This morning we are continuing in our One Another series
looking at God's invitation to community and what it means to
be a people marked by love. Our Scripture today is from John
13. One through 8.
You can find it on your liturgy handout.
If you don't have a liturgy handout, you can go to the
welcome table and see the lovely people up there and they will
help you get one. It was just before the Passover
festival. Jesus knew that the hour had
come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
Having loved his own, who were in the world, he loved them to
the end. The evening meal was in
progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son
of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God.
So he got it from the meal. He took off his outer clothing
and wrapped a towel around his waist.
After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash his
disciples feet, drawing them with the towel that was wrapped
around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said
to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
Jesus replied. You do not realize now what I'm
doing, but later you will understand no, said Peter.
You shall never wash my feet, Jesus answered.
Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks so much, Kylie.
Hey, everybody, welcome again. If we haven't met, my name is
Pastor Josh and I'm not speaking today, but wanted to jump up
just real quick to introduce our speaker for today, Pastor
Demaris Taylor, who we're so excited to have with us.
I found out I don't know end of last year sometime when did we
first connect it was end of last year ish sometime foolish
foolish that Demars was moving to town.
Demars has some some roots in Boston.
He and his wife both I believe went to Harvard but and and in
fact where I live in Dorchester Demars like somehow knew all my
people like I was like how does how does this guy connected with
so many people I I know. But DeMar and his wife moved
back to the city, returning to the city in order to start a new
expression of church, which they're calling The bridge is
rooted in JP. I'm not going to steal all his
Thunder. I'll let him talk a bit more
about that. But when we heard that there was
this new church expression happening and and as I just
learned a little bit about it, it became evident very quickly
that there was so much in terms of shared heart, shared vision,
shared longing and you know. Sometimes, maybe you've
experienced this. Hopefully you haven't.
Sometimes churches in the city can have a competitive nature
with each other. People get petty about
theological differences or or all sorts of other things.
But but I firmly believe, we believe here at Reality that we
are one body and that God has a dream for the city.
In fact, God is already ahead of us working renewal in the cities
and ways that we just get to enter into.
We get to participate. Alongside of and and what God
wants to do in this city is going to take far more than just
us like we got. I think God's got big things for
us here as a community, but there are others that he's also
calling. And so it we've been since
January this year, had the opportunity to come alongside
tomorrow's financially and even pour into what they're doing,
invest in what they're doing as well.
And so I'm so excited to have him come, to have him share a
bit about his heart to continue the series on hospitality with
us. And just bless us.
So thank you, man, for being here.
Thank you for making disciples. Thank you for contributing to
the flourishing of our city. And I'm so excited for you to be
with us today and to just contribute to what God's doing
in Boston, man. Yeah.
Great to have. Yeah.
Good morning, everyone. All right.
Oh, there we go. That was good.
It was a little delay, but it came around.
It came around. Good morning.
So I'm excited to share the word of God with you this morning.
And this is actually a little strange for me because in our
micro church we meet in my home and we don't usually have a
microphone. Usually I just got to be loud
right? And we figure it out over the
babies and all the chaos and everything else that's going on.
And so I have a mic in my hand is a little empowering.
So y'all excuse me if I get carried away preaching today.
But before we we get into the word, As I walked into into this
space, into this auditorium, I was telling some friends of ours
that this, this auditorium actually reminds me of the
movie. Lean on me.
OK, if you if you about my age in the 30 is older, you might
you might know that movie from 1989.
Lean on me. And I actually see they're going
to sing it later on. I was pretty excited to see
that. That made me very, very happy.
I love that. I'm not going to sing that, but
I do want to sing a little snippet of a song that that came
into my heart to prepare us for continue going into the word and
even to still my nerves a little bit and it just goes like this,
it says for. Your glory, I would do anything
just to see you and behold you as my king.
For your glory, I would do anything just to see you.
And. Behold you as my king.
If y'all singing with me, just it's that simple, it says.
For your glory. I would do anything just to see.
You and behold you. And behold you as my king for
your glory, I would do anything just to see you.
And behold. And behold you as my king.
