Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Leaving the Edges | 1 Peter 4:8-9 | Week 2

This series is like one long message! You may have walked away last week thinking, "Yeah, I know, hospitality's really good, Ryan. That's a great idea. BUT...." We have a whole list of "buts," don't we? We have a whole list of reasons why it's really, really hard. To that, I want to say, "You're right! It is." I want to spend the next 35 minutes or so affirming you're right! BUT....
I was a sophomore at college at Colorado State University and was walking across the courtyard. I saw a man who had a long beard, sort of unkempt, had a smock on (it looked homemade), had pants that looked like they were homemade, and he was holding a cardboard sign that said: "What do you think about Jesus?" At that point in time, I was a follower of Jesus, I was serving with Young Life, and I thought, "Wow! That's really cool that he's sitting in the middle of our courtyard just striking up conversations with people." I went up and met him. His name was Jerry. We got into a conversation about Jesus. At the end of our conversation, I said to him, "Hey, Jerry, if you ever need a place to take a shower, here's our phone number, give us a call." He was experiencing homelessness. I found out that homeless people take you up on offers that other people sometimes won't. Two days later my phone rang. It was Jerry and he asked, "Does the offer still stand to come and take a shower?" I was living with three other guys and asked if they were cool with it and they said yeah, they were. So Jerry came over and took a shower. As he was leaving, we said, "Jerry, if you know any friends who need a place to take a shower, our house is open, call us anytime." He did.....and so did his friends. We said, "Hey, Jerry, if you ever need a place to throw your tent, you can throw it in our backyard." So....he did! It was really cold one evening, so we poked our heads out the back door and said, "Hey, Jerry, (and to his friends) if it's ever too cold for you guys and you'd like to come and sleep inside, come on in." And they did! For two-and-a-half years of my college life, I lived with four to five homeless guys who slept on our couches, on shelves in our garage. I can tell you this, it wasn't always easy. Eventually we had to ask them to leave...