Called to be Innkeepers

I've seen evil, but not like this I've seen blessings that don't make sense Can I testify? I've seen miracles I could not buy I've seen power I can't deny So can I testify? I'm gonna shout it out! Now the Lord is good I've seen it all my life Now the Lord is good It's evil then, it's evil now Forevermore I will shout Hallelujah Now the Lord is good Can I testify? He's been with me from the very start He's the only one who has my heart So can I testify? He's the one who never lets me down He's the one who turned my life around Can I testify? I'm gonna shout it out! Now the Lord is good I've seen it all my life Now the Lord is good It's evil then, it's evil now Forevermore I will shout Hallelujah Now the Lord is good Can I testify? The Lord is so good, so faithful Sing with us here this morning, come on You ready? Here we go If you only knew what Jesus saved me from I was in the dark and brought me to the sun

Now I'm living proof of what the Lord has done Yeah, what the Lord has done If you only knew what Jesus saved me from I was in the dark and brought me to the sun Now I'm living proof of what the Lord has done Oh, what the Lord has done If you only knew what Jesus saved me from I was in the dark and brought me to the sun Now I'm living proof of what the Lord has done Of what the Lord has done Yeah, the Lord is good Yeah, the Lord is good Yeah, the Lord is good I've seen it all my life Yeah, the Lord is good We'll sing for lamb, we'll sing for cow Forevermore I will shout Hallelujah Yeah, the Lord is good Can I testify? Can I testify? Can I testify? Amen, hallelujah We praise you Jesus because you're good Thank you for your sacrifice that made us citizens of heaven Thank you because we can come and adore you together as your people We praise you Jesus O come all ye faithful Joyful and triumphant O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem

Come and adore Behold Him, born the King of angels, O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. We'll praise Your name forever. We'll praise Your name forever. We'll praise Your name forever, Christ the Lord. His name shall be wonderful, how similar. His name shall be glorious, how similar. His name shall be glorious, how similar. ♪ Christ the best, Father, His name shall be ♪ ♪ Prince of peace, mighty God, His name shall be ♪ ♪ Emmanuel, yeah ♪ This next song is called Hosanna. And Hosanna's typically a word that we use for praise and worship, but in the Hebrew, it actually means save us, God, save us, please. How thankful are we for a Savior that saves, for a Savior that seeks, amen? Amen, all glory to God. This next song is called Hosanna, yeah. And Hosanna's typically a word that we use for praise ♪ We see His love and mercy ♪ ♪ Washing over all our sin ♪ ♪ People sing, people sing, Hosanna, Hosanna ♪ ♪ Hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪

♪ I see a generation rising up to take their place ♪ ♪ With selfless faith, with selfless faith ♪ ♪ Lasting in irrevival, serving as we pray and sing ♪ ♪ We're on our knees, we're on our knees ♪ ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Oh, we seek You, Lord, oh, we seek You, Lord, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Heal my heart, it's aching, please, please, please, please ♪ ♪ Open up my eyes to the things unseen ♪ ♪ Show me how to love like You have loved me ♪ ♪ Break my heart through a great storm ♪ ♪ Everything, everything I am for Your kingdom's cause ♪ ♪ As I walk the earth into eternity ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ Can we get up? ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪ ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest ♪ Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Merry Christmas. It's early, right? We're talking just a minute about how it's not really as early as we think. Turn to somebody nearby and say Merry Christmas when it gets here. Go ahead and be seated.

Thank you so much for being here today. If we haven't met, I'm Dan Southerland. My privilege to teach today. And I say Merry Christmas because it's 11 days away. How many of you have finished your shopping? I hate you. Wow. Mary and I start every year with a list. And I don't know how it works for you. But we put people kind of most important in our lives at the top of the list. We're going to spend more money there. And for years now, we've been putting Jesus at the very top. Because the reality is it's his birthday. It's him we celebrate. We're going to give together right now. Our service guides are going to pass these buckets. A lot of ways you could give here. Mary and I give online. You could give in these buckets. You could give in the boxes on the way out. You could text to give. But my hope is that all of us will be sure that Jesus is at the top of the list this particular Christmas. Welcome to week two of a series called All In. I-N-N. In with two ins. And we're looking at some in-keeping moments in Scripture. And discovering that there's a lot more to that than meets the eye. There's a lot more to it than you just see on the front end. Last week, Pastor Eric talked to us about the innkeeper at Malta. The guy who took in soldiers and prisoners and Paul himself and made a difference in the kingdom of God.

