(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We're in a teaching series we have titled Love Is. Love Is. And today we're gonna be talking about love is hospitable.

Love is hospitable.

And we're so glad that you came into the room today.

We wanna welcome all of those online with us today.

And again, we're expecting God to touch our hearts, change our lives and leave here and do remarkable things for his glory and his name sake.

Again, I know that they mentioned in the announcement time that we have our upper room now open.

I do wanna share with you that if you do need prayer, there's always prayer partners available after the service right out in our atrium, out front near the prayer tent.

But now we have our upper room open 30 minutes before the service and 30 minutes after the service.

This is a place, if you just wanna go and have some solitude, get by yourself, pray and seek the Lord before service or after service, you can go there and do that.

You can be prayed with.

There's a group of people that would love to pray with you if you want somebody to pray with you.

And if you just want somebody to pray for you, there'll be some people there that would just pray for you.

And again, we're still striving to eventually get a lift wherever some people that don't have the ability to get up the stairs to be able to get up there in the future.

And we hope to continue to raise the resources for that and get that put in at some point in time.

But it is now open.

It's a very chapel feel.

I just want you to know that.

It feels a lot like a chapel.

And if our doors are open during the week, during our office hours, our atrium's open, some of the staff is here, you can feel free to stop by and go into the upper room during the week also and pray.

Our goal is to eventually get a 24-7 prayer ministry running, but a lot of logistics have to be worked out in order to do that.

But that prayer room is open 30 minutes before the service and also 30 minutes after the service.

Also want to say today too, if you're interested, before we start the message, if you're interested in giving to this vision financially, there's ways for you to do that.

It is a multitude of people who are consistently given that makes all of this happen.

Our school, our church, all the ministry we do, the outreach like we did yesterday in feeding our community.

It is our collective giving.

I said collective, come on.

It is all of us participating that makes all of this happen.

We got a lot of vision out in front of us.

We got children's buildings we want to build.

We've got more school we want to build.

We've got food distribution centers we want to build.

There's a lot we want to do.

But right now we are focused on getting ourself in order so that we can continue to do great and mighty ministry.

And if you would like to give in any form or fashion financially, there's ways you can do that.

There's envelopes provided for you in your seat backs.

You can feel free to put checks or cash at any time during the service in those envelopes and you can drop them off in the atrium on the way out.

You can give that way.

You can give electronically here.

There's all the ways, text to give.

You can scan that little thing on the seat back in front of you at any time during the service.

It'll carry you to an announcement page, a gift page.

You can give there.

Whether you give $5, $10, $500, $100,000, it really makes a difference.

And I do know, you need to know that it does take millions and millions of dollars to run this ministry each and every year to be a light into this community and do great and mighty things.

So everybody's giving matters.

Come on, yeah.

So I wanna go ahead and invite you if you wanna give to feel free to do that at any time during the service.

If you have your Bibles with you today, I want you to open it up to Genesis chapter 18.

Genesis chapter 18.

And we're gonna learn a little bit about hospitality today from a man named Abraham, how to operate in hospitality and really make a difference in the world because love is truly hospitable.

Genesis 18, we'll begin with verse one.

And the Bible says this, one day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day.

He was sitting outside, just chilling.

The Bible says he looked up and he noticed three men standing nearby.

And when he saw them, the Bible says he ran to meet them and he welcomed them.

He expressed hospitality towards them, three men that just walked up on the scene.

The Bible says, bowing low to the ground, he said, my Lord, if it pleases you, stop here for a while.

Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet.

It's a different culture, but Abraham wants to show them kindness.

He wants to show them hospitality.

He wants to serve them.

The Bible says in verse five, and he says, and since you've honored your servant with a visit, he says, let me prepare some food to refresh you before you continue your journey.

All right, they said.

Do as you have said.

What we learned first and foremost from this passage of scripture, and we'll continue reading here in just a moment, but first of all is hospitality always looks for opportunity and hospitality meets people where they are.

Hospitality is looking for opportunity.

