Biblical Hospitality (Part 2)

THEME: Hospitality is an essential Christian virtue that is both commanded and commended throughout Scripture. Sadly, however, hospitality is something many Christians don’t entirely understand or routinely practice. Understanding and practicing biblical hospitality has the potential to radically transform our church and our community. It is one of the most effective means to build closer relationships with people in our church and one of the most effective tools to build bridges to people in our community for the sake of the gospel. Consequently, we all need to develop a heart for and a habit of showing hospitality to people we know and don’t know; to believers and unbelievers alike. This subject can be broken into TWO PARTS:

1. THE BIBLICAL EXPLANATION OF HOSPITALITY

     A. HOSPITALITY DEFINED

     B. HOSPITALITY DEMONSTRATED

2. THE PRACTICAL EXECUTION OF HOSPITALITY

     A. HINDRANCES TO HOSPITALITY

     B. HINTS FOR HOSPITALITY

          1. HOSPITALITY IN THE CHURCH

          2. HOSPITALITY FOR FELLOWSHIP

          3. HOSPITALITY FOR EVANGELISM

And we are going to continue to look at this great letter together that Paul wrote to the churches in Rome. And we began last week drilling down into the simple yet profound phrase in Romans 1213 practicing hospitality. I think it would be easy for us just to skim over this phrase when reading or studying Romans because of all the other epic truths mentioned in the greatest treatise on the gospel ever written. But we need to realize one of the most epic expressions of the gospel is when Christians like us show hospitality to others. And yet hospitality is something that many Christians don't entirely understand or actively pursue or routinely practice. And I think the starting point to hospitality becoming an essential part of our normal everyday lives and something that we regularly and eagerly engage in the way God intended is to see what his word says about this brilliant showpiece of the gospel. Now you understand what a showpiece is? I looked up a definition. I thought it was interesting. A showpiece is something that attracts attention and admiration as an impressive example of its type. It's something that offers a particular opportunity to display a skill, an item of work presented for exhibition or display.

And so hospitality is a showpiece of the gospel. In other words, it's an opportunity for us to showcase the gospel, to put on display and provide an impressive exhibition of how God lovingly pursues and graciously invites and warmly welcome sinners like us into his household at great cost to himself. God is a hospitable God that by the way, could be the game changer in and of itself just to come to grips with the fact that God is a hospitable God and you're a recipient. We're a recipient of his hospitality. And so why wouldn't we want to overflow with that same kind of hospitality to others? But God is a hospitable God and he wants us or wants to use the hospitality of his people to attract the attention and admiration of the world, not to us, but to his son Jesus whose death on the cross was the ultimate act of hospitality.

In other words, the hospitality that we show to others is simply a reflection of and an extension who God is and what God has done for us. There's no better way to exemplify the pursuing love and welcoming grace of God than by showing hospitality. That's why I said last week that understanding and practicing biblical hospitality has the potential to radically transform our church and our community because hospitality is one of the most effective means to build closer relationships with people in our church and one of the most effective tools to build bridges to people in the community for the sake of the gospel. And just something as simple as getting a knock on my door yesterday from my neighbor who was working on his truck and he didn't have the right tool and asked me if he could borrow a tool and just say, Hey, come on in my garage and open up my one little thing with my one little shelf of tools.

And I'm like, I know I'm going to have to give you my man card if that's all the tools I got, but guess what? I had the tool he needed and that's all that mattered, right? And he was happy. And so I thought, well, I'm not just going to give it to Himm, going to walk over and kind of lean over into his engine with him, even though I don't know my way around an engine and just kind of struck up a conversation while he was using my tool to fix what he needed to fix. And it was just a great opportunity just to build a relationship, but to be warm and friendly, and it doesn't have to be a meal per se. It could be letting someone borrow your stuff, your truck, your tools, your mower, your whatever, but just taking advantage of those opportunities and somebody, it was yesterday here I was in and out of my house working on this message and going outside and here's moving trucks coming and moving in a new family across the street.

