SPEAKER_00: Some boxes in the back if that fits you.
SPEAKER_00: We also have coffee this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so Sam right here, put your hand up, Sam.
SPEAKER_00: He actually roasts this coffee.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Vagabond Coffee.
SPEAKER_00: And he is setting sail on a great quest to make great coffee and actually impact people.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you like it, you can get more of it from him.
SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, that's a first for us, a lot of firsts, and so coffee is one of them.
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to highlight that and just bless you and your business.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, let favor be on Sam and all of his endeavors as it comes to this.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for buyer's galore for people to find it and love it and um experience more than just great flavor and caffeine, but actual community through it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: So and then another cool thing before we jump in is where's Promise at?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you at, Promise?
SPEAKER_00: Right there.
SPEAKER_00: So check this out.
SPEAKER_00: So Promise is here, and she's 23 and she lives in Fredericksburg right this second.
SPEAKER_00: But I went to elementary school with her mom and played football with her dad uh in high school and everything.
SPEAKER_00: And so um what a treat it is.
SPEAKER_00: I've actually never met her before today.
SPEAKER_00: She showed up in San Marcus, what, last week, two weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you can figure out this ringing thing, it's kind of feeding back.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh what a treat to come full circle and see uh her life and you, and so so glad you're with us today.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually um also kind of had a picture of trying to flex my prophetic muscles here, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you grow in this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Um like a gem around your neck, like a necklace that is so beautiful and so stunning and eye-catching that people have to ask about it.
SPEAKER_00: They can't just um say, oh, to themselves, that's really pretty.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder where she got it.
SPEAKER_00: Like it demands inquiry.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's the the jewel of um of Christ inside of you that you carry, where people are like, I have to talk to her about what it is inside of her that is glowing and it's lighting up the room.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just bless you with fielding all of the traffic that comes your way of people saying, What is it, what is it, and see that all over your life.
SPEAKER_00: So bless the jewel of great worth that's in you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so a few things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, grand opening is in two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a practice run, so you're all here to uh to make sure, you know, give us some content to practice with.
SPEAKER_00: Want to make sure that the check-in work for kiddos and the coffee's just on point and anything else that happens with morning time frame.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not kidding, I don't want to make too big of a deal of it, but like my heart is so giddy and glad to be doing this in the morning time, not just because of like physiological purposes that, you know, we had like a long Sunday for six months of doing some Sam Marcus stuff and then Kyle stuff on the back end.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, yes, one focus, which is good.
SPEAKER_00: But just more than that, um I've lived in this area for 18 years.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys have lived here many years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the autos got here in 97.
SPEAKER_00: Um, some of you have been here maybe just a few months.
SPEAKER_00: But I just have grown into this place and had this place grown into me.
SPEAKER_00: And I've shared this before, but for most of my time here, I have headed out of town on Sunday mornings to go build the kingdom and be a part of church life and everything.
SPEAKER_00: Um but to get to stay right here and to help actually lead and pioneer uh a move of of what I feel like the Lord's up to is so significant for me in particular.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so I just feel a sense of well gladness, um, maybe a bit of like arriving to God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's probably more of a personal thing that I just wanted to be vulnerable and share with you guys on.
SPEAKER_00: But um, so we've we're just inviting the community on the 30th.
SPEAKER_00: And so we uh will have some tacos afterwards, so maybe stick around for a taco truck that'll be here with us um in Texas in August.
SPEAKER_00: Popsicles make sense, so there'll be some of that.
SPEAKER_00: Um we've challenged everybody to uh take one of these, not the mint, but the invite cards uh that are back there on that table by the coffee, and uh pass five of these things out.
SPEAKER_00: Um and then we also tease don't invite anybody that you haven't actually invited to dinner before.
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding, you can.
SPEAKER_00: But it is that sentiment of like that's the power of an invitation is through relationship and connection.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, grab at least five of these, pass these out.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of the grand opening on the 30th.
SPEAKER_00: Um we we uh I've never run meta ads before, but thought, well, why not?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just pull every trick out of the bag, which is Instagram and Facebook advertising.
SPEAKER_00: So I did that uh this week and have gotten some really interesting comments, some really good ones, and then like, what's your view on Revelation?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh no, what do we open here?
SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, good, those are good questions.
SPEAKER_00: Um I think somebody wanted to know if we're awoke church.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, well, yeah, I need to put a good answer to that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh short answer is no.
SPEAKER_00: Um long answer is arise and shine, you know, from your slumber and be awake.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, yeah, we've got some awakeness happening.
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, yeah, you you open the door, you're gonna you're gonna get both barrels potentially, and so that's good.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we signed up for.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God's sticking in the skin a little bit if he needs to.
SPEAKER_00: So be here on the 30th, invite five people and come on and stay for lunch afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: Um, second thing I'll mention is that we really are, I mean, if you if you're gonna take a the Great Commission at face value value, which we should, which is go and make disciples, then that really is the goal.
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal of your life and my life, the church's life, the kingdom building, is making people, inviting people, to uh say, that's a worth life, it's it's Matthew 13, that's treasure in the field.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give my whole life for that, and going for it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, if that's intimidating or confusing or just new territory, uh want to invite you to San Marcus on Tuesday nights at 6 30, September 1st, and then again on the 8th, and then finally on the 15th, three weeks, if you want, uh, doing a Sozo equip class where it just talks you through what is discipleship making.
