Replay | Hospitality with Chris Schlotterbeck

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

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If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

So let's just open in prayer this morning.

God, we just thank you for a place where we can meet.

And even though this may not be a permanent place where we're called to be, we know that

you meet us here.

That God, your presence is just so rich and evident as we sing and we're just surrounded

by your peace and your love and your joy.

And I just pray an increase in that as we talk and share about what you consider to

be probably the most important thing that we could ever do in our life.

So I just pray that including in my own heart that light bulbs go off and that we begin

to value truly what it means to be connected and to be a neighbor to people in Jesus' name.

And we all said, amen.

So last week we did begin a new series for the next four weeks that we were calling Won't

You Be My Neighbor?

And together with 20 plus other churches in the tri-state area, our goal is simple, to

become better neighbors.

We discussed that Jesus says the whole law of God, and remember I highlighted that at

the time that Jesus was teaching, there were 613 laws.

And he said all of those laws are summarized by two great commands and that's love the

Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, your mind, and your strength, and then

to what?

Love your neighbor as yourself.

And we just really pinpointed that Jesus clearly said, do this and you will live.

Do this and you will live.

And basically he's saying that our entire lives are wrapped up in those two important

thoughts.

Our entire lives.

And I think quite often if you're anything like me, it's like we separate them.

Yeah, we love God and we want to talk to him and we pray and we read our Bible, but then

Jesus says, well it's just as important to love people and to be connected and it's almost,

we've lost that sense of what it means to be a good neighbor.

But yet it's just as important.

And the challenge naturally begins with just getting to know people.

According to a new study in Pew Research, only 31% of Americans say they know their

neighbors.

31%.

That's nothing.

That means 69% of the rest of America, they don't know their neighbors nor do they want

to know them.

And just like I shared last week, it's as if there's a separation within our culture

and within our communities and we're trying to figure out, well how do we bring this separation

back together?

And the thing is God has already given it to us and it's this simple word called hospitality.

And let me just point out to you that hospitality is not about throwing good parties.

That's a part of it, but it's not the most important.

What really is hospitality if we look to Jesus' life and his example?

The hospitality was gatherings, many of which of course were meals, but it wasn't about

the meals.

Jesus' focus wasn't on the menu, it was on the guest list.

It was on the people that were involved with him and around him and engaged in conversation

and it wasn't about the stuff they were eating, it was about getting people together.

The different people, the outsiders, the lonely, the forgotten.

And reality is if we begin to look at Jesus' example of hospitality, then we would really

see that we're called to be the same.

Jesus used homes and meals to define and declare where God was.

He used homes and meals to define and declare, hey, God is here.

God is a part of what we're doing.

And we've lost that concept.

You know, within our culture, our concept is churches on Sundays, we gather together.

Yes, God is here, but Jesus paints a totally different picture in that, no, he's in everything

we do everywhere we go.

And more importantly, in those small gatherings, inviting people in, our neighbors, if you

will, that's the most important thing in terms of relationships.

And we've turned our homes, America has turned their homes from a haven for guests into what?

A haven from guests.

We've turned our homes into, well, that's where I need to go to get away from people,

to escape the job, to escape the pressure, to escape the drive home.

You know, I need to sit down, I need to unwind.

It's as if we get off of work, we drive home as fast as we possibly can.

And as soon as we get home, it's like we draw up the drawbridge, make sure the piranhas

are fed and the water is surrounding our house, and we don't want anybody in.

True or false?

It's true.

It's as if we escaped to a place that was once a haven for guests, where people wanted

to come in and be a part of your life and other people's lives, and now we've just closed

those doors.

But their simple statement is this, in science, in science, scientists speak of a host environment

as friendly and hospitable.

And a friendly and hospitable environment sustains life and promotes life to others.

We have got to learn to create an environment within our homes where people are coming in

and being a part of who we are so that we are growing as much as the people that are

coming in.

