How Can We Spread The Gospel Of Jesus Through Hospitality?

James Greer: [00:00:00] Well, morning, Journey Church. Well, thinking of being thankful, I want to thank y'all for we had a fundraiser. Carla, one of our members is going to have a liver transplant. Amen. And Steven, if you'll come up and if Carla, if you will come up. I like that, Steven. Come on up. Hey, you got one. You got yours? Okay. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Where you at? Come here, baby. All right. Thank you, Journey Church. I'll tell y'all, y'all raised over $3,500 thanks to you. Amen? And she'll need it. She's in line. She often goes down there and gets sent back home, Carla. But the right time, God will make everything beautiful. Amen? And she's doing it with the right attitude. So we thank y'all so much for being a part of that and making that such a success. Amen? Well, we had a key verse and next Sunday will be our last Sunday in Raising an Army. And if you have an army T-shirt, wear that. If you still have any tags, wear that. So next Sunday, if you have that shirt, wear it.

James Greer: [00:01:16] Our key verse has been Joshua 1:9, and it says, I have a commandment. God says I want to command you to do something. He wants commands you to be strong, to be of good courage, do not be afraid. Isn't it great if you're a Christian in the right relationship with God, He says, I want you to be strong and be courageous and don't be afraid? Don't be dismayed. Don't be discouraged. And then He tells you why. For the Lord your God, the one that's in charge of everything, the one that's ultimate in authority, the one that has three-fourths of all the angels. When He says to do something, they do it. He's with you everywhere you go, whatever you do, wherever you go. He says, the Lord your God is with you. Now listen, today we're going to talk about hospitality. And it's evangelism through hospitality as an army. I wrote something this morning right before I was going to preach about Jesus thought so much about hospitality. Right before he went to the cross, He had something with his disciples called the Last Supper. He wanted to have a relationship, a special fellowship, a special hospitality. So the last thing He did was had hospitality and a relationship with Him. He said, He said even in Matthew 25:42 through 45, He said, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. Hospitality.

James Greer: [00:02:43] He said, I was a stranger, which is part of hospitality, and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick in prison and you came to visit me. We're doing that Tuesday. Those people that are going to that, meet Tuesday at nine o'clock in the morning. Hospitality. And they all answer and they said, Lord, when did we see you hungry? When did we see you thirsty? When were you a stranger? When were you were naked? When were you in prison? And when did we not minister to you? When did we not show you hospitality? And He answered them and said, surely I say insomuch as you did to the least of these, you did unto me. Do you understand one of the ways that we get the minister to Jesus Christ in the flesh is when we show hospitality to strangers? Do you understand one of the ways we'll be judged is by the way we showed hospitality to strangers?

James Greer: [00:03:31] So Jesus thought a lot about hospitality. So next Sunday is the last Sunday of Raising an Army. Wear your shirts. Now I want you to know, the first Sunday, we kind of did invitation, how to invite people. Then we did generosity. It's a philosophy of generosity. And this Sunday, we're doing hospitality, Raising an Army through hospitality. It was Jesus. Jesus had a method of evangelism which is seldom preached about, which was the method of hospitality. Jesus was always coming and going to people's homes. He was eating and drinking, and He gave opportunity to share the good news. When I say, share the good news, I want you to think of in other words restoring broken relationships. That's what He did. He evangelized. He fellowshipped. And it's said there's more than 50 accounts of Jesus in Luke alone of Him eating and drinking in fellowship and showing hospitality. More than 94 accounts in Matthew. So it was clear one of Jesus' main methods of evangelizing was sharing the good news, restoring broken relationships was through hospitality. In fact, Jesus came and went so many times, they said in Luke 7:37, said, the Son of Man has come. He's eating, He's drinking. And you would say, look, He's a glutton in a winebibber.

James Greer: [00:04:45] He's a friend to tax collectors and sinners. I mean He was just going around eating and drinking with so many. One translates to say, listen, the Son of Man, He came and He ate and He drank. And you said, look, look at this man. He's a glutton and He's a wine drinker. Y'all do know the first miracle, right? What was the first miracle? He turns water into alcohol. When I was growing up, you wouldn't dare say that. He did. I mean, so He was going around and He was eating and, I don't know, maybe drank wine with Him. That's just what the Bible says, not Brother James. With tax collectors and sinners. So I mean it was clear that number one, number one, I want you to know that one of Jesus' main methods of evangelism and sharing the good news was hospitality. And the reason I say the sharing good news and broken relationships, mending and restoring broken relationships, because every time somebody gets saved, every time a broken relationship is mended, every time somebody accepts Christ as their Savior, the relationship between them and God is then mended. And when that happens, it gets mended and it's right. That's the beginning of mending every other relationship.

James Greer: [00:06:06] See, the Psalmist said in Psalms 127:1, unless the Lord build the house, you labor in vain. That's the beginning of mending every other relationship. The Psalmist said, I mean Ephesians said in Ephesians 2:14, for He Himself, Jesus Christ, He is our peace who made both one. He's broken down the middle wall that separated us. In other words, there's a wall that separates between us and God. Jesus broke it down. Can I tell you something also? In marriage relationship, there's a wall that only Jesus Christ can break down. What is hospitality anyway? Hospitality is a friendly reception and treatment of strangers and of guests. It's the love of strangers. Hospitality, you ready? It's turning strangers into friends. Jesus' main method of evangelism, He would turn strangers into friends. He would identify the outsiders and make them become insiders. He would welcome by fellowshipping with believers and non-believers and out of truth and love for Jesus Christ. So they would see Christ more clearly and learn to encourage each other and they would join together as believers. The English dictionary defines it as friendly treatment of guests. God offers you hospitality through His Son, Jesus Christ. We'll talk about that later. One of Jesus' greatest methods of evangelism, you ready? Was turning strangers into friends. If we care about somebody's eternity, show it by serving them in reality now. So number one, we learned that Jesus used hospitality as one of His main methods of evangelism. We learned that hospitality, in essence, there's a lot of definitions, but basically it's turning strangers into friends. And really, basically, Jesus commanded us to show hospitality.

James Greer: [00:08:17] I want us to look at one of the examples of Jesus' hospitality. Jesus was going down the road, and He saw another tax collector. Last Sunday, we talked about it. The other tax collector, his name was Zacchaeus. He was in a tree and Jesus called him to come down. This is different. This is called Matthew. And he was sitting and collecting at a collection booth. And come, be my disciple. Now, Jesus not only with Zacchaeus, he said, Zacchaeus, come, we're going to go eat at your house. He said, Matthew, He's not only going to go eat with Matthew, He's going to call Matthew to be a disciple. A tax collector. One of the sorriest of sorry, one of the cheap. And Jesus said, come be my disciple. And Jesus said to him. And Matthew, he jumped up and went along with Him. Can you believe that Jesus called tax collectors to be disciples? He called fishermen to be disciples. He called educated people. He called uneducated people. He called rich people. He called poor people. He called all these people to be a disciple. If Jesus could use them, He can use you.

James Greer: [00:09:22] That comes down to will you answer the calling? Later, Jesus and His disciples were eating dinner. They were having hospitality. And Jesus, man, He liked to eat. He liked to have dinner with people. And there were many notorious swindlers that were guests. They would swindle people out of money. That's what they did. But hospitality will change your spirituality. See, we got to get them in the house before we get to their heart. We need to get them to church house. Amen? We get them into our physical house. I mean one of the greatest evangelism things you can do is bring them into the house, and let's feed them spiritual food. But Jesus went to their house. You can invite them to your house. You can invite them to church. Me and Darrell, years ago, you can believe it or not. Me and Darrell, we would come up here and we'd teach people how to go witnessing and we'd come together and we'd pray together. And me and Darrell, we'd go house to house. We'd go door to door. We'd knock on the door. We're going evangelizing. And you'd come to the door and we'd say, hey, if you died today, are you 100% sure you'd go to Heaven?

