Hospitality in the Place of God's Provision

It's great to see all of you here. Today, thank you for choosing to worship with us this morning. Today is a big Sunday in the life of our Of our church, family, we're, having our morning service right now, which explains why you're here. And, and then after, our service, we have a thank you luncheon that will be in room 103.

It's our way of saying thank you for your role in helping, to make Cornerstone the place of blessing. And enrichment that it has been over this past year and then after that luncheon, we will be reconvening here in this room for a meeting that will last an hour and a half and our goal will be to have you walking out of here by 33 o'clock. In our meeting, we're gonna be hearing some brief presentations from a number of ministries from our church, looking back on 2016 and ahead into 2017.

We'll be presenting to you the 2016 financial report.

Just the state of the church from a financial standpoint and also the budget for 2017. So the whole day is just gonna be given over to challenging ourselves and celebrating what God has done and just renewing ourselves in the word, asking God to give us a fresh sense of vision for the road ahead. So glad you're here with us this morning. OK.

I can't see the PowerPoint on that screen. I don't know. There we go. OK, thank you.

so what we're gonna do is look at a handful of passages of scripture today and if you want to give a title to, the message this morning, it would be hospitality in the place of God's provision, hospitality in the place of God's, provision. I've talked about Rosario Butterfield, to you before, a handful of, years ago. I want to bring out a different nuance of her story. In the 1990s, Rosario Butterfield was a professor.

At the University of Syracuse, and she was involved in the Center for Women's Studies there. she had declared herself a lesbian at the age of 28. She was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church. Her ministry in that church was serving as the coordinator of the welcoming committee, which by her explanation was essentially a gay and lesbian advocacy group.

She was also the keynote speaker at gay and lesbian pride marches. She was an advisor to the LGBT student group. At Syracuse University and she was the writer. Of that university's policy for same-sex couples.

I wonder if you had a chance to meet her. At that stage of her life, what would you have said? To her Well, long story short, there was a pastor of a local church. In Syracuse, who reached out to Rosario.

This pastor and his wife befriended her. They invited her over for dinner and she accepted their invitation and a friendship was forged between Pastor Ken and his wife. And Rosario over the next couple of years providing, the Lord, a rich opportunity to do a sweet work in Rosario Butterfield's heart. Rosario got to a place where she was reading the Bible as much as 5 hours a day.

A pre-convert, not even converted to Christ yet. And she was reading the Bible as much as 5 hours a day as she was exploring the claims of Christianity. And she felt God day by day drawing her to Himself. She appreciated being able to go to Kin.

And his wife with her questions as they formed in her mind as she read the scriptures. During the season, there were many things that Rosario observed and appreciated about Ken and his wife, Floy. But one of them was their hospitality to her and to others. She says, I observed how they fed and housed and counseled countless people from all walks of life.

I saw how wide the door to their home and the door to their heart opened. I remember feeling like I could talk to them about anything. She felt comfortable being in Ken and Floyd's. Home, but the idea of attending their Sunday morning church services was hugely intimidating to Rosario.

In fact, listen to her thoughts on this. She says during this time, I thought about going to Ken's church. I thought it would be interesting. What did they do there at this church?

Did they speak in tongues? Did they wail and weep and dance in the aisles? Sometimes I would get in my truck Sunday morning and try to drive to church. I would make it to the Coal Muffler parking lot.

Next to the church. When I read that in her book, I actually googled the church and did a street view and providing that for you today. So that's where, where you see that blue truck basically sitting, that's where she would sit. She said, I imagine how absurd.

My red truck with the gay rights bumper stickers and NA. Support sticker, that's a pro-abortion organization would look in the church's parking lot with all the minivans with stickers that read abortion stops a beating heart and warning unsocialized homeschoolers on board. I figured that people probably didn't wear jeans as I always did and the women probably didn't wear a crew cut. Sometimes, she says I would just sit there and read the New York Times and drink my Starbucks coffee and watch.

I laughed out loud once, realizing that I had become a church stalker. I did wonder about those large families pouring out of their minivans. I wondered who they were, what they struggled with, what substantive issues comprise their lives. I wondered how they could afford all those children.