Did you notice Abraham is sitting outside, he sees three men walking past and he's looking for an opportunity to step into their life, do something in their life and make a difference in their life.

That's what the love and hospitality of God begins to look like.

It's always looking for an opportunity to engage with someone, talk with someone and carry someone on a journey.

Hospitality meets people where they are.

I love how Romans chapter 12, verse nine says it.

It says, don't just pretend to love others, says really love them, come on.

Don't just put the Christian smile on, that plastic smile, come on.

It says, really love them.

Hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good.

Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in what?

Honoring each other, elevating each other, honoring people, honoring up, honoring down, honoring all around.

The Bible goes on to say, never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope, be patient in trouble and keep praying.

And when God's people are in need, be ready to help them.

Here it is, always be eager to practice hospitality.

Always be eager to practice hospitality.

So what does hospitality do?

It loves, but how does it begin to love?

It meets people where they are.

It finds common ground in people's life because that's what hospitality does.

It begins to digest where somebody is coming from and hospitality says, I wanna meet you right in the spot where you are.

And then if you have the love of God in your heart, God's touched your life with love.

You begin to say, I want you to know the same God that I know, so I'm gonna show you hospitality right where you are.

I'm not gonna condemn you for where you are.

I'm not always gonna condone you for where you are, but I'm gonna meet you where you are.

I'm gonna find common ground with you and I'm gonna take you to a place you never dreamed you could go, a place and a relationship you never knew you could have and a place in life that God can do great and mighty things through you.

That's what hospitality does, it finds common ground.

The Apostle Paul, who was one of the first guys to ever start churches and plant churches and go from place to place and begin to show the love of God, who Christ is, and begin to show community, hospitality, he says it this way in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 19 through 23.

He says, even though I am a free man with no master, he says, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.

In other words, he has a purpose for his relationships.

Did you catch it?

He says, to bring many to Christ.

He says, when I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ.

He said, when I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under the law.

Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.

He says, when I am with the Gentiles, there were those who aren't Jewish in this day and age.

He says, who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from the law so I can bring them to Christ.

But I do not ignore the law of God.

He says, I obey the law of Christ.

He says, when I'm with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ.

He says, yes, I try to find common ground.

Everybody say common ground.

Common ground.

I try to find common ground with everything, everyone doing everything I can to save some.

I do everything to spread the good news and to share in its blessing.

I do everything, he says, to share the good news about who Christ is and share in its blessing.

It's a blessing to begin to meet people where they are, find common ground and take them on a journey and help them discover who God is so God can tell them who they are.

Paul says it is a blessing to do this ministry and this work and step in to people's life to find common ground.

So what this tells me is God isn't for just people that look like me, smell like me and act like me.

What I'm to do and what we're to do as a church is to be a city on a hill lighten to the world and find common ground with people.

People who have weaknesses, people who have strengths just begin to engage with people.

We don't always have to start the conversation off, you know what, telling people everything about our own self.

In other words, we can begin to start the conversations off of learning some things about people.

It's amazing whenever you begin to engage with people and you begin to find out some things about them, you can go to where they are, meet them where they are, and begin to take them on a journey.

Everybody don't have the same upbringing as you have.

Everybody don't have the same experiences you have.

Everybody don't know the God that maybe you know, the Christ Jesus that you know.

And so what you do is you start with where they are.

Paul was a master at this.

The Bible says he would go into cultures that were worshiping foreign gods.

They were worshiping idols, come on.

And Paul would step into those regions and he didn't worship their idols, he didn't become them, but he built common ground with them and he began to take what they were worshiping and began to help them see the one they should worship, the Jesus.

The Bible says that he came to a Greek statue one time and he said, it said on it, to the unknown God, it was an unknown God, and Paul began to use that statue to introduce them to the God he knew personally, to the Jesus that he knew personally, and he met them where they were.

He didn't condemn them, come on, but he met them where they were to begin to show them the love of Christ, the hospitality of Christ.

This is who God is.

We serve a hospitable God.

Romans chapter two, verse four says this.

Can you see that his kindness is intended for a purpose?

