Hospitality (A Command Not A Suggestion )

You're listening to the Cross Kingdom Sermon of the Week, we help you enjoy

this message from Justin Carpenter time this morning. And if you have battled addiction

in the past, or if you're battling something, it doesn't matter if it

was drugs, alcohol, some sort of a addictive behavior. Yeah, that's

in my bloodline. But I broke it for real. Um. But and

I was reading in Josea of all the books, actually Josea four eleven,

and it talks about that when you go into that habitual lifestyle in Isaiah four

eleven, that you actually lose understanding. And so I feel like, um,

I need to release the spirit of under standing, which is actually one

of the seven spirits of God found in Isaiah eleven. And then Revelation four.

And what this is going to do. This is going to if you

feel stuck, you're gonna get unstuck. If you've been having a difficult time

with understanding God's word getting revelation from it when you're reading it, that's going

to go away. And so I don't want to you know, this is

a safe place. You're loved. This isn't like to call you out or

anything. I remember years ago when I went to break shame from people who

have been arrested or worship leader raised her hand Andrea and I'm like, Andrea,

you've been arrested. She was like, it was quite humorous. But

if that's you, if you would just put your hand up, and if

you have your hand up, somebody get by them. And you know,

a couple of people get by people with their hands up real quick. And

we're just going to pray into this, okay. So Father, I just

thank you right now in the name of Jesus Lord, that we don't have

to live with any cycles of defeat, with any restraints or hindrances, because

you paid the full price. Lord. So right now, in that stronghold

of not understanding in areas Lord, right now, I just release the spirit

of understanding right now in the name of Jesus, and I command restraints in

mind binding spirits to come off of their minds right now, and I declare

a losing of their hearts so that they can understand in the spirit of their

mind right now in Jesus Mighty name. Amen. All right, and one

more thing, and I understand what time it is. I will I will

preach like an auctioneer. Don't worry. So over this weekend, I was

at the Convergence Council and y'all remember Bani Shabda right now, please hear this

testimony. It is about me and it's not about me. I want you

to see something in this concerning revelation and the spiritual rome. Okay, are

you with me? So Bonnie Saray night. She was like, justin,

I wasn't going to share this with you because I wasn't quite sure what this

was. She goes, but I feel like I should. We had just

finished dinner, everybody was going to part ways, and she goes, I

looked over at you today and I saw this brand new saddle, like a

horse saddle, and she goes, I'm not quite sure exactly what this is,

but the Lord has something for you to jump on and get with it,

like just go like okay, So I started praying into this saddle thing.

I'm like, Lord, what is this exactly? Horses represent authority and

power, you know, you could even think about the circuit riders in the

past. By the way, Curva went almost forty years without a church when

it was first established, which is very unusual. The Union Church was the

first church created with three churches here, but all there was was circuit riders

here, h and I got hit a little. And I do think there's

something on the whole circuit rider thing, meaning like I tender it evangelism,

right, but prophetic evangelism power evangelism is what Wimber called it. Anyway,

So fast forward Monday. I'm in my office. I'm doing a session.

I'm sorry, Tuesday. I'm doing at ten o'clock in the morning session.

It's an amazing session. We get to the end of the session, all

of a sudden, I feel this impression of this saddle, like I'm in

the saddle. And I look down and in the spirit I see I'm sitting

in the saddle. So yes, I know things can get weird. People.

It's actually a gaming chair in my office, but I felt I could

see the saddle and not that I'm gaming in my office. Just to clarify

that, and and so I share this. I share exactly what I just

shared with with y'all to my ten o'clock in my prayer partner, Susan Deetzman.