SPEAKER_00: Um with that 1st, 8th, and 15th of September.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't think it's on our microsite, and so we'll we'll we'll get it there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, don't have to register, you could just show up.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's the Sozo building on Ranch Road 12 there in San Marcus.
SPEAKER_00: So um, if you're like, man, I I feel a call.
SPEAKER_00: I know that like generally we're all called to make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: That's territory I haven't breached before.
SPEAKER_00: If that's a tool and you got time for it, I just invite you to the Sozo Equip Discipleship class happening then.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then finally we are just trying to grab some more help with really all our teams around here.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so the Sozo kids, we've got three and under here and then four and up in that room.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you want to give up uh a Sunday from being in here to be there, that would be a big help.
SPEAKER_00: Um I know we're also trying to you know build uh greeters and hospitality stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Gonna talk about hospitality today, actually.
SPEAKER_00: And so anyway, there's just a lot of you guys know kind of the church scene on a Sunday gathering.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to fit somewhere, we want your help.
SPEAKER_00: If you're musical, um talk to Natalie about that.
SPEAKER_00: We need help there, trying to continue to build this out.
SPEAKER_00: And we love this.
SPEAKER_00: We love this, we love this, we love that, we love all of it, and we need help to do it all.
SPEAKER_00: So you're informed.
SPEAKER_00: So covenant family means that it's not just cute language.
SPEAKER_00: If a church is gonna be a family, then uh a family that functions and thrives is actually in covenant relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So not contractual stuff, not like, hey, uh, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you.
SPEAKER_00: Um not like from time to time I might be around, from time to time I might not be.
SPEAKER_00: That's organization, and there is some organization in church, but the real description started by God when he said, I'm a father, means that we are forming a family.
SPEAKER_00: And family actually has tight bonds.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the imagery is a body, and your arm doesn't detach from the the core, from the trunk.
SPEAKER_00: It's all together, it's it's it's it's in a covenant or relationship of sorts.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh want to talk this morning, it feels good to say, about the power of hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And when when you think of hospitality, likely, if you're like me, your mind goes to making food, inviting somebody over to your living room, vacuuming, and wiping down the counters and making sure there's toilet paper in the bathroom.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, some of the things that we try to do here, you walk in, okay, who rented the Onion Creek Senior Center on a Saturday night?
SPEAKER_00: Is it ready for hospitality on a Sunday morning?
SPEAKER_00: And so you think your mind kind of goes, okay, these are my skills, these are my gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of truth in that.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think any of us should discount our qualification to be hospitable just because maybe we don't feel like we have a deep resume of hosting people at our house or our apartment, or we don't commonly get coffee with somebody, or um, I'm not extroverted, and so I probably, you know, will leave hospitality to the hospitality great greatness people that can really do it.
SPEAKER_00: We're all called and invited to use the powerful kingdom tool of hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: It's funny that, David, you were talking about Zacchaeus, because that is where I want to head.
SPEAKER_00: So, Luke chapter 9, you could open up to it and follow along in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if anybody read Will Ghidara's book.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know the Ponce did because that's how I found it.
SPEAKER_00: But he was a restauranteer and uh had a restaurant in New York called what 11 Madison or something.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it became uh at one point the best Michelin star-rated restaurant in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so he talks about, he reveals his secret of the key to it was unreasonable is the name of the book, hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: Hospitality that on paper is foolish.
SPEAKER_00: Does not make sense.
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy that you would do that, spend that, go there, all for a person at a table to have a good dining experience.
SPEAKER_00: I think my favorite story that he tells in the book is when um because he and he empowered so well too.
SPEAKER_00: He did so many kingdom things well in his restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: And so he empowered his wait staff to be eavesdroppers to conversations around the tables to listen in intently with what are they talking about and what might they need, how can we show them hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And so my favorite story in the whole book is when uh a couple is there, actually, I think it was it was probably some some guys that were there on a a business thing or something, but also blending with a trip to New York vacation-wise, and they said, Man, we did everything we hope to do on this New York trip except one thing.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't had a New York street dog yet.
SPEAKER_00: And our flight leaves like right after this meal is over, and how dare us come to New York and not have a New York street dog?
SPEAKER_00: That's like crime.
SPEAKER_00: And so they kind of just were like, ah, bummer in this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the wait person was like passing by and heard that.
SPEAKER_00: So they actually have a position on their staff that is funded and empowered to actually go make people's dreams come true.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this case, the the restaurant uh the the wait staff comes back to this liaison who is you know empowered to be the broker of great things between people that sit there at the table, and they ran out to the nearest street dog vendor, got the hot dogs, came back to the kitchen, plated them so that they look like it fits on Eleven Park Madison's uh menu, brought it out to them unbeknownst to these people, and said, Hey, we just wanted to make sure before you left you had a New York style hot dog.
SPEAKER_00: Because that it doesn't that complete the trip?
SPEAKER_00: And their jaws are dropped open.
SPEAKER_00: You can think like, How dare you eavesdrop?
SPEAKER_00: Or, oh my word, you guys went to this length to make sure we had the experience that we had.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And so his his great line is that people won't remember what you say.
SPEAKER_00: People will remember how you make them feel.
SPEAKER_00: That you made them feel like the most important people in the room.
SPEAKER_00: I remember going back to uh Leander High School, my old high school from time to time, and speaking at the leadership class that one of my old um, he was actually my PE teacher in elementary school, uh, but he taught the leadership class, he was the golf coach, he's also the FCA um Huddle leader, and he'd come have me come back and speak once a semester to the leadership class.
