He went to the High Priest and asked him for the lightest of the synagogue in Damascus so that if he found anything there who belonged to the way, whether man or woman, he might take him as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he and your Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light fell from heaven fell around the ground. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord Saul asks?
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, your blood. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. The men traveling with Saul stood their speeches. They heard the sound they, but they not seen anyone.
Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they let him by hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything. In Damascus there was a disciple named Enenaius.
The Lord called to him in a vision. Enenaius, yes Lord he answered. The Lord told him, go to the house of Judas on straight street and ask him and ask for a man from Tarsus make name Saul, where he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Enenaius come and place his hands on him and restore his sight.
Lord, Enenaius answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. He has come here with authority from the chief priest to rest all who call on his name but the Lord said to Enenaius, go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim the name to the Gentiles and the kings of the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer from my name. Then Enenaius went to his house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul.
He said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here. He has sent me so that you may see it again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and you could see again. He got up and was baptized and after taking some food he regained his drink.
In reading that there is quite a bit of that that happens. First of all, Saul meets the Lord head on and something that I noticed while reading this a few weeks ago when preparing for this lesson was that Paul was a Gentile and so he was probably definitely not real received with the Jews when he comes up and goes, Yo, God has called me to talk with the Gentiles. They are probably not too happy about that. Another thing I have noticed is that one of my hobbies include Rubik's cubes and something I have to realize is how similar life can be compared to Rubik's cube because it is all mixed up.
There are millions and millions of ways your life can be and this cube can be mixed up. But when you find God, he is moving pieces in your life to solve it basically. It is what I am getting at. When you find God, it is like he is moving the pieces around and the emptiness keeps diminishing and is going away.
This can happen either with a man named Ananias coming and tapping on his shoulder or it can come. There are millions of ways God has done it. But after that everything else, all the other problems slowly diminish as well. And although your life can be more like this, many other sides.
What I am getting at is life is so hard and mixed up. But with God, he can come and solve it. And there is definitely going to be trials. Like Paul was never liked very well by many people.
He definitely was questioned many, many times. But it is also our job. He was also called to go and preach to the Gentiles of the good news. And when we get this part solved for us, it is our job to go to all the nations of the world and start turning the gears of others in our lives.
That is basically what being a Christian is. It is learning about God, but then also learning to preach about God to others, telling them to how the message works so that they can go out to their air friends and tell them about the good news. And that is what the Great Commission, Matthew 28, is going to all the nations and my word. And I also found that this is very similar to the parable of the lost son, or the particle son, where you go into where we leave and we leave God, which happens many, many years ago with Adam and Eve.
We left God for dust when we took the tree and didn't want to look back. Throughout history, there have been people trying to steer everyone mankind back to God. And that is when the end time becomes like Moses, Noah, the Apostle Paul, or my missionary is like Gladys Aoward or Bruco, we are talking about in Sunday School. These, but it is also our decision.
God gave us free will. And so if we don't want to share, that is a decision that we are allowed to make. It is our job, but it is also you don't have to. There are many, many parts of the Christian and going into the world and telling by it is just one of them.
But I am going to read the parable son, it is Luke 15 verse 11. Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons, the younger one, his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son did all that he had, set off for a distant country, and then squandered his wealth with him while living.
They see that as, it can be described as three ways, someone who has learned about God and his youth, but then doesn't want to, but doesn't want to anymore and has left, and then has left and wanted, which is what this story is in crime. But then also it can be either described as someone who has never, who has never known God, but that is because they left God when Adam and Eve ate the tree of wisdom. He did not want all the good things that he told him, so he ate the apple. And that goes into my third point, that he is described as all mankind.
We left God and we need to come back to him. And I am going to continue reading down at 20. So he got up and went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him.
And that is obviously referring to how God is up in heaven watching everyone, wanting us to come back to him so that he can embrace us. Because God is jealous for our hearts and our souls. But so is sin. And we need to be careful that we are not dwelling in sin because that is what Satan wants.
And it's a spiritual battle. It really is. And there's no way to get out of it because that's just how it is. But we are able to make it easier on ourselves by coming to God, by coming to God as in Psalm 91, it says, we shall rest in the shadow.
He wants us to rest in the shadow as he will give us protection in there. I'm going to continue down at the point when the son said to Ed to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best Roman, put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, bring the fat and cap and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.
For the son of the blind was dead and sinned and is not alive again. He was lost in his found, now found. They began to celebrate. And that is kind of what baptism is.
It's a celebration of us coming. It is both public showing that we have wept our sin away, but it's also somewhat of a celebration that we are no longer in sin and that God is a celebration that we are now in Jesus Christ. As you continue down, it talks about how the older brother is not happy that he has been rewarded for someone who left squandered everything he had. He just went into the party, but soon realized that it is not a good way to live and it's not a prosperous way to live.
And that is, and he came back and they're having a party, but the older brother is really mad because he's been working super hard his whole life for his father. He has always done what he asked and believes that he should be considered higher, but in truth, and heaven, everyone is equal. And this can be considered as someone who has always been growing up in a church or someone who's always known God's will, but has nothing to show for it. No party, no road, nothing.
But this brings me to mind. Kind of how I like to think of things is that I want to always be with God. I always want to follow God with a passion and a lust like I'm a new Christian because Paul, that's what Paul did after he became a Christian. He went out through all the struggles, but was so devoted and he didn't have a lifetime of church and all that.
He is blind and that's how he made God. But he was so devoted and so enthusiastic about God. He just had to go out and share it. And that's why I feel like you should always try to go with the new Christian mindset because if you read, and this is kind of a point I thought of last night, I was looking for a few more verses to read.
But I was just like flipping through the Bible and looking at it. All the stories was like Reddit, Reddit, Reddit, Reddit. And I was like, and then I stopped myself and I was like, I've read this first. But how many times have I understood it to its full extent?
And my answer was never because we can never understand it to its full extent. But we're never going to get anywhere close to its full extent if we just for free read and reread. But don't think, but don't read it as if we've never read it before. Because if you read it like you never read it before, you're not going to read it like you've ever read it before.
You're going to read it like you're going to read it and you're going to read something new that you've never picked up on. And that is kind of a short term, but that is kind of my challenge to you. That's what I challenge you to do is when you read and when you pray, do it with the mindset of a new Christian. Do it with the mindset of someone who's never heard this before.
Because that I feel is one way that we will get closer to God as if we do it like we've never done before. Yeah, so thank you. I'm going to pass it down off to my grandpa now. No.
I'll back when Dr. Terry, my Joshua, he's just out there. When Pastor Terry mentioned about that he was going on vacation for three weeks and needed somebody to fill in, I said, let me talk to Joshua. He might be willing and I'll do it with him.
And one of the reasons I thought about that was back when our children were junior high in high school, we attended a church that had youth Sunday every year. And they always asked for volunteers in the youth who wanted to have a sermon. And each of our four sons had volunteered to do that. And I just thought it was a really great opportunity for them to be able to do that and share with the congregation.
And for churches to be willing to allow our young people that experience. So I asked Joshua not knowing if he would or not, but he, there was no hesitation. I said, sure, I'll do it. In fact, I had something in mind that I wanted to share.
It's very humiliating to me because when I was growing up, I had opportunities to serve in our church. But I didn't want to be asked to speak in front of the church. And even today, it's real hard for me to say yes, if being asked to share in front of people. So it was really challenging to me and humbling to know that my grandson who's 14 years old is eager and wanting to be obedient to Christ.
Wanting to share what God has placed on his heart. And each of us should be willing to do what God is calling us to do. I was trying to figure out if our his talk and my talk are going to fit together. I'm sure it does.
And I was thinking of some things. But I will let it up to each of you to figure that out for yourself and how God is going to mesh that together. So about a month ago, I was back in the Sunday School room and I noticed a box of books. And I saw one that was called, was on hospitality.
It might have been one of yours, I'm not sure. But I had an interest in it and I took it out and I read it. And I said, well, that's what I'm going to speak about. It was called the commands or the hospitality commands by Alexander Strunch.
