Hospitality Sermon

Practicing Hospitality

I have learned so much more in preparing for this message than you will this morning. God must have a wry grin on His face as I am getting ready to deliver His truth. Much like a parent would grin when their adult child becomes aware of faulty assumptions. Stacy shopping at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is ghetto… “Is that so?” After getting married and beginning to spend her own money we got a call from her.

As I was studying for this morning I was pretty confident that hospitality was a topic that I had figured out and was practicing more than most. Then God said, “Is that so?” I got a call from a missionary friend of MBC asking for help in hosting a Bishop on a month sabbatical from the Rwandan church. I did my best to find other places for him to stay instead of at my house. It became very clear to me that practicing hospitality was something I expected from others but not of myself. God grinned and I look forward to introducing you to my houseguest Bishop Emmanuel from Rwanda this month.

Please open your bibles to verse 13 and let’s see what Randy has learned.

has been and continues to be foundational passage to this church. God has given it to us to teach us how this family is to relate to one another and to the world around us.

Read vv 9-13

9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

And what is good?

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,

13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 12

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,

13 contributing to the needs of the saints, bpracticing hospitality.

Many times Paul will be communicating deep theology, mysteries of the Kingdom, or truths of the spiritual realm, and then suddenly he will roll into a staccato quick list of admonitions of practical applications of what he has been describing. This is one such time.

And he ends it with Practicing Hospitality.

, reminds us “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” This being a reward for doing so.

Peter tells us in to “be hospitable to one another without complaint.”

Peter in calls us to “be hospitable to one another without complaint.”

Hospitality is grace

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Hospitality is grace

Hospitality is grace

Providing something for nothing

Undeserved kindness

Several years ago I was speaking at a conference in New York. When we would teach for Worldview Academy many times we stayed with families who hosted us during the event. During this particular engagement I was hosted by a family with several young children. When I arrived at their home they greeted me with warm hospitality, a grace, and undeserved kindness. As I had just finished speaking that evening and had a full day of teaching ahead the next morning we visited briefly and they showed me to where I would be staying. It was a large bedroom with a private bath. Much more than I expected since I typically stayed in a game room basement on a couch. The next morning I got ready and emerged to the kitchen for breakfast with the family. Their five children were gathered around the table in their pjs awaiting the pancakes to be dealt. My hosts asked if I had a restful night sleep and said “yes”. I responded with the same question and they began sharing what a treat it was for them to all sleep in one room as a family. All seven of them had slept in one room so I could have their best room. I thought “what manner of grace is this?” This is practicing hospitality.

P

Hospitality = philoxenia (love/affection + stranger)

Lit. pursuing friendliness to strangers

For too long hospitality has worn a skirt. It has been a mom hosting houseguests, a waitress, a maid. Hospitality is neither feminine nor masculine, it is divine.

Mephibosheth, crippled son of David’s best friend Jonathan (Saul’s son). David had conquered Saul and reunited the kingdom. Wanting to honor the deep friendship he had with Jonathan David asks if there is anyone left in Saul’s extended family that David might show hospitality to. David restores all the lands of Mephibosheth’s grandfather to him and invites him to dine at the king’s table as a son.

Have you ever wished that your family acted at home the way they act at church. I know your children do, your spouse does, and likely you do. We tend to be more kind, considerate, pleasant, gracious, and loving when we are around strangers.

Two participants in hospitality…guest and host.

Hospitality has a Gospel utility built into the very act.

Jesus tells the disciples to take nothing for their journey () expecting that they would receive hospitality in whatever region they found themselves. By doing this, the disciples were able to spread the Good News at dinner tables as opposed to street corners.

To the church at Laodicea

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

Practicing hospitality is not just doing hospitality but rehearsing a response Christ is waiting for as he knocks and calls out at the door.

At Worldview Academy we coined a phrase to describe how we wanted to engage the “guests” coming to camp… Aggressive Hospitality. Grace is the destination and intense focus is how to get there.

Guests (strangers) coming to MBC should experience aggressive hospitality from us. This is our home and they are honored guests here. To be greeted with your back, or an impenetrable huddle, or cold stare is unacceptable. Hospitality demands we do three things...

Initiate Ex nihilo (out of nothing)

We love because he first loved us.

We love because he first loved us.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Engage

Leaning in/moving toward/engaging/instigate/first move

God doesn’t say “unless you are an introvert” or “unless you don’t feel like it” or “unless your schedule is full”, He says “practice” “do it” “act”.

Incline

Discern

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Being mature in Christ is to be able to discern good and evil.

Discern what the needs of the guest are.

Find out by listening, asking questions, reading faces, voice tone, posture.

Ask God to show you how to encourage and bless your guest.

Connect

Enter into their world …Anne Sullivan

Johanna and her two surviving siblings grew up in impoverished conditions, and struggled with health problems. At the age of five, Johanna contracted an eye disease called trachoma, which severely damaged her sight. Her mother, Alice, suffered from tuberculosis and had difficulty getting around after a serious fall. She died when Johanna was just eight years old.

Even at an early age, Johanna had a strong-willed personality. She sometimes clashed with her father, Thomas, who was left to raise her and her siblings after their mother's death. Thomas—who was often abusive—eventually abandoned the family. Johanna and her infirm younger brother, Jimmie, were sent to live at an almshouse, a home for the poor. The Tewksbury Almshouse was dirty, rundown, and overcrowded. Johanna's brother Jimmie died just months after they arrived there, leaving her alone. Johanna was obstinate and at times violently clashed with the staff. For months at a time she was committed to a small cell in solitary as punishment where she recoiled into silence and a disconnection from human contact. Alone and abandoned she balled herself up in the corner of that cell not feeling or communicating with anyone or anything. Each evening, after lights out, an old cleaning lady would make her rounds sweeping and mopping the hallways. With curiosity she would stand on her tiptoes and peek into the cells to see who was there. Night after night she would see this young girl curled into the corner of her cell and notice the tray of food under the door had not been touched. She would kneel down and, with her broom handle, push the tray over to the girl. She would tap the girl on the knee with the broom and say “somebody loves you, somebody cares.” The cleaning lady would do this every night, “somebody loves you, somebody cares.” As the days and weeks and months passed the little girl began to unfold and open up as a bloom. She grew up and out and began to excel in school eventually earning a teaching degree. All because a cleaning lady took the time to connect and enter into her world, even it was only with a broomstick and a few words. We don’t know the name of the janitorial staff, and you probably would only recognize Johanna Sullivan by the name she went by at the almshouse, college, and later as a teacher — Anne Sullivan. And no doubt you know her most famous student, Hellen Keller.

Hospitality is grace

Hospitality is not dependent on your personality

Hospitality is initiating, discerning, and connecting

Hospitality is the Gospel