Expanding Hospitable Hearts - A Lesson by Preston

In this heartfelt sermon, Preston discusses the importance of hospitality, not just in the traditional sense, but as an attitude of the heart that extends beyond one's immediate circle to include everyone, including strangers and even enemies. He emphasizes the need for a genuine and inclusive approach that mirrors the teachings of Jesus. By comparing the inhospitable nature of the world with the hospitable life we are called to live, Preston encourages the congregation to expand their love and kindness to all, regardless of their backgrounds or circumstances.

00:00 Introduction and Technical Difficulties
00:18 Setting the Stage: The Importance of Hospitality
01:40 Expanding Hospitable Hearts
02:31 Contrasting an Inhospitable World with a Hospitable Life
05:19 Biblical Examples of Hospitality
10:57 Practical Steps to Show Hospitality
14:39 Overcoming Disgust and Embracing Others
24:31 Avoiding Partiality and Embracing All
30:37 Small Acts of Kindness Make a Big Difference
37:54 Conclusion and Invitation

Transcript

So I'm just gonna say you're getting a three point lesson tonight, even though it's technically six points. So yeah, my says preach. So I'm gonna preach. But tonight we're gonna be talking about hospitality. And this is a lesson, uh, that I kind of wrote for myself. It's a lesson that I personally need, and I, I hope it'll, um, be something that'll be helpful for you as well.

But I think when we think about hospitality, traditionally, we think about it in terms of, you know, having people in our homes, feeding them, cooking for them, and everything like that. Uh, and, and I wanna say to you all, I think one of our great, our strengths at our congregation here is that there we have so many of us that are very hospitable, that have so many, uh, possessions and at homes that are able to host a lot of people and they do that.

And so I'm very thankful. I want to admonish you and encourage you continue doing those things, and that's something you're wanting to venture off in doing. You don't have to start big, start small, continue to do those things that we're already doing. Tonight, I want us to think about hospitality more broadly is an attitude of the heart that we share, not only with each other as Christians, but with non-believers as well.

Uh, 'cause I don't think most of us here probably struggle to be hospitable in the traditional sense. So a lot of us, we like having people in our homes. We like feeding people and taking care of people, but I think often we struggle with how wide. We're willing to extend our hospitality, how, how wide we're willing to, uh, spread the affections of our hearts outside the immediate circles of our affection.

And so tonight I wanna talk about expanding hospitable hearts. So we had these hospitable hearts, I think, I believe we do, uh, things that I've seen in the last year. And so how can we expand the love and the hospitality we have amongst one another and share that with people outside of our number as we're trying to spread the gospel to them.

I want tonight to kind of compare and contrast this inhospitable world that we live in with the hospitable life that we are trying to live ourselves. 'cause they're hospitality is really in of itself. It's a heart issue, right? It's a battle over our affections. Living in a inhospitable world, it's always threatening our willingness to kind of embrace new people, right?

If we aren't tearful, the world is gonna impact us. It's gonna influence, and our heart's gonna develop cracks, and eventually we can even have our hearts shut up altogether. But if we want to live a life of hospitality and really have that, uh, as being an attitude of our heart, that we seek to welcome people wherever we go, well, we gotta do some introspection.

We not only want to have a full and healthy heart, we want to have a heart that's always constantly trying to grow and include and bring more people in. We start with our friends, our family. We start with our, our brothers and sisters in Christ. And, and that's a good thing, right? That's the foundation. If you can't love your brother or sister, I mean, how, how can you say you love God at all?

Right? But these types of scenarios, you know, they, it requires a little sacrifice from us. Doesn't that generally speaking, you know, uh, some, some of you may say your family members are kind of hard to love sometimes. That's true. I know I'm hard to love. But generally speaking, our family members, our friends, and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

They're easy to love. And so we widen the circle of our affections a little bit and we say, well, I, I'll, I'll love my coworkers. I love my neighbors. We share some things in common. We live in the same neighborhood, we do the same job, we have the same kind of day-to-day woes. But even in those situations, that can be pretty easy to do.

