It's good to see you all. We are going to try to finish up our little five-week class on hospitality and friendship. Again, if you're not familiar with our Sunday school pattern, we do a theology class. Dr. McGraw has been doing the larger catechism for the last years. We do a church history class for 10 weeks, usually 10 weeks each. And we do a practical Christian life class for 10 weeks a year, and then we do biblical studies for 10 weeks a year. And we have done the Pentateuch, and now we're gonna go to the historical books in the spring. This week we're splitting up practical Christianity class into two sections. This is two five-week sections through the year. This one on friendship and hospitality. And then another one in the spring on Christian stewardship between the history class and the biblical studies class. So just so you get a sense of what we're doing, usually we do four in a row. This year we did it a little differently. And this is the last week of the practical Christianity. unit that we're doing and then Mr. Mooney will start with 17th century church history next week. So we'll be back to church history and if you want to go back online we've had ancient church history Medieval church history, Reformation church history, and now we're going a little further again. So if you want to go back, you can listen to those classes. I believe it was Ethan Boyard that started us off with ancient church history, and we have gone on since then. So we're in our last week of the study of hospitality from the scriptures. Let's pray together and then get to our study. Lord our God, we enter into this class again with the prayer that you, by your word and spirit, would shape the very contours, habits, and practices of our life, our thinking and our doing, our feeling. Our longing is that we would be conformed in everything we do to your will, that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we think of all the times, as we have studied in the past weeks, of all the many times that your word plainly commands us to share, to do good, and to share, or to love our neighbor as ourself, to wash one another's feet, to pursue and practice hospitality, and we pray that you would give us grace to do so. That we would indeed follow the example of our father, Abraham, and remember that all that we have comes from you, and that we are to return your good gifts to you in service and praise, and that includes this grace. We pray for your spirit's help, in Jesus' name, amen. If you haven't been here, I'm not going to review everything, but if you want to do a review of the first class hospitality, you could just take a concordance. No one knows what a concordance is anymore because now we have Bible software and we can search online or on your phone and you can do the same thing. But if you do a word search in your Bible and you look for the word hospitality, you will find it all through the scriptures and very often in in close connection to an imperative verb, to practice hospitality, to pursue hospitality, or, for example, if you think of the qualifications for an elder, so what does an exemplary Christian look like? What does the Christian life look like? Must be hospitable. Today I want to talk a little bit about the benefits and the practical considerations of hospitality. The benefits for motivation and then finally the how-to, how you might practice hospitality. Our desire as Christians, Galatians 6.10, Paul says this, so then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially those who are of the household of faith." Again, this is a broad command that tells us that part of what, well, at the heart of really what it means to be a Christian is a deep interest in doing good to others, to find ways to bless other people. And let me remind you of something I do class after class. This requires costly sacrifice in time and in money. It means that you'll be giving. It means that one of the ways you could ask yourself how am I doing in my sanctification would be by your calendar and your checkbook. These would be two ways that you could see what, if you want to pursue sanctification, there'd be two practical places you could look to see how you are spending what God has given you. This morning with our family before worship, we read, before our breakfast, we read from 1 Chronicles 29, and David has that beautiful little phrase, Israel brings everything to build the temple, and gather everything needed for Solomon to build the temple, David says, of your own we have given you. And we're talking about it this morning and I said to Sam, if your brother gave you a gift of money for your birthday, it'd be a really kind thing for you to maybe get a little thank you card and write a thank you note to your brother and give him something, maybe a little bag of Skittles. It's interesting. When you receive a gift, The expression of thanks in some degree is a very interesting thing because you're kind of giving part of it back. There's an exchange of communion. There's a communion in these exchanges where we're expressing love to one another, but everything that we started with didn't belong to us. It was stewardship from God, and there's this mystery of being given things in order that we might give them first back to God and also to others. And that's why we have things, not to gather them up, but in order that we might serve the Lord and serve others. Let us do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of faith. The highest expression of this giving within the human realm, the highest expression first is to God, our life to God, and the human realm is to one another, and especially in the church of Jesus Christ, Galatians 6.10, in the church of Jesus Christ. There is a list of what have been called the Puritan cures. And cures for common problems in the Christian life. And let me give you some examples. How