The Gospel Comes with a House Key
Conclusion: Feeding the Five Thousand (2|2)
The Nuts and Bolts and Beans and Rice
• Counterfeit Hospitality
• The Idols of Achievement and Acquisition
• What If?
Pages 215-220
TOGETHER read the book and discuss the content below.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out (try to keep it brief).
Jude 17-25 (NIV) Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Practicing radically ordinary hospitality prepares followers of Jesus to be arm-in-arm for what is coming next, for the return of Christ, for our inheritance in the new heavens and the new earth, so that we can warn our neighbors of the real judgment to come so that we can honor our God and King.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
We live in a world awash in counterfeit hospitality. Knowing the difference between the grace of God and its counterfeit is crucial to Christian living. Counterfeit hospitality demands a kind of compartmentalized mental surgery and excuse-making for sin patterns. The gospel is cosmological and holistic. It takes no prisoners. Jesus died for it all, and when he rose again, He came with the power to live differently, to live sacrificially.
What is your response to this statement?
How have you experienced counterfeit hospitality?
Counterfeit hospitality comes with strings; Christian hospitality comes with strangers becoming neighbors and becoming family of God and gathering in great expectation of God’s coming world.
What is your response to this statement?
Are you/How are you going to try to implement these practices into your life?
Was this book a nice read with some interesting thoughts or have you been challenged and inspired to put aspects from it into practice? If so, which ones and how do you practically intend to make them a practice/habit?
What did you not like about this book? What did you find uncomfortable or disagree with?
What are your key takeaways from this book?
Pause and Pray - feel free to use your own words when processing and reflecting on this last chapter or pray the prayer below:
Lord, give me practical, creative, and efficient ways to prepare for hospitality. Break down the barriers that I have put up for myself that keep me from showing hospitality, and replace bad habits and false beliefs with truths about what you are capable of. Help me have the right amount of self-awareness in order to prepare best for ministry based on how you have created me, and help me to encourage others based on their natural giftings as well.
EXTRA READING:
“I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket when of course it is a cross.”
- Flannery O’Connor (1925 - 1964)