If you want to turn to Hebrews chapter 13, we're going to look at the first four words in that chapter that gets started here tonight. And you know that song comes from Matthew 6, 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. And all these things, there's a lot of things, right? There's a lot of things that pull us away from seeking first the kingdom of God. The list could go on forever. Each one of us has a different list. And the verse after that tells us about putting no thought in tomorrow. And so there's a lot of things we can be caught up in that aren't seeking first the kingdom of God. And when we come together, we challenge one another through the teaching of the Bible, or through singing, or through conversations in the foyer. We challenge each other. Let's make sure that we're living life focused on what's eternal and not just upon temporary things. Hospitality is one of those ways in which we can provoke one another to good works. I've been praying that I wouldn't bring to you something that would be another burden to you. The yoke that Jesus invites us into is not heavy. And so some of you, as you just say the word hospitality and you already feel guilty, it's almost like saying prayer life. And some of you are like, oh no, I want to be gone for the next two Wednesdays. But we're told when we get together that we're supposed to provoke one another the good works, which means I'm not supposed to guilt or to shame you. Our love for the Lord ought to be stirred up and we ought to be looking for expressions of it. And I pray that in our time over the next two weeks that we will see hospitality as an opportunity to live out Scripture, to express love. How many of you can relate with what Luke was telling about how when he goes to the store, they always think he works there? Any of you had that? When you're his age, and if you dress nicer as he normally does, he's a little prep boy over there, all right, prepping, and they always think you work there. You know, I remember having that, and if I had like a blue shirt on, I was not going in to Best Buy or a red shirt. I'm like, I don't have time. I don't want to go in target. If you have a red shirt on and you make eye contact with somebody, they're going to think that you work there because you get to a place sometimes where you're just like, I don't want to give anything more to anybody else. Um, what are the, what are the different things? Roombas? Is that one of the little machines that goes around? Is a Roomba, is that a brand? And at some time during the night it has to go to a corner and it has to recharge. How many of you are like a Roomba? Yeah, at the end of the day at some point you have to go into a closet, stare at the wall and recharge. How many of you are like that? Yeah. And how many of you were not like that but are more like that every day? That would be me, all right. And one of my favorite books, and if you take a note, there's a note section in this little booklet here for you. If you'd write down Life Together by Diedrich Bonhoeffer, Brother John and I read this together some years ago. I love it. There's things about Bonhoeffer I'm sure that aren't lovable, but that book is certainly lovable, and I'm a fan. And I don't know exactly how he said it, but I was thinking, he says that a person, who always has to be alone, it will never be any good for the brotherhood, for the church, right? If you have to always be alone, you're never going to be of help. But a person that's afraid to be alone also will never be any help to his fellow brethren. And so it's always trying to figure out this way in life where we're not self-centered and just wanting our own time but also not always having to be on go all the time and it's something we learn and I was thinking about having somebody share a testimony next Wednesday we might do this have somebody give a testimony how hospitality has helped in their life. But as Luke was speaking up here, I thought about his family and how Luke didn't have the ability to tell that person, no, I won't help you, right? Because if you know his dad especially, but Amy, who's along for the journey, right, is that his dad just loves to have people around. And Luke probably has heard in one way or another his whole life, if you're able to help somebody, help them, right? If you're able to help somebody, help them. And one of the ways they've done that is always open up their home to other people and their ministry continues to grow from that as they invite people into their lives. But hospitality is much richer and deeper than simply inviting people into your house. It's about welcoming people. That's what I want to see. As I mentioned earlier, Hospitality is a big theme in 2 John, we're going to see on Sunday, that you got to put up some, you got to have some rules for the entry into your home, into your life. Not everybody has entry into it. Not those that are deceived. When people are deceived, we ought to help them and care for them. But there's people that are false teachers that are deceiving, and we're supposed to handle them in a different way. We're not, we're supposed to be, is it inhospitable or unhospitable to them, all right? Which one is it? Ian, thank you, Grant. All right, so inhospitable too, meaning that we all have some boundaries