Do for one what you wish you could do for many

Automatically generated from the video captions and lightly tidied, so expect the odd misheard word.

Today we are going to go we are going to do book club. Do we have a slide for book club? Perfect. Now I know some people were expecting church but I decided we're going to do book club. Anyone here enjoy reading books? Yay.

Okay. We have quite a few people who enjoy reading books actually. And I really enjoyed reading books. And at our two previous churches we had a book club. And I'm not going to say that I'm gonna start a book club, but if anybody here likes reading books and wants to start a book club, I'll come. The book we are going to be looking at today is a book called Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Gera.

I actually do have the physical book, but I forgot to bring it. Unreasonable Hospitality. This is a leadership book. Will Gera I don't know if he's a Christian or not. It's not specifically for Christians. He wrote it mainly for people in hospitality.

So in he is basically a restaurant tour and in the space of seven years he took over a mid-range brasserie in New York and took it from zero stars to three Michelin stars from not even being on the list of the top 50 restaurants in the world to the number one restaurant in the world in the space of seven years. And so in reasonable hospitality is a lot of the concepts and the motivations behind AI nowadays is running rampant. It is so huge. Everyone uses AI. But the statistics from the BBC recently is that one in three people have used AI to for relational connection. So have poured out problems in the past and sought guidance from AI and one in 25 people regularly seek connection and interaction from AI.

So what that looks like is that in this room at least one person every single day is getting their relationship and getting their interaction from AI from computer. H and what that looks like is that probably about 10 people in this room have at some point turn to AI for advice. I'm going to be vulnerable guys. I've done that. So, you know, I'm one of that 10. There's nine more of you.

But that's not what God calls us to do. He doesn't he doesn't he doesn't put us down on earth and say, "Okay, be in relationship with AI and me." No, he says, "Be in relationship with each other." That's what that's what we're created for. And so I believe that the church is the hope of the world, but that people can find Jesus through other people. People can feel the love of Jesus through people. So we're going to look at a verse in Galatians, but let me tell you a little bit about the context of the verse. So there is a guy called Paul and Paul had a he didn't he didn't know Jesus when Jesus was alive.

He didn't follow Jesus when Jesus was alive. Jesus had died and rose again before Paul even became a believer. But from the time that Paul became a believer until his death, his whole mission was to live for Jesus and encourage other people to live for Jesus. So, a lot of he's written a lot of the New Testament and a lot of the letters. So, this is a letter that he's sending to a church in Galatia. It's what it's actually his first letter that he ever wrote.

And he is he's saying he's these are people who have no understanding. They're not Jewish people. They're people who have heard the gospel. They've heard, "Oh, this is Jesus guy. He died for my sins and rose again. Wow, I want to live for him.

How do I live for him? Do I still need to sacrifice things? Do I still need to do?" and he's like, "Calm down." So, first he taught them when he was there and now he's sending a letter and saying, "This is how you live. You love Jesus and you want to live for him. This is how you live." So, what it says is, so let's not get tired of doing what is good. I'm tired today.

I'm tired in general all the time and ever since I was pregnant the very first time and never left. But do not get tired of doing what is good. I get so tired of doing what is good. Especially when it's not reciprocated. I get tired of this is me. This is my selfishness, guys.

Because there's not too many of us. I'm going to I'm going to be This is my therapy. I get tired of doing good things for my kids because they don't appreciate it. I get tired of doing good things for my husband because sometimes he appreciates it and sometimes he doesn't and sometimes he shows appreciation in a way that I don't understand. I get tired of doing good all the time. But Paul is telling the Christians in Galatia and us here today, don't get tired of doing good.

Why? At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up. Man, I want that harvest now. But what I know what I know is that it's going to come and it may not come in this lifetime but it will come. So that's the promise that we have. Therefore this is the next part beautiful part.

Whenever have the whenever we have the opportunity we should do good to everyone especially to those in the family of the faith. So we are called to do good for those who are Christian. And it's not saying especially those who are L15 like yes we should do something do good to everyone especially those in L-15 but it means everyone in the household of the faith. So, someone's in a different church and they do things a little bit differently. Do good to them anyway because they're of the household of the faith. Maybe there's maybe there's there's a church where everyone comes wearing suits and ties and that's not our style, but that's not wrong.

They're still they're brothers and sisters in Christ. We're going we're going to be singing in heaven with them. Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of the faith. But do we ever see opportunity? And if we see opportunity, do we ever do something about it? This is something that I think God calls us to which we see right here.