And as soon as I said the leather, the smell of leather filled

the room. My ten o'clock session could smell the leather. Then I could

smell the leather, and then our prayer partner smell the leather. I opened

the door and Becky bowen. For those of you that know Becky, Becky's

like, Holy col that was an awesome session. She goes, there were

angels flying all over the place in the hallway. I get halfway down the

hallway, I walk through one, I get hit and I almost go to

my knees. I finally make my way up to her. I get hit

again. By the power of God. I share what happened with Becky,

and all of a sudden, leather, the smell of fresh leather filled the

whole front room. No watch this. So I share this testimony with Charity

Cubic right, And she goes, justin, Charity is the one who did

crown with beauty if you're wondering, because we have a couple of charities that

are around here. And she goes, Justin, she goes, Saturday,

I was looking at Bonnie, and in front of Bonnie, I saw a

horse, and I saw her putting a saddle on a horse. So literally,

while Vonnie seeing the saddle in front of me and she said, she

could see the saddle, she could like hear the like the ruffling of the

leather, and she could smell it and all that. Literally, Charity is

across the room and is seeing this revelation at the exact same time. Do

you all understand that the spiritual realm is not some fairy tale dreamy land where

there's well, never mind, I'll start offending prophets that describe it. Anyways,

It's real. The spiritual realm is absolutely real. Do you understand that

God opened oh, what's her name's eyes and she took a drink of water

from the well. She literally the Lord opened her eyes to the spiritual realm.

She goes to the well and she drinks water. It was Haygar,

I think, yeah, do you understand it is real? So when you

are even if you're not seeing external like open vision, when you're seeing internal

vision, that the Lord is showing you internal pictures. He's showing you internal

you know, panoramic visions. You are literally peering in beyond the veil,

seeing a mystery, seeing revelation. You're seeing what's on the other side.

And then you partner with the Lord so that that can actually begins to manifest

into the natural. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's substance.

That's why we can lay our hands on people in an impart peace,

we can impart healing, we can impart these things to people because we are

We're by location, we are seated with Christ and heavenly places, and we

are in this meat sack, operating in this earthly realm. I just had

to share that with you because too many times in the American Church we view

we have a natural worldview, and we always go to natural remedies first,

and then it's kind of like, oh, I guess we could pray now

that I tried these other eighteen methods. If you think in earthly terms,

you're gonna get earthly results. If you think in heavenly terms and you're gonna

get heavenly results. You have to use the mind of Christ, not your

natural mind, because your natural mind actually can't comprehend the things of the Spirit.

It's foolishness unto your natural mind. So when you're trying to access points

of the spirit, are trying to see what the Lord's doing. If you're

trying to process this with your natural mind, none of it's going to make

sense to you. It's just like when you're praying in the spirit, your

natural thinking gets in the way. You're like, this is jibber, jabber.

I ain't saying anything. And so all of a sudden, like when

Jason Upton is in this auditorium and he starts singing in the spirit and he

literally starts speaking in Malawi, and come to find out, Heidie Baker ends

up hearing it, gets it, and she plays what he sung in Malawi

and calls all the children to the table because he's literally singing, come to

the table. That's why it says have an interpreter, right. It says

that you speak mysteries in your spirit, and it says let him speak unto

himself where he speaks mysteries if there's no interpreter. But these are languages,

right, Paul said, I speak in tongues of men and of angels.

So there's heavenly languages, Angelic language, and all of this. It im

okay, don't don't judge me. But I loved Thor right. And then

he's like, and I mean he's about my height, same you know,

hair and everything and same build, and uh, I'm the before right anyways,

but they they would go between realms. And that's and and that's exactly.

Do you understand, Like when you go to sleep at night and you

have a dream from the Lord, you're accessing a part of the spiritual realm

and you aren't pretending to be there, you are there. Abraham encountered God

in a dream, and all of humanity was changed while he was in that

dream. Not awake, your spirit doesn't sleep. I feel like my whole

schedules all um. You know, we've been going forward with this whole uh

lifestyle of generosity concept. We've been what does it what does it mean to

live a kingdom generous life, which we understand goes way beyond dollar bills.