And that leads us to our first thought this morning and the simple truth that everyone

has the power of hospitality within them.

So many of us think that we have to be Martha Stewart in order to have people over.

That's just a lie.

Right?

I don't even know who Martha Stewart is.

I just know that she's this person that makes really good food and her stuff that you buy

online is really expensive.

And she's known as a hospitable person, but it's not just her, it's all of us.

And how do I know that?

Well, Ecclesiastes 3 tells us, God has made everything beautiful for its own time.

He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so people cannot see the whole scope

of God's work from beginning to end.

God has placed eternity in your heart, even if you're not in a relationship with him.

Entity is placed in every person's heart and because God is the example of hospitality

that we're called to follow, we all have that within us.

We all have that quality of life.

The Bible tells us that some people though have an extra gifting, if you will, in hospitality,

but it's those people that we need to learn from as well because God's nature is gifted

in every person.

I firmly believe that, that all of us have God's giftings within us and God is the example

of hospitality just like Jesus that we're called to follow.

Okay, that God's heart is expressed in hospitality.

Romans 12-13 tells us this, always be eager to practice hospitality.

And hear me out, that's a command.

Like always be eager to practice hospitality, just when you get around to it.

No, it's always be eager to look to have people into your life.

And the Greek word that's used there for hospitality is philosenia and it actually is a combination

of two words, philos, which means affection, and xenos, meaning stranger.

So hospitality, when you really break it down in its definition, is showing affection towards

strangers.

And we learned last week in Luke 10 that of course the Samaritan as he journeyed came

to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion and he went to him.

We saw that example of the Samaritan having that godly compassion in his heart, that godly

hospitality in his heart.

Think about it.

That isn't an example of hospitality.

That's not an example of helping someone, that's hospitality.

Going to a stranger, helping them, having compassion, and when we open our hearts and

our homes, then we begin to practice God's hospitality when we see strangers as people

that want to and be engaged in our life.

But the good news is this, we don't have to do it in our own strength because our second

thought, hospitality flows from God.

We don't have to try to be someone we're not.

We don't have to have this perfect dinner plan and games and icebreakers.

We don't have to do anything.

We just have to allow God to use us.

Then a despised Samaritan came along, and I really wanted to emphasize that word despised.

Last week we referenced how when Jesus was telling that story the crowd would have booed

and would have said, no, we don't want to hear about that man.

The despised Samaritan though allowed God to use him.

The entire Bible, think about this, is the story of divine hospitality.

The entire Bible.

Read it from beginning to end and what are you going to find?

You're going to find the story of God's invitation to inclusion.

That Jesus had to face loneliness, shame, insult, ridicule, just like I shared earlier,

and had to be turned his back.

God had to turn his back on Jesus in order for us to be included.

That friends is hospitality.

And our tendency is to think of in terms of what we must do in order to be hospitable.

What we must do, what meal we have to make, the words that we have to say.

But that's the furthest from the truth.

Jesus was so clear that hospitality flows from God when he shared his parable of the

kingdom and the feasts.

And when we read this in Luke 15, the host of course is God.

And that triggered a response, Luke 15 verse 15, it says, from one of the guests, how fortunate

Luke 15:15

the one who gets to eat dinner in God's kingdom.

Jesus followed up, yes.

For there was once a man who through a great dinner party invited many and when it's time

for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guest saying, come on in, the food's

on the table.

Then they all began to beg off one after another making excuses.

Right?

Our lives are full of excuses.

You know, we're too busy for Sundays, we're too busy for growth groups, we're too busy

to invite people to our house for dinner, we're too busy to have coffee with someone,

we're too busy to have relationships.

The servant went back and told the master what had happened and he was outraged and

told the servant, quickly get out into the city streets and alleys, collect all who look

like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless, the wretched that you can lay

your hands on and bring them here.

The servant reported back, master, I did what you commanded and there's still room.

