Advancing the Kingdom Together
Week #3: Visitors Need to be Treated Right
Good Question: These lessons have groups talking.
www.joshhunt.com

Big Idea: Offering hospitality to one another without grumbling is one of the most important things we can do for guests.

1 Corinthians 14.22 - 25 ⁽¹⁾

OPEN

• Let's each share our name and how you felt when you first visited this church. If it has been a long time, I'd like you to share how you felt the last time you visited any church. ⁽²⁾

ACCOUNTABILITY

• We have been talking about having a party and inviting every member and every prospect to the party. How are we doing with our party plans?
• How are we doing with inviting every member?
• How are we doing with inviting every prospect? ⁽³⁾

DIG

1. As we read this passage, look for what it says about how we are to think about visitors.
2. There is a main lesson in this passage that has to do with speaking in tongues. We are not talking about that today. I want you to see what this verse teaches us about how we ought to think about visitors when we do church. What evidence do you see in this passage that we are to pay attention to the feelings of visitors when we do church?
3. Relate this to what your parents taught you about guests in your home growing up. What did your parents teach you about treating visitors in your home?
4. What are some of the main things you notice when you visit a church?
5. How do you think visitors feel, generally speaking when they visit (not this church, but any church)? ⁽⁴⁾
6. I want us to picture why this is important. How many new members do you think this church might have in the next year? (It doesn't really matter the accuracy of your guess.) What percentage of those new members will have been, at one point, visitors? ⁽⁵⁾

1 Peter 4.9 ⁽⁶⁾

7. What is the nature of the language in this verse: is this a proverb, a parable, a promise, or what? ⁽⁷⁾
8. What is the command to do? ⁽⁸⁾
9. What can we expect when we offer?
10. How are we to offer?
11. Why "without grumbling"? Have you ever been tempted to grumble when you had people over? Tell us your story.
12. How do you feel about having people over to your house? Do you like it? Is there anything about it that makes you uncomfortable?
13. What are you more comfortable with-having people at your house, or going to someone else's house?
14. In addition to having people to our house, we could offer hospitality in other ways. What are some examples? What are 20 things we could do together? ⁽⁹⁾
15. Why do you think this is important? Why do you think God commanded this?
16. Aside from any out reach benefit, how do you think us regularly having hospitality events would benefit this group?

Luke 14.12 ⁽¹⁰⁾

17. As we read this passage, look for who Jesus said to, and said not to invite.
18. Why is it important that we don't restrict the invitation list to just our friends?
19. Why is it tempting to just invite our friends? Why might we be tempted to just invite our friends over?



20. Let's tie these ideas together. We are taught that it is important that we think about how visitors who come to church feel. We are commanded to invite guests home for dinner. We are instructed that the people we invite need to not just be our friends. Let's imagine that we got organized and invited everyone who visited this church out to eat, or to someone's house for dinner. (Not necessarily on Sunday, but within a week of when they visited.) What do you think that would do to the growth potential of this church? ⁽¹¹⁾
21. Let's imagine that number of people joining the church doubled as a result of this. ⁽¹²⁾ What would that do for us? How would you feel about that? Does that matter to you? ⁽¹³⁾
22. Maybe there are some of you that don't feel comfortable inviting guests home for dinner, but, you would be willing to go to someone's house who was inviting guests home for dinner. Would any of you put yourself in that category?
23. Here is my challenge. I'd like us to try this for three months. I'd like for us as a class to see that everyone who visits this church that is remotely a prospect for this class gets three invitations to do something fun and personal-to come to someone's house or something like that. Could we set it as a goal to work on this together for three months? Who is in? Who will help?
24. Let's pray that God would bless as we seek to show hospitality in His name. What else shall we pray about?

1. Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for believers, not for unbelievers. [23] So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? [24] But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, [25] and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!" 1 Cor. 14:22-25 [NIV]

2. I am not fishing for bad stories here. If it is a normal group, the answers will be somewhat uneven-some will be good experiences, some bad ones.

3. Within reason, spend as much time as you need to on this.

4. Nervous, is the word I am fishing for.

5. Kind of a round about way of making this point: 100% of your growth potential as a church comes from visitors.

6. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:9 [NIV]

7. It is a command. As surely as God has commanded us to pray or serve or give or do anything else, our sovereign, boss God has said it in the form of a command: offer hospitality.

8. Offer: you can't be sure they will respond. We are responsible to offer.

9. You might think about the calendar: Christmas party, New Year's Party, Super Bowl, Valentines, etc. Then, complete your list of things with other events.

10. Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. Luke 14:12 [NIV]

11. My experience is supported by the experience of many others who tell me 90% of the people we have in our home and feed our coffee cake to join our church.

12. My guess is it will be much higher than that.

13. If not, let's go back and do last week's lesson again.