Radically Ordinary Hospitality

Welcome to this podcast of the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Helping people to hear to enjoy God and to glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandHartway.org.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Lord, when we say things like that, like through cloud and sunshine, abide with me.

We're acknowledging what the Bible has already taught us about you, that you are unchanging.

The Bible says of you that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So, regardless of our circumstance, how we sit in this room, uh, what we brought with us today, uh, you are unchanging.

You're capable and you're able and you're available.

So we want to access and resource all that you are and all that you have for us today.

So, Holy Spirit, illuminate the Bible.

Turn the light on.

Let it be more than just words on a page, let it be an opportunity for us to incarnate, to flesh out and live out the good news of Christianity in our own lives, in our city, for the glory of God and for the satisfaction of his people.

May God say something today that has our name on it.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

We've been preaching through the Gospel of John.

We're taking a break from John because there's a natural break at the end of chapter 6.

We'll pick up in chapter 7 in August.

And this summer we want to we want to talk to you about some different things that kind of been stirring in us as your staff and as your pastors.

And today I want to kick off summer.

I think summer officially starts this weekend, not like on the calendar in a couple weeks in June.

Uh uh, but I want to talk to you today about radically ordinary hospitality.

Radically ordinary hospitality.

And you say, what do you mean uh by that?

Let me just say this.

Uh, and we'll get to that in a minute.

Uh, when I say hospitality, don't some of you you immediately go to, oh man, we don't have a big house.

Hospitality is not about the size of your house, it's about the size of your heart.

Uh because for years I tried to excuse myself because my wife always wants to have people over, and and and I confused what she was wanting to do, and I'll talk about that in just a minute, and confess some of my own sin.

Amen?

Is there room for me to confess that to you today?

Uh big because I think I was thinking about it one way, my wife's thinking about it another way.

She was right and I was wrong, and that's not the worst part.

The worst part is I had to tell her that.

That was just pride, just swallowing siege.

I was like, oh uh but but here's what I want to do.

I want to give you a picture from Luke 14, and then I want to give you a definition, I want to give you two basic requirements, and then I want to give you four or five things to remember, okay?

And so let me just kind of read.

When I say radically ordinary hospitality, here's the picture.

Here's the first point.

This is a picture because I want you to see it.

Now keep in mind when Jesus talks, sometimes he's saying more than just what he's saying.

So you've got to listen carefully.

Luke chapter 14, verse 12.

Luke 14:12

Yeah.

He said also to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

But Jesus said to him, A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.

And at that time for the banquet, he said at the time of the for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready.

But they all alike began to make excuses.

The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go and see it.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.

Please have me excused.

And another said, I've married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So the servant came and reported these things to his master.

Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame.

And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there's room.

And the master said to his servant, Go out to the highways and the hedges and compel the people to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of these men who are invited shall taste my banquet.

Now, why do I say this is a picture of hospitality?

Because remember this God will never ask you to do something that you don't have a context for, that He's not gonna, He's not already equipped you for, and He's already kind of gone before you to kind of get things ready.

So when I say this is a picture, this is not just a picture of hospitality.

Now keep in mind the context of this is that Jesus is that this guy's invited Jesus to his house for dinner, and Jesus, when he's done eating, says, Hey, by the way, when you do this again, don't just invite people that can invite you back to their place and you have this reciprocal relationship because you're kind of getting paid back for that.

When you have uh this again, he said, invite the poor.

When you have a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.

For you'll be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

And I just want to say to you this morning, this is a picture of biblical hospitality because by the way, when he talks about the poor and the lame and the crippled and the blind in this passage, that's you and me.

That's us.

We're the people that were by nature not invited to the banquet.

And those who were invited said, Yeah, I bought some land.

I need to go look at it.

Here's a question for you, thinking people who buys land they've never looked at?

Nobody.

The next guy said, I've got a team of oxen, I've got to go try them out.

Who buys a car without test driving it?

I mean, it's just all these excuses that are coming up.

But see, here's why I choose this kind of like I don't get hospitality in that.

This is the essence of gospel hospitality.

This is the essence of what the Bible calls us to, what Rosaria Butterfield referred to as radically ordinary hospitality.

And I just want to begin with a picture right out of Luke 14.

Secondly, I want to give you a definition from Rosaria Butterfield, who says this.

She says, radically ordinary hospitality is using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors and neighbors family of God.