And I'm thinking, okay, Lord, you're going to give us some really great opportunities to apply this message and this whole principle of hospitality. And so sure enough, one of the new folks came across the street and introduced themselves and we got to just get to know one another a little bit. And I thought, oh, this is really cool that we have an opportunity to show hospitality to some new folks in our neighborhood. But I broken this significant subject of hospitality into two parts. We're in the middle of looking at the biblical explanation of hospitality, and we ultimately want to get to the practical execution of hospitality. And I'm just going to tell you upfront today we're not going to get there. Okay, Lord will. And that will be next week where we'll get to the practical execution of hospitality. I want to finish up this morning talking about the biblical explanation of hospitality, and we started last week looking at how hospitality is defined in the scriptures.

We saw that hospitality is a Christian virtue that is both commanded and commended throughout scripture. And starting with Romans 1213, we concluded a number of things about biblical hospitality. So I just want to review quickly some of the highlights of hospitality that we saw last week. Number one, hospitality literally means what were you not here last week? Okay, that's not very hospitable of that bug. You better get up and get 'em again anyway. What does hospitality mean? Literally the Greek word means what? Love of strangers. We got to make sure we get that and it implies that we welcome and befriend people we don't know particularly who may not believe like us, think like us, talk like us, act like us or look like us. By the way, hospitality is a click crusher in the church and in the community in which we live. Number two, hospitality is something we are to do with enthusiasm and with energy, like a hound chasing a fox or a cheetah chasing a gazelle.

We get that from the word practice here in Romans 1213 dco, which means to hunt or track or to chase after, and that's the mentality we should have when it comes to hospitality. We're hunting for opportunities to be hospitable. Number three, hospitality is not something we should do every so often on special occasions or in times of crisis. While that is important, it is something we should do continuously or habitually. And we get that from the fact that this practice practicing hospitality, even in the English, it's helpful. It's an ING. It doesn't just say practice hospitality. It says practicing hospitality, which means that this should be something we do on a regular basis, that it's just not a one-time thing. Oh, we were hospitable. Great, we're good for the next six months. Now this is something we should be doing constantly habitually. Number four, hospitality is not a spiritual gift.

One of the biggest misnomers in the church that, oh, they have the gift of hospitality. Well, some people may be better at it than others, but it's not a spiritual gift. You can't find hospitality in any of the lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament. In other words, it's not something that only some Christians have are able to do. It's a non-optional command given to all Christians and should be obeyed gladly, not begrudgingly. And we looked at all the verses that mentioned hospitality, one Timothy three, two Timothy five, nine through 10, Titus one, eight, Hebrews 13, one Peter four, eight. Number five, hospitality includes hosting missionaries and other mobile ministers, which provides us a special blessing and privilege of participating in their ministry, supporting the spread of the gospel, sharing in the causes of Christ. We looked at third John chapter verse five through eight, and where it actually says, beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren and especially when they are strangers and they have testified to your love and before the church, before the church, you will do well to send them on their way and a man are worthy of God for they went out for the sake of the name accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we may be fellow workers with the truth. And so we talked about how that's just an important part of hospitality is what we do with traveling, missionaries, evangelists, and things like that. Now, we ended last week with the exceptions to hospitality, which might've seemed like a strange curve ball, if you will, that I threw at you there at the very end. Here we are talking about being hospi, be hospitable. All of a sudden we come across somewhere in the Bible that says, don't be hospitable. You're like, what's up with that? Well, we are commanded to not show hospitality to several types of people. And I want to go back to that point because I think I probably confused you more than I helped you because it was so quick and I was rushed and we just kind of ended abruptly.

And I even had some good questions asked me this week by several of you to clarify and we're looking for some clarification to some of the comments I made. And so let's talk about this for a second. In second, John, verse seven, we are commanded to not show hospitality false teachers. Notice verse seven, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves that you do not lose what you've accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God, the one who abides in the teaching that he has both the father and the Son. And here it is. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

And so this is really the contrast to what John told the readers in Gaius, in particularly in third John. This is kind of the other side of the coin. He's telling, Hey, if a faithful minister comes to town, man, welcome him in. Serve him, support him, send him on his way with God's blessing. But if a false teacher comes into town, give 'em the Heisman. Basically show 'em the hand. This is not anybody you want to associating with. Now, again, we need to understand and apply this command in light of the historical context in which it was given. We've already seen that it was common in the ancient world to open your home to traveling teachers and provide them a meal or a place to sleep, which was a practical way to support them and share in their work. But here, John told his readers to not offer to feed or to house or to even greet those who are responsible. Now, listen carefully for seducing and deceiving people. Those are the words used there, particularly deceiving and who are intentionally destroying the church by actively promoting and propagating error particularly about Jesus. In other words, what we believe about Jesus is the basis of our fellowship and the bond of our unity.

I think this command would include heretical preachers in our day or cult groups like Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons who show up at our doorstep and try to proselytize us. They're there for a reason, right? They want to win us over to their heresy. Now, this doesn't mean we don't engage them in conversation and seek to correct their bad theology and share the true gospel with them. This is no excuse to be get mean and nasty with these types of people. In fact, I think what Paul's told Timothy is so helpful in this regard. Second Timothy 2 24, the Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome. In other words, don't get an argument on the doorstep with a guy, but be kind to all able to teach patient when wrong with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will.

I would even say that I don't think you are necessarily violating the intent of second John. If you were to say, Hey, rather than standing here on our doorstep, why don't you come in and sit on my couch? It's a little more comfortable place where we could have an extended dialogue. Again, that's something that you have to work through in your own conscience. But by refusing to invite them into our homes and choosing to have a conversation at our front door, I think we're making sure that we don't give them or anyone else the impression that we endorse what they believe or what they teach. We're also protecting our family members potentially from being influenced by their lies. What about this greeting here? I think the greeting when John said, don't even greet such a one. This may be a reference to giving a false teacher and official greeting or welcome into your church. And by the way, the churches that John was addressing here, were in homes. So don't open your home, your house, church and officially welcome a false teacher and say, Hey, we're so glad you're here this morning. And why don't you say a word to our people? No, because you're going to potentially lead your church astray. That guy will lead your church astray, so you don't want to welcome him into your church.

But practically speaking, whenever we greet someone or welcome someone upon their arrival, what are we doing? We're expressing joy in seeing them or when we wish them well or bid them God's speed when they depart, implies that we approve of their ministry and we hope that it succeeds. And so I think the bottom line here is the spirit of this text is that we should never say or do anything that affirms false teachers as Christians or aids in abets their ministry. And so you got to work through that. And what does that look like for you practically when somebody comes and knocks on your door for example, and wants to talk to you about a false Jesus?

I guess that's all I say about that. I'll leave that for you to work through, but hopefully you understand the intent of that passage in its historical context. Now, I will say this, shunning a Mormon missionary and befriending a Mormon or even a Muslim neighbor for example, and inviting them over for dinner I think are two totally different things. A casual visitor who believes error is not the same or is not in the same category as an official teacher who brings error. Do you notice that in the text he's bringing with him something that he wants to share with you? Okay, big difference, right between a casual visitor, an official teacher, somebody who is a believer in error, and somebody who is deceiving others with error.

All that to say, I think we should use our homes to win unbelievers to Christ, especially those from other religions. And so we should be open to having them come again if their goal is not to proselytize us, but they're just kind of living their life in deception and they don't even realize it. And we have the wonderful opportunity to show them the love of Christ and share the love of Christ with them through the gospel. And so we're to withhold hospitality or not show hospitality to false teachers. We also mentioned last week that we're supposed to refuse hospitality to unrepentant, professing Christians. And again, the idea here is that people who claim to be a Christian but who refuse to repent after being confronted about their sin and are potentially under church discipline at that point for their immorality, their idleness or their divisiveness should be refused hospitality.

Again, one Corinthians five, we looked at this last week, but here we find Paul admonishing the Corinthian church for letting immorality go unchecked in their church. They weren't doing anything about it. They knew it was there, it was happening and they were just sweeping under the rug and there was this immoral situation. And so he told them to not associate with immoral people. Verse nine, he said, I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers or idolaters for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually I wrote to you to not associate with any so-called believer or brother, excuse me, if he's an immoral person or covetous or an idolater or a reviler, a drunkard or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

So hold that thought. And that's immorality somebody who's living in immorality. How about somebody who's an idol person? You might say a lazy person. Look at Second Thessalonians chapter three, second Thessalonians, chapter three, interesting exhortation here. This is second Thessalonians three verse six. Paul says, now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor do we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you so that you would follow our example for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order.

If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to what either for we here that some among you are leading in an undisciplined life doing no work at all, but acting like busy bodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him so that he will be put to shame.

Hold that thought and turn to Titus just a couple pages to the right, another exhortation here to reject a certain type of person. We've got immoral people, we've got idle people, and we've got now divisive people. This is Titus chapter three, verse 10. It says, reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning and being self condemned. In fact, even back in the book of Romans in the last chapter, Romans 16, in this final section where Paul is greeting and greeting and greeting, greeting all these people, but then he says this, I urge you, verse 17, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them.

And so here we have three examples of how we are to engage with or not engage with professing Christians who are living in some form of immorality or idleness or divisiveness. And I say, what's the point here? I think God's intent in unrepentant believers being rejected by and isolated from, and it even said shamed by fellow believers, if the summit is a true believer, they will miss the fellowship of the body of Christ, which will lead them to repentance. Like, Hey, I want to get back where I was with the Lord and with his people. But if they can have their cake eat too, they can keep living in their sin and everything goes on as normal, there's going to be no incentive for them to want to repent.

And so God set it up this way so that they would feel the sting of their sin and want to get rid of it so they could get back in right fellowship with him and his people. Now, again, let me say this. I think there's a huge difference between just chilling with somebody who's in sin and confronting someone who's in sin, right? You are like, well, so I'm not supposed to. In other words, I don't think it would be wrong. Lemme say it this way, I think it would be wrong. And this is the point of these passages. It is wrong for us to spend time with these types of people and act like everything's okay, but it's not wrong if we want to spend time with them, if the main purpose is to address their spiritual condition.

In other words, hey, just come over. Let's hang out and have a good time. And everything's completely breezed over, swept under the rug. And it's like nobody talks about, no, come on over and let's talk about the elephant on the couch. Sit down on my couch and we're going to talk about the elephant. And by the way, you're the elephant. No offense, right? But it's okay to reach out with truth, right? Speaking the truth and love. So again, we need to find the balance here as we try to practically apply these passages with wisdom. And then there's a third group of people, and it's almost assumed, but I found an interesting section in a book. I was reading about what the Bible says about hospitality, and they included another category of people that were not to show hospitality to, and that is criminals, which you think, well, no, duh, right?

But not necessarily. I know firsthand of situations where I think people out of what I would say, an und discerning type of love, a misplaced desire to help someone in need. They've harbored people they should have never harbored, and they've put themselves and their family in harm's way, and they were acting foolishly in the Old Testament. God told the people of Israel to set aside cities of refuge. Have you heard of these cities of refuge really cool concept where those who accidentally killed someone could flee for protection and justice? You can find one example in numbers 35 verses 16 to 21. However, if a fugitive was tried and found guilty of willful murder, they were not to be welcomed or harbored or given refuge, but instead they were to be handed over to the avenger to be executed.

And again, I think in the New Testament that we know that God ordained governments and laws to protect us from people who threaten us and threaten our wellbeing and our lives. Romans 13, we're going to get there in a little bit about how God ordained the governing authorities and even the ability to punish the sword. For example, verse four, for the authorities, a minister of God to you for good, but if you do what is evil, be afraid for, it does not bear this sword for nothing, for it is a ministry of God, a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. And then of course, we know laws are given really for the purpose of keeping sinners in. Check one Timothy one, nine. The law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane and those who kill their fathers or mothers for murderers and immortal men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.