But it's a concept that very few people follow through with. And I am someone who is learning to do that. But I want to I want to highlight my friend Rebecca here who is excellent at doing this. She is she's a person who she sees a need and she writes a card. She's makes you feel special. Like on my birthday, she gave me like 20 packets of nails and I'm a nail girly and I felt seen because but I think it's one of these it's one of these things that it doesn't come Well, it didn't doesn't come naturally for me, but when I see it in someone else, it makes me want to do it for So there is an excellent quote that says, "Do for the one what you wish you could do for the many." So it's originally an Andy Stanley quote.

Andy Stanley is an is a is a preacher in a large church in America, but actually Will Gera quoted it in his unreasonable hospitality book. And it's applicable for Christians, but it's applicable to everyone in light in everyday life. Do for the one what you wish you could do for the many. How does something come up and it kind of a thought and it goes like this. Oh, I see Shelly and Shel's kids and my kids get along really well and she's having a tough time. Maybe I'll offer to babysit her kids.

It'll be easy. They go to the same school. We live on the same road. It'll give her a break for a couple of hours. Oh, but Shel's really close to Susan and Susan's kids are a lot younger and they live in a on the other side of the city and if I offered to mind Shell's kids, I can't offer to mind Susan's kids. So, it never happens.

Or what about, oh, I want to meet that person for coffee, but that person has text me and that person has text me and that person has text me and I never got back to it and the overwhelm. But what I like about this concept just do for that one person what you wish you could do for everyone. Guys, the enemy wants nothing more than for us to be overwhelmed because when we're overwhelmed, we freeze and we do nothing. But God calls us to and to not be overwhelmed and to do the next right thing. So do for the one what you wish you could do for the many because I believe that the kingdom of God and I've seen it throughout the Bible. It works one person at a time.

When Jesus saw the woman at the that was what he spoke to one person and he changed her life. When Jesus saw Zakius in the tree and said, "Follow me." He changed his life one person at a time. My auntie Verina, who I referred to there was a time when I was about Micah's age, about 9 or 10, where my dad got really, really unwell and he was in intensive care. We weren't sure what was going to happen. It was a very, very traumatic time. And she showed up to our doorstep with a week's worth of groceries.

And these were not last week of the month groceries. These were I've just gotten a bonus groceries. It wasn't Okie dokies. It was hunky dory's. It was Hines beans high ketchup Andrex toilet paper. My first and last time.

But in that moment, what was a very traumatic time, there was just a little bit of joy. She couldn't fix my dad. She couldn't help him health-wise, but she could do one practical thing to love us. And so and so that's what the do for the one what you wish you could do for the there's another quote in the book unreasonable hospitality saying service is black and white, hospitality is color. And that's attributed to the author Will Gera. And he explains it like this.

Service is showing up. Service is doing the thing. But when he says the word hospitality, he's saying hospitality is going that one step further. Service is coming to church. But hospitality is meeting together. Service is being part of a team.

Hospitality is including people. Service is even for example like in your work service is going to your to your 9 to5 9 to5 and keeping to yourself in during lunch hour but hospitality is I don't want to talk to this person but that person seems really down let me just go out of my comfort zone and see how they are that's what he refers to as hospitality is color. It's seeing the person and I and I think that's where we as a church really have a great opportunity to step into. There's a the next quote says, "People will forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you make them feel." And this is him quoting Maya Angelou when Oz and I were still in Dublin before a church plant was ever in our minds. We participated in church. We were part of a local church.

We served and we were we had we led a local Bible study group. There was a couple who had just recently starting attend started attending and one evening late at night my husband got a call. The wife had unfortunately lost a baby and they had just been discharged from hospital and had no way home. It was extremely late. So at the time we were in Dublin city center. My husband went and picked them up, but on the way to picking them up, because we'd learned from my auntie Verina, he stopped by the 24-hour Tesco and he got them groceries and he brought them and their groceries home from the now, I didn't even remember this until two years ago.

So, the first story that happened was 10 years ago. And then two years ago, we got a text message saying announcing the birth of a healthy baby and them saying, "You were with us." in our darkest times and we wanted to celebrate this with you. And when we got that text, I was like, what are they talking about? And Oz had to remind me because see this is the thing for us. It was a minor inconvenience, you know, like I stayed home with the kids. Yes, maybe it was like 50 or 100 quid and Oz went out, picked them up, dropped them home.

Wasn't that big a deal. It wasn't that big a deal to me. That's why I could not remember it. But it was a big deal to them because they felt it. They felt loved in that moment in their darkest moments. So people will forget Oh, sorry.

If we can just go back one more time. People will forget what you do, but they will never forget how you make them feel. So I don't know why we have the this the next quote. Again, do for the one what you what you wish you could do for the many. And then if we can move to the next slide. Excellent.