It brings glory to God, serves others, and lives out the gospel in word and deed.

Hear that again.

Radically ordinary hospitality is using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors and neighbors family of God.

It brings glory to God and serves others and lives out the gospel in word and deed.

This is the definition when I talk about radically ordinary hospitality, and this is what I mean.

You see your home as not just, hey, this is I come out of my cocoon, I come out of my cave, I get my truck, I got a 55-minute commute, I come back, I fight through swarms of traffic surrounded by sinners and the evil in the world, and I pull back into my driveway, my garage, and I close the door and tick tock, the game is locked.

It will be hard for you to embrace biblical hospitality.

I so much believe in the power of hospitality, and this is why I where I got that in a preach on this, I was having conversations with some of my friends from other uh uh ethnic groups.

I think that's a politically correct way to say it.

They don't look like me, walk like me, talk like me.

And they said, Pastor, can we ask you a question?

I said, You can ask me anything.

They said, Why is there so much racism in America?

And I said, Because we don't practice hospitality.

And they were like, Oh, and I said, Ask yourself this question.

I said, My church is multi-ethnic and it's multidimensional, but I got a lot of white folk in my church.

And I said, Yeah, when's the last time white people had a black person or a brown person in their home?

And my African-American friend sat there, he goes, That's right, that's right.

And I said, When's the last time you had a white man in your home?

And I said, Now is it right?

Now is it right?

He's like, Shut up.

See, because here's the unspoken thing.

The unspoken thing is it just, uh no, you kind of, oh and here's the thing.

That's why I answered the question, and the answer just kind of popped out of my mouth, like microwave popcorn.

You know, you put it the bag in there and you hit the popcorn button on your microwave, and it me for a while, and you hear that first, boom, boom, boom, boom.

He asked the question, it popped out of my mouth, and I was like, man, where'd that come from?

So I began to look into this whole idea of hospitality and try to understand it.

And here's a couple basic requirements for this radically ordinary hospitality.

Basically, two things.

The first one is this is that we live under the authority of God and the church.

We live under the authority of God and the church.

Now, the first one of those we're okay with we live under the authority of God, but we live in a day and age where the church has no authority over the individual anymore.

Have you noticed that?

I mean, people are just kind of like, I met with a man on Friday who said to me, out of his mouth, I said, Tell me who or what you submit to.

And he said, Nobody.

I submit to myself.

I've got my own set of beliefs, and that's the way I guide my life.

And I said, You know that's not, you can't consider that Christianity, that you have your own set of beliefs, and you kind of take from this and you take from that, and you take from this bad experience you had with a cult growing up, and you weave that all together, and you're in charge of that.

That's not what the Bible calls Christianity.

As a Christian, I submit to the teaching, I submit to God and to the word of God.

And he said, Well, that's not the way I do it.

And I said, I'm not trying to change the way you do it, I'm just trying to love you enough to tell you that cannot pass muster is Christianity.

He said, Well, that's that that oh we can discuss that at a later time.

That ain't gonna be a later time, I mean.

This may be the last conversation we have.

I just want to be on the record.

I'm not trying to be uh uh a contrarian, I just want to love the truth enough to stand up for it.

You see, it one of the requirements, you say, why is it a big deal that we live under the authority of God in the church?

Because if you're gonna call other people to live differently, to experience this different kind of life, and get them, let them get a taste of hospitality by saying to them, opening up your home and yourself to say, hey, taste and see that the Lord is good.

You're not just saying, hey, I make great ribs, okay?

I make great chicken, I I grill a mean steak.

That is all well and good.

But in biblical hospitality, what you're really saying is, taste and see that the Lord is good.

It's much more than what you put on the table.

Here's the other basic requirement: you must work hard to know who your neighbors are and how they struggle.

You gotta work hard to know who your neighbors are and how you struggle.

And see, it is my observation.

When we, my wife and I first got married, we lived in a 620 square foot duplex.

We were in the middle of, we had as a triplex, we were in the middle, we had people on either sides.

We picked the middle because the lady said, pick the middle because you got air conditioning on your right and left, and it lowers your cooling bill.

I thought that's awesome.

Not awesome.

Do not pick the middle because in them ratty, run-down seminary housing, you hear everything on both sides of you.

I'd have to knock on the wall and go, knock it off, okay?

Stop fighting.

Because the guy on our right was from Georgia and he fought what is it?

