The sermon titled 'Outreach and Inreach through Hospitality' emphasizes the dual role of hospitality in Christian life, reaching out to those outside the faith while nurturing fellow believers. Beginning with a reflection on the term 'inreach', the sermon references Acts 16 and the conversion of Lydia, illustrating how her newfound faith led her to offer her home to others. It highlights John Flavel's quote about the sufficiency of Christ and how this should inspire Christians to view their homes as 'outposts for the Kingdom of Heaven'. The sermon discusses the biblical basis for hospitality, citing Hebrews 13, Romans 12, and Luke 14, and emphasizes the need for genuine love, beyond mere words, to be demonstrated through actions. Practical advice is given, including setting aside time for hospitality, overcoming the lack of natural evangelistic gifting through hospitality, and encouraging teamwork within families to host others. The sermon concludes with a challenge for congregants to invite both non-believers and fellow Christians into their homes, embodying the Christian faith as a 'religion of the open door'.

The title of the sermon this morning is Outreach and Inreach through Hospitality. My spell checker doesn't like inreach. It highlighted it or underlines it in red, but I think if there's an outreach we can say that there's an inreach and you know what I mean by both. Last week we finished Genesis 1-11, this week we consider hospitality. Next week Martin will be preaching on Psalm 73 and what you should think when the wicked prosper.

You're going to see that in your life. The wicked get all the breaks and you get none. What conclusions should you draw from that? Martin will tell you next week. And soon there will probably be a couple more topical sermons, but not many, and soon we'll be in Luke, and I can't wait.

I probably have a thousand pages of commentary sitting beside my desk waiting to be read. So we'll be reading them effective pretty much immediately. Now, the text that Charlie just read from Act 16, Lydia. Let me read you a quote that I was introduced to on Friday night. On Friday night, Taylor and Blair hosted a wonderful singing night.

And he read a quote from John Flavel. John Flavel was an English Puritan who died in 1691. So he's about 100 years before the American Revolution, give or take. And this quote was striking. So I'm gonna read the quote, just think about it as I read it, and then I'm gonna relate it to what we read in Acts chapter 16.

This is John Flavel. In Christ there is enough to satisfy the most enlarged desires. Christ is bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, a garment to the naked, healing to the wounded, and whatever a soul can desire is found in Him. Oh, if you knew the riches of Christ, you would never be at rest until you had secured an interest in Him. He is full of grace and truth, full of mercy and love, full of righteousness and peace.

All treasures, all delights, all comforts are in him. The soul that has Christ though he had nothing else is rich. And the soul that lacks Christ, though he had all the world, is poor indeed." So hearty amen to that one. That's John Flavel. Now how does this relate with Acts 16?

This is the Christ that Paul was preaching by the riverside in Acts 16. And this is the Christ that the Lord opened Lydia's heart to. That's the words of the text. He opened her heart to believe the things Paul was preaching. And when that happens to you, your home becomes his property.

This is what's happening in Acts 16. She receives this Christ that Paul is preaching and instantly says, if you think I'm faithful to the Lord, come stay with me. Let my home be your home. Mi casa be su casa. Wow, we've got snorting on the...

And you're happy for your home to be at his disposal. If what I just read from John Flavel is true and that has gripped your heart, then you are happy to have your home be at his disposal. A couple of weeks ago, Mike Bennett after lunch talked to us about stewardship. Here was a quote from that. If I have a stewardship problem, I really have an ownership problem.

What did he mean by that? He meant if I'm having a problem with stewardship, with using the things that God has put in my hands in the right way, it's because I've started to think, I own this stuff and it's not true. Not true. So there are actually two messages today, me talking about hospitality now and then right after lunch, Connor talking about your first love and how You can lose it in Revelation 2, but they're actually very related. Hospitality is really about love and not fundamentally about love for your neighbor.

It includes love for your neighbor, but it's this sense that when this Jesus that can make a poor man rich and without which a rich man is poor, when that is your Jesus and your love for him puts your house at his disposal, puts all your stuff at his disposal and you don't mind at all. You don't mind at all. So we could probably stop the sermon there. The rest of it is just sort of commentary on that. Let's pray.

God, I thank you for a Christ that makes a poor man the richest man, and without which the richest man is poor. To my shame, a sense of that comes and goes. Ebs and flows of that in my thinking and my life. But I want to think that way all the time. I want the reality of that quote to be top of mind in a way that has me thinking rightly about the resources that you put into the hands of the domes.