could you break idolatry? I'll give you an example. You could keep the Sabbath day. You could keep the Lord's day. You can keep the Lord's Day holy and commit to that no matter what, and it has the capacity to reorient your heart and life back to God. Let's say you were a sports fanatic and you wanted to know what was happening in the World Cup today, and you knew that your interest was higher than it should be. You can keep the Lord's Day holy and leave that aside for a day, and then, it's not that you can't have an interest in that, but it has a reorienting power. Back to God, the very best, the source and fount of all goodness. Selfishness, giving. We give, and when we're tempted to grab a hold of what we have and amass more, one of the ways, and maybe the Lord's given you more or less, it doesn't matter, but one of the ways we can guard against selfishness is tithing and giving and be generous. And remember that part of the pattern of your Christian life is always gonna be letting go of something in order that you might bless someone else or expand Christ's kingdom. Bless the Lord through your giving. And then how about self-centeredness? One of the ways that you could help cure self-centeredness is hospitality. other, the interest and time and money spent on others. And one of the simple ways to do that is to open your home and to be hospitable. Again, for idolatry, you could think of Sabbath keeping, for selfishness or greed, tithing and giving, for self-centeredness, friendship and hospitality, the kind of friend that gives and doesn't take. There's great benefits to this kind of life. And I want to give you some of the benefits. We are those who are to be well-practiced and schooled in caring for other people. Philippians 2.4, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. We are to have a profoundly other-centered focus. We are not prohibited from caring for ourselves and our own. We are to work and labor in order that we would be able to eat. But then, Paul says, if we repent of stealing and we're laboring, we are not just laboring that we would eat, we are also laboring that we might be able to have something to give to others. Our interests as a Christian are not simply our own ambitions. In fact, we are to be those who are willing to crucify our ambitions. for the good of others. Second benefit to individuals is hospitality teaches us how to be friendly. And how many of you, the words introvert and extrovert. Some people just love to say, but I'm an introvert, or I'm just like this because I'm an extrovert. And one of the things about personality tests and labels like this, there's a good thing about them because they may help you understand yourself, right? A little understanding of who you are, what your character's like, strengths and weaknesses, natural dispositions. It's good to understand yourself. And if there's something you need to repent of, that repentance, When it's necessary and required, then we repent of sin. One of the bad things about personality tests and labels like introvert and extrovert is what? Okay. Yeah, well, that's just who I am. An excuse, yes. It becomes, you get this personality test and it says, I'm a bitter, angry, self-centered person. And people, you post it on the wall and you say, that's who I am. Introvert and extrovert, there's something to this. There are some people who perhaps like to be alone more and have some solitude. That would be good. That's like our savior. There's nothing wrong with that. Our savior spent long hours in prayer on his own. But he also ministered to others. And so the labels are less than helpful. Hospitality is a good way. to avoid a certain sin, which is a lack of interest in other people. There are people who are perhaps naturally charismatic, winsome, gregarious. For most of us, it takes practice, and especially since friendliness and interest in others goes contrary to our natural sinful nature. Sinners by nature are self-centered and unfriendly. And I want to say a little bit about the life of a church. We have to be very careful not to become an unfriendly church. And you can do it in a lot of different ways. One of them is just self-centeredness. One of them is just always talking to the same people you always talk to. Not having a true interest in others. And one thing I always think about when I think about other people, when I'm trying to think biblically, even if I'm tired and maybe weary and worn, You have to remember two things. That other person is created in the image of God. And they are created to reflect God's glory. And you are to respect that. And you are looking at God's handiwork in his creation. And you're looking at, no matter who it is, no matter how sinful, rebellious they are, you're looking at someone made in the image of God. And you are to respect them as made in the image of God. And you are to have an interest in them. Second thing is, they have an eternal destiny. And you are to have an interest in them and a compassion. You want to tell them about Christ if they're not a believer. And then third, if they're a fellow believer, they're somebody who shares like precious faith, and you are both temples of the Holy Spirit. You have the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And this means that we should have a profound interest in others. And the way that interest in others is tested is usually in, well, it's profoundly in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a joy in giving, being interested in others, in sharing with others, and to be friendly, to be outward focused. After the worship service is done, It would be good to, I mean, there's two things. If you're deeply meditating on the word and you wanna go home and think about it, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're in a church, there should be something in you that's interested in reaching