Three weeks ago, I talked about the innkeeper a little bit in the Good Samaritan story. Because it wasn't just the Samaritan that crossed the racial lines. It was also this innkeeper who took a risk in taking this man in. Next week, Eric will talk to us about the innkeeper in the Christmas story. Who sometimes gets a bad rap for having no room for Jesus. I actually think he was pretty creative to figure out to put him in the stable. To put him in a place that was the least dry and at least warm and at least out of the weather. Today, I'm going to take us back to the Old Testament to look at an innkeeper that's a bit of a surprise. A widow lady who is unknown altogether. In fact, here's something fun for me today. Been a pastor for 50 years. Been speaking for 50 years. I've never taught the passage we're looking at today. It's in 1 Kings 17. So, we're going to go there and talk about this together. Why is this thing a big deal? Why is being an innkeeper, a person of hospitality, a person of care? Why does it matter? Don't miss this. It's not in your notes. I should have put it in there. Nobody cares about your Jesus until they know whether or not you care about them. Nobody cares about our Jesus until we show that we care for them. So, that's where we're headed today. You ready? First thing in your notes, write it in. The perfect place for imperfect people is wherever we are. Now, that's part of our motto here at the local church. The perfect place for imperfect people to experience the presence of God. But here's why it's wherever we go.

Write this in. The church is not a building. I've had people say, hey, I hear you're expanding the church. We are. People join all the time. They become part of us all the time. No, no, I'm talking about the building. That's not the church. The church, write it in, is the people of God on the mission. That's the definition of church. Turn to your neighbor and say, you're the church, baby. Yeah, we are the church. This is what we do, and as the church we are called to be innkeepers. That's our title today, called to be innkeepers. I want to read this passage out of 1 Kings 17. Let me set it up for you. It hasn't rained in three years in the country of Israel, and it hasn't rained because Elijah, the leading prophet, the biggest man of God in that part of the world, the one who God is using in the biggest ways, goes to King Ahab and says, you're so wicked, you're so bad, I'm going to pray it doesn't rain until you repent. And Ahab blows it off, doesn't think it's a big thing. That's where this is set up, but we're now moving into the story, into the passage, 1 Kings 17. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, arise, go to Zarephath and dwell there. I've commanded a widow to feed you. So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there, and he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread. And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And Elijah said to her, make me a little bread and bring it to me, and afterward make something

for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day the Lord sends rain upon the earth. And she went and did what Elijah said, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke to Elijah. I used to teach Old Testament survey and New Testament survey at the college level. Love those classes. Let me give you two minutes' worth of Old Testament history that will help us understand this passage today. There are three sets of first and second books in the Old Testament. Have you seen them? There's first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, there's first and second Samuel, which is actually the first set. They are the history of the kings who rule Israel. So those six books cover approximately 300 years of Hebrew history. Here's the pattern in those books. This is a blank for you to fill in. As goes the king, goes the people. That's actually a famous historical quote at this point. As goes the king, goes the people. Here's what it means. Good president, things go well. Bad president, not so much. Good king, good times. Bad king, bad times. Six bad kings in a row, very bad times. And that's what's just happened. They've had literally 40 plus years of bad leadership, an entire generation of kings

who were wicked and who led their people away from God. And the current king is a guy named Ahab, and he's the most wicked of all. He has said, you don't worship God, you worship false idols. In fact, the church at this time, the worship of Jehovah has gone underground in Israel. Things are bad. Think about how bad it would be if we had our worst six presidents in a row. That's what's going on in this circumstance. Worshiping God has gone underground. Elijah's trying to lead the people of God, but he's now in exile because Ahab has put a wanted, dead, or alive poster out with his name on it. He's Heidi. That's the setting. And the last conversation that Ahab and Elijah had went like this. Elijah said, it's not going to rain for three years until you repent. Not going to rain until you go back to God. And Ahab says, I'm not listening to this, I'm the king of Israel. And literally, it's now been three... years. Now, I'm from the farm, farm people on one side, ranch people on the other side of my family. Here's what I know. Three years of drought, the farms go under. There are no crops. Three years of drought, the livestock begins to die. There's no water to feed them. In an agricultural country like Israel would have been at that time, this is an absolute national disaster. There's no food. There's no water.

