Hospitality

Point of Grace Online Worship - September 8, 2024

Point of Grace – 9.8.24 Sermon Notes – “A Remarkable Passion for Mission”

A Remarkable Passion for a Remarkable Mission

“Jesus exudes a remarkable, enduring, motivating, contagious Passion for His Mission”

“What’s His fuel?”

Matthew 9:35-38 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

“compassion” “σπλαγχνίζομαι – (splanchnízomai) – “to be moved from the bowels, to have deep compassion”

“because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”

Matthew 14 “13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

Mark 1 40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Jesus was moved with compassion. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

Mark 8 2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.

Luke 15 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him

Jesus has and gives us His heart of

compassion-filled-passion for unconnected people

that fuels prayer and

risks participation in the Jesus mission.

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Romans 10:1-4 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given.[b] As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

“Passion needs exercise or it withers away!” - A Really Smart Person-

Point of Grace’s A-B Toolbox for participation in the Jesus mission.

A – Alpha

B – B.L.E.S.S.

B egin with Prayer

L isten

E at

S erve

S hare your Story with Him

Alpha is an experience of the Good News of Jesus which, as a church, we commit to regularly having so we each have a space to invite people we know who need to know Jesus better.

Jesus gives us His heart of

compassion-filled-passion for unconnected people

that fuels prayer and

risks participation in the Jesus mission.

“I think you have the heart …. It’s just been covered up a while!” -Eugene Bunkowske-

Point of Grace Online Worship - September 1, 2024

Luke 10:1-12                    Being Sent                     September 1, 2024

Current reality today: Who are you going on mission together with? 

Prayerful question to ponder:

Who might God be inviting you to go on mission together with? 

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 

Jesus' strategy: Go together. 

2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

Jesus' strategy: Pray. 

3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 

4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 

Jesus' strategy: Take nothing along. 

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 

Jesus' strategy:

Be on the lookout for a person of peace. 

7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

Jesus' strategy: Eat with people. 

8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 

Sending ordinary everyday followers of Jesus from the sidelines to the streets

to start new to reach new. 

Who might God be inviting you to go on mission together with?  Where will you go? What will you do?

 

Point of Grace Online Worship - October 1, 2023

Point of Grace Worship 10.1.23 Sermon Notes – “Blessed to be a B.L.E.S.S.ing”

B.L.E.S.S – 5 everyday practices to love our neighbors and change the world

B-egin with Prayer

L-isten

E-at

S-erve

S-tory to Share

Listen

Being heard is so close to being loved that, for the average person they are indistinguishable -David W. Augsburger

“The first act of love is always the giving of attention” -Dallas Willard

“Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that, those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.” - Henri Nouwen

1 John 5:13-15 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

When we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within us – that Spirit creates in us a sacred space [middle space] where the other can be received and listened to. The Spirit of Jesus prays in us and listens in us to all who come to us with their sufferings and pains. When we dare to fully trust in the power of God’s Spirit listening in us, we will see true healing occur." - Henri Nouwen

This means that if we have a new life birth in us by the Spirit of Jesus, we can love people selflessly in ways like:

  • Listening willingly before being listened to

  • Seeking to understand before seeking to be understood

  • Being interested before trying to be interesting  

We can be a people who listen, because we are people who have been listened to. Talk is cheap and plentiful, Listening is expensive and rare. How would the world change if we became known as people who listened? - Andrew Cordy

Eat

Jesus’ practice of “radical hospitality” at the table addressed a deep and abiding human need common to us all – the need to BELONG!

Luke 5 27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

Luke 14 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

Jesus’ radically showed that human beings (all of them) “belong” with God!

The absence of this relationship leaves us wanting… always longing to belong!

Serve

John 13:12-17 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Meeting tangible needs of people in Jesus name is an act of grace – unmerited favor that speaks volumes to a skeptical world.

Listening, Eating and Serving the Jesus way display the radical hospitality which was a core value and practice of His and the community of followers He formed.

Why should we dive headlong into these ancient practices of love and radically commit to this kind of lifestyle?

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever