Show NotesNone this time. Sorry.TranscriptHey there! My name is Ian Forest-Jones and I am the pastor for Narellan Community Congregational Church, located in Narellan, a southwest suburb of Sydney, Australia. We want to encourage and equip your friendship with Jesus wherever you are and however we can.This "Deeper Dive" podcast is for those who want to dive deeper into the biblical texts and issues raised as I research and prepare my sermons. To get the most out of this podcast, therefore, you really should listen to or watch the sermon first.Let me state up front, these ideas and speculations are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of my congregation and its leaders. I offer these reflections only for those who are interested in reading the Bible better. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback afterward, then I would love to hear from you.  You can leave a comment on the show notes page for this episode or contact me using the "Contact" form found on our website at www.narellancong.org.auToday marks the first episode of "Deeper Dive" for the year 2023. You can find this podcast on your favourite aggregating software. It will be under the name "Deeper Dive with Ian Forest-Jones", to distinguish it from the other podcasts using the name Deeper Dive.Of course, you can still access the audio and video from our website.I also want to mention, at this point, I intend for this to be a weekly podcast, but that may not always be so. I may be too busy one week to prepare a "Deeper Dive", or the sermon topic just doesn't lend itself to diving deeper, so to speak.At those times, I may deal with another topic relating to reading the Bible better, or I just might not be able to get to it. Either way, I beg your forgiveness in advance, but I also want to invite you to submit any questions you might have, related to reading the Bible better, question you would like me to address. I am certainly not the final word on any topic, but I may be able to offer a perspective that helps you appreciate what a rich and valuable and helpful book the Bible is. It is God's chosen and primary vehicle for his Great Communication, after all!On Sunday, the 22nd of January, 2023, I delivered a sermon titled, “Generospitality: The path of loving”. The intent of the sermon was to help us remember the generospitality of God toward us and our communities of faith, and to encourage us all to a generospitality which will transform our communities and our neighbours!The sermon audio and video are available on our website and on your podcasting aggregator, so be sure you have listened to that sermon before I continue because I am going to assume you have heard it already. If not, just press pause and come back to this episode later.For this episode, I want to expand a little on three issues I raised in my sermon and introduce another.Because of our fallenness and sin, there is much dysfunction and brokenness in the world generally, and that includes in local churches specifically!We need to recognise and accept, therefore, there will be brokenness among us; but, generospitality mitigates against brokenness. How do they do this?Well, local churches, as communities of faith, encourage and equip generospitality, which is to say we promote discipleship among the friends of Jesus. Generospitality softens the effects of brokenness and even heals, thus preventing bitterness to spring up and cause trouble for the community and the person. The writer of The Book of Hebrews noted this when he wrote,Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness—without it no one will see the Lord. Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.  (Hebrews 12:14–15)The key is for local churches to step into our role as the image of God, to better reflect his love, grace, mercy in our communities and our neighbourhoods. When we are representing God well, he is pleased and blesses us by attracting the lost to our communities, so that we can disciple them; when we are not representing God well, he is displeased and removes his blessing, people are hurt, fall away from the Church, and even lose their faith.Neither the Church nor local churches are God, but we are to represent him as per his call on humanity to rule over our domains on his behalf.Those who fall away from the faith because of belonging to a dysfunctional local church are mistaking that church for God. Just because that church is dysfunctional does not mean it represents God well or at all.If you belong to a dysfunctional local church, and can't do anything to fix it, I would encourage you to leave, but do not abandon your faith in God. Go somewhere else and help it to be better than what you left behind.In our reading from The Book of Hebrews, it is clear there are limits to generospitality.The writer illustrated his instruction to "pursue peace with everyone" by referring to the story of Esau. He wrote,And make sure that there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for a single meal. For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, even though he sought it with tears, because he didn’t find any opportunity for repentance. (Hebrews 12:16–17)I know there is biblical evidence that suggests Esau was born evil, but I believe the writer here suggests another way to interpret his story.Esau sold his birthright because he was hungry, and that set up bitterness in his heart, which caused trouble for him and defiled him, a situation made entirely worse when his father, Isaac, was unable to bless him from his deathbed, and so Esau felt rejected and sought revenge against his brother Jacob.While the writer started his illustration by pronouncing Esau was immoral and irreverent, there is no reason to think he meant Esau was always that way. When he wrote, "for you know that later", I believe he was indicating Esau's immorality and irreverence for the things of God developed over time, as a result of his early dismissal of his own birthright. Thus, Esau became immoral and irreverent. This happened because no one helped him to process what he had done when he gave away his birthright, so that when the consequences became evident later in life, it was too late for him.However, we know Esau changed. When he and his brother Jacob later reconciled, Esau is presented much more favourably than Jacob. He forgave his brother and is portrayed with humility and grace, unlike Jacob who continued his conniving ways.So when the writer of Hebrews used this story to illustrate his instruction, "pursue peace", I believe he was showing that despite our best efforts to nurture our communities of faith toward generosity, hospitality, and discipleship, there will always be those who fall away because not every situation of brokenness is dealt with well. Let us do our best, therefore, to help each other and apologise when our best is not good enough to stop immorality and irreverence, bitterness and trouble from springing up.All of what I have just described I touched on, at least a little bit, in my sermon, but I wanted to deal with these issues a little more here. The one issue about the limits of generospitality I did not raise is what we are to do with those who would take advantage of our communities.As far as we know, it was the apostle Paul who wrote to the church at Thessalonica,In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies. Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves. But as for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good. (2 Thessalonians 3:10–13)From this we can appreciate the church at Thessalonica was a generous and hospitable church, but there were some who were taking advantage of this. The apostle strongly advised those people to work and provide for themselves. It is one thing to need the help of the community and it is another thing to take advantage of the generospitality of the community.To the community, however, the apostle encouraged them to "keep doing good", by which he meant keep providing for such people, even though they take advantage.This is not the case for everyone, however. In an early Christian document called The Didache we find these instructions:Every apostle who arrives among you is to be welcomed as if he were the Lord.But normally he must not stay with you for more than one day, but he may stay a second day if this is necessary. However, if he stays a third day, then he is a false prophet!When he leaves you, an apostle must receive nothing except enough food to sustain him until the next night’s lodgings. However, if he asks for money, then he is a false prophet! (Did. 11.3–6)In the context of the early Church, the apostles traveled between churches to teach and encourage. To such, along with any other visitors, hospitality was granted by the community. No question.However, there were strict instructions given so that such apostles could not take advantage of the local churches they were visiting. Hospitality was only to be given for one or two days. Lingering was seen as taking advantage and was discouraged.Therefore, there is a limit to generospitality and times when it should be withheld.This instruction puts into perspective the apostle Paul's practice of not collecting a fee from the local churches he was visiting. He payed for himself and his ministry team by tentmaking, so that no one could accuse him of taking advantage of anyone.Thank you for listening; I hope you found this "Deeper Dive" helpful.If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, then you can post it on the show notes page or contact me using the "Contact" form on our website at www.narellancong.org.auUntil next time, may God bless you and keep you and fulfil in you the free, full, and forever life promised by Jesus to his friends.