752 Generous and Hospitable - Romans 12:13

Do you let God talk to you about generosity? What about hospitality?

Hey, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast,. We've been doing this series on how we interact with others. And today we want to talk about Romans 12:13. I'm reading from the English Standard Version: "Contribute to the needs of thesaints and seek to show hospitality."

We're in this series of "bang, bang, bang, rapid fire" verses that Paul gives us in Romans 12 about how to live with others. And we're still in this section where I believe he's talking to Christians because he actually talks to us to in this verse about how we treat saints or other fellow Christians.

When he talks about saints, he's talking about other believers - people who follow Jesus. "Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." We are called to make a difference to contribute to the needs of the saints. There are many other verses about generosity and the needs of others in the Bible.

In this particular verse, Paul's only talking about the needs of the saints. If we find out there's a need in our congregation or in our church, then we should be contributing to that. That's what he's talking about here. And that's the generosity, I believe, he's talking about in this verse. It clearly says "contribute to the needs of the saints."

In the New International Version it says, "Share with God's people who are in need and practice hospitality." So the call to be generous in this specific example is to give to members of our community, members of our faith community, or believers that we know of who are suffering, who are in need. That's our command here, to contribute to the needs of the saints.

Now, there are saints all over the place that are in need, and therefore there's plenty of opportunities to contribute. I think what he's saying here is to seek to show hospitality. For the Christians in this day, people didn't travel very much. They didn't have the internet and these other opportunities to serve people all over the globe.

Therefore serve the people around you. Be ready to give to people around you who are in need and to show hospitality; to open your home or to do these other things that might make other people feel comfortable when they're in a discomforted situation.

In the verse before this, he talked about being patient in tribulation. Now, if we're not going through tribulation, we can help someone else. We can be hospitable. We can be generous. And I believe that's the command here.

Let's look for ways today to be generous and to show hospitality. These are opportunities to give because we follow Jesus. That's what this whole passage is about. Every interaction is an opportunity to give. When there's a need, we fill it. And when we have a need, we persevere. I believe that's what Paul's constantly reminding us.

When we enter every relationship as a giver, then we're looking for opportunities to give, not looking for opportunities for other people to give to us, if that makes sense.

Today, I'm grateful that you're a marketplace minister and I'd like to challenge us as believers. Let's find ways to give.

We persist through our own difficulty. We persevere through our own difficulty. But we look for ways to give to those in need, either hospitality or material possessions, prayer, anything that we can give; let's be givers. That's our call in the marketplace. That's our call in every interaction we have with others.

I do it so poorly. I almost feel bad saying it. But I want to be a better giver. So you can pray for me in that regard, and I'm praying for you. I pray for the people who listen to this podcast. Let's be givers. We persist and persevere through our own difficulties, but we're givers when we see other people who have needs.

Thank you for being a marketplace minister. And thank you for making a difference with your faith in the marketplace.

Everything you do because you follow Jesus matters. So thanks so much for being a minister and for making a difference with your faith. I'm grateful for you listening to the podcast too. Thanks very much.

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