Community (Week 2) - Hospitality

As I was preparing for my sermon, I had to go this week

and rewatch one of my favorite episodes of The Office.

Give me a, a small hand raise if you're an Office fan.

Yeah, look, it's the church. We're an office church.

One of my favorite episodes. One of my favorite things about

The Office is it's so cringy. Right?

Like Mike Mike's Tots, the episode where Mike Michael Scott

has promised tuition to a bunch of students in elementary school

and then when they become seniors, they're looking forward

to graduating with tuition and Michael Scott realises he has no

way to pay it and he has to go and tell them.

That whole episode is so cringy. But a close second, maybe third,

is the episode Dinner Party. In the episode, if you haven't

seen it, which I, I'm sure there's not a lot of us, Jim and

Pam are invited over to Michael Scott's house for a dinner party

with his less than sane girlfriend Jan.

And Michael and Jim and Pam are doing everything they can to not

go. They try to think of an excuse.

They try to find a way out of it, but they can't.

And so they have to go and they go and, and the only other

people that are at the dinner party are like the guy that

likes to that's, that's like trying to be the number 2 at the

office. And then of course, Dwight shows

up with his nanny from a childhood and the whole episode

is just so awkward. Whether it's an awkward game of

charades with an incredible tension, or the fact that dinner

hadn't even been started before the guests showed up so they'd

be eating at like 11:00 at night.

Or the fact that that Michael takes all the guys out to the

garage to pitch them Jan's candle business.

Awkward moment after awkward moment in the entire time

Michael and Pam or Michael and Pam.

I'm confusing characters. Jim and Pam are trying to get

away from this dinner. What makes this episode so good

is that we have all felt that way.

It's OK, You're not a bad person.

I know that we have all had a time where we did not want to go

to that dinner. We did not want to go to that

event, whether it was going to be cringy or there was someone

there that we just didn't quite want to interact with.

We've all had a time where we didn't want to go to the thing.

And what's what's hard about that is that it's really

difficult for relationships to foster when we choose not to

enter into relationship with other people, or at least just

dinner. And what happens is, is that the

lonely begin to feel lonelier, right?

Whether they're the ones throwing the party or they're,

they're not invited, they begin to feel forgotten.

They begin to ask the question, do I matter?

Would anyone care if I'm not here?

But on the other side, you have people that begin to close their

table that begin to not understand the people around

them. They just eat dinner with those

that are like them, whether it's like for political regions or

religious reasons or even like a social class.

And so there's no communication between US and usually good

things don't happen when there's a lack of communication, right?

It's easy to have hostile assumptions that begin to

develop. We know that we live in a, in a

culture where relationship seems to be breaking down more and

more as we really try to focus our relationship and things like

social media, right? How many of us have how many

friends online that we would look to for relationship or

spend our time on Instagram or or X or TikTok?

Influencers talk about the amount of people they have

following us. We have division between

different political beliefs and religious beliefs.

We have just a lot of relationship break in our

culture. Is there a practice of Jesus

that can answer this breakdown? The answer is yes.

Right now we are in a series where we are talking about the

practice of community. Last week Pastor Ben preached on

what exactly community is. What does it look like?

What does a Christ like community appear to be?

If you did not listen to that teaching, it is up on Apple

podcast. Highly recommend go and give it

a listen. But for the next three weeks, we

are going to be talking about different practices of community

starting with this week. So if you have your Bible with

you or it's it's on a phone or whatever, go ahead and turn to

Luke 5, verse 27. We always recommend a paper

Luke 5:27

Bible. Easier to not be distracted or

well, distracted. So Luke 5.

And then if you want to, if you have a paper Bible, put another

finger in. Luke 19.

We'll be hanging out in those two stories.

So in the Luke 5 passage you have Jesus is walking around at

the beginning of his ministry and he is calling people.

He's already gone to Peter and his friends stood out and said,

follow me and I will make you fishers of men, OK.

And we know that that invitation, if you've hung out

with us, is not just a, hey, do you want to be a follower?

But hey, do you want to be an apprentice of Jesus?

