Romans 12. Look at the last two words of verse 13 in the NAS. Practicing hospitality. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, here we are at family camp and we've had a wonderful time together. We've learned so much already about the subject of rest. pray that the principles we've learned, the truths that we have feasted upon this week would become just part of our general thinking, and that general thinking would be translated to different emotions and feelings in reference to that truth, and that those feelings and emotions would also show themselves in changed ways of living. that even the way that we make decisions and the way that we look at the world around us would be transformed by what we know about this marvelous rest you have welcomed us into. Lord, I pray that you would help us as your people to not only enjoy the rest you've given, but be a people who offer that rest to others. We know what it is to be weary. We know what it is to be lost. We were all once there. Help us to be mindful of that. Help us to identify those who are, and help us to be ready to give them the hope of the gospel whereby they might enjoy and share the rest we have entered into. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we've had a truly rich time together here at family camp yet again. And part of that is just a necessary consequence of getting some extended time together as a church family. It's nice to have uninterrupted time where we can spend time around tables together, eating with one another, even after sessions in the evening, being able to share life together. But I know that only works as much as we are vulnerable with each other and open and sharing what's on our hearts and bearing one another's burdens and doing all of the one another's like we talked about last year. I'm so thankful that God has woven this church family together the way that he has. And I hope that none of you take for granted the sweet thing that is the fellowship that we enjoy here at Sojourn. It's also been a joy to see how God has grown our church over the past few years. And part of that growth is seen in how he continues to bless us with faithful men who are able to teach. And we've already benefited from four incredible messages this weekend. Dominic provided us with a biblical theology of rest. He provided us with a big picture overview of this very important concept that we find throughout scripture. Antonio approached the subject of how rest informs work and vocation. Christian helped us to see how sanctification takes place as we behold beauty and find rest in the glory of Christ. And Michael encouraged us to see rest as our hope in suffering, not in spite of suffering, but in suffering. This morning, I want to bring Family Camp 2024 to a close by looking at one more application of the idea of rest. Christian is particularly good at setting up a theme for our camps. It's often he that comes up with the idea of what would be our thematic approach to family camp each year, and this year was no exception. And I'm thankful for the opportunity to explore the biblical concept of rest as it interacts with the activity of hospitality. Since my pastoral study in the past few years has largely been taken up with an in-depth study of the Book of Romans, it seemed fitting that I look just a few verses ahead of where we are presently on Sunday morning and consider an exposition of Romans 12-13. By the way, this is only a few verses, a few words away from my sermon from last year at Family Camp. Look at verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. We've just backed up a couple of, a few words to the very end of Romans 12, 13. Now we've just, as a church family, completed a study through Romans 12, 1 and 2, and so we've already looked at this transition. So I think that that sets us up well for talking about some specific calls to obedience that are made in the rest of this letter. I'm going to take for granted, you understand, that all these calls to obedience are rooted in the gospel. They're all, by the mercies of God, therefore. present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. This is all the result of the gospel, which has taken root in our hearts. You'll see here that verse 13, if we were to translate this quite literally, it reads, the hospitality pursuing. The hospitality pursuing. Most of our time this morning is going to be spent on a particular story that well illustrates what it means to be hospitable. We're going to turn to another passage of scripture and look at that together. But before we do that, I want to just offer three observations here from Romans 12, 13. Here's the first one. These words in Romans 12, 13 conclude a little section which begins in verse 9. Look up at verse 9. And it literally would read here, the love without hypocrisy. NAS reads, let love be without hypocrisy. What does unhypocritical love look like? And this listing that we get after that, look at it. Abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good, being devoted to brotherly love, giving preference to one another, not lagging behind in diligence, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Each one of those phrases, I think, is just filling in what it means to have an unhypocritical love. In the words of Alexander Strauch, he said, hospitality is a concrete, down-to-earth idea. It's a test of our fervent love for God and his people. Love can be an abstract, indistinct idea. Hospitality is specific and tangible. Hospitality is love in action. It is the flesh and muscles on the bones of love. I love that. Hospitality is the flesh and muscle on the bones of love. You don't have hospitality apart from love. But it's possible that when you say, be loving, that we don't think about, well, what does that actually mean practically? What does it mean to be loving? Well, hospitality is one of those tests. Hospitality is one of the tests to make sure that when you say, yes, I love God and I love men, the next question should be, well, do you show hospitality? Is hospitality part of what you do? Because if it's not, it calls into question, maybe you have the hypocritical love. You see, a love without hypocrisy shows itself in striving toward hospitality. The Greek word there, hospitality, is an interesting word. It's actually a combination of two Greek words, philos, which means love, and xenos, which means stranger or foreigner. It's an amalgamation of those two words put together, philos, xenos, which means love for the stranger, love for the foreigner. Forms of the same Greek word happen in Hebrews 13, 2, where Christians are warned not to neglect hospitality. It says, do not neglect hospitality in Hebrews 13, 2. In 1 Peter 4, 9, Christians are commanded to be hospitable to one another without complaint, without grumbling. That word's interesting in the Greek, gongosmos. It sounds like grumbling. Don't be grumbling while you go about your hospitality. The word also is used, believe it or not, in the listings for elder qualifications. In 1st Timothy 3, 2, and in Titus 1, 7, and 8, it not only says that elders are to be one-woman men, temperate, prudent, respectable, not quick-tempered, not pugnacious, not greedy, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, and self-controlled, but also in the list it says being hospitable. If a man is not hospitable, he has no business being an elder. A related word is also used over in 1 Timothy 5 when describing the widows who are supposed to be cared for by the church. It says, pick out those widows who are wealthy, sorry, wealthy in good works. Wealthy in good works. And then among listed there is being hospitable. So a woman who is hospitable should be cared for by the church if she's all alone. She has particular, we have a particular responsibility to care for those women who are by themselves and yet spend their time being hospitable. Our English word, hospitality, derives from the Latin, hospitalis, and it's connected with the old French, hospitalité, which Auro referred to this idea of being a warm reception to guests or strangers. Note that the word is not far off from our word, hospital, which is a building providing care for the sick, or hotel, which is a building providing lodging for a traveler, or even hostel, which is a building providing inexpensive food and lodging for a group of people, whether that being a group of students or workers or travelers. One other thing to mention, one other thing. So we see this as a description of what it means to be hypocritical in our love. We see it as being love for the stranger, love for the outsider. And then notice that the verb that's used here, the NAS, the NIV, the new living, all translate this present active participle as practicing hospitality. That's what you read here in the NAS. The King James has it as given to hospitality. The ESV, the NET, and the CSB all have pursuing hospitality. And I actually like the latter. It's this last translation I think communicates the meaning of dioco best. That word means to pursue or to run swiftly towards something, to chase it, to seek it out, to earnestly endeavor to acquire something. This implies that genuine love is actively engaged. How do you know you have genuine love? Because you are striving towards hospitality. You're not half-hearted about it. You're striving after it. You're seeking to get better at it. There's a deep, sincere desire in those who love God and love men to love the stranger, to care for the one outside, to provide for the one in need, to be spent for the profit of others, to use my resources in helping someone else in need. So why should we pursue hospitality? Be as God commands it. Because your love, if it is genuine, will include the pursuit of hospitality. And with that, I could have preached the shortest sermon I've ever preached anywhere. I would feel, though, like I disappointed you, though, because, you know, we've been giving you a little bit longer sermons over this week, so how could I just stop right there? You would feel like as if I had given you your money's worth. So, I'm not going to do that. Because while the Bible does give us straightforward commands, and it is enough that God has commanded us to do it, therefore, as His obedient children, we should do it. That should be enough. That is enough. What's wonderful is that God has not only given us commands, but in scripture, he's also given us examples and illustrations and beautiful pictures. Because God knows something about the way that we work as human beings. Commands are often important because we need some like bedrock, just, okay, what has God called me to do? Okay, there it is. But I dare say that it's probably, what really moves you to do something is not so much that just a command has been given, but that there's awakened inside of your heart a love for the thing that you're commanded to do. And often that process by which we come from a place of being either indifferent or even maybe hateful towards an idea to then loving the idea, it usually takes more than just a command. It usually does. Just the way the human heart works. You know, Pastor Christian, when he was preaching, he referenced three different men in his sermon. You guys remember who they were? Can you tell me? Who were they? C.S. Lewis was one. Augustus was another. And Edwards, very good. Excellent, you guys were listening. There you go, Pastor Christian, you were listening. So these three men, Pastor Christian mentioned, and he mentioned them because they're men whose lives are worthy of imitation. And I think at least partly behind it, and talk to Pastor Christian about this, I'm just gonna read into his mind. Part of the reason why he included those is because there's something winsome about seeing examples put before our eyes of this thing in practice. We're all like this a little bit. Let me give you an example. If you want to learn how to play an instrument, you're going to have to do some work to get there. There's no way around it. There may be some approaches that afford a more easy way to entry, but you won't be able to escape applying some effort. And so, like, I want to learn guitar. You go up to Pastor Christian, I want to learn guitar. Okay, at least part of it is going to be him telling you, okay, you're going to have to practice. You're going to have to actually pick up the guitar and do some stuff. You're going to have to grit your teeth sometimes and just force it to happen. But I dare say that most people achieve greatness in the instruments they play, arrive there because they have some sort of genuine love for it. And that love probably aroused at least in some part through getting tastes of great music and watching talented musicians. Once you're properly motivated, practicing is no longer pulling teeth, but joy. I know we got some boys in this student ministry that love to run, because I wouldn't be running last night. You know, I can't. This is a retreat. This is time to take a break. And meanwhile, there are students running even in the evening, right? They obviously aren't just gritting their teeth. There must be some amount of love within them for the thing they're engaging in. And you can always tell, can't you, when somebody does something out of joy? You can tell when somebody plays an instrument and they're enjoying it versus someone who is gritting their teeth through it. And you can tell when somebody exercises hospitality out of a love deep within their heart. I'll tell you something they won't be doing and that is grumbling in the midst of it. Perhaps I can offer another example from another discipline. Maybe music isn't your thing. I, for years, talked about trying to learn to speak a modern foreign language. And my many meager attempts at it have failed miserably. At least in part, I failed for lack of grit. But primarily, I have to admit that I've lacked a love for it from my heart. So I've been pleasantly surprised that lately I've experienced the joy of failing forward just a little bit. You see, upon meeting Alex and Diana and Dennis and Svetlana and Anton, The Lord awakened and urged me to learn just a little bit of Russian. If nothing more than to be able to say, привет, to say hi to them when they came into church on Sunday morning. This is awakened after hearing just a little bit of their walk with Jesus and hearing about what happened to them in Russia and how it is that they got to the United States. And then especially hearing Diana like speak such fluent English and be able to translate from Russian to English and back and forth. We had a wonderful like membership information meeting. And we were talking back and forth, and much of it was through her. And it was just so, it was so awesome. And it awakened something in my heart that wasn't there before. I all of a sudden had a desire from the heart to learn a little bit of Russian. And dear friends, it's hard. I've learned hardly anything yet, but I'm on the journey. I'm on the journey, and I'm learning a little bit day by day. And as a matter of fact, as a result of that, I'm like, whew, this is hard. So what do I do to take a break sometimes from the Russian? I click over to Spanish and learn a little bit of Spanish. I'm like, oh, Spanish doesn't seem nearly as bad anymore. This is a breeze. The alphabet is kind of understandable for the most part. But I had a similar situation with that, with seeing Kelvin, who came from Puerto Rico. how quickly he picked up English. Every once in a while the family gives him a hard time for mispronouncing something in English. And I always look around at everybody and I go, how many of us are speaking Spanish right now? And he does such an excellent job. He's never complained about it at all. And it starts to awaken in me just a drive and a determination like seeing his example of being able to take on another language and communicate so well. I feel loved by him doing that. And so all of a sudden, learning another language isn't just gritting my teeth and trying to learn it. It's, there's people attached to this language. It's a tool through which I can love them. And suddenly I find myself, you know, it's Duolingo, but I'm 32 days in without a miss. You know, 32 days. I'll admit it, it's cheesy, but I'm going somewhere. I've learned a few words and I'm trying a little bit more. every day. Now my point is not to cajole everyone into learning other languages any more than to command everyone to learn an instrument, but rather explain that genuine love will motivate things that commands themselves just don't do. I can command you to do it, you can take it or leave it, but I'll tell you this, if I command you today to be more hospitable, you'll hear the command, you'll take it or leave it. But if I can somehow grab your heart, and convince you that there's something beautiful and gorgeous in here. And you become convinced of the beauty of it, as Pastor Christian even talking about. If you see the beauty of it, you'll become a lifelong hospitable person. And you won't need commands, because you'll find the commands just joyful delight. When it comes to hospitality, I also have to admit I have a long way to go. On some levels, it feels a little bit strange being, you know, given this topic and then saying, man, when I think about hospitality in my church, I can think of a lot of people much better at this than I. So I reached out to a few, several ladies in our church, both who are here presently and some who have moved on to other places. And I asked them, what do they love the most about hospitality? And this is what I found in their answers to me. And you'll see the commonality in the way they describe hospitality. Listen to the words, I love. I love being able to serve others and seeing the enjoyment on their faces. I love seeing other people connect and bless each other in ways we could not have planned or predicted. I love seeing God use our hospitality for his own means. I love bringing people joy. I love seeing people have fun. I love seeing people of different ages and backgrounds enjoying time together. I love creating a memory of fellowship and food and laughter that will long outlive someone's visit. I want people to feel loved. and cared for. You see, if you grip that, if you have this kernel of love that's there, all the rest of it just falls into place. Notice in none of those words was it anything about table settings or silverware or expensive china or particular meals that are prepared. It's just a desire to love people and see them feel loved and cared for and to enjoy themselves. I'm convinced that as love for Christ grows, so will your desire to leverage your gifts, time, and stuff for his glory and others' good. And so with the remainder of my time, I'd like to suggest that our Lord himself provide us with a truly incredible illustration of hospitality in action. This story, while originally intended to correct a lawyer's desire to weasel out of responsibility underneath the law, not only accomplishes that purpose with flying colors, but also sets before us a beautiful picture of genuine love. It offers a glimpse of pursuing hospitality, offering rest to the weary. And so for that, will you turn with me to Luke 10. Luke 10. And let's read starting in verse 25. Luke 10, starting in verse 25. And a lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the law? How does it read to you? And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And by chance, a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him. And when he saw him, he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. And he put him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robber's hands? And he said, the one who showed mercy toward him. Then Jesus said to him, go and do the same. I noticed on Thursday night when Dominic was preaching that the events surrounding Matthew 11, 25 through 30, and Jesus' call to enter his rest, Dominic pointed to that text and said, here we have this like the quintessential, I think he had a much more proper Latin phrase there, but the quintessential command to like come and enter into Jesus' rest is found there in Matthew 11, 25 through 30. What's interesting is if you read the contextual details, the events surrounding that call, The exact same details surround this story. What you see is that it's right after Jesus rebukes the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum, and then he praises God the Father for hiding these things from the wise and revealing them to infants. Right after he says that, Over in Matthew, the next phrases are, Jesus looks to his disciples and says, Notice, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, In Luke's gospel, after all of that information, he says, Jesus praises the Lord, God, his father. He says, hey, thank you that you revealed these to infants and you've hidden them from supposedly smart people. And what do we see? In Luke 10, 23, he turns to his disciples and he says, blessed are the eyes because you've seen this. For I say to you, many prophets and kings have wished to see what you see and didn't see them and to hear the things that you hear and didn't hear them. It's right at that point that Luke tells us a lawyer stands up and puts Jesus to the test. And Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Isn't it interesting that Matthew's gospel, which includes the clarion calls to experience the rest that Christ has to offer, is paralleled in Luke's gospel with a story which pictures, which is a story which Jesus pictures through which a weary world is in need of rest and one is offered. Might I suggest that you who experience the rest that Jesus offers, i.e., Matthew 10, are now being called by that God who caused you to enter that rest to now be an inviter of others to come into that rest. Or again, as Dominic pictured it well, as a yoke fellow of Jesus, as his ambassador, to call others to now enter into that same rest that you've come to enjoy. There's two commands I'd like to encourage us with, with the time that I have remaining this morning. Here's the first one. Recognize the weary, the hardships of an exhausted world. Under each of these points, I'll have two sub points. The first sub point of this one is, sometimes the lost identify themselves. In Luke 10, 21, Jesus has just commented on the obtuseness, the spiritual obtuseness of so many of the world's intelligentsia. He says to his father, thank you, you've hidden this from the world's intelligent, and you've revealed them to babes. He's just commented on how these spiritual truths, there are intelligent people who are blind to spiritual truth. And as if on cue, this Jewish lawyer stands up and puts Jesus to the test. Notice that the one who ought to be in the student's desk is assuming the role of the instructor. And oh, how the tables will be turned in this story. This man has doubtless spent his life knowing and explaining the law, yet he wonders on what basis he can be sure that he will inherit eternal life. Let's pause there for just a minute. There's some right things about what this guy is doing. First is this, he's right to believe that there is such a thing as eternal life. Remember, the Sadducees of Jesus' day didn't believe in it. Didn't believe in a resurrection. So this guy is right to believe there is such a thing as eternal life. God has put eternity in men's heart, Ecclesiastes 3.11. So all men have to suppress the truth and unrighteousness, Romans 1.18, if they wish to live as if there wasn't something after this. Those who say there is nothing to come after this, they're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. How do I know that? Because God has placed eternity in men's hearts. They know there's something to come. But they suppress the truth and unrighteousness so they can live however they want, so they don't have to live in light of a coming judgment. But they're self-deceived. They're blind. This guy is right to believe that there is such a thing as eternal life. There's a second thing. He's also right to believe that he doesn't have it by default. What must be done in order that I might inherit eternal life? He doesn't think he just has it automatically. He's asking what are the rubrics? What's the protocol? What hurdle must be jumped? How do I make sure that I'm one of the guys going to that place of eternal life? Can we just pause there and say, sadly, there are far too many people today who believe in justification by death. They think just because you die, you're gonna go to a better place. They talk about it this way, right? Like, so-and-so died. Oh, well, at least they're now in a better place. Not necessarily. As a matter of fact, a lot of those people who die are in a much worse place. I mean, this is why when people go like, well, suicide, at least they're going to a better place. Not necessarily. They could be entering into a Christless eternity, hell to follow. There's far too many funeral sermons that have been giving, supporting that same lie. You know, preaching as if the dead body in front of them is definitely in heaven. when sometimes these people don't know anything about the man whose corpse is there in front of them. This lawyer wants to know what will make him an heir of eternal life. What will guarantee his salvation? What will give him peace with God? And that is a very reasonable question. It is a very reasonable concern. It was said by one of the incredible guys earlier this week that you should not have rest if you're uncertain about this. There isn't rest. You should be in turmoil if you don't know where your eternal destiny is, if you don't know where you are in terms of your relationship with God. We might wholeheartedly applaud this man's inquiry were it not for the scriptures providing us with a slight insight about this man's motivations. It would seem all good and on the up and up. I mean, this guy's asking Jesus, what do I have to do to get eternal life? It's not a good question. Although we do have this indication before, this man raises his hand, testing Jesus. You'll see it again happen later when he asks for clarification about who is my neighbor. Again, we get a little parenthetical explanation about this man's motivations. Seeking to justify himself, he asked, who is my neighbor? Nevertheless, the question is an important one. How is eternal life inherited? On what basis is it granted? Given that we all live on in either the majestic glory of God enjoying his beauty forever and ever, or in endless torment in hell, the just penalty for sinners, The question ought to figure most prominently in our minds. Men ought to lose sleep over this question. And regardless of the lawyer's motivations, Jesus makes use of the opportunity to help him see his need for grace. So let's take note of that for a moment. Even when men might come to us with less than pure motives, oftentimes the question they bring still provides an opportunity for evangelism. Note that Jesus, he knows what's in this man's heart, but he goes along with the reasoning anyway. He goes along with it anyway. He responds, in this case, with a question. By the way, this is not an uncommon approach from Jesus and one that we should also mimic. As a matter of fact, this whole discussion follows this pattern twice. The lawyer asks a question. Jesus responds by asking a question. The lawyer provides an answer. Jesus verifies the answer and says, go do it. That's how it goes every time. He asks a question, Jesus asks a question. The lawyer answers, Jesus says, yes, do it. That's how this goes, twice. The first one goes like this. Here's round one. Ding, ding, round one. What must I do inherit eternal life? Jesus, what has been written in the law? Lawyer, love God and your neighbor as yourself. Quoting Deuteronomy 6.5, Leviticus 19.18. Jesus, right, go do that. You'll have it, you'll live. The lawyer answered correctly. He's right. Love God. Love your neighbor. As a matter of fact, Jesus is asked this question on another occasion by another lawyer. And on that occasion, Jesus tells him that answer. What's the greatest commandment of the law? Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. This lawyer is saying exactly what Jesus said on another occasion. His answer is right. What's the problem? Well, it's the second part of what Jesus says. Go and do it. And you'll live. Do this. And you'll live. The lawyer understood the law. He even understood the quintessential aspect of the law. It's all ultimately about loving God. Notice he didn't get into minutia of other things. He was like, it's loving God and loving my neighbor. Jesus says, right on, do it and you'll live. You see, it's one thing to interpret the law correctly. It's another thing to internalize it and perform it. So Jesus commands him, do it, you'll live. But the problem for sinful man is that he fails miserably at keeping this command, right? This is our problem. Have you ever loved God perfectly any moment of your life? Have you ever loved others the way he's called you to every moment of your life? Certainly we haven't. This is our problem is we fail miserably at keeping the law that is so simple. So what is Jesus doing here? He's just so beautifully, nonchalantly slaying this man's self-righteousness. Yeah, you got it, right? That's what the law says. Do it and you'll live. Romans 3 19 and 20 makes plain what is under the surface here. We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and the world become accountable to God because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes knowledge of sin. You see, the moment this man articulates what the law has said, he also comes under conviction. How do I know he comes under conviction? Because immediately after this, he's asking for clarification. Who is my neighbor? He's concerned about how far the law might go. He's concerned about the gaze of the law. You see, the law was designed to be a tutor leading us to Christ, Galatians 3.24. Do you see how this law sets up the good news? What is Jesus doing here with this lawyer? He's helping him to come to a place where he might admit first that he hasn't kept the law. If you wanna get eternal life through the law, here's the requirement, do it perfectly. And you'll have it. The problem is, none of us have done it perfectly. Here is a man who's in need of instruction, and Jesus was delighted to give it. Even though the man presumed to test Jesus, it's really the lawyer who's coming under examination. Do you see it here? This man rises up to Jesus and says, Jesus flips the tables, says, oh, no, actually, it's you that are going to be examined here, my dear friend. How about you tell me, what's the law say? This is what it is, you're right, do it all, and you'll live. And so it is with many who we come across in this life. Sometimes the lost raise their hands. Sometimes the lost stand up, and maybe out of even a bad motivation, maybe a motive to try to make a fool out of you, you Christian, they stand up with a test, a test to put to you. They might come with really impure motivations. And there might be times and places in which we just call up that motivation. But notice here, at least on this occasion, Jesus walks along with this guy for a little while. Look at round two. Ding, ding, round two. Lawyer says, but who's my neighbor? Notice here, it's wishing to justify himself, he asks, but who's my neighbor? And Jesus, after he tells his parable, says, who is the one acting neighborly? And this lawyer says, the one who does mercy. And Jesus says, go and do likewise. Again, we're told the lawyer's motivations were seeking to justify himself. Whatever the reason for the lawyer's question, it assumes that there are neighbors and non-neighbors. He wants Jesus to explain where is the line to be drawn between my neighbor and my not-neighbor. It seems like the lawyer is doing what good lawyers do. They look for ambiguities. They look for loopholes. Is there some wiggle room here in this law, Jesus? Yes, I just told you love God and love my neighbor, but how far does loving my neighbor have to go, really? Who is my neighbor? This is typical of how not only lawyers, but men in general respond to God's law. They attempt to justify their own actions by doing a couple of things. What do you do? Well, you maintain an inflated view of yourself. If you want to live by the law, this is what men do. They try to make themselves feel better about the things that they're doing. And often what's required to do that is to make the law lesser than it is. Oh yeah, look how good I'm doing, because I'm doing all these things. Like, well, are you doing all of it? Well, I mean, who knows what all of it really is? Is it really all of it? Notice he's trying to find some limitation on the jurisdiction of the law so that it might not highlight his sin. He wants to know the bare minimum requirements of the law. How many of us have done this? Say you're in, you're not married yet, you're in a romantic relationship with somebody else. What is the line? How far can I push this? What are the loopholes? How far can I go? Rather than pursuing holiness in this relationship. See, lawyers and legalists love to try to find loopholes. They try to lower the standards of the law so that they can feel righteous, even though they know themselves to have failed to keep the law. Perhaps the lawyer believes that if he can just limit the size of his neighborhood, it'll be all good. Just tell me what my neighborhood actually is here. And Jesus will have none of it. So what does he do? He very skillfully tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Here's a second point I'd like to say. Sometimes the desperate are placed in our path. Sometimes the lost identify themselves like this lawyer. Now let's look into the story. Sometimes the desperate are placed right in our path. A fallen world presents great opportunities for hospitality, doesn't it? Just think about it for a moment. It's because of the fallenness of this world and the suffering that's in this world that there's great opportunity for suffering. Because there is a weary world, there's a weary world in need of rest. The suffering and difficulty of the world is the context in which Christian hospitality shines. The results of sin are all around us. There's no shortage of trials and tribulations for humanity. There are a good amount of difficulties which we bring upon ourselves. There are sufferings we encounter as a result of the sinful actions of someone else. And then there are difficulties we all encounter for no moral agency itself, right? Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, stuff like that, forest fires, you know, all kinds of stuff, right? Maybe not robberies, that's the simple action of somebody else. But we do find that there's difficulty to come to us, some of them which we ask for ourselves, sometimes we've done something wrong, sometimes someone's done something wrong to us, and then sometimes there's just difficulties that come with living in a fallen world. Given these circumstances which we all encounter, it does not take much to come across those who are in distress, those who are in need of help. And all of those difficulties become opportunities for love. All those moments of suffering become opportunities for hospitality. The man which Jesus presents is traveling the dangerous road down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a 12-mile trip, but it took you 17 miles to get there, because about 3,000 miles of elevation drop. So you're winding down the way. He quite literally was traveling down to Jericho. And that path was filled with caves and crevices, and robbers would often hide in those places and try to catch unprotected travelers. In this case, the robbers not only took this man's stuff, but they beat him up, leaving him half dead on the road. And if he's left in the state that he is, the other half of him will soon be gone too. Also note that while Jesus' audience may have assumed that this man who fell among the robbers was Jewish, note that nothing in the text ever tells you what the nationality or ethnicity of this man is. We don't know anything about this guy. He was stripped of all of his belongings, so there he is, beaten up, left on the side of the road. You might have been able to tell what his ethnicity was by that measure, but it's never mentioned in the parable. Notice, it does not matter. How do I know it doesn't matter? Because Jesus goes to great length to describe the ethnicity and the occupation of the other people going down the road. So it's glaringly absent. The ethnicity of this man has been beaten up. There's not a word said about him, but everybody who walks by him, we know everything about those guys. You see, it becomes evident that it doesn't matter. What matters is that this guy was near them. That's what made him a neighbor. Anyone near you is the neighbor. Jesus implicitly is answering this man's question, who is my neighbor? He's implicitly saying, anyone near you, anyone you have the opportunity to help, that's your neighbor. But notice he's after something further here. Jesus wants to talk about another principle that's important that this guy needs to hear. You see, there are times when we might feel overwhelmed by the need that exists, right? We are certainly finite creatures. We just mentioned some suffering that's happening in other places in the United States right now. There's some people who are genuinely hurting and in need of help. And sometimes it can just feel overwhelming, right? Like, we could probably spend, I mean, we could spend months and years and we could spend all of our lives just looking at pictures of suffering all over the world. And you can just be inundated with that and just be like, I don't even know, where do I even start? We obviously don't have infinite resources. We have finite resources. We can only do what we can do. So, I think this is the point of this parable. I know we need to really take to heart is, you cannot help everyone. Granted, you can't do that. But you can help some people. And those some people that we have the greatest responsibility towards are the ones who are near to us, the one that we walk by on the streets. Yes, there are also people walking on the street somewhere in Australia, but I'm not there. So I can't really do much for that guy, at least tangibly and physically. But I can do something for my neighbor next door. I can do something for the guy who's broken down on the road. The guy that I pass by, I can have some heart and compassion toward. The command to love my neighbor is most specifically the one nearby, the one near you. Carolyn Lacy, in her book Extraordinary Hospitality, said rightly, we all understand the temptation to walk on the other side of the street and hope someone else will stop to help. We all look for excuses and rationalizations. We ask, who do I need to make space for? Who do I not need to welcome? Who am I free to overlook or ignore? When we ought to rather be asking, who needs my welcome? Who do I have the opportunity to show generous hospitality to? Who has God placed in my path that I might reflect his compassion? We might just need to open our eyes and ears and ask the question, who is in need of help near me? Who is grieving right now? Who is lonely? Who is struggling with anxiety or depression? Who has lost a loved one? Who is sick? Who is struggling with a disability? Who has lost a job? Who is stressed at work? Who is having trouble with parenting? Who appears to be overlooked or neglected or forgotten or mistreated? I honestly think if we actually thought through those questions, it wouldn't take long for us to find someone nearby who needs our hospitality. Well, we first have to recognize the weary, but having recognized them, point two, we have to pursue them. It's not enough just to recognize that they're there. We have to do something about it. Notice again, Romans 12, 13 said, pursuing hospitality, or the hospitality pursuing. We have to pursue the weary, not just identify them, not just recognize them. It starts with recognizing that it's there, but then we now have to pursue them. We have to offer rest to a fatigued world. Here's my two sub points for this one. First, In the parable of the Good Samaritan, a desperate man in need of mercy. There's a desperate man here in need of mercy. Jesus explains, by chance, a priest was going down that road. And at first indication, if you were the first one to hear this story, such an occurrence sounds like such a supremely welcome news, right? Here comes the Calvary! Right? Of all people, yes! This guy's walking down the road, he gets beaten up, left half dead, but of all the people, the next people walking down the road, it's a priest? A wonderful opening in Providence, help has arrived. But joy turns to a gasped bewilderment when Jesus explains, as soon as the priest saw the man on the road, he walked to the other side and kept on going. We're not left with much time to ask why, because Jesus then tells, well, wait, wait, wait, a Levite then comes in his place. And again, we're like, whew, I mean, I don't know what's going on with that priest, but now Levite's here, everything's gonna be hunky-dory. But just like the priest, he passes by on the other side. Now by this point, we have to pause and ask why. Sadly, no reason is offered here in the text. Jesus does not offer to us why these guys did not stop. I have to hazard a guess the reason why is because no reason would be sufficient. No reason is a good one. Whatever reason they came up with, it wouldn't pass muster. Here's a man in desperate need. These men passed by him without so much as lifting a finger for him. They moved to the other side of the road and avoid him. If anyone had reason to perform an act of mercy and charity, it'd be these religious leaders, right? They ought to have been gentle and generous and full of sympathy. Some have proposed that the priest might have avoided the man for fear of defilement. Maybe he was concerned about ceremonial defilement. It has been pointed out by others, well, it's kind of strange then that he's going down the road also. He's going away from Jerusalem towards Jericho. If he was headed to the temple, maybe that make you make that excuse, but it doesn't seem like he's going the opposite direction. But what other excuses might have been produced? We might agree that we should do good to others, but how often have you found yourself in a moment like this? It's easy to point the finger at these two guys. Have you ever been in a moment like this? And maybe if you can remember it now, you feel even a little pinch of regret that you didn't stop, that you didn't help that person, that you knew needed some help. See, Spurgeon offers a few potential excuses that men might have used. And because there's not any excuse given here, I would say none of these hold water and Spurgeon would say the same. I'm gonna introduce each of Spurgeon's excuses with my quick summary. Here's the first one. I'm in a hurry. For instance, the priest and Levi were both in a hurry. The priest had been away for a month at Jerusalem from his wife and dear children. He naturally wanted to get home. Or, it's getting late. If he lingered, the sun might go down. It was an awkward time after sundown. You couldn't expect him to be so imprudent as to stay with darkness setting in. Or, I'm tired. Had he not spent a very laborious month at the temple, you don't know how exhausting he would have found it to act as a priest for that whole month. And if you did, you wouldn't blame him for wanting to get home and enjoy a little rest. Or, I don't want others to worry, besides his family at home was waiting up for him to get there and he didn't want them to be worried about it. No cell phone, he couldn't tell them that he was gonna be delayed. Or how about, I'm not very skilled, I'm not a doctor. I don't have, or maybe I don't have good supplies. I don't have medicines and bandages and stuff like that. Or maybe he said, well, you know, I'm not good at this kind of stuff. I think he needs more help than I can give, so the help I can give wouldn't make a difference anyway. Asked any of these before? Or maybe someone else can do it. Maybe the priest looks back and goes, oh, there's a Levite. He'll take care of it. I'll just keep on going. Or maybe he's like, I don't put myself in danger. Again, if it gets dark outside, maybe those robbers are still around. They're gonna come out and get me. Leave me half dead on the side of the road also. Or perhaps, even worse, I'll be there over this half-dead body, and then authorities will show up, and they're gonna think I did it to this guy, and I'm gonna be in trouble, even though I was just trying to provide him help. You know what I'll do instead? I'll just pray for the man as I walk on by. Maybe I'll even toss him a track. Spurgeon concludes, all these powerful reasons put together made him content to avoid trouble and leave the doing of kindness to others. Again, let me point out, not one excuse is given in the text. This is all just Spurgeon imagining the sorts of, you know though, he didn't have to probably go very far, right? Because all of us have probably made similar sorts of excuses that don't really hold water. You see, I'm an unloving neighbor whenever I make excuses for not doing what I know deep down Jesus wants me to do for someone else. Are you stopping to help those in need or are you making excuses for passing them by? By now, there might have been some expectation that Jesus would present a third character who might save the day and help this man in desperate need. They may have suspected that Jesus is kind of setting up the stage for now a Jewish layman to come down the thing and show up the priest and the Levite. But then Jesus does the totally unexpected thing. He says, a Samaritan. By the way, this is the first word in this part of the sentence. It makes it the most emphatic thing. A Samaritan comes walking on by. The audience might have thought it originally, they're like, oh man, now this man has suffered the worst string of providence. Two men who might have been expected to help him left him, and now a Samaritan of all peoples happened upon him, right? This is like the pastor and the deacon had passed by on the other side of the road, and now somebody from PETA walks by, or somebody else, like, oh man, this guy's not, you're not gonna help him at all. The pastor and deacon left him alone. Samaritan stops. And this is the surprising nature of the story, right? We're told the Samaritan feels compassion for the man. Notice this man feels love for him. And what does he do? He bandages the man's wounds. Where did he have the bandages? Did he come prepared with them? Possible. It's also possible that he tore some of his own clothing to do so. He gave maybe of his own shirt to prepare for this guy. He pours oil and wine on the man, disinfecting and providing comfort to him. He puts him on his own animal and leads him to an inn. He gives up his own ride. He takes care of him in the inn that night instead of just dropping him off. He then gives two denarii to the innkeeper, enough room and board for many days. He then promises to repay any other expenses the man might incur while recuperating. I think here is the point in the story where we just have lost the ability to gasp at such a thing. Why? Because we all are so familiar with the phrase, a good Samaritan, right? Because of the story, we hear good Samaritan and we think good thoughts, good things. But to Jesus' original audience, it's like a member of the Taliban comes by, you know? That kind of feeling, you know? That kind of pushed me back. I guess it had to be whoever the more recent terrorist organizations are. This kind of idea, right? Somebody who's generally thought of in very negative light is now the hero of the tale. Remember, Samaritans were looked down upon and were considered enemies of the Jewish people then. Samaritan provides a model for those who do help the afflicted. Notice what he did. He jumped in with all that he had, and he helped as much as he could. Jesus' parable is meant to expound the meaning of what it means to love. Rather than spending time to define your neighbor, Jesus says spend the same amount of time being ready the moment a need arises. Stop trying to define away who it is you're supposed to help, and spend that time instead being ready to help those who are around you. I had the opportunity over the past few weeks to read the national best-selling book entitled Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Gadara. Will transformed a restaurant named 11 Madison Park in New York City into the best restaurant in the world. Literally. This restaurant was a two-star restaurant. He brought it to being a three-star, then a four-star. Then he started ascending the ranks in the 50 best restaurants in the world. And he started at number 50. and they worked their way all the way up to the number one restaurant in the entire world. How did he do this? He did it by passionately pursuing hospitality as much as the chef in the back pursued the food that he served. What Will said is he said, I'm in charge of the front of the house and I'm gonna make the front of the house so spectacular that you'll be kind of way, is it the food that I like here or is it the way I'm treated that's the most important thing? Will fostered a culture at his restaurant that encouraged his team to go out of their way to care for people who dined with them. He even employed positions that he entitled dream weavers. And their entire job was to splurge on people when they learned ways that they could bless them. He wanted to give people that came to his restaurant a story to tell. He called them legends. He said, if we can give people legends, they'll have stories that will go with them the rest of their life. Let me give you a couple examples. When a couple came in splurging on dinner to console themselves after their vacation flight was canceled, they turned a private dining room into a private beach, complete with beach chairs, sand on the ground, and a kiddie pool that they put their feet in to stick their toes into. When a visiting chef who was known for hunting much of his own protein came to their restaurant for a visit, they set up a scene on the wall with cows and ducks. They handed the chef a Nerf gun and told him to shoot his entree, and they would cook it for him. One time, Will overheard a particular table discussing their culinary adventures in New York City. They had visited nearly all the major restaurants, but they hadn't had a chance to grab a street hot dog. Will ran out, ordered the hot dog from a street vendor, and then he said the hardest part of this was to convince his chef in the back to fix this up, to serve to them. He begged his chef, please do this. So the chef cut it into four equal pieces. and then prepared it for Will. Will brings it out to the table and he says to them, he admits to them that he was eavesdropping. He says, we're thrilled that you chose us for your last meal in New York, but we didn't want you to go home with any culinary regrets. So he placed these artistically plated hot dogs in front of each of the guests, and he said they freaked out. Will said, quote, I have given away thousands of dishes and many, many thousands of dollars of food by that point in my career, and yet I can confidently say that nobody ever responded the way that table responded to that hot dog. When a family of four from Spain was dining with them on their last night in New York City, snow began falling past the windows, and the eyes of the children got bright with excitement. They had never seen real snow before. So spur of the moment, Will sent one of his employees to go buy four brand new sleds. And after the meal was over, he had a chauffeur-driven SUV whisk the whole family over to Central Park for a special time of sledding down the hill in fresh snow. The book was just, it gave me goosebumps as I read the book. The guy is quite obviously, I would say, not a Christian. But isn't that interesting? Jesus in this tale doesn't tell us about the nature of the Samaritan either. Where is he in relationship with God? We don't even know. We're not told. I don't know the spiritual state of the Samaritan. I don't know the spiritual state of Wilgadara. But by God's common grace, some lessons can be learned from them. This is my question to us as a church. What would happen at Sojourn Baptist if we became unreasonably hospitable? What would it look like? Now, I'm not saying putting sand in the church and putting, you know, beach chairs out. But what I am asking is, what does it look like for us as a people of God to be unreasonably hospitable to people? If Will could go to such great lengths in serving food in a high-end restaurant, what ought we do in service to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? We have something much better to offer than just food from a four-star chef. We've got the gospel to give. There are souls that are in need. What are we doing with the way we serve up the gospel? Are we doing it in a winsome way? Is it evident that we love the people we talk to about the truth? When's the last time you thought creatively about how to love your neighbor well? Certainly one application of this could be, we're coming up soon to what the world calls Halloween, what we remember as Reformation Day, and we encourage everyone at the church to make a big deal out of that night and try to invite your neighborhood to your house for the purpose of giving them the gospel, in some way, shape, or form. Get creative about it. How could you be hospitable to your neighborhood on that night for the sake of Jesus Christ? Last thing, let's look at a sub-point. Because we not only see, again, the parable is its own tale, but we also still have this lawyer. And the tale book ends with him again, right? We come back to him. This is why Jesus is telling the story. What do we have with him? We have a lawman in need of grace. There's a lawman here in need of grace. He's being brought along. He's being brought to understand that he can't be saved by the law. Notice how Jesus says at the end of the parable here, Jesus asked the lawyer, Which of these three seems to you to be a neighbor? The one falling among the robbers. The lawyer's question implied that there was such a thing as a non-neighbor. Jesus' question is to ask, who is the one who acts neighborly? The lawyer asks, who is my neighbor? Jesus asks, who is the one who is a neighbor? Who is acting neighborly? The lawyer seemingly himself unable to even bring to his lips the word Samaritan. Notice he doesn't say it. It further indicates the fact that he doesn't want to bring himself to saying it. So what does he say instead? The one who showed mercy to him. He avoids the man's name. He avoids his description. The one who showed mercy to him. And Jesus says to him, go and do likewise. You see, this lawyer knew he failed that examination. He had often acted unneighborly, just as we have, and therefore he didn't merit salvation. The man left dead on the road was in need, but so was this lawyer in need. He who was looking to the law to establish his eternal inheritance must cease and desist. Rather, he must see his inability before the law to keep it and cry out for mercy and grace. It is only the man who stops from striving to do works and instead rests in the finished work of Jesus Christ that will be saved. You see, we're called to offer rest to a weary world. And that sometimes will be in practical ways. That guy on