His kindness, can you see that God's hospitality is intended to turn you from your sin?

That's an amazing verse.

God's intention in showing kindness and hospitality and coming to earth and putting on skin in the form of a human being was to meet people where they are and express kindness to them, no matter what their background was.

And he expressed kindness to them so that they wouldn't continue in a lifestyle of sin apart from God, but to turn them away from their sin so they would repent from their sin and they would begin to see him and follow him and become everything that they could become and what he had created them to become.

It was always to engage with people, not to go down the same sinful path, come on, but to find common ground with them so they would repent is the biblical word for it.

So they would turn away from their sin, turn their heart towards God and begin to let God lead their life.

Understand we are a church that believes strongly in what Jesus did on that cross.

We believe Jesus died for the forgiveness of sin.

We believe that Jesus rose from the grave to show the world God's amazing power.

We believe that if you confess your sin to God with your mouth and you believe in your heart that he is Lord and he resurrected from a grave, you will be saved.

But we're also a church that believes that God don't just come to this earth to save you, to take you to heaven one day.

He shows his amazing kindness to you.

So you will stop going down the wrongful path, the sinful path, you will turn your eyes toward Jesus and you will begin to follow him with your life.

You may not be a perfect person, but you can be a new person, come on, if you begin to really understand the hospitality and kindness of your great God.

God did it so you and I could become everything we're designed to be.

God finds common ground, Paul found common ground, and we do all we can do to find common ground.

This is true love, this is hospitality.

It's why we do the things we do.

It's why right now, when you come in on the weekend, it's why we serve the food, it's why we have the breakfast.

We've done it ever since we started in our living room.

Over 20 years ago, we began to, my wife would cook a breakfast, a big fat pancake, we call it, and there's about 10 or 12 people who would come over and she would serve them that breakfast and that big fat pancake to warm their bellies up, to warm their heart up, to a word that God wanted to drop into their heart.

In other words, it was hospitality that we began to show our neighbors, those who would begin to show up for an experience, and their life was changed.

And we decided, you know what?

This is the heartbeat of our church.

We wanna show hospitality.

You know what?

It's why some people gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to build this kitchen in here for us, for the weekend.

It's not so we can just have, always have dinners and all that kind of stuff.

No, no, people come, people serve.

I'm talking about they volunteer their time, energy, and resources, come on, because they got hospitality in their heart.

They want that food to go out so it can meet people where they are when they come into this place on the weekend.

We used to pull out old big old grills and griddles over at Main Street back in the day, come on.

We would do all kinds of crazy things to serve food, to meet people where they are.

The serving of the food has a purpose.

And again, we want, you know, and I know it gets difficult when you serve sometimes, but we work hard to say, hey, you know what?

Don't always get aggravated when you're serving that food.

Come on.

Smile, come on.

Now let's make sure, cause we know that crazy people come up here and they, you know, do all kinds of stuff and want to just rah, rah, rah, but we're here to show kindness, come on.

And hospitality, come on.

Hospitality is honoring.

In other words, it honors people.

It don't just let people do whatever they want to whenever they want to, however they want to, but it does meet people.

And it says, you know what?

You stuck on crazy.

And I recognize that, but I'm gonna meet you where you are and I'm gonna lead you out of crazy.

And I'm gonna help you begin to have some discipline in your life, some purpose in your life, some significance in your life.

Why would you keep going down a path that is destroying your life, is destructive to your life?

Why would you keep going down that road?

I know a Jesus that can change everything.

Come on.

But sometimes people have to get to the end of themself before they can discover that God is for them and not against them.

And sometimes, you know what?

They have to recognize that, you know what?

No matter how far they have gotten off track, there is a God that wants to meet them where they are.

I wanna find common ground.

I wanna be a church that finds common ground.

We're not always gonna dress exactly a way that suits everybody that comes in the door, but we try to be mindful.

And again, you know, we try to be respectful.

We try to be responsible.

Not to just dress how we feel, you know what?

But we dress in a way that meets people in real life, right where they are.