But like you said, hospitality, uh, having a, a living, a life of hospitality, it's, it's really a battle. It's not supposed to be something that's really easy for us to do. A hospital of a life seeks to offer love and grace to even the most obscure and at times confrontational people are, are enemies. Those strangers, I mean the, the words right there and the word stranger is somebody who is strange.

People who at first glance and make us uncomfortable because of their appearance, maybe the lifestyle that they live or the religion that they hold. And so tonight we're gonna talk about how do we, how do we share the individual? And the congregational hospitality, that attitude of the heart that we all have with new people.

How do we expand it to include newcomers and invite them to participate in the body of Christ as we have been? And so in our lesson tonight, we're gonna contrast these two, uh, kind of things and inhospitable world with the hospitable life. Uh, one in, in three parts, six technical points, but three, three points we'll call it today.

So we'll go and begin and let's talk about an inhospitable world. This lesson's more topical, so we'll kind of bounce around a couple different verses. So, um, hang on. We'll have about six different places to turn tonight, but turn to Galatians chapter two in verse 11 through 14, an inhospitable world. The first point we wanna make is that it restricts kindness to end groups.

The world has made up its mind. It's gonna keep its heart closed up. It's gonna keep the love that offers close to the close to the vest. It's only gonna be given to people who are easy to love, or people who have earned, uh, the affection of this particular person. And we experience so much tribalism, exclusivity in groups, whatever you wanna call it, in our culture today.

It's something that's really common, uh, in our world. This was a problem even for the early church as well in Galatians chapter two, where Paul is rebuking, uh, Peter for withdrawing from the Gentiles in fear of the Jews. And look in Galatians two, verse 11 through 14, it says, but when CEUs came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party, and the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with them so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.

I said to Fus before them all, if you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like a Jew? And so Peter, in this instance, he let his fear of this, his, his ingroup, the, the Jewish brethren that had come keep him from showing kindness to his gentile brethren.

And not to mention because of his position of, uh, authority as an apostle, his influence, he even let astray other Jews and even Barnabas himself. When we think about an inhospitable world, you know, restricting its love to groups, what in groups are we a part of ourselves that tempt us to restrict our compassion for others?

Whose reaction we fear when we associate with somebody who's outside our group? Maybe it's the the political affiliations we hold too. Maybe it's. Racial or ethnic ties, socioeconomics, social media groups, or for you guys who just started back high school, you know your friend groups. Do you have friends that get really upset when you associate the outside of your friend group?

You know, these, these type of groups that we're in, they, they like to hold your membership over your head, right? Um, they like to, uh, to be, uh, if you step outta line, right? Well, you might find yourself on the outside looking in. Because all of our tribes in our culture today, they're very fickle. But any ingroup that's willing to toss you out just because you showed kindness to somebody, well that's probably not a group you want to be part of.

And there's a lot to be said about community and loyalty, but at the same time, no ingroup ought to distract us from the walk and the gospel that we are all trying to, uh, trying to, to continue on. If any group is trying to force us to restrict our kindness, to make us walk out of step with the gospel, well then we need to be cutting ties with that particular group.

Because while, uh, in the hospitable world restricts kindness to in groups and in, uh, a hospitable life expands kindness to all and of becoming a Christian, you have been made a part of the ingroup. There is no other group compared to the Kingdom of God. If we're walking in the truth of the gospel, we're, we're gonna expand our kindness to new people every day.

You know? Whereas the Jews and the Gentiles, they had formally lived lives of exclusion distance from one another. Paul told the church in Rome, if you wanna turn to Romans chapter 12, the gospel has transformed the way that they thought about each other and their relationship. And that really is what the whole litter of Romans is about, is this relationship with the Jews and the Gentiles in the church There.

In Romans chapter 12, this is a passage we know really well when he, when Paul says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And then he says, do not be conformed to this world, this inhospitable world that we live in.

But be transformed by the renewal of your mind. He goes on to say in verse 13, he talks about this, this renewal of the mind is supposed to lead to the hospitality among the brethren there, these divided brethren, he says, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality that person, you know, in the Church of Rome, that that Jew or that Gentile, that's completely different from you.

You need to be taking care of their needs. You don't need to be seeking to divide, but you need to be taking care of each other's needs. Showing hospitality, but turn a page or so over to chapter 15. This is the verse I really want to get to. I love how Paul, here, he's talking again about the harmony that the brethren between the Jews and the Gentiles are supposed to have with one another.