The master said, then go to the country roads, whoever you find, drag them in, I want my

house full.

Think about this.

When we begin a relationship with Jesus, we enter into that household.

Right?

And the host, God is challenging you this morning.

The host is challenging you gathered here this morning.

Look around, there's empty seats.

Is there an empty seat around you?

God doesn't want those seats empty.

He wants those seats full of people and even said to go out in the country roads.

We have plenty of country roads here.

Right?

Drag them in.

Pull them in if you have to.

Make it an effort that you want to extend God's hospitality that was given you with

everyone.

As we give it away, then suddenly that open door begins to happen.

William Barclay said that true Christianity was and still should be about the open door.

Allowing your doors to be open and allowing people to come in.

Which moves us to our third thought.

Hospitality happens in places of living.

Luke 10, 34 to 35, going over to him, the Samaritan soothes his wounds with olive oil

and wine and bandaged them and then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to

an inn where he took care of him.

The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins telling him, take care of this man if

his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here.

Now the very nature of hospitality places a huge significance on our homes.

You know the places that we live because our homes are the definition or the expression

if you will of being a family.

Because you break bread together it means that you're included at the dinner table,

that you're sharing a meal with another.

But it's not just your home.

You know notice the Samaritan, he took him to the inn and he bandaged him at the inn.

He was in the inn engaging life with the stranger if you will.

Helping him, serving him, including him in his life.

And we have to realize that the Samaritan's actions were ones that we are to follow.

Because some of us, you have limitations in your homes.

Or maybe you don't have a place where you can host people over for a meal.

But there's many other options that you can get involved with being a neighbor with person.

Think about it, there's not a weekend that goes by that there's not a community event

in the tri-state area, true or false?

What if that on the weekends instead of just packing our schedules or our time full of

the to do list around the house that we took an hour or two and just went to a community

event and engaged people and showed support.

You know consider life events and family and friends that people go through on a daily

basis in terms of some people move in and move out other people are getting married

or having children or they're starting a new job.

All opportunities to what?

Be hospitable to them.

Encourage people to share with them.

You can simply take someone to lunch or coffee.

Simply choosing a person at work that you know is new or struggling or left out.

You know being hospitable is the most important thing we could ever do because look what we

read in Hebrews 13.

Keep on loving each other's brothers and sisters.

Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained

angels without realizing it.

You know what an incredible invitation for all of us.

Let me be honest with you, you got to put down the draw bridges.

You know you got to stop feeding the piranhas.

You got to open your doors.

You got to invite people in because that's just the true nature of God's heart and God's

desire for us to engage other people which leads us to our fourth thought.

Hospitality is centered in the simple.

And don't overwhelm yourself that you need to have this four or five course meal to have

people into your house.

It's just not true.

First Peter 4, above all keep loving one another earnestly.

Since love covers a multitude of sins, practice hospitality to one another without grumbling.

And I think it's amazing it's another command.

There it is.

Practice hospitality.

It's another command for the church to follow and then it says don't fight about it or don't

complain about it.

Because isn't it true that if you're going to invite someone into your house or invite

someone over you feel this pressure to perform, true or false?

You want the house to be clean, the bathroom's got to be perfect.

Heck you even clean your showers for people to come over.

Have you ever had a guest come over and take a shower in your house?

Like you clean things when people are coming over that you haven't cleaned in like a month.

And then there's all this pressure to get it done and to make it look right and it's

got to smell right and then what does it cause?

Fighting and arguing and grumbling.

No wonder we have people, I don't want people to come over.

Look what happens.

Now think about this.

The Greek word for grumbling that's used there in First Peter is the same Greek word that

was used when the Israelites were grumbling about the promised land.

Same grumbling.

And those Israelites missed out on 40 years, a whole generation.

See God doesn't want us to miss out on His blessing.

You know God doesn't want us to miss out on the importance of what it means to gather together

to share.

And remember Jesus tells us about banquets but He also tells us about basics.