So the point is the world is full of dangerous people who should not be harbored or given sanctuary in our homes if we know them to be lawbreakers. And again, the point here is that we need to practice hospitality using biblical wisdom and practical discernment and not have anybody in our home that might endanger us or our families. So there's a balance here, right? Trying to give a biblical balance to what we're learning about hospitality. Well, that was a big old rabbit trail, wasn't it? How not to show hospitality. But again, there's a lot of questions that come to our minds when we consider these few passages that tell us to not show hospitality. So hopefully, hopefully if you had any more questions, please come and ask me if I haven't been clear. But getting back to the highlights of hospitality that we learned last week, and I saved the best for last, and I don't know which number this is, but anyway, hospitality or loving strangers is based on and motivated by God's hospitality in reaching out and rescuing us when we were strangers.

We saw that in Leviticus 19, in Ephesians two. I would also say this, hospitality is Christ-like it's a beautiful, powerful picture of Jesus who is in the process of preparing a place for us in his father's house in heaven, and who promised to come back and take us there to live with him forever. John 14. And then lastly, hospitality reflects and models God's offer of salvation to each of us, which ultimately brings glory to God. And if there was one verse that says it very succinctly, it would be Romans 15, seven, therefore accept or welcome one another just as Christ also accepted or welcomed us to the glory of God. That one verse summarizes everything that we've learned so far about hospitality and the fact that this is a reflection and a model of salvation and ultimately glorifies and honors God. That's why it's so vital that we develop a heart for and a habit of showing hospitality to people that we know and that we don't know to believers and to unbelievers alike.

And so with that as our foundation, I want to look now at some specific examples of hospitality, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament to help you see that being hospitable has always been a distinctive mark of God's people. So let's look at hospitality demonstrated. And when you look at the Old Testament, one of the first examples that stands out is Abraham and Sarah in Genesis chapter 18, Genesis chapter 18. And again, this is more of like a Bible study than a sermon. And so you can follow along with me by turning back to Genesis 18 and notice what it says in verse one. Now, the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of maam while he was sitting at the tent in the heat of the day. This is Abraham, when he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold three men were standing opposite him, and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth.

And he said, my Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree, and I'll bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourselves. After that you may go on since you have visited your servant. And they said, so do, as you have said. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly prepare three measures of fine flour, need it and make bread cakes. By the way, ladies, I'll let you work through the practical implications of that for your life. When your husband comes home and says, Hey, honey, I met this guy and I invited him over for dinner. And you're like, ah, okay. I wasn't prepared for that and I had my expectations for this, this, or this.

But to weigh that, Sarah, I think is a great model here of just flexibility, fluidity, going with the flow, and they hopefully were a hospitality team. They were a tag team when it came to hospitality, which every husband and wife should be that a tag team when it comes to serving others. Verse seven, Abraham also ran to the herd and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf, which he had prepared and placed it before them, and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. Now, if you've ever been into that might be awkward in our culture, but if you've ever been to a foreign culture, they actually bring the food to you and they stand over you and they watch you eat. That's hospitality In a lot of these third world countries that are extremely hospitable.

They'll give you everything. They own the best of what they have, which isn't really good, but it's everything they have. They put it before you and they stand back and they watch you eat. That's what Abraham was doing here. And I remember one of the first times I went to India, I was working through getting that food down. I didn't want to be ungracious in how I respond to their hospitality, but the problem is, as soon as you cleared your plate and everything, what would they do? They put more on the plate. I'm like, this is going to end badly if I keep eating this type of food, but I don't want to be ungracious. So, but the point is, what a hospitable example this is, and again, it was spur of the moment, hospitality to unexpected guests, unplanned for, and by the way, two of them were angels and they were accompanied by a third guy who the Bible says was the Lord.

