Potted Or Planted: Hospitality

September of 1989, my family and I lived in Somerville, South Carolina. It's about 20 miles inland from Charleston, South Carolina. And 12 days after my seventh birthday, Hurricane Hugo came smashing into our neighborhood. And my sister, who was 9 at the time, my little brother, who was 2. My mom and I, we were there at the house without my dad because my dad was in the Navy.

And in the Navy, whenever a big storm comes in, they always take the ships out to sea. And so my dad got on a submarine and went out to sea and left us there. I just found out talking to him this week. He didn't come home until two months after the hurricane. He was gone that whole time.

And I remember a lot of things from the hurricane. I remember stepping outside in the morning and the sun was out, and there was this strong smell of pine in the air from all the trees that had been snapped outside. Trees were on top of houses and cars. Roofs were ripped off. There was just the constant sound of chainsaws running for the next few weeks.

And I remember.

I remember so many things from that day. When I think back in that time, the power was out for weeks. We didn't have running water for several days. I remember taking a bath in the bathtub with just a little pot of water and a washcloth, and it was dark, and there was a candle on top of the toilet lighting the room. But I also remember a lot of other things.

Something really specific. I remember. I remember how overnight, everybody in the neighborhood who was all strangers five minutes before was all in need and all helping everyone. Maybe you've been somewhere after a disaster like that, and everybody just kind of steps up to help. And I remember there was a lady who.

Her freezer. Her deep freezer was full of food, and we were a couple days in, and she was gonna lose all that food anyway. And she got out her gas grill and she started making food for everybody and just share with everybody. Some people had chainsaws, some people had water. Some people had other food or resources or whatever it was, but everybody just showed up.

All of these strangers just showed up and started helping everyone else because we had this shared moment of need. It was kind of incredible. And when I think back on that experience, neighbors pulling together, strangers sharing food and resources, I realized that what I was experiencing, it wasn't just kindness. It wasn't just generosity. It wasn't just, like, Southern manners.

It was real hospitality. Like real hospitality. It was love and care for one another born out of this shared experience and shared need. And real hospitality is A powerful force in our lives. And if you've experienced it, you know, and it's the gospel practice that I want to talk about today.

It's a gospel practice that the Bible teaches us that we as Christians should be marked by this. This should be prevalent in our lives. We've been in this potted or planted series and looking at what it means to move from being potted, safe, individual, contained, stationary, to busting those pots, getting in the soil and being planted, roots intertwined, growing, bearing fruit. And each week we've been talking about what a planted life looks like versus a potted life. We say a planted life.

We show up, we get to know each other. We share the resources, skills, and abilities that we've been given. We're generous with our finances and our time. We gather purposely large like this, and we gather small as well. Last week, Russ talked about us confessing our sins to one another and encouraging one another.

And I love the stories coming out of this series. It's been awesome to kind of field all these stories. People who have been on the fringes for years that are like, I'm in. It is time to bust this old pot and get in the soil. I'm ready to go.

It's awesome. After the challenge to bring our first and best in gratitude, in faith, as we talked about giving generously with our tithes and offering. Just over the last month, 20 new people started giving here at the church who have never given before.

And then we had a call for volunteers. Hey, if this is part of being the family here is serving here. We had almost 50 of you sign up for volunteer orientation. That's fantastic.

And then when we were talking about getting out of debt and honoring God with our finances, we invited you into Financial Peace University. And I'm told we have the largest group that's ever been a part of it and the most engaged group that's ever been a part of it. That's fantastic. As these people are moving toward getting out from under debt and the invitation to lead a small gathering, one friend turned to another and said, you know, you're doing this right and I'm coming. That's fantastic.

We had a couple that moved in from out of state about a year ago. They've been in this area for a year. They have felt disconnected. And they became two of more than four, 40 new small group hosts and leaders. That's fantastic.

There's a woman in her 80s who says she's never been part of a small group before. She's never studied the Bible. With other people before. And she got invited to a group, and she's gonna start coming to this group for the first time in her life who's in her late 80s, she's almost 90 years old. And because she doesn't drive at night, the same lady that invited her said, I'll come pick you up and take you every week.