out to fellow believers and learning their needs and praying with and for them and sharing of the good gifts that God has given you. Paul wrote this in Acts 20, 35, and everything I have showed you that by working hard in this manner, you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, it is more blessed to give than receive. This posture of giving and giving and giving. The profound self-centeredness and self-pity is destructive to the life of the church. You know, I've done enough. What did Jesus said? If you've done everything that God has told you to do, you've simply done your duty. The life of the Christian is the life of the cross. Sacrificial giving. And always giving. And giving because Christ first gave himself for you. Some more benefits to families here, moving on in our outline. Families in general, your households, and If you live alone or if you live with others, there's a duty of hospitality for everybody, but especially for families. Let me encourage families. It's very often people will have a new baby come into the house, and let's say, and after that, they just, the rest of their life, they're only focused on themselves. Well, that can't be right. Surely your focus shifts because you have another responsibility in your home. But families are not to be turned in upon themselves. They are to remember that they belong to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And home life, especially to have children, is a great way for children to learn by example, mutual edification. And if you have people into your home or if you're in other people's homes, you also share fellowship in what the Christian life looks like. You can talk about things. What does stewardship look like? Maybe you're a young parent and there's older parents. Older parents invite some younger parents and talk a little bit about what child rearing looks like and how the teaching and nurture and admonition and discipline of children work. What is marriage like? Or a single in your home who has a friendship with your whole family? These things are benefits to families, particularly as you learn and teach by mutual edification and very much by example. Hospitality also has a special benefit to children in the church. We were reading Ted Donnelly's excellent book, by the way, Heaven and Hell. We just did another section yesterday in the Men's Fellowship. And Ted Donnelly says that one of the reasons he never liked to think about heaven is because his imagination of it as a young child was having to sit on a marble chair in heaven for a million years and be quiet. And he didn't want to tell anybody since he was in a Christian family, but he thought to himself that that was a rather dismal-looking future. And he brings that up because it was obviously a very wrong conception of what heaven is. Sometimes parents can show, I have a very high theology of the Lord's Day. I believe that it is a day that is to be set aside for worship and prayer, and for public worship first, You should be spending time in private Bible reading, and you should be reading the word with your families, and these are all parts of really, those are parts of, should be parts of every day as much as we're able. But I've seen families, for example, become so austere on the Lord's Day that I can guarantee that their children will just rebel. And what I mean by austere is there's no joy. It's become a legal bondage, an angry legal bondage, instead of the enjoyment God himself and all of his good gifts. And one of the ways that we can communicate to the next generation that there's joy in this day, there's abundance, is by having some folks around the table at lunchtime or for dinner and sharing in the good gifts and in Christian fellowship together and having friendships grow. Children are not confined, but they get to share in the lives of others. And Children can be taught parents how to serve others by both preparing for and serving in in hospitality that they can be included in the serving of others Naturally as part of a household and part of a family And they learn early on the importance of fellowship with other Saints and we are We've been blessed to have a lot of people around our table and in an ordinary way, and you get to know people like you might not get to know them anywhere else. Give an example, Ian Hamilton, I think the first time he came over to our house, I believe he said to our children, with a very straight face, that he was the king of England. Is that right? Yes. He was the king of England. And they were like, oh, we've never had a king over for lunch. And what they learned of him, a dear friend and Father in the faith and man who preaches the word, he had actually a profound interest and still does in our children. Whenever he emails me, he asks about them all. He knows them. And there's a little way where there's a kind of a relationship that is bigger than simply just what you might think of a man preaching from the pulpit. And now there's a personal bond and connection. And all of these things are part of the Christian life and benefits to your families. Hospitality will provide holy memories for families, and especially for children, and they are all, all the hospitality is a little taste of that final family reunion in glory, the household of faith. We are to be those who especially teach the next generation to be open-hearted and to share. Some benefits also to the church, the whole church. We started out with this verse, so then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of faith, Galatians 6.10. And another verse from Ephesians 2.19. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. View of the household of faith or the household of God reminds us that there is a family that lasts forever. Jesus says soberly, and for many people there's a lot of tears over this, that if we become a Christian, that often means for many of us leaving some things behind and having hard things to say even to natural relations. Might have to leave father and mother. We may have to leave lands. a lot of the natural ties of this world. However, what Christ promises is that we'll receive a hundredfold in the kingdom of heaven. And part of that we sometimes think is only in heaven, but it's not actually just in heaven. By the power of the spirit, we receive in this life benefits, and especially in our relationship to what Paul calls the household of faith, or the household of God, the family of God. is viewed as a family. And we are gathering congregating people. And if we were to only gather for two hours on a Sunday, two and a half, and never have conversation or interest in each other, you would think that would be a strange sort of family, a family that perhaps would eat its meals without any conversation and then disappear for the rest of the day, you would find to be an unusual situation. Now, the idea of the family of God means that we have a profound interest in each other. There's some blessings to a church that practices hospitality. And I can give you a few that I can think of. Encouragement to others, Hebrews 10. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another that all the more as you see the day drawing near. Now in public worship we do this preeminently. And where could you think of a way that you, what element in public worship does Paul say especially is that you are engaged in encouraging one another? A little review question. Encouraging one another in? Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing. This is going to get me on a tangent, but I'm going to go down. I'm not going to resist the temptation, which means that if you don't sing in church, you are discouraging. You are not encouraging. And the Bible says, make a joyful shout to the Lord, make a joyful noise. And Christ is not concerned whether or not you're a perfect singer. but he does call you to sing. Sing a new song to the Lord. This is a way you encourage one another in your attendance, presence, thoughtful participation, consideration of others in the public worship of God, in your engagement, in the singing of the church, the prayers of the church, the Lord's Supper this morning, the Lord willing. It's all a way that you encourage other people. When you're absent, it's a discouragement. Of course, it depends for the reason. If you're sick, it's not a discouragement. If you're traveling, it wouldn't be a discouragement. But if you just decide to skip, it's really a heartbreak. It's like a family member who doesn't want to join the family meal. And your absence is felt. And I can tell you as your pastor, your absence is felt if you're missing. The church exists as a fellowship of believers with an interest in one another. And I'll be more explicit. James 2, what use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, and yet you do not give what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, you have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe in shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless. Useless, empty. One of the great testimonies of the early church was their love for one another. Their love for one another in their feasts, in their interest in each other's lives, and their care for each other's needs. Matter of fact, the ancients really were perplexed by this, that they even loved and cared for the dead. And the Christian practice of burial, another tangent here, I have an article on this on Reformation 21 on cremation. The Christian practice of burial was even seen by the ancients as an extension of this whole person love for the other, body and soul, all the way to the grave, that there was this other interest and kindness that was lavished on one another even in the hope of the resurrection. Even the pagans who criticized the church could not criticize this strange feature of the church. And surely the Lord's Day should be the highest expression of those things as we fill our times with conversation. We could reflect on the preached word. If we have people over for lunch, we could have family worship together. We could talk about God's blessings and the trials we're going through. and we could enjoy God's good gifts. Ecclesiastes 10, 19, men prepare a meal for enjoyment, wine makes life merry. The Bible does not command stodginess in our fellowship, but the enjoyment of God's good gifts. We understand that we are those who above all are free. in Christ to enjoy one another and God's gifts. A couple more things. This isn't on your handout. It results in an increase of love. Here's a little note. The better friends you are with someone, if you know someone only tangentially, just a little bit, and you hear a bad story about them, you might be tempted to believe it. But if it was your best friend, someone you knew well, and you heard some terrible thing that was contrary to everything you knew about their life and character, what would you do? You would say, hang on. Wait a minute. This does not match the person I know. And this is one of the advantages to hospitality in a church. You know each other. There should be an increase of love and trust. This is my friend. I have been with him many times, and I know him well. and I want to think the best. And hospitality is one of the ways that we increase our love for one another. Now it doesn't mean if someone had been at your table that they're necessarily your friend. Think of Judas at the Lord's Supper. David says, my own familiar friend who ate with me betrayed me. But the idea of knowing someone well should increase our love and our patience. Evangelism is another way to do this. It's the household of faith. But there's another way that we can share in what we have and bless those who are beyond the household of faith. Jesus went on to say to the one who had invited Him, Luke 14, when you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also be able to invite you in return and that will be your repayment. And that is what we call, you go to any big city, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and there's a social circuit and everyone's trying to climb up Get invited to all the right dinners, okay? Jesus said, the only reason people are doing this is to make themselves feel good and to get into the highest level they can. And that will be your payment. That's all you'll ever get. That's what Jesus said. The applause of the world. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they do not have means to repay you. you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. It's a very practical language. Laura Lee and I were talking about Thanksgiving dinner and we were wrestling with this fact that there's probably a lot of people in the world who don't have a Thanksgiving dinner to go to. And what could we do better in the future maybe to throw a feast and throw open the doors on your holidays. You ever think about inviting somebody who's not family? And it's nothing wrong with having a family dinner. Family's a good gift. I enjoy my family dinners very, very much. I'm gonna have one at Christmas time up in Canada. I know, I think December 28th, Wednesday night, Christmas family dinner, first time in four years with my extended family because of COVID. and we're gonna have a great time. There's nothing wrong with them. There's another part of me that says when I'm gonna go up to the church I grew up in, I'm gonna wanna see and be with more people than just my family. There's all these Christians I grew up with who are my brothers and sisters in Christ, and we're making plans to meet with more people that are not just family. Because, well, they are, they're family, part of the household of faith. And this increases our love. There's a way in which we can open our doors and to witness to two kinds of people. We can bear witness to those perhaps who are younger in the faith and need to learn, and even unbelievers who can see what Christians are really like. A lot of people think Christians are crazy people that have no joy in life. They've just cut off every avenue of pleasure. A few years ago, we had the opportunity of having somebody at our dinner table from Human Rights Campaign. Anyone know what Human Rights Campaign is? Anyone familiar with this organization? Has a very nice name. Do you know what their primary aim in American life is? Promote homosexuality in the nation. And we have friends who have some relatives who are involved in this organization, and we were having them over, and they said, can we bring another, can we bring one of our relatives along? And here we have somebody who was on the board of governors of this powerful lobby group that stands against really everything we believe about the Christian home and family. And by God's grace, we might at least bear witness to what God says about the Christian home and family, and do so in a, Lord willing, a gracious and gentle way. And those opportunities, if we never opened our home, would never come. And they are ways in which, and we actually read from the Gospel of John, preach the gospel at the end of the meal, and the call of the gospel. And if we are simply cut off from the world and never willing to open our homes, we are often cut off from opportunities to be evangelistic. So, for the church, benefits to the church, encouragement to others, increase of love, and then opportunities for evangelism. And those last two are not on your handout, and I'm going a little off of it. I'm going to keep motoring on because of my time limits here. I want to talk a little bit about the practice of hospitality. And I'm going to go quickly here and you're going to, if you want to ask me more questions, I'm going to have to answer them at another time. How might you be hospitable? Let's get to the nuts and bolts. If you're going to be hospitable, usually two things have to happen. People have to relocate from where they are either Sunday at church or in their homes, they have to get to your house, you gotta open the front door, they gotta come in, and then what do you do? You feed them. You have a meal. Abraham, where we began, beginning of this, when he saw the guests coming, what did he do? He ran and he started making food. I'm not very good at this. Loralee's much better at this. I'm, this is, I'll confess this. My memory sometimes is so bad, and if some of you know me well, you know how bad it is. I can't remember who was over and when they were over and all these things. Loralee can remember who was over, when they were over, and whether or not they liked the food we cooked the last time. Whether or not she should repeat it or do something different. These details I am not very good at. However, I do know this, that the simplicity of opening the door to your home and having food on the table and a place at the table ready to receive someone into your intimate life is a very good way to share of the good gifts that God has given you. Food especially. In the Bible, food is always linked to the favor of God. Always he gives food to all flesh Psalm 136 He does that for his mercy endures forever. It's a sign of his goodness Psalm 104 he feeds all of his creatures. He gave manna from heaven the bread of angels He gave quail he get water from the rock Jesus fed the 5,000 a lot Elijah was fed by the Ravens The giving of food in the scriptures is a sign of God's open-handed generosity to sustain life, your life. Every meal you get, Luther has this great line, every meal you participate in is no less a miracle than the feeding of the 5,000 because it comes by the same divine power that makes the sun to shine and the grain to grow, the cattle to eat the grass, and all