There's no wonder that the widow lady was down to her last handful of flour and her last little bit of oil. What do we learn here in the rest of this story? All that's background. Here we go. Write it in. Number one, God does big things through people who give the little they have to Him. God does big things through people who give the little they have to Him. This widow lady and her son are at the end of their rope. She's got enough flour and oil for one meal, one meal, and she can't find it. She can't buy it. And she meets Elijah, the spiritual leader of Israel, who asked, hey, I want some bread out of that last flour and that last oil that you have. Her response, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. This is who God uses to care for Elijah. Now if I'm Elijah, I'm going, this is weird. I mean, I asked God for protection because the king's trying to kill me, and I'm kind of thinking God's going to send me angels. He doesn't. Or I'm thinking God might send me an army. He doesn't. God sends me a widow woman down to her last bit of flour and oil. This is how God is going to rescue me. Here's what I love about this. We think God uses the rich, the powerful, the famous, those in charge. He does, but it's not the bigger rule. The bigger rule is found in Corinthians. God chose those who are regarded as foolish by the world. God chose those in the world who were weak.

God chose those in the world who were lowly and despised, those who count for nothing so that no one could boast. Would you write this in your notes? God doesn't call the qualified. God qualifies the called. He's not looking for big, powerful, in-charge people. He'll use them, but He will use in even bigger ways the soft-spoken, doesn't-have-it-all-together, weaker, not-sure-of-themselves person because the confidence they gain in Christ gives all the glory to God. God will use the little bit you have to do big things if you give it to Him. Mary and I lived in a condo in Kansas City for the first six years that we lived there. It was a rented condo, and the reason was we could not sell or rent the place we still owned in Charlotte. Have you ever been there where you move from one city to another and you're paying for two places, not one? This was 2008, 2009. The economy nationwide was in trouble, but in Charlotte there was a 23% vacancy rate at one time in the city, homes built but vacant, 60,000 bankers lost their job and moved out of town. Charlotte went from being the banking capital of America to not even on the list any longer. We had a condo we couldn't sell and we couldn't rent, so we're making double payments. This is called joy to the world. It was just really a fun time, and this particular Christmas we'd been doing it so long things were a little tight. It was okay, but it was tight, and at that moment Gary came into our lives in a bigger way. Gary was a friend that we had known for some time, but he came to me right before Christmas and said, Dan, I'm finding myself in a divorce that I don't want. My wife is now becoming an alcoholic. She has found another man, and I'm no longer living at the house.

We'll let her stay at the house until we get things settled. I'm staying at a hotel. I said, you're staying at a hotel through the holidays? He said, yeah, it'll be alright. I said, no, it's not alright. You're coming out. our house. You're coming to our house." So he said, all right, I'll come for a few days. He stayed for three months. Now the fun part at our house is this three-bedroom condo we're renting has my grown daughter living in one bedroom, and her baby boy living in the second bedroom, and Mary and I in the third bedroom, so we set up a bed for Gary in the basement next to the water heater and the air conditioner, and he stays three months. Now could he have stayed in the hotel? Yes. But Gary needed somebody to love on him, and we needed the opportunity to love on Gary. God will do big things through us when we share the little bit that we have. Did it make sense financially for us to take Gary in then? No. Did God bless? Yes, He did. First, He does big things through those who give the little they have to Him. Second, when we take care of others, God takes care of us. I love this one. When we take care of others, God takes care of us. Again, the Scripture reminds us, the jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that He spoke through Elijah. For the next three years, Elijah hides from the king who's got a Wanted Dead or Alive poster out on him in plain open sight.

They're looking for Elijah nationwide. Nobody's going to look in the spare room of a widow lady. They're not going to do it. It's a genius plan, and because she's generous to him, sharing her last meal of oil and flour, God is generous to her. Every day, there's a miracle that takes place. Now, notice this. The Scripture does not say, her flour jar filled to the top. Doesn't say that. Doesn't say the oil jug got filled to the top. It says every day it didn't run out. God takes care of those who take care of others. Look at Proverbs 11, he who helps others will be helped himself. Proverbs 19, whoever's generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Here is the truth of this. Are you ready? You cannot outgive God. You can't. How can you be more generous than the Most High? How can we be more generous than the one who gave his only Son for us? God blesses us when we bless others. We taught our kids growing up that our house was a hotel. Here's what that meant. You can invite any friends you want to spend the night or to spend a week, especially if they're in crisis. Anybody you want, especially those who are in crisis. And one day when our daughter was a freshman, we had just moved from Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte. She called me on her phone and said, Dad, I need you to come pick me up at school.