And this another song comes to mind that my grandfather used to
sing every time he would get up to preach because my grandfather
was my pastor in in Greenville, SC and he would sing I.
Will trust in the Lord I will trust in the Lord I will trust.
In the Lord until I die, I told. You shouldn't give me the mic.
But I will trust in the Lord. Oh, I will trust in the Lord.
Until I die and it.
I'm going to stay on the battlefield.
I'm going to stay. On this is for the Lord.
Battlefield. I hit a clap.
I'm going to stay on the battlefield.
Until I die. Oh, I'm going to stay on the
battlefield. Oh, I'm going to stay on the
battlefield. I'm going to stay on the
battlefield. Until I die.
And we'll just break it down like this and we'll leave it and
then we'll get in the word. I promise, but I promise.
But. Lord, prepare me to be a St.
true, pure and holy, tried and true.
Tried and true. I'll be a living sanctuary.
And with Thanksgiving, I'll be your.
Sanctuary for you. For you.
All right, let's pray. And then we can.
Then we can get in the Word. I promise God, I thank you so
much. Lord that.
God, it is for your glory that we exist.
It is for your praise, your honor, your magnification.
God that we come in this building today, that we live in
community in the way that we try to live in community, that we
live our lives the way we live our lives.
God, it is because we can trust in you and every second of the
day. Every moment of the day, with
every situation and contextual point of our lives, and so we
give you glory, we give you honor.
And God, Lord, we are your servants.
And so, God, we want to follow after you.
We are your disciples, God, We are bound to you.
And so, Lord, as we think about what it means to be loving one
another, what it means to be hospitable to one another, we
ask that you would do a work that only the Spirit of God can
do. Pray this in Jesus name Amen.
In my family, I'm the oldest of five kids and I'm also the
oldest of like 1516 grandchildren and so I got a lot
of type A personality sometime and in this oldest lineage kind
of of my family being the the, the, the big bro to my one
sister and three brothers. My parents were really big about
trying to instill in us the importance of family, but the
value of a family still are. In fact, my mom has her own set
of 1 another's that come from the scripture.
She says I'm a little differently, but I'm.
I'm going to sweeten it up today to make it a little bit easier
and palatable on the ears. But she would sometimes yell at
us, y'all need to look out for one another.
You need to make time for one another.
You need to talk with another one another.
They live in South Carolina, so I have to get on.
Video calls or a phone call to talk with my Bros and my sister,
she says you need to make time with another one another.
You need to play with one another, you need to be patient
with one another and you need to go on and I can go on and on
about these one another's that my mom, Tamika, would lay out
before us, and she would do that to try to strengthen our resolve
together. And if I can get personal and
get real serious about it. We all have the same mother, my
siblings and all. And we do, but we all have.
We have different dads. Three of us have.
Three of them have one dad and my sister has another dad and I
have a different dad. So a little bit of a complex
story there, but my mom was really in and still is is really
about instilling in us that we are to be a unit, that we are
supposed to be one, bound together by love, by a care and
concern for each other. And so this morning, as we
continue in Y'all series of loving one another, I get the
the privilege, the honor to talk about hospitality, to talk about
being hospitable to one another. In fact, the Greek word for one
another is used 100 times in the New Testament, 94 different
verses in the New Testament, and 47.
OK, I'm going to get to the stats real quick, and then we'll
get into some practical stuff. But 47 of those verses give
instructions for followers of Jesus, and Paul wrote about 60%
of them. And so in those 47 verses that
instruct us as followers and believers in Jesus, he
emphasizes there's an emphasis on humility and unity and love
and mutuality. I want to dive into that and in
fact, while we were praying a little bit earlier this morning.
Josh mentioned the word mutuality in his prayer, and I
thought that was so fitting because as we talked about
hospitality, we have to talk about root mutuality in
community and community formation and vulnerability and
even reciprocity that happens within community.
And so we're going to search the scriptures and we're going to
look at first. Peter 49 is kind of our jumping
off. But if you'll keep your Bibles
or your phones open, we're also going to look at 2 passages from
the Gospel of John. We're going to look at John
Chapter 13 that Kylie read for us, and we'll also look at John
chapter 4 and take some some practical tips, even postures,
practices for us to live into today.
