Hospitality is A Part of Friendship

Hospitality Is

Hospitality can be defined as the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. It is a character trait that we should all aspire to have.Now let’s set the record straight, being hospitable is a gift. There’s being nice, but then there are people whose ministry to being inviting, generous, caring and loving as they possibly can be.

Who is this woman by the name of Lydia? She is a Gentile woman, so culturally there were some differences fundamentally with may of the converts who converted from Judaism. She was a seller of purple, I want us to understand the type of woman we are dealing with in this moment. Customarily you did not hear of women working, typically the nature we hear about women is either a wife, widow or maid.

This woman a successful entrepreneur, purple fabric was a luxurious fabric. Lydia would have been the modern day Telfar Clemons of Thyatira. Considering she was a seller of purple she typically was most likely in highly trafficked areas. Nonetheless a resource like water would be extremely resourceful for the everyday needs of families. Considering that, this was the place in which the disciples gathered in effort to pray and worship God. The bible credits her for being a woman that worshiped God.

Worship Is Not Enough

Understand worshipping God is a commandment of God but understand that everyone that worships isn’t a Christian and every Christian isn’t always engaging in worship like God would desire.

Worship defined is to express in attitude and ritual one’s allegiance to and regard for deity. Worship is expressed in an idiomatic manner.

Bow down before

Raise one’s arms

Sing to

Honor

Worship is an expression of praise, Lydia was a worshipper, Lydia believed what she saw and took part in being amongst those who were worshipping.

The bible lets us know that she was worshipping God! You may not have ever been here before, you might not be baptized this morning, you might be singing some of these songs for the first time but know that God has the power to open up any heart to be receptive to the love and kindness of Jesus.

There’s a reason for you to be here. Similar to Lydia, it’s no coincidence that she’s close enough to witness praise and worship. It’s no coincidence that she’s close enough to heed the words of Paul in the name of Jesus Christ. Imagine being a Gentile participant in a place of worship where majority of the attendees come from a Jewish background.

We much know in effort to truly understand what it means to open her heart, it’s translated into opening her mind.

An open mind caused her to

Be receptive

Accept what she heard

Understand what she heard

Understand that the open mindedness was what led to conversion! I know what you’re hearing might be different but give it a chance. Give faith a chance!

Not only did God open up the heart of Lydia but her entire household was baptized. It’s a certainty that she had influence with her family. What does your influence on your family look like?

Hospitality

It’s evident that Lydia was a hospitable person and a leader within her household. Due to her leap of faith to follow Jesus Christ her entire household followed as well.

Understand that it’s even safe to say because she was the head of her household this could generally include relative, servants and other people who worked in the home.

Lydia is so reliable that she doesn’t force her hand as it pertains to what she’s offering. She’s willing to extend a hand of hospitality but she asked if they had believed her to be faithful to the Lord. To judge in this context means to make a judgement based on correctness or value of something. Lydia just wanted to be of service.

How many people could value you to be faithful today?

How many people would say that we are hospitable today?

Hospitality is no easy task! The bible says even after that conversation she still had to persuade them to stay with her.

Hospitality is a requirement for the Christian, we ought to exude the tenets of hospitality!

Hebrews 13:1-2 “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”

Do you truly trust God to remain hospitable even in the midst of rudeness, anger, and wrath. The church is in need of some Lydia’s some people that will open up their hearts and homes in effort to build effective relationships with one another.

There’s some mothers that have been responsible for the spiritual well being of their families! I’m thankful for the church mothers, neighborhood mothers, porch mothers that infused spirituality into their families. That made us remember our memory verse, study our sunday school lessons, participate in VBS, come to Wednesday night bible class, every night of the revival, that fed us when they had a little themselves, that would admonish you, hug you, give you three dollars, and a to-go plate in the same day. Thank you to the Lydia’s that have made that random phone call on a Thursday morning just to check on you! Thank you to the Lydia’s that have just hugged you and said, baby it’s going to be alright! I’m talking about the Lydia’s of the church that understand what it means to pray without ceasing, who can count it all joy, and love us even when we don’t love ourselves.

The writer of acts says “So she persuaded us” the root word of persuaded in this text means to force. Now I believe she did not hold Paul and the other disciples hostage but the Lydia’s of the world have a way of persuading you. I’m reminded of my wife’s Aunt. I remember being home during the summer and we went to visit her. When we walked in we made it abundantly clear that we were only staying for a couple of hours. But see, the Lydia’s know how to make you comfortable. Aunt Josie and Uncle Paul put something intriguing on the TV and before you knew an aroma of fried chicken and vegetables began to flow through the house. She said she was just making a snack but see a snack in that home is dinner on a Tuesday night for us. Safe to say we ended up staying the night!

We understand that she was hospitable because after Paul and Silas had been jailed, after they had been beaten with rods, the bible says after they had many stripes on them they threw them in prison, after their feet were fastened like animals, after their release they went back to the house of Lydia. This wasn’t just a minor assault, after the Philippian jailer was saved the bible says “and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes”. We don’t have to wait to be hospitable you can be hospitable in a moments notice if you see something do something!

The power of God is life changing, in one days time this man went from desiring to take his own life to becoming a christian, his entire family being saved and nursing the disciples back to health.

The bible even says in Acts 16:34 “Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.”

Understand that the hospitality doesn’t end there when they asked Paul and the disciples to leave the city the bible says Acts 16:40 “So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.”

Jesus is the Ultimate Example of Hospitality

When it comes to hospitality, Jesus is our ultimate example. No matter if it was performing a miracle like changing water into wine, or feeding 5,000 people. Even at times when people were depicted by society as outcast, Jesus was inviting to them. When people were ostracized by the community Jesus stood in the gap for the marginalized and the ostracized.

If nothing else the greatest display of hospitality is Jesus leaving Him home in glory to come to earth and sacrifice Himself for us so that we could live with Him forever! If that’s not hospitality I don’t know what is.