Come and follow me and I'll teach you to be with me, to

become like me, and to go and do what I did.

And so in the in Luke chapter 5 verse 27, it says this.

Luke 5:27

And after that he went out and looked at a tax collector named

Levi sitting in the tax office. And he said to him, follow me.

Now in this story, it's really important for us to understand

the cultural context of tax collector.

It's not like Jesus just went up to a government employee, right?

It's not like he just went up to City Hall and was like, hey,

person at City Hall, would you like to follow me?

It's not like he went up to the mayor or a District Attorney or

something. A tax collector in that day

would have been a Jewish man that sided with Rome, OK.

And Rome, of course, during Jesus's day was an oppressor.

They had taken over the land of the Jews.

And so that tax collector not only had joined forces with the

Roman government, but was the representative of the Roman

government to go and collect taxes.

I know not we don't like collecting or we don't like

giving taxes then. But the Jewish tax collector

would not only get the government taxes, but his wage

was whatever he wanted it to be, and he would go up and he would

ask for more than the rate of taxes.

Does that make sense? So for example, if you were

Peter, you went out, you went fishing, you were going to need

to pay taxes on those fish before you could sell them.

Maybe taxes were as high as 80% during that day.

As a tax collector, you would go up to Peter and say, hey, Peter,

your taxes today are 90%. Eighty for me, 10% for for me,

or 80% for Rome, 10% for me. Or maybe it would be 20 percent,

30%. It was honestly whatever that

tax collector wanted it to be. And if you know, people in

general, we're not usually generous about those kinds of

things. We try to get as much money as

we can. So tax collectors were usually

pretty wealthy, but they were wealthy at the expense of their

own people. A tax collector was known as

someone that had betrayed their people.

They were an outsider. They were considered an enemy.

And Jesus just walked up to him and said, would you like to be

an apprentice? This would be like if you saw

Jesus hanging out with like a terrorist from ISIS.

This would be like if you saw pictures of Jesus sitting down

with with like the head of the KKK.

This would be like Jesus sitting down in a prison with the worst

murderers imaginable. How would you respond if you saw

that? Verse 28 Levi got up, left

everything, and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet

for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors

and others were eating with them.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who belong

to their sect complain to his disciples.

Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

This meal was scandalous, right? Jesus is hanging out with the

very people that were an enemy of their own people.

You see, when we sit down for a meal, and this is whether it was

Jesus's day all through, all throughout really humankind, you

and I, we eat with people that are like us, right?

Like, think about who is at your dinner table.

It's usually your family, maybe some friends if you have to,

maybe someone from work, but it is usually someone that you have

relationship with that has a common something in your life.

And so for Jesus to sit down with tax collectors, the enemy

of the people was for Jesus to say, I have something in common

with these people, which it makes sense.

The Pharisees would be like, Jesus, what are you doing?

We already think you're kind of weird with some of the teachings

you're giving, but now you are sitting down with our enemies.

See, the Pharisees are not offended by Jesus's theology.

They are offended by Jesus's table.

Jesus's meals are upside down. The religious leaders would use

the table to separate. Jesus used the table to seek and

save the lost. Go ahead and turn to the right

to chapter 19. OK, Jesus has been doing

ministry for a while longer. Verse one, Jesus entered Jericho

and he was just passing through. A man was there by the name of

Zacchaeus and he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.

So you have Levi in the first story, just a tax collector.

This is like the tax collector's boss.

This is the main man. He wanted to see who Jesus was,

but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd.

Quick Bible nerd thing. K in the Greek there it's not

clear who the subject is of the short.

It can be read Either Zacchaeus's short or Jesus's

short doesn't have anything to do with our subject, but just

for the the short kings in the room.

So we ran ahead and climbed a Sycamore fig tree to see him,

since Jesus was coming that way. Zacchaeus is a tax collector.

He's the chief tax collector. He's wealthy, he's compromised,

He is another enemy of the people.

If there was someone that was despised in this town, it was

him. And what happens verse 5, when

Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and he said to him,

Zacchaeus, come down immediately.

I must stay at your house tonight.