But I want to read first Peter chapter 4 verse 9.
I'm just going to read this one verse, but I'm going to read it
from three different translations.
Okay. So the first translation is from
the Christian Standard Bible and it says this.
It says be hospitable to one another without complaining.
That's that's the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible Version
2 English Standard Version says show hospitality to one another
without grumbling. And then the NIV, the New
Living, the new International version says offer hospitality
to one another without grumbling.
Now the reason I I wanted to read those three different
translations and we could continue reading all.
We could read the message We could you read the NLV, we could
read the NRSV and we could read several other translations.
But what I find most appreciative about these three
different translations. Is that one?
The CSB highlights this this posture of being be hospitable,
right? But then the ESB tells us to
show to demonstrate hospitality, while NIV tells us something
more suggestive to offer hospitality.
Now at first glance that seems like that is just semantics, but
I think really what is happening here is.
Some some postures that we must look into.
This posture of being versus only doing.
You need both, right? We are not human doings.
We're human beings. I'm here, you hurt.
I'm sure you've heard before, but it is important to sit with
that. Hospitality is something that we
live into in our actions, but it's also a mindset of behavior
and attitude that we must embody.
And so when I read these three different translations,
particularly the CSB, the be hospitable to one another
without complaining, it hits me in a way.
And then when I when I look at the last part of the verse in
first Peter 49, it talks about doing this without complaining,
without grumbling. And I want to explain that I
want to give a little context to first Peter.
There was a church I went to in Texas where we moved from and
they did a series in First Peter and it was all about the
hardships and the hopes of being exiles.
And in first Peter, the the, the message that Peter is is laying
out for the believers there is that you've got to continue to
press forward although there's hardships.
Have hope, although there's tribulations.
Have hope although there's hard things that are continuing to
come up and and raise itself against you.
Have hope although people are persecuting you.
Have hope and have hope in Jesus.
But then Peter in this, this, this, this chapter 4, verse 9
lays out what seems like what comes out of the blue.
He takes a pause and he just starts to tell them you need to
be hospitable. You need to use your gifts to
serve one another, and all I can think about is that these are
people who are probably worn and tired because they're getting
persecuted outside of their community.
But I think what was happening in First Peter is that the
author is rightly turning their gaze from all the things that
are happening on the outside to turn them inward to where they
have a wealth of community. And he says in order for you to
have this community and in order for you to have a foundation to
hold you up under these hardships, you need to be
hospitable to one another. You see, hospitality is defined
in many ways as it says. I think good old Oxford
dictionary calls it This says it's the friendly and generous
reception and entertainment of guests, visitors.
Or strangers. It's the friendly and generous
reception, taking in, welcoming in and entertainment of guests,
visitors and strangers. You see, but I think also Peter,
the author of First Peter, was trying to help the Saints during
their moment of hardships. Realize that when you turn to
your community, your your community of faith that upholds
you, that encourages you, that challenges you and convicts you.
He was trying to help them have greater unity and togetherness.
He was trying to provide them with deeper mutuality and
dependence. And he was trying to help them
have increased trust and vulnerability.
You see, when you talk about hospitality, you cannot separate
it from unity or togetherness, or from mutuality and dependence
or trust and vulnerability. Because when you begin to be
hospitable to someone, whether you know them deeply or you know
them not at all, what you're doing is you're building a
bridge, you're making a connection, and you're opening
up your life. And you're saying come to my
table, whether that is to serve them food, to have conversation,
to get to hear their story. You are letting them in.
And at that moment you are literally allowing them to put
down themselves and to receive, but also for you to receive.
And so I want to talk briefly. About how Jesus in John 13 and
in John 4, John 13 is where Jesus washes the feet of his
disciples. In John Four is where Jesus
connects with those Samaritan woman at the will, how he begins
to serve as a host for us, not only just for his disciples and
for the woman at the will, but for you and I, but also how it
lends itself to teaching us about the dynamics of being.
The host in hospitality, but also being hosted.