James Greer: [00:10:50] Huh? I think we would. We'd like to. Slam the door. Some of them would let us in. Some of them wouldn't. I mean we'd do that night after night tons of time. I can remember it. I can remember some of the funniest. I can remember one time Darrell was on his knees, praying with this woman. And her husband comes in. Oh yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Be calm. You're not going to believe it. I go to church down here. And he's asking her if, I said, by the way, if you died, do you know, would you go to Heaven? He didn't know either. Before long, I prayed with him, Darrell was praying. But most of the time it didn't go like that. Most times they thought we were crazy, and we better know if we're going to go to Heaven because they were going to kill us. But anyway. And it's okay to evangelize like that. But I think it's better today if you go to fellowship and hospitality. I think we win more people to Christ. Amen? In fact, in fact, I believe if the world will sit down and have a meal together, people sometimes without politics, presidents, and parties, it'd be amazing what we could do. Because see, really politics and presidents and parties is not going to change the world. There's a person. His name is Jesus Christ.

James Greer: [00:12:05] And so really, really, there's no telling what, see, Jesus' goal was to connect. He wanted to connect with the sinners and bring them to a Savior. Isn't it great if our goal was to help connect sinners with a Savior? what a Journey Church, what if we adopted, let's say Journey Church, you know what we adopt? Let's adopt the policy that one of our greatest policies is to go out and try to connect sinners with a Savior. And one of the ways we can do it is through a meal. What did we say? Even at Journey Church, are y'all ready? Amen? Why don't you invite somebody at church that you don't know to go eat lunch? Yeah, Brother James. Yeah, say it again. Yeah. I know it when I'm preaching something that I should preach and y'all don't agree with. One of the ways we show hospitality, that means eating a meal together and getting to know each other, connect each other is at church, we can start at church and invite somebody you don't know and go eat lunch with them. Amen? That's a little better. Y'all can confess that you lied if you want to. Then let's go from church. Let's go to work. Let's do our hobbies. Let's start inviting people. At least once a month, let's have lunch or dinner or something with somebody we don't know and get to know them. Let's connect with them. Let's connect with them. And let's connect relationally with them. Let's connect spiritually with them. Let's build relationship with them. Because unless the Lord builds a house, you labor in vain. Let's get to know each other. Amen?

James Greer: [00:13:47] Connect. Man, we need to connect not only the sinners with the Savior, but saints back closer to the Savior. But you know what they said after that? Matthew 9:11, when Jesus went in the house with these tax collectors, the Pharisees got upset. In Matthew 9:11, you know what the Pharisees said? The Pharisees were indignant. In other words, they were angry. They were ticked off. It seems like the religious people are always getting mad. Every time Journey Church does something different, it's the religious people that get upset with us. I mean I had somebody go pick up something the other day and they picked up something, they said, where are you going? They said, Journey Church. I said, man, y'all got the weirdest people at your church. That was this week alone. I said, Praise God. Yeah, we do. And you're welcome to, weirdo. I didn't tell them that, but I felt like it. I didn't say that. I wanted to, but I didn't. But we do have some weird people that come here because you got a weird pastor. I know. It's okay. But it's okay. It's the religious people that get upset with us, not the people who are messed up.

James Greer: [00:15:05] Not the people that are hurting. Not the people that say they need help. Why is your preacher associate with people like that? I hope we have some of those people at our church like that. I hope you invited them. I hope you invited some of those people that are sinners that need help. It might upset somebody else because they're here, but they won't us. These people were known cheaters. They cheated people out of money. How can somebody come to know Jesus Christ unless they hear? How are they going to hear unless they're invited? I mean really. Be an inviter because people who are well, they don't need a doctor. It's the sick people that do, Jesus replied. See, the Pharisees, the religious were righteous hypocrites. They didn't think they needed a Savior. They didn't think they needed anything. They thought they had it all together. When I say Savior, I mean one that can deliver you, one that can rescue you, one that can make you whole. Yet the truth, Jesus did not only come for the sinners to bring them to the Savior, He came for the saints like me and you who are sick. See, saints get sick too. Saints have needs too. Saints need help too. But Jesus doesn't move in our lives until we do. He can, but He won't. One of the greatest problems in humanity today with Christians and non-Christians is not admitting the help that they need and not going to Jesus Christ. Just not admitting it. You can only be helped and healed if you admit that you need help and healing whether you're a sinner or saint. The worst thing you can do is be a Pharisee and be so religious, you're sitting there and say, hey, I got it all together because you don't. I don't and you don't. Some people are in better condition right now than others.

