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Radical Empathy | UNREASONABLE HOSPITALITY (Pt.3) | Steve Clifford

Radical Empathy | UNREASONABLE HOSPITALITY (Pt.3) | Steve Clifford

📺 LIVE ONLINE SERVICES each Sunday at 8:30am | 10:00am | 11:30am PT ◾️ Have you ever wondered how we could develop radical empathy by combating loneliness and building meaningful connections? Do you find it easy or challenging to love one another and extend this love to strangers, even in the midst of suffering and adversity? ◾️ We are going dive into history to see how early Christians stood out for their acts of mercy and hospitality despite the harsh conditions of first-century Roman cities. High population density, poor sanitation, and rampant disease. How did they manage to provide care and support in such dire circumstances? ◾️ Join us today as we continue our series filled with love, "Unreasonable Hospitality." Together we'll learn the practical ways to live out the call to this hospitality today and honor others above ourselves, celebrate victories across different communities, and reach into the pain and suffering around us. Let's grow together as a community, developing radical love and radical empathy. ✅ Check-in to let us support you in your journey. If you’re new here, you’ll also receive a free digital gift card! https://echo.church/checkin → ✋ Decided to follow Jesus? We’d love to guide you in the next steps in your faith journey! https://echo.church/yes → 💌 If this message encourages you, SHARE IT with a friend! LIKE & subscribe so you don’t miss our latest videos. → 🙏🏽Need Prayer? TEXT our Prayer Line: (408) 716-1675 Thanks for joining us! ====================

Locations & Times

Echo.Church | North San Jose Campus

1180 Murphy Ave, San Jose, CA 95131, USA

Sunday 8:30 AM

Sunday 10:00 AM

Sunday 11:30 AM

Sunday 4:00 PM

Sunday 5:30 PM

📜 Hebrews 13 Scripture Reading During Worship?
💡Population Of Cities
💡 Density
💡 Health, Cleanliness, And Filth
📖 The Triumph of Christianity Rodney Stark –
|| “The smell of sweat, urine, feces, and decay permeated everything. Outside: mud, open sewers, manure and crowds. Human corpses–adults as well as newborn–were sometimes just pushed into an open sewer…no wonder everyone was so fond of incense…Worse yet, flies, mosquitoes, and other insects flourish where there is stagnant water and filth.”
~ Rodney Stark, The Triumph Of Christianity
💡 Disease, Plague, And Pandemic!
🔸 No one knew how to treat the stricken and no one tried…except the Christians!
🔸Women were especially susceptible.
|| "Hence, when their first symptom appeared, victims often were thrown into the streets, where the dead and dying lay in piles. In a pastoral letter written during the second epidemic (ca. 251), Bishop Dionysius described events in Alexandria: “At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape”
~ Rodney Stark, The Triumph Of Christianity
🔸 Thucydides describes Athens in 2nd century plague:
🔸 Christians outlived their pagan neighbors in spite of persecution.
📜 Hebrews 13 Scripture Reading?
💡 Consistent Command, Amazing Adventure, Incredible Challenge Of Christian Hospitality!
1. The CONSISTENT COMMAND Of Hospitality. (13:1)
🔸 KEEP On Loving One Another As Brothers And Sisters.
|| Hospitality (Filipe’s def) -- "the practice of welcoming, hosting and caring for others, especially strangers with uncommon warmth, generosity and love.”
~ Filipe Santos
⫸ Hospitality (10 times in NT)
⫸ Described as family love extended to strangers
⫸ Commanded to be done without complaint or grumbling
⫸ Requirement for elders and church leaders
⫸ Description of people showing it to Paul and his party
|| “When radical love is most displayed, God is often most revealed.”
~ Filipe Santos
2. The AMAZING ADVENTURE Of Hospitality.
🔸 DO NOT FORGET to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
3. The INCREDIBLE CHALLENGE Of Hospitality.
🔸 Continue to REMEMBER those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
💡 Biblical Narrative: A Short Biblical Anthropology
🔸 Humanity’s equality before God
🔸 Quality of human race
🔸Fall of human race
🔸The penalty of sin
🔸Salvation is offered to all
🔸Equality in Christ
💡 Forgiveness and Reconciliation!
🔸 Gospel is mainly about:
⫸ Forgiveness (not just for heaven’s sake)
⫸ Reconciliation (relationship with living God is offered)
[Rom 5:12-19; 1 Cor 15:21, 47-49; Gen 1-2]
|| "Forgiveness is the only way to reverse the irreversible flow of history.”
~ Hanna Arendt
|| "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
~ Jesus; Luke 23:34 (NIV)
⫸ Consistent Command
⫸ Amazing Adventure
⫸ Incredible Challenge of Hospitality
💡 What Would This Look Like Today?
|| “It is hard to put a price tag, if you will, on the amount of human suffering that people are experiencing right now…you can feel lonely even if you have a lot of people around you, because loneliness is about the quality of your connections.. Across all age groups, people are spending less time with each other in person than two decades ago… and this is most pronounced in young people aged 15-24 who had 70% less social interaction with their friends."
~ Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy
🔸 HONOR Over Contempt
🔸 AGAPE LOVE Over “Cancel Culture.”
|| “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
🔸 CELEBRATION Over Criticism
🔸 PROXIMITY Over Cynicism
⫸ Consistent Command
⫸ Amazing Adventure
⫸ Incredible Challenge of Hospitality
💡 The Promise Of Hospitality
❔ What do you sense God asking you to do with today's message?
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🎶 Worship Songs 🎶
Praise 🤍 - by Elevation Worship
Gratitude 🤍 - by Brandon Lake
Goodness Of God 🤍 - by Bethel Worship

📜 Benediction Scripture📜
Hebrews 13:1-6 (NIV)

🍽️ Unreasonable Hospitality (Pt. 3): Radical Empathy 🍽️

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About Echo.Church

We are a Christian church who desires to be a community defined by our love for God and for people. Whether you are curious about God, exploring Christianity, or wanting to mature in your existing relationship with God, we invite you to attend one of our practical teaching series on the weekend. Feel free to bring your friends with you!

If you would like to find out more about Echo.Church and our story, please check us out at: http://www.echo.church