Good morning, everyone. You all excited to be here? Me too. I am excited to be here. I am excited to dive into God's word this morning. Let me just say welcome to the guests who have joined us here this morning. Glad that you are here worshiping with us. Will you pray with me as we go to God's word this morning? Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you for the work that you have done for us through your son, Jesus Christ, in saving us, and the promise that you give to always be with us, to never leave us or forsake us, to help us, to hold us fast until the end, and to complete the work that you began in us, God. We thank you and we praise you for it. Lord God, we ask and pray for your spirit to continue to work in our hearts and our minds here this morning, God, that your name, your word would be glorified, and that we would grow in our faith. We know that that won't happen apart from your spirit, and so we ask and we pray for it in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen. Amen. Well, how many of you know someone who's really good at hospitality? Really good at it? When you're in their home, they make you feel comfortable, like you belong there, like you fit in in that space. You know, they put you immediately at ease. I know some folks who are like that. They're so warm and welcoming to us. Whenever we visit them, they not only open up their homes to us, they open up their hearts, their kind. They not only serve up good food, they serve up great conversation. Whenever we spend time with them, I'm always refreshed. I'm always encouraged spending time with them. Do you know anyone like that? These are hospitable people. Whenever I'm with these people, I'm always glad to go and visit them. And whenever we leave, I'm always excited to go back. These kinds of people use their homes as a place of purposeful ministry to other people. Today, we're gonna conclude our short series on five essentials of our church, and we're focusing in on hospitality ministry. There is no more compelling purpose for your life than making disciples, bringing someone to faith in Jesus Christ or helping someone to grow in their faith in Jesus Christ, ministering to people. There's no greater purpose. As Pastor Mark said last week, we are passionate about the gospel, about making disciples here at Gospel Fellowship Church, that mission that Jesus gave us to go and make disciples. And one of the ways that we do that is equipping parents to be the disciples of their children. but we have to go beyond the home. We can't stop with our home. We have to go beyond that. And one of the ways that we do that is through hospitality ministry. There are other ways. When we think about reaching people for Jesus Christ, I think we often think first of our workplaces, or we think of compassion ministries, and those are good things. We can get involved in those things, but we often, overlook one of the most effective ways to reach people for Jesus Christ, and that's ministry from our home. It's hospitality ministry. The need for Christians to practice hospitality ministry has never been greater. Some people are even calling it the key to evangelism in the 21st century. The reason for that is because we cannot count on people coming to our churches. We have to take the gospel to them. Really what this is is the key to evangelism in the first century. And we're simply trying to recover it. So the message this morning for us today is this, make your home a place of purposeful hospitality ministry. Use your home to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. Use your home to grow people in their faith in Christ, to minister to people. Now, before we can practice hospitality ministry, we ought to know what it is and what it's for. In the Old Testament, hospitality included three things, shelter, food and drink, and protection. And there are tons of examples across the Old Testament of this. There are The example of Abraham and Sarah, they hosted three guests in their home and prepared a meal for them. As it turns out, they were hosting the Lord and two angels, but they didn't know it at first. But there are other examples. There's Rahab who gave lodging and protection to the spies. There's Abigail who showed hospitality to David and his men. There is the widow of Zarephath, who showed hospitality to the prophet Elijah, even though she herself was facing starvation. Do you remember this? You remember the story how God miraculously provided for her and Elijah until the drought was over? And then as we read this morning, there's the Shunammite woman, this nameless woman who shows hospitality to Elisha. Right? Gave him food and lodging. She even goes so far as to have an additional room added onto her house because she knows he's a man of God and she wants to be able to host him anytime he's in the area. And so whenever he passed that way, he stayed with her. Well, there's all kinds of examples in the New Testament as well. Martha's home in Bethany was a favorite place of respite for Jesus. There's Mark's mother's house in Jerusalem. There's Lydia's house in Philippi. There's the jailer's house in Philippi, Jason's house in Thessalonica, Titius' justice home in Corinth, Stephanus' house in Corinth, Philip's house in Caesarea, Priscilla and Aquila's home in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome. These people are amazing. Priscilla and Aquila are absolutely amazing. This week, do a little study on these two. Look them up, find out