James Greer: [00:17:33] Some of you are better emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually. But everybody's got problems. Everybody has some sick area in your life. Your secret sins will keep you sick. Just keep them secret, and you'll stay sick. Your secret sins in your marriage will keep your marriage sick. See, it's those secret sins that you don't admit that keep you sick. And it's going to a Savior that heals you. So even in Matthew 4:23, Jesus, He went around all Galilee. He goes all over. And He was teaching in the synagogue. He was preaching the gospel to the kingdom. He was healing all kinds of sicknesses, all kinds of diseases among the people. I love that because when He talked about healing here, it was all kinds of healing. But He said, I was bringing relief to people that were hurting. Do you understand Jesus' ministry? He said, I'm going all over the place, I'm going from town to town, from city to city, from house to house, and what I want to do is I want to bring healing. I want to bring relief. I want to make you whole. And all kinds of sickness. He says, there's people that are so weak. They need strength. He said, whether you're a sinner or saint, He said, I want to bring relief to your life.

James Greer: [00:18:53] See, whether you're a sinner in need of a Savior or a saint, whether it's emotionally, physically, or spiritually, you still need the same Savior. And it's Jesus Christ. And that's what He did. Matter of fact, He did, many times He did it through hospitality. He even tells in Hebrews that sometimes when we're doing that, that we're entertaining strangers. He said, keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. And He said, and don't forget, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels, and you didn't even realize it. Do you understand that somebody could walk into church? Wouldn't it be something if you walked in the church and some of y'all welcomed them and made them feel comfortable? And without knowing it, it was a stranger walked into your house or walked in your job, walked in your home, and you invited them in and you made them feel comfortable, now knowing you entertained an angel? But whether you entertain the angel or not, what He's implying is when you show hospitality the right way, you get spiritual blessings and insights through hospitality. He tells us in Romans. He says, rejoicing in hope, patience, tribulation, continuing steadfast in prayer. But He says this. Distributing to the needs of the saints, but be given to hospitality. Hospitality is almost a lost gift today. You don't have people in the homes and you don't eat with each other and we don't invite strangers in. But then the rest of the verse says, bless those who persecute you, bless those who curse you.

James Greer: [00:20:35] The reason that I leave that verse in there, because that is a Kingdom principle that people don't understand. The kingdom principle is thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in Heaven as it is in Earth. On Earth as it is in Heaven. And what's a Kingdom principle is when you act, you ready? Or react and you bring some Heaven to Earth. That's a Kingdom principle. Would you like to bring, would you like to know how to act and react and how to bring some Heaven to Earth? God would not say thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven unless there's a Kingdom principle and you can act and react. And when you act and react the correct way, you bring some Heaven to Earth in your life. Amen? One of the ways you do that, one of the ways you do that, it says, blessed are those who persecute you and bless those who curse you. When you do that, that's a Kingdom principle. Somebody persecutes you and you bless them. Matthew 5:43, it says this. You've heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. No problem. I can do that. Amen? But I say, love your enemy. That's a Kingdom principle. Bless those who curse you. Man, if you cuss me, I'm going to cuss you usually. Don't you all be holier than thou. What happens when they come up behind you and honk the horn? God bless. Oh, I love you. Be good to those that hate you. Pray for those that despise you, use you, and persecute you. But the truth of the matter, do you understand those are Kingdom principles? And if you apply them, you'll bring some Heaven to your life.

James Greer: [00:22:26] But instead, we let our emotional and our world take over. And so instead of bringing Heaven, we bring hell. You got to learn to bring some Heaven to Earth. It works. You've got an incident, the Holy Spirit like that and then it's gone and the flesh takes over. It goes on and it says, listen, that you might be the sons of your Father in Heaven. How do you become the sons of the Father in Heaven? By bringing some Heaven to Earth. By the way we react. By way we respond. For He makes the sun rise on the evil and good. In other words, you're going to face good people, bad people, sends train on the just and the unjust. How you respond and how you react to those types of things brings some Heaven to Earth. That's seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Everything else will be added to you. Kingdom principles. Okay. Let's go back to hospitality. Romans 12:12. Rejoice in hope, patience, tribulation, continuing steadfast in what? In prayer. Distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. When I say given to hospitality, it's a Kingdom principle. You know why? Because we don't want to serve people. We want to be served. You telling me you get up, man, I get to serve my wife today? Amen. Precious Jesus. No. [inaudible] I hope she serves me today. Yeah. We don't want to serve. We want to be served. Now we've got some people in our church, I wish we, we got one used to sit on the front row.

James Greer: [00:24:00] Cecil [inaudible] He cooked for that. Isn't that great? He's cooking the turkeys for the prison, right? He's cooking for them. He called me the other morning at 7:30 at the morning. He said, I got another idea. Let's cook, let's go downtown and cook for the poor. I said, Cecil, we're cooking three days. We're not going to cook again this month. Enough's enough, okay? I mean that dude wants to cook every day. I said, I got a wife. I want her to cook for me, not you. I mean, but it's okay. That's okay. But I mean Monday, Monday? Anybody want to help him cook? Be here Monday. Cook turkeys. Be here Tuesday. Tuesday at nine o'clock, we'll all go serve the prisoners. Everybody wants to go. But I mean, my goodness, I don't want to cook every single day. Amen? But what I'm telling you is, what I'm telling you is hospitality is a Kingdom principle because we want to be served and not serve. But when you serve, you bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. You know why? Because Jesus told us that. He told us in Matthew 20:28 that your attitude must be like ours. The Messiah didn't come to be served but to serve. And He gave my life a ransom for many. In other words, He said, do you understand that the Kingdom principle is to serve and to give? What's the principle? Serve to give. Are you serving and giving? Probably not.

James Greer: [00:25:21] I got to rock on. 1 Peter 4:8, above all things have fervent love, one for another because love covers a multitude of sins. Thank God for that. But be hospitable to one another without grumbling. In other words, if you got somebody you're going to go out to eat with or if you're going to have them in your house, don't be griping and complaining about it or just don't do it. Amen? I mean come on. Christians, you're supposed to have a good attitude. I mean if you're going to and you're so upset with everybody else because somebody is coming to the house. You done missed the point. You're not so worried about because they're coming. You're supposed to be excited that they're coming. You're serving the God. I mean Jesus said, that's one of the ways you serve Him in the flesh is by doing it and doing it right. Amen, Brother James. 3 John 1:8. We're getting to the end. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth. Here's another translation. Here's another one. You ready? It is therefore our duty, our responsibility, our calling, our command to show hospitality to such men. Why? Why? So that we may be fellow workers in the promoting of the truth. Guess who truth is? Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. One of the ways we promote Jesus Christ, one of the ways we promote truth is showing hospitality the correct way.

James Greer: [00:26:51] All right. I'm going to start closing now. I love this message. I love it because I get to challenge everybody in here to be hospitable with the right attitude. I want you all to smile big. Fake it if you have to. I'm going to tell you something. We were once strangers to God. Because of Jesus Christ, we're now friends of His. God showed us hospitality. In fact, Ephesians 2:12 tells us that. It says that there was a time that we were without Christ. We were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers of the covenant of the promise. We had no hope without God in this world. We were strangers. But now in Christ Jesus, sometimes you were far off. Now you're made close by the blood of Jesus Christ. See, we're all strangers. But because of the blood of Jesus Christ, we're now friends of God. In fact, there's no greater love than this, that you'd lay down your life for friends. See, because of Jesus Christ, we're friends of God. If hospitality, which it is, is turning strangers into friends, God showed the greatest hospitality in the world by giving His son. Shed His blood on the cross and turning us as strangers into friends of God. My question, would you accept God's hospitality? Would you accept His son where you could be a friend of God's? So if you've never done that, this is the most important thing you'll ever do in your life is become a friend of God's this morning by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's real hospitality. Second, would you invite somebody to lunch, somebody you don't know? Start easy at church and just go up to somebody and say, hey, man, I'd like to get to know you.