Eventually, she got up the nerve and the Sunday morning arrived when she had the courage to enter the Sunday morning church service for the very first time of this particular church. She says it this way, she says that morning. February 14th, 1999, I emerged from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later was sitting in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. I share this detail with you not to be lurid, but merely to make the point that you never know the terrain someone else has walked.

To come and worship the Lord. And how Rosario felt? While attending her first church service at this church. Listen to what she says.

I felt like a freak. In that church But was drawn to keep going back. She shares these thoughts in her book, Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely convert. She was eventually converted to Christ and listen carefully to this guy.

Initially when she was, converted, she did not see her conversion to Christ as a blessing. It was something that God had wrought upon her. And she uses the terms train wreck and comprehensive chaos to describe what her conversion was like in the days after her conversion as Jesus Christ began asserting his loving lordship over every area of her life. I've read elsewhere where she has said she lost everything.

But her dog In the days following her conversion. That's how much her life underwent an upheaval. It was a lot for her to work through, and the church community was there to help her. To work through all that.

Well, Rosario is now a pastor's wife and a home school mom. And God is using her to speak to many and to give perspective and hope in Christ to many people who are broken just as we ourselves are broken. Amen. Our purpose statement as a church.

is helping people journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Helping people to journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We actually have to be careful with the purpose statement like this. Because someone might read it.

And It might actually make people who are actually broken feel like this might be the church for them. So it's good for us to take stock and to ask ourselves on a day like today, are we really ready to welcome broken people and show them the sacrificial love. that they need to help them in their journey to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do we really believe that the gospel is the power of God and the salvation?

For everyone who believes, regardless of their particular strain of brokenness in their lives. Our answers to these questions should be a resounding yes. And this is why we exist as a church, this is why we are here. That's why we are here actually at the Bourne's campus.

Our whole vision in leaving the Linden Street campus and coming here 2.5 years ago was that we wanted to be able to reach considerably more people than we were able to reach. On a Sunday morning at the Linden Street campus, and we wanted to be able to welcome more people. To invite more people and welcome more people into the journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel that we ourselves are on. That's why our vision since moving here to The Bourne's campus has been growing responsibly in the place of God's provision.

And for us right now as a church, that place of provision is here on this campus. And when we talk about growing, We're talking about growth and spiritual maturity. As well as growth in the number. Of those whom we are reaching through the ministries of this church.

This growth also entails growth in the number of our people who are actively involved in providing real help to others in their journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel. When we say that we want to grow responsibly, what we are saying is that we don't just want to grow numerically as a church, but we want to grow with the right growth and by the use of biblical means for biblical growth. These biblical means of nurturing growth are the preaching and the teaching of scripture, a continual focus upon the gospel, faithful shepherding, a congregation.

Of ministers rather than attenders, covenantal relationships, not casual or consumer relationships, but covenantal relationships with one another, mission-minded households.

where every home is a place of worship and ministry and instruction and outreach. And where every man is a pastor. And every woman is growing in biblical womanhood. These are priorities that we have as a church and we wanna grow responsibly.

It is through these means that responsible growth is nurtured. When we say that we wanna grow here in the place of God's provision, what we're saying is that we wanna maximize our use of this campus that God has provided for us to use in order to reach considerably more people. And welcome them into the deeper body life of what God is doing here in the Cornerstone family. We believe we have something to offer.

We're broken people. As Mike said, we're beggars who have found bread and we're Telling other beggars where they can find bread as well. We're broken people, but we have found a savior and we're on an amazing journey and we wanna take as many people on that journey with us as we can. Basically, let's say it this way, we're here.

We moved to this campus 2.5 years ago in pursuit of hospitality, to expand our ability to show the hospitality of Christ to a greater number of people than we were able to do before. And for our purposes this morning, what I wanna do is I wanna use some of Rosario's language and define hospitality in this way. Hospitality, using her language is opening wide the door of your home and the door of your heart to others. Hospitality is looking at a broken person.

And saying, I have room in my life for you. Welcome. Into my life. And by the way, when we talk about home in this definition, we're speaking of our places of residence, we're speaking of our church home.