And again, you know, again, and I'm not knocking your background or your culture or anything else, but you know, it's one of the reasons we try to be intentional with what we do.

And again, it's not giving into culture, it's meeting culture where culture is so we can change the culture.

Come on, somebody.

And begin to transform it.

And again, hospitality finds common ground with people.

The next thing I wrote down about this passage in Genesis 18 is we learn from Father Abraham about how to express hospitality.

Is, I said this a few weeks ago, whenever I kicked off the Love Is series because love gives its best, but hospitality does too.

In other words, hospitality don't just find its leftovers and give it to somebody.

Hospitality says, you know what?

I'm gonna do the best I can with what I have in order to express to the world around me who God is.

That's what hospitality does.

Look at Abraham.

The Bible says in Genesis 18, verses six through eight, Abraham ran back to the tent and said to his wife, Sarah, hurry, get three large measures of your best flour, not the old flour, but your best flour, knead it into dough and bake some bread.

And then Abraham ran out to the herd and he chose a tender calf and he gave it to his servant who quickly prepared it.

And when the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk, the roasted meat, and he served it to the men.

As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the shade of the trees.

You know, Abraham gave his best.

God gave his best.

And I do believe that the church is to give its best.

This is more about an attitude than anything, because I do believe when we as individuals and we collectively as a church have an attitude of gratitude, then the actions change.

When you personally, you and your family, you and your children have an attitude of gratitude towards all the blessing that God has given you, and you begin to understand that God has blessed me to be a blessing, then your actions begin to change in the world around you.

You begin to leverage your life.

You begin to leverage your resources, and you have an attitude of gratitude of saying, God, I recognize that you ain't out of giving me anything yet.

Come on.

God, you are the supplier of all my needs.

Come on.

And I got an attitude of gratefulness to everything you have, and I understand what's in my hands, and I understand it's to be a blessing to those around me, and I understand the greatness of what you can do through me.

And God, you've been way too good to me for me not to be good to those around me.

For your glory, God, I will leverage and I will shine.

This church will shine.

This church will be a city on a hill, a light into the world.

Come on, somebody.

First Corinthians chapter 10, verses 31 through 33.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Don't give offense, he says, to the Jews or the Gentiles or the church of God.

Paul says in this verse, I try to please everyone in everything I do.

I don't just do what is best for me.

I do what is best for others, so that.

Everybody say so that.

So that.

Everybody say so that.

So that.

I do what is best for others, so that some of them will be saved.

Come on.

He's intentional.

Paul's intentional.

Jesus was intentional.

God was intentional.

And this is something that needs to get deep in our hearts.

Hospitality is intentionality.

And again, it is saying, you know what?

I am being intentional in what I'm doing because I want to express the love of God to people no matter where they are in life.

And I want them to know and have the relationship with God that I have with my God.

And we as a church and a family want to keep adding to our number.

We're not just adding to our number so people come in and take us in a different direction, go in a different way.

No, no, no.

We're adding to our number so that people repent of their sin.

They turn their heart towards a great God.

And together we get on a path showing his generosity, his love, and his hospitality to the world around us.

It's a mixed bag of people.

But Paul says, I do everything I do.

Not what's just best for me, not what's just my culture, not just what I think.

No, no, I begin to do things with a significant purpose and it's so that many may be saved.

Church, we are here for a purpose.

And it is to worship Jesus.

And it is to get our fire fueled to go out in this world and be worshipers of Jesus and be representatives of Christ.

But we're here to impact the world, to build the community, the church community, his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, come on.

We're here to express through the various gifts, through the various talents, through the various ways, you know, who God is.

We're here to really take every ministry serious.

And it's always to begin to build the church up so the church can be a body and begin to change the world.

Again, God didn't call one of us to do it.

He called us to have a culture.

Everybody say a culture.

That's not a cult, come on.

A culture is something you set and we want to be a church of hospitality.

We want to have, you know, kindness in our heart.

We want to have the love of God in us and we want to express it to the world around us.

It's a culture that we strive to develop.

We strive to say, let's be this kind of people.