I'm not sick, but Catherine is in trouble. Will you please come get me? Catherine was Dana's best friend who still lived here in South Florida and whose mom was the head of the Colombian, why can't I ever get this word right, consulate in Miami. Powerful woman for the Colombian government. So I picked Dana up, my daughter, and she says, Dad, Catherine's mom beat her this morning and then threw her out of the house. She can't go to the police. Her mom has diplomatic immunity. We got to help her, Dad. Will we help her? Now she already knew the answer. If your house is a hotel, if your lives are open to help people, she knew what the answer was. So I said, sure. Dana, what do you want to do? Dangerous question to ask a teenage daughter. She said, Dad, I've already figured out, I think we could get her a taxi to get her from the downtown area where she is to the airport, and if you'll go ahead and buy her ticket, then she could get it there at the American counter. She had this mapped out. So I said, done. We'll take Catherine in for a few days. She stayed six months. Now double teenage girl hormones in the same house for six months. You with me? But it was awesome. It was awesome to watch my daughter share. her stuff in her room with her friend. It was awesome that my daughter cared enough about somebody else to want us to take care

of them. And six months later, when there became another safe place for her with family, she went back to be with family. But to this day, she's part of us, and we're part of her. God takes care of us when we take care of others. First, He uses people with little to do big things. Second, we take care of others, God takes care of us. Here's the third truth. I love this one. I want to say it carefully but clearly. God multiplies our acts of generosity. Would you write that in? He multiplies our generosity. Now when we become innkeepers, when we open our homes, our tables, our lives, our holidays to people that are in need, God will bless and multiply that act of generosity. Elijah stays in this widow's extra room for three years. The daily miracle for three years of just enough oil, just enough flour. The daily miracle of nobody's finding her even though the government is looking for Elijah everywhere. All this starts with a widow woman who's willing to offer her home. Now here's the crazy part. You ready? We don't even know her name. She's the star of an entire chapter of Scripture, 1 Kings 17, and it never mentions her name. Now when I get to heaven, I'm going to sit down and talk with Elijah. The guy did some cool stuff. I want to hear about it. But I want to meet this woman. I want to know what kind of bravery did that take? Were you scared when you did that?

Did you wonder every morning was there going to be enough flour and enough oil? Look at what Deuteronomy says, because you listen to my commands and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. Wow. I like that. I want to know that I'm loved, that I'm blessed, that I'm multiplied. Write this in. When we obey God, he blesses us and others. When we obey God, he blesses us and others. Now let me take a sidestep here. If a preacher anywhere on TV or live in a church has told you that if you give to God, God will make you rich, look this way, he lied. He lied. By that definition, Jesus died a failure. He gave his entire life and died poor. It does not say if you're generous to others, God will make you rich. It says that he will multiply your faithfulness. He will multiply your generosity. He will multiply your hospitality when we obey God. Yes, yes, he blesses us and he blesses others. So let's wrap this up. Here's the question of the day. You ready? Who do we need to take in this Christmas? There's lots of ways to take somebody in at Christmas. There's a bless the halls, the project we're doing to take care of people. There's gifts for the kids in the school. Maybe you want to adopt a family this Christmas and care for them.

But it may be that you end up opening your table, your home, your Christmas, your life. In fact, I hope you've already got a name in mind. Would you write a name in the blank? Write a name there. Maybe God's already given you somebody. Maybe you're already ahead of this. You've already done it. Way to go. That's awesome. One more story from our kids growing up. When Dana was a sophomore in high school, she's now been in Charlotte. This is her second year. She became friends with Jody. And Jody was also a sophomore. Her dad was a former pastor. Jody, it had a one-time, spontaneous, random hookup that caused her to become pregnant. At this particular Christmas Eve, she's five months pregnant and showing. It's kind of obvious. It's Christmas Eve. Mary and Jared and Dana and I are sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner, and my daughter's phone rings. It's now the rule. It's now the rule. house and she turned your phone off near the meals, unless you're a teenage girl, and then you do whatever you want. So her phone rang and I kind of gave her the look. She said, I'll be right back. She disappeared. She's gone about three minutes. It came back furious, obviously angry.