And our care group home where we swing wide. The doors of our hearts to others. This is what hospitality essentially is, and what I want to do this morning is ponder just 6 truths briefly about hospitality in the New Testament and then I want us to, in the latter part of our message, ponder aloud how we want to apply that ethic here at Cornerstone. 6 truths that we'll look at, that will encourage us to pursue.

Hospitality as, as a church. Truth number one is more of an observation. And the observation is that great works of God have happened in the context of hospitality. Great works of God have happened in the context of hospitality.

On the birthday of the church in Acts chapter 2, we find that 120 believers in Christ were not just together, but they were together. At someone's house. We read in Acts 2 that when the Spirit of God was poured out, that suddenly, in Acts 2:2, suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Evidently, these 120 were meeting in a house.

Meaning that somebody opened up their home for this gathering of 120 believers. And when we get to heaven, we'll get to meet that homeowner. We'll get to meet the person who on that particular occasion, invited the 120. Over to their house, thus enshrining their home as the birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ.

We also learned in Acts chapter 10, that when the gospel broke out and began its move into the Gentile world that this breakthrough occurred in the context of hospitality. In Acts chapter 10 verse 22. we see that some messengers were sent by Cornelius to Peter, and when they arrived at where Peter was, they said to him, Cornelius was divinely directed to send for you to come to his house and to hear a message from you. And so Peter agrees to come with them to Cornelius' house, and when they arrive, We see in verse 24 that Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

And when Peter entered, Cornelius said to him in verse 33, we are all here present before God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. Peter then begins preaching the gospel to those that Cornelius had gathered in his home, and the Spirit fell on them all when they believed the message of the gospel that Peter was preaching to them. So in summary, we see in Acts 10 that a man goes out of his way to send messengers to find Peter and invite Peter into his home. He also invites his family and his friends into his home in order that they might all hear the truth of the gospel.

The gospel is preached in his home, and many believe. And the gospel makes its first massive entry into the Gentile world. Cornelius is a man who pursued hospitality and a great work of God happened as a result. There's another truth that we see in the New Testament about hospitality and this leads us to our next point that will encourage us in our own pursuit of hospitality, and that is that we observe in the book of Acts that hospitality was at the core.

of how the earliest Christians lived out their faith. It wasn't just, when Christians became really mature, maybe 10 or 15 years after their conversion, they became hospitable. No, it's what baby Christians did. In the book of Acts.

We see that in Acts 16, we also see it here in Acts 2. The early chapters of Acts demonstrate that hospitality was not just something that the early Christians did, it was who they were. Look at it, I have on the screen here a literal translation of Acts chapter 2 verses 46 and 47, a verse that describes the lifestyle of the early Christians and the words you see on the screen that that are in all caps, that's the grammatical mountain peak of this passage. Everything points to the words that you see in all caps.

Verse 46, Luke says, day by day, devoting themselves toward one-mindedness in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together. With gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor literally toward all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Most English translations that you'll read say that the early Christians were having favor with all the people, as if it was the people that was showing them favor.

And that's a possible translation and understanding of the wording here, but the literal Greek of this passage, is, in my opinion, best translated this way, that these Christians We're having favor toward all the people. In other words, it was these Christians who possessed the favor. And that Greek word translated favor is the Greek word for grace. They had the grace.

And it was these Christians who were using their gathering times in the temple, and in their homes to manifest and exhibit the grace of God toward anyone who cared to accept their invitation. And join them. So we're not surprised to learn that the Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved. And this doesn't just mean here that the Lord was saving people.

What it's saying is that the Lord was adding to the number of those who were living this way. More and more people were joining these Christians in this lifestyle. The Lord was saving people and adding those saved people to the company of those living this way. Hospitality was at the core of how these early Christians lived out their faith and influenced the world of their day for Christ, and more and more people were getting saved and were joining them in this very lifestyle.

There's another truth we observe in the New Testament that should motivate us to pursue. Hospitality. should motivate us to open wide the doors of our hearts and our homes to others, including the doors of our care groups and our church home to others. This brings us to the third truth and that is that hospitality is commanded of all believers.

Hospitality is commanded of all believers. In 2 John verse 8, John says, we ought to show hospitality. In 1 Peter 4:9, Peter says, be hospitable to one another. In Hebrews 13:2, the writer of Hebrews says, do not neglect to show hospitality.

In 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is describing what an elder must be as a part of his job description, and he says in 1 Timothy 3:2, an overseer must be hospitable. And Titus 17 and 8, Paul says essentially the same thing, an overseer must be. Hospitable Guys, when I, when I read the commands to be hospitable in the New Testament, And you hear the language even in these last two passages using the word must. don't feel burdened by these commands and think, man, now I gotta add hospitality to my list of things to do in my already busy life.

Actually be encouraged by these commands. The writers of scripture are on to something here, and they are excitedly pointing to hospitality, and they're saying, you gotta do this. Imagine that I've discovered, for example, a new favorite dessert, and I found it to be the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted in my life and I come to my children with that dessert, and I say to them, eat this. You have to eat this.

You must. Technically, I'm giving them a command, right? That's an imperative. But how are they gonna respond?

Are they gonna say, Dad, that just feels like law to me. I miss these obligations you're giving to me weigh me down. No, all my children would need to do is look at my countenance and they would know how to view my command. They would know I'm not imposing a law on them.

I'm bringing them something that will bring them great blessing and joy. And they would know that by looking at my countenance, and that's how the New Testament writers are when it comes to hospitality. They've discovered something really great. about hospitality and they want us to experience it too.

What they have discovered is the growth and the flourishing and the blessing of God that comes about as a result of hospitality in our own lives and in the lives of those that we are seeking to bless. And in this passage, or in the passages that I've just read to you, these apostles are coming to us and saying, you simply have to do this. Show hospitality. And if we could see their countenance as they wrote those commands to us, we would realize that such commands are anything but a burden, but an invitation.

To discover God, to discover others, and even to discover our truest selves. There's yet another truth that we observe in the New Testament that should motivate us to pursue hospitality and That is this, we observe in scripture in the New Testament that hospitality is not merely something to be practiced but pursued. It is not merely something to be practiced, but it is to be pursued. Let me read to you a literal translation of Romans 12:9 through 13.

I have it on the screen here. Paul begins in verse 9, almost as if he's just giving a title for what follows. The genuine love. That's the title for everything that follows.

And then what follows tells us what genuine, unhypocritical agape love looks like. Here's what love looks like, abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good. Being devoted to one another in brotherly love, giving preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, being devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, and then literally pursuing hospitality.

Evidently, a lifestyle of genuine agape love includes a lifestyle of pursuing hospitality.

Some translations translate Paul's language in verse 13 as practice hospitality. But literally, the Greek is translated pursuing hospitality. The Greek word that we're translating as pursue. Is the word doko, which quite often is translated persecute.

In the New Testament In fact, in verse 14, Paul uses this very verb with this exact meaning. He says in verse 14, bless those who Dioko you. who persecute you. In the negative sense, this term Dioko.

Means to pursue someone with the intention of doing them harm. Just like Saul of Tarsus used to pursue Christians even to foreign cities to persecute them. But in verse 13 at the end of the verse, when Paul tells us to Dioko hospitality to pursue hospitality, He's telling us to pursue opportunities to do good to others through the medium of hospitality. In other words, he's saying, don't wait for opportunities to come to you.

Don't say, well, if no one else will volunteer, maybe I will do it. Call me and we will see. No, He's saying pursue hospitality, chase after opportunities to open wide the door of your home and the door of your care group, and the door of this church and the door of your heart. To others On a Sunday morning, or in a care group gathering or any ministry gathering, don't wait for somebody to come up to you and introduce themselves to you.

Go up to them. And introduce yourself to them and open wide your heart to them and essentially by your countenance and your words convey welcome to my life. You say, Pastor Milton, that's, that's way out of my comfort zone. Yeah.

And it's outside your comfort zone that happens to be the location where God wants to do His greatest work in you. If you're willing to step out of your comfort zone. There's many people in our church who are natural introverts, who are today the most hospitable and welcoming people in our church. Because they've embraced the adventure of pursuing hospitality in order to bless others, and they've lost themselves in that, and in the process they got transformed.

Pursue hospitality. Pursue opportunities to open your heart wide. Two others There's a 5th truth that should motivate us to pursue hospitality in every venue in which we find ourselves, whether it be our heart, our home, our church, or our care group, and that is this, that our hospitality, our pursuit of hospitality should extend to those who are presently strangers. It should extend.

