Are You a Missionary?

Guest Speaker Zack Brown 1 Thessalonians 2:8 March 13, 2022

Connect

What did you learn about biblical hospitality from the sermon on Sunday?

Study

READ John 14:15, 21–24; Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9; Hebrews 13:1–3; 1 Timothy 3:1–3; Titus 1:7–8

1) Write down what you learn about biblical hospitality in these verses and discuss as a group. What

is something about biblical hospitality you learned that you have not considered in the past?

2) How do you cultivate biblical hospitality in your heart before you are actually hospitable? What

steps can you take to start developing a heart of hospitality?

READ Genesis 18:2–8; Deuteronomy 14:28–29; Isaiah 58:7

3) What do these verses add to your biblical understanding of hospitality? How do these verses work

against our comforts and ideas that we should only be hospitable to those we are comfortable

around?

4) What would it look like for you to be hospitable to the homeless? The poor? The hungry? How can

your small group show hospitality to someone who is less fortunate?

READ Acts 2:42–27

5) In what way do we see the early church taking up the idea of biblical hospitality? How does the

church today fail to practice biblical hospitality?

6) How can you include all of the elements of Acts 2:42 (devoted to the teaching, fellowship, breaking

of bread, prayer) into biblical hospitality? What is a really practical way you can start showing

biblical hospitality this week?

Practical Applications

Pray about inviting someone over for dinner, actually do it, do not cancel. (Pat Ennis, How to Practice

Biblical Hospitality, from the Gospel Coalition recommends:

Collect and file simple, inexpensive recipes for desserts and meals. Make a list of people who

would be encouraged by your offer of hospitality.

Make a plan to invite your first guests soon.

Start simple—spontaneously inviting someone home after church is a great beginning.

Pray that our hospitable God will give you joy in demonstrating his character to others.

Remember that memories require time and energy to create.

Purpose to nurture a heart for biblical hospitality that sincerely communicates: “Come back

soon.”)

Have a conversation at church with someone you do not know.

Develop a plan about how you can naturally preach and show the gospel through something as simple

as hospitality.

Pray the passage

O Lord, we praise you for the grace you have shown us in your Son Jesus Christ. It is in you that we

truly understand what hospitality is and it is in you that hospitality finds is value.

Would you give us affections flowing from our relationship with you that penetrate our relationships

with others so that we not only share the gospel with others, but also our own selves.

May you be glorified in all that we say and do and may your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Memorize &Meditate

“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God

but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

Preparing for next week

Read: Acts 9:32-43

Ask: questions of the text.

Pray: through text, for pastor as he prepares, for your heart to hear, for the congregation to hear, for all of us to be obedient.