Jesus is a travelling teacher. Is Jesus able to invite someone

over for dinner? No, Jesus is constantly going up

to people and saying I'm coming to your place for dinner.

How would you like that if Jesus showed up and said hey tonight

I'm at your house? So he came down at once and

welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and

began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of a

Sinner. This is the same thing as the

first story, right? Jesus has gone up to someone

that was despised, someone that betrayed the people, an enemy

and he, Jesus went up to him and was like, hey, would you like to

have a meal? Would you like to have

relationship? Would you like to to be a part

of my party? And of course the people on the

outside are going what is Jesus do doing?

Does what does he have in common with this tax collector?

Verse 8 But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, Behold

Lord, half of my possessions I am giving to the poor, and if I

have extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back four

times as much. So look at what is happening.

Jesus has gone over to Zacchaeus's house and is not

just having a meal, but something has happened.

Something has happened in Zacchaeus's heart.

He is completely turning around what we would call repentance,

verse 9. And Jesus said to him today,

salvation has come to this house because he too is a son of

Abraham. For the son of man, which is

Jesus's favorite way of referring to himself, has come

to seek and to save that which was lost because Jesus went to

Zacchaeus's house. Zacchaeus repented Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus gives back more than what he owes in an act of

repentance. And Jesus is able to say today

salvation has come to this house.

This is the pattern of Jesus's ministry, eating over and over

and over again, so much that in Luke 734 Jesus is talking with

the Pharisees and he says the Son of Man has come eating and

drinking. And you say, behold the

gluttonous man and a heavy drinker, a friend of tax

collectors and sinners. Is that the vision you have of

Jesus when you think about Jesus is a guy like eating way too

much at the dinner table, drinking, hanging out with those

that you don't think should be there.

He was eating and drinking so often that eating and drinking

became a part of his public reputation.

Not a one time event, but a regular practice.

It was a pattern. Eating and drinking with the

lost was the primary way that Jesus did ministry, the table

where sinners were welcomed, where outsiders were seen, where

enemies were drawn near, where shame was undone, where

repentance became possible. It was the Kingdom of heaven,

created with bread, wine, and laughter and his presence. 1

commentator about the book of Luke says that Jesus is either

on his way to a meal, he is at a meal, or he is leaving a meal.

It is this idea of Jesus continually eating with the

lost, drinking with the lost that we have come to call

hospitality. Hospitality was so important to

the ministry of Jesus that the early church could not imagine

following Jesus apart from it. Over and over again in the New

Testament they instruct the church to practice hospitality,

whether it's Romans 15-7. Therefore accept one another.

That word accept can also be translated welcome just as

Christ has accepted us for the glory of God.

So it's not just an instruction for hospitality, but Paul in the

the letter to the Romans is saying that the reason you're

doing hospitality is not just because Jesus did it, but

because Jesus did it to you. Okay, first, Peter 49 offer

hospitality to one another without grumbling.

So it's not enough to just have people over, but it's to have a

loving disposition towards them. First Timothy 32 Now the

overseer is to be hospitable. That means that if you were a

leader in the early church, you were unable to be 1 if you did

not practice hospitality. Hebrews 13 Two, do not forget to

show hospitality to strangers. From the beginning.

The church could not imagine apprenticeship to Jesus without

hospitality, whether that's Jesus, the generation of the

church right after him and then continuing on into church

history, right. If we look at if we look at the

the early church for the 1st 300 years or so, evangelism did not

happen from like the pastors or leaders of the church giving

really good teachings. You wouldn't like be hanging out

at your your work stable and look at Rob the horse salesman

and say, hey, Rob, you want to come to church with me?

And he would say, yeah, I guess no.

Because to do so, you would be persecuted, right?

Rob could turn you into the the guards and you would be in

prison for inviting them to church.

So the primary way of evangelism was ordinary people over

ordinary meals. It would be you inviting Rob

over to your house for dinner and feeding him good food and

being present to him in loving ways.

And through that, Rob is exposed to Jesus.

It is that what made Christianity such a powerhouse

in the early church? Think about it for a minute.