He called his wife Mama.

Mama, get in here.

And I was like, ah.

And I'd be walking out, and I was like, I don't even want to look at you, dude.

We're going to the parking lot.

I just, oh, we heard everything.

So here's my point.

It was easy when we're first starting out to know our neighbors and what they struggle with.

But look at me, the higher you move up the housing food chain, you get that starter house, that better house, you get that better house in that gated community, and you got like an estate lot, man.

You just kind of like the unspoken agreement is we'll leave you alone, you leave us alone.

And you get to a point to where it is hard to even know who your neighbors are.

Now, I'm look at me.

I'm not saying don't live in a gated community with an estate life.

You're visiting today, I'm not that guy.

I got people in my church, you could put my house in their house six times.

You're like, what do you think about that?

Here's how I think about that.

I think it's glorious when they say, Pastor, you want to come over for dinner?

Uh-huh.

Yes, I do.

And do y'all prosecute shoplifters?

I asked them just the other day, and the guy said, Take anything you want.

I said, Be careful.

I'll get out in your garage and lickety split.

Where to keep that big F250 you got out there?

Well, you can't have that.

I said, Don't take, then don't say take everything you want.

It's like if I come to your house, don't say make yourself at home.

Because I'm gonna go and look in your fridge.

That's what I do at my house.

My wife turns blood red.

They don't mean that.

They shouldn't say it.

Don't say stuff you don't mean.

You say, What am I saying?

Here's the thing: you gotta work hard to know who your neighbors are and how they struggle.

And here's why.

Because you can contextualize the gospel in ways that are meaningful to them.

You don't have this one size fits all approach to everybody.

Well, you know, and by the way, hear this carefully.

Sometimes our one size fits all approach to all of our neighbors is just to invite them to church.

Hear this carefully.

Sometimes your neighbors don't need you to invite them to church.

They need you to take church to them.

Let me tell on myself here.

Uh, the the the people, that the house that adjoins their yard, our back fence, we share a back fence with a guy that lives around the culture and say, he just disappeared about a year ago.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know if he was abducted by aliens, he moved to Montana.

I don't know.

But the trees started growing into the house and the yard's about that tall.

And I'm kind of like, uh, should I, you know, uh, should I mow that, Lord?

Because sometimes when I since God's kind of called me to something, I start thinking of all the excuses and reasons why that couldn't be God.

Like I said, well, if the bank foreclosed, I don't want to get on there and mess up that property because somebody may be trying to buy it at a cheaper price because it's run down.

I thought that.

And so my wife even had conversations.

What do you think is the deal?

I said, Well, I think I need to cut that one limit, it's grown into the house, and I don't know if it's his house, he hadn't been there.

And then the other day, about four days ago, somebody showed up and started trimming trees and stuff, and I was like peeked over the fence, like, should I I don't want to be, I don't, I don't want to be here's what I said to myself I don't want to be, I don't want to be Mrs.

Kravitz.

Anybody remember Mrs.

Kravitz?

Remember I'm Bewitched, the nosy neighbor lady always looking out the window?

I was like, I don't want to be Mrs.

Kravitz, Lord, and so I went back in my house.

Two days ago, I saw limbs moving, and I kind of picked over there and I was like, hey, I should go over there and uh, you know, like, hey, what's up?

Uh yeah, but I didn't.

Yesterday, there's a shed, an old rundown shed.

Hey, by the way, they sell nice portable buildings at Home Depot.

Don't build some hooped-y thing in your backyard because I'll look at that.

This thing looked like it was made out of the wood off of the ark, okay?

And just some shingles hanging all the side of it.

I'm like, man, clean that up.

And so I'm much, I'm much more comfortable complaining than helping.

I know none of you are that way.

It's not complaining, it's just evaluating the well-being of the neighborhood.

Yeah.

And so I saw that thing moving.

I was like, are we having an earthquake?

No, somebody's already tearing a shirt down.

And I was kind of like, I don't, I had that compulsion.

I should go help.

Because by the way, sometimes contextualizing the gospel is just looking over the fence and saying, Hey, you need a hand with that.

But I thought, you know, Lord, my mother-in-law died on Friday.

I'm in grief.

That's what God did too.

Really?

You're gonna play that card with me?

Uh well, you know, uh, I've been really busy trying to uh uh uh and so finally I just mustered up the courage to say, hey man, I see you over here working on stuff.

Do you need some help?

He goes, Oh yeah, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do to cut this grass.

And clears the bell of the Holy Spirit says, I don't know what we're gonna do to cut this grass.

Your big self is gonna cut this grass.

Oh, well, uh, I don't think my lawnmower will get through this.

It won't, but they sell them brush coaters up there at Assac Rental Highway says, because you've rented one before.

The guy said, I don't know what I'm gonna do with this.

Sometimes the gospel sounds like this.

Hey man, don't worry about the yard.

I'll see that it gets taken care of.

Are you serious?

Well, you might want to walk out here and make sure, because there's stuff buried in this grass.

I said, Yeah, I know.

He has like a stone circle over there, and I'll get that all squared away too.

What am I saying?

Here's what I'm saying.

You gotta work hard to know who your neighbors are and how they struggle so you can contextualize the gospel.

You can kind of bring the good news of Christianity to bear on them instead of having the one simple response to everything you hear.

Third thing I want to say, uh, excuse me, the fourth thing I want to say to you this morning is just there's some things to remember when it comes to radical, uh radically ordinary hospitality.

Uh and let me just list off about four or five, and we'll be done this morning.

The first thing to remember is this hospitality is an expression of reciprocity.

It's an expression of reciprocity.

Basically, that just means reciprocal.

Uh you say, what do you mean?

Uh remember when we read this picture from Luke 14?

And I said, This is Jesus saying more than just what he's saying.

He's saying to these people, hey, when you give a banquet, what he's saying to this guy that had him over for dinner is, hey, don't just have people like me, don't have your rich friends invite the crippled and the lame and the poor and the outcast and the orphan and the stranger and the sojourner, invite them into your home and bless them.

Why?

Because Jesus is saying, This is what I did for you.

This is what I did for you.

And so when I say hospitality, and it's an expression of reciprocity, it's just exactly it's Leviticus 19, about verse 33 and 34.

God says to his people, he says, Hey, when you see the sojourner in the land, you are to reach out and you're to bless them.

And he says two reasons for that.

Number one, because you were once the stranger.

And secondly, because I am the Lord your God.

Because you were once the stranger in a strange land.

And secondly, because I'm the Lord your God.

And the way I was towards you is an indicator of how I want you to be towards other people.

That's what I mean when I say hospitality is an expression of reciprocity.

Secondly, you have to distinguish between hospitality and entertaining.

You have to distinguish between hospitality and entertaining.

And here's my confession: my wife is better at hospitality than I am.

And you say, Well, how do you know that?

Because this happened about three, four years ago with some friends over for dinner.

It were really acquaintances.

People were just getting to know, had them over for dinner, and we were eating dinner, and my wife says, Hey, y'all want to just bring your water glasses and we'll go sit in the living room.

Just like right there, we'll go sit in the living room and we'll just continue the conversation.

And she goes, Y'all want dessert now?

We'll have dessert and coffee.

You want dessert now?

You want to wait?

And they're, oh, let's wait, let's wait.

I ate too much.

We'll wait.

So we're sitting over there, and my wife's on the love seat right here.

This couple's on the couch, and I'm over there in the chair, and and I'm they're talking, and it goes on for like 20 minutes, and and I noticed they're both out of water.

And I was kind of giving my wife the high sign, like, hey, get them some water.

And my wife just leaned in and grabbed the lady's hand, and she goes, Go ahead, what were you saying?

And she just kept talking.

In my mind, I was getting indignant.

I was like, Oh, oh, really?

We're gonna play that card, huh?

And so I just got up and walked over there and I picked a glass up, kind of snarky like this, and I walked in there and got them some ice and got them some water, because I'm gonna give them a cup of cold water in Jesus' name.

That's what I'm telling myself in my head.

And so I walked back in there and I said, Hey, I saw you guys are out of water.

I wanted to get you something there, and you can set that on the coast with the table.

And the guy went, Oh, thank you.

I was really thirsty.

And I looked at my wife, where they couldn't see me back behind the wall, like, how hard is this, woman?

This is your job.

Get up here and get this water filled up.

And my wife just kept leaning in, and she was holding hands with the woman, and I'm like, eh.

And so I'm just sitting there, and I mean, they stayed for another hour and a half, which is great, because it gave me time to memorize my bullet points, for I was gonna have to correct my wife as soon as they left.

I had two pages.

They walked out, I walked back in, and she goes, Oh man, that was so refreshing.

And I said, Hey, can I pursue you on something?

By the way, that's the way you bring up hard topics with your wife, men.

Can I pursue you on something?

Now, when my wife knows that, hey, we're gonna have a little conflict, she's all down, like, oh, oh, what?

And let me hang on a second, let me think.

Is it what I think it is?

And this time she's like, sure.

And I was like, she has no idea.

Good, I'm gonna win.

And so I said, Hey, we have people over.

You need to pay attention.

That glass was out of water, and you you sat up like you didn't even care.

And she looked at me because she's mouthy and unsubmissive.

She looked at me and she said, I didn't.

And I said, What do you mean you didn't care that they didn't have water in their glasses?

She goes, Oh, I don't care about their water glasses.

I mean, you can get water, they can get water.

I was caring about what she was saying and what it was making her feel.

I wanted to understand where she was coming from.

And then she said, This crazy thing that wives say.

She said, I think the difference in you and me is you think the meal is the pork tenderloin that we had with the twice-baked potatoes.

Yes, that's the meal.

And she said, No, the meal is communing and connecting with another person.

No, not amen.

Shut up.

I was lost.

I just remember looking at her like she had a horn coming out of her head, like.

Because at one point, while they were still there, I was so mad at my wife, I got up and I thought, I'm gonna rub it in.

I'm gonna get them a glass of water, a cup of cold water.

I even said to my wife, I gave them a cup of cold water in Jesus' name, and all you did was hold that woman's hand.

Sometimes when we're in conflict, I think, I'm already in trouble.

Let me just let me just empty the bag right here.

I ain't putting none of these bullets back in the box.

Boom, boom, boom.

So I got up and went in the kitchen and I started cleaning the kitchen.

And my wife said to me, Are you aware how hard it is for you just to be with people?

You don't have to help people all the time, Neil.

You help people all the time.

I think that's great.

One thing I love about you, but sometimes the greatest expression.

Of help is just being with them, not getting up and going clean the kitchen.

Well, the kitchen's got to be cleaned.

I was doing you a favor.

When you say I was doing you a favor, what you're really saying is it's always my job to clean the kitchen.

It's not.

Sometimes you need to clean the kitchen without me asking you.

Oh no, you didn't.

I just walked away.

It gets worse.

I went to bed, and in my heart of hearts, I prayed for my wife.

I said, Well, clearly we just agree on my.

And she goes, I'm okay disagreeing because you're wrong.

I'm never going to care about an empty water glass more than I am someone's story.

Oh, you need help.

That's what you need.

So I prayed, I laid in bed and prayed, Lord, help my wife.

She's just selfish and it's I even said this to the Lord.

I don't pray like y'all pray, oh Lord, we beseech you like the mighty ocean.

I just get it on.

I just said, Come on, my wife hides behind this whole hospitality thing because she doesn't want to clean the kitchen.

Lord, help her not be lazy.

I had to clean the kitchen.

Now bring all the extra points to bear on me because I cleaned the kitchen.

Next day I woke up feeling self-righteous and better about myself.

Went in my office, opened my Bible, spent some time with the Lord.

And he said, The difference in you and your wife is you like to entertain, but she likes to be hospitable.

And you need to ask her forgiveness.

Say, What?

Check, baby, check, baby, one, two, three.

What?

What did you?

And so I went to my wife and I said, Hey, I think I understand the difference in you and me.

And she just kind of smiled and she said, Yeah.

Yeah.

By the way, uh, I think Jen Wilkin, she's a uh a Bible teacher, teaches women women's Bible studies in the metro.

She said this about the, I thought this was great about the difference in entertaining and hospitality.

She said, Entertaining focuses attention on self.

Hospitality focuses attention on others.

Hospitality involves setting a table that makes everyone feel comfortable.

It chooses a menu that allows FaceTime with guests instead of being chained to the stovetop.

It picks up the house to make things pleasant, but it doesn't feel the need to conceal evidences of everyday life.

It sometimes sits down to dinner with flour in its hair.

It allows the gathering to be shaped by the quality of the conversation rather than the cuisine.

Hospitality shows interest in the thoughts, feelings, pursuits, and preferences of its guest.

It is good at asking questions and listening intently to answers.

Entertaining is always thinking about the next course.

Hospitality burns the rolls because it was listening to a story.