It's awesome. All around, I'm hearing people saying, I've been potted long enough. It's time to get planted. It's time to step out. It's time to dig in.

It's time to engage more deeply than I ever have before or maybe than I have in a long time. And maybe you've been stirred up to take one of these steps too, but you haven't taken it yet. No shame. That's okay. We're all on a trajectory, and I want you to know it's not too late.

If you're ready to take one of these steps, we're ready to receive you. And the best way you can do that, Go to the information desk in the foyer after the service. Just talk to our team. They're there for you, and just tell them, I'm ready to take a next step. Well, like I said, today, our gospel practice is hospitality.

It's the thing we're focusing on today. And it's something that embraces and embodies this planted life. Because just like my neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, the Bible calls us to be a community that opens its doors, shares its resources, and turns strangers into family. Now, I think when most of us think of hospitality, we probably think of going to a really nice hotel or Martha Stewart or grandma's house or perfect place settings, impeccable meals, cloth napkins, stuff like that. But biblical hospitality isn't about impressing our guests or setting the perfect table.

It's not about perfection at all. It's actually about opening our lives, our homes, our circle of relationships, and whatever resources we have so that others can find safety, belonging, and family like we have found for ourselves. That's the kind of hospitality the Bible calls us to. The word that's translated as hospitality in the New Testament is a compound word in the Greek. It's philozenia.

Philozenia. It's two words stuck together. The first word is philos. This is one of multiple words in Greek for the word love. And this is the word love that we have this close love between close friends.

The second word is xenos, and it means stranger, outsider, or foreigner. And so together. This is like an Oxymoron. It's having the love that exists between close friends for those who are not close friends, for those who are strangers and foreigners and outsiders, Friendly love for non friends. This word as a noun is used three times in the New Testament.

The first one we'll look at is in Hebrews chapter 13. Starting in verse one, it says, Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters, and do not forget to show hospitality. Hospitality. Fino, I can't talk. Philos.

Philozenia. I preached last service and I could speak the whole time. I don't know what just happened. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers. Now the NIV adds that two strangers, but the actual literal is only one word, philozenia.

Literally, it's do not forget to show the kind of love that you have for close friends to those who are outsiders, strangers and foreigners. And then the rest of this little section tells us the craziest reason why we should do this. Verse 2, the second half of verse 2. For by doing so, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Can we agree that's crazy?

Like, that's crazy. The writer of Hebrews says that we should show that kind of love that we have for close friends to those who are not close friends. Because you never know, you might be entertaining and showing hospitality to angels without knowing it. There's actually two stories in the Bible where this happens. The first is in Genesis chapter 18 with Abraham.

And these three guys come walking down the road and Abraham meets them and he offers them a meal and hospitality to give them what he has and offer hospitality to a stranger. Turns out they're three angels. The other one we talked about about a month and a half ago when we were in the Gideon series, the angel of the Lord comes to visit Gideon. Gideon has no idea that it's the angel of the Lord. And he shows the angel of the Lord hospitality.

Now, I don't know that I've ever entertained angels in my house. Maybe some of you have been to my house and you're like, yes, you have. But is it. Isn't that kind of an interesting thought that we could be showing hospitality to angels? But the writer of Hebrews says, hey, don't forget to keep loving one another as brothers and sisters.

And don't neglect showing Felia too. Another place we see this in the New Testament is 1 Peter, chapter 4, starting in verse 8. Above all, that means on top of everything. Yes, we've talked about lots of stuff, but above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a Multitude of sins. Offer hospitality, Philozenia to one another without grumbling.

It's almost like he knew something. Like the preacher would say, you should show love that you have for friends, two people that aren't your friends. And we were like, really? Can we just do it with our friends? He says, offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. The third time that we see this noun used is in Romans 12, starting in verse 9. He says, Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love.

Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Now, the NIV uses that word, practice, but the real word in the Greek is much stronger than this. It's the word that we get our word persecute from. It is a strong, aggressive chasing after something. And he says, practice hospitality with an aggressive pursuit. It's way more than just practice hospitality.

Now, notice that biblical hospitality is always connected first with love. With love. We read that in Hebrews 13. Keep on loving one another. Above all, love each other deeply.