about them. These people hosted a church in their home everywhere they lived. Three different cities, they hosted a church in their house. And when we look at these New Testament examples, we find that the Christian home is being used for all different kinds of ministries. It's being used for Christian fellowship, for communion meals, for organized teaching, for planned gospel presentations, for prayer meetings, for spontaneous evangelistic gatherings, for ministry training and equipping. This is the story. Do you remember Priscilla and Aquila? Remember Apollos comes to Ephesus, right? It says in Acts 18, he comes and he is a man who is competent in the scriptures. He is fervent in the spirit. He is an eloquent and bold preacher. But it says he only knew the baptism of John, John the Baptist, right? So it was deficient. It's possible that he wasn't even a believer yet. It's possible that he didn't even know that Jesus Christ had rose from the dead. And so Priscilla and Aquila, they bring him to their house. They explain the gospel to him. It says that they explain the way of God to him more fully. And then that story ends with him going off to Achaia refuting the Jews and showing how Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. So these people open up their home for training and equipping to help Apollos become a better proclaimer of God's word. Hospitality ministry is at the heart of the New Testament church. And when we look at these examples, it is just so clear that the home is used as a launching pad for ministry, both to believers and to non-believers alike. Hospitality is way more than just entertaining people. It's purposeful. Purposeful hospitality ministry is God's people strategically using their homes for ministry to build the church, to advance the kingdom of God. Purposeful Hospitality Ministry asks this question. It's asking, how can I use my home to bring people into a deeper relationship with God? Whether that means introducing them to Jesus Christ, bring them to faith for the first time, or it's a believer, helping build them up and encourage them in the faith, ministering them. It's asking this question, how can I use my home to minister to this person, whether it's physically, emotionally, or spiritually? How can I do that? It's purposeful. You see, our homes are not meant to be fortresses to protect us from the world. They're more like search and rescue outposts in the wilderness where we work together as a team to rescue lost people. Our homes are meant to be like a hospital where we bring people in who are hurting and broken and minister to them. Our homes are meant to be safe and warm, inviting places where we can minister and carry out the mission that Jesus Christ gave us to make disciples. Did you know that at Gospel Fellowship Church, we have now over 50 outreach centers spread all throughout the suburbs? That's true. It's your home. Your home is a GFC outreach center to the community around you. You see, the New Testament Christians, they carried the gospel with them everywhere they went. They went about proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, he's the Messiah. He came to earth, he died in our place for our sins so that we could have forgiveness and eternal life. That whoever repents of their sins and puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ shall not perish but have eternal life. You guys, they were enthusiastic about this message. They were excited about this message. So they took it everywhere they went. And one of the most natural and effective ways for them to take this message was by sharing it with people in their homes. Building relationships with people so they could have an opportunity to share the gospel. Hospitality ministry is so important. It's a requirement for pastoral leadership. Did you know that? That's 1 Timothy 3 2 and Titus 1 8. I wonder to myself, how many churches have denied the pastorate to a man because he failed to practice hospitality? Did you know that hospitality is one of the standards used to measure whether or not a widow, to measure her good works when the church is considering to enroll her for full-time benevolence support? That's one of the standards that they use. Number one is, did she disciple her children? And number two is, did she practice hospitality? In other words, has she been faithful ministering at home to her family? And then second, has she been faithful ministering from her home to other people? When you think about the essential virtues of a Christian, do you think about hospitality? We should. This should be one of the first things that we think of when we think about the marks of a genuine Christian. Three times we're commanded to show hospitality in the New Testament. I'm gonna set the context for these three commands before we look into them. Why? Because context is... Oh, that's, okay, we're gonna try that again. Context is king, exactly. Okay, so what's the context of these three commands? The context is these commands always show up in a list of Christian virtues. Right, so in other words, this is one of the core characteristics of a Christian, and every single time, it's connected to showing love for other people. In other words, hospitality is one of the practical ways, the concrete ways, that we fulfill the commands to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to love one another, to love our brothers and sisters. That's the context for these commands. All right, let's look at these three