Pray that you would cause this time to help us with that in Jesus name Amen. Let me start with the core premise of the message. So I'm gonna start with the punchline. When you have been rescued by the grace of God, The New Testament teaches that your home should be a place where people who also need to be rescued encounter the gospel and the kingdom of heaven. And also a place where those who have also been rescued like you have been can be encouraged and cared for and refreshed by their spiritual brothers and sisters.

So that's a mouthful. I know it is. I'm going to say it again, not just for the note takers who are feverishly trying to keep up, and it's impossible because it was so long, but just so you'll hear it again. So let me say it again. When you have been rescued by the grace of God, like Lydia at the riverside, captivated by this vision of the Christ that Paul was preaching.

The New Testament teaches that your home should be a place where people who also need to be rescued encounter the gospel and the kingdom of heaven. And also a place where those who have also been rescued already been rescued like you have been can be encouraged and cared for and refreshed by their spiritual brothers and sisters. In other words, my home is a little outpost for the kingdom of heaven. So we are we're not the church triumphant in heaven. All the challenges past, We're the church militant.

There's a war on and we have these little out God is putting these little outposts in enemy territory and we're taking ground for the kingdom your home You've been rescued by the grace of God as a little outpost for the Kingdom of Heaven. It's for those who are outside the Kingdom to come and taste and see that the Lord is good and see something that so many of them have never encountered at all. When they walk into a healthy, functional Christian home, it's like they're on a whole other planet than anything they've ever experienced in their life before. You've encountered this, you know you have. And those who are inside the kingdom can come to your little kingdom outpost and get away from the war for a few hours and be encouraged and cared for and have their hearts refreshed.

And yours are refreshed too when you're hosting, you know that's true. Now let's look at three New Testament texts that speak of hospitality and help us think about hospitality. Number one is Hebrews 13. Please open to Hebrews 13. I'll be in verses 1 and 2.

Hebrews 13 verses 1 and 2. The writer of Hebrews writes this, let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels. Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained angels.

Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing so some have unwittingly entertained strangers. You could consider verse one and verse two as being unrelated, but I think that's a mistake. They're not unrelated. They are tightly related.

I think the proper view is verse two, entertaining strangers. When you look at the Greek, that's just one word. We translate it as entertaining strangers, but it's a single Greek word that literally means love to strangers hospitality That's what the Greek lexicon says love to strangers entertaining strangers love to strangers hospitality we should view verse 2 entertaining strangers as being a subset of and an instruction about Verse 1, the perpetuation of brotherly love. Let brotherly love continue. Don't let it die, perpetuate it.

Verse 3 is also a subset of and an instruction about when somebody is in prison for the faith, go visit them. Ways in which you perpetuate brotherly love. So now let me introduce you to Alexander Strauss' The Hospitality Commands. A thin book, The new commentaries I have on Luke are very thick books. This is a very thin book.

You can actually read it if you're fast in an hour, if you're slow in two hours. And it's excellent. I think in the history, 14-year history of our church, we've given it out twice. But if you've lost yours or you've come since the last time we gave it out and you want a copy, just tell me afterwards you want a copy and I will get a copy into your hands. It's a wonderful little resource to have on the shelf.

Let me just read, I'm going to quote liberally from Alexander Strout this morning here from pages 10 and 11. Although the New Testament writers use different images to describe the nature of the church, the body, the bride, the temple, the flock, the most frequent is the family. So we're all sorts of things in the New Testament, but more often than anything else, we're family. Particularly the fraternal aspect of the family, brethren. First Christians always referred to one another as brother or sister.

The terms brethren, brother, or sister occur some 250 times throughout the New Testament, particularly in Paul's letters. The first Christians viewed themselves as part of a worldwide brotherhood that transcended all national, racial, and social boundaries. Isn't that a wonderful description of the people of God? A worldwide brotherhood that transcends all national, racial, and social boundaries. Furthermore, they knew they were a persecuted minority in an intensely hostile world.

Thus, their very survival depended on active participation in the family of brothers and sisters. More on this little outpost of the kingdom of heaven where you can come away from the war and be with spiritual brothers and sisters and receive care and give care. By the way the reference to unwittingly entertaining angels is almost certainly referencing Abraham in Genesis chapter 18. He doesn't, it just looks like people to him, but three come and he instantly offers them really lavish hospitality. It's fantastic reading the care that he does for these people that he's never met before.

And then these angels continue on to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue Lot and he entertains them there. The point that Strouk is making is that this type, love is to be the distinguishing mark of Christians so I'm gonna quote again from page 14 on page 14 he says this he quotes he quotes a pagan Sicilius I don't know who Sicilius is he's a pagan. He quotes him. Ah, the pagan, Cecilious, criticizes the Christians because, quote, hardly have they met when they love each other. Indiscriminately, they call each other brother or sister.

They just barely met and they're already, I'm already calling you brother. We just met and I'm already calling you sister. And this frustrates the pagan because it's so indiscriminate and seeming haphazard. But Christians know it's not haphazard at all. Like we're fundamentally more family than we are with some of our blood, many of our blood can, in a very precious way.

And we love each other because it is a love that flows out of the love that we have received from God That we have towards God makes us love each other and there are practical Applications to that we do stuff with our love It actually results in things in our lives. Our patterns of lives are shaped by the love that we have that flows from God and flows out to each other. It becomes a distinguishing mark. By this, They will know that you are my disciples because you love one another Now The Old Testament has a lot of instructions to the Israelites I'm going to spend any more time in the Old Testament, but I'm going to make this comment from the Old Testament There are a lot of instructions to the Israelites about the treatment of strangers. They're a nation.

People are going to come who aren't part of this nation into them. How are you supposed to treat them? You've got lots of Old Testament instructions And those instructions are almost always accompanied by this statement. Remember that you were strangers in Egypt. Why should Israelites, the people of God, treat outsiders nice?

Don't forget, you used to be strangers in Egypt. You were dependent on the kindness of insiders in Egypt. Remember how you were treated in Egypt. And now, now think about the spiritual equivalent of that, Christians, New Testament believers. Let's take the Old Testament instruction.

Outsiders are going to come in. Treat them nice. You used to be one of them. Don't forget. Now that you're in, comfortable, settled, Don't forget that it wasn't always that way.

Now think of the spiritual equivalent of that, New Testament believers. Don't forget, you weren't always an insider. You weren't always comfortable. You weren't always settled. Think about the people God used in your life and their patterns that drew you in.

How many people have been drawn in? The gospel came at the dinner table. They carved out a spot in your life by their welcoming and they use that spot to tell you what you needed to know about yourself and about God and about Jesus who bridges that gap. So that is Hebrews 3, 1 through 12. Let brotherly love continue.

A Practical way that we do that is hospitality number two Romans 12 turn to Romans 12 Romans 12 Be reading 9 through 13 I want you to notice in the first two verses that I'll be reading, it starts with love again. Verse 9, love. Verse 10, kindly affection equals love. Romans 12, verses 9 and 10. Let love be without hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy, saying one thing, doing another, wearing a mask. It literally means that in Greek, a mask wearing let love be without mask wearing a Poor what is evil cling to what is good Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints given to hospitality so we could spend weeks here we're not spending weeks here I'm just going to go to the start and to the end at the start it's love again a love without a mask real love not the faker kind of love that says one thing and does another, but love without hypocrisy, brotherly affection, And then we get this list of what love without hypocrisy, a love without a mask, what does it look like when it's fleshed out list.

And at the end of the list, given to hospitality. Now think about that. Not be hospitable, given to hospitality. Charlie on Tuesday morning pointed out, at Men's Bible Study, pointed out that the ESV renders it seek to show hospitality. This is something that we are to give ourselves to.

So this is not, there's no casual relationship with hospitality in the New Testament Christian who's living a life of obedience. Not a casual relationship, giving yourself to hospitality, seeking out opportunities to offer to share hospitality. Here was my question in Men's Bible study. Who was this written to? Airbnb super hosts?

No, the book of Romans was not indeed written to Airbnb super hosts. It was written to normal everyday Christians. And he says, real love, not fake love, list, here's what it looks like fleshed out, the last thing on the list is given to hospitality, seeking out The opportunity to offer hospitality. John writes this in 1 John 3, 18. 1 John 3, 18.

My little children, let us not love in word or tongue, but indeed and truth. At some point we have to go beyond just gabbing about love and demonstrate that there really is love that would move us. If you have a love that isn't quite enough to move you, you actually don't have love. It's faker love. It's love with hypocrisy.

The real love so often puts your feet and hands in motion. Number three, Luke 14. Luke 14. Here's Jesus saying something very important in the category of hospitality. Luke chapter 14 verses 12 through 14.