And I think there's so much warmth in that.
I think there's so much depth in that dynamic of being of Jesus
being our host and us learning to be host from him, but also
learning to be hosted from Jesus and to be hosted by others when
I was about 15, my family. Would always head to this
restaurant. They don't have it up here.
They got it in South Carolina, where I'm from, but it's called
Old Charlie's, Old Charlie's and Old Charlie's Little Step above
Applebee's. So when report cards came out,
my family went there because we could afford it.
You know why? Because on Wednesday nights they
had children eat free. So we went there and we got our
grub on, right? And I was allowed to get a six
ounce sirloin. Yeah, I thought I was doing
something now I didn't know to get it medium.
I don't know if y'all like medium, but I like my medium
now. But I like the medium well then
because I was listening to my mom and my daddy and and so I
got it medium well and I would, you know, I would bust out some
steak sauce because this wasn't, you know, this wasn't the top
place but I'll bust out some steak sauce, some Heinz 57, put
it on there, eat it up, it'll be real good.
Get some French fries. I don't like baked potatoes that
much. But anyhow, my mom became
friends with the general manager, the GM of old
Charlie's, and I was looking for a job.
I I was determined to make my own money, do my own thing so I
can keep going to old Charlie's and but pay for it myself.
And so my mom made friends with the GM and one day she kept
talking to the GM. She said, I got this son, you
know, he's real smart, he's real, he's real smiley.
He's real happy. I think he could be a host.
And so my mom got me my first job through her connections.
Now if y'all met my mom, some of the people in my church have met
my mom. My mom is a networker, OK?
So she always looking out for her children.
How she going to connect us with somebody?
So she got me my first job. She got my brother his first
job. She got my other brother his
first job. My mom was just giving people
jobs, right? And so I got this job as a host
at Old Charlie's. And I would dress up, I put on
my little Walmart slacks that was black and put on a nice
little white shirt. And I would come in from school
and I would just kind of be tweening my thumbs waiting for
people to come in for the dinner time about 5:30.
And so when someone would enter in, I would go and open the
door. I'd open the door for them.
I have my best smile on as best I could.
I'm, you know, looking good, tapping my foot.
And as they would come in, I would say good.
Good evening. I'm glad you're here.
Welcome to old Charlie's. And then I would say, how many
are in your party today? And they would begin to tell me
how many were in their party? Two or four.
We have a big, big party. We got ten of us today.
And I would say, oh, that's great.
I'm excited. Are you celebrating a special
occasion today? They might say, yes, we're we're
having a birthday party or you know, we're just having a
reunion of sorts or it's so on. Right.
And so when I got all this information, I would then go and
check the seating chart because the servers all had their
certain areas, right. And so I would check the seating
chart and I would look, I said, oh, today I'm going to put you
with Deborah. All right, I'm going to put you
with Deborah. Deborah's going to take real
good care of you. I would get all the menus.
And now as a dad of 18 month old, I'll also make sure to get
the little crayons for the little kids.
And so they can color and do all that good things.
And so I got the menus and I would, you know, politely walk
in front of them and say, y'all follow me, right.
And so I would take them to their table, make sure they had
their utensils, schools and their menu so they could begin
to order and enjoy themselves, Make sure the kids had their
their layout of of crayons and coloring sheets.
And so I was trying to be attempting to be hospitable.
But when I think about hospitality, I think that's
where many of us leave it. We leave it in a smiley,
wonderful come, hey, this is my moment to share with you and
love on you for a quick second and then we walk away from the
table. But hospitality means bearing
with one another. It means staying with one
another. In fact, there is a quote that I
want to read from a woman named Elizabeth Newman.
She says Christian hospitality does not aim for self
fulfillment. It doesn't aim just for a feel
good that yes, I'm doing well, glad to see you come on to the
table. No, it's more than that.
It's through and it's and it's not an aim for self fulfillment
through autonomous choice, she says.
But it is for staying put with Christ in the places we are
given. You see, when I was at old
Charlie's, I would take people to their table and I would go
back to my duty and get the next round of people right.