commands. First, we'll look at the first two verses in Romans 12, 13 and Hebrews 13, two. These two things, it's like two sides of the same coin. We're commanded to pursue hospitality and not neglect it. So Romans 12, 13 says this, seek to show hospitality. The force of the command here is really strong. It's continually pursue or keep pursuing hospitality is really strong. When I was a kid growing up, I grew up in Minnesota and when I was a kid, this happened. I have a vague memory of this. I had to call my parents and talk to them about it this week. This vague memory, so I got the details from my parents. We lived in a little town called Milroy. It's a tiny little town. My dad was a football coach and a teacher. We lived right across the street from the high school, and one night, there was this Lions Club chicken dinner at the school. It was a fundraiser event, and hundreds of people had come to the school for this dinner. It was like three hours long. Some people showed up early, left early, and so forth. And my parents and a whole bunch of people, they leave at the end of this dinner, and without realizing it, because they were in this school, this massive blizzard had just come. Snow was everywhere. It was absolute whiteout. It was horrible. No one was going home. So my parents invited 30 or 40 people into their home across the street to stay the night because they didn't have any place to go. They gave up their bed so people could stay there. These people crashed all over the floor because there wasn't any place to sleep, but at least they had a warm place and a blanket so they could stay the night. And I was talking with my mom and she was like, I was freaking out the next morning, like, what am I going to serve for breakfast? Right? So she said, I had ham and so I cooked the ham and I made pancakes. So we had ham and pancakes for breakfast the next morning. So she fed these people and sent them on their way. All right, I'm going to call that snowstorm hospitality. Right? That's good. That's good. There's a crisis. People need help. There's nowhere to go. And so you say, you know what? You can come into my home. That's a good thing. But that's not what Paul is talking about here. He's talking about going beyond snowstorm hospitality. He's talking about seeking it out, pursuing it, not waiting until someone shows up bleeding on your doorstep. So my parents had a lake cabin for the first 10 years of our marriage up on Lake of the Woods every summer. right, they would reach out to all of their family, all of their friends, and they would say, hey, listen, the cabin is open, we would love for you to come and stay with us and visit, we will take you fishing, it's gonna be a great time, just pick your weekend, let's get it on the calendar, come on up, we'd love to have you. And so all summer long, spring, summer, and into the fall, they were hosting people in their home almost every weekend. nonstop people in their house because they wanted that. They wanted to use their home in that way. That's what Paul is talking about. He's talking about seeking hospitality, pursuing hospitality. So snowstorm hospitality, good. We need to move beyond that to seeking to show hospitality. The question I have for us is this. Does that kind of intentional, purposeful hospitality describe your home? Are you that intentional, that intense about having people over to your home? That's the command here in Romans 12, 13. The second command is do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. Hospitality by definition includes welcoming strangers. The word means literally love of strangers. So if I said to you Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love, right? Philadelphia is love of brother. This is philizenia, this is love of strangers. Again, hospitality is intimately connected to loving other people, specifically loving strangers, people we don't yet know or have a relationship with. This includes believing strangers and non-believing strangers at the same time, okay? The other, right, loving other people by definition. What that means is that hospitality ministry is not content to simply have the same people over to our house again and again and again. Now, there is nothing wrong with having people that you have a good relationship with over to your home on a regular basis. Okay, don't misunderstand me here. That's a good thing, you should keep that. Don't stop that, okay? But hospitality, if you have a hospitable heart, you wanna go beyond that to welcoming strangers into your home. I came across this this week. This is the Cocoon One. This is a real thing, all right? A bubble to furiously guard your personal space. You can get one of these for about $3,000. You know, when you're preparing a sermon and you're looking around online, you find stuff that you don't expect to find. And this is one of those things, right? You can live in a bubble, right? Here's the deal, too many Christians live like this. They live their lives inside of a Christian bubble. They have very little contact with non-believers whatsoever. She can't have impact on the world for Jesus Christ that way. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. You know, this verse is telling us something. It's telling us that this is something we're prone to neglect because God has to tell us don't neglect it, right? Opening our home to outsiders does not come naturally. What comes naturally is concern for ourselves, focusing on our own. So of course we're prone to neglect hospitality. All we have to do is follow our natural inclinations for self-centeredness and selfishness, and we will neglect hospitality. But it's not just selfishness, it's also our busyness that keeps us from this. You know, our schedules are so busy, so many things on them that we don't have time for hospitality. We're so busy, we barely have time for Jesus. Right? And one of the most amazing things about Jesus, when you read the Gospels, is that story where he goes off and he prays. Do you remember this? And the disciples come, they're like, where have you been? Everybody is looking for you. We need you over here. And Jesus is like, it's time to go on to the next town because other people need to hear about the kingdom. Do you understand that Jesus was relentless about the purpose for which he was sent? The purpose that God gave him? He battled relentlessly against mission creep. Jesus was a busy man, but understand he was busy about what God had given him to do. I wonder if that describes us in our busyness. God says something very directly to us in this verse. He says, stop being selfish and make time for hospitality. Do not neglect it, pursue it. When we take these two verses together, it tells us that we need to be intentional about hospitality. This is something that we have to be intentional about. Intentionally opening up our homes to the people around us to minister Jesus Christ to them, to show them Christ's love. All right, the third command is to show hospitality without grumbling. This is being commanded here to be a hospitable person. The context here, again, is on showing hospitality now to believers, other believers. All right, so the verse before it is keep loving one another earnestly. There's love again. The verse after it is serve one another. So all these commands, these one another commands, are from believer to believer. All right, but there's more we have to see here. This isn't just a command to do something. It's a command for us to be a certain kind of person. Hospitality is to be offered without grumbling, without complaining, without muttering under our breath. Why is people gotta come over to our house? It's so much work. I don't wanna have these people over here. I don't wanna do this tonight. I wanna do something else. I wanted to watch a movie tonight. I can't believe people are coming over here. What we gotta do? That's grumbling, don't do that, okay? Just like everything else, God here is concerned with your heart. He's concerned with your heart. He wants us to be the kind of person who is glad to do it. God doesn't want grudging obedience. He wants joyful obedience. He wants us to practice hospitality with a willing, a cheerful heart. We need this, don't we? I mean, isn't this just like us? Check this picture out. That's our face, and that's what we're thinking. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home, even if you wish they were. Even if you wish they were home. Right, isn't that us? We need this verse of scripture, man. And we have people over to our house, right? And an hour before they show up, we're all stressed out trying to get everything ready, right? We're all frazzled. We're like, why are we doing this? You know, we're all stressed out. We're complaining about having them over. Isn't God's word so practical? It's so awesome. Look at this, God knows that we're prone to be lazy, so he says, pursue hospitality, seek to show hospitality. He knows that we're prone to focus on people we already know, so he says, hey, don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers. He knows that we're prone to complain, and so he says, oh yeah, and show hospitality without grumbling. Hospitality starts in the heart with a love for God and a love for people. It's this heart that wants to glorify God by making disciples. It's a heart that wants to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ or grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. Now, if you don't have that kind of heart, you can pray for it. You should pray for it. But I wanna suggest something to you this morning. I wanna suggest that sometimes our heart follows our actions. And we often talk about how our heart drives our actions, and that's true, that's true. But sometimes our heart follows our actions. Well, what do I mean by that? Well, when you step out in faith and you say, you know what? I'm gonna do what God says, and I'm gonna invite some people over to my house. Well, you're gonna start praying more, because you get that non-believer that's coming over to your house, and you know it. You're like, Lord, I need your help with this. I can't do this. And so you're praying. And then you know what happens? God begins to move in your home through your life, and you get excited about that. You see God move in a person's life. They come to faith in Jesus Christ, or they take another step of faith, or they get encouraged from your ministry to them, and that joy fuels your passion for more. Do you understand? I want you to know, brothers and sisters, God is going to give you what you need to do this work, to do this ministry. This is God's idea, making disciples, bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ, helping them grow in their faith. He is going to move through you. He wants to do this. Do you expect that? Do you expect God to move in your life, through you, in your home? God's gonna accomplish this through you. You know, One of the most amazing texts for me this week as I've