Romans 12. Love must be sincere. See, biblical hospitality is predicated on built on love. And each of these verses, the type of love that's talking about is also a different type of love. It's the Philadelphia love.

That's where we get the name for our city, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. It's the love that we have for family, for brothers and sisters. We see this in these verses that we are to do philozenia without grumbling. We're to aggressively pursue it. We're to show this kind of hospitality to other Christian brothers and sisters and to complete strangers who may or may not be Christians.

Now, all that sounds great, but we don't need Jesus to do any of what we just described. In fact, there are lots of people who love strangers all the time who don't love Jesus. There's nothing inherently Christian about this. So what makes Philozenia a gospel practice, a practice that forms this epicenter from which the good news of God's redemption just kind of echoes and reverberates into the space around us? Well, to answer that question, let's go all the way back to the Old Testament.

So God rescues his people from about 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and he brings them through the Red Sea and he's taking care of them. He's leading them in field, feeding them and caring for them as they travel through the wilderness. And then he begins to establish laws, practices, and social and relational standards for two major reasons. First, because he's showing them the way to human flourishing. See, turns out, as creator of the universe, the one who knows every cell in our bodies and how everything works, he knows the best way to human through thriving, which means his guidelines, his ways, his rules, his authority is better than whatever we come up with on our own.

Second, he gives them these standards so that they will be a people who are different than all the nations around them. He calls it a holy people. And that word holy just means set apart. Different stick out when we get to Leviticus 19, verse 2. God says, Be holy, be different, be set apart, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

In other words, I want you to live in a certain way, because when you do, you're actually emulating my likeness and reflecting my redemption into the world around you. And so he outlines this way of living in a section the Bible refers to, or the Bible nerds refer to as the Holiness Code. This is how he wants them to live in the world. As part of this code, he gives them the reason for Philozenia. Leviticus 19, verse 33.

When a foreigner, a stranger, an outsider, resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. But he goes further than that. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native or born as family. Love them as yourself. Why?

For you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Treat foreigners like family because you know what it's like to be a foreigner. And in the same way I restored you, I redeemed you. I want you to be a holy people who do that for others.

Because it looks like me. This is way more than being nice to strangers. But what about us? We weren't foreigners in Egypt. God didn't rescue us from slavery.

Well, let's fast forward to Ephesians, chapter 2. Starting in verse 11, Paul says, Therefore remember the formerly you who are Gentiles, that's us by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in the body by human hands. That's the the Jews. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel. You were not family and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world.

Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself, Jesus Christ, is our peace. He is our peace. He is our restitution.

He is our reconciliation. He is our peace who has made the two groups 1. Outsiders and Insiders are one. And he has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Skip ahead to verse 19.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord and in Him. You two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Ultimately, Philozenia, hospitality is all about doing for others what Christ has done for us.

We used to stand outside as foreigners, but because of the blood of Jesus, we have been given the opportunity to not just come into the shed, not just come into the backyard, not just live in the basement. We get to be adopted as sons and daughters to the King. That's amazing and Christian. If you have lost sight of this, wake up. This is your story.

This is your story. We are no longer foreigners. We are no longer wandering. We are no longer without hope. We read in John 1:12.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. We are sons and daughters of the King and coheirs with Jesus Christ. That's your story. We have the same story of being outsiders, foreigners and without hope.

We were dead in our trespasses. But God, just like Israel, we know what it feels like. And the response that God calls us to is a way of living that echoes his likeness, echoes what he's done for us into the world around us. It's for us to reconcile the lonely, the lost, the outcast, the outsider to God by loving them as brothers and sisters. Just like Christ loving loved us.

That kind of love. That kind of love only comes by the blood of Jesus. That's why this is a gospel practice. Philozenia is the kind of love that turns outsiders into brothers and sisters.

Several years ago, when I was young in ministry, I had my first hospital visit to a hospice unit. And I was just nervous to go into this. I had never been in a situation like this. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do.

And so I have this lady's name. I don't know her, she doesn't know me. I don't know her family. She's just a name on a list. And I show up and I walk in and there's a man sitting next to the bed.

And I just assume he's family. But as he turns, he's got a name tag on, and I find out he's a volunteer.

