Episode 1335: Quenching Thirst

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,335 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:07] Catherine Cantey: I am Catherine Cantey. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to lead yourself and others is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:41] Scott Maderer: One response to this is to become one of those barriers of cold water, to reach out with hospitality and take it more seriously to recognize that hospitality is the job of all of us, and the other is actually about receiving that hospitality. To [00:01:00] be grateful for the cup of cold water that we're given by others to welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:09] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you. Can impact the world.

[00:01:36] A spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Matthew chapter 10, verses 40 through 42. I share how we are all called to not just share the message of Christ, but to be the message of Christ. And I also talk about how that is a call to radical hospitality. Matthew chapter 10, verses 40 through 42 says, Whoever welcomes you, welcomes [00:02:00] me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

[00:02:03] Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones and the name of a disciple.

[00:02:20] Truly, I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. You know, this passage picks up. Right after last week's passage ended in Matthew, and it has this reference to cold water, giving a drink of water as an act of hospitality. And if you think about it, I, I think that's something that we can all relate to of having a, going over to someone's house and having a, a glass of water or tea or some other refreshing cold drink offered to us as part of hospitality, it seems relatively, Short and sweet, straightforward, and to the point, but the [00:03:00] context here, remember that gospel from last week where there was shouting and whispering and peace and swords, and about sparrows and the number of hairs on our head and all of this sort of thing.

[00:03:13] Jesus is preparing. His disciples to go out and tell the good news, and this part of the passage is at the end of that story. It's part of him preparing them for their first mission trip or their first evangelical trip, but he's not sending them out to drive nails or clean up disaster areas. Instead, he's sending them out to knock on doors and say, would it be all right to talk with you about Jesus?

[00:03:39] And if you think about it, that's something that we're familiar with today and a lot of folks, even Christian folks, don't necessarily appreciate it. He doesn't really give a lot of instructions on how to conduct themselves. Instead, it's sort of like they have to figure that part out on their own. But Jesus is setting the context or the the framework in which the mission [00:04:00] is to take place, but leaving the exact how-tos kind of up to us.

[00:04:05] But he concludes this with these words about welcoming. Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and at first glance, it seems like we're passing off the responsibility to the other person. Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. It's up to them to get it. It, it's like it's an escape. Cause for the disciples. If this doesn't work, then oh, that's their problem.

[00:04:29] No one can force someone to listen, right? No one can force 'em to hear the word. Instead, it's up to the recipient to get the response right. It's up to the convert or the potential convert to figure out how to respond. And if they miss out on it, too bad, so sad, bad luck for them, just move on. They don't want what we're selling.

[00:04:49] Tough luck. And it's true that we can't really force a positive response to Christ. And in the end, free will means both the freedom to say [00:05:00] yes and the freedom to say no. And individuals do have to bear some level of responsibility for. Their own answer and their own souls and what they do. But if you think about what Jesus says in general, there's not a lot of take it or leave it kind of approach to the message.

[00:05:20] There's, there's not a lot of evangelism by Jesus that the responsibility just lies on the other person. Instead, I think Jesus over and over again makes it. Clear that the responsibility of the community to care for one another, that their salvation is wrapped up in ours. What we do for our neighbors, what we do for the orphan, what we do for the least of us, and those that aren't like us, matters for our US as well.

[00:05:49] Instead, if we read the passage again, Jesus seems to be telling his disciples, and by extension us about this sharing of the faith thing, the spreading of the gospel, and that [00:06:00] challenge to do that whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one. Who sent me What if the burden here is not really on the one who responds, the one who welcomes you, but rather on the one who's seeking to present Christ into the world.

[00:06:15] What if Jesus is not giving the disciples a free pass on this hospitality thing, but instead is raising the bar? He says, your task isn't just to show up and kind of go, Hey, you wanna come to church with me? You really don't do. You didn't think so. Leave you alone. But instead, our task is to actually be Christ, to represent and represent God every time we meet and greet and engage in conversation with all.

[00:06:43] And Sunday, whoever we talk to, whenever we talk to him. And we can't just say, well, that's the job for the professional Christians, the pastors, the evangelists, those people, they have to be presenting Christ. You know, I just show up on Sunday and kind of consume the good music and everything's [00:07:00] done. No, Jesus is saying whoever welcomes a prophet, whoever welcomes a righteous one, whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these children, to one of these little ones.

[00:07:11] And there's argument about exactly what the passage means, but it seems to say that it's not just about that hour once a week. Instead, the prophets, the pastors, the teachers, those called out, yes, they have a job, but so do each of us, every one of us. Every little person or big person, every young person, every elder, every new Christian, and every lifelong saint that's been raised in the church from the very beginning of time.

[00:07:41] We all have to be the fi, the face of Christ to the stranger, to our neighbor, to our family, to our friends, to those we love, and to even to those that we don't get along with. One response to this is to become one of those bearers of cold water, to reach out with hospitality and take it [00:08:00] more seriously to recognize that hospitality is the job of all of us, and the other is actually about receiving that hospitality to be grateful for the cup of cold water that we're given by others to see in our gratitude.

[00:08:19] As well as our generosity, the face of Christ, whoever, whoever welcomes you, welcomes me. This whole message about hospitality and about radical hospitality is about living every day being the face of Christ. Whether you love the person, whether you like the person, or whether you don't necessarily like the person all that much.

[00:08:47] You're still called to be Christ, to be that loving face, to be the generous heart, both giving and receiving. Thanks for listening.[00:09:00]

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