Luke 10.35 the next day He handed the innkeeper two silver coins and says take care of him.

We see that from the Samaritan.

Just a simple gesture.

Take care of this man.

Mark 25.35 I was hungry, you fed me, I was thirsty, you gave me water.

Jesus says it doesn't have to be a grand feast.

It can be a cup of water that you share with somebody.

And don't ever think your house is too messy.

Because to show hospitality means that you include people in your life.

And people are going to feel comfortable.

Think about it.

You invite someone in.

You welcome them at the door.

You open your door as you're walking in your living room.

You're kicking toys to a side or dog toys in your.

Who cares?

Right?

But to us we think everything's got to be perfect and spotless.

But in reality God isn't talking to.

God won't ask you the simple question about how big your house is.

He's not going to say well what's the square footage of your house, Chris?

No, he's going to say how many people did you welcome into your house?

God don't care how big your house is.

You don't care how nice it is, how good it smells.

I mean it's fall, right?

Everybody wants pumpkin spice.

Candles and you know all those scents are everywhere.

Oh I don't have pumpkin spice.

I can't have people over.

It's just a lie.

It's just a lie.

So challenge yourself.

Hospitality is being you and it's being real.

People feel comfortable when they're just simply invited in.

It's not an art.

It's not this exclusive club that you have to prepare the perfect meal and it's got a

taste right.

It's not about that.

It's just about being simple and being you.

But what we have to realize in order to be a good neighbor, number five about hospitality.

Hospitality involves initiative.

You know we just sung that song about getting out and getting moving.

Getting out on the waves, making it happen.

God is calling us out people.

Because our church is a church about open doors, about welcoming, about reaching those

that are on the fringes, that are left out, that are forgotten.

But if we're not action oriented, if we're not making a priority in our life then we're

not following God's call.

You know the Samaritan is he journeyed out compassion and he went to him.

The rich man and again before Jesus told the story he knew it, he knew the command.

Oh yeah love the Lord God for your heart.

So mind and strength.

Love your neighbor yourself.

And it wasn't that he didn't know it, he wasn't doing it because Jesus said we'll do this

and you'll live.

It wasn't that he didn't know it, it wasn't that he can get an A for the answer.

It was that he wasn't living it.

And see Jesus was intentional and he calls us to be intentional.

And hear me out, this goes for me as much as it is for you, the primary roadblock for

most of us is that we just simply feel too busy, too overwhelmed.

Hospitality takes time.

And let's be honest, life's just not going to hand you a bunch of extra time.

Now some of you may have it, great God bless you, fill your houses.

But I don't have a lot of extra time.

So when you don't have a lot of extra time it draws you out of your comfort zone.

You got to push out of your comfort zone to want to invite people into it.

And it's just not easy.

But the greater value that we have to place on our lives is not privacy, it's people.

It's focusing only outward.

And I want to challenge you to stop and look face to face with that feeling this morning.

That your home is a place where you escape, it's for nobody else.

It's my mansion, it's my man cave, it's my castle, whatever you want to consider.

I want to challenge you.

God's not looking at how nice it looks from the outside or what type of furniture you

have or how big your TV is or what neighborhood you live in.

He doesn't care about any of that.

He only cares about the people you're bringing into it because guess what?

If we believe that God's given us everything, He's given us our houses.

He's given us our homes.

And if He's given us our homes then we're held accountable to do something with it.

We are held accountable to a higher standard to use it for His glory and His glory means

that people are in it.

And if we're not inviting people in, if we're not inviting people over, if we're not providing

a place for hospitality, forgive us God because we are living in sin.

Let me call you what it is.

That's a sin.

You say, well Chris, how's that a sin?

I just read scripture after scripture that hospitality is what?

It's a command, it's not a choice.

That if you're in a relationship with Jesus, you're called to do this.

So did just about all of you get a bulletin this morning?

Put your hand up if you got a bulletin.