and our homes have a lot more doors than you think they do. Not just the front door, the back door, every device that's connected to every conversation that you have. There's a lot of different ways we can allow things to realize we shouldn't. But these course seminars give us an opportunity to cover a topic and the topic that I think will be helpful to go along with Silicon John is this thought of hospitality here. So that was one reason I want to cover hospitality. Secondly we're near the holiday season and so you will be in people's homes and you'll invite people in the homes and you'll have more opportunity than normal between here and the new year. And then the third one, which is kind of a newer reason, I may have mentioned it on Sunday, but it still hasn't stopped. I asked a question in a public forum about why less people attend church that are professing believers, and I still am getting messages and emails continually about it, because that's something that people want to talk about. And one of the things that really saddens me is that many people have attended a church and they have not found friends. And so it led me to say, one of the things that I've learned from that is people aren't looking for a friendly church, but they're looking for friends. They don't just want to go to a place where everybody's smiling and they're friends. They really want to have friends. Understand there's two sides to that coin, because I could also tell them, well, maybe you need to show up more. Maybe you need to do this. You could say all those things. But they're not here tonight. I'm talking to you, right? I'm talking about our responsibility. And so, in this understanding of hospitality, and our definition we're going to give is the practice of welcoming others into our lives, and that's what my picture is, right? People are looking in the house if you're wondering what's going on there, all right? And that's how I was imagining that, somebody on the outside looking into a house and winning inside of life. So, if you'll give me that first slide there, I'll just tell you what we're going to look at tonight and next Wednesday, Lord willing. We're going to look at the definition of hospitality right off the bat, and then from that, we're going to understand Christian love, family, and community, because this is a theological matter, not just a practical matter. What Jesus did in your life at the gospel now changes the way, it changes every relationship. What Jesus did in your life through the gospel changes every relationship, not just marriage, not just church four-year conversation, every conversation that you have. A Christian command to practice hospitality, the power of hospitality, the blessing of hospitality, and then practically we'll talk about how we can grow in these areas. So I'll start off with this next slide, just this quote here. I'm trying to make it as simple as possible. But the world could use more ordinary Christians opening their ordinary lives so others can see what life and light of the gospel looks like. The world is desperately desiring, or needs, I should say. Maybe that would be more accurate. They need to see an ordinary life and how it's been changed by the gospel. and nobody can program that for you. That isn't an event that we put on as a church, that is just a decision you make about inviting people in to see what the gospel has done for you. So let's start here with this biblical definition of hospitality. And I said it's the practice of welcoming others into our lives. And you can see it better in the book if you're following But we're going to see scriptures from Paul, Peter, and John about hospitality and the scriptural command. Ms. Wilson shared something with me just yesterday, and it made it into the notes right before I was about to print this. And she shared with me how her son was giving the definition of hospitality. It's made up of two words, which is love and stranger, a love for a stranger, somebody that you don't know. And that's a word that most of us wouldn't know. But you would know the word xenophobia, which is a hatred for people you don't know. And that's a distinctive of the world that we live in. But that means, as Christians, the contrast should be ever greater. So some questions. But why should hospitality be made a command? Why should hospitality be important to Christianity? Why should it be considered a Christian virtue? And what does hospitality have to do with religion? four words here that I hope we're going to guide our conversation over the next two weeks. One of the shortest verses in the Bible, Hebrews 13, 1. And if you're there, would you read that with me? You probably know it, some of you, all right? If you don't, you will after we read it, all right? You can tell your kids tonight, you learned a Bible verse, whatever candy they get, take it from them, all right? It's your turn, all right? Here we go. Hebrews 13, 1, let brotherly love continue. Let brotherly love continue. And that is my prayer for us as we look at this, is that brotherly love will continue. So first off here, I want us to see that hospitality is not merely a practical consideration, but a theological one. Yes, it's a good idea. Yes, it's necessary, especially in the times of the New Testament when they had people