To those who are presently strangers, not just those that we already know. The Greek word that Paul uses here that is translated hospitality is the word pylos. That is one of the Greek words for love, the love of friendship is the basic vibe, and then xenia. Which is the Greek word for stranger.

Hence, Paul is telling us that hospitality includes, yes, it includes showing love to those that you already know, to friends and family that you are already close to, but hospitality also includes opening the door of your heart. To strangers, meaning those you do not presently know. It means that you're excited about meeting people. And welcoming people into your life that you don't presently know.

Given the basic etymology of this term, we can now fully define hospitality. As basically meaning opening wide the door of our hearts and our homes to others, including to those presently outside our circle of family and friends whom we know. Well, And this is often where we balk. At the notion.

Of hospitality. It's easy to think. that my life is busy enough, my hands are full enough with the circle of family and friends that I already have, it's easy to think that we have no more room in our lives for additional friendships. We think that we don't have the bandwidth for more relationships in our lives.

But the cool thing about hospitality. Is that when we open up our hearts to others, and we embrace someone new, Our soul expands with that embrace. And we discover that we're actually more capable of taking in strangers into our hearts. Than we thought You all know this is true.

Think of childbirth. Which is the ultimate act of hospitality. Seriously, When Donna, my wife was pregnant with our first child, Brooke, I could see her stomach growing day by day, and I knew that a baby was in her womb, but I had trouble as a man emotionally connecting with the life in her womb, the way that she seemed to be able to connect. With our daughter who was in her womb.

But I remember the moment that Brooke was born. All I did was just saw the very top of her head. As she was coming out. And I felt my heart leap out of my chest and wrap itself around my daughter.

I was instantly transformed. It was as if my heart doubled in size. In an instant And I knew that my daughter's sorrows would forever be my sorrows, and her joys would forever be my joys. And after she was born, I didn't think my heart could ever love another child like my heart loved her.

But then our 2nd child was born. And then our 3rd And then our 4th, and with each child. My heart and Donna's heart would grow and expand in size. As we embraced each new child into our home.

And I share this example with you guys because as I said a moment ago, childbirth is the ultimate act of hospitality, receiving a child into your life. As family And what I'm saying happened to me with each child, and to my heart with each child is also what happens to me and to all of us with each new person that we open the door of our heart to. And say welcome into my life. When God brings new people into our lives, we should look at such people and say, welcome to my life.

I will embrace you knowing that my soul will become enlarged by that embrace. God will use you to bring blessing into my life and I will be able to bless you and I also know that you will awaken things in me. That no one else can, thereby making me a fuller, richer version of myself. So welcome to my life.

Guys, never underestimate your capacity to love. Open the doors of your heart. And your home, and your care group. To others, including those you don't presently know, have that mindset and pursue, go crazy.

Pursue hospitality. There's one final truth that we should consider today which should motivate us to be pursuers of hospitality and this is indicated for us in Romans 12 also, and that is that our pursuit of hospitality should be tied to or it should be shaped by and motivated by the gospel. Paul says, If you look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1, Paul says, therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, and then what follows is all of the instructions of Romans 12. And among those instructions is practicing.

Hospitality Keep in mind that Paul's instruction to pursue hospitality here is not just a floating piece of advice. That is attached to nothing. Paul's instruction to pursue hospitality is tied to everything he's been saying so far in the book of Romans. And Paul then says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1, basically, therefore, in light of all of the gospel truth that I have presented to you up to this point of the epistle, I urge you by the very mercies of God that he has shown to you.

2, and then here comes instructions among which is pursue hospitality. Paul doesn't just start off his letter. In Romans 1:1 by saying pursue hospitality. He waits until he has spent 300 verses presenting gospel truth to us before he feels like we're ready to hear this instruction to pursue hospitality.

The reason Paul does this, guys, is because he doesn't just want us to pursue hospitality. He wants us to pursue gospel motivated hospitality. Think about it, guys. What is the gospel?