I couldn't stay put with them. She also goes on and says, but
it aims hospitality. It aims not for the detachment
from people or institutions or traditions, but it is for
allowing God to recreate in us through the places and people we
are given. I think that is very powerful.
She's saying that hospitality is so much more than about when I
open my front door that I have a smile.
It's about that when I let you into the innards of my home and
you sit on my couch and you sit at my table and you got
refrigerator or refrigerator rights to just go in there.
You don't got to ask. You can get water, you can get
tea, you can get soda, you can get whatever you want.
You can take it out of my fridge.
It's about being in a place long enough staying put, she says.
So that you can have God to recreate things in you, through
how you serve and through how you're hospitable.
So with that in mind, let's go to John 13.
Let's go to John 13 verse one. First one says before the
Passover festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart
from this world to the Father, having loved his own, who were
in the world, he loved them to the end.
And now when it was time for supper, the devil had already
put it into the heart of Judas Simon, ascarious son to Peach to
betray him, talking about Jesus, verse 3.
Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands,
that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.
So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took
out, took a towel and tied around himself.
And next he poured water into the basin and began to wash his
disciples feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.
Verse 6. And he came to Simon Peter who
asked him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
I'm, I'm like Simon. I'm like Simon Peter because,
you know, sometimes my feet don't smell good.
And so I'm like, Lord, do you really want to get that close to
to these toes? And verse seven he goes on and
says Jesus answered him What I'm doing you don't realize now, but
afterwards you will understand you will never wash my feet.
Peter said, you know Jesus the the the funk is is is real on
these toes. And Jesus replied, if I don't
wash you, you have no part with me.
I want to skip to verse 10 and then verse 21st. 10 says one who
has bathed Jesus told him doesn't need to wash anything
except his feet but he is completely clean.
You are clean Peter, but not all of you as he's talking to his
gathered disciples and he says for he knew who would betray
him. This is why he said not all of
you are clean. And then verse 20.
Truly, I tell you, whoever receives anyone I send receives
me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me.
You see? Hospitality.
Verse three gives us our our big idea.
Here hospitality is about first rightly recognizing that you
know the Father and you understand we're all
sovereignty, control, power, omniscience, presence it
wherever lies in the Godhead. You see, because he says Jesus
knew that the Father had given everything into his hands and
that he had come from God and that he was going back to God.
He had a trust in God. He had a certainty, a confidence
about what he was about to do next.
And because he had a confidence and a certainty in God, he could
then be hospitable. Jesus could serve as host.
So what does he do? He begins to strip himself of
his outer garments. He's getting prepared, and verse
four said so He got up from the supper table and he laid us out
his outer clothing and he took a towel and he tied around himself
and he prepared the basin with water and he said, y'all get
your feet out. I know y'all been walking and
y'all had them sandals on. I know your feet has got
encrusted dirt on it. I know you've been sweating, he
said. But it's time for me to serve
you. It's time for me to build a
trust. It's more than just come here
and be in my life, but I want to serve you.
I want to build a a community of mutuality.
And so Jesus standing as host comes to Peter, and what we
learn about Peter is how to be hosted.
And really, what we learn about Peter is how not to be hosted.
Because Peter in his pride, I believe, I believe Peter in his
situation, it's like, Lord, I cannot receive from you.
And hospitality is not only about pouring out.
It's not only about giving. It's about reception is about
receiving. And so when Peter is getting his
is having, having offered to him the opportunity to have his feet
washed and cared for by Jesus, our ultimate sacrificial host,
he finds himself in an internal internal conundrum.
So much is going on in his mind, probably.
How can I let the Lord of Lord the King of Kings, the one who
he would deny later on, right? How can I allow him, my teacher,
my master, my riboni to to to wash my feet.
And so I think what we need to sit in as we think about the
host and hosted dynamic of hospitality is that can you
receive. You know so many times I, I, I
get offered a gift and I used to be oh thank you thank you.
But I I cannot receive that. I cannot take that.
And I realized that I was stealing someone's opportunity
right to to to to pour into me. But I was also putting up a wall
that was keeping back mutuality and reciprocity.