Entertaining obsesses over what went wrong.

Hospitality.

Hospitality savors what was shared.

So when I talk about hospitality, I'm not saying, ladies, hey, now that your kids are coming home for three months, I want you to have people in your house and clean it real good.

No, no, that's entertaining.

And look at me.

You need to entertain.

Don't go, oh, I'm glad we have these chafing dishes.

You have to pastor it.

No.

Entertain.

Get after it.

But also practice hospitality.

See, here's another thing I want you to take away from this morning.

Hospitality is a culturally acceptable form of evangelism.

It's a culturally acceptable form of evangelism.

What do you mean?

It doesn't have an agenda, but it's this intentional missional experience where in the experience of hospitality, people experience something they were created for, but rarely experienced.

Let me say it again.

In the experience of hospitality, people experience something they were created for, but rarely experienced.

Years ago, this was before my wife and I got married.

She led a disciple now, a student ministry discipleship weekend at Tollywood Baptist Church, right over here across town, over towards memorial.

And so she leads a group.

She has high school seniors, guys and girls.

And the curriculum they went through was on the family.

And she said, Oh, it was so depressing because these kids were like, Oh, yeah, my parents are divorced, or I just come home from school, I go to my room, I come out of my room, I get my food, I go back to my room, and the family that had this beautiful home over in my area.

I mean, beautiful.

They would sit at the sessions when she was teaching, kind of where the kids couldn't see them, they were in the next room, but they were listening.

And so they got a burden.

There were 16 of these kids in that home.

They got a burden.

And so when they went to the large group on Saturday night, they said, Hey, don't eat supper before.

When they came back, these people put the two extra leaves in their formal dining room table, pulled it out, 20 chairs, had the china, the crystal, everything, and had ordered a catered meal.

And they said, Now, boys and girls, y'all go wash your face and hands.

We're gonna sit down to dinner.

And they sat there for two hours.

And my wife is like, it was unbelievable.

The man sat at the head of the table, the woman sat at this at the other head of the table, and before the we got the food, they said, No, we hold hands as a family and pray.

And these kids were like, Oh, oh, oh, okay.

Uh and they just all held hands.

They got done, they sat there and they just said, Hey, tell us about you.

David, we heard you talking.

What are you gonna do after high school?

And they just all engaged everyone around the table.

Weekend was over the next day on Sunday.

The kids got an evaluation point.

One of the questions was, what was your favorite part of the weekend?

It wasn't the speaker, it wasn't the band in their skinny jeans, it wasn't even the church, it wasn't any of that.

Every person in that group says, Saturday night, we sat down as a family and had dinner.

I've never done that in my life, a couple of kids said.

I've never sat at a table and had supper.

And this this the mom and dad host home, they were sobbing over these kids' story.

That's what I mean when I say it's the you experience something you were created for, but you rarely experience.

A lady named Tilly Dillahall, she came to faith, Dillahate, she came to faith through hospitality.

She wrote these words about it.

She said, God saved me through hospitality.

To be more precise, God used hospitality crucially in his pursuit of my soul.

After years of debate between my agnosticism and my longing for God, a debate that had taken place in conference halls, in libraries, in classrooms, in bedrooms, in liquor stores, and clubs.

Closing arguments took place in an unexpected location, a Christian family's home.

A pastor and his wife, friends of my parents, invited me into their home to stay.

During the mornings I met with the pastor and aired my grievances with God and Christianity.

The Bible passages and commentary he presented to me were vital to what God did in my heart in those weeks.

But just as vital was the evidence his wife brought to the debate.

Her evidence was often wordless.

Space made in the afternoon to drink tea with me or take a walk.

Clean sheets in a bedroom I shared with one of her own daughters.

A cultivated calm in a home full of children in teens.

A hug given freely with a peck on the cheek.

The words were necessary, but the hospitality gave the words context and weight.

When I read that, ask yourself, when you hear that, ask yourself, or you look at that, ask yourself, what stands out to me?

You know what stands out to me when I hear that?

One word.

Weeks.

Weeks.

You say, what?

Oh, I can be hospitable.

My wife's helped me.

I can be hospitable.

You come to my house for dinner, I'm hospitable.

You say, our kids kind of mad at God, and we can't stand her, she can't stand us.

Can she move in with you for a month?

Let me seek the Lord on that.

Weeks.

Hospitality.

Fourth takeaway is this hospitality is a requirement for leadership in the church.

Hospitality is a requirement for leadership in the church.

We have a we're an elder-led church.

I'm not in charge of this church.

I'm the pastor, I'm responsible, but it's not a one-man show, nor should it be.

We have a plurality of leadership.

There's elders in our church.

There's five of us, and in that group of men, we lead the church, give oversight and direction to our church.

The Bible kind of lists the qualifications for an elder in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

Listen to these qualifications, starting in verse 2.

Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace and into a snare of the devil.

Now, beloved, there are books written about that one passage when it says husb a husband of but one wife.

Well, what does that mean?

Does that mean he's not polygamous or he's never been divorced, blah, blah, blah?

There's books written about he's got to manage his own household well.

You know, does that mean the pastor is responsible for his kids when they're 25 and single and they're all out acting like there's all kinds of things.

I've never heard anybody talk about that one requirement.

He must be hospitable.

And the Bible puts it on the same plane with all these other things that people debate about.

Because this is the value the Bible places on hospitality.

Here's another takeaway.

Number five, hospitality turns your home into a hospital slash incubator.

Hospitality turns your home into a hospital slash incubator.

A hospital because it's a place where people come to be healed.

People come just to rest.

People come, I've come home before, and there's some unknown person sleeping in our guest room.

And I'm like, Hello?

You didn't tell me we're gonna get company?

Oh yeah, well, they called and said you said, I'm exhausted, I can't get a deep breath.

Can I come sleep at your house for about four hours?

And in my mind, I'm like, and you said yes to that?

What do they got?

Cooties or diseases, they're gonna infect our house or something.

And my wife is like, do not be ridiculous.

I'm not being ridiculous.

I'm trying to protect my home, be a provider.

No, you're being ridiculous.

Just go away.

I've seen people stumble out down the hall.

Hi, hi, I'm Trudy.

I'm like, hi, Trudy.

Trudy got more ears than teeth.

I'm like, how did you find my house?

And my wife just, oh, hugging.

And I'm like, oh.

And the Trudy looks at me, I'm like, nah, I'm good.

I'm not a hugger.

High five.

Thanks for coming.

It's a hospital.

And your house ought to be an incubator.

It's a hospital.

Wounded people come to get healed, and it's an incubator because that's where people go to get born again.

People that kind of taste and see what they were created for, and it makes them want to know this God.

Last thing I would say to you about hospitality is it gives you a context for necessary conversations.

It gives you a context for necessary conversations.

Don't turn there, but in John chapter 21, uh, Jesus has already gone to the cross.

John 21 · chapter mention

He dies on the cross, he's buried, he rises from the dead in the in-between time.

His disciples said, Hey, this was great while it lasted, but Peter said, I'm going back fishing.

Two other guys said, Hey, we're going to go with you.

So they go back to fishing.

They're doing what they were doing before Jesus called them.

Talk about an insult.

I mean, he pours three and a half years of his life into these people.

And the minute they think, well, he died, that's over with.

We better get a real job.

They go back to fishing.

They're out there fishing.

Jesus is on the shore in John 21.

You can read it, it's in there.

He's on the shore.

He's built a fire.

And he's standing there.

He's got breakfast all cooked.

And he calls out to them and says, Hey guys, do you have any fish?

And they're like, No, we ain't got any.

Oh man.

Is hey, hey, hey, is that, does that look like who I think it looks like?

And Jesus is like, hey.

And Peter is so excited, he just jumps out of the boat, chest deep, starts wading.

You ever try to run in chest deep water?

You ever been duck hunting, had waders on, and you bend over too much and you get water in the waders?

Whew, you can drown like that.

I mean, it's just like, oh man, Peter is just struggling to get there.

Now, here's the beautiful.

Sometimes the Bible raises its voice.

Sometimes the Bible just says, psst, just to see who's listening.

The last time Peter was around a fire, it didn't go good.

That's when he denies Jesus, you know, 30 times.

Oh no, not me, not me.

Jesus' got a fire going, he's got breakfast going.

When I say that hospitality gives you a context for necessary conversations, Jesus was not on the shore with big signs like Westboro Baptist.

You traitors, you went back fishing.

God hates traitors.

Traitors go to hell.

Now Jesus got a fire going.

He's like, hey, notice where it starts off the question.

Hey, do you have any fish?

No, we fished all night, man.