SPEAKER_00: And the message to all of these high schoolers was what can you do to make the people around you feel like they're the most important people in the world?
SPEAKER_00: And probably it looks like sitting next to somebody in the cafeteria at lunchtime who doesn't have 18 people sitting next to them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're a foreign exchange student and they're new and they don't have a social community, their phone's not blowing up with invitations of, hey, do you want to hang out this weekend?
SPEAKER_00: But you go and you sit down next to them and and there you are and you introduce them and you strike up a conversation, and maybe they think like, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You're not my friend, but more likely they're gonna think intrinsically down deep, what is so wonderful and special about me that you'd come and sit down next to me?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's like unreasonable hospitality for a 17-year-old to give up his clan of friends at lunchtime when he finally gets a break from the academic world.
SPEAKER_00: This is a chance to like unwind for a minute and be with my friends, but rather say, hey, there's a greater mission here to employ unreasonable hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, read the book.
SPEAKER_00: If you get a chance, it's yellow.
SPEAKER_00: You can find it pretty easy.
SPEAKER_00: But it really was impacting primarily because it points to a kingdom principle.
SPEAKER_00: That hospitality is a powerful tool to build the kingdom, to bring people in to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of us have raised little kids before and played hide and seek with them, and they're not very good at it.
SPEAKER_00: Because they'll go hide in the cabinet with their hands over the door, because they don't want to shut the door because that's too dark.
SPEAKER_00: So there you are, and like to your adult brain, you're like, you're not very good at this.
SPEAKER_00: Hide your hands so that we can actually play this game.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't, they go get the covers and they move around under the covers and their toes are showing underneath the cover of the blanket, and they're actually saying out loud, You can't find me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, I can now.
SPEAKER_00: The point is they don't actually want to hide, they actually want to be found.
SPEAKER_00: And down deep inside of every single person, there's a not like a I'd prefer, I'd check the box to be found if I get a choice, like intrinsically, I got to be known.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody has to see me, somebody has to know I matter.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I'll spend my whole life on a search for significance.
SPEAKER_00: And we work with people like that, we live next to people like that.
SPEAKER_00: We've already talked a lot about like the isolationism that plagues our culture, that um most American males by 22 make their last friend on earth, and then they spend the rest of their life losing friendships.
SPEAKER_00: They're just not known, they're not vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: Women, on the other hand, spend their lives on into eternity making friends, and and part of that's wiring, but not at the expense of somebody feeling left out and alone and isolated because we all have the stamp of needing to fit into a community, into a covenant family, and so hospitality, I believe, is the key to doing that.
SPEAKER_00: According to the Survey Center on American Life, because I like numbers and throwing them at you, the number of people who say they have zero close friends has quadrupled since 1990, which is a long time ago, but over the course of 35 something years ago, you have 4x the amount of people who say I don't have any close friends.
SPEAKER_00: Uh 54% report that no one knows them well today, and 40%, so also almost half, say I have no close friends at all.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's certainly we could agree that there's been a loss of connection societally, which is why churches, I think, have such a prime opportunity to do it right, which is to invite people to family.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's the key.
SPEAKER_00: There's an opportunity to be a knower of Jesus and to know that he knows you.
SPEAKER_00: We call it discipleship, give your life to it, and it it's found, it's developed when you finally feel like you belong somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Like you walk in, they're like they know me.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we talked about last week with cheers, how powerful the the song is, where everybody knows your name and how wonderful that is to realize I'm known.
SPEAKER_00: There are over 50 references to meals, to food, in Luke alone.
SPEAKER_00: And so in the Gospel of Luke, 50 times, which is mostly a recording of Jesus talking, he's gonna bring up 50 different times.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know the secret to this?
SPEAKER_00: It's food.
SPEAKER_00: It's meals.
SPEAKER_00: It's bringing people into the table together.
SPEAKER_00: You thought this was more spiritual, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00: He uses phrases like feasts and banquets, and brings it all into this kingdom reality of the secret is in feasting.
SPEAKER_00: Um it wasn't just metaphorical.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in the book of Acts, the table was the focal point of any gathering.
SPEAKER_00: So if the church was gonna gather, there was gonna be a table and refreshment and food and drink involved in it.
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere since then, we've gotten away to where the gathering focuses more like on equipment that's musical and a stage and microphones, and I guess where we live today, there's some value in that, and that needs to happen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that it needs to be the focal point, and I hope it's really not the focal point.
SPEAKER_00: I hope what's the focal point is like this part of the gathering right here.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we've actually even considered would it make more sense to take these chairs and turn them towards each other?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe put them like in a circle or something.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_00: Like, realizing that the power of coming together is in the family ties more than something else.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why the early church, when they started this, said, we're gonna put food because we know people come around food.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring a taco trick in on August 30th because people might stick around and actually learn somebody's name.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a potluck from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Baptists have done so well.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, on the ex month of the whatever, we're gonna bring food and it's crock pot and you're smoking the brisket, and you're coming with the drinks, and you got the eyes, because you got the connection with the coffee, and like you come together around this hospitality feel.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look in at the New Testament, it's hard to unsee it once you see it.
SPEAKER_00: That's really what they're up to.
SPEAKER_00: That's the prize, is family coming together.
SPEAKER_00: And you couldn't even be an elder in the New Testament church without clearly being hospitable.
SPEAKER_00: Like, that was a high mark qualifier.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, they're so hospitable.