What is the gospel of Jesus Christ, but the good news of the amazing hospitality of God toward those estranged? From him Before Christ, we were strangers to God, living in alienation from Him. Yet the Father sent His Son into the world to live the life we failed to live and to die the death that we deserve to die, so that upon us believing in Him, We might have our sins forgiven. And get to wear Jesus' clothes of righteousness and be rendered fit to enter into God's presence so that we can enjoy relationship with Him forever.

Beyond that, Paul teaches us in Romans 8, that God has actually adopted us into his family, making us his sons and daughters with full rights and privileges of sonship. God's adoption of us into his family is the ultimate expression. Of his hospitality to us. Through adoption, God doesn't just welcome us.

Into salvation, but he welcomes us into his family. Paul teaches us in Romans 8 that the day is coming when we, the sons and the daughters of God will be revealed in glory in a future day. And in that moment, we will enter into the full privileges of sonship and daughtership of God as we enter into a glorified physical existence in God's heavenly home forever. And will forever be with him in his home.

As his family. In the earlier chapters of Romans, Paul has taken great pains to present to us how estranged we were from God. And yet how God went to incredible lengths to save us and to bring us into the enjoyment of his hospitality forever. If there ever was a person who pursued hospitality, it's God.

If there ever was a person who pursued the love of strangers, it's God. And it's not until Paul has fully portrayed. How God has pursued us and manifested his hospitality toward us, that he then turns to us in Romans 12:13. And says, now you.

As recipients of this hospitality, you pursue hospitality toward others. I share these 6 truths with you for a reason this morning, and that is to lay a groundwork for ways that we would love to apply this ethic. pursuing hospitality here at Cornerstone. You can place everything I'm about to say under the heading of Project Hospitality.

We came to this campus 2.5 years ago in pursuit of hospitality, wanting to enlarge our capacity to show the hospitality of Christ to considerably more people than we were able to do before. We clearly have a bigger campus now. But today is a good day for us to ask ourselves, how big are our hearts? Our campus is bigger, but our, our hearts bigger?

than they were before. How wide does the door of our hearts swing open? To others How wide does the door of our home swing open to others? How wide does the door of our care group swing open to others?

How ready are we to personally be involved in showing the hospitality of Christ to other people? Is hospitality something that we practiced? If we're pressed to do. Or is it something that we actually chase after and pursue?

Even this morning during the time that you're on the campus here, you have opportunity to pursue Hospitality. And open wide the door of your heart to others, including toward people you don't presently know. Do you take advantage of those opportunities? Hospitality is not just something you do with your home.

Don't, don't be thinking right now, man, I can't wait to get home so that I can practice hospitality. You practice hospitality wherever you are. Even this morning on this campus, hospitality is not just something you do with your home, but with your heart. And you can open the door of your heart to others wherever you are, whether at church, at I wanna.

At Care Group Or in your home or at the grocery store. We would love for every one of our church members to see themselves as members of the church's hospitality team where every one of you that are covenant members of Cornerstone, you personally assume the role of being on the welcoming committee of whatever ministry you're a part of, including On Sunday mornings. Many of you do a phenomenal job. we've got such an amazing congregation.

Many of you do a phenomenal job of inviting people to church. Some of you have specific strategies for, for doing that, and I just think that's wonderful. Keep doing what you do so well, inviting people to Cornerstone. So that we can Perhaps have them join us in the journey that we are on from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Beyond that, beyond inviting people to Cornerstone when you are here on Sunday. Introduce yourself to people that you don't know. That new person that you go up to and say hi to this morning might just be the next Rosario Butterfield. Find out their name.

Write their name down, pray for them throughout the week and then look for them next Sunday. Take an interest in them, cherish them. Open wide the door of your heart. To them and invite them to your care group or Bible study or the man forum or I wanna.

Or a youth meeting Cornerstone will only be as hospitable as its people are. So, If you're a member of Cornerstone, welcome to the hospitality team. You're on the welcoming committee. And each time you show up for any ministry venue, Embrace your role to show hospitality.

Beyond that, there are some practical steps that we do want to take that we'll be sharing with you today in our pursuit of Showing hospitality. The hospitality of Christ to more people here at Cornerstone, you guys realize that hospitality is not just letting someone into your house. If you just invite someone into your home and they step inside your front door and they're just standing there and you just ignore them, are you being hospitable? Well, I let them in.

