. Right. It puts me in this mindset that proactively engages that person into the blessing of that relationship, not only to the believer, but also to the one we need to believe. And that is a powerful challenge and something very much a part of our world. When you read Romans chapter 12, we're just saying it. You know, the idea is that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
And the term that is used there for reasonable service or worship is the idea that it was kind of like what the priestly priest guys would do. They would go in and they would offer their worship. Those duties were defined to them as their work. And their ministry was also defined as their offering of their worship before God as well. So daily, when we do these things and we seek other people, what I'm saying is that I believe God is saying, hey, that's your devotion to me. That's you purposely putting me in the forefront of your mind and using that as a way to drive this opportunity for hospitality. So we all need to be doing that. Now, what does that do? Well, if you read verse two, it says that that keeps us from being conformed to the world, and it helps us to transform the world. See how it just changes the way we see things. And so when we talk about transformational hospitality, this is what we're talking about, opening our minds up on how we can be a blessing to other people. You know, when you look back at the early church, there are lots of writings and historical documents that have things that early Christians said. Here's one of those things. And, you know, you can expect this, you know, looking back at the church and saying, hey, we did some good things. Here's what Tertullian said. He said, Christians brought to ordinary people of both sexes, often slaves, and simple and joyful message of love and hope that was so novel as to be unacceptable or incomprehensible. Isn't that crazy to even think that that's how it would go? But what was that message? The message was the hope of eternal eternity and blessing for believers as a compensation for the trials of life that they endure here. And their community was a haven for the lonely. Just wrap your mind around that.
Think about people who say this life just ends in misery and difficulty and struggle and all those kinds of things. And what the message of the gospel says is, this is not the end of this. This is just a part of it. This is the things you go through here in order to enjoy something even better down the road. And so that had the people bought into that idea and they were very hospitable as a result. So it's easy to go back and look at their quotes and go, yeah, well, they're kind of tooting their own horn a little bit here. But what about people who were anti Christian, people who did not agree with what was going on, who were put off by Christians? Well, here's a quote from Julian the Apostate. He was the Roman ruler in the 4th century. He says, these impious Galileans or Christians not only feed the poor, but ours also welcome them, welcoming them into their agape. What's he saying? They're bringing them into their feast together. They're bringing them into their homes, they're giving them the red carpet. Like this is. This is ridiculous. And they attract them as children attracted with cakes. Ever been in a wedding and seen all the kids hanging out by the dessert table?
Well, that's what he's saying is this kind of love, this kind of treatment for people outside their normal relationships, it's like bringing those folks in, they can't get enough of it. They're so excited about it. And that's what God is calling us to, is the reality that there are people outside who need us.
Maya Angelou says this. People will forget what you said, what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel.
I go back to Terry Wilson, elder in the church at Mount Vernon.
He was kind to me. He said a lot of good things in my ear. He encouraged me. He spiritually nurtured me, showed love.
But that display of concern for a person who was lost without Christ was something I will never forget.
It touched all of us.
And that's the attitude in the spirit that we're moving toward. Does this matter?
Does it really matter?
Matthew, chapter 25. We read it in scripture reading, and I'll try to go through it fairly quickly again.
Jesus is preparing his followers for the end.
What happens when this is all over with? When Jesus dies, so he says, when he comes back, he gives him a little heads up. He says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations. He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he'll place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left.
And then the king will say to those who are on the right, he'll say, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
I was hungry and you gave me food.
I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And he answers their question. I'm sure as they're listening to this, they have their question. He goes ahead and gives them. What will those people say when they find out that they've been given this entrance into heaven? He says the righteous will answer him, saying, well, Lord, when did we see you hungry? When did we feed you? When did we see that you were thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you and naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick and imprisoned and visit you?
And the King will answer to them, well, truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.
Wow, how important is it?
Well, Jesus is saying, I'm watching.
How are we treating those outside of Christ?
Well, what happens to the others then? He'll say to those who are on the left apart from me, you cursed into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, you gave me no food, I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, you didn't welcome me naked, you didn't clothe me sick, and in prison you did not visit me. And they'll say, well, hey Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty? I mean, surely they would have questions about how is this that we have neglected this, when did we see you, a stranger, naked or sick or in prison or any time that we didn't minister to you. And what will he say? He will say to them, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
And those who go away into eternal those will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Wow.
How important is this?
Well, I mean, I was immediately taken to James chapter 4, verse 17, right where the scripture tells us, hey, he who knows to do good and doesn't do it to him, it is sin. Do you catch what's happening here? As I read this text, what jumps out to me is that God is not only aware of the things that we do, but he's also acutely aware of the things that we don't do.
And as his people, he's saying I don't need you to stay in your walls. I don't need you to stay in your comfortable situation where you just like all the people around you. That's not what I'm here for. I'm here for you to reach out beyond those walls. It goes back to Andrew's quote. We're looking for those who are on the outskirts, those who are sinners, because our objective is to invite them into a relationship with us so that they may know him as well.
So the greatest honor we can give our guests, truly based on these passages, is to honor them in the same way we would if Jesus Christ were in the room with us as well.
Now think about how that would transform the way you see things and the way you see people.
I can think of four things real quickly and there's lots of others. But here are four things. First of all, it cultivates a heart that's selfless. I stop thinking about just me and I start thinking about other people. It helps me to focus on the needs of others. The third thing is it invites a stranger guest into a relationship with a family of faith, gives them a window into what it's like to live in faith. And then it helps us mirror God's heart. Do you remember when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus and he said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
See, we are his instrument to reflect his goodness to the rest of the world.
And that's how we welcome them into his mercy, is we introduce them to something greater than what they already know.
So I'm hoping you're all opening your heart up. This is that next step. It's pushing us, okay? It's pushing us to something great. And that great thing is that we ourselves become more of an evangelistic minded body. That we become more open to people who are outside of us, that we bring them in, we love them, we nurture those relationships and we take them, walk alongside them in their faith development. And that is something that is beautiful. Consider the doors that we will open up through this kindness. You've seen this in our emphasis over the last couple of years, how we've done more things to invite the community.
The objective behind all of those things is to bring them in, to acknowledge that we may not see things exactly the same, but we love you and we want a relationship with you. We're doing those things and we want all of your buy in. Because in our buy in is the reality that we can have an impact on Madison, Alabama, for the cause of Christ. And that's our objective, that's our goal, that's our aim in this hospitality thrust. So think about it. March 16th through 22nd, we keep splashing these up. And we know that we have heard so many great things that have taken place in your homes together.
But now imagine that you bring in that neighbor, that co worker, that person that you've bumped into that you know, but you don't know deeply, that you have an opportunity to just share with them, to get to know them, to build a relationship, live that life of faith out in front of them and have an opportunity to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. This morning, there may be some who are just ready to do more. Maybe you feel challenged this morning and you want to have the courage to. To have your friends and family in here to help support you. And if that's the case, I hope you'll come forward. In this song that we're about to sing, we'll pray with you, we'll walk alongside you, and we'll help you. And if you feel like there's sin in your life and you want to get rid of those kinds of things, you want to step into a better relationship with God and you want those sins cleansed again, if you're a Christian and you want to do that, come forward. We'll pray for you as well.
But if you're not a member of the body of Christ, and this morning you realize that salvation only comes through Jesus. That's what he said. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.
If you understand that, then it means you'll submit that you realize that Jesus is the Son of God, that you're willing to change your pattern of behavior to follow him and to live by his precepts and the things that he shared with us, to honor him all the days of your life, to live out that confession every day. And if that's a person, if there's a person in the audience that that describes, I hope this morning that while we sing this song, you'll come as we stand and sing.