SPEAKER_00: They're always inviting me, they're always opening their home, they're always opening their heart, they're constantly being outward focused and saying, who's on the periphery?
SPEAKER_00: How can we bring them in?
SPEAKER_00: That's the qualifier that we want to help lead.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a verse for you, 1 Peter, before we get to Luke 9, uh, chapter 4, verse 8 says, Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_00: And then here it is, offer hospitality to one another and do it without grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: There's a right way to be hospitable.
SPEAKER_00: If it's done out of duty, an obligation, there's probably gonna be some grumbling involved in your heart, and that's the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's the whole idea about if you're gonna give, do it hilariously.
SPEAKER_00: Do it full-on, servant-minded, and not, I guess they need something again.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 13, 2 says, do not forget to show hospitality to who?
SPEAKER_00: To strangers, not just to the people that you see and know, because that's actually pretty easy.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that we don't want easy.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I believe the more you rehearse hospitality, the easier it gets.
SPEAKER_00: But the idea is, even if they're not like you, even if they don't believe like you, even if they vote opposite of you, even if they post things to social media that you're like, what are they doing?
SPEAKER_00: To still offer hospitality and to do it without grumbling, for by so doing, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, your hospitality reach is deep and far more so than you might even know.
SPEAKER_00: And then Romans 12, 13 says, to share with the Lord's people who are in need and practice hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you meet needs.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's looking to get a meet a need met.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you won't go on in life until your needs are met.
SPEAKER_00: You might get them met uh in an unhealthy way, or you might learn how to actually get your needs met healthy, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's we don't have time.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of what Casey talked about the other day about do you get your needs met passively, passive aggressively, aggressively, or do you actually get your needs met assertively?
SPEAKER_00: And I just think that hospitality is like a door opener for people to learn how to communicate their needs, um, to have an exchange of meeting of needs.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just a secret weapon.
SPEAKER_00: So, what brings us to our story this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's Luke 19, I keep saying nine.
SPEAKER_00: And there's there's really a question here.
SPEAKER_00: Why was hospitality such an important practice in the early goings of church life?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through.
SPEAKER_00: So he wasn't actually headed to Jericho as the final destination place.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jericho was a wealthy place, which is why it was such a taxation center, which is why we find Zacchaeus there, who's the chief tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: So that's while he was in Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: But it was noted by Josephus, an early church historian, that it was the uh it was a divine region and the fattest in all of Palestine.
SPEAKER_00: Now not fat like they had the fattest people there in the in the city or anything.
SPEAKER_00: Fat with everything, with resource, with opportunity, with money, with with with with business, with with commerce, like so much in that day ran through Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of this made Jericho a major center for um money to go through, which meant corruption was likely to be found and could follow.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting something remarkable is going to happen here when Jesus is passing through, and I think this is worth catching, it wasn't actually where Jesus was going.
SPEAKER_00: He was going somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: But as Jesus went, something remarkable happened.
SPEAKER_00: They say 50% of the miracles if you look in the New Testament that Jesus actually did would be qualified as as you go miracles.
SPEAKER_00: In other words like interruptions in what Jesus originally was planning to do.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 28 when the Great Commission is given and Jesus says go and make disciples that go actually translates as as you go.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever had your in your mind like man I gotta be about the Great Commission, but I don't want to go across the sea.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go to another land.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to go far away to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Is that what we got to do to execute the Great Commission?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's a you got to understand what the going means.
SPEAKER_00: The going means as you go to work, as you go to summer moon coffee, as you go to Costco and shop, as you go fill up, as you go wherever you go, be about this.
SPEAKER_00: And so half of what Jesus did when he came through and a miracle happened was done off the radar off the map like Jesus was planning to go there and still eventually would, but as he went, a moment would come up.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it was so important Jesus said I just stare at my father all the time and I watch him and when he said hey here's a moment here Jesus is like okay we do what we see our father doing.
SPEAKER_00: There's a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Here comes Zacchaeus we're gonna have a moment here.
SPEAKER_00: Jericho is not actually where I was planning on having dinner tonight.
SPEAKER_00: But Father's highlighting something in Jericho with Zacchaeus so we're gonna audible we're gonna participate with what's happening because this is about as we go.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just think that that's so relevant as we try to wrap our minds around the invitation to be about the Great Commission to realize it's all around you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go to a destination to carry it out.
SPEAKER_00: It's just as you go the opportunities show up.
SPEAKER_00: So verse two a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus and he was a chief tax collector and he was wealthy.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to see who Jesus was but because he was thank you David short uh he could not see over the crowd God bless his little soul um anybody grow up in flannel graph church days it seems like I I did um the church I was at had the green flannel graph and here's here's like the people following Jesus and here's Jesus and then here's Zacchaeus and we're gonna stick him up in the tree because he's not tall enough to see it's not personal or anything and stick him there and so um we kind of got you know introduced to the song uh Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he climbed up in that sycamore tree to see what he could see.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how the rest of it goes because I kicked it to the curb not really so we have this really wealthy short here's an important distinction chief tax collector and then verse four so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see Jesus since Jesus was coming that way because he's passing through the fact that he climbs the sycamore tree is actually really significant.
SPEAKER_00: Remember I told you Jericho is a wealthy place and so it was known as the city of palms.
SPEAKER_00: So what kind of trees did they have there?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of trees did they want there?
SPEAKER_00: They wanted palm trees that's like the resort field right if you go down to Cancun what kind of trees they got they got palm trees hanging out everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the picture we want this is the look we're going for.
