Hospitality in Practice

Good morning, please open Bibles to Isaiah 58.

Butterfield book.

Thus far…

Finally, this morning, our goal is to walk through the practice of biblical hospitality. What can hospitality look like in the lives of ordinary believers like you and me?

Our approach:

Read and rightly understand our text from Isaiah 58.

Pull the principles from our text and apply them to the topic of biblical hospitality.

Isaiah 1- Prophecy brought from Isaiah to the people of Judah, chiefly a prophecy of judgement.

Isaiah 6- Isaiah is commissioned, and the people will rebel against his words.

The people will reject the warning and instruction of Isaiah.

Isaiah 58- What does this rebellion look like? It looks like religion.

Read Isaiah 58:6-8- “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Pray.

Let’s briefly study the words of God through the prophet Isaiah.

Chapters 55-56- Come and have your spiritual thirst quenched. But what will be the experience of those who reject the offer? We find out in chapter 58.

Centers on fasting- a religious activity.

The people are saying to God- I’m fasting, why are you not listening?

They believed fasting to be a practice that would bend the will of God to their own, rather than the other way around.

We fast to hear more clearly from God, not to speak more clearly to God.

God responds by highlighting the emptiness of the religious ritual of fasting. You’re doing the practice, but you’re doing it with the wrong heart.

This is a major theme in Scripture, one that we have returned to constantly. We won’t spend much time here today except to say that God cares not only about the obedience, but about the heart and motive of the obedience.

This was the problem with their act of worship, and God, through Isaiah made it known.

In our text- God lays out what true worship and obedience looks like.

Notice this point- God desires this kind of worship.

We focus so much on what it is that we like. What songs do we like, what preaching do we like, what format do we like? Do we ever stop to think that such is a horrible way of going about worship?

My hope is that we worship God in the ways that God truly wants to be worshiped, and that is what He is laying out in our text this morning.

A heart that is truly obedient to God is the one that will obey God in all things, even those things that are most difficult.

Notice what it is that God says in v. 6- Here is the fasting that I choose for you. This is what fasting ought to look like. Fasting ought to build up a heart of obedience toward God through the difficult tasks of loving and caring for others.

And so here is the point to be made. Anyone can fast. Especially with the wrong heart.

However, to truly have the outcome from fasting that is mentioned is another thing altogether.

Fasting, true spiritual fasting, ought to bring about the practices that are mentioned.

Loosing the bonds of wickedness- living in such a way that you are providing a way of escape for people from their slavery to sinfulness.

Break every yoke-

Share your bread with the hungry- See the neediness of one who struggles to feed himself.

Welcoming the homeless into your home- Create space, create time, create a place for one to stay.

Covering the naked- clothing those who are in need.

Do not hide from your own flesh- Don’t hide from your fellow man.

What a profound image. Sometimes we simply want to hide.

Then, when fasting takes this form and leads to these outcomes, then you will have the attention of the Lord. Then He will be your provider, then He will be your protector, then He will be your healer, then He will be your light.

It’s when your faith is serious, fruitful, and rightly motivated.

Thus, we ask, do we have a serious faith?

This message never changes.

How does this apply to biblical hospitality and how it will be practiced in our lives?

What changes need to be made to invite others into our lives and inject ourselves into the lives of others, particularly, the stranger?

Three firm suggestions.

1. Budget time and money for hospitality.

What sort of a priority does hospitality have in your life?

Our checkbook, our cash flow, shows what we prioritize.

Budget lines- what sees the most of our monetary attention?

Create a category in your life for hospitality. Remember, it is costly.

Make sacrifices elsewhere. Where are you tied too tightly? Where could you cut in order to prioritize hospitality?

Our schedules also revolve around what is important to us.

What are our non-negotiables? What are the things for which we will absolutely not be moved?

For many, the least important things are becoming the most important. We will negotiate our schedules with what is unimportant at the expense of what is most important.

