Video Transcript: Hospitality People Smart

Henry - Welcome back to the fellowship and hospitality ministry class. Today  we're going to talk about hospitality people smart. I guess there's something  important to know about when you're gonna do hospitality. These are like soft  skills that help you do hospitality and fellowship. Okay, the first one  

Pam – Pray about who you will meet today,  

Henry - Okay, this one's a real one, especially for hospitality.  

Pam - tie into God's plan for meeting people. Colossians 4:6, Let your  conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know  how to answer every one.  

Henry - I find it interesting, the power of prayer. And when you actually start  praying, that God will put people in your life and more people will show up in  your life. And I know we pray for you to be in our lives. And we pray on a regular  basis that the gospel reaching more and more people go forward into the world  that you as leaders will reach more and more people that we pray for that. We  want a lot more strangers to come in to hear about the gospel to get trained as  Christian leaders and to exercise their calling and reconsider a prayerful journey. Notice a Stranger in a positive light,  

Pam - what plan may God have for you to meet new people Colossians 4:5, be  wise in the way you act toward outsiders make the most of every opportunity.  

Henry - This goes directly in contrast to the Roman and Greek view, having a  positive regard for people that you don't know. But Christianity has a positive  regard for people. And I reflect on this, even people who are enemies of the  gospel, we have a hopeful and positive regard that they will become friends of  Jesus Christ. We know Paul often says, once you were enemies of the gospel.  And now you are friends, you've been transformed, like we always know that all  of us in our sinful nature are far from God. Thank God, he's redeemed us. And  we are born again into a new and living hope to the resurrection of the dead of  Jesus Christ from the dead. So in a lot of ways, people who don't know, why  would we have a negative attitude toward them, we want them to be part of it.  Now. I do know that God has a plan, you might have a positive connection with  someone who ultimately hurts you. That is true, right? And we've experienced  that. But it does not take away our passion to be warm and opening to people  and what happens is still in God's hands.  

Pam - Absolutely. Do not have an angle. Meet people motivated by knowing God has a purpose, be as transparent as appropriate. 

Henry - Philippians 2:13, for it is God who works in you to will and to act  according to his good purpose. In people smart thinking, ultimately, there's a lot  of dependency on God and His purposes. I'm gonna meet somebody and then  get something out of it. Right? You ultimately love your neighbor. You want them  to do well in Jesus Christ. And God has a purpose that we're gonna get into I  notice too the walls that we could go down and we have gone down where we're trying to figure out what God's purpose is, and how frustrating that can be.  Sometimes we're obedient, loving people, obedient people obedient and  fellowship, and then things don't happen exactly how we think they should go  and how we take it upon ourselves.  

Pam - Or whatever it is, yeah, it's true, but we ultimately know God is at work.  And he's working in that situation and those people and then it was something  we needed to grow in or something they're growing and we just, we let  , 

Henry - we let the Lord trust and then it makes us even more people smart  aware such as  

Pam – Be a listener. Be curious when meeting new people  

Henry - James 1:19 My dear brothers take note of this, everyone should be  quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry in hospitality and  fellowship there's nothing hardly that compares to being slow to speak to listen  and we have a whole people smart class that deals extensively with how to  become an activator. We have the influence smart class, thef course, that deal  with such principles of  

Pam - be careful, keep safe boundaries. Before  

Henry - Luke 15:27, your brother has come he replied and your father has killed  the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound. I put that passage  in there because I love the concept that safe is good. Sometimes I feel like we  can sort of downplay that. And I've learned from you that I remember once upon  a time, in my hospitality moment, I actually asked a intoxicated man to come into the car and I gave him a ride. You were driving me to work.  

Pam - Right, and we just believe the Lord would keep us safe.  

Henry - But at first, I felt so self righteous. I did. As I look back now, and even  other things that I did feel to be hospitable. And sometimes I put our family in 

danger, and I dont want to theologize that a way as well. God has a purpose and all that other, you know that  

Pam - your heart is protected.  

Henry - But more appreciation now for safe boundaries, while still  

Pam - being daring. Be daring. March 6:7, calling the twelve to him, he sent  them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.  

Henry - And I believe that more now than I've ever believed in my whole life. And I guess with a line that I go to today is be daring, where there's teachable hearts  where there's opportunity, don't have been daring with people who just are so  uninterested in talking to them, to some, we are the fragrence of life in II  Corinthians and others where the wisdom, the other stench of death and the  fragrance of life, but be daring, where it's appropriate to be daring. Be safe,  where it's appropriate to be safe, are some of the things as I am now sitting here with you. I'm 60 years young because you learn the people smart thing. Very,  very important.  

Pam - Open your network to include others seek to include the new person or  persons in your circle. Acts 9:27, but Barnabas took him and brought him to the  apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey has seen the Lord and that the  Lord had spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus  

Henry - need to say more but I will tell you some of my most intense and  powerful networkers. mentors. People who advanced the gospel would be so  willing like Barnabas to open the network and I know that to open my network to  people who I deemed were sincere and had something to offer for the for the  advance of the gospel. When you share Christian leaders Institute, you're  opening your network to ministry training, and the incredible open us to  someone else you're opening to them and who knows what can happen by that  ultimate sharing, I am so amazed to think about all of these things. You know,  we can talk about a lot more people, smart types of things. And each of them  you know, we did a whole course on this. But the thing about people smart is to  get your boundaries down into be a listener, and to love people and to grow into  learn how to be more and more strong in some of those areas. I know I gotta  say, to a shy girl like you when I married you today. I mean, you are as people  smart as ever, and is fun to watch. When people come over, feel comfortable  when they're really, really scared and your faithfulness and obedience. And in  wherever you are, if you're too much of a talker, ask the Holy Spirit to make you 

a better listener, if you're not as much of a talker need to talk more than you  know more. If you're one who have certain hygiene, people smart things that  hurt your ministry. So you're out how to wear clothes that serve the gospel, in  some ways, developing people smart common sense, asking the Lord to help  you figure that out appropriate for your family, calling your ministry there, the  goal is not to try to change you, but to make you more effective and that's really  what people smart types are all about. So I'm looking forward to our next one  where we're going to talk about how to receive the gift of hospitality. So not only  can you share it, what happens if you are the receiver? Are there some things  that can help you receive the gift of hospitality