been studying this is the words of Jesus that we read today in our reading. I called an audible. I had a different New Testament reading and I switched it to the one from Matthew 25 because it's just so powerful. Understand that when we show hospitality to strangers, we are welcoming Jesus Christ himself into our home. Now the context here is that these are our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Because you remember at the end of the passage, Jesus says, you know, they're saying, when did we see you naked? When were you hungry? When were you a stranger? And Jesus says, whatever you did for one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it for me. So he's talking about our ministry to fellow Christians, right? Think about this, okay? Whenever you show hospitality to your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, you are ministering to Jesus himself. Now this makes perfect sense if you think about it, right? You remember when Paul's on the road to Damascus and he has this encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ? And what has Jesus said to him? He says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Christians? No, that's not what he says. Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Jesus Christ so identifies with us as Christians in our union with him that literally the way that we treat our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ is how we treat Jesus himself. Man, does that get you excited about showing hospitality to your brothers and sisters? That just makes me excited. Like this is not just me ministering to them, it's ministering to Jesus. This absolutely blows me away. Now understand, Jesus ties this to our entrance into eternal life. Look at this verse. Look at what he says, come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's verse 34. Next verse, for, because, because I was hungry, you gave me food, I was thirsty, you gave, he talks about hospitality ministry, right? Why is that? It's because it's a demonstration of love, and that demonstration of love is a demonstration of our genuine faith in Jesus Christ. If we believe in Christ, if we're truly Christians, this is how we are going to live our lives. We will live this way. This passage just blows me away. All right, so when we think about hospitality, we can think about four categories of different people. Number one is believers we know. Number two is believers we do not, who are currently strangers to us. Number three is non-believers we know. And then number four is non-believers who are currently strangers to us. Now, we spend the majority of our time in category number one with believers that we know. And this is totally understandable. Because we know them, they know us, and it is a blessed relationship. We encourage them, they encourage us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. That is good, it is great, keep that. But God wants us to move into some of these other categories. when we show hospitality. I think the one that freaks us out the most is number four, right? Non-believers who are currently strangers to us, and maybe right behind it is number three, non-believers we know, or maybe it's the non-believers that we know that are the scariest to us. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to start praying about the non-believers you already know. Start praying for the opportunity to share the gospel with them. I understand how scary it is. I get it, right? You're thinking, man, this could wreck my relationship with them. They could reject me. They could ridicule me. I don't know what to say. I don't know, I don't have all the answers to their questions. I'm insufficient for this. I'm inadequate for this. I understand the worries and the anxieties that you have. Here's the encouragement. Be anxious about nothing but in everything. Pray, present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Pray for boldness, pray for the opportunity, pray for the words, pray for these people. But don't stop with prayer, move into action and invite them over to your home. All right, hopefully the purpose is clear at this point. It's to advance God's kingdom in two ways, evangelism and discipleship. Evangelism, welcoming non-believers into our home to introduce them to Jesus Christ. You know, how else are non-believers gonna get to know us? How else are they gonna know that we love and care about them in a real way? and discipleship, right? We're welcoming fellow believers into our home to minister to them. And there's so many Christians who are struggling, who are hurting, and they need help, they need encouragement, they need to be built up in the faith. It's hard, it's so hard to overemphasize the importance of this ministry. It's absolutely essential for the growth and the health of the local church. We gotta have this. It's essential to spread the gospel, and it's essential to build people up in the faith. So what does this look like at Gospel Fellowship Church? Well, we're gonna call you to do this much like I'm doing today. We provide a fellowship meal where you can get to know believers. This is a great first step, right? You get to know some people, maybe it's a new person, and you invite them over to your house. It's a good on-ramp to practicing hospitality with your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. But we don't want you to stop there. We provide four Sundays a year, hospitality Sundays. The next one is next week, right? Where we wanna