coming through, going from one place, they accepted Christ, and it was more common. You know, there was a time where it had been more common for people to have a prophet's chamber, a place for people to stay, or it had been more common for people to have a a formal dining, a formal living room to welcome guests in. And now they say one of the big factors for that is a central heating and air, right? Now that we have that, we live from door to door. We don't usually have a place to entertain. We're not out on the front porch. And so our houses have changed as a result. But think about the New Testament. It was just necessary. They were making decisions. Have you ever had anybody come to your door of your house, or I guess it'd probably be more likely for them to show up here at this church, and to say, I am traveling through, I got saved in this place, and I'm trying to make my way to this place, and then us making a decision, what are we going to do with these people? Well, 2 John tells us that the criteria for help with people like that is they got to know Jesus, all right? That is so important. That's kind of the guide rails around it. So I want to look at this three ways here, Christian love, Christian family, and Christian community. So first off here, understanding Christian love, family, community. understanding the Christian family. In the New Testament, the writers use different ways to describe us as a church. It talks about us as sheep. In my office, it says, feed the flock of God which is among you. They remind me that every conversation I have with somebody, I have an opportunity to help them in God's Word. So, sometimes we're called sheep. Sometimes we're talked about as a building, as a temple being put together. or the bride, as we're referred to. But the most common use in the Bible, the most common word picture that we would have is fraternal. It's an aspect of a family. Some 250 times, there's some variation of brother or brethren. How many of you grew up in a church where you would refer to every man in the church as brother and their name? How many of you would have done that, all right? Many of us did, and it's nice. I appreciate that, and also, I guess maybe especially in the South, it's become not just the title of brother, but it's also become maybe a sign of respect, and I saw that. And Christian brotherhood and sisterhood, it's derived from our, solely from Christ. Christians are not brothers and sisters because we share the same ideas, or interests, or circumstances, or the same geographical location a couple times a week. 2 Corinthians 4 tense is always bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. It is something inside of us through the gospel that now makes us as one. It's not a natural birth, but it says in John 1 12, we're not born of blood, but of the will of the flesh, nor the will of the man, but of God. We've been born again. We've been born into a new family. When you accepted Christ, you became one of the children of God. All of us before that time were part of God's creation, but it's the believers that are now children of God, and because of our relationship with Him, it's changed our relationship one to another. The writer of Hebrews, which Brother John told me over bacon today, is the Apostle Paul, all right, declares that Jesus Christ is not reluctant at all to call us brothers. Hebrews 2 11 says, For both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified all are of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren. That's really special. He is not ashamed to identify with us because of our new identity. And that's special. And you and I should follow in that example. We should not be ashamed to identify with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and all the blessings that come with that, and all the responsibilities that come with that. Stephen back there is my brother-in-law. We have a pretty good relationship, I would say. Things are going pretty good right now. And the marriage to his sister, I'm of 20 years, so things are getting pretty serious, I would say. There's nice things about having a brother-in-law. There's things that you would call and ask them to do, like, hey, my basement's flooded, and I need you to get over here. There's no niceties. There's just nothing, you know? And so there's those privileges, but it also comes with responsibilities as well. And that really has nothing to do with the sermon. I'm just kind of reminding Stephen where he's at in my life and that I may have to call him sometime. Stephanie, there was an event up at VBM last year, and somebody came up to Tinsley and gave her a card and said, hey, I know it's hard to be a pastor's kid because he uses you in sermons all the time or whatever, and here's just a Starbucks card, and I wanted to encourage you. That card meant more to Stephanie than a hundred cards would have ever meant to her, because she's knit to her daughter, right? Well, that's what we see in Matthew 25, 40. Christ's connection to us as blood-bought brothers and sisters He says that whatever is done for one of his brothers and sisters is equally done for him. Matthew 25, 40, And the kings shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me. that when you recognize that your relationship with the person is because