The early church was considered to just be the small group, this

the small religious sect. And a few 100 years later, over

half of Rome was Christian. Why?

Because of the practice of hospitality.

So if hospitality is that important, we need to have a

clear picture of what it is. So let's start with a quote.

I like quotes. Do you guys like quotes?

Anyone else like quotes? Yeah.

There we go. OK, so Madeleine Engel is an

American writer. And she says we draw people to

Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe,

but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with

all their hearts to know the source of it.

Hospitality is an act by which you bring a revelation of Christ

to those who are far from Him. It's our presence, church

definition that hospitality is intentionally creating safe

space for friends, strangers, and enemies to experience the

love and presence of Christ. At its core, hospitality is the

creation of space. It is making room for people to

encounter God. So let's take a deeper look

where we've described what hospitality is, but I want to

give you kind of four pictures. 4 dimensions of hospitality.

First, hospitality turns strangers and enemies into

friends through the love of God. I want you to think from, I want

you to take yourself back to high school, unless you were

home schooled. I'm sorry, I'm I'm there with

you. You have your tray in hand and

you're trying to decide who you're going to eat with.

Who are you looking to eat with? You're looking to to sit with

friends, right? Or maybe you're, you're a

football player, you're looking to sit with the other football

players. You're looking to eat with

people that are like you. And we never outgrow that, do

we? We're constantly trying to hang

out with people that are like us.

The only thing is that you and I are getting better at hiding it.

We sit with people that like us, we sit with people that vote

like us, parent like us, worship like us, and that make us

comfortable. And I'm not saying that it's bad

to necessarily do that, not saying it's bad to eat with

friends. But what I am saying is that

that's not the vision of hospitality that Jesus had.

Think about Matthew 5 for a moment.

It's a part of the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus is best teaching where he gives a vision of what the

Kingdom of heaven looks like in daily life.

And he talks about enemy love. And he says that hey, the the

pagans, those that don't follow me, that don't believe in God,

they hang out and they love people that are like them.

So if we just do that, how are we any different?

Jesus says if you only love those who love you, where is

your reward in that? Even tax collectors do that.

The way of Jesus opens the table outwards.

Justin Whitmore, early in his book on rule of life, says

cultivating rhythms of the table must not pull us away from the

outsider. A redeemed table is one that

invites outsiders in. The heart of hospitality is

looking out for the stranger, for the lost, for maybe those

that we don't want relationship with and welcomes them in #2

Hospitality is about love, not results.

Hospitality is all about love of God and love of neighbor, OK?

It has nothing to do with what you get out of the relationship,

OK? How many of us have been to a

dinner where someone tried to sell us something?

Oh, it's an uncomfortable app in the room.

What Jesus is saying is that's not, that's not really

hospitality. And sometimes it's not just

money, right? It's not just like someone

trying to literally sell you something.

Sometimes we're just trying to create a relationship, so maybe

we can borrow something of theirs, or maybe increase our

influence or maybe do better at work.

But all of that has to do with you.

It doesn't have to do with the other person or God.

Think about this for a moment. What does Jesus say is the

greatest commandment? Go ahead and shout it out if you

know it. I heard, I heard a couple love

God, right. Jesus has the lawyer come to him

and he says, Jesus, what is the most important commandment?

And Jesus says, well, love the Lord your God with all your

heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your

mind, which if you were a good Jewish man, you would know is

the Shema, a daily prayer that you learned as a little boy that

you would say three times a day that would keep you anchored.

And I need to love God, love God, love God, love God.

But Jesus then anchors another commandment to it.

He says, and love your neighbor as yourself.

This was revolutionary. He's saying that the love of God

has to flow into the love of neighbor.

Spiritual formation. Us becoming like Christ does not

just make us good lovers of God. It has to flow into US becoming

people of love for the sake of others.

Christian hospitality has to be different than the way the world

practices hospitality. And I know that hospitality is

kind of like a buzzword, especially if you work in the

service industry. I worked in a hotel and we

constantly talked about hospitality.