try to create some space, some margin in your lives so that you can practice this. So you can reach out to your brothers or to non-believers, right, and minister to them in your home. But even that's not enough. We want you to go beyond that. This should be something that we practice regularly in our homes. This is a lifestyle that we're talking about. It's not a to-do list, it's a to-be list. Be this way, if I can use that expression. The reason this is so important is because the mission of Jesus Christ depends on it. All right, so let me give you some ways to get started. You know, people are always looking for ways, how can I get my kids involved in ministry, right? I wanna minister as a whole family. Well, this is it. And you get to do it in the comfort of your own home. Amen? All right, so how do we build relationships with people in our neighborhood? What does it look like? Well, it's pretty simple. Get out there, take regular walks, visit the parks, talk to people when you see them. Get engaged in their life. Get involved with neighborhood activities. Serve your neighbors, especially the elderly. Mow their lawn, rake their leaves, shovel their driveway, especially with winter coming. I'm sorry, I said it. Host a neighborhood block party. Have a play date at the park with people that have kids or whatever. Invite them over to watch the game or have dinner or host an evangelistic Bible study in your home or an alpha group in your home. Be creative, right? The important thing is that you take that first step. I love this picture. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. Number two, be intentional with some family planning. Talk about with your spouse. Talk about two things, who and when. All right, who do we need to have over to our house? What believer or non-believer needs to come over to our house? Who's it gonna be and when is it gonna happen? When are we gonna do this? Get the family calendar out, get it on the calendar. Who and when? And then start praying. Pray with your wife, pray with your kids, pray for your neighbors, pray in all the ways that we just talked about. Make time for this. and then act, step out in faith. Hospitality Sunday's next week. Who's coming over to your house? All right, let me talk to the youth and the kids for just a moment. How can you help? There's three ways. Number one, you can help in preparation. It takes some effort to host people. So help your parents prepare the home to get ready for these people. Do the dishes, clean the kitchen, take out the trash, whatever it is that you can do to help, do that. Number two, you can help by making your guests feel welcome, especially if they have kids, right? Ask questions, get engaged in their lives. Where do you go to school? What's going on? What are you into? You know, talk to them. Talk about what's interesting to them. That's how people feel welcome in their home. And young people, you can do this with the adults as well. It doesn't have to be just from kid to kid, right? And then number three, maybe the most important, is I wanna give you a vision for this. Young people, listen. All you young people, listen. Jesus Christ wants to use you to change the world. Jesus Christ wants to use you in this mission that he's given us as his people to change the eternity of people in this world. This is not your parents' mission. This is your mission. I would love it, I would love it if there was a whole generation of Christians who grew up where this kind of hospitality ministry was just normal. But listen, in order for that to happen, moms and dads, we've got to practice this and show them, but beyond that, we've got to involve them in this so that they not only see us doing it, they develop a heart and passion for it themselves. So we can nurture this hospitality in them. Make your home a place of purposeful hospitality ministry. Listen, you don't need a big home for this. Your home doesn't need to look Pinterest perfect for this. You don't have to serve up gourmet food to do this. You can use paper plates and napkins. It doesn't have to be fancy. Your home doesn't have to be perfect. It does need to be friendly, welcoming, purposeful. I know you do such a great job of practicing hospitality to your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. You guys are rocking it. Keep it up. Here's what I wanna challenge you this morning. I wanna call you specifically to step out and start practicing hospitality to the people that you know who don't know Jesus Christ. Reaching out to your neighbors who are lost. That's the call this morning as we practice hospitality. Keep reaching out to your brothers and sisters, keep loving them, and take the next step in faith, trusting the Lord. Reach out to the non-believers. Will you pray with me? Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for showing us the greatest hospitality by sending Christ to die. so that you would take not only strangers but enemies and make them not only friends but sons and daughters, preparing a home for us in heaven. It's because of your love that we love this way. God, I just pray for each and every one of us. I pray, God, that you would give us a heart for hospitality, a heart to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, a heart to love one another our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. God, help us to have a passion for this. Would you do this work in us as a church? We ask it and we pray it in Jesus' name. All God's people said, amen.