Sermon Tone Analysis

A Walk Through The Home: “The Guest Room” - Hospitality

  “Let love be genuine.

Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

(, ESV)  

What is hospitality?

The sense of "charitable institution to house and maintain the needy" in English is from early 15c.; meaning "institution for sick or wounded people" — From the Latin Hospitale or “guest house”.

English “Hospital” - "institution for sick or wounded people"Greek Word - Philoxenia, or Love for strangers.

(Philo = love, Xenia = stranger)

From CBMW:

On the meaning of hospitality: “Hospitality is not about the provider.

It is not about showing how creative, innovative, organized, proficient and gifted one is.

Instead, it is about selflessly sacrificing one’s time, efforts, and some degree of finances.

It is about taking the risk to let your guard down and invite people to get to know you beyond a superficial level.

It is about abandoning the sinful tendency to be self-absorbed and instead seek to do whatever is necessary to meet needs.

Hospitality is to be equated with selfless caring for others.”

Why Is Hospitality Important?

God is hospitable - If hospitality is love for strangers (even wounded people), then isn’t it true that God is hospitable to us?   “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

(, ESV)  

Hospitality isn’t simply an obligation to do something; it’s an obligation to be something.

We need to be practice philoxenia (love for strangers), but we need to become philoxenos (lovers of strangers).

God is interested in us becoming like him, not merely performing tasks.

The Christian life is about being redeemed by God and being made to live like God and reflect the way he loves.

Often we can manipulate God’s commands by obeying them without proper motive.

(Ice Cream Illustration:) Take hospitality as an example: You could be hospitable like an ice-cream shop.

They give out free samples, but it’s not out of the kindness of their heart.

The employees are just doing their job - it’s what they are supposed to do.

If you stand around too long and don’t make a decision then they’re going to ask you to leave.

We don’t want that.

We don’t want to be generous to people because they are useful, we want to be generous because God is making us into generous people.

We give out the samples and the whole cone for free because we love people - this isn’t a business.

In his book Outlive Your Life, Max Lucado writes:

“Long before the church had pulpits and baptisteries, she had kitchens and dinner tables.

Even a casual reading of the New Testament unveils the house as the primary tool of the church.

The primary gathering place of the church was the home.

The early church (with its varied backgrounds got along) without the aid of sanctuaries, church buildings, clergy, or seminaries.

They did so through the clearest of messages (the Cross) and the simplest of tools (the home).

Something holy happens around a dinner table that will never happen in a sanctuary.

In a church auditorium you see the backs of heads.

Around the table you see the expressions on faces.

Church services are on the clock.

Around the table there is time to talk.

When you open your door to someone, you are sending this message: ‘You matter to me and to God.’

You may think you are saying, ‘Come over for a visit.’

But what your guest hears is, ‘I am worth the effort.’”

Strategic Hospitality:

Old Testament Hospitality

- Love your neighbor as yourself.

God adopts the nation of Israel

New Testament Hospitality

Jesus is called a drunkard and a glutton - :19T he early Church uses their homes to care for the needs of people.

They flip the Roman world upside down.

This is still happening all over the world.

(Sometimes it stalls out when Church becomes a program/event).

What does it really mean to love our neighbors?

Exegetical Section:

 “Let love be genuine.

Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

()

Outdo one another with honor.

Seek to show hospitality.

Pursue it.

Not just on special occasions.

says, "Above all hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another.”

Ungrudgingly: Hospitality is tough.

It’s dirty.

It takes money.

It takes effort.

It takes planning.

People are difficult.

But God is interested in making us into new people, not just getting us to do new things.

-- The truth is that obedience often is the path to desire.

The more you obey the more you change into a different type of person.

Illustration from John Piper:

“The physical force of gravity pulls everything to the center of the earth.

In order to break free from earth-centered life, thousands and thousands of pounds of energy have to push the space shuttle away from the center.

There is also a psychological force of gravity that constantly pulls our thoughts and affections and physical actions inward toward the center of our own selves and our own homes.

Therefore the most natural thing in the world is to neglect hospitality.

It is the path of least resistance.

All we have to do is yield to the natural gravity of our self-centered life, and the result will be a life so full of self that there is no room for hospitality.

We will forget about it.

And we will neglect it.

So the Bible bluntly says, "Stop that!" Build a launching pad.

Fill up your boosters.

And blast out of your self-oriented routine.

Stop neglecting hospitality.

Practice hospitality.”

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.