This was a pre incarnate appearance of Christ. The second member of the Trinity, this is what's called a theophany, and this wasn't the only time this happened. It happened to lot. It happened to Gideon, it happened to Manoa the parents of Samson, and they all did the same thing. Here came these guys, they didn't know who they were from Adam, and they're like, Hey, hey, time out. Lemme get you something to eat. Lemme go kill something. And Mo's going to bake some bread, and they just took care of 'em. And so the spontaneous, selfless, sacrificial love and care that these folks show towards strangers became a model of hospitality throughout the ages. In fact, the writer of Hebrews probably had these incidents in mind, these Old Testament examples in mind when he said, to not neglect to show hospitality to strangers because some had unknowingly what entertained angels. Hebrews 13 two.

One of my favorite Old Testament examples of hospitality is Rebecca. Rebecca in Genesis 24. And if you remember, this is when Abraham was old and he knew he was about to die and he wanted to find a wife for his son Isaac, and he didn't want to make sure he didn't marry a Canaanite woman, so he sent his servant to go find him a wife from his relatives. And so here was this servant who was appointed as cupid or matchmaker. And so we find him in verse 10, taking along 10 camels, and he set out with a variety of good things of his masters in his hand, and he rose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Naor. He made the Campbell's knee dine outside the city by the well of watered evening time and time when a woman would go out to draw water.

He said, oh Lord, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show loving kindness to my master Abraham. Behold, I'm standing by the spring and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now, may it be that the girl to whom I say, please let down your jar so that I may drink and who answers drink and I'll water your camels. Also, may she be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. And by this, I will know that you have shown loving kindness to my master, and I love this. Before he had finished speaking, I mean talk about an immediate answer to prayer, right? Behold, Rebecca, who was born to Bethune, the son of Milah, the wife of Abraham's brother, Naor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, and no man had relations with her, and she went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up. Then the servant ran to meter and said, please let me drink a little water from your jar. And she said, drink my Lord. And she quickly lowered her jar to her hand and gave him a drink. Now, when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, I will draw also for your camels until they have finished drinking.

I'm just saying, Rebecca was the boss. Okay, 10 camels. You ever watered a camel? It's not pouring a little water in your dog dish, okay? I mean, these are camels. That's what they do for a living. They drink water and they carried around. It's like they're a portable whatever, water mover. And so what does she do? She quickly emptied a jar and into the trough and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. Meanwhile, the man was gazing at her in silence. Probably his jaw was dropped on the floor going, this is too good to be true, to know whether the Lord has made his journey successful or not. When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half shekel, do braces for a wrist, weighing 10 shekels in a gold, and said, whose daughter are you?

Please tell me. Is there room for us to lodge in your father's house? She said to him, I'm the daughter of Beko whom she bore to again. She said to him, we have plenty of both straw and feed and room to lodge in that the man bowed low and worshiped the Lord. And he said, blessed to be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who was not forsaken, his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, the Lord has guided me into the way to the house of my master's brothers. Then the girl ran and told her mother's household about these things. So here was this young gal who didn't have the gift of hospitality, right? She was just hospitable and she worked hard showing hospitality. This was great sacrifice. This required sweat, I'm sure, and labor to care for this man.

I mean, it's one thing to go when somebody comes to your house, Hey, you want a water bottle to the worker outside, but water in the dude's camels, okay? That's an all day job, right? So Rebecca, great example here we can learn from. How about David? David had been shown hospitality by many people during the years he spent fleeing from Saul. He knew what it was like to need a place to hide out, to need a cold couple water, a place to lay his head and safety and to be able to rest. And so after Saul and his son Jonathan died, you may remember that David extended grace and mercy in showing hospitality to Jonathan's crippled son Mephibosheth, by inviting him to stay to live with him in his home. And look at this with me, two Samuel. This is so beautiful, and I want you to see this because this is the gospel in a nutshell here.

This is a microcosm of the good news of salvation for us. Two Samuel chapter nine, verse one. Then God said, or excuse me, then David said, is there yet anyone left of the house of Saul that it may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? You there? Second Samuel nine, verse two. Now, there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Zeba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, are you Zeba? And he said, I'm your servant. The king said, is there not yet anyone of the house of salt, to whom I may show the kindness of God? And Zeba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan who is crippled in both feet. By the way, what is hospitality? It's showing people the kindness of God, God's kindness. So the king said to him, where is he?