the side of the road who was half dead needed help, physical help. Notice the man on the outside of this parable. What does he need? He needs spiritual reality. He needs the gospel. Both are needed. Both come together. We're called to pursue hospitality. Why? Because we are the ones who have already received the richest hospitality, right? Think about it for a moment. We're trying to make people feel at home. We're trying to make people feel included. What has God done in saving us? We were once not a people. We've now been made the people of God. We were once out there, separated from God. Now we've been brought in. We've been brought near. We've been made sons and daughters of God. Spurgeon did an excellent job of showing how it is that no matter how good the Samaritan was, he pales in comparison with the greatest servant ever. No man's actions can ever compare with the generosity of Jesus Christ. None have ever cared for sick and suffering souls as he has. Consider our state. We're not merely beaten, stripped, and left half dead, but altogether dead in our transgressions and sins, wounded by our sinful acts. Meanwhile, Jesus, in his wondrous love and compassion, found us in our misery and rebellion and spent his life to rescue us from the pit we dug for ourselves. making we who were enemies of God into friends. The Samaritan happened upon the man in need while on the course of his business, but Jesus came with specific purpose to help us. And Jesus didn't merely run the risk of being attacked by thieves, but was himself wounded, stripped, crucified, and laid in the grave for our sake. He came to suffer and die at the hands of godless men that he might deliver us from sin and eternal punishment. And while the Samaritan's gifts to the man were very generous, They are not worthy to be compared with the riches given to us by Christ. We are given every spiritual blessing through Christ. We are given peace with God our Father. We are granted forgiveness of our trespasses. We are given the adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba Father. We are granted an inheritance reserved in heaven for us that will not fade away. He that was rich for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be rich. And while the Samaritan went away and said he would return to make good on further expenses that the man might accrue, Jesus our Lord, following his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, promised not only to be present with us always, even to the end of the age, but also to come again, arrayed in glory, to bring everything to its fitting conclusion. This is what we've experienced. We've experienced the hospitality from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And now we are called to offer that hospitality to a weary and stressed out world. I asked those same ladies of our church that I mentioned earlier what advice they would give to someone who wanted to get better at hospitality. Assuming that this morning has even awakened a small inkling of fire in your heart to become better at hospitality, I want to leave you with a few practical suggestions, and these are right from ladies in our church. Here you go. Hospitality is merely using the gifts that God has given us for his glory and others' good. So ask the Lord every single morning, how can I serve you better and love others in practical ways by using the talent, skills, experience, and resources you've given me? Since hospitality arises from a servant's heart, begin with prayer that God would shape and mold yours into what he wants. Ask him to expose why you do what you do. Are you working for your own glory or his? Then practice being a servant even in areas that wouldn't be your first choice. Practically speaking, I received some of these following words. I think a lot of these are gems. You really just have to jump in and know that everyone appreciates it even if you did a poor job. Start smaller, work your way up to bigger events and inviting more people over. Teaming up with someone who's more experienced might be useful or helpful. Keep asking people even when they say no a few times. Be persistent. Find out what your guests like or need and provide for those. For example, accommodating a dietary need or accommodating families with smaller children by providing a high chair or pack and play and toys, or finding out what they like to do and joining them in it. You want them to feel at home, so ask questions and truly listen to their answers. Just put dates on the calendar and keep asking people until you get some scheduled. Once they're scheduled, you'll find that you have the time that you didn't think you did. And you'll never regret the time you spend investing in other people. Consider just having a meal that you feel comfortable getting done, and repeat that meal over and over again with different people. They won't know that you had that meal with another family a few weeks ago. This reduces the stress of meal preparation. Also, pick a day that fits your normal cleaning schedule. I clean the house on this day anyway, so I'm not doing anything different than I normally would do, and we'll have people over that night. consider inviting a couple of people over at a time and others more than one person and ask them to bring things so they can participate in bringing things. And it becomes an opportunity for people to learn more about each other, especially if you can forecast good connections that can be made between people that you've invited over to your home. I love this last one. It's not about offering perfect service. It's about caring for people. Will you make a commitment to be more hospitable Do you have a genuine love for people? I know some of us are just maybe more naturally outgoing than others. I get that. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. We're not all gonna be the same. We're all gonna do this a little bit different. But the command to pursue hospitality is to all of us, no matter who you are, no matter what your disposition is. So just get out there a little bit further. Pursue it a little bit more. Will you make a commitment right now about this? This whole week, there's a lot of things we've presented to you. And one of my fears sometimes is that we get to the end of something like this and it's like, that was a really good week. And then if you were to look back a year from now, you're like, I have no idea what we talked about or what we were doing. And my point is not that we have to remember everything I said, that's impossible. I don't remember. I can't remember sometimes what I said last week. So I get that. But how do we get better at that? And I would at least advocate here that you would encourage you to make a commitment, a specific commitment regarding hospitality. What can you do to grow in this? What can you do different? Maybe even write it down there in your notes right now or put it on your phone. Put a date on your calendar. Do something with this before you leave today. So something changes, something is done here. How can you offer rest to the weary? How will you pursue hospitality? Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful time we've had together here at Family Camp, and I pray that the things that have been said and the conversations that have been had, that you would help us to retain those things and not lose them. Help us to be purposeful about putting into practice things that we've learned and been inspired to do. Thank you that you are not done with us, that you are always molding and shaping us. And certainly as we think about hospitality and offering it to others, Lord, we have just nothing but gratitude to you for the warm hospitality you've shown us. And to think that even right now you've gone to prepare a place for us. You've been so hospitable to us. Help us to demonstrate that hospitality to a weary and lost world. We thank you, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.