Luke 14 starting in verse 12. Then he, Jesus, also said to him who invited him, When you give a dinner or a supper, Do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Now This reads like it is meant universally, meaning always do this, never do that. Always invite the blind and the lame.

Never invite your friends and relatives. Do you think that's what the Bible teaches? Me neither. So why does Jesus say it that way then? It would be easy to not say it that way and say what we actually think it's teaching because Jesus is pushing with force against our natural tendency.

We all have such a strong natural tendency and to the extent that we just act out of our strong natural tendency, we'll only ever invite our friends and family and rich people who we can get an advantage from. That's what Jesus is saying in this text. And so he's pushing with force against that. So we'll push with force against our natural tendency. You read from page 25 here, selected portions.

Alexander Stroup writes this, there are single people who need a familyís loving care. There are widows who eat alone every day. There are unpleasant neighbors who are uncomfortable to be around, yet need to be reached. Christianity was and still should be the religion of the open door. Whoa!

There's the payoff line of the whole sermon. Christianity was and still should be the religion of the open door Whoa There's the payoff line about the whole sermon Christianity was and still should be the religion of the open door amen to that Now some comments and observations. I'll give you six, and then I'll give you homework. That's actually ironic. It really is homework.

I will give you homework. Six observations and comments. Number one, there is a gift of evangelism. Ephesians 411, God has given some as evangelists. Sometimes evangelists don't get that, so they despise the rest of us because it's not just coming out of our pores naturally.

It is to them and they can't understand why we can't get with the program. There is a gift of evangelism and you know instantly when you're with one. They're magical. You ever been to the clinic with Paul Carrington or been anywhere with Jim Santel's or or or I mean we can name a bunch of people, but there is a gift of evangelism and It's enviable when you see it in action. Here's my question.

Do you have it? I actually don't think I have it now God has made progress in my life where I don't fear man like I used to and I can make myself do it. But that's not that's probably the right categorization for it. Now what doesn't that mean? It doesn't mean that the Great Commission doesn't apply to me.

I don't have the gift of evangelism. You do it. It's coming out of your pores. God made you that way. You do it.

It doesn't mean that. So what does it mean? It means I'm going to have to give some thought to it. I'm not sure the gifted evangelists even have to give thought to it. They can't help it.

I can help it. I'm gonna have to give some thought. I'm gonna have to create opportunities. I'm gonna have to proactively think through and put in place things or it's never gonna happen. I'm never gonna engage the Great Commission, which will be sin.

Hospitality might be the best way to solve the riddle. You non-gifted evangelists, hospitality might be the best way to solve this riddle. It's the best way that I know of. I can't think of a better way. Maybe there is one.

Here's what it can look like. Your neighbor, you barely know him. You only see him when you're both dragging out the trash on trash day, you know, to the curb. Hi, hi. You invite them to dinner, they come over.

And just before dinner You have three verses to read I? Wanted to read these before we eat you know and you read the three verses and you've carefully selected the three verses and then you like we give thanks for the food or you give thanks for the food and then you enjoy the evening or or maybe and and or at the end if you know them a little better if you think they they might do this you say hey at the end of dinner it's just the pattern in our home that we we gather for a short time of prayer and Bible reading. You can use it. You got to tell them, OK, you got to tell them how long this is going to last, what it's going to be like, or they're going to say no and leave. But you can make it not so threatening.

It's going to be 10 or 15 minutes. Here's what we do. Please stay and join us. You can't hold dessert till afterwards if you're really aggressive. That's not a bad technique and strategy.

But it does not have to be a full end-to-end gospel presentation. It does not have to be a full end-to-end Gospel presentation. It does not have to be that. It rarely is that. It's a link in a chain.

Here's the question is, like, how can I think of how you were saved? You can see now there are a bunch of links in the chain and nobody was all of them once in a while out of the blue. Someone will give the gospel to somebody who's never heard it and they're the first and the last link in the chain and the chain is one link okay that's almost never how it happens. God how can we be one link in a chain that you're using in a person's life to teach them that there are people in this world who trust what the Bible says. Maybe that's just the link tonight.

Hey, we know most people in the world don't believe this is revelation of truth from God, but that's what we think it is. We want to read a couple of verses from it. That's a good link. That's a helpful link. Number two.

So that's number one. There is a gift of evangelism. If you don't have it, the best way to solve the riddle of how do I do it even though I'm not particularly gifted, hospitality might be the best way to solve that riddle. Number two, you need margin for this and this will ruin your neat and tidy life. What do I mean by margin?

