{"id":1191,"date":"2014-03-10T20:47:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T00:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=1191"},"modified":"2014-04-18T20:46:00","modified_gmt":"2014-04-19T00:46:00","slug":"fruitful-living-1-of-5-radical-hospitality-3914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=1191","title":{"rendered":"Fruitful Living (1 of 5): “Radical Hospitality” (3\/9\/14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sermon on Sunday March 9 opened our five part series in “Forty Days of Fruitful Living.”\u00a0 During this season of Lent, we are following this devotional guide by Robert Schanase.\u00a0 The sermons introduce the week’s topic, and we discuss and study these topics during our small group meetings that\u00a0 week.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The initial “practice of\u00a0 fruitful\u00a0 living” is entitled “Radical Hospitality.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor Larry’s scripture passage was Matthew 25:34-40<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 He related his boyhood memories of when his family would always open their doors to share food with others.\u00a0 His family owned a farm\u00a0 and hospitality was a way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/span>Radical means literally “arising from the source.” It is something that reaches into the core of who we are and radiates out without having to think about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Something that’s “radical” doesn’t consider the costs. We practice “radical hospitality” because it’s part of our inner being. It’s who we are.<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

God calls us to care for the needy.\u00a0 Love and\u00a0 hospitality are part of God’s character, and He\u00a0 wants us to share in\u00a0 that practice of hospitality.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 10:19<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span> commands the Israelis to welcome strangers because they were strangers in Egypt.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

God’s identification with the needy is so strong, that Jesus said that feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and visiting the prisoners in our lives is the same as if we were feeding, clothing, and visiting Jesus Himself.\u00a0 Practicing Radical Hospitality with the people we encounter is an integral part of obeying the greatest command of loving the Lord\u00a0 your God with all Your heart, soul,\u00a0 and mind.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But there’s another half to this…<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"ChapelWin-StandAtDoor_7059\"<\/a>If Jesus loves the hungry, naked, and imprisoned to the extent that He embodies their pain on Himself, then His love for us (regardless of our material needs) must be much deeper than we can imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only is God calling us to practice Radical Hospitality to others, He is showing us that He is practicing Radical Hospitality to us.\u00a0 Radical hospitality runs throughout scripture.\u00a0 He stands at the door and knocks.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spiritual growth begins when we grasp the fact that God accepts us. We don’t have to prove anything (Christ has already done that!).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/span>“People who demonstrate the quality of hospitality toward God are curious about God, spirituality, and the interior life.\u00a0 They desire to know God rather than merely to know about God.”<\/span>\u00a0 (Forty Days of Fruitful Living,\u00a0 page 29<\/em><\/span>)<\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

In our “modern” world we’ve lost the concept of Radical Hospitality.\u00a0 Like a waitress in a restaurant, we can perform hospitality when the situation demands it.\u00a0 But Radical Hospitality must flow out of who we are.\u00a0 It takes practice.\u00a0\u00a0 Knowing God and growing in grace demands that we develop an innate sense of hospitality.\u00a0 Radical hospitality flows towards others, towards God, and it opens the door to the relationship that flows from God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Click Here<\/a> <\/span>to learn more about this sermon series…
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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sermon on Sunday March 9 opened our five part series in “Forty Days of Fruitful Living.”\u00a0 During this season of Lent, we are following this devotional guide by Robert Schanase.\u00a0 The sermons introduce the week’s topic, and we discuss and study these topics during our small group meetings that\u00a0 week. The initial “practice of\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","category-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1191"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191\/revisions\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}