I didn't know that people volunteer their time to sit with people who are dying, who don't have family there. I was just overwhelmed by that. In that moment, I just reintroduced myself as the pastor. And he said, oh, good, you're here. You can sit.

I'll go and be with someone else. And inside I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I can't. I don't know how to do this. But outside, I agreed. And he left.

And I sat down to this strange woman dying in a bed, eyes wide open.

Her breathing was labored. I spoke to her and she didn't respond. And I just sat there thinking, what do I do? And as I was sitting there, a nurse came and kind of broke the silence. I was grateful for it.

And she said, do you all need anything? And I turned around and I said, how is she doing? And she gestured for me to come out in the hallway. And I go out in the hallway, and she said, she's going to die any minute.

Her family's been here all week. Just an hour ago, they all left. They went to go get a shower or a meal or a haircut. And right after they left, she completely took a turn. She's going to die any minute.

And now I am full bore panicked. I'm panicked not just for me, I'm panicked for her. Because this poor woman is going to die with a young idiot pastor sitting next to her who has no idea how to do this. She's going to die without anyone she loves sitting around her. And I am panicked, and I don't know anything else to do.

And I pray out loud for her. She doesn't respond. And I'm sitting there for what just felt like forever. And thank God, her husband walks through the door and he introduces himself.

And he crawls in the bed with her.

And he cradles her head and he strokes her hair. And he spoke so gently and loving to her. And I watched as a strange woman dying in a bed, miraculously transformed into a beloved bride right in front of me. It was the most amazing thing. And Then a short time after that, her son came and her other two kids came and the grandkids came.

And I watched this strange woman dying in a bed become a beloved bride and a mother and a grandmother. And I watched the most upside down, beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life happen. This woman's dying, surrounded by her loved ones, three generations that are telling stories and laughing and smiling and crying and grieving. And I watched her breathe her last breath.

And it changed me forever.

And I realized that just because she was a stranger to me, she was not a stranger to God.

This is the power of the kind of hospitality that the Bible calls us to that turns strangers miraculously into friends, family, Church this is what your pockets are full of. Your pockets are full of this kind of hospitality, and it's available to disseminate and give out, and it's available to anyone who would receive it. This is the kind of life that the Bible's calling us to, the kind of love and hospitality that turns strangers and foreigners and outsiders into beloved family.

So I want to challenge us to begin to live out this gospel practice to help others to cross over from being outsiders and strangers and foreigners to being loved and seen and known. Brothers and sisters, 2nd Corinthians 5:18. It says, all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

I've been preaching this since I got here 18 months ago. Church we are ambassadors of reconciliation. This is our greatest job on this planet, to be ambassadors of reconciliation, because God is making his appeal to the world through us. We're called to be gospel epicenters that reverberate his likeness and his love into this world. This is our highest calling.

And I can't help but wonder what it might look like if all of us actually truly believed that this, if every one of us saw ourselves as hosts, people who, wherever we are, are hosting a small intersection of heaven and earth colliding inside of this sphere of influence right around us? What if those of us who are known and connected and call Whitewater home would be looking for opportunities all around us, in the foyer and at the sink, in the bathroom and at kids check in. And in this space, what if we were all looking for a moment to act as a host of the sphere of Space and influence right around us so that we could bring outsiders in and foreigners could become sons and daughters. What if we welcomed and loved all of those who come in? We made them feel known and seen and part of the family?

Imagine how those who feel unseen everywhere else they go in their lives, some of them even in their homes. If when they showed up here, they got to experience that kind of hospitality, imagine how they might feel. Imagine how that might send shock waves of the kingdom every direction. What if everywhere we go, actually not just here, no matter where we are or what we're doing, we could see our primary calling as being a holy set apart. People who are bringing reconciliation, who help turn strangers and outsiders into brothers and sisters in the grocery store, at the football game, in our neighborhoods and workplaces, on the bus and at our lunch tables.

Because we recognize that that's exactly what Jesus did for us. Why? Because you know what it's like. And if you've forgotten, man, dust off the gospel church. Wake up.

This is our story. We have got to stop viewing our salvation and our faith as potted, isolated experience only for us and those who are closest to us and those who look like us and those who agree with everything we agree with. We must break these pots of isolation. We gotta get our roots in the soil. We gotta invite others to be intertwined in this beautiful family that we have been planted into ourselves.