of this finally comes to your table. It comes by the supernatural. Providential. Care of God over you and all His creatures. And He feeds His creation. And this food is a sign of God's goodness. He especially has used it all through redemptive history, especially as a sign of His saving goodness. And I don't have time to get into it, but you got all the feasts of the Old Testament calendar. They were feasts. The highest one, the Passover, where there was food. And the food was a sign of God's saving goodness. By these feasts, man not only acknowledged God as his provider, but recorded the Lord's unbounded and free favor to his chosen people whom he delivered by personal intervention in this world. And there are many feasts. The highest, or the most familiar in the Old Testament was simply the weekly Sabbath rest. And this was a feast, and if you turn to Leviticus 23, you'll see that that was a feast day, a day of remembering the Lord's goodness. All of these feasts are rolled into one in what we call the Lord's Day, where every Old Testament type and shadow is fulfilled on this day, the day that Christ rose again from the dead. It replaces the Old Testament feast days, and we have an occasion for celebration every Lord's Day. That celebration, interestingly, in a moment will include the new covenant feast, the Lord's Supper, whereby the giving and receiving of bread and wine, we remember the Lord's death until he comes, and the outward sign points to the higher inward reality that we need Christ, the heavenly bread. So food is not a small thing. It is how God sustains your physical life, and he has used some occasions of it, the Lord's Supper, as a picture of how he sustains your spiritual life by your union with Christ. It's a gift that proclaims life. In the scriptures, it was also a sign of judgment and blessing. Famine was a sign of God's judgment. Amos 4.6, I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, declared the Lord. Takes your food away, makes you feel hungry, What is he asking you to do? Repent. Promised land was a land what? What's the key phrase? Promised land. Flowing with milk and honey. Abundance. Mountains shall drip sweet wine and the hills shall flow with it. Amos 9 13. That was the opposite promise. God said, I'll take it away for your repentance. I'll give it to you as a sign of my lavish goodness. And when you have food, There's probably few people here that remember times that you did not have food. But if you talk to anyone who lived through the Depression, or anyone who lived through one of the World Wars, you talk to my wife's grandmother who lived in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Indonesia in the Second World War, where the mothers, it was mothers and children camp with mothers and children separated from the rest of the family. The women would trade at the wire for the smallest morsel of food, a snail or a tomato. The boys from the village would come and trade for something they might have in the camp, maybe a cigarette or two. And they would trade that for a little sustenance for their children. Matter of fact, one of those stories, one of the little boys was killed by the prison guards for trading at the gate in front of the mothers. If that's happened to you, you'll be more thankful for your food. You'll be humbly grateful to God for such provision and goodness. It's a sign of His goodness. It's spiritual barometer. When we receive it with thanksgiving, when we use it in moderation, some people who think that wine is sinful, even though there's absolutely no biblical warrant for that view, The longer I am a Christian and the more I run into it, it's a kind of Pharisaism, which is adding to scripture, and it is very wrong, and I have no patience for it at all. It doesn't mean that it's wrong for someone to decide not to partake, but to teach that the thing, the substance, is sinful, is against the scriptures. Wine's a good barometer, however, of how we can misuse God's good gifts. God has built into it an accelerated Judgment, if you idolize the thing, it'll bring you ruin. If you use it in moderation, it's blessing. All food is the same way. Wine just has an accelerated timetable of obvious decline. But gluttony is the same sin as drunkenness in principle. It's the same sin. Food then is given by God, spiritual barometer, we use it in moderation, and we share it. We share it. It's a minimal requirement for life. It is not unimportant, and it is centrally part of hospitality. And I'll give you two texts, Genesis 18. What Abraham does when the angels come, the angel of the Lord and the two attending angels is he runs to prepare a feast. He shares. Acts chapter two, I'm gonna give you more than one text. The church shared its food and drink. Keep reading in the scriptures, Luke 15. The return of the prodigal son was what? This would have been. This illustration would not be surprising to Jesus' culture. The return of the prodigal son was the occasion for a feast. And the idea of feasting and celebrating and enjoying God's good gifts. The preacher in Ecclesiastes says that one of God's great blessings, a gift, is to be able to labor and enjoy the labor of our hands, including eating our food and drink. And again, the central nature of food is important throughout the scriptures. I hope you're getting that clear. And one of the ways we simply engage in hospitality is we make and share food. We have people around our table. We can open a room in the house if someone needed a place to stay, and we can open our table and spread a feast. And then if you go to James 2, as we were earlier, if someone is cold, we give them a coat. We're practical in our hospitality. You have to be doing something. It's not an idea or a mental disposition or an affection. I would love to do that. It's a thing you do. So back to the beginning, you're going to buy more groceries