And so, as Peter sat in this chair and Jesus had the towel on
his side, ready to wipe his feet down, Peter was struggling to
just receive. Maybe you need to sit in this
moment and think through where did this week, this last month,
this last year? Have you been struggling to
receive? Is it because of your pride?
Is it because you don't like the person who was trying to give to
you? Is it because of some other
blockage that's there? Because I believe a great part
of hospitality, especially in the community of faith, is the
ability to receive what is being offered, right?
But also, I think what is so key in verse 20 lays it out for us,
and then we'll move to John. Chapter 4, Verse 20 lays it out.
It says truly, this is Jesus telling him, I tell you whoever
receives anyone I send receives me, and the one who receives me
receives him who sent me. In our hospitality and in our
dynamic of being hosted and being host, we must realize that
Jesus has been sent, and so as he has been sent, we are
receiving the sender. You see, when we are being
hospitable, when we are serving as host and we as followers of
Jesus, we stand as representatives of King Jesus.
We stand as representatives of the God of the universe, and so
as we pour out as host to someone who is being hosted by
us, it makes it possible for them to be able to receive the
God that we serve. And so as we sit with that, I
want us to also go to John Chapter 4 and then I'll get out
your way. John chapter 4 has got to be one
of my favorite passages because we see Jesus here again being a
host, but he's being a host to a person who he doesn't know.
Whereas in John 13 these were people who have been walking
with him, been talking with him, been laboring in the vineyard
with him. But in John chapter 4, this is a
a woman that outside of his divinity he was not familiar
with. It's a Samaritan woman.
There is a clash of cultures, there is a clash of gender and
sexual roles. There is a clash right of power
even in the text as Jesus connects with this Samaritan
woman. And so let's let's read real
quick from John chapter 4, verse one.
It says when Jesus learned that the fairest he said heard he was
making and baptizing more disciples than John, Though
Jesus himself was not baptizing but his disciples were.
He left Judea and went again to Galilee and he had to travel
through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria
called Sicar, near the property that Jacob had given his son
Joseph and Jacob's well. This is verse six was there, and
Jesus, worn out from his journey, sat down at the well.
And it was about noon, and a woman of Samaria came to draw
water. He said, give me a drink.
And Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town
to buy food. And verse 9, How was it that
you, a Jew ask? A drink from me.
A Samaritan woman. And Jesus asked him, and she
asked him for Jews do not associate with Samaritans.
And Jesus answered, If you knew the gift of God who is saying to
you, give me a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you
living water. 1st 11 Sir, said the woman.
You don't even have a bucket, and the well is deep.
So where do you get this living water?
You aren't greater than our Father, Jacob, are you?
And he gave us. He gave us the well and drank
from it himself, and as did his sons and livestock.
And everyone who drinks from this water, Jesus said, will get
thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the
water that I will give him will never get thirsty again.
In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water
springing up in him for eternal life.
I want to pause there. Jesus comes to this well, meets
this woman, and I want you to place yourself in the text a
bit. Because in this this city of
ours, where there are many people walking fast, driving
fast, getting on the subway, getting on the bus, trying to
make it to their destinations, when do we pause?
What becomes our well where we stop and we engage?
When do we still ourselves long enough in the midst of strangers
and even in people that we know to interact and engage.
When does that happen? I know I I heard you guys in the
announcements are are having some moments some summer table
opportunities also get your emails and so I've been seeing
your summer table opportunities. When do you pause to still
yourself to maybe ask for a drink as Jesus did?
You see, Jesus is doing something quite interesting in
this text. He is not only being a host by
offering living water, but he is also being hosted by the woman.
He places himself as both host and hosted.
He asked for a drink, placing himself as the hosted, but he
also offers placing himself as the host in this dynamic.
And it's really beautiful because he does it with such
humility and he does it with such curiosity.
You see, in our hospitality, sometimes we think that we have
gathered just from first glance everything we can to know about
a person. But I I want to put and submit
to you two things. One, as we're interacting with
one another with people that you may know or may not know that
well, that one, you have a natural curiosity.