This can't just be something that we nod along to. It can't be just something that we go. That sounds like a great idea. Somebody should do what the pastor says.

Because if we are not doers and we are only hearers, then we are not disciples.

But if we're to live the Philozenia life, we got to make space, don't we?

If our primary excuse for not living like this is that we don't have time or we don't have resources, or we don't have energy or we don't have whatever. It's time we make room in our schedule. It's time we make room in our home. It's time we make room at our table. It's time that we make room in our heart for people who aren't already there.

Satan doesn't have to get us to hate anyone to win. He just has to keep us busy doing almost gospel things and keep us from doing real gospel things. That's all he's got to do. And we all lose at this, all of us. So if this describes you, spend this week praying, asking the Holy Spirit to uncover, illuminate, show you the parts of your world that can be put down so that you have room.

But let's say you're one step past that. You know you have margin. How do you share it? One of the beautiful things that's on repeat in the Bible is that sharing a table with other people has an incredibly potent way of connecting. So if you have the margin, here's the challenge.

Once a week, invite someone who is outside of your spheres. A stranger, an outsider, even someone who is strange. Okay? Invite them into a conversation over a meal or a coffee. And it doesn't have to be fancy.

One of the most potent ways and beautiful ways that Heidi and I got to experience this in our life when we had little ones, was there was a couple in our neighborhood who also had little ones. We all worked full time, and they called us up on a weeknight, and she says, hey, I made a triple batch of spaghetti and meat sauce. Come have a simple, messy meal with us. And we showed up, and it wasn't about the food. It was just about the presents.

And it's amazing how something that simple, Martha Stewart wasn't there. We Grandma wasn't there. No cloth napkins. How something like that connected us.

You have at least 21 opportunities this week to share a meal or share a coffee that invites someone else to the table. An outsider, a foreigner, turning them into a brother or sister. This is what's available to U.S. ambassadors of reconciliation, hosts of heaven, right at a table. I love this quote from Alan Hirsch. He says, if every Christian family in the world simply offered good conversational hospitality around a table once a week to neighbors, we could eat our way into the kingdom of God.

Can I get an amen?

But there's another opportunity sitting out in front of us here at the end of this month, whatever you think about Halloween, thousands of people are going to be walking down our streets, showing up to ring our doorbells, standing on our porch, standing out in our driveway. And we have a massive opportunity to have an intersection of heaven and earth, a hosting place of the kingdom.

And they don't know what they're. They're coming for a piece of candy, guys. And we have something much better to offer them, to invite them in as foreigners and outsiders and offer them a place at the table.

I want to challenge you to figure out what that looks like in your neighborhood, in your cul de sac, in your driveway, in your home. But it's going to require us to pick up our eyes. We're going to have to pay attention. We're going to have to pray and ask God to do something to highlight someone. Let's take this challenge on.

Trust be expectant that he might actually show up. He might actually be up to something. He might actually be calling you to be the one he's calling you to be. Ultimately, Philozenia breaks light into the darkness. It turns strangers into neighbors and neighbors into brothers and sisters.

Philozenia looks like God and it echoes and reverberates his likeness into the world around us. We have been shown this kind of hospitality and it is time that we show it to others. Purposely, intentionally show this kind of philozenia love for strangers too. So what if we decided to make room? What if we decided to make room first?

John 4:19 says, we love because he first loved us. Jesus always goes first. He always goes first. So let's step into this month, let's step into this day, let's step into this foyer, let's step into our homes, let's step into our schools, let's step into our workplaces and begin hosting environments of the kingdom Gospel epicenters reverberating God's likeness into this world. Can we do that, Church?

Let's stand King Jesus, wake us up. Wake us up to what you're calling us to be, what you have already made us. I pray for everyone in the room who doesn't have this story yet. And I pray that you will awaken in them a desire to have this kind of life.

Lord, send them to come talk, to be ready to take a step. Lord, for the rest of us who already are part of this family, would you help us to get off our butts and stop being so selfish, so egocentric and open up our circles and our tables and our lives to other people as if eternity was at stake? Wake us up, Father, to be your church in Jesus name, Amen.