But The thing is, at the end of the day, it's not Christian

hospitality because I, as an employee of a hotel, am trying

to get your money right. A cafe shows you hospitality,

but if you leave without paying for your drink, they're not

going to respond very well. Right There was this time Missy

and I before we were married. We were dating and I had AI had

an old mentor friend reach out to me and ask us to dinner and I

was so excited. Her and her husband were were so

kind all of the time. They were the kind of people

that were just like completely present to you.

Have you ever met someone like that?

Like you feel like there is nothing else that matters except

you when you are talking to them?

And they were movie lovers. I'm a movie lover.

So I was really looking forward to going over to their house for

dinner. We were having spaghetti.

It was before I was gluten free. So good.

Miss You was a little apprehensive.

She was like, why are they asking us to dinner?

It's been like 3 years since you've seen them.

And I was like, let's not worry about it Let's go have spaghetti

and a great meal and enjoy their presents.

And we went over and it was some of the best spaghetti I've ever

had. Like not just like I do

spaghetti with like a little bit of butter and salt, but like it

had like Italian seasoning red Peppers, meatballs.

I don't even know how to make a meatball.

Garlic bread. Come on, I'm making my my celiac

heart really sad. We had a great conversation.

We talked about movies. We talked about what we had

seen, what we had loved. It was so fun.

And at the end of the meal, my old mentor said, hey, I got

something to show you. You want to go watch?

And as a movie lover, I'm like, let's go, let's go watch.

We go ahead and we sit down and he begins to show us a

commercial for a pyramid scheme. How do you think I felt in this

moment? I felt sad.

I felt like I actually didn't quite matter.

And I had to look at my future wife and say, you were right.

What they were doing was not actual hospitality.

It didn't actually foster love in our relationship.

In fact, all it did was drive us away.

The litmus test of hospitality is our motivation.

Am I making space for love or am I making space for something

else? My friends, God will not share

space with our agendas. Let me say that again.

God won't share space with our agendas.

If you are entering into a relationship with someone, if

you're trying to createspace for them to experience the love and

presence of God and you have another agenda, God will not

meet you there. God's call is to love him and

our neighbor dimension 3. When we practice hospitality, we

image God the story of Scripture.

Spoiler alert, I know some of you are like Bible and a year

fans and I'm going to spoil scripture for you.

The entirety of scripture is the story of God trying to have

relationship with his people. It's God trying to be present to

his people, whether it's Genesis 1 and 2 or God creates a garden

so he can have relationship with us so that we can work with him

so that he can see us face to face.

And then the fall happens, right?

And God is trying to find a way to get back to his people.

He goes through the family of Abraham.

You think of like the story of of Moses and the slaves in Egypt

and the go to Mount Sinai and Jesus invite or God invites

Moses up on the mountain with a bunch of his buddies and what

does God do with them? He has a meal with them.

The Tabernacle is just a space at the tent that God uses to be

with his people. The temple is just a place that

that God makes so that he can be present to his people.

The reason that Jesus comes is so that Jesus can be with his

people. The reason the Holy Spirit comes

is so that God can be in us. The reason the church starts is

so that we can be God's presence in our world.

The whole story of Scripture is this, the story of God making

room to be with us. It is what Dallas Willard called

the with God life. Karen Burton Mains writes.

The essence of hospitality is a heart open to God with room

prepared for the guestiveness of the Holy Spirit that welcomes

the presence of Christ. This is what we share with those

whom we open our doors. We give them Him.

In hospitality, we do not merely give people food.

We don't give them a good time. Our goal is to create space for

an encounter with God himself. Hospitality is US joining God in

his mission. It's US imaging God.

Finally, hospitality has nothing to do with presentation.

It has everything to do with presence.

Christine Pole, she has a book on hospitality, says hospitality

is not so much a task as a way of living our shared lives and

of sharing ourselves. Listen, I get that hospitality

is kind of hard. I'm preaching this message.

Let me tell you guys, I've been studying for this message for

two or three weeks and I've been convicted the entire time.

I literally have had things that I'm supposed to go to that I

struggled with that I was like, I don't want to go or I don't

want to have people over. My house is not clean enough.