I said, what's going on? She said, that was Jodi. She said, she's by herself tonight. Her parents left her at home to go spend the weekend with the grandmother. They won't take her because they're embarrassed that she's pregnant. So I looked at my daughter and again asked a dangerous question. What do you want to do about this? She said, I'm going to go pick her up and bring her here. I said, dang right you are. And you're going to get a bag and pack three days worth of clothes because she's going to stay with us Christmas Eve and stay with us Christmas Day and stay with us the day after. And Dana, we don't have gifts for Jodi. So tomorrow when we give out gifts, half of the stuff that you got, we're going to give to Jodi. But on the day after Christmas, I'll take you both out and shop and make it up, okay? Okay. One of the best Christmases we ever had started with a sobbing teenage girl who was hurt that her parents were too embarrassed to take her to the family outing of Christmas. We who are in Christ need to be innkeepers for those who are not yet in Christ. Would you write that in? We who know Christ become the innkeepers for those who don't yet know Christ, especially when they're in crisis. This is why we open up our homes. This is why we open up our hearts. This is why we open our table. This is why we open our Christmas. Here's the challenge. Become the safe place for some imperfect person this Christmas. That may mean just giving them a gift or just sharing a meal with them or inviting

somebody over for the day. It's not always six months, three months, even three days. Now we've done this dozens of times. Did they all go this well? No. No. I could tell you train wreck stories too, but you know what else I could tell you? My grown children run hotels in their houses now. They invite people in all the time. They think that's normal. They think that's what you do when you're an innkeeper for Christ. If you're here today and you're ready to say yes to Jesus, let me quickly tell you that it's a two-part decision. Repent and believe. Repent means I'm going to quit being in charge of my life and let Jesus be in charge. I'm going to make that U-turn. And believe means that I choose to believe that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. In fact, Romans says confess Jesus as Lord and believe God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. If you've made that decision today, you can fill out that Connect card in the seat back in front of you, hand it to one of our service guides in the lobby. If you'd like to make that decision today, our prayer partners are going to be down front. In fact, prayer partners, come on down. They're coming down right now. We're going to pray together in just a minute. If you'd like to give your life to Christ, come talk to one of these people. If you'd like somebody to pray for you today, come talk to one of these folks. If you don't know the words to use, they know the words. We have a time of prayer every week at the local church.

We call it family prayer. And it's my privilege to lead this today. So here's what we do. We all stretch out a hand toward the front and we pray for these requests that have been turned in. I'm going to pray out loud. Would you join me in prayer for a handful of the requests that came in this week? Father, thank you for inviting us to pray. Thank you for telling us to pray. We pray specifically, Lord, for these that are part of us that have asked for prayer today. We pray for Graham and Alyssa, that you give them wisdom about their relationship. We pray for Myrna, who is caring for her aging husband, Bob. Give him health, Lord, and her wisdom and patience and strength. We pray for Liz. in a financial crisis, God be her peace, be her provision. We pray for Fernando who put in a card last week that said, I just want to be more like Jesus. I know Father you'll answer that prayer. We pray for Lizanne who's got a new job and is thanking you for it. We pray for Kelly who has health problems. Father come and give peace to her. Jesus be the great physician in her life. We pray for all the hurting and the lonely and depressed that are around us this year and we pray especially that every one of us would choose to be innkeepers who open our home, our tables, our Christmas, our lives to those who don't know you yet. Thank you Jesus for how you love us and how you'll use us this Christmas. In Christ we make this prayer. Amen. These prayer partners are going to stay down front. We're going to worship a bit more. Will you stand to your feet and join us? In the darkness we were waiting, without hope, without light. Till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes. To fulfill the law and promise, to a virgin came the word. From a throne of endless glory, to a cradle in the dirt. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one.

God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. To reveal the kingdom coming, and to reconcile the lost. To redeem the whole creation, you did not despise a cross. For even in your suffering, you saw to the other side, knowing this was our salvation. Jesus for our sake you died. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. Yeah, we pray today. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. ♪ Jesus Christ, who was resurrected me ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son ♪ ♪ Praise the Spirit, three in one ♪ ♪ God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Gloria alfade, gloria alfade ♪ ♪ Bless all your glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory ♪ ♪ Salvador, gloria al Santo Espíritu ♪ ♪ Rey de reyes haya como tú ♪ ♪ Rey de reyes haya como tú ♪ ♪ Rey de reyes haya como tú ♪