And he's telling them here in verse uh, seven and chapter 15, he says, therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. Welcome one another. Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. You know, before I even talk about extending hospitality to newcomers, to people outside our fellowship, I think we do need to talk about our hospi, our heart of hospitality here in the congregation as well, because.

Everything that we do out there in terms of how we show, uh, kindness, compassion to people, well, it all starts right here in the congregation and in our families, and we definitely want to avoid all of these kind of in-group type attitudes that an inhospitable world is always participating in. We don't want what, what goes on here to reflect what goes on out there.

We don't want to have cliques and close-knit groups. Uh, certainly there'll be people we tr we gravitate towards. I mean, a lot of us here are family, right? And so there's, there's times where we do gravitate and those things are good. But think about it this way. Are there, are there strangers to you in this congregation?

Is there anybody in this room you look across from, you say. That guy, that guy, that lady is a stranger to me. Um, and again, this is a lesson for me, right? I'm still trying to get to know everybody here and there's, uh, you know, some of you who I feel like are strangers still, and that's on me, and I need to continue to get to know new people.

But we don't want to have ingroup, we don't have generational divides or things like that in our church. We don't wanna be, uh, avoiding opportunities for us to be able to grow and get closer together, like bible studies or, or group meetings that we may be doing, uh, through individual works or, or celebrations we may be having, uh, just because of weddings or, uh, different showers and things, or even just having dinner or lunch with somebody after church.

You know, when you think about a church of 200 plus people, like we are, you know, the point I'm not I'm trying to make is, you know, it's not that you know everybody equally like they're your brother and your sister. That's ideal. That's what we love. But in a real world, that's not gonna happen, right?

Because it takes more time than we have in the day to really do. But the point really is what kind of efforts are we making to expand our love, even to one another here in the congregation? Because if we're not doing it here. Well then we certainly aren't doing it out there as well. And again, I want to commend you guys.

I think we're, we do a really good job of this, but I wanna encourage and admonish you to continue to expand your love for one another as as we are already doing, because we right here in our church, we need to be a safe place from this inhospitable world that we are in. We need to be a place where Christian Love really rules over the fear of exclusion.

You think about all those in groups that you're part of, outside of the body of Christ here and how fickle they are. Uh, this is a really special thing that we don't have the fear of exclusion as long as we are walking in step of the gospel. We never have to be fear. We never have to fear being left out.

That is a really special thing in our work. Excuse me. In our inhospitable world, because the church, it's a place where love is offered freely. It's offered often, and it's given to everybody. It's not merit based, it's not fickle and it's not restricted, like the world, the hospitality we experience with one another.

It really, it really is a special thing there. Most people in the world, they do not have this unless they're part of the body of Christ. Do not take this for granted. Before we expand this hospitality to new people, let's make sure that we really are making good efforts to have a strong foundation on how we share hospitality with one another, just as Christ has shown us.

Secondly, honestly, consider how an inhospitable world, it allows disgust to demon, uh, to dehumanize people. You know, not only does the world often declare it's just not going to embrace newcomers. It also allows feelings of disgust that kind of well up, uh, to make excuses for their lack of affection towards others.

And this is another threat that our, our desire to, to live a hospitable life faces. One, we see Jesus combating himself in Matthew chapter nine. Turn over there, if you will. Matthew chapter nine, when he's sitting there eating with the tax collectors and the fair or the, the tax collectors and the sin and the Pharisees walk up, it says in verse 10.

As Jesus reclined at table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were, were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For, I came not to call sinner or call the righteous but sinners, you know, for the Pharisees to see Jesus. This, this, you know, self-proclaimed rabbi from Nazareth. Uh, this, this guy who's a great teacher of the law. He obviously has a lot of wisdom. What in the world is he doing with tax collectors and sinners?

The tax collectors work for Rome. These guys were actively oppressing the Jewish people, and these guys were turn coats, they were traitors. Why would Jesus associate with the very people that are helping this empire oppress us and the sinners? Why would he with them? They don't have a respect for God's law.