And I do believe that true hospitality don't just get expressed through an individual, it gets expressed through a group.

That's what begins to change the world.

Notice Abraham in this passage.

He didn't just show kindness to those people by himself.

He got the whole community involved.

He got his servants involved.

He got his wife involved.

And he says, hey, let's do what we can to show these people kindness and hospitality.

Look what it says, Genesis 18, verses six through eight.

Abraham ran back into the tent and he said to Sarah, hey, hurry up, get out of the bed, get those three large measures of your best flour, knead it in dough and bake some bread, come on.

We got visitors.

And then Abraham ran out to the herd and he chose a tender calf and he gave it to his servant and said, hey, go over there and prepare this cow.

Get busy, let's show kindness, let's show hospitality.

When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk, the roasted meat, and he served the man himself.

Gets his wife involved, gets his servant involved, gets himself involved, come on.

As they ate, Abraham, what?

He waited on them in the shade of the trees.

Abraham got the whole community involved.

And again, we have a large community, but this is why we invite people to get on a serve team.

And again, you know, yes, your gifts are needed for the church to operate in a functional manner, but it's also above and beyond to show kindness and hospitality to people.

We don't just want, you know what, two people out there directing traffic.

We're having trouble with parking spaces now.

We would love for 12 to 15 of you to get here early, not to just direct traffic, come on, but to do it with kindness and hospitality and show people kindness when they drive in the parking lot.

People are frustrated and they come into a parking lot and they're like, you know, I can't find a parking space.

Well, again, we're gonna find you a parking space.

We want multitudes of people out there serving.

We need multitude of greeters.

We need multitudes of people serving kids.

I'm underneath the understanding that we're starting to have different kinds of people groups coming into our church.

And we need kids directors or kids ministry personnel and stuff to help speak into the lives of those young kids.

Come on.

Yeah, again.

And so we look to speak into kids.

We wanna create an environment for kids to learn at their level.

And if you don't know here at Valorous Church, we have a dynamic kids ministry.

And we would love for your kids to go into that ministry.

And it's really set up in a way for them to learn at age appropriate ways from babies all the way up to fifth grade.

Come on.

We have a student ministry that meets here on Wednesday night sixth graders through high schoolers.

Why do we meet those kids in those environments playing with toys, come on.

Little ladies over there going, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, goo-choo, goo-choo, goo.

You know, why don't we do all that?

Kindness, love, hospitality.

We want their parents to come in here and get a word from God.

Come on.

We want them to know that their family matters.

We want them to know that their babies matter to God.

We wanna meet those babies right where they are.

And again, it's building a culture, it's building an environment.

And I know many of you have just recently come on our campus you don't even really realize that we got a kids ministry.

We're putting up more signage.

Why don't we do all that?

Trying to invite our Greek teams.

Hey, let people know when they walk up from this side of the building, we've got a dynamic kids ministry on this side of the building.

They just got here five minutes ago.

They don't even know we got a kids ministry.

So if you're out there and you see kids wandering around, tell the parents, hey, you know what?

We got an awesome kids ministry.

Come on.

It helps people know the love of God.

Get everybody involved.

We got some awesome people around here.

We got people who will sit and cry with you.

Come on.

We got people who will put their arms around you and say, let's get up and let's go and let's do more.

We got people here that want to minister to you to show you the love and hospitality of God.

Why?

To meet people where they are so that they can meet the love of our savior, Jesus Christ, so their life can be transformed, so they can repent of their sin and get on with who God says they are in their life.

Everybody involved.

And then lastly, I wrote this down about Abraham's hospitality, because many of us miss this.

And I wrote it down this way.

Hospitality could possibly lead to your next blessing.

Personally, hospitality could begin to lead to your next blessing personally.

Look what the Bible says, Genesis 18 verses nine and 10.

The men that they served, the men that they showed hospitality to ask a question, where is Sarah, your wife?

The visitors asked.

Genesis 18 verses nine and 10.

She's inside the tent, Abraham replied.

And then one of them said, I will return to you about this time next year and your wife, Sarah, will have a son.