Okay, it's just about all of you.

Okay, in your bulletin I want you to take out the little insert that I put in there.

It was supposed to be a part of your bulletin but I forgot to put it in so I printed it

last night just for you.

Okay, so you have a little insert in there and that's called the neighbor challenge.

Right?

And within that little insert, there's a bunch of blocks.

And there's eight blocks around you.

You're at the center.

You're the center block.

So you can write your name in there if you got a pen.

And then all around you are your neighbors.

Now hear me out.

They could be your neighbors as in your physical neighbors in your neighborhood.

You know, maybe you don't know them by name.

Maybe you know a few but maybe you don't know all nine.

They could be coworkers.

They could be classmates.

This tool was a tool for you to use in terms of where you're racking up in terms of your

hospitality.

You know, are you knowing people?

Do you know people?

And it's a tool for you to begin to write names in.

And so if it's your physical neighbors, begin to write in who your physical neighbors are.

Some of you may know all of them.

God bless you.

I need to follow your example.

I know two.

Okay?

And that's great if you know them or you invite them in.

So Romans 12-13 says, practice hospitality, make an effort, be intentional.

The message paraphrase says, be inventive in hospitality.

You know, and why did I put that in there?

So of course, why is this so important?

Why are these churches gathering together to do it?

Why is this important?

And it's because of two words.

And those two words are relational poverty.

Our country is in the midst of a crisis and it's called relational poverty.

People not being connected in meaningful relationships, therefore a meaningful life is not being produced.

That people don't see any point or purpose for their life.

And when people don't have a point or a purpose for their life, what do they run to?

They run to drugs, they run to alcohol, they run to football, they run to whatever in order

to just dumb down their mind, dumb down their lives, and make them feel like, oh, okay,

I don't have to think about that.

Now social scientists and experts have labeled four reasons that people feel that America's

in this crisis of relational poverty.

And the first is this, it's the breakdown of families.

That people are growing up in single family homes or divorced situations and step moms

and step dads or grandparents raising.

And because of that, our society is missing out on what it truly means to be in relationship.

The second is the increased mobility, the automobile.

I shared that last week that people don't feel like they're tied down to a location.

They can move to and fro, they can go to the store and go home and there's not that connectedness.

The third is the busy workloads and the schedules.

People are worn out and tired and overburdened with work and they don't want to spend time

with other people.

And the fourth, of course, is social media.

But social media is the fourth on the list after the first three.

And of course social media is that lack of deep intimacy with people.

That people realize that if they get likes, that's great, but they're really not talking

to a person.

God is challenging our community of faith to say, let's change those trends.

Right?

Let's break that relational poverty, let's destroy it and let's begin to be an example

of what it means to be in relationship with others, to be in relationship with God, to

love God, but to be good neighbors and to love others as ourselves.

So three simple steps in how Jesus set the example for us to follow in terms of breaking

this pattern of relational intimacy.

And the first is this.

God's love is shared through touch.

Matthew 8,2, suddenly a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him and Lord, the man

said, if you're willing, you can heal me and make me clean.

Now here he does not ask a question.

This man is not asking a question.

He makes a statement.

Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

He had no question that Jesus could heal him.

He knew God could do it.

And he made the statement in faith and in belief.

And of course that man had leprosy, a disease that's not known to us.

We have no idea what leprosy is, but if you pulled up images, you wouldn't even be able

to look at them.

That's how bad it is.

But it was rampant in Jesus's time throughout the Old Testament.

Of course, there are Levitical laws that were written.

If you're a leper, here are the rules that you're to follow.

You can't be around people.

You're an outcast.

You're forgotten.

If people without leprosy got near you, they had to run literally to the other side of

the road.

Leprosy starts with muscle aches, then turns to joint pain and extreme fatigue.

A person with leprosy lives for about 10 years and literally what happens is their flesh

decomposes while they're alive.

And the smell and the view is just completely unbearable.