They don't have respect for the Torah. They're the way that they lived in a sin that they, uh, that they have committed. Well, isn't that what got us put into exile all those years ago? They were unclean. Jesus shouldn't even been touching them, let alone sharing the table and eating with them. The Pharisees, they didn't want to extend mercy like Jesus did.

They, they let their disgust and their revulsion at the moral failures of these people lead them to demonize and dehumanize them. You know, our, our world today, if we're not careful, can influence us in the same way. To start thinking like the Pharisees, our world teaches us to judge other people, slaps 'em, demeaning label on them, and then turn up our nose, turn our backs, and walk away as if they don't matter.

Think about the way. The words that we use to talk about people sometimes, and these are all words I've used of people myself to, to talk about people who I found repulsive for one or one way or another, whether it's due to the morals in which somebody chose to, uh, uh, chose to live and the lifestyle choices they made, or even just their appearance.

Think about the words. On the screen here. Have you ever used words to like this to describe people? Have you, have you called somebody trash? And I'm not talking about your little brother or your little sister, right? Everybody's called their little brother trash at some point, right? In a kind of joking half, far away little kids, you shouldn't do that anyways.

But I'm talking about serious. You know, you were this person repulses you, and these are the words that we use. We call him trash or disgusting. Smelly or strange, whatever we may call 'em. You know, we might use these words and justify it. We'll say, well, it's true. I mean, even Jesus is eating. Matthew calls 'em tax collectors and sinners.

Right. That accurately describes those two groups that he was eating with, and even Jesus metaphorically calls them those who are sick. These people had issues, right? It's, I'm just describing them. Well, you know, the way that we talk about people that we find morally repugnant because they live a life of drunkenness or sexual immorality, lying, cheating, maybe they're just physically nauseating.

Maybe they have bad hygiene because they're impoverished for their homeless. Many of these words we use actually do describe them in some way because of the way that they chose to live or the way that they appear. But these words aren't right. And they certainly aren't getting us any closer to helping them get better either.

You know, don't misunderstand anything I say tonight as far as talking about, uh, bringing hospitality to people. Um, certainly there's a conversation to have about discernment and when we need to draw lines and, but, but I think also, you know, don't misunderstand, Jesus is not eating with these people with the intention of just leaving them where they are Either.

We're these people. Do have problems. And the people that we recognize and we describe in these ways, it's abundantly clear they have problems, especially in terms of sin. He wanted these people as he told the woman caught an adultery go and from now on, uh, sin no more. But the thing is, he couldn't heal them as their physician without first welcoming them to the table.

While an inhospitable world, it might at times try to use disgust to make excuses to demonize people distance themselves from people. Make excuses for why I shouldn't help someone. An inhospitable life embraces before judging people, you know, rather, we're looking for an excuse to withhold my affections.

I'm looking for an excuse to extend my hospitality to even the most strange and unsavory people. Look at Mark chapter one. This is a, a passage when the leper approaches Jesus, you know, lepers from the law in Leviticus 13. It talks about them, you know, when they, they walked out in public, they had to go around crying out.

Unclean, unclean. 'cause they didn't want to touch anybody and make them ritually, unclean. They didn't want them to contract the disease that they had, and so they were. Avoided by everybody. The Pharisees may have avoided the tax collectors and the sinners, but everybody avoided the lepers. And so Mark chapter one, read over there with me here, mark chapter one in verse 40.

When this leper approaches and notice Jesus' actions and notice the order in which he does these things, it says in verse 40, and a leper came to him, imploring him, and Knee Lane said to him, if you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and I, and said to him, I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. You know, if anybody needed, uh, an embrace, if there ever was anybody that needed one, it was definitely this guy. Right. And you think about how long it had been just since somebody simply touched this guy. Notice when Jesus stretched out his hand, right?

He doesn't stretch out and touch him after he's made him clean. But before this man had probably been missing fingers, toes, have you? You've probably seen pictures of lepers. I mean, he probably hadn't taken a shower in a long time. He was probably repulsive to look at. He probably did not look very pretty.

And yet Jesus reached out and he touched him first. Jesus. Uh, instead of becoming unclean, made him clean. And we say, well, president, I don't have the power to heal a leper. Well, no, you don't. But you do have the ability to emulate Jesus and his willingness to embrace before making judgments. A lot of times we want people to clean their act up.