And two, that you operate with an understanding and a
hopefulness that everyone you meet is generally dope.
And what I mean by that, if you don't know that phrase, is that
you just think this might actually be a good person to
hang with. And so you operate with
curiosity, but you operate also with this idea that this person
has been shaped and formed into the image of God.
This person is the Celine. They are the imago day.
They have been filled with worth and dignity just because they
exist. This is how Jesus enters the
scene with this woman when he says give me a drink.
He does not push aside her because of her differences,
because of her political or cultural or ethnic differences,
right. The the Biden fan and the Trump
fan. Can you make space together in
your life to be naturally curious and to also hold in your
mindset that this person, they got worse than dignity and they
just they might just be dope. But Jesus then goes on in verse
10, he says, And if you knew the gift of God, this is when he
begins to switch from being hosted to being a host, he says.
Who is saying to you give me a drink, you would ask him and he
would give you living water. She goes on and says, Sir, you
you're not even equipped to deal with this well.
But then he gets real spiritual on and I like it is good, he
says. But everyone who drinks from
this water will get thirsty again.
But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will
never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I give him
will be become a well. It will be reproducing.
How much has your hospitality, has your hosting someone in
curiosity and believing in their Amago day has produced and a
reproducible mutuality, reciprocity, love and care and
concern just from your single interaction.
Because this is what Jesus is offering this woman.
But I I love it if we keep going on into verse #16, Jesus talking
to this woman and then he says to her, go call your husband, he
told her. And come back here, she says in
truthfulness. I don't have a husband, she
answered. And Jesus, like, yeah, you you
have said this correctly. I I don't have a husband for you
have had five husbands. He gets all in her business.
And the man you have now is not your husband.
So what you have said is true. Jesus begins to dig into her
life. He doesn't pry.
He simply lays out what he knows is true in our hospitality.
Are we operating in such a manner that we are moving past
the surface? Are we moving past Just how are
you doing today? Are we moving into the
dimensions of the life that gets into their family of origin
story and that gets into their heartaches and that gets into
their fumbles and their stumbles and that gets into their hopes
and their dreams? Are we moving into a place that
allows us to enter in as host? But also as as being people who
are being hosted, can we be like this woman and we just admit
truth? Can we begin to be vulnerable
and open just from the offset? Now I understand that we have
hurt and we have pain and so therefore we are guarded.
But she begins to open herself rather quickly.
I'll rush to the end. Verse 21 says believe in me,
this is Jesus talking to her. An hour is coming when you will
worship and the Father neither on this mountain or in
Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you
do not know, and we worship what we do know talking about Jews,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But an hour is coming and now is here when the true worshippers
will worship the Father and Spirit and truth.
Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth. And the woman said to him, I
know that the Messiah is coming, and when he comes he will
explain everything to me. And Jesus just lays it out.
I am the one speaking to you. Here's my last thought as we
serve to be host and are being hosted by others and by Jesus.
How many times do we rest in the truth and in the fact that God
is the one who we look to for truth?
How many times do we sit with and have an attitude and a
behavior and an understanding of that God is the one who is
welcoming us to His table. You see, here's some practices
that we learned from Jesus from John 13 and John 41.
Practice the invite, practice the invite 2.
Welcome divine interruptions. And lastly, have an open table.
You see, you don't got to have a real literal table to have an
open table. Jesus practiced the invite with
to that woman when he just said give me a drink.
It was an opening for a conversation.
And he practiced divine interruptions when he decided to
rest his tired dogs and to sit by the well and to realize that
that was a moment where the spirit had led.
And then lastly he had an open table where he could converse
and speak openly and freely. So as we all think about
hospitality and desire to practice it hopefully in our
lives as it is a command from Jesus and it is being modeled by
Jesus in the Gospels, I want to give us a a prayerful moment and
2nd and even give you a moment to come here and pray if you so
desire at the front. And also, Pastor Josh will be
here to pray with you if you want to, to ask the Lord to help
you to be hosted, but to be host, and to do so with Jesus at
the center. Let's pray God.
I ask that you would help us through your spirit, through
your might, through your gentleness, through your
graciousness.