But yet we read in Matthew 8.3.

Jesus reached out and touched him.

I am willing, he said, be healed and instantly the leprosy disappeared.

And if we're honest, if you're anything like me, like if I'm out at Walmart or a store

or something and I see a person walking around with one of those white hospital masks on,

like I go the other way.

Do you?

I mean, you're thinking, man, if they're walking around with a mask on, they're sick.

And I don't want to be around that sickness because I don't want to get sick.

And in our nature of mind, natural mindset that if this person was sitting before us,

flesh decomposing, looking to us for prayer, I guarantee you, you wouldn't lay hands on

him.

But yet Jesus touched him.

And what blows my mind, think about this.

All throughout the four gospels, we read of multiple accounts of Jesus healing people

without touch, true or false.

He told Lazarus to get up who was dead and come out and he didn't touch him.

So why did Jesus touch this man?

Why did Jesus suddenly feel compelled to touch this man that was full of disease?

Could it be that he was showing us the answer to relational poverty?

That important part of ending relational poverty, of the feeling of rejection and shame and

left out as to what?

Simply touch somebody.

High five somebody.

I guarantee you, there's some of you that come here on a regular basis.

You may come to hear me talk.

You love the worship.

It's incredible.

It's awesome.

But it's more important for you to get a high five than it is for any of that.

I guarantee you, there's some of you here like that.

And if it's in our own community of faith, think about how important it is outside of

this.

A loving touch and a hug can change people.

Luke 18.

And Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, let the children come to

me.

Don't stop them for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.

You know, and thinking about the parents wanted the children to be touched by Jesus, to engage

his life.

And as adults, oh no, don't let them come.

They're a distraction.

That's the way our minds work.

Don't allow what the experts have labeled, right, the way you were brought up in your

home, the, the, the, the, the, your car that you have that you can go for a drive in or

your motorcycle or, or, or the truth is that you're too busy, you work too hard.

Right?

They're all just excuses.

Think about it in the parable of the great feast.

They had a lot of excuses.

But yet God told all the servants to go and get them.

So we have to learn to share love through touch, to encourage people, to high five people,

to shake someone's hand, which moves us to our next thing.

Our next step is God's love is shared by listening.

People need to be loved by listening.

Jesus was a great listener.

There's this amazing story that, that there was two men walking down the street and it

has been, Jesus had just been crucified.

He died, but, but they didn't know that he had risen and they had put their entire hopes,

their dreams, their lives in the following Jesus, the Messiah.

And they felt again that he was going to build this kingdom here on earth and they weren't

focused on the kingdom of heaven, the eternal kingdom.

And they're depressed walking down the road and Jesus comes up and walks alongside them.

And Luke 24 verse 17, it says, Jesus asked them a question.

Luke 24:17

What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces.

Then one of them, Cleopas replied, you must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't

heard all about the things that have happened here the last few days.

Now be honest at that very moment, Jesus could have responded very differently.

He could have said, he could have said, I'm here.

Ta-da.

I'm alive.

It would have made their day.

They would have been excited.

You know, he could have looked at them and said, don't be depressed.

I'm here.

But he didn't do that.

He just asked them another question.

What things?

Why do you think Jesus didn't reveal himself in that situation?

Think about that.

Maybe just maybe he was modeling what it meant to listen.

To hear their heart.

You know, because a lot of people, they grieve by what?

Sharing what's on their heart.

And we're too quick to want to fix people's problems rather than just listening to the

problems of their heart.

They're grieving, they're suffering, they're going through pain.

Maybe they just needed to work through it.

Those two men, they just needed to work through it.

You know, how do we not know the importance of listening to someone's story or problem

or situation and just say, well, can I pray with you about that?

You know, after this gathering, you may be out in the lobby there.

You may, you may need to go and find someone you don't know and just introduce yourself

and ask that person, how are you doing?

Because there's a lot of you that don't know each other.

