Setting the Table, Part 3: A People of Hospitality
Victory Life Church, Central — Sunday, September 22, 2024
Introduction
We practice hospitality by setting the table, serving, and loving, Jesus transforms.
“Those who live out radically ordinary hospitality see their homes not as theirs at all but as God’s gift to use for the furtherance of His kingdom. They open doors; they seek out the underprivileged; they know that the gospel comes with a house key.” ~ Rosaria Butterfield
Practicing Hospitality
Romans 12:13 (NLT) When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.
“Practice” — the word practice (Romans 12:13) is diokontes, one lexicon defines it as “to do something with an intense effort and with a definite purpose or goal.”
Romans 12:13b (ESV) …seek to show hospitality.
Romans 12:13b (NKJV) …given to hospitality.
Ideas: kindness, facial expressions, coffee, simple conversations, invitation to church
Romans 12:10 (ESV) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
To honor someone is to be fully present with them. Honor is the ministry of presence.
Start Where You Are
Acts 2:46-47 (NLT) 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Start with “one another” within the church community. Genuine hospitality became a way for the church to both get stronger and grow. As the church welcomed each other at their tables, God added to their tables.
1 Peter 4:7–10 (ESV) 7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Alright introverts, that last bit was for you, “without grumbling.”
Look at the context within which love and hospitality is placed: the end of the world. When faced with the end of the world, the Apostle Peter encourages the people of God to show love and hospitality. He qualifies love by stating that it must be genuine, it cannot be pretentious or superficial or forced. This comes from us first experiencing God’s love, and then being a vessel of that love. He also expounds on love, stating that it’s love that covers the multitude of sins.
The kind of hospitality Peter is advocating for is connected to genuine, Christi-centered love. Hospitality is a calling for us to practice it in order for a space to be created for God’s love to be shown to others.
“Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place.” ~ Henri Nouwen
Christian Hospitality is creating a space for others to encounter Jesus.
Though this can be interpreted and practiced in a broad and general way, practicing simple ways of showing hospitality in our facial expressions, conversations, etc. However, just because it CAN be done generally, there is a measure of specificity this is pointing to: the space that we create should be our lives expressed around our tables. Hospitality will cost us something, but love is costly, discipleship is costly, spiritual formation into Christlikeness is costly. We are called to sacrificially give our lives to show God’s love with everything he has entrusted into our hands.
1 Peter 4:9 (NLT) Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
Christian Hospitality is setting the table for others to encounter Jesus.
This is our personal tables, but also our corporate table. Our services is setting a table for people to encounter God’s transformative love.
CORPORATE GATHERINGS / SERVICES
- A culture of hospitality:
- Leave the good parking spaces for guests
- Arrive early to help
- Volunteer in the hospitality ministry
- Meet one new person every time you’re here (hear their story)
- Invite someone to sit by you
- Scoot to the middle
- Help someone find their way around the building (kids, bathrooms)
- Invite someone to church
- Get excited about people coming to Jesus (altar calls, baptisms, etc)
1 Peter 4:9–10 (ESV) 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Every team is the hospitality team.
Conclusion
Unchurched people in our communities:
Church Membership: (2020) 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church
If only 25% of our cities are unchurched: 40,476 (All campuses)
Populations of Campus Communities:
- Durant, OK: 20,821 (25% — 5,205) [ Bryan Co, OK: 49,896 (25% — 12,474) ]
- Chandler, OK: 2,945 (25% — 736) [ Lincoln Co, OK: 34,990 (25% — 8,747) ]
- Broken Bow, OK: 4,223 (25% — 1,055) [ McCurtain Co, OK: 30,547 (25% — 7,636) ]
- Boswell, OK: 583 (25% — 145) [ Choctaw Co, OK: 14,145 (25% —3,636) ]
- Hugo, OK: 5,199 (25% — 1,299)
- Stillwater, OK: 49,903 (25% — 12,475) [ Payne Co, OK: 84,003 (25% — 21,000) ]
- Atoka, OK: 2,969 (25% — 742) [ Atoka Co, OK: 14,723 (25% — 3,680) ]
- Sherman, TX: 48,643 (25% — 12,160) [ Grayson Co, TX: 150,616 (25% — 37,654) ]
- Brownwood, TX: 18,781 (25% — 4,695) [ Brown Co, TX: 38,975 (25% — 9,743) ]
- Woodland Park, CO: 7,856 (25% — 1,964) [ Teller Co, CO: 24,374 (25% — 6,093) ]
Butterfield, Rosaria Champagne. The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World (p. 11). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains; Greek (NT); TDNT Volume 2, Page 229
Henri Nouwen on Hospitality — https://henrinouwen.org/meditations/hospitality-2/
Report: : https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declined-religious-groups.aspx
Decline in Church Membership: https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx