Postive Energy: Postive Hospitality (Message from November 25)

A special thanks to Brian Zielke and our Lord of Life Youth (Greg Albers, Kyle Straughn, Danny Banovz, Anna Summinski, and Chelsee Gatchel) who made the video for the day's message. Great job!

The Lord put something upon my heart this past week I want to share with you: There are many hurting people in this world, in our community, and in our church

I want you to look to the person to your right. Now look to the person to your left. I want you to realize that they have hurt in their life.

No matter how together they may seem to be – they are facing struggles in their life at this very moment.

You may not be able to see it on the outside by just looking at them. But some of them need a friend. Some need encouragement. Others need someone to show them kindness.

We need to get past the surface here and we need to go deeper with each other. We need to see others as God sees them. How is that you ask?

It says in 1 Samuel 16:7 "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

Peeling off the layers, God so often sees something very different in others, that we don’t see, because we don’t get past the surface.

That hurtful person, you know the one who belittles you, the one that is constantly critical of everything you do, the reality is that they are hurting on the inside. That person that seems to have everything on the outside (they got the good looks, when they enter a room all attention is drawn to them, they seemingly have the world at their finger tips) they are really empty on the inside.

In Matthew 9:10 Jesus is having dinner with Matthew and his friends. Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were not looked upon very pleasantly by the Jews. Tax collectors were seen to be corrupted in more ways that one.

The Pharisees in verse 11 ask Jesus disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

But Jesus response in verse 12, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

So while the Pharisees saw one thing, Jesus saw quite the other. The Pharisees saw the tax collectors and sinners, as people beyond hope, as people who had wronged cheated them, cheated them, hurt them. They could use a lot of four letter words for these people.

Jesus saw these as people just like you and me who needed hope, healing, and forgiveness.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our world, that all we see is how this other person offended us, how they took advantage of us, how they cheated us. The reality is that what we perceive as an attack against us, when we see it from God’s perspective it is really more often than not a cry for help.


If you brought your Bibles I want to invite you to follow along with me as we look at Matthew 25 starting in verse 31.

Next week we begin a new message series called “Return of the King.” Jesus is coming. Matthew 25 describes that coming. Here it says:

NIV Matthew 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

We don’t know when he will return, but we know that Jesus return is certain. And Revelation 1:3 indicates that the time is near. We need to be ready!

When he will come in his full glory and majesty which is so eloquently described in Revelation 1.

Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and all the peoples of the earth will
mourn because of him.
So shall it be! Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and
who is to come, the Almighty.”

When Jesus came on the first Christmas, there was only a handful of people who knew about it. And I doubt hardly anyone recognized the full significance of the event at the time. There wasn’t much fanfare accompanying the birth of Jesus. A few shepherds, Mary and Joseph, some of the townspeople.

But when Jesus returns again, it will be much more triumphful. There will be no mistaking that it is indeed him who is coming. Everyone will know that it is Jesus. Even those denied him, doubted him, or even defamed him.

The person who says there is no God. The person who says there is a God, but lives as if there no God. The person who persecutes the followers of the true God. In the moment that Jesus returns, every eye will see, and more than that every eye will recognize that it is Jesus the King, the Lord of Life, the righteous judge.

When he comes he will judge the peoples of the earth. It says he will separate them, the sheep from the goats. Not only will Jesus return as king, he will also return as judge, as a God of justice. He will make right what is wrong. He will make a declaration between the righteous and the unrighteous and set them towards the destinations prepared for them.

The hearers in Jesus day would have been very familiar with this custom of separating the sheep from the goats. It was a common practice of shepherds, especially on cold nights. With their thick wool sheep could better resist the cool evenings, so the shepherds would separate out the goats so that they could provide adequate warmth for them.

In a similar way, Jesus will separate and divide the people of the earth. It may not be as easy as it seems.

In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven . . .”

Just because we come to church and sing “Lord I lift your name on high” does not mean that we will be separated with the sheep to enter the kingdom of heaven.

When we stand at the judgment it is not going to matter if we own a Bible. It is not going to matter if we give our tithe to your local church. It is not going to matter if you forward do good emails about keeping “under God” in the pledge of allegiance, “in God we Trust” on our money, and prayer in our schools. There are many that carry the name Christian today, do Christian things, that when the judgment comes, Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”

That might sound scary, but listen to this:

Matthew 25:34 “the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”

An inheritance is not given to a worker, but to a relation. It is given to a son, to a daughter, to a child.

When Jesus comes to judge, he is not going judge us based upon our religion, what we did to be a Christian. He will judge us upon the relationship we share with the Father through him.

So verse 35 continues with the evidence of that relationship. Works is the resulting consequence of a relationship of faith.
I am not here today to tell you how to live, for you to follow my teaching, but first and foremost to tell you what Jesus has done for you. About how he loves you so much. That there is nothing he would not do for you. He loves you more than anyone else has ever loved you. His love is not self serving, but self-giving, sacrificial.

He doesn’t care about your past, where you came from, what you look like. He doesn’t care about what you can do for him, only what he can do for you.

He wants to know you, and to be known by you.

When you know what Jesus has done for you, when you experience what Jesus has done for you, when you taste what Jesus has done for you – the rest will just follow.

The gospel is not instruction about how to live. The gospel is what Jesus has done for us. We can turn to a lot of different places for advice on how to live. Jesus doesn’t give us advice to live, but gives us a reason to live, to love, to share, to help, to serve.

There is no looking back when you know Jesus. You will never be the same.

So Jesus says, “NIV Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Jesus is describing here, people who know him, people who love him. It is the evidence of the relationship we share with Jesus. Because when we know in an intimate way, we will seek to live as Jesus lived and to be like Jesus to others.

Jesus is not describing here the means of salvation, do these things to be saved, but the result/consequences of salvation.

For one who has received the gift of salvation, when they see that other person in hurt, they will not to see them as a bother, but to see them as the next best thing to having Jesus actually present.

For the one who has received the gift of salvation, when they see the other person in need, they will not see it as a burden, but as an opportunity, a privilege to do for someone else what Jesus has done for them.

The way we interact with others is the evidence of what is truly inside us. James the brother of Jesus writes in the book of James 2:18 “Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do.”

That is what Jesus is getting at here. I am not saved because of what I do for others. But rather I do what I do for others because I am saved.

It comes naturally. Notice that those who are saved ask, “When did we do these things.” Just another thing to point out, it is not about what we do. It is about what Jesus has done.


So what does this mean? Our place this morning is first to know Jesus. To learn of him. His hurt upon the cross. What he went through. The pain of the Father for loving you his child.

It is simply for us to linger in his presence. To listen for his voice and the compassion, the mercy, the acceptance, and the forgiveness he offers to you this morning.

To hear it in the words that are sung, are read, and preached. To taste in the meal offered for forgiveness. And to experience it through the hugs, the smiles, the handshakes, and the greeting of his people. This is a place where God lives and dwells.

As we experience him more and more, we will grow to be more and more like him.

I have a prayer for Lord of Life. My prayer is that we will not be a friendly church. In my travels, I have come to discover that being described as a friendly church is one of the worst descriptions that someone can give of their church. The reason for this is that usually what they mean is that the people of the church are very friendly with themselves. But for the newcomer, they will find themselves outside the holy huddle of friends.

So my prayer for God’s church in this place is that we would be a welcoming church. I pray that when someone walks in the door for the first time that they recognize this is no ordinary place. This is a place where God lives and dwells, where he walks and talks through the words and actions of his people.

My prayer is that we would take to heart the words of Jesus: "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." (Matthew 18:5) I pray that we would be accused as Jesus was accused that we welcome and eat with sinners (see Luke 15:2).

I pray that a person, no matter what their background, no matter what they look like . . . they would know that this is a place where they are cared for and loved.

That we would perceive every person here today as someone who needs a loving touch. That they are looking for healing. That they are looking for something worth trusting in. That they are looking for a friend. That they are looking for to get past the dead end they have found themselves in.

How do we do this? Let me suggest some things real quick.

One is to walk slowly. Too often we are going through life fast and busy. We are so wrapped up in our everyday affairs that we miss seeing the hurt and the need.

Sometimes we can get so busy with the business of the Church that we miss out on the work of the Church. Just look around and observe.

Closely tied to that is be open to the holy interruption. Don’t be so consumed by your work, that you skip out on God’s work. You never know how the work of God might just interrupt your day.

Hospitality is found in the small stuff. It is in remembering someone’s name. It is in sharing with them a cup of coffee. It is in writing a thank you note. Making a phone call. Sometimes it is the most insignificant stuff that is so significant.

Don’t assume a person is content. What if you could look into their heart? Treat every person, no matter how gruff or rude they might be on the exterior as if they were hurting on the inside.

Get to know someone new. I would encourage you to greet two people this morning you do not know. Learn who they are. Where they are from. What brought them here. What they enjoy doing.

If we know others as Jesus knows us, there is only one response we will have. It is to feed them, give them drink, visit them, clothe them, love them, serve them, minister to them.

So what’s the point of this message? Let’s get to know Jesus! Let’s get to know him in worship and through his Word. But let’s also get to know Jesus through working to serve his people in need.