But how easy is it just to simply walk up to somebody, introduce yourself and say, hey,

how you doing?

Is there anything I can pray for this week?

Let's be honest.

We're all lonely.

All of us.

Our busy schedules, our broken past.

Our desperate situations that are in front of us.

We're all lonely.

And sometimes we just need someone to listen.

James 1 19.

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters, you must all be quick to listen, slow to speak

and slow to get angry.

Quick to listen.

Slow to speak, slow to get angry.

I mean, that's an important trait that all of us have lost.

Proverbs 18 answering before listening is both stupid and rude.

You know, Jesus modeled this for us.

We love with touch.

We love by listening.

And finally, God's love is shared with time.

We got to learn to give our time.

Jesus had three and a half years of ministry and he jammed a lot into those three and a

half years.

He was always on the move going to and from cities.

He was always going to heal someone.

He was teaching and sharing and preaching to crowds.

He was multiplying loaves and fishes for 5000 people.

He was always on the move, always going to and fro.

That the one thing we know about Jesus, he allowed himself to be interrupted.

He allowed his life to be interrupted.

His schedule to change.

For 30 minutes to fit in that broken neighbor or that co-worker that is crying and weeping

because of a divorce or a separation.

Found the 30 minutes.

In Luke chapter 5, Jesus is teaching in a town that he hadn't been in up to that point.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

He's in this house and people are jammed in from all over.

They're in the windows, in the doors.

There's no way to get more people into the house.

There's these four men and they hear about Jesus being in town and they knew, oh, we

have a friend that's paralyzed.

He can get healed if he just gets near Jesus.

So they pick up his mat and they go to them, make their way to the house and they can't

get in.

And in Luke 5 we read one day while Jesus was teaching, some men carrying a paralyzed

man on a sleeping mat, they tried to take him inside but they couldn't reach him because

of the crowd.

So they went up on the roof and took off some tiles.

Then they lowered a sick man on his mat down into the crowd right in front of Jesus.

I got to thinking this week, isn't it amazing?

Like when we do growth groups, we try to provide people with childcare so that their kids can

watch, can get watched and there's no interruptions.

You know, they're discussing Jesus as adults and their kids are being taken care of and

there's no interruptions or babies crying.

Dude, Jesus here teaching essentially in like a growth group setting and suddenly this,

whoever's house it is, the roof gets ripped off.

Like we're worried about crying kids and babies being upset and Jesus here teaching, the roof

gets ripped off.

So you're thinking, insurance claims and who is doing this to my house?

Jesus just like, then they lowered a sick man on his mat into the crowd right in front

of Jesus.

And in that case, Jesus says, young man, your sins are forgiven.

You're healed.

Isn't that amazing?

They just completely interrupted, just saw that the man needed healing.

But that's got to be our heart, friends.

We can't be like the Pharisees.

Who does he think he is?

Just blasphemy, only God can forgive sins.

We can't be like the religious.

Simple truth we need to learn to live by.

Whoever God puts in front of you is God's assignment for you.

And I don't care if you know him or not.

Whoever God puts in front of you is God's assignment for you.

And see, I firmly believe that if we all stepped into God's assignment, the needs of our community

would be completely met.

That if we all stepped into our assignment and believed that the Holy Spirit was leading

and guiding us everywhere we went, that we wouldn't hold on to property and possessions

and things.

I mean, yesterday we did a yard sale, right?

We did a yard sale.

We're fixing our house up a little bit.

We did a yard sale.

And we're not like yard sale people, but we just set stuff out in the yard.

And if people show up and buy it, great.

If they don't, we don't care either.

I mean, Jess started bringing stuff out, like our whole front first floor is empty.

Like we used to have an island in our kitchen where I made lunches and breakfast on and

stuff.

It's gone.

Like I'm gonna have to make breakfast on the floor.

I mean, she was taking stuff off the walls and you know, I was like, man, I like that

coffee mug.