So that is my that is my first point today is to do for the one what you wish you could do for the many. We had a beautiful story from another church that really encapsulated this and it was lady girl on kids team who kept showing up kept showing up kept showing up and one Sunday she didn't show up and her sister was there and the lady who was running it asked where she was because she was always there and she said you know what actually she's in hospital she's giving birth she's it's a surprise pregnancy. She's hit it. There's a lot of shame involved. And this is a team member part of the church. And the pastor of that church immediately got on made sure that her team leader had the credit card and went out and bought a pram and a and clothes.

And he gave they actually had a really great time shopping for it. They she he gave the team leader and his wife the authority and said whatever you want for your baby, buy it for her. And that's what it looks like. Do for the one what you wish you could do for the many. Nobody, no church has that in their budget, but they can do it for one. And if we can do it for one, we will.

And that and that's what that's the impact that can have. Now that is that is a very expensive example, but she is a key member in their team. And you know what? You know what that was? That was Jesus love in That's the Jesus of the Bible. That's not the church.

That's not how some of sometimes the church would see it. That's the Jesus of the Bible who says g leave your guilt, leave your shame, and just follow me. I love you. And so now, Paul also wrote to Thessalonian church. We're going to look at a it up here. It's so good.

It's on my t-shirt. We share more than Sundays. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God's good news but our own lives, too. So, so he's writing he's writing this letter to a group of people and encouraging them how to live. He had he had gone and he had spent time speaking there, preaching there and he knew that they knew the gospel. He knew that they knew the good word, the good news because he was the one who presented it.

But he didn't just come and give No, we loved you so much that we shared with you not only God's good news. I mean, we could we could put a full stop there and be like, actually, sharing God's good news, that's the difference between eternal life and death. Like, that's enough. You could love me, excuse me, you could love me to the ends and back and just share with me God's good news and I will feel loved. But no, he took it further and said, but we shared our own lives, too. And that's what the church is.

The church is not is not this is Sunday service and this is this is part of what the church does. But the church is in the everyday. The church is in is on the Monday texting someone and saying how are you doing? The church is in the Tuesday going for coffee with someone. The church is in the Wednesday, excuse me, going to Alpha. The church is in the Thursday when you meet up with someone for coffee.

The church is in the Friday just dropping over a meal to someone. The church is in the Saturday band practice where we meet up and we do Bible study and we worship together, not only rehearse. The church is in Yes. The church is in our team meetings in the morning. The church. This is also the church.

But the church is in the Sunday afternoons when you go for lunch. When you when you look at someone and say, "I've not had a conversation with you. Let's go for lunch. Let's share our lives with each other." And I think we had a amazing experience of that last week where we went to the barbecue where Carman and Janice opened up their home and it was so fantastic how so many people were so generous and brought there was so much food and we just had a good time and we shared our lives. We shared stories. We shared a lot of bad karaoke from me but a lot of laughs and that is the church.

The church again it's not just Sunday service and this is why this is why on a Sunday we do have such a specific time length. It's intentional. It's intentional that we're done at 12. Why? So that you can not only go to church but you can be the church. So that on Sunday afternoons you have that time that opportunity to be the church and share your life.

So guys I have a radical challenge for you before we finish up. It's two things actually and it's based on our two our two verses that we came from. There we go. So from Galatians, do for one what you wish you could do for the many. And I'm going to I'm going to pause right here and this is not a sound bite. This is a this is a challenge a challenge for you guys.

And I want you right now to think of someone either in this room or in the kids' room. And I want you to think of a person and what you're going to do. So I want you I want you to now commit. I'm not going to go around the room and put pressure on, but I want you if any of this has resonated with you, if any of this hits you, I want you to think of something nice that you can say or do for someone. Let me give you some examples. You can send a text.

You can invite someone out for coffee. You can invite someone over for lunch. You can have a chat with someone. Make someone feel seen. It doesn't have to cost So, I'm going to now I have someone in my mind and I'm committing to doing something for them. So, I'm going to do for the one what I wish I could do for the many.

And I'm sorry if I don't offer anyone a cup of coffee because I'm finite just like you guys. But you know what? If every single person in here invites one person for a c for a cup of coffee, think of the difference that's going to make. So do for the one what you wish you could do for the many. And I pray in Jesus' name that we do that one thing this week. If there's anything if there's anything that you take away from this is I is that one action.

And then my second challenge to you share your life. And isn't isn't that probably the harder you know, do for the one. Yeah, I can send a text, you know, do for the one. Yeah, I can I can, you know, show up with groceries, you know, because that's easy. Because that's it's showing them love but then I can pull away again. But sharing your life is Sharing your life means being seen.

Sharing your life actually it can be But this is where this is where we see Jesus's example. He didn't just give the information and say there you go be done with it. He stepped into humanity. He shared his life. He gave his life. And look at what a difference it has So my two challenges today are do for one what you wish you could do for the many and share your