It has to do with our life, our heart, our transformation, how

we're living. And I have ten minutes, um, so I'm going to

start briefly, but I want to talk to you about something which you probably

have not thought of it in this way, but it's actually hospitality. We

always view hospitality in the church is like entertainment or optional, like we can

we can take it or leave it. But if you actually study the word

and study hospitality, it is a command. It is a prerequisite of overseers.

It is a prerequisite of elders. It is not optional. It is

actually a command. And the Greek word for that actually means love of strangers.

Now, I know we freak out in today's culture. You know if

you see a stranger on the side of the road. You know, the

seventies, everybody was hitchhiking all over the country. It was hitchhiking in the

seventies was kind of like the greyhound bus station, right, But we don't

do that now because you know, there's a few cycles that move about in

our country and you may not get to your destination. But it literally means

to love strangers, or hospitality. The Greek word is found twice, and

there's one other word that is found ten times, and it means to receive

a guest, or to entertain strangers, so to receive a guest into your

home. So there's this thing about hospitality that means you don't necessarily need to

know them. So like when we when we encourage y'all, when visitors come

in and we encourage you to find somebody you don't know, you're actually being

obedient to the Lord Jesus. When you open home so there was this covenant,

which you actually see an expression of the salt covenant that happens in there.

Because the salt covenant, when people would come together and break bread,

it was way more than just a casual meal. They were coming into covenant

relationship with each other. They would carry bags of salt on their side,

and they would each take a pinch of salt and put it in a bowl,

and then they would break bread can fellowship with each other. And then

in the end they would take that salt and pour that mixed salt in each

other's bags as a symbol that just like this salt cannot be undone, neither

can our friendship are covenant with each other. So covenant friendships, it wasn't.

It wasn't like today where we get ticked off at each other on Facebook

and YouTube and Instagram and could you and everybody airs out their entire life stories

on comets and then get offended because somebody says something back you never should have

said. And we have these just there's no commitments, there's no we don't

understand covenant the way the Lord teaches covenant and friendship covenant and so hospitality.

They would bring these strangers in and they would take responsibility for why they were

there, to actually protect them, feed them and bless them, and send

them on their journey. Listen, Jesus said that the world will know that

you follow me, that you belong to me by the love you have for

one another. So, if we're actually going to live a lifestyle that prophesies

the salvation of the Lord Jesus, hospitality has to be a part of this.

It cannot be optional. It is a sacrifice. Hospitality is a sacrifice,

y'all. You don't feel, especially if you're introvert. If you're an

introvert hospitality man, you're probably like need in prayer ministry when you're done because

people you don't recharge with people. I'm one of those weird guys. I

took the test. I'm fifty five d and forty five eyes, so a

lot of you probably think I'm this massive extrovert. Lisa's like, I feel

like you're spiritually bipolar. Sometimes she goes, you're either out there laughing in

the life of the party, or you're just silent because I charge. I

recharge alone. I read there's nothing more healing to my soul than sitting in

a deer, blind and hearing absolutely nothing. In those moments, I'm like

Jesus, even if a turkey doesn't come, or a hog or a ten

point buck or an axis or a black buck. Lord, I'm okay in

this blind Sorry, I was starting to disappear, But in Romans twelve nine

to thirteen, it says, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil,

hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.

I'll do one another and showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal,

be fervent in prayer, serve the Lord, rejoice and hope, be patient

and tribulation, Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints,

and seek the show hospitality. And seek the show hospitality. That means

you're seeking for opportunities to actually find people you don't even necessarily know, so

that you can bless them. Y'all, If we live that way, you

know how easy it would be to build relationships with people and share the gospel.

Okay, I gotta be careful in this story. There's a family member

of mine who I love dearly, and their way of doing evangelism is they

just throw tracks like literally, they went through a neighborhood and just threw tracks

out in the driveways hoping that they might read the track and get saved.

Y'all, I understand people. Anybody got saved by a track in here?