It's in the quarter container.

I remember why I'm like, what are you doing?

She goes, we're starting over.

She goes, you're painting the walls anyway.

It doesn't matter.

I said, oh man.

You know, and I say all that, that's how we have to view our stuff.

Who cares?

Just stuff.

Like who are you bringing into your house to change, to impact, to love on?

I just share with you, there's empty seats everywhere now.

It's not busy at this high school.

There's plenty of parking.

Who are you bringing in to fill these seats?

And hear me out.

It's not about Chris.

It's not about me.

It's not, oh, Chris is pastor in this large church and he's out.

I don't care.

I'm just doing what God called me to do.

But God called me to challenge you to fill these seats because people will meet Jesus

in your homes.

They'll meet Jesus here.

They'll meet Jesus in our backpack giveaways.

They meet Jesus everywhere.

So we got to be willing to begin to practice hospitality.

We got to begin to be willing to see our community for what it is.

They're in relational poverty.

They're broken.

They're in needing relationships and just we need to stop making excuses.

God is challenging us with that parable of the feast.

Go out and get them.

You have a tool in your outline of names that you can write down.

Go and get them.

And if you don't write names in those boxes, that just means you don't want to be held

accountable.

Because when you write names in those boxes, God is going to hold you accountable to pray

for them, talk to them, and reach out to them.

So if you say, oh, Chris, that's a fruitless exercise, then you're just making an excuse.

God says, no, I want you to change our culture.

I want you to be active and be a person that is following the commandment that, yeah, love

God with all your heart.

Put him first.

But the second is equally important.

Just be a good neighbor.

Be a good neighbor to the neighbors around you, to your coworkers, to your classmates,

wherever you go.

Because our world needs it.

Will you stand with me?

Look, I just want to encourage all of you with this simple statement.

I view every one of you as my family.

And I mean that.

I view each and every one of you as my family.

And God prompted my heart, and I believe it was a part of what I was sharing during worship

there, that there was going to be people here this morning that simply stated, you're just

lonely.

You're lonely.

And God is after your heart this morning.

He wants to overwhelm you with his peace, with his love, with his joy.

And he wants to just invade you so that you can then get outside of your boxes.

If you're feeling lonely, guess what?

You're not going to invite anybody over.

Because you don't want to be around anyone.

So if that's you this morning, you're here and you're like, Chris, I'm just, I've been

feeling lonely this week, this month.

Just put your hand up.

I just want to pray for you.

Feeling lonely.

Is anybody feeling lonely?

Two people?

Three?

Four?

Five?

Six?

Seven?

Eight?

Nine?

Ten?

Ten?

Ten?

Ten?

Ten?

I'm in the loneliest job there is.

I'm always lonely.

Right?

I send texts out to people every day encouraging them with Scripture and how great they are

and God loves them and this and that.

I never hear anything back.

Nothing.

No one invites me over.

You know why?

Because you're busy, I know.

Too busy.

You're too busy.

I'm lonelier than all of you.

So I'm lonely.

Anybody else?

All right, if you're around a person with their hand up, can you, men with men, women

with women, let's jump on them.

Got a guy over here, guy back there, lady over there on the right.

Come Holy Spirit.

Yes, God.

God, we just invite your presence and your peace into this place.

Come now.

Move.

I just pray for each and every person that were honest, God, and I just pray that you

would invade their hearts right now in Jesus' name.

You would overwhelm them with your love, your mercy, your grace, your peace, God.

God, I just pray that your joy would come forth.

God, that a spirit of laughter would just be downloaded into them in Jesus' name.

God, that they would just sense and know that you are walking with them hand in hand.

And that lives would be changed here this morning in Jesus' name.

And we all say, amen.

Hey, I love you guys.

Have an incredible week.

Be a people that is active and being a neighbor to one another.

There's no impossible.

I believe that you are working now.

So pour it out.

Oh, pour it out.