I guess that's how he pronounces his name. So what I want to look at is actually going to John 13 and verse 34. So Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he says, a new command I give you. Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. And then just a few other verses that I want to just sort of tie into that. John 14, 15, Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my command.
And John 15, 17, this is my command. Love each other. And Jesus spent a lot of time there in those, we see him right before he went to the cross, talking to his disciples about loving each other. And so one of the things that I look at is several scriptures in the New Testament.
I talk about Christian hospitality. I talk about hospitality to one another. I see that as one of the practical ways of sharing love with one another. So let's start with Romans 12.
So Romans 12, 9 to 13. Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Claim to what is good.
Be devoted to one another and brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient, in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. And the next one is in Hebrews 13, 1, and 2, Hebrews 13. Keep on loving each other as brothers.
Do not forget to entertain strangers for my so doing. Some people have entertained angels without knowing it. My thought was on that was, we're talking about strangers. Is it possible that we have people within our own church who are strangers.
We don't know them that well. And it's something to consider in regards to getting to know people within our congregation. And then 1 Peter 4, starting at verse 7. The end of all things is near.
Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others faithfully.
Faithfully, administer God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it. If anyone speaks, he should do it with the strength God provides. So that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ to him, glory, and the power forever and ever.
So the verse in verse 9 is offering hospitality to one another without grumbling or, I would get to say, doing it cheerfully. I think of a couple examples. There's a lot of examples, but just to share a few of that, I think in my past seeing my parents, seeing my family, showing hospitality. I grew up at a church in Iowa.
It was a common thing to be invited to other people's homes, or we would invite people to our home. We had a large family, so for somebody to invite us, that was a big thing. One of the things I remember about my grandmother was she not only invited us to her home and served at home cooked meal, but she also would send you home with a loaf of bread. She was noted for her homemade bread that she would make.
I've never tasted anything like it since. My mother tried to duplicate it many times and it never turned out the same. She just had a way of making it and had a special recipe. It was probably all in her head.
But just that thought of not only did she invite you over, but she sent you home with an overbread. I was thinking about when we went to Isaac and Sarah's wedding over in England, they hooked us up with a family from their church to host us for a week. They were very gracious. We made a few blunders and calling things what they shouldn't have been called.
They also showed us hospitality like, okay, wow, this is different. One was, on the morning they were getting married, we heard this knock on the door, we're still in bed, and Jonathan comes in with tea. So he's serving us tea in bed. And it's like, okay.
When it was time to go to the wedding, he said he was going to drive us. And so we go out to the car and he had decorated this car up with streamers and bows and he show for us to be wedding. Just a couple things like that were things that I would have never gone over. And if you came to my house, spend the night, I wouldn't be waking you up in the morning with tea or coffee.
But that was something they did and it was an expression of their hospitality. I also think of another time when we were in college in Virginia and at the time we didn't know a lot of people, but we always wanted to connect with people. And so one time I met this guy walking home from school and we were talking and I'm not sure why, but I said, you have anything to do on Friday night. He's like, no, I don't think we do it.
I said, why don't you and your wife come over for supper? I didn't ask them where. I just didn't. But anyway, they came over and it ended up, to me, it was one of those expressions of meeting angels and awareness.
It became a really, I mean, I don't know what it was, but something clicked in that time together. A lot of laughter, a lot of fun together. And I don't know how often we went back and forth. We were either at their house or our house.
But it was just something that happened in that. It was like it lifted our spirits. The laughing together was just a great thing. I also think about that in regards to, I think we're strangers.
I didn't know. I just met the guy. We'd never met the spouse, you know, that's each other's spouses, but we did get together. And it was a blessing.
One other thing I wanted to share was about, after we were finished with school in Virginia, we were going to Georgia in voluntary service for a couple years. And so we were up in Lancaster County for an orientation for a week. And it was really extremely hot in the middle of September. It was in the hundreds.