Pastor Mel, what do you want from me? Hospitality is not just letting someone walk into your house, it also involves offering them a comfortable seat. It involves giving them a seat at your table and putting a glass of iced tea in front of them along with a plate of food perhaps. And it involves a stove that you cook that food on and paying your gas bill.

So that your stove has the gas that it needs to cook the food. Hospitality involves the setup and clean up before the guests arrive and the clean up after they leave. Hospitality. The pursuit of it involves going to the store the day before and purchasing supplies for the meal that you will be providing the next day.

Pursuing hospitality involves a lot of practical details that need to be tended to, right? We all know that's true. And one of the practical things that we have been putting effort into this past year is expanding the, the audio in the main auditorium in order to create a more even contour of sound so that there are fewer pockets in this auditorium. Where you're left feeling like you're on the outside listening in.

Our AV team has done a tremendous job with that and they've also worked this past year on getting room 103 set up with audio and visual equipment so that we can use that room for overflow. When the time comes that we need the room for that purpose. We're presently working with Bournes on purchasing seats for room 103 in order to seat comfortably as many as 200 people. In that room during our morning service when the need arises.

Between room 103 and the auditorium, we believe that we can comfortably seat just above 900 people in one service here on a Sunday morning as the Lord brings such people our way, and that's our goal to be set up to show the hospitality of Christ to as many as 900 people on a Sunday morning. We also want to let, Jonathan will be talking about this in our afternoon meeting that we have pulled some money as elders from our reserve fund and established the Capital Improvement Fund for 2017.

in an amount that's just above $50,000 in order to apply those funds to some security upgrades that are needed as well as items that will enhance our ability to keep you safe and protected while you are here and to make room for our different ministries while they are here. And as I said, Jonathan Jones will unpack that a bit for us in our afternoon meeting.

We also recognize that if Cornerstone becomes a welcome place for as many as potentially 900 people in our morning service, then that will likely mean proportionate growth in all of our other ministries. So back in September, we started asking all of our ministry leaders to be thinking through and envisioning out steps. That they need to take in order to address the challenges and maximize the opportunities that would come along with their ministry growing. By perhaps as much as 60 to 70% beyond the number of those that they're ministering to right now, and some of their strategies, they've dreamed big and been thinking about these things, and some of their strategies are reflected in their requisitions for the 2017 budget.

that Alvin will be presenting to you this afternoon. I do want to say a quick word. Gary Barfoot, and his wife Barbara have been coming to Cornerstone, I believe over the last year, year and a half. Gary has a wonderful heart for the Lord and for the ministry of Cornerstone, and he has been using his 70+ years of wisdom to serve as a counselor to us.

Over the last, several months. He's led us through some strategic planning meetings, back in October of last year. He's also been an invaluable help to me, personally and to our elders and to our staff here at Cornerstone helping us to improve. and how we serve all of you.

He's been, on some weeks devoting as much as 20 hours of his time. each week is serving us in this way, and the only pay that he has asked for is an occasional cup of coffee. And he said it doesn't even have to be a good cup of coffee, just But we appreciate you, Gary, and thank the Lord for you and thank you, Barbara, for sharing your husband. with us here at Cornerstone.

As a part of our, project hospitality, as well, the elders are wanting in the first half of this year to hire an additional staff person who will serve as our church administrator, and it will be his role to manage the practical affairs. Of the church and to provide administrative support to our ministries, working with church members and staff to fulfill the church's purpose and vision, helping us to grow in our capacity to show the hospitality of Christ to you and to any that the Lord brings to us.

We'll be saying more about this position and this opportunity in the weeks to come, but we wanna put this before you today, so that you understand the impact that it will have on our 2017 budget that Alvin will be presenting in our afternoon meeting. also, our desire is to see every care group manifesting a pursuing hospitality mindset where the door of your heart and the door of your care group is open wide to those that God brings into your care group.

And those that you're inviting into your care group. God is bringing new people to our services, every week, which means that there are always new people to meet and to show Christ's love to and to invite To join you in your care group. As our care groups grow, in this way, we know that we will need new leaders to rise up and be trained, and we will need our care group members to be flexible and stand ready to split and multiply and venture forth as the opportunities and the needs arise.

We talked about a year ago about the God that we have.