I'm not enough good enough cook. We have a small apartment.

That seems like a good reason not to have people over.

I don't know if they actually like me.

I'm not that friendly. I don't know what to say.

I don't know how to make it special.

But see, all of these things are what distinguish entertainment

from hospitality. Entertainment.

Ask the question, what can I provide for you?

Hospitality says there is room for you with me.

Entertainment is about presentation.

Hospitality is about presence. Jesus was the most hospitable

person that ever lived and he did not have a home.

He didn't have anything to give other than himself.

I think we can all like get in the headspace of Martha in the

story of Mary and Martha, maybe you know it.

Jesus goes to their house to to take a break to enjoy their

presence and marry the little sister.

She sits right down at the feet of Jesus and they enjoy one

another. She's listening to his

teachings. But what does it say that Martha

does? It says Martha is anxious.

She's looking all over the place.

She is constantly working. Martha opens up her home, but

Mary is sitting at her feet. Martha is distracted by

everything except actually being with Jesus.

Martha is trying to host Jesus without being with Jesus.

Some of us do this. We try to give people a clean

house, a good meal, a good time of polished version of

ourselves, but we withhold our presence.

Hospitality is not about the room you prepare, it's who you

prepare to be in that room. Hospitality is all about what

you carry with you. You could throw a really good

party, great spread, big screen TV, yard games, whatever people

like to do. But if you're unpeaceful, if you

are unable to show the love of Christ, if you fail to create

that environment where people experience Jesus because you are

so far away from like him, then if you have failed at

hospitality, and that's not to bash anybody, this isn't like a

like, Oh no, you haven't done hospitality or you've done

hospitality. The reality is, is that

hospitality is for the other person, but it's also for you.

Because if you're in the space where the Holy Spirit comes,

where the presence of God comes and his love is with that other

person, you are also there. It is in hospitality that we get

a gift as well of the Holy Spirit's presence.

Now, I know that like this idea, I think it's beautiful.

Like I think it's beautiful that Christ gave us a practice that

can make strangers or enemies our friend.

A practice where people can really experience, like, I don't

know about you, but the idea of evangelism.

There's different people of different types, but like

evangelism can stress me out. The idea of going and having

just like a dry conversation with someone about Jesus, It

stresses me out and I've seen it go really badly before.

But man, the idea that I can just be present to someone.

I can be a loving presence and invite God into that.

And that's what changes lives, man.

That takes the burden off. So what are some of the reasons

that you and I struggle with doing this practice?

Well, if we're honest, we're tired.

A lot of us work a long days, and the idea of having someone

over at the end of the day, it exhausts us.

A lot of us are hurried. We live in an age where fast

food is eaten more often than not.

And why? Because we don't even have time

to plan dinner. If I don't have time to plan

dinner for myself, how am I going to plan dinner for someone

else? We're overextended, emotionally

spent, We're constantly moving. This is all why hospitality has

to be a practice. Or or it can be, as some writers

call, a discipline. Because Christian hospitality

can't be our choice. Because you're going to come to

the day where you don't feel like practicing it.

Hospitality has to be an intentional pre decision to love

others, John Ortberg writes. Love and hurry are fundamentally

incompatible. Love always has time, and time

is the one thing that hurried people do not have.

Our world does not need Christians with a lot of

convictions or a lot of opinions for a lot of really hard

conversations. We need people willing to open

space for the Spirit to work. People for, for the most part,

are not argued into faith, but they are welcomed.

They encounter a kind of love they can't explain, a kind of

peace they don't have, a kind of presence that they are starving

for. See, we live in a world of

secularism, which means that we, especially if you are a

millennial, you are naturally wondering what actually is going

on, right? So when you get that invitation

to dinner, you're asking why? Why do they want to have dinner?

Why does that person want to have coffee?

What's actually going on? You can't argue with that.

Secularism is a mood. What it needs is loving presence

to be changed. Moods are not changed by

arguments, but they are changed by presence.

The final reason that this is difficult, I think, is because

you and I don't have a vision of hospitality in our lives.