and you're going to put something on your calendar. And if your home is, I'll put it this plainly. If you are not participating in some way, Let's say you're single, maybe you can team up with a family, say, listen, can I help you? But the idea of having a home and so much food and drink and plenty, and then never opening it and sharing it with other people, I would think that you should think about all the hospitalities and commands in scripture and repent. And start putting on your calendar, people over at my house. we're gonna make a meal, we're gonna have some people around the table. And I know that that might be hard for some of you to hear. It's hard for me not to come to that conclusion from all the hospitality commands in the New Testament. This is not my word, it's the word of the Lord. And it is one of the ways in which we crucify self-centeredness, encourage the church, increase our love, Let our light shine brightly in the world and reflect something of the generosity of God who has loved us with those around us. Especially we can do this by encouraging those who are in the household of faith. We can care for the poor this way among us. We can deal with those who are lonely so that they're at tables. In our congregation, well, you can do this with missionaries. I think of Third John we talked about a few weeks ago. You can do this singles around your table. You can invite maybe a seminary family that's newer to our congregation, the family who's planning to give themselves for the cause of the kingdom and get to know them and have the joy of participating in their future work and life together in Christ's church. And you can do this with love and appreciation and lavish love. In Matthew 26.6, the woman with the alabaster jar reminds us to be as lavish as we might be in our celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ and his goodness to us. And part of our hospitality, what really ultimately fuels our hospitality is the awe and wonder that Christ would share his table with me. And if the Lord with lavish generosity would visit a sinner who deserves nothing to give me a place at his feasting table and then forever, ought there not in me to be some attraction to those who he has redeemed by his blood? and an interest in sharing the temporal things of this life in order that I might express my love to him and to my neighbor. I think I'm going to stop there. Any questions? I have more, but on the handout there on planning and pursuing and perseverance, let me just say a few words about that. I'll say a couple things. If you don't plan for gas, you're never going to have any. This is going to be this quick. Pursuing means you've got to invite people, so it means you've got to either email, text, you've got ten different ways to communicate. Facebook, email, text, in person, write a letter, invite people. And then persevere. What happens to people is first time, you know, burn the food, when your kid spills grape juice on someone's light-colored clothing. You're just like, ah, this is a nightmare. Never do that again. Persevere. Keep going. Get better at it. Doesn't happen every week. Persevering doesn't mean that your home is open every week. Some people, and I think this is an opposite problem, some people who think they're so righteous to have somebody over every day of the week, it's probably just running your family down and neglecting your own kids, okay? There's a pace to this. It's a different kind of wisdom, but it should be built into maybe once a month if you want to start. Once a month, open your home. Don't be selfish and have a lack of love or a lack of discipline or a disaster of a home or disorderly children and ruin fellowship. Put things in order thinking about others. And then again, have love for Christ that fuels your love for others. Remember his love ultimately to you. fuel your love for others. Okay, that's the last section in 30 seconds. Questions? Questions or comments about hospitality? We can just wait quietly in this house. Y'all can sit down, that's good. I can give you ideas. You can get KFC on a Friday night, invite some people over. I mean, you don't have to be a cook. There's a million ways to do this. If your house is a mess and it's been a mess, you could get KFC, invite someone to the park and say, if kids are playing on the swing together, we'll get to know you and we'll know better how to pray for one another. I can find a hundred ways where you could invite people out to eat. Just take someone out for dinner. There's a lot of different ways that you could serve, though I happen to think the One of the best ways is open your own home. But you could bring KFC home and have people over. There you go. Just put it on another dish and don't answer questions about where it came from and you'll be fine. I'm just saying, this doesn't have to be the most difficult thing in the world. It's the interest in others that is the beginning of this because Christ has had an interest in you. And how you do it is another thing. I'm looking forward to, let me see how many households are represented here. 20 invitations next week, there we go. I'm joking. My family, we have 10 of us. That's a good way to start. Maybe invite a single over first. There we go, get the wheels rolling. I'm only kidding somewhat. These are biblical commands and it's part of the life of the church. experience of people who have complicated dietary issues who have approached me and said, hey, I'm happy to bring the soup you didn't eat. And so I'm able to prepare for 20 other people in this family who can't eat the same thing and bring their own food. And I think that if you have a situation like that, Great comment because I can use that one and I can say this is this is good because I have celiac disease so you don't have to cook for me so I'll bring my own foods and now the 20 invitations. are