We want 'em to take a bath before we'll have anything to do with them. That wasn't Jesus' attitude, a life of hospitality. It looks past these real feelings of disgust to see people as Jesus did, because these are real feelings, aren't they? You see somebody on the side of the road or you engage with somebody who's homeless and they don't smell very good, and that's a real feeling that you experience, right?

You can act like you doesn't exist and you can maybe think it's rude that to even talk about, or you put, put the words up on the screen that I mentioned earlier, but these are real feelings and emotions. That we have about people. I have to look past these things when I see that homosexual family member I have, when I have that worldly coworker who I've been at church all weekend, but he's been gallivanting around and on Monday morning he wants to tell me about all of his escapades.

How do I think about him? How do I think about that homeless person on the side of the road who's probably trying to scam me or that socially off-putting person who may be. You know, they just make me really uncomfortable because they just don't know when to take a hint or they're just really aggravating.

Do I scribe more to them than a quick label so I can just write them off? Or do I start changing how I think and how I speak about strangers when those words like strangers smelly, start coming to my mind, well, maybe I can start switching those out for other things. Realize, even though I might have these real visceral reactions to someone because of the way they're living or they're presenting themselves, well, they're still an image bearer of God.

They're somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's friend, and maybe even unbeknownst to me, maybe they're a Christian as well. I think we need to use language that helps us look past these shortcomings of people. They're real shortcomings. We're not deny, we're not acting like these things don't exist, right?

These are, they're sin here. There's things, uh, that are real problems. But I need to look past those things in order to promote mercy instead of judgment, just as Christ did for the tax collectors, for the centers, for the leper, and for me. Then lastly, an inhospitable world. It avoids people who expose our weaknesses.

An inspi world. It makes excuses for not being hospitable, but even more so, it seeks to avoid or even remove people who challenge their own personal image. Look in James chapter two, James chapter two.

We kinda get this idea here and uh, with the rich brother and the poor brother there in the assembly, and he's talking about the sin of partiality and he says, my brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, for if a man is wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in.

And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down on my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourself and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him.

But you have dishonored the poor man.

You know, in our, our day and age, our modern Western culture, uh, we're we really abundantly blessed, aren't we? And so we don't like to think about our weaknesses, especially death and, and poverty or need. I mean, most of us live really long lives, and we are really healthy. We never know what it means to be hungry, to be cold or naked and afraid.

Like the TV show. Um, I don't watch that by the way. They blur it. I, I think from the commercials. Alright. But when we're confronted with things such as death or poverty in the form of, you know, a sick person or someone who is impoverished, well that's the times where we get really squeamish mortality and need.

They're not really things or issues that we like to consider on a day-to-day basis. When you're confronted with people who represent these things, it's kind of perfect image that we've cultivated. It starts to kind of crumble, and so what, what do we do? We have to, we have to turn our eyes away. We, we have to avert our eyes.

We have to look away. We have to distance ourselves because if we don't, we'll go spiraling. And you know, if you've ever seen the movie Shrek, you know. This is exactly what Lord Far Quad is about. And I know y'all are tired of hearing me talk about Trek, but when you hire a Gen Z preacher, you're gonna hear about Trek.

But it actually is perfect example. If you watch the movie back Lord Far Quad, he is quite literally a short king, right? He is very, you know, just, uh. Insecure about himself. And so he, the whole ply of the movie is about him taking these fairytale freaks and dumping 'em where, and Shrek Swamp. And so Shrek is trying to get him out.

You know, Shrek kind of embodies all of these freaks. I'm going way too into Shrek. I'm doing like the, the princess diary thing I did a couple months ago. But the thing is, you know, he had do lock this Kingdom. You know, the song Do Lock is a perfect place. He's all about perfection. He says, I'll have perfection, I'll have order.

And then the dragon eats him. That's his last words. You have to go watch the movie if you have no idea what I'm talking about. 'cause it will really help. This analogy, um, it was perfect for me in my head. You guys may be like, that doesn't make any sense. That's a lot of how the, the same way that our world kind of works today, and that's what that movie is speaking to, is our, our, uh, we're, we're trying to strive for perfection and, and, and all these things.