of Jesus Christ, and you do something out of your heart for them, he says, I feel the same way that Stephanie does when you wrote my daughter a card. Isn't that pretty wonderful? because Jesus doesn't need his yard. We'd eat it, but Stephen did one time this summer. You know what I'm saying? All right? And there's things that happen. He actually always stays ahead of me. He's always done more for me than I am for him. But isn't it wonderful to know that we can serve one another in that way, and that's how Jesus feels about it? I think that's so wonderful that I just want to start from the beginning and come all the way back to this part right here, because I love that there's these opportunities here. In many practical ways, the local church in the New Testament shows itself to be a close-knit family of brothers and sisters. Romans 16, 6 says, we should greet one another with a holy kiss. Brother Todd, would you come up here? Okay, good. Yeah, all right. He hesitated, all right? And so it says they greet one another with a holy kiss. And there's a lot of things that we have in the Bible that we got to consider, like that was culturally appropriate for the time, but there's still a principle there for us, right? That when they met each other, there was a real sincere greeting for one another. I think about this, I've shared it many times. There was a time at Fowler Park, you and I got excited because a prayer request was answered and we didn't care that anybody else was around. We were just jumping up and down with excitement because as brothers we have shared things together. And so when I see another brother, don't need to greet them with the holy kiss, but I should greet them differently than I do the Walmart greeter, right? I should be sincerely excited to see somebody. I ought to say these are my people and whatever that would be in the in the context in which we would live. And in some parts of the world, it is the Holy Kiss. And we got missionaries in Argentina and different places in the world that would have been common too. So first of all, we have that, that's family. Secondly, here we have in Acts 2.44, talked about them sharing material possessions. And that was seen as they were working together. Romans 16, 5 says that the early Christians met in homes together as they were from house to house. And so that would be something. I think what I've said many times, I think one of the best things that we could do is that all of us right now get in the church van and we all go and visit all of our houses right now with no warning. And you know what you'd find? We all live in our houses, right? That our houses look like people live in them. And then if you went to somebody else's house, you're like, that looks like a house that's lived in as well. And you would get over the fact that that isn't the house that you go into when you're visiting somebody is not the house that they live in, all right? and they get over that. Well, the early church didn't have an option in that. I just want to kind of take a sidebar on that because sometimes people read, they read that and they'll say before around 300 AD and Constantine, the empire became Christian and then people, they started getting buildings. Christians started having buildings, the medium, and it changed some things maybe in the church. And so people have said, well, I see in the early church they meant house to house. And they said, what do you think one of the early Christians would think if they came to your church and they saw your building? What do you think they would say? This is what I think they would say. Congratulations. How wonderful is it that you live underneath a government that allows you to be publicly? How wonderful is it that you guys are multiple generation Christians where you sacrifice and you have provided a building where you extend hospitality one to another and you can meet here? I think that's how they would feel. Could we lose, so there's that one sense here, congratulations. The building should aid in our hospitality and love for one another, right? When we leave, we work together, because you can start to have a pretty bad spirit bend if all, on Sundays, 200 of us show up and leave every Sunday from your house. That can be taxing, and sometimes in history, that may be where it's at, and before this thing's all said and done, we may be meeting houses once again, but right now we have this blessing. And so it could be a deterrent, to real hospitality but it has real potential to be a real blessing for us. And so one of the things we when we meet with the interns on Sunday morning and we when they come at 830 and we talk about going through the building and make sure it's ready we pray and we say let's pray that our brothers and sisters when they come into this place that we've made things distraction free as this is the building we meet in. If all of y'all call me on Sunday morning and you say you're at the Walmart parking lot, well this would not be Vision Mathers Church. This would be the building that was supposed to hold Vision Mathers Church, but we decided to meet in a parking lot. So we obviously know that this is not the church. If I was more a could use my hands better, the thing that your grandparents teach you. Here's the church, here's the staple, and there's all the people. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Those of you don't, just think I have an awkward turtle in my hand right now. All right, Ms. Sheeta knows. I love Ms. Sheeta. Even if she doesn't know what I'm talking about, she'll just raise her hand so I feel better, right? But that one's, the letter there, hands, there's all the people. And so we know that we are the church and it's not the building and it's the blessing. Acts 2 46 says they ate together. Acts 6, 1 through 6 says, not only did they care for the widows, but they had their own widows, meaning they knew who were their widows, meaning who was part of that church family. And one of the expectations when it was talking about having a widow that was in deed and all the expectations, if there are certain conditions that were met, then the church would take on the financial and housing responsibility of that widow. And one of the things that she would be known for to say that she was living a life with a Christian testimony is that she had been given the hospitality. It's not in my notes, but y'all know the story, right, of Dorcas, the woman who passed away, and she died, and everybody just said, we gotta have Dorcas, because she has that testimony. She is the connective tissue inside of a church family in regards to helping hold people together. When appropriate, we exhort and we discipline one another. We say things to one another that we wouldn't say to complete strangers because we're holding each other to accountability in the book. Brotherliness, providing guiding principles between members. Let's look at this in Romans 14, 15. It says, so this is talking about the fact that we're brothers ought to affect the way we treat one another. Brother, if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably, destroy him with the, Destroy not him, thy meat, for whom Christ died. And so it's talking about if you have a brother and he has an issue here, you should be charitable unto him because he is your brother whom Christ has died for. And then lastly, Acts 16, 15 just tells us that we should show hospitality. And when she was baptized in her house, though, she besought us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come unto my house and abide there. And she constrained us. She brought people into her house. That's seen all through the book of Acts and to the epistles. So understand that we're a Christian family. That's the basis for our caring and welcoming others into our lives. Secondly here, understanding Christian love. To understand Christian love, we look to Jesus Christ and the source here that is there. Love one another as I have loved you. It's that new commandment that has been given to us. It's the distinctive mark of a Christian that we are to love one another. And then For time's sake, look at the third one there in that point, which is understand Christian community. There's nothing in the world like self-sacrificing, genuine Christian love that encourage, inspire, comfort, and build others up. But how in a practical down-to-earth terms do we show more genuine Christian love and community? And the one answer is clear, it's hospitality. How do we let brotherly love continue as we continue to welcome one another into our lives? And so, as I said, the source of our Christian activity starts with our relationship. If our brotherhood derives from Christ, then so also our love for brothers does. His infinite love for us is the source and provokes our love for each other. Jesus, in His final hours with the disciples, He looks at them and says, I give a new commandment unto you, that you love one another. And that word He's using there is some 320 times. There is no teaching, there's no religion that gives teaching on love like Christianity. It's the distinctive mark of a Christian. Paul goes so far as to say this, if you're a Christian, you could speak in an angelic language, you know everything about the Bible and God, you exercise faith greater than Abraham, you give away everything you have to the poor, you become a missionary martyr, all of that would equal nothing if it has not been done in love. that Christian life cannot be lived outside of love, and so that we're challenged here to continue in love. 1 Thessalonians 4, 9, and 10, he tells them, I don't need to touch brotherly love. Like when I write to you guys, I don't really need to break down brotherly love for you because you guys understand it. And I would add to that as well, this is certainly not a series that I'm writing because I think this is a church that isn't given to brotherly love, but he tells them in verse 10, but you increase more and more. There isn't a bell that gets rung. There isn't a time where we just say, okay, we have let brotherly love continue far enough. We no longer keep getting involved in each other's lives, but more and more. To the Christians in Rome, Paul writes, be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love, preferring, honoring one another. Peter will say, tells us that we should love from our hearts, that's unfeigned love of the brother with a pure heart, fervently. Peter will also tell us that it's the supreme virtue. And above all things, fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover a multitude of sins. And then John