SPEAKER_00: And so they didn't plant sycamore trees inside of Jericho because the sycamore tree was just for shade.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't for looking at the palm trees are for looking at so they planted the sycamore trees outside the town so as Jesus remember he's passing through Jericho it's not his final resting place so now he's passed through and so Zacchaeus goes and he climbs this peripheral tree sycamore tree are you starting to see the the resemblance who was also on the periphery Zacchaeus was he was despised.
SPEAKER_00: He spent his whole life climbing striving trying to earn approval trying to help others realize that he wasn't a dirt bag that he did have value so he was a climber yes because he was short but more pointedly because spiritually he felt short he felt less than he felt left out so he had a whole life built on being a climber gotta climb gotta strive gotta try to make my mark gotta try to make sure everybody knows that I'm important.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a lot of resemblance there actually with what the sycamore tree represented and what Zacchaeus actually decides to climb up in.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't know overly why Zacchaeus came to see Jesus but I wonder if it was because he came to a place where he realized he actually had everything as far as financial comfortability goes and he still was empty.
SPEAKER_00: You know a lot of times our prayers for people for ourselves is God let me or let them get to the end of their rope where they realize they don't have anything so that they finally turn to you.
SPEAKER_00: But I think the inverse can be true too Zacchaeus actually had he didn't have social status but he had all of his financial needs met he could buy anything.
SPEAKER_00: He had what maybe a lot of people strive to get and still felt empty and unfulfilled so Jesus was like a last resort option.
SPEAKER_00: Almost Lord not let me get to the end of the rope I've got all the ropes in the world and none of them meet my needs can do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is climbing this tree to see if this option could be one that holds water.
SPEAKER_00: And while it's easy to chastise his life up to this point Zacchaeus's I just think that like empathy is actually a feeling that we could have towards Zacchaeus or others like him rather than this like critical what a loser chief tax collector he's a thief.
SPEAKER_00: He's betrayed his people he's a traitor he's hated by the Romans and he's hated by the Jews and he is it's it's he's made his bed he can lay in it but rather say oh God what if there's an opportunity for people like that?
SPEAKER_00: What if the tenderness of heaven and the hospitality of hope could actually reach a guy like that that's a better way to see Zacchaeus and perhaps others.
SPEAKER_00: And so he climbs the tree and has everything but he realizes he's missing the most important thing fulfillment, contentment, visibility, being known being seen being loved.
SPEAKER_00: And so he decides to place himself in the path of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's possible that that's the case with some of us that we've felt a little invisible maybe we are an American male on the backside of 22 and realize we don't have a lot of connections.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have a lot of community don't have a lot of friends and so to that I would say keep putting yourself in the path of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In fact that's your best place to be we just talked about Matthew 13 the treasure in the field the man found it but did you catch that it was hidden in the field?
SPEAKER_00: So the only way he finds it is if he's looking for it.
SPEAKER_00: The way you find Jesus is you look for Jesus but the treasure is not buried eight feet deep and not going to be found it's gonna it's gonna show itself you start looking it's gonna start shining and it'll be findable and this is what Jesus does when everyone else looks past Zacchaeus or otherwise Jesus actually notices and so look at verse five when Jesus reached the spot what spot the spot that Zacchaeus had met the sycamore tree and climbed up in it it says he looked up and said to him Zacchaeus come down immediately and I love this phrase I must stay at your house today.
SPEAKER_00: So what do you think Zacchaeus would do?
SPEAKER_00: This is my last ditch hope.
SPEAKER_00: So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly and I I want to notice these words looked up that Jesus actually looked up in the moment Jesus saw Zacchaeus and not just physically I think Jesus saw him in all of his years all of his years of being left out like everything that led him to climbing that tree Jesus connected with and saw and Jesus was it's this it's the story of of the prodigal son with the father on the porch who's looking already he was looking first before the son ever makes the U-turn and comes back every time this is just like even if you've heard this before worth a refreshment in your mind to realize Jesus is staring me down.
SPEAKER_00: He's already looking at me the second I realize oh a misstep I need to return I need to come back Jesus is already there looking first not like oh I kind of gave up on you I looked the other way but if you really want my attention I'll give it back to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was ready even though he was passing through and Jericho wasn't the ultimate destination he still was ready and knew Zacchaeus and he called him by name there's no evidence that scripture would give that Jesus and Zacchaeus had ever met before.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus knew his name and called his name when he looked up and made eye contact the powerful truth of being seen and seeing the person who's seeing you at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: There's a guy named Andy Crouch and he wrote a book called The Life That We're Looking for and in the first chapter he writes about how infants in their first hour of life experience something doctors call quiet alert.
SPEAKER_00: So one hour right out of birth quiet alert what is quiet alert even though a baby in their first hour of life can only see like eight to twelve inches in front of their face it says they're searching for a face to look to find looking for a face especially one that will look back at them.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't learned this is intrinsic inside of an hour old infant searching where's a face one that can look back at me developmental psychologist Edward Thorndike did not know his name before this week demonstrated this in an experiment called Still Face Alert and now you have still face was an experiment about facial expressions.
SPEAKER_00: Within a matter of minutes um they sat down young like babies and even like some toddlers and put their caregiver across from them and as soon as they were actually seated across they would have the people the caregivers just stare blankly at the infant and the toddler and they say within a matter of like less than a minute the the babies went to crying they went to flopping on the ground the toddlers did like obvious discomfort and disappointment when there wasn't a match facially met.