James Greer: [00:29:07] That's saint to saint, fellowship to fellowship, relationship, getting to know each other. That may be at work, may be at school, may be a stranger. At work and outside or if you have the opportunity to do the fellowship, invite them to church. The goal is to connect a stranger to a Savior, connect a saint back to a Savior, one that's sick that they could be healed. Connect each other to fellowship based on a relationship with the Savior. Hospitality will change your spirituality. Hospitality, it will change your spirituality. It'll change your individuality. It'll change you generality overall. Hospitality is a plan command by God to bring the good news, which is to mend broken relationships, which is the beginning of making all relationships right. When our relationship is right with God through fellowship, He meets every need in our life. I love the 23rd Psalm. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. But it should say this. When I'm allowing the Lord to be my shepherd, I will have no wants. He'll meet every need in my life. I quote it sometimes four or five times a day because God says, when I meditate on His Word, I should have success. And so when the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Want what? It doesn't matter. I don't have to have a want. He'll meet every need I have in my life. And the way that I do that, I drop down to verse five.

James Greer: [00:31:11] It says, God has prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemy. In other words, I'm going to face enemies today. But if I come to the table with God every morning that He's prepared fellowship with me, He's already going to take care of my enemies. See, you understand that God said, hey, I've got a table every single morning, it's prepared, I want you to come and eat with me, I want you to fellowship with me, I've got hospitality. It’s already ready. And He said, I'm showing the hospitality to you because I want you to fellowship with me and then you can say the Lord is my shepherd, I'll meet every single need in your life. That's great hospitality. That's great fellowship. That's every need in your life met. But I wouldn't want to leave. I know y'all have some needs. Got some hurts. Got some sicknesses. Don't be like the Pharisees. Don't say you got it all together when you don't. I'm fixing to pray for you. And I pray that you'll bring your needs, your wants, and your hurts to the altar as a way of bringing them to Jesus Christ. And if you don't know Him, that you would accept God's hospitality and get Jesus as your Savior. Would you stand and let me pray with you? God, I love you. Man, I thank you for the hospitality of sending your son that you could be my friend. A lot of people don't see God as their friend, but you wanted to be our friend so bad that you sent your son. And as soon as your son, the resurrection, the first thing that you said, now you're my father, you're my dad.

James Greer: [00:32:52] You've been wanting it. You've been waiting and waiting and waiting. And finally, as soon as the resurrection, you said, hey, now that time is here. God help us to show hospitality and let this not just be another message, but one that we obey. As we obey, we get blessed. I pray that everybody here, online watching us, that they would invite somebody that they don't know, maybe to a lunch. They'd connect with each other through Christ and they'd get to know each other better. It's not perfect. There's no perfect relationship because there are no perfect people. But they get to know and they care one for another. God, I pray as strangers come into our life, whether it's here at work, hobbies, shopping, that we can turn strangers into friends and sinners into the Savior. God, as we obey you, that we have that spiritual blessing that you promise. And God for sinners and saints that are here today that are hurting, they're sick, they need help and need healing, I pray that they'd accept your invitation. That you say that all those who are heavy laden, that they would come unto you, they could find rest. Maybe they need to join the church. Maybe they need to follow through in baptism. Maybe they need somebody to pray with them and pray for them. Whatever you lay upon hearts, I pray that you could have your way in their lives. It's in the precious name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Bruce Goulart: [00:34:24] On behalf of Pastor James, I want to say thank you for joining our online experience this morning. Y'all, we are just finishing up week four of Raising an Army and what amazing week it is. I hope that you take this and apply it to your life this week. And if you need someone to pray with you right now, we have people on standby that are willing to pray with you. So there's a link in the description up top that if you click on, someone will get with you right away. Y'all, again, I just want to say thank you for joining our online experience this morning, and I hope to see you next week.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.