And Ziba said to the king, and behold, he's in the house of Macer, the son of Amil in lo debar. Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Macer, the son of Amil from Lo Debar, Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and Ed himself and said, Mephibosheth. He said, here is your servant. David said to him, do not fear for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake of your father, Jonathan, and we'll restore to you all the land of your grandfather's Saul, and you shall eat at my table regularly. And then notice verse 10, you and your sons, your servant shall cultivate the land for him, and you shall bring in the produce so that your master's grandson may, may have food. Nevertheless, Mephibosheth, your master's grandson shall eat at my table regularly. And then verse 13, so Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem for he ate at the King's table regularly.

Guess what? This is not just a picture of David's hospitality to Mephibosheth. This is a picture of God's hospitality to us. We are Mephibosheth. We're the lame, the crippled, the outcast who've been invited in by a gracious God to sit at his table as one of the king's sons. How cool is that? How about job? When Job was defending his integrity in the midst of all that he was experiencing, his buddies were blaming him. It's probably because you sinned, and that's why you're experiencing all these trials and tribulations, and God is judging you, and he was defending his integrity. He mentioned how he never had missed an opportunity to show hospitality. Job 31, 32, no stranger had to spend the night in the street for my door was always open to the traveler.

And then lastly, Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31, and this is the description of that virtuous woman given to Leal by his mother. And one of the outstanding traits of this virtuous woman here in Proverbs 31 was a hospitable heart. Proverbs 31 20, she extends her hand to the poor as she stretches out her hands to the needy. So that's hospitality, old Testament, and we still need to look at hospitality and New Testament, which we'll have to do next week, but hopefully you're getting the feeling and the sense that maybe this is a subject that we've just skimmed over in our minds and our hearts as Christians, but it's everywhere in the scripture. In fact, I think you could actually say that the Bible is a story about God's hospitality to strangers and sinners like us from Genesis to Revelation. And in Genesis, God made a place, a home for us in the garden, a place for us to live where we had everything that we needed.

And yet, what did we do? We rebelled against him. And here we are now. But what happens in Revelation once again, God provides a place for his people. It's not a garden now, it's a city, the new Jerusalem where he provides a home for us. And in this time, it's going to be a forever home, right? Where there's no sin, no tears, no pain. And what is all that? It's because God has a hospitable heart. God has a hospitable heart. And listen, if you're one of his children, you should have a hospitable heart too. And he wants to use us to reflect and model his hospitable heart to a lost and dying world that needs to know that the Father desires for them to come home. And we get to be God's hands and feet in doing that by simple things like greeting a new arrival in your neighborhood, bringing across the street a plate of cookies and a smile, or letting somebody borrow your wrench or inviting somebody to your house for dinner, helping them in their yard, providing a ride to hospital for someone who needs to get there, and a plate of lasagna on the seat next to you.

I'm joking about my favorite Uber driver, Randy Judd, and how he's brought more people to the hospital back and forth for surgeries and such. And oftentimes, if they're haven't had an opportunity for food, though, his wife will, Marilyn will put a plate of lasagna or whatever they had for supper that night on the passenger seat for the person that they're going to bring home so they have something to eat on the way home. Just fairly practical ways of just showing the love of Christ, the love of God to us. And so come back next week and we'll look at the New Testament and see what that has to say about hospitality. Father, we didn't get near as far as I thought we would, but hopefully there's enough truth to chew on, to mull over, to put into practice. And so would you help us as each of us are in a different place when it comes to hospitality and some of us, or this is kind of all brand new, others are well down the road and have been doing this, practicing this for years and doing it very well. And this is just an Excel still more type of series. And so would you use this series, father, that we would become a more hospitable people, a more hospitable church, and that we would show greater hospitality to one another and to those in our community for the sake of the gospel and for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.