SPEAKER_00: That's why communication specialists say words are important but they ain't the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00: The nonverbals actually are the most important power of communication all part of hospitality mind you we were made for connection and we were made to have the one that made us look back at us.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this moment in the tree was so powerful with Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's also interesting that Jesus yeah uses his name because they say who's they the specialist I don't know those have studied this that your most favorite word to hear with your ears is your own name out of all the words you've ever heard when you hear your name there's something down deep in the brainstem that lights up I don't know if it's actually the stem it could be the vortex I don't know science has its place but it has also has its limits with me that lights you up and says that is wonderful to hear my name Isaiah 43 1 has power all over it fear not for I have redeemed you I have called you by your name and you are mine mine.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Zacchaeus would have heard Jesus say Zacchaeus come down I'm coming I must come to your house today there would have been something light up in him of importance the thing he's been missing all his life the hospitality reach from Jesus to say you're important I see you I know your name and I'm gonna get with you even though it's off the script from the plan today changed Zacchaeus's life a lot of us may not know a thing about our neighbor there's all kinds of invitation nay should we even say command in scripture to love your neighbor to know your neighbor and you're like I don't know my neighbor I couldn't tell you anything about them.
SPEAKER_00: They've lived there for you know X amount of time and maybe the most godly thing that we could do to employ some hospitality in our life is simply learn their name and use it.
SPEAKER_00: And that takes intentionality doesn't it even in a room like this in a group like this to try to commit to memory like to write it down to use your phone if you need to as a tool and say I met so and so and I've got a I'm gonna go to the restroom for a second just so I can write their name down so that when I see them next week or at the coffee shop or wherever it is I can actually call them by name because I'm a kingdom builder who's meant to build disciples and if I'm gonna use hospitality at my use then I ought to know some names because they're so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus does this because he knows what we need the most which is a close encounter with him.
SPEAKER_00: And the same is true when we have people over to our place of influence our house we may not have all the answers and you don't have to to be hospital hospitable but Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: And the power of hospitality actually is about creating a space for an encounter with God because he'll do the heavy lifting he'll do the changing of heart.
SPEAKER_00: In fact you're not making a disciple of you you're making a disciple of Jesus so hospitality looks like carving out space being a great space carver saying I've created room for you to enter in and together we're gonna go after Jesus whatever that looks like and let him do the heavy lifting and Jesus knew that's what Zacchaeus needs.
SPEAKER_00: He needs an encounter with God and so we're gonna get around the table to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus didn't say I'd like to stay at your house which would have felt a little more palatable to us probably had he said hey Zacchaeus do you mind if I come over I mean I don't know how often you invite yourself over to people's houses but you're gonna take a cue out of the story of God there might be some hospitality and I don't mean like insensitively but maybe hey why don't we get some time together oh oh I'm good I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to interfere I wouldn't want to and it's like no I actually insist no really I'm okay maybe hospitality looks like coming back the next couple of days later like not letting them off the hook there was a time halfway recent somebody had been being prayed for for a leg that wasn't working great some surgeries some discomfort and we'd been praying and praying and praying and really not seeing a lot of breakthrough yet but undeterred hospitality winning the day somebody said hey can we pray for you and the person was like man I I've been prayed for so much I actually think I'll take a pass and part of my heart can almost empathize with that a little bit it's like yeah you don't want to just you know um browbeat disappointment but on the other hand where does like I'll believe for you then come in like I'll I'll step in and help carry the weight of it and so one of the guys that was there said I insist and he prayed anyway and I just thought yeah learning maybe to navigate that dance a bit somewhere in that hospitality actually is found.
SPEAKER_00: And and I think Jesus kind of employed a little of that like I'm not even gonna give you Zacchaeus the chance to say nah I just wanted to get up here and take a look and kind of sample you're just like I must come to your house because that's hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me believe me it's gonna be worth your while verse seven all the people saw this exchange and they began to mutter he has gone to be the guest of a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
SPEAKER_00: The muttering here actually is um this word I will try to pronounce it here it goes uh gongismos which is actually on a monopoeia gong it's what it is it's a gong it's in 1 Corinthians 13 when Paul says you know if you don't have love it's just you're a resounding gong it's like this chalkboard nails kind of thing to I think the voice or to the ears of God when you start to mutter.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same actual word they used in um in the desert with the old in the Old Testament when they were complaining about their place in the Exodus it was this muttering and muttering actually is it's like a group word.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're gonna be if you're actually gonna mutter like this kind of muttering you do it contagiously and that's why it's a no go.
SPEAKER_00: And so all the people saw this and it says all of them that's why it's muttering they all began to mutter he's gone to be the guest of a sinner can you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus must not know who he is why what did he not know?
SPEAKER_00: That the rules specifically stated thank you Mr Pharisees who added like 1500 extra commands of the law that was 613 by the way you're welcome to actually try to get the kingdom and the Messiah to come because they're like we're not convinced it's Jesus and so here is uh this thing going down and everybody's like he doesn't get it you can't have a chief tax collector who doesn't tithe his food who cheats us who has sold out like all the things at the chief level hello it was it was actually forbidden not just like not a good idea but we will absolutely excommunicate you ostracize you cut you off if you bring why because the table is sacred and they all knew it hospitality was not like a good idea it was the secret sauce and Jesus is about to pollute our table with this guy and so they they wanted Jesus's teaching and they wanted his miracles but they didn't want his expanse of hospitality that he was showing and God always invites the ones others write off looking for them and Zacchaeus is a man who represents a class despised by everyone perhaps there's people that we know of that fit the bill of being despised and easily looked past easily forgotten about if you were to say Chris what is a measurement of successful parenting and fatherhood in your life I would say probably somewhere near the top of the list would look like the four people in my life that I have great influence with my boys actually making moves in their life towards the outcasts if the report came back to me hey do you know what I saw your son doing at school?