Seriously, anybody got saved by a track in here? Who got saved by

someone you did not know? Raise your hand? Like who? You didn't

know them? And they led you to Jesus? Okay, now, how

many of you actually knew the person that led you to Jesus? Raise your

hands. Now look at that over half of the room and up top we're

actually led to Jesus through someone they knew. Jesus poured his life. The

disciples didn't have a clue who he was for months, maybe a couple of

years. Poured his life into him, and he's like, well, who

do they say I am? Who do you say I am? Peter?

And Peter gets it. But literally, they didn't know who he was at

first? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? But it was all relationship.

He treated them as disciples before they were disciples, so it was actually

discipleship evangelism. He didn't convert them and then disciple them. He started to

treat them like they're already his. So if we love that way we show

hospitality, we seek to show hospitality to those around us. We break bread

with them, we spend time with them. We actually treat them as if

they're already disciples. And all of a sudden, now there's this soil,

this kingdom soil that they're walking in, and they begin to recognize that when

they're around you, things change. When they're around you, they have more

peace in their heart. When they're around you, they just feel more joyful.

But when they're not around you, they don't. But you're actually giving

them an opportunity to taste and see that the Lord is good. At twenty

three, says, when they had appointed a day for him, they came

to him at his lodging, and greater numbers for morning until evening. He

expounded to them, testifying to the Kingdom of God and trying to convince them

about about Jesus, both from the Law of Moses and the prophets. I

love this entertaining, so entertaining angels happened at least four times in the Old

Testament, and I talked about this briefly. We know that Abraham and Genesis

eighteen entertained the preincarnate Jesus and two angels. We know that Lot in the

very next chapter entertained those same two angels when they arrived in Sodom. We

know that Gideon entertained an angel, and we know that Sampson's parents, Manoah

and his wife entertained an angel. Fileman says, confident of your obedience,

I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.

At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am

hoping that through your prayers, I will be graciously given to you. When

they opened up their homes and they open and they spread the table, it

was totally different than what we think about today. And if we'll grab a

hold of this, we're going to actually be transformed into his image more.

We're actually going to get a fuller expression of what love truly looks like.

We're going to live a lifestyle of generosity, and we're going to realize that

Scripture says, it's you're more blessed to give than to receive. And with

the and and with the measure you use, it's measured back. It says

he who waters will be watered. You know, people, there's such a

tension in in in the church, and there's there's there's a tension when some

ministers are blessed. Now I'm not talking about the name. It claim at

slapp at pappet you know, and and prosperity and ever. You know,

I'm not talking about that. But God wants to bless you. It is

a part of the Covenant. Read the Covenant, y'all are in. Abraham

is the father of faith. Hello. People, I'm not saying it's spiritual

to be rich, but I'm also saying that it's not spiritual to be poor.

So you need to understand that what you stewart grows period in every aspect

of your life. If we live a generous life in every aspect of our

life, and we're generous towards others with our time, our love, our

resources, we open our home. Guess what then we just show God that

we can be entrusted with more. That means, even when you don't necessarily

feel like entertaining our hosting people, ask the Lord, am I supposed to

do this? Now? I'm not saying that you have to have people in

your home every day of the week, I'm not saying you can't have you

holidays alone with your family, but when's the last time you had somebody in

your home for a meal. I know this that Lise and I in up

running more than we should at times because we value connection meals hospitality, because

we understand it's that relationship is obviously first and foremost and everything has to come

out of relationship. And so if you feel like I don't care and I

haven't gotten to you, let's have a meal. But be patient with me.

People, we have like three to five hundred people swirling in our sphere

all the time, and we do our best to get to people, to

get to know people, so we love you. Don't be offended. You

have to forgive me. It's a command. You don't have a choice.

And listen, I want y'all to know. I know we're constantly doing conferences,

workshops, camps and all of these things. None of these things are

being done just for the heck of it. Do you understand, like we

take serious who who we bring in to impart into the community, and I

wish we could do it all for free, but we can't. So if

it offends you that we charge, I love you, but it's life and

we can't bring people in for free. We can't do things for nothing.