And we're driving in this, after we were in this orientation, we're driving south to Georgia. And we're in a hot car with no air conditioning. And there's Nathaniel in his car seat, two months old. And I don't know how it happened.
I said, well, I have a friend in North Carolina, who goes to Duke University. And I'll give her a call and maybe we can spend the night there. So we did. And she welcomed us very warmly.
I've never met her before. I had met her in Philadelphia when I was in Philadelphia. And she gave us a meal that evening. We were able to give us bed to sleep in next morning.
We went to church with her. After church, she took us out to eat before we went on our way. And there was something about that. It was just like, we needed a refreshment.
We needed a break. We needed just, I don't know what it was. But we left there really, really refreshed. And so why share these is I'm sure that all of you have some experiences of people in your family.
You yourselves have reached out or you go into people's homes or have people at your home. And just the blessing that happens in those situations. Looking at the different aspects of Christian hospitality, I just want to share a few things that gathered from this. So it's a demonstration of Christians loving each other.
It's a practical expression of brotherly and sisterly love. It requires every Christian to eagerly pursue Christian hospitality. It speaks of it as a command. Not an option.
We all have made do it differently. But it's something that as Christians as we want to grow and fellowship with one another, which is God's plan for us, is that we want to be a part of showing hospitality. It was also one of the birthmarks of early Christianity. If you look at Acts 2, it talks about meeting daily in the temple and going from home to home, sharing bread, breaking bread and sharing meals together.
It's also an effective way of sharing the gospel. The good news, the message of Jesus Christ with our relatives, our friends and neighbors. It's a couple places in Acts that talks about the times of Paul met in different homes sharing the gospel. Also in Luke, the story about Matthew, God calling, or Jesus calling Matthew to follow him and he does.
Right after that, it talks about him being in Matthew's home with a bunch of other tax collectors. There's Jesus sharing a meal together with them. Also, one of the reasons I shared earlier about the spiritual gifts in First Peter 4, it's looking at the opportunity to exercise our spiritual gifts. We are used to using them in serving others.
Here we see about the whole idea of speaking and serving as opportunities to serve one another. What we have from that is we can expect that through that we are able to show mercy, giving, evangelizing, the gift that helps. There's many things that tie into that. If you see that here and it regards to hospitality, you can see it also back in Romans 12.
There are also speaks of the gifts prior to going into that about loving each other and showing hospitality. If you turn to Matthew 25, 34, and Jesus is speaking and he says, then 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, 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. 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.
Then the righteous will answer and Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as stranger and invite you in or need to close and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least, one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.
So just thinking about that, doing things that God is calling us to do, and when we do those, even to the least of these, we are inviting the Lord Jesus Christ into our homes. So to end, I just want to share a little bit about what do we do now? We've heard the message, what is God saying to me, maybe this message is just for me, I don't know. But I think all of us need to, in our own way, ask God, what do you want me to do?
How do you want me to show hospitality to my brothers and sisters, to my neighbors, to strangers? Ask him about the details. I want to serve him to invite. I think about the class we're doing right now, and the basement, the adult class we talk a lot about, going to God and asking, and then waiting and listening and hearing what he has to say to us.
And then doing it. So through the Ministry of Hospitality, we share our most prized possessions. We share family, home, time, privacy, our food, our finances, we share our lives. Through 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. It is an expression of love. So my hope for, at least for myself, is that after hearing this message, that you'll see some fruit of that, or results of that in the coming months, I won't say weeks because we're going to be gone. But in my own life, in glory in my life, that we want to be obedient to inviting people to our home.
Let's stand and I'll end with prayer. Thank you, God, for gathering us together. Thank you that you call us your children, and that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you that you've given us the command to love one another, as you have loved us.
As if you continue to speak into our hearts of how you want us to do that, how you want us to flesh out in our own lives. We want to follow you. We want to be obedient to your calling and speaking into our hearts and our lives. And maybe those around us know that we are Christians by how we love one another.
And we want to give you thanks and praise for all that we do and say we want to bring glory and honor to you, and that your name would be glorified and lifted up, and it would give you praise in Jesus name.