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: They were like they partnered up with a project in class with the person nobody ever partners with.
SPEAKER_00: Even though the reason nobody partners with that person is because they don't do their work.
SPEAKER_00: But down deep there's a reason they don't do their work and your son had the moxie I guess call it what you will to go and see that and say hey you're more valuable than your schoolwork assignment success has led to at this point.
SPEAKER_00: And even if it means I get a a C instead of an A, because I picked a person who's not going to pull their weight maybe something in our exchange can actually deposit value in you that might transform your life not just academically but I mean forever generationally that would be the mark of success in my heart to see my offspring say the most important thing is for me to say where's the hospitality moments around me that I can bring people in to the kingdom and partner with God for value over their life.
SPEAKER_00: And not just in your own biological family all the people that you have influence with living your life that way that would be the mark of Christ's likeness I would say so Zacchaeus is despised he was hated I remember um when the IRS showed up at our house when I was a little kid and uh the the the lynchman I I should actually give some grace some of you may work for the IRS and I'm I'm thankful that that we have some kind of a system that can hold accountability and keep tax fraud from happening whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But to like a nine year old however old I was there's two guys that showed up and said we'll take the keys to the van and off they drove with our van and in my nine year old heart I'm like we ain't inviting those guys over for dinner or I hope to never see them again.
SPEAKER_00: And that was the sentiment with Zacchaeus from the people is like he's he's the worst why would we?
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make sense right for it to make sense you have to actually turn it on its head the kingdom turns things Things upside down.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it actually makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: And you start to train and condition yourself to see the world through the eyes and the filter of the kingdom of God, which is what Jesus was inviting people to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus eating with the sinners was not an exception, it was the rule.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just like a one-off.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll give a pass for it this time because the guy for crying out loud is short and climbed a tree.
SPEAKER_00: I guess we can give him a pass.
SPEAKER_00: No, this was the norm for Jesus, whether it was the prostitutes who were actually a wrong lower than the tax collectors, they were at the very bottom.
SPEAKER_00: Then you had the chief tax collector, then we'll stick in the tax collectors and on off went the hierarchy.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is like, that's actually where my view is going.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder if I can take a play out of that playbook.
SPEAKER_00: So we gotta wrap it up here.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are talking too long.
SPEAKER_00: The word companion comes from.
SPEAKER_00: I am wound up on this, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of like newfound revelation for me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, like how can I be hospital?
SPEAKER_00: I want to I want to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this word companion comes from the Latin language where calm in companion means with, and pan means bread, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's like the Spanish word for pan is bread, right?
SPEAKER_00: I think.
SPEAKER_00: Help me, help me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Um companion, like we use that a lot, like you're my companion.
SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, to be companions, it's got to be with each other over bread, over food.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the power of companionship, is the table, it's hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: It's that's why I'm saying it's you can't hardly detach this once you see it.
SPEAKER_00: The reach out of, hey, let's get time together.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's not awkward, let's grab a sandwich, let's grab some coffee, or let's do awkward.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but it's still the idea of, hey, let's get together, kind of looking at each other table-wise, and be intentional.
SPEAKER_00: And so 400 years before Jesus um came on the scene, the temple was destroyed and the Israelites were scattered, and the priesthood ended, and most of the Israelites actually had to take a hike to another country.
SPEAKER_00: They were displaced, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is when like the the we'll call like the dark ages, where where's God?
SPEAKER_00: And nobody had heard from God until John the Baptist shows up in the Gospels, like this period of absence.
SPEAKER_00: What is God up to?
SPEAKER_00: Well, so this is what happened.
SPEAKER_00: They had their whole religious system stripped from them.
SPEAKER_00: So the priests were gone, the temple was gone where they would worship in, um, the sacrificial system had ended, and the priests were imprisoned.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's like, how do we actually be the people of God now?
SPEAKER_00: Check this out.
SPEAKER_00: Put that um graph or the uh the slide up there, Lori.
SPEAKER_00: The home became the new temple, because the temple was no more.
SPEAKER_00: The table is the altar, the father of the home is the new priest, so don't check out, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: And the meal is the new sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And this was a new establishment because what they had had gotten ripped out.
SPEAKER_00: I actually think it was there was a little purpose and intention, sovereignly, for this to be the case.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sadly, the Pharisees finally get into this, and that's what I said.
SPEAKER_00: They had all these laws to keep, and they said, that's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to have more laws because we've got to get the attention of heaven to get the Messiah here.
SPEAKER_00: Total tree of knowledge of good and evil stuff, not tree of life stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But it was a play that was an introduction to say this is actually how we're gonna form and forge the church going forward.
SPEAKER_00: The power of hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus continually uses a meal to give us a glimpse into God's nature.
SPEAKER_00: Hospitality is not about keeping people out, but inviting people in.
SPEAKER_00: And in its simplest form, it's you inviting people into your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the picture of the kingdom of hospitality, the kingdom of God using hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And it's how Jesus did it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and actually in the Gospels, there were three ways the kingdom was actually introduced to people in the early church.