So, I would challenge our church family with the notion that time for hospitality ought to be built into our schedules and never touched.

This is harder than it sounds.

Mike Nichols- take breaks from ministry to date your wife. Protect that time.

We’ve tried, and failed, often due to ministry.

It’s difficult, but important. Our schedules should reflect this.

2. Don’t mind the mess.

Remember, we are inviting people into the reality of our lives, not a made-up version of our lives.

Hospitality centers in transparency. Inviting someone into your life while presenting a made-up version of your life is counter-productive.

If the purpose of hospitality is to introduce people to Jesus and to build them up in Jesus, then it will require a welcoming of people into an accurate portrayal of life.

People are meant to see how Jesus will impact the messiness of life. How will Jesus confront and forgive confessed sin? How will Jesus build up and encourage in times of crisis and pain?

This doesn’t mean we are to be slobs, but an obsession with cleanliness can do harm in a couple of ways:

First, it gives the likely false appearance that things always look perfect in our home.

If this is true of our homes, then it isn’t too far a stretch to think that we can apply it to our spiritual realities as well.

If we want our homes to always look perfect, then we likely always want our lives to look perfect. Such a mindset tears away the transparency that is necessary for biblical hospitality.

But also, if we are obsessed with cleanliness of our homes, then we will likely not invite messy people in.

Butterfield- the nicer the home, the nicer the stuff, the less likely hospitality will be shown.

We tend to think that we need a nicer place, a bigger place, a pristine place before we would feel comfortable inviting people in.

Instead, it tends to go that we become less hospitable because we don’t want to invite people in. People ruin stuff, but that’s the beauty of hospitality.

Isaiah doesn’t qualify everything by saying we need nice stuff. He simply says that true obedience requires helping the hungry, the naked and the homeless.

Finally, a measure of the reality of mess welcomes the community into the process of cleanup.

This is true not only in our homes, but is symbolic of our faith as well. Repentance and forgiveness ought to take place in fellowship with others.

So, when people come to our house and eat a meal and we all clean up the dishes together, we are reminded of how Christ uses the Church to minister to our broken and needy souls.

Don’t obsess over the mess, but instead invite into it.

3. Think holistically about hospitality.

Invite people into your life, and inject yourself into the lives of others.

Remember Isaiah 58- Plethora of needs. See the need, meet the need.

For some, it will be hunger, for others, it will be company, for others, it will be a place to stay.

We are meant to find every aspect of our lives to be hospitable. Whether we are at home, at work, at the grocery store or the ballgame.

Stated plainly, biblical hospitality happens beyond just our home.

For some, hospitality may not be able to happen in your home- Maybe factors are at play, or your spouse isn’t comfortable with it.

Be willing to have the conversation, don’t just assume your spouse doesn’t want to be hospitable.

But if this is the case, then get creative. How can you be hospitable outside of your home? Continue to see and meet the needs of others.

Imagine what could be:

Start small. Reach out to two or three people. Invite them over, go for coffee, pick up their groceries, pray with them. See where God would lead you in building meaningful, hospitable relationships.

Rosaria Butterfield- “Imagine a world where every Christian practiced radically ordinary hospitality as either host or guest. Imagine a world where living as image bearers of a holy God meant something, something that changed the way we saw ourselves and others. Imagine a world where neighbors said that Christians throw the best parties in town and are the go-to people for big problems and issues. Imagine a world where every Christian knew by name people who lived in poverty or prison, felt tied to them and to their futures, and lived differently because of it. Imagine a world where no one languishes in crushing loneliness, where no abused woman or man or child suffers alone, where people take their real and pressing problems to Christians who have the reputation of being helpers, and where victims are not swept away, lost, forgotten. Imagine a world where the power of the gospel to change lives is ours to behold. This is the world that the Bible imagines for us.”

Here is what our church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, could provide for the small town of Heyworth, Illinois.

Let’s pray.