And so our culture, we honor the young, we honor the beautiful, we honor the wealthy and physically fit, but we dishonor, we marginalize the olds, the ugly, the poor, the sick, whatever we want to call them. In the end hospital world, it shows partiality to people like this 'cause it's easy. It requires little sacrifice, but a hospitable life goes the extra mile and it seeks out the unnoticed.

Rather than turning a blind eye or trying to remove people who challenge, uh, our views of perfection, the life we're trying to live, a hospitable life goes out of its way to try and love strangers. And yes, we need to be willing first to embrace. We need to passively receive people as they come, but even more so we need to start again.

If we're trying to expand the love we already have, we have to go out and start seeking people to bring in and to love. Even the strange, you know, when you think about like the passage we just read in James two. James two is one of those passages where, uh. I find it hard in our culture today. We don't live in an honor, shame culture.

And so that, that type of scenario, I really see a hard time playing out, just like James talks about, right? If that happened, if a rich guy walked in and we welcomed him and gave him a, a front seat, you know, and then a poor guy came in and we like shoved him in the broom closet, we would probably find that pretty important and been like, dude, what are you doing?

Who do you think you are? And that would've been probably normal in a, uh, a context of an honor, shame culture. But I think when we ignore people like an inhospitable world does, it's not because we don't stand to gain financially or socially from them. I'm sure that does happen, but I think even more than that, it's because they don't offer us comfort.

They make us uncomfortable, right? When we encounter someone who's in poverty, somebody who's physically or mentally disabled, somebody who's chronically sick. We find it a lot harder to show these type of people hospitality 'cause we struggle to relate. We, we just don't know what to say. We get really uncomfortable.

We don't know what to do. And so we avoid them. And again, I think we all have this heart for hospitality. We want to share that with people. And so how do we, how do we get over the hump? I think we all recognize in those moments, we feel uncomfortable. We say, this isn't right. I want to be doing better.

What can I do to get over this and actually help this person who makes me uncomfortable? Matthew 25, I think helps us in Matthew 25 is this kind of in times parable of Jesus, this great shepherd who's dividing between the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and he says in verse 33, and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Why do they get to inherit the kingdom? Because it says, for I was hungry and you gave me food. Listen to these words. You gave me food. I was thirsty.

You gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. I mean, what do you notice about all those actions in Matthew 25? They're all acts, acts of hospitality, aren't they? It's, it's about going and giving somebody a cup of cold water, giving them food to eat.

It's about giving them clothing, making sure they're comfortable, feeling safe. It's about visiting someone who's sick or in, in danger or in prison. It's about simply welcoming someone who's a stranger. You know, you think about, well, what, what are the things that I can do to get over these kind of uncomfortable, you know, um, encounters that I have with these, these strangers, these strange people.

What do I do? How can I show love to them? Well, Matthew 25 shows us that we can do so many different little small things. It's not some secret, you know, uh, in-depth, uh, evangelistic plan or, uh, you know, um, some sort of social awareness campaign, anything like that. It's simple, small acts of kindness. You don't have to have a lot of money.

You don't have to have a big house to show hospitality to people. All you need is something as simple as a cold drink of water. And the greatest acts of hospitality that Jesus is commending. Here are these small little acts of kindness, these actions that really, they seem small to us, but to a person who's on the outside looking in.

You know, we experience these type of acts of hospitality all the time from each other, and so we take it for granted. But imagine being like that left leper, that person who hasn't felt a, a touch for a long time. And yet just a simple pat on the arm would've meant the world to him. Think about how these small acts mean to these people.

Who are the strangers, the outsiders, the marginalized? These things that are small to us are really grand gestures to them. Just the fact that they're being acknowledged, that's a big deal because they live in the same inhospitable world. That we do ourselves. They're constantly being avoided. People's eyes being averted from them.

They, you think that that guy on the side of the road, you know, doesn't see you. Or where that weird guy that you're, you're walking past on the path doesn't see you. Like, oh, lemme just tell you talk. He, they see that, don't they? They see those averted glances. So what can I do for that stranger, that non-believer, that outsider among me.