I feel like I'm the pastor that always gets to talk about

loneliness, but I think there's a lot of really lonely people in

the room. I think there's a lot of people

that that don't feel seen or maybe you feel used by those

around you, like you're a tool and not a person.

And the reality is, is that at the end of the day, the reason

that you and I practice hospitality is because Jesus

practiced hospitality first. There is.

Please listen. I know there's a couple of you

that need to hear this. There is a place for you at

Jesus's table. It doesn't matter what you've

done. It doesn't matter what you think

of him. Jesus was eating with the tax

collectors. He can take the heat.

You are welcome at his table. You don't need to have

prerequisites. You don't need to wait to become

the kind of person to sit at that table.

Jesus wants to meet you there. Jesus wants, Jesus wants you to

frankly abide. And so my invitation today is,

is twofold. We're going to talk a little bit

about how to actually practice hospitality for a moment.

But really first I want you to consider what it means that you

already have been invited to Jesus's table, that he has

already practiced hospitality to you.

And what that means is that who are you able to say no to that's

going to be at your table? No one.

You didn't earn a place at Jesus table.

That means people don't earn a place at your table.

You didn't have to get good enough.

You don't have to have the right attitudes.

I you don't even have to have all of the right beliefs.

You can be arguing with Jesus and Jesus still invites you to

sit there. So how do you and I begin to

practice hospitality? Well, first we need to just make

room. Following Jesus is much more

about emptying your life than it is adding things on top.

Have you ever noticed that? Think about the things Jesus is

calling you to do. Sit with him and quiet.

Sit with him and abiding talks to the the rich man and says

give away all of your possessions 'cause they're

giving and getting in the way. The way of Jesus is much more

about subtraction that it is addition.

So that means when I'm inviting you to practice hospitality, I'm

not inviting you to make a more full calendar.

What I'm asking you to do is to open your doors.

You are already eating dinner, correct?

Open your door to someone having dinner with you.

I think my favorite people that I have ever eaten dinner with

invited me over into their messy homes.

Maybe you've had someone like that when you were younger, not

married, and you had an older couple that said come on over,

but my kids toys are all over the place.

That is a more loving place than a perfect place.

The invitation is not to add to your calendar, it is just to

open your doors. But a couple really practical

things. First, learn your neighbors

names really quick. Think for a moment.

Can you name the people that live around you next door

neighbors, people that live behind you, live across the

street? Do you know their names?

Do you know their stories? Do you know what they do for a

living? We can't start practicing

hospitality until we know who we live with.

And I'll be honest, I'm just as guilty as of this, but I'm

trying. We know the people that live

behind us in our apartment building.

We didn't, we we barely know, knew the people that lived

across the way, but we had new people move in during me

studying for this practice. So we've been trying to get to

know them a little bit. And my wife, my wife is better

at this than I am. She was like, when are we having

them over for dinner? I'm like, yeah, I'm so

uncomfortable, but that's the idea.

If you don't know their names, go ask.

It might be a little awkward, but just go over.

The weather is gorgeous. It's the summertime.

They're going to be outside. Hey, my name is Patrick.

We haven't met. What's your name?

Hey, I'm Patrick. Nice weather.

Like you guys know how to do this better than I was.

I was homeschooled. You have an advantage #2 I want

you to begin praying about who God wants you to have at your

table. I want you to really, really ask

God and spend some time and this can be as easy as you sitting

down in your quiet time or just sitting down with a notebook and

pen and ask Jesus, who will you have me over?

People will come to mind. And you need to push past the

obvious. OK, You need to push past the

people that have been over before.

Again, the friends, the family, unless do you have a family

member that you need to reconcile with?

Is there a hard conversation that you need to have or you

need to just forgive? Is there someone from work that

you don't get along with very well?

Is there someone that you have just a blind spot for?

The great thing is you don't need to figure this out by

yourself, but take some time and ask Jesus who are the people

that need to be at my table? And if you need a hint, it's

going to be people that make you uncomfortable.

Practice three practice. 3rd circle hospitality. 3rd circle

hospitality. Rosaria Butterfield has this

book called The Gospel comes with a House Key.

If you don't know who she is, she was a a gay activist that

was doing everything she could to destroy Christianity.

She wrote for for a newspaper and she was at every event, she

was in every Christian's face. She saw on the street corner,

She was doing everything she could to get them out of her

town. And so one day her neighbor came

over to her door and invited her over for dinner.

And she knew that he was a pastor.

And she thought, man, this is perfect.

I can get on the inside. I can prove that he's a

hypocrite. I can get the inside information

about him. And so she went over and she had

a lovely time. And then at the end of the meal,

he said, would you like to come over next week?

She said, yeah, I guess maybe I'll have to spend more time

with him. Week after week she went, and he

let her ask question after question after question.

And after a couple years of this weekly practice of eating with

one another, she repented. She accepted Jesus as her Lord

and Saviour. And she is now like on the front

edge of evangelism, talking about the need for for for

Christians to just open their doors.

Here's the thing about 3rd Circle hospitality.

You have three circles. You have friends.

Again, not bad. And then you have strangers.

But whether it's a tax collector or Rosaria Butterfield who was

looking to literally destroy the church, 3rd Circle Hospitality

are your enemies. And this takes some courage.

Do you have the courage to have an enemy over for dinner?

Number four, stop overcomplicating it.

Stop overcomplicating it. It's OK if your house is messy.

You can order pizza, right? Most of us like pizza.

I don't. I'm gluten free.

That's the third time I've mentioned it.

But if you've had gluten free pizza, you understand, make

soup, sit down on the porch, go for a walk, get games out that

you naturally have. You don't need it.

You're doing activities anyways. Just invite people over.

One of my favorite things I used to do when I ran young adults

groups is I would be having a movie night because I was going

to watch a movie and I let people come over and eat my food

and watch a movie with me. We watched through all of The

Avengers films, 23 of them. I remember this has nothing to

do with the sermon, but I felt so bad for one girl.

She never saw one. In her first week we were

watching Avengers Infinity War. She spent the entire time asking

questions, but she was still welcome.

She was a stranger to the MCU and I invited her in.

Anyways, the point is, don't overcomplicate it.

Just open your doors. Finally, just be present.

Put your phone away. Put your phone away.

Patrick, put your phone away. I don't know about you, but when

things feel awkward, I go to my phone.

When I'm uncomfortable, I go to my phone, put it away, get a

box, put it on the wall, hide it, give it to your wife and say

put it in your purse, I don't need it.

And look at the person you're sitting with and listen.

There is an art to actually sitting and listening to people.

Consider, am I listening to what this person is saying or am I

thinking about my response? You can change people's hearts

by just listening. You don't need to argue.

God doesn't need you to defend him.

He's got it. He's not worried.

Sit and listen to the other person and show compassion.

People need hospitality. So in closing, there's this

really good. It's an old book.

It's called The Serious Call to a Devout in Holy Life.

How many of you want to read that?

That sounds great, right? And he has this description of

hospitality that's stuck with me over and over again.

I wrote it on a note card and every time I would sit down to

work on my sermon, I'd pull it out and look at it.

It's beautiful. And so I want you to, as you, as

you listen to this, there's two ways I want you to think about

it. The first one is, is God calling

me to to do any of these? Is there a person in my life

that I need to practice one of these things with?

But the second, I want you to listen or I want you to read

this list and I want you to consider Christ towards you.

I want you to consider Christ's posture towards you because we

do not createspace for the stranger or the enemy to meet

the love and presence of God just because we feel like it.

We do it as a response. Because Jesus found us first.

He invited us to His table first.

Condescend to all the weakness and infirmities of your fellow

creatures. Cover their frailties, love

their excellencies, encourage their virtues, relieve their

wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate in

their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their

unkindness, forgive their malice, and be a servant of

servants. To quote The Mandalorian, this

is the way. Jesus is not looking for you to

be really good at arguing. He's not looking for you to have

it all figured out. Jesus is looking for available

people. Jesus is looking for people that

createspace for his presence.