But I promise you this that we never turn anybody away. I've never turned

anybody away for prayer ministry. Ever, in seventeen years we have scholarships sponsors

because of the generosity of people, were able to help those that are in

difficult times. And then scripture says that then when they're in a better time,

they can help somebody else. And what this does is when it spreads

this when we spread the burdens in the kingdom over each other, everyone has

what they need. Remember an accent says there was no lack. Everyone had

what they needed, so that was free. Do not be deceived. God

is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap. For the

one who sows to his own flesh will reap from the flesh reap corruption.

But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.

Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we

will reap if we don't give up. So then as we have opportunity,

let us do good to everyone, not just the people that you love because

they look like you. I think it was Danny Silk that says I love

them me I see in you. And now think about that, y'all.

Your deal of hospitality. If you're looking to see yourself and somebody else before

you extend the olive branch of hospitality, well you got a problem. What

if Jesus was like, yeah, I'm going to save them, but you're

going to hell? Yeah, And we miss out when someone's different, when

someone doesn't look like us, when someone processes differently, when someone looks differently,

and we go, oh, I just I can't. I don't know

if I want to connect with them. They're made in God's image and they're

actually carrying a peace of God's nature that you don't. And when you reject

them, you're rejecting Jesus. So let us not grow weary and doing good,

for in due season we will reap if we don't give up. So

then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those

of the household of faith. That's Galatians six seven to ten. First Peter

four seven to ten says the end of all things is at hand. Therefore,

be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers or the

sake of your prayers. So what's that mean? That means the end of

all things is at hand. Have self control and be sober minded, because

if you're not, then it doesn't matter how much you pray, it's going

to be affected. Your prayers will be affected if you deal treacherously with the

wife of your youth and first Peter, God will act as a witness against

you because of the way you're treating your wife. Men, and your prayers

will be hindered. So keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a

multitude of sins. Here we go, show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Can let me stay a little louder for those in the back show hospitality

to one another without grumbling. That means, ah, I can't believe you.

You know, usually the women are doing more stuff than the men at

church, so it's like the wife's like hey, or the husband. I

can't believe you're having those people over. I don't even like that guy.

I've seen him five times, barely says one word to me, and blah

blah blah blah blah, and you're just puking words all over the place.

Is that paying a good picture. You're welcome, So show hospitality without grumbling.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.

Your gifts aren't for you, there for others. You have. Every one

of you have gifts in this place. All of you, whether you think

you do or not, you have gifts. And if you're not using your

gifts to minister to the body of Christ, then guess what you are keeping

the Body of Christ incomplete. But you don't value yourself that way, because

if you did, you would find places to minister, You would find places

to actually use your gifts to help others around you. I mean, as

I'm talking to the church down the street, not y'all. Mark. Mark

said that a couple of times this week, and I was like, I'm

stealing that one. Well, yeah, we don't steal in the Kingdom.

It's all God's. I'm just connected with the favor. So as each has

received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's

varied grace. That word for varied it again as poikilos, it's multicolored grace.

So if you want to be a good stewart, hospitality without grumbling and

actually using your gifts to minister to the body of Christ shows good stewardship.

That's what that says, y'all. With me, I'm almost done. I'm

a landed I promise. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and

especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse

than an unbeliever. Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less sixty

years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a

reputation for good works, if she's brought up children, has shown hospitality.

Oh my word, hospitality here again is a prerequisite if you're going to be

a widow and be taken care of by the church. That widow had to

have shown hospitality. I was a little blown, Like when I really started

digging into this whole thing on hospitality, I was like, oh, man,

like, it's it really made me look and so has washed the feet

of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to

every good work. Y'all, you ever noticed we tend to lower our standards

of what qualifies us. And then when we look to the scriptures and we

look at what God says is a qualifier. What's that due? It actually

challenges us to embrace grace, which is the empower meant. Grace empowers you

to live free, to not sin. Grace is not the empowerment of sin.

You don't need grace when you sin, you need mercy. Almost done.

Thank you all for being patient. So Titus one sixty nine talks about

eldership. If anyone's above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children

are believers, are not open to the charge of debauchrier and subordination. For

an overseer as God, Stewart must be above reproach. He must not be

arrogant or quit tempered or drunk, a drunkard, or violent or greedy for

gain. That greedy for gain is going to knock a lot of American preachers

out. Huh. Sorry, I didn't mean to say that so loudly.

Yeah I did. But hospitable There we again again, hospitable hospitality a lover

of good, self controlled, up right, holy, and disciplined. He

must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be

able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict

it. One more, the saying is trustworthy of anyone aspires to the office

of an overseer, And this is specifically like a lead elder. He desires

a noble task. 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. Do you hear that? Boys?

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will

he care for God's church. So, in these very strict, very strict

guidelines of what qualifies us, hospitality is in there a lot, yeah,

a lot. So I want to see us be transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Literally be known as a church that shows hospitality. Connect group leaders.

They're opening their homes, they're sharing their gifts like it's a beautiful picture and

giving a place for the Body of Christ to come together. Whether I mean

there are people going to connect groups that don't come here on Sunday, but

they go to the connect groups. Wayne and Susan's that Wayne and Susan that

people. Susan's Susan have people that come from other places, but they worship

and another part of the body of Christ and Kerville, So that means hospitality.

We should actually be extending hospitality to our brothers and sisters from other buildings,

you know, other churches. Who but what what? But but what

if? But but what if some of y'all leave here and go there?

We don't own you. You're supposed to be where you're supposed to be.

If you're here and you're supposed to be across the street, then go across

the street. How's that for seeker friendly. You're supposed to be where you're

supposed to be. Period. We no, no man owns you. Jesus's

Lord, not a preacher. All right, I'm landing, I'm landing.

I promise that. If you couldn't hear that, that was Santana acting as

if I was crashing my plane. Stinker Acts twenty eight seven. Now in

the neighborhood of that place where lands belonged to the chief man of the island

named Pubulus, who received us and retained us hospitably for three days. So

he opened his home, there was hospitality there again. You see this issue

of hospitality all over the place. Beloved, is a faithful thing you do.

And all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who

testified to your love before the church, you will do well to send them

on their journey in a manner worthy of God. So I hope you were

encouraged. Let me just say it this way as I finished. Now,

for real, if we put together Romans twelve thirteen, Galatians six ten,

and First Timothy five eight, we can get a kingdom alignment of giving.

We give to God first because He always comes first. Then we take care

of our families, or we are worse than an unbeliever according to scripture.

Thirdly, are the church brethren distributing to the needs of the saints. Lastly,

would be strangers or outsiders given to hospitality. What I'm getting at is

that why we have to think about being hospitable. We also must be good

stewards of our resources. So alignment right God? Then man, and I

think not, I think I know that if we will, if we will

grab a hold of this issue of hospitality and really let that seed go deep

into us and bring transformation, then we're actually going to see amazing things break

out in our homes because it's not just about two hours on a Sunday morning.

As you all know, like we are a community, we want to

live a Kingdom lifestyle twenty four seven three sixty five, and we want to

be known. I don't know about you all, but I don't want to

be one of those guys when I die that preachers got to lie about my

life. Have you ever been to one of the funerals? You know they

were a scoundrel and you're just like trying to find something nice to say about

them. There used to be a Christen T shirt says I want to live

a life that when I die, the preacher doesn't have to lie about my

life or something like that. But we want to be known by the fruit

of the spirit. We want to be known for kindness and love and goodness

and merciful and man like. We want those types of characteristics. We don't

want to yeah, I don't want to be like, oh yeah, Justin

he's got a good teaching gift. But right, we don't want any butts

and do what Mark? I hear you? So if you all would stand

before Mark train Rexus, Thank you for listening. For more messages and other

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