Abraham and Sarah had never given birth to a son together.

They had tried to force the hand of God and they had a baby named Ishmael by the maidservant.

But Sarah is a very old lady and Abraham's a very old man, but God had made them a promise that I'm gonna give you a son from Sarah and Abraham and that son is gonna be a blessing to all the world, that son, your descendants are gonna be as numerous as the stars in the sky and it's gonna bless the nation.

Abraham had no idea in the ministry that he was showing hospitality to these three strangers that it was really a way for God to meet Abraham where he was and bless him with a son.

You know, God works in mysterious ways, doesn't he?

And oftentimes, God begins to work through mysterious people if we'll step into ministry with him.

I do believe that many of us are looking for the hand of God to come over our life and truly bless our life.

But I can tell you right now, the blessing is found that you're looking for in being a blessing to the world around you.

Come on.

Thank you.

Whenever my wife, Kim, and I were in seminary, we knew that we were being called to ministry.

And little did we know that me beginning to spend some time with a couple of guys in Columbia, South Carolina, and doing work in Walmart parking lots in the middle of the night, doing ADA compliancy work all over the Southeast and building those parking lots up to ADA compliancy was God's way of really stepping in and beginning to bless us to do what he had designed us to do.

Let me explain.

We got through with seminary and we're like, God, we'll go anywhere, wherever, however you want us to go.

And God says, well, what I need you to do right now is I need you to start making a paycheck and I need you to go to work with these guys.

And we began to show kindness and love and respect to those guys.

And as we stepped into that and we worked hard at, like the Bible said it, what God had called us to do in that time and place was the answer to us coming here and planting this church in.

Multitudes of lives being changed.

And I'm so grateful.

I'm so grateful.

Because what those guys said is, you know what?

You've blessed us by working with us.

We want to be a blessing to you and send you for three years down to North Myrtle Beach to start a church and change the world.

Financially, they wrote the check.

Come on.

They bought us a house.

They gave us two cars.

They supplied us for three solid years with everything we needed to come to this community and plant a church that has changed thousands of lives.

My friends, I close with this verse today to encourage your heart.

Hebrews 13 verse two says, don't forget to show hospitality to strangers.

For some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.

You never know when you show kindness and hospitality to someone, what God's up to.

He may forever change your life and use your life.

It's what happened in the moment whenever we decided to do what I just explained to you.

I could never repay God back for all he did.

God, through those people helping us start Valerie's Church.

And again, it doesn't stop with us.

This is a generational church.

This is a multi-denominational, multi-ethnic, multi-people, multi-whatever church.

Because God has lavished kindness on us.

And look, I'm just as transparent as I can be.

I know sometimes I wear all my emotions out on my sleeve and my face, and you know that you've probably made me mad in my life.

But the heart is to show kindness.

So that you get on board, and we hear together one day when we go to the other side, well done, my good and faithful servant.

God bless you.

Father God, I thank you for this word.

God, I pray for the hearts of people.

God, I pray that you would soften our hearts to receive your love so we could be dispensers of your love.

God, help us together be hospitable in the community.

God, if there is one here today that needs a touch of your kindness, God, I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, you will direct the person to them that needs to touch them, put their arms around them to forever change their life.

God, I pray that this will be a church where people find a hope and a future in Christ Jesus.

God, you're marvelous, you're wonderful, you're great.

And if there's one here today that's never put their personal faith in the love of Christ that he gave on that cross for the forgiveness of sin and for them to have new life in him, I pray today would be the day of their salvation.

My friend, if you need salvation from Christ Jesus, he came and gave his life on a cross and rose from a grave so you could have new life in him.

The Bible says for us just to turn our hearts to him, turn our hearts away from sin and begin to trust him to lead our life.

And he will come in, he will save us, he will transform us, and he will lead us in a new direction.

So if you've never put your personal faith in a Jesus Christ who showed all the hospitality in the world to the world around him and around us, today may be the day of your salvation.

Just say, God, today I repent of my sin.

I trust Jesus and I want him to become the Lord and the leader and the savior of my life.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.