You can't be booked wall to wall all day every day, all week every week, all month every month, and you'll never do this. So you actually have to clear out time and space in your life for this because often hospitality, the best opportunities for it are spur of the moment. So people with no margin have no ability to engage in that way. I don't think you should live that kind of life anyway. I think you should have margin in your life because stuff happens in life and you will grind yourself into powder if you don't have margin.

So you have to have margin for it. And this will ruin your neat and tidy life. You know who you are. Some people say, I don't have a neat and tidy life, so it won't ruin anything for me. Some of you like neat and tidy is everything but it cannot be everything to Christians.

Neat and tidy can't be everything to Christians. No way. Page 17 Alexander Strout. Okay. Through the ministry of hospitality, we share our most prized possessions.

We share our family, home, finances, food, privacy, and time. Indeed, we share our very lives, so hospitality is always costly. It doesn't take people long to figure out that there is a churchy love among Christians that ends at the back door of the sanctuary or in the parking lot. Brotherly love, however, entails intimate relationship, care for one another, knowledge of one another, belonging together, and sharing life together. That's what we're talking about, not churchy love that ends in the parking lot out here.

Proverbs 14 verse 4, where no oxen are, the trough is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. You want clean or you want increase? It's in. They're in inverse proportion to one another. There's no way around it.

More clean, less increase. More increase, less clean. Number three, make this a team sport. Hospitality is a team sport if it's done right. Jim and Taylor in October 2012, so this is 13 years ago, I gave a message together called evangelism and the power of the family table what a title the title says it all you've heard the sermon you've heard the sermon okay evangelism and the power of the family table Taylor did a short version of that one year later in June 2013.

I can't even imagine what it would have been in June, but whatever. They're both good, they're both available on the Church of Family Life website. I listened to them to save time at 2x, so it's hilarious to hear Jim and Taylor talk at 2x. It's like Mickey Mouse teaches on hospitality. But A large portion of it is given to 1 Kings 10 verses 1 through 9 where the queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon.

She comes and she's just astounded by what this household is like. And she ends up saying, oh, blessed are your servants who get to experience this day by day. And Jim in that message talks about Shiba time. Okay, the queen of Shiba time. What's Shiba time?

Shiba time is pregame and postgame. So The game is going to be what it's going to be. When the people come you lose control of that. But you have control of the pregame and you have control of the post game. And so they would do things to prepare everybody in the household.

Okay, here's who's coming. Here's how we know them. Like we want them just to see the kingdom of God on display. So like just be careful not to dominate the discussion like prepping. This is the team sport, prepping the people who, especially your children who are going to be there participating and then the post game.

Hey, what can we do better? How can we follow this up? But the point is to demonstrate the transforming power of God entering our lives through Jesus Christ. You want them to see our households different, not because we ever act together, but because God has shown his grace to us. And that transforms a life and a marriage and a family and what a household feels like when you come and sit there for dinner.

I'll also say that Janet did a great job of making this a team sport in our home. We did and do hospitality together. We almost can't find a night where we're all home anymore. So it's less of a team sport because a lot of the team is here, there and everywhere. There we have a smaller team now too.

But Janet did a great job of making this a team sport in our home. It's more fun. That's a team sport. It's more fun. That's a team sport And your kids will want to engage in it.

Number four. You can solve the problem yourself. What problem? This problem. Strouk, tell us what the problem is.

You can solve the problem yourself. I often hear people say, oh, we just don't know anyone. We can't make any friends at church. I have a suggestion that might solve the problem. It comes from a couple who had a hard time feeling as if they belonged in their congregation.

Instead of leaving, as so many people do, they decided to invite every person in the church to their home for dinner during the next year. By the end of the year they knew everyone in the church and it made a number of close friendships. You know You can pine away that nobody's invited you or you can invite them. But they didn't invite me back. They might.

They might not. You can't control that. You can control who you invite and have in your home. If you want to know them better invite them. Solve the problem yourself.

Number five. Just going to read some selections from chapter five which is entitled helpful hints in practicing hospitality. I think there are 16 helpful hints. I'm not reading them all, I'm reading selections, but the price of the book, if you just get the helpful hints, it's pro tips for hospitality. If you just get that, you'd be money well spent.

Okay, I'll read the selections. The belief that hospitality is important and the actual practice of hospitality are two different things. Many Christians never advance beyond the theory level. Yes, it's important. I never go one step further.

Okay. Number one, helpful hint number one. I realize that some people can easily invite guests over on the spur of the moment but most people need to plan ahead and invite people to their table. Set a regular time each week or month to invite people to your home. Unless you plan this into your schedule, you may never get past the good intention level to the implementation level.

That's so true. And if you're married long enough, you will go through cycles where like you're on track and then somebody will preach a sermon you're like oh we fell off the wagon a year ago and never really even perceived that's sort of happening to us right now so hey for long periods of time Thursday night was hospitality night at the Domes house. We try to have somebody inside the church or outside the church doing outreach or in reach at our table. It's helpful just to have a night of the week or month that you do that. Number six, collect and file simple, inexpensive recipes for meals.

Many people don't practice hospitality because of the expense. You don't, however, have to impress people with your sumptuous meals or the best or be the best entertainer in your church. Hospitality is to be a service of others not an ego inflator. It doesn't have to be a four course meal. Can I tell that you're a chili story Chelsea?

It's okay. Alright, Chelsea's authorization to tell the chili story. So now when she cooks chili, Liam wants to know who's coming. You don't have to know you get what all the other guests get and who cares, as long as the chili is good. Why would you care?

That's a stroke of genius because you have the stuff around. It's like for Sunday mornings, we always bring the same thing every week. We have that stuff around. So hospitality can be like that. So if you've ever had mac and cheese at hospitality, you know we're doing a crossover.

Sunday morning at hospitality. Number eight, form a hospitality committee to promote hospitality in your local church. You don't have an organized plan or a committee that encourages hospitality. Only the same faithful few who always show hospitality in your church will do it. Most people need help and encouragement in order to consistently show hospitality.

This sermon sort of functions in that slot. I don't want to do it, but if you want to do it, be our person who spearheads encouraging hospitality, see me. Number 10. I'd be interested in people's lives. Learn which key questions make your time with other people more meaningful.

Really skillful question askers makes hospitality awesome. It makes it so good. Because you're getting to share the important things in your life and you're actually learning more about them. Eleven. Be creative in your activities with your guests.

Have a time of prayer together, read scripture together, or sing together. After the meal, take a walk together. All of these activities will draw you and other people closer together. What are we going to do? Well, there's some ideas of what you can do.

Play a game, talk while you play. 14, finally, ask your church leaders to teach on the subject of hospitality. Check. We did that. When have you heard a message on hospitality?

We did it. Number six. Maybe someday we'll go big. Be a big church with a lot of people. Maybe someday.

Right now, apparently, we're going small. And that actually presents some advantages. So I don't love everything about going small. I love some things about going small. It actually presents some advantages for us to know each other at a deeper level, which needs to happen.

It does need that. And this is the fastest way. This is the shortcut to knowing each other better, to deepening our relationships as hospitality. Maybe one day when we're twice this size, three times this size, who knows? I don't know what the future holds.

You don't either. Maybe someday we'll think back to the sweet year where we doubled down on hospitality. We're a small group and we got to know each other really well. You don't know. That could be true.

Okay, our homework assignment. Everybody, every family unit, make a list of four to offer hospitality to. Two that you're pretty sure don't know the Lord. Outreach, reaching out by bringing in. And two, that you're pretty sure do know the Lord.

Inreach, people who could use encouragement and will be refreshed by being in your house. When you have posted it, so you got your four, two outreach to in reach. You've made the list. You post it and you've scheduled one of them, you have completed your assignment. I'll figure the gravity, the natural pull of the list will make you do the others in time if you post it.

So I don't care where you post it, bathroom mirror, refrigerator, doesn't matter. My homework will be two-fold. Do the homework and ask you about the homework. Oh you're gonna get asked about the homework. I've already got the tickler on my Apple calendar every Monday for a month.

I'll be asking. Not everybody every week. You'll be asked. Okay. This one isn't an official assignment but let's really get into this around the lunch table today.

So, table talk at lunch. What are you going to do? What do you think about this? Let me close simply with what Jesus says in Matthew 10 verse 8b. Matthew 10 verse 8b.

Freely you have received, freely give. So we're back to John Flavel and this Christ who makes the poor man rich and without which the richest man would be poor. Freely you have received freely give. Remember what it was like to be Lydia the day before she heard Paul. God, thank you for our homes and thank you for giving us so many resources.

You really do own them. We don't want to have a stewardship problem and an ownership problem for getting who owns these things. God, let us be so happy that our homes are at your disposal, are completely at your disposal. Thank you for rescuing us. Help us to remember what it was like to be outside.

Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.