SPEAKER_00: It was healing, it was spiritual freedom, breaking free of bondage, and it was table fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever thought that hospitality, getting time with people over coffee or whatever, it is like second rate, it is up there with the priority of priorities for kingdom building, hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: Unreasonable hospitality breaks through.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, Zacchaeus stood up, I don't know if that was a short jab or not, and said to the Lord, Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
SPEAKER_00: I think what's interesting is that there's not actually a dialogue recorded with Jesus and Zacchaeus anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Now you can assume they're actually having some conversations, but it's not like the woman who was caught in adultery where they actually talk back and forth and it's recorded.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we can be pretty sure of is that Jesus didn't first have Zacchaeus repent before this reaction of Zacchaeus happens.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't preach him a message.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that happened for Zacchaeus to change heart was a meal.
SPEAKER_00: And out of that meal came, I'm going to put it all back together.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it was common practice that if you were going to uh do voluntary restitution, in other words, nobody's making you, but if you're gonna actually pay back what you owe, the common practice was not just to pay back what you owed, but to do 20% more.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus blows that out of the tub and goes 4x big.
SPEAKER_00: That's what David just told us during the offering time.
SPEAKER_00: Four times what he owed people.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's a picture of the extravagant overflow of kingdom generosity and love, not even just back to God, but to others.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus, in a moment, through a meal, went from being the most hated tree climber, murmuring subject, to one meal and then saying, Oh my word.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, salvation has come to your house.
SPEAKER_00: That word house is a holistic picture of what salvation came to.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just, hey, you'll be saved when you die and go to heaven one day, you got in.
SPEAKER_00: The whole house, holistically, every part of your being has been saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's what the word sozo means, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Holistic salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And so the next move you see Zacchaeus making is not only allegiance to God and thank you, Jesus, but I've got to be about the mission of the kingdom now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go empty my wallet and pay back everybody and show them love.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't striving, it was no more tree climbing, it was an overflow of the grace he had been shown through hospitality that initiated in him a desire to do the same thing back to everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine Zacchaeus coming up to you because you had charged him?
SPEAKER_00: The Romans let him charge like 50%, and they even knew that they'd skim off the top.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine paying taxes on 50% of what you make?
SPEAKER_00: You thought 30% was bad enough.
SPEAKER_00: And so you get a handout back that's gonna pay for like this year and next year's supply of what you need for your family, likely.
SPEAKER_00: It's hospitality immediately being reciprocated and shown to the world around him.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture of what God is up to with the tool of hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9, Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the family of God, and buddy, he knows it.
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes in Romans 12, we'll end here, to practice hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And that word practice actually means to fight forcefully for.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing like, ah, I need to go practice.
SPEAKER_00: This particular use of this means be so intentional with it.
SPEAKER_00: Actually make sure it happens.
SPEAKER_00: Fight forcefully for hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm not gonna just blow past it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna look past it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make sure, with the intensity as if I was fighting for something, that I'm going to notice the opportunities around me to be hospitable.
SPEAKER_00: Those that don't look like me, act like me, believe like me, vote like me, you name it, they're still invited to the table I'm sitting at.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to make sure, for darn sure.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this forceful practice that this is a part of my daily life, my routine, because it's a part of Jesus's.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually what he's done with us.
SPEAKER_00: He absolutely, it's what Romans says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: While we were an enemy of God, hospitality came rushing in and said, You're still who I want.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And so, are you, Zacchaeus, today, feeling left out, feeling invisible, feeling isolated and alone?
SPEAKER_00: And if you are, good news, the table's for you.
SPEAKER_00: And we at least are trying to set up our plan around here, whether it be through community groups or our interactions, and hopefully just culture, that says, man, we are on the lookout for the Zacchaeus's.
SPEAKER_00: And so in a minute, I'm gonna do like we do.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna group up, and you might just tell the couple that you're grouped up with, man, I've been kind of struggling with feeling like Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I don't necessarily have my circle, my community, not sure I'm known, don't have closeness, close friends, like if the American, uh whatever they were that's taking surveys, uh, asked me, yeah, I'm I'm kind of padding that stat.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I'm not in connection.
SPEAKER_00: And I need to be, I want to be.
SPEAKER_00: Or I realize I need to be, even if you don't feel like you want to be, there's something in you that needs it.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're Zacchaeus, or maybe you identify with the crowd who murmured.
SPEAKER_00: Not that person.
SPEAKER_00: That that person's on the periphery.
SPEAKER_00: That person, I don't have time to tell you another story I want to, but I'm not going to.
SPEAKER_00: I'll save it for another time.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the most significant things that ever happened in my life was when I had the opportunity to go after somebody who was so far gone, not somebody you'd go after, and lo and behold, they turned around and gave their life to the Lord, and I couldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the time that set me up for my life, realizing, oh my gosh, prayer works.
SPEAKER_00: It actually changes something.
SPEAKER_00: And so the one that's on the most periphery is probably the one that God's inviting you to be hospitable with.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we thank you for the power of hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Jamil, you can come on up probably.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, God, that you are on the throne today leading us well.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for that little plant that's in the bush, or rather in the pot outside the doors right now, and the gift that that is, at least to my heart, a promise from you that you are growing something new, that there's there's freshness on the vine, and there's opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I thank you for a group like this, a room like this that's hungry for you, who's after your heart and being about the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so thank you for highlighting this and anything else you're doing with us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you take just about five minutes, turn your chairs, and pray for each other?
SPEAKER_00: And if there's anything highlighted from any of this that you want to respond to, maybe be vulnerable and go for it.