coming for sure. There we go. I'm just kidding. But I do want to encourage you to invite people. And you don't have to invite me over. Don't worry about it. Hans. Oh. Noah. Noah. I've done this twice in the last two weeks. The fine man Noah. Yes. What about college students? What about college students? Yeah. Inviting us to your dorm might be awkward. I think a good way might be to, this would not be an answer to you. This might be a way for the church to think about this. You could help at someone's home. You could pitch in and be thoughtful or bring something along. It would be hard to host someone if you can't, if you don't have a place to do it. By the way, Noah's, and I keep calling him Hans because he has a brother named Hans. They are very different though, if you get to know them, they're very different, yes. And we enjoyed a very kind impromptu hospitality at the Nelson family, Nelson Ranch in Colorado a few weeks ago. And food was lovely, and fellowship was just as lovely. Another hand here. In light of what you were saying, our situation over the years has changed radically. We used to be able to have 20, 30 people over to our house. And now we live in a significantly smaller space. And it's definitely been something that we have to cognitively think about how are we going to do hospitality now in this season of our life where we're caring for elderly parents as well as being hospitable. Because Sunday is when I go set up for mom's medication and things like that. So one of the solutions that we're working on, and I spoke to the deacons about this, because I would love to still do larger hospitality. Many people in the church have big families, and now we cannot do it at our home. And so what we're planning on doing is actually using, setting up the fellowship hall every now and then. So that's something that maybe college students could consider banding together with the family like ours or other college students and other families to do a larger gathering of people on a Sunday as an expression of hospitality, even though it's not been in our own home. That's a good idea. There's a couple other things. There's seasons of life. Everyone has a different season of life. And there are some seasons where the ward has either limitations or cares that you have that others don't have, let's say sickness in your home, or facilities are not what they might have been. Maybe you lived in a bigger home before. The Lord knows all those things. This is not a legal, there's not one legal prescription here. He knows exactly. Our hearts and our interest in others, teaming up, we've got a connection here now. Noah and the Clutus, gonna put on the next fellowship meal. There we go. No, but you get the idea. There's ways, you can be creative. You can think about, where's my limitations? The Lord knows your limitations. But is there a way that we can serve others? Brian. I can't resist Nelson, they're famous around here. So he made soup, brought it to the seminary, reminded our family to eat his soup with it there. So a little bit of creativity is helpful. Yeah. Be creative. I do think that, even though I'm encouraging this, that last point, the Lord knows our limitations. And remember that. Our health, our living condition, our age, maybe. The Lord knows our limitations. Surely this should be part of Christian community life, and with a world that has closed front doors and fenced in backyards, and now we don't even use those, everyone just sits inside, doesn't even watch TV anymore, now they just surf the internet in some dark corner of a house. The idea of a meal together and the sharing of God's good gifts. is counter-cultural even, I think, more and more, and could be a simple way to let our light shine in the world. Michael. I just want to commend hospitality for the sake of discipleship. That's a big part of what we do at the Chapman House, and our role is that the depth of relationship is sped up around the table together. It's really powerful the way that that uses this kind of hospitality and we see it all the time in our work. Yeah, so just recommending that. And it also operates in terms of difficult dietary things. But we deal with that a lot as well and have some recipes. If anybody is interested in asking about hosting somebody that has those kind of restrictions, feel free to use this as a resource as well in terms of thinking their brains about those things. And Michael and that will serve you a very fine venison steak I have learned. I need to learn something. First of all, how to get the venison. I don't even know that phrase. But anyway. No, so we'll stop there. Feel free to ask me questions. You can ask my wife questions about how this looks in a busy family life. We'd be happy to answer your questions. Again, I said we had this five-week series on practical Christianity. This was on hospitality and friendship. Next week, the Lord willing, we turn to 17th century church history, and then Another class in the spring on stewardship, and then the next one will be on the historical books of the scriptures, an overview of the historical books. So this will mark the end of a short class on hospitality and friendship here at the church. Next week, Mr. Mooney on church history. Ryan, would you mind closing us in prayer? Father in heaven, we thank you for your generosity in giving us your son as your indescribable gift. And we thank you that though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes that we might become rich in him. We pray that your generosity to us would spill over into our hearts as we seek to be generous, kind, and hospitable to others. And Lord, as you invite us to your table this morning, we ask that we can join together as your household in the joy, the thanksgiving, and the spirit as we celebrate the finished work of your Son, our Savior. In Christ's name we pray, amen.