It's just little things, just like including what Matthew has talked about or things like just smiling. Look, people in the eye don't avert your eyes. That's what the world does. They look away. We ought to be looking people in the eye. We need to say hello. We need to acknowledge and, and offer warm greetings to people even when it might be a little uncomfortable to do so.

You know, how many of you went and ate lunch, uh, today after church in a big group? How many of you, you know, ask the waiter or the Waitress's name? I know they have tags a lot of times. I know you don't have to. Reagan raised his hand 'cause we already talked about this, but he already does that anyway, so good on you.

Gold star. Think about, you know, the lunch rush on Sunday and how probably annoying that is for a lot of waiters and waitresses. And yet, you know, you may get frustrated too, sitting there, well, what's taking so long on our food? Well think about just how asking somebody that, that, you know, high school, that that college aged kid asking them their name is gonna impact you when the food's running late.

'cause you've just now humanized this person. They're not just some per mindless drone that's serving you, but they're a person. They have a name, they have a family. They deserve dignity. Even in a lowly position of just serving just like that on a Sunday, that's a good way to shine the light, the gospel, when other people coming from different churches may not be treating them with the same dignity.

You know, make people feel at home wherever you are. I heard one of our young men here, I won't say his name on Berson, but he was at Whataburger the other day, Whataburger, Texas.

And he's there, you know, he sees this, this woman and sitting in a booth alone. And uh, he went and sat down with her. He said, Hey, can I sit with you? And he was alone. He didn't have anybody you with. So he sat down with her and sparked up a conversation. Turns out she's a Seventh Day Adventist and they had a whole lot to talk about.

Lemme tell you what, but it was just because of an act of him showing hospitality that he was able to have a spiritual conversation with somebody about the gospel. Lastly, you know, when appropriate, you know, don't be a weirdo about this, but make physical contact like Jesus did. You know, use judgment right hand, give a handshake, a pat on the shoulder, and maybe a side hug or something if, if it warrants that, but actually engage with people physically as well.

All these different things. They're, they're little things, right? They're not big things. It's not, they're not secrets. These are little things that we can be doing to try and expand our love to new people, to newcomers, and to share the gospel with them so they can be transformed and welcomed in the same way that Christ has welcomed us.

You know, the most powerful thing about Matthew 25 to me is that the disciples in that moment when they're, they're really helping all these different people, well, on the judgment day, that's when they find out. Jesus says, well, all these people, you were actually doing these things to me. They didn't realize that what they did for strangers is actually done to Jesus.

You know, so often we think about living out the gospel and we do it because we want people to see the Jesus working through us. We wanna see the light. Uh, we wanna be the salt and the light and people seeing, uh, GL glorifying God because of the way that we're living. But I think Matthew 25 is so interesting 'cause it tells us, you know, in our expanding the hospitality, uh, to others.

Not only are we shining the light of Jesus to other people, but we're also getting this precious and unexpected gift of meeting Jesus in the face of strangers as well. What, what an unexpected and precious gift that we can receive just by expanding our hospitality to new people. And so this week I just encouraged you.

Do one thing. Try to, do you think about these things we talked about tonight, but just go try to seek the face of Jesus in a stranger this week. And one person, maybe you have that person. Already in your mind tonight, somebody who you know is on the fringes of your school, or maybe at our church here, maybe at your work or your, wherever in your community, that person, you know, go seek the face of Jesus.

And then in this inhospitable world that we live in, be a be a little salton light, a little bit of hospitality in our inhospitable world. So tonight, if you're not a Christian, we'd like to give you an invitation. And give you the hos, the best source of hospitality we can give you, and that's to be a part of the family of God.

And you do that through expressing faith in Jesus Christ as our Messiah and our Lord, by refusing to live as you used to live in this inhospitable world, and now seeking to live after our king. Confessing your sins and the things that you've done, the ways that you've hurt other people, how you've hurt yourself, how you've hurt your relationship to God.

Come and put all those things behind you in a watery grave in the waters of baptism, following Jesus and being, uh, rising up and walking in into a new way of living, a hospitable and loving way of life. And so if we can help you tonight, we'd love to do so. If you come now as we stand and sing, I.