We ain't got nothing.

Guys, you down the other side.

Peter comes struggling the shore.

Whew, whoo.

Starts off with, Do you have any fish?

And it gets down to, Peter, do you love me?

Oh, Lord, I love you.

Feed my sheep.

Peter, do you love me?

Oh yeah, I love you.

Okay, feed my sheep.

Peter, do you love me?

You asked me three times now, Jesus.

See, hospitality gives you a context for the necessary conversation.

And the people know that you love them.

How do they know you love them?

Because what you've been like for the past hour and a half, two hours, they're like, oh, of course this person can ask me that.

These people love me.

Only hospitality provides that kind of context for the necessary conversations.

Let's pray together.

Again, if you're a guest, we like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.

So spend the next minute and a half just asking yourself, hey, what do I take away from this?

We purposely talk about hospitality on the beginning of summer, Memorial Day weekend.

Because here's what I'm asking you to do.

I'm asking all of us to practice hospitality this summer.

I'm asking you to look around this morning and see some people like, you know what?

I go to church with them, but I do not know their name, I don't know who they are, and I would like to get to know that person better.

If you when you have people in your home, if it's always people that look like you, vote like you, think like you, talk like you, and believe like you, you're not practicing biblical hospitality.

There's nothing radical, radically ordinary about that.

You're entertaining.

And that's okay.

Just don't mistake it for hospitality.

What would it look like for you to begin to think about your home as a hospital slash incubator where biblical hospitality is on display?

Let's think about that.

Father, thank you.

The Bible doesn't beat us up, the Bible instead just invites us into realities that we were created for.

The Bible just reminds us very uh subtly and yet provocatively hey, you were the blind and the lame and the crippled that didn't get an original invite.

And so when the invitation went out into the highways and the hedges and the byways and the country, we got the invite.

And so we can reciprocate, Lord.

We've been invited to your table, and we can reciprocate what we've experienced for other people.

We can entertain, have friends over, guilt-free.

We can also practice radically ordinary hospitality to the glory of God.

Because we want people to see and savor what God is like.

We want people to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Whether that's a rack of ribs or a well prepared steak or just uh a nice tossed salad.

It doesn't matter, God.

What matters is that people get reminded that everything we have comes from you.

And our home is not a place where we escape from the culture, it's a place we invite people to kind of warm their hands around this fire of the gospel and walk away having to think about some things that they by nature wouldn't think about because of what they experienced.

Now, Lord, I pray you'd stir men and women and single adults and students to practice radically ordinary hospitality this summer to the glory of God and the blessing of your people.

This is our prayer, God.

We pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Again, if you're a guest, thanks for being a part of our of our service.

If you have any questions, myself or some of our pastors will be available down front.

We'd love to meet you, to put a name with a face.

Uh we believe that uh you were created uh by God for a relationship with God.

And part of one of the things that helps you establish that is that you're part of a church that teaches you the Bible, be it this church or another church.

Uh we think that's part of what you're created for.

So we help we'd love to help you find that uh a fit for you and your family, okay?

Uh again, if you're a guest, hopefully you filled out one of those restoration cards.

Just drop it in the wooden box by the door on your way out.

I just have one announcement uh for our church, and that is that this coming Wednesday, May 30th, uh we have discipleship group training uh that is coming up.

Many of you have asked about a D group, uh, and it's from 6 to 7:30.

Travis Dunham, our connections pastor, will be leading that time.

Uh and basically what a D group is, it's not like a Bible study where you got to do homework and stuff.

Uh there's some reading involved, but basically it's small groups of men and women, separate women all together, men all together, uh that you'll you'll you'll meet and you'll just read to a book of the Bible, like the book of James.

You'll just read through it over and over.

When you come together, you'll discuss that.

Just kind of what you got out of it, what you didn't understand.

Because we think in a small context like that, it's a great place to make connection with God and other people.

And so we are training people to be a part of a uh of discipleship groups.

That's what D group stands for.

This coming Wednesday from 6 to 70 or excuse me, oh yeah, 6 to 7.30.

You can register online, just get if you go to our website, you can just click on that little that little ad there, and it'll take you to a place to sign up, okay?

Stand your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Now that you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, depart and make this reality available for those who have yet to taste.

Your house, your home, your food, and your hospitality are all nourishing realities of the kingdom of God.

Avail other people to those in Jesus' name.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.