will join in this chorus of being said here from Peter and Paul. where he would go on to say in 1 John 3, 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. laying down your lives for the brethren. Dan, I heard a comedian that said, you know, my wife asked if I would take a bullet for her. And that's kind of a hard thing to do because I'm not really that fast, you know? And it's not much like, well, here comes a bullet, let me get over there and take care of it. It'd be more appropriate to say I would take a sword for you, all right? I have enough time to get between you and a sword, but I probably can't get between you and a bullet. And so that idea of talking to one another, that I would lay down my life for you, that's like, When we come to thinking of writing poems, guys, if you're thinking of writing one, this is a good place to start. All right, I love you so much I would die for you. The Bible tells us those aren't words that just belong to Hallmark and for Valentine's card to our spouse. That's the kind of way that we talk for one another. I'm willing to give my life for you. Read a story, some of you know it much better than me. Actually, anybody in here that knows the story probably knows it better than me. But Chuck Colson went to jail, then became a Christian right before he went to jail. But when he was in jail, there was some law or some kind of provision that said somebody could take his place. And that multiple Christian men offered the step in his place to go in there because his family was in such a difficult spot. And he said, I'd heard about the love of God from Jesus, but now I have felt it from these brothers in my life. What a blessing. The idea that somebody could feel the love of God because of your actions, that's just overwhelming for us. And John goes on further to say in 1 John 3, 14, we know that we have passed from death unto life. What's another way to say that? What is passing from death into life? salvation, right? We know we pass from death to the life. We know that we are a Christian because we love the brethren, and he that loveth not his brethren abideth in death. This comes right after a verse about Cain and Abel. And so he says, Cain loved himself so much that it manifested self and hatred for other people. How do you love, how do you have such a hatred or apathy for other people? It's always rooted in just the self love for himself. And that's what happened. It says, but the way you'll know that you've been passed from, from death unto life, from darkness unto light is a love that you have for the brethren. Just one last thing. I know what time it is and I'll be quick. Christianity's teaching of love is unparalleled in the history of religion that said that. Tertullian tells the pagans of his day that he acknowledged the extraordinary love of Christians. The pagans would force to say, ìSee how they love one another and how ready they are to die for each other? Hardly have they met when they love each other. Indiscriminately, they call each other brother and sister.î I've never been a Marine, but I just want to end off with a oorah when I hear that, because that's my people that he's talking about. That kind of testimony, that's my kind of people. If you're a believer in here today, then that's your people as well. The Bible translator James Moffat adds, no church has any prospect of stability or chance of existence in the sight of God if it neglects brotherly love. No church has any chance of stability or existence if it neglects brotherly love, and to that I just say, amen. No group of church should exist if they do not demonstrate brotherly love. I've had some stories that I've read and some disheartening things. A man told me that he was at a church one day and the pastor told him, you know how much each chair costs, and if you're not going to give that amount, then you don't deserve that sit in one of these chairs. I don't know if that story's true, I don't know if it's an anomaly, but if that's what that church is really about, then they don't deserve to, they shouldn't exist. They do not demonstrate the love of God. But I can't make any decisions about that, and neither can you, but we can make some decisions in our own sense. So let me pray together, and then we'll go pick up our kids from Awana. But let me pray here, and this first talk about hospitality, I just wanna remind you, before it's practical, it's theological. And so we ask ourselves, how has the gospel changed me? And in the way has it changed me? How does it change my relationship with a brother or sister in my life? Heavenly Father, I thank you for the fact that you made this teaching on hospitality is so evidently clear. And Lord, I thank you that it's said time and again by John and Paul and Peter, and it's seen throughout the Scriptures, Lord, the way that in the Old Testament you led the children of Israel to make provision for outsiders and strangers. Brothers, there's no way we can look at any page of your book and not know your heart for those that would be strangers to us. Lord, may it be the distinctive mark. Lord, I'm praying even tomorrow as we go about our day, Lord, that you will give us an opportunity to welcome people into our lives, to demonstrate your love to them. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.