God is the supreme essence of true community. And the way he practices community is by being a sending forth God and a going forth God. And to bringing in God. God the Father sent forth His Son.

God the Son went forth from the Father. In heaven and came to earth. And The Father and the Son did so in order that they might bring us into the fellowship. Of the members of the triune Godhead, and Jesus prayer in John 17 is Lord, I pray that they Praying for us, that they would be in us.

He wants us gathered into the enjoyment of the community of the triune Godhead. And we get to mirror, guys, that same ethic by doing the sending forth and the going forth and the bringing in that is necessary in order for God to do His work in our midst here at Cornerstone. Let me just skip down to, to this, as God brings broke, broken people. To us here at Cornerstone, the one thing we don't want to happen is for, for you to see their brokenness and say, whoa, let me send you to Pastor Carlos.

So he can counsel you. That's, that's not a bad thing to do. We're not telling you not to do that, but we want you to see yourself as a member of the counseling team. We want you to be in the word daily and taking it upon yourself to grow as a counselor to others, and we wanna do our part as a church in equipping you to this end.

Three of our ministries this year. have included additional funds in their 2017 budget to help people in our church to attend. The Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship conference in Escondido, this summer, which this summer will be addressing the topic of addictions, a very practical topic. We'll say more about this opportunity in the months to come, but we're wanting to encourage as many of our people to take advantage of a resource like this.

In order for you to be developed as a biblical counselor to others. During the coming ministry year, we will also be offering a counseling class during the Sunday school hour in our effort to further equip you to counsel others. But here's our thinking, guys, if, if we're gonna be a community of faith, That helps people in their journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel, then we need to be a congregation of people who are each of us strong in the word and ready to provide the counsel of Christ to other people.

And we are asking you to take it upon yourself as many of you have already done.

To get equipped and to grow and be a part of the team of those providing biblical counsel to others, and we want to do our part of equipping you to do so. There's more things that we'll be touching on, today, but we'll, we'll bring some of those things up in the afternoon meeting. But in closing, I, I just wanna ask you, how big is your heart? How big is your heart?

How wide does the door of your heart swing open to others? Will you practice hospitality in the ways we've talked about? Will you do more than just practice hospitality? Will you pursue hospitality?

In his book, Hospitality Commands, Alexander Strou describes hospitality in this way. He says hospitality fleshes out love. In a uniquely personal and sacrificial way, through the ministry of Hospitality, we provide friendship, acceptance, fellowship, refreshment, comfort and love and one of the richest and deepest ways possible for humans to understand. Guys, we live in a dysfunctional world where many people feel lonely.

They feel rejected, beaten down, and unloved. And imagine how powerful. Us being a congregation that pursues hospitality. can be in the lives of such people.

I hope you'll join us. In pursuing hospitality. In the place of God's provision. Let's pray together.

Lord, we're We're so grateful that you have We know you, the Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, you were totally satisfied in the Trinitarian community. There was nothing lacking. You had every reason to exclude us from the enjoyment. Of community with you.

And yet you sent forth your son. You sent forth your spirit. Jesus, you went forth, Holy Spirit, you went forth. And Jesus, you paid the ultimate price and laid down your life, you sacrificed so that we could be ushered in the enjoyment.

Of the love relationship between the members of the Trinitarian Godhead. God, we ask you this morning to make us more like you. You have pursued us. With the intent of showing hospitality to us.

Many of us, Lord, when you pursued us, we were running as far, as fast as we could away from you. We resisted your invitations again and again and again, but you persisted and you You saved us. And we're now in your family. And we now have opportunity to turn around and, and mirror that ethic of the pursuit of hospitality to others, and I pray that you would grow me, that you would grow all of us as a church, that you in this area and make us Lord, a hospitable place for broken sinners.

who need wholeness in Jesus. If there's any here today, Lord, that have never looked at you and Receive salvation from you that they even where they're seated would cry out to you. And confess their sins to you and their bankruptcy and their need for a savior and that they would look to you, Jesus. And accept your invitation.

They would see how wide the door of your heart is open to them. And that they would enter your heart today. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity for us to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds, do much. With everything that is given in this offering.

For the glory of Jesus, the spread of the good news of salvation through him, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said,