Christian Duty of Hospitality

The point: Examine your conscience regarding the duty of hospitality; if you lack a sense of obligation, you are either ignorant or disobedient.

The strong word 'pursuing' hospitality is compared to the zeal of 'persecuting' someone, emphasizing the intense, active nature of the command.

He says, in addition to this, we are to be given to hospitality. And if you have a 1901 edition, you will notice that the footnote on the word given is pursuing. And it's the common word in the New Testament for persecute. The word that is used in Hebrews 12.14.

4:06 - 4:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He continues by examining Hebrews 13:1-2, commanding believers not to forget hospitality and motivating it with the possibility of entertaining angels. Then, 1 Peter 4:7-10 is…

The story of Abraham and Sarah entertaining three strangers in Genesis 18 is used to illustrate how showing hospitality can lead to entertaining angels unawares, as mentioned in Hebrews 13:2.

And here we are commanded not to forget this privilege and responsibility. The assumption seems to be that the writer to the Hebrews recognized that amidst all of our other duties, it could and probably would be easy to forget this responsibility. Well, then to underscore the privilege and to intensify the motivation, he says, for their purpose, by some, that is, some who have entertained strangers or shown hospitality, have entertained angels unawares. And that, no doubt, is a reference to Genesis chapter 18.

7:10 - 7:48 Read in full sermon

The point: If you feel socially inadequate, plunge into hospitality; you learn social graces by doing, not by avoiding.

Learning social graces for hospitality is compared to learning to drive a car: one learns by doing, not by avoiding, overcoming initial awkwardness through practice.

You learn by doing. You don't learn by not doing. If you were so afraid you couldn't drive a car that you never got in and started to learn how, you'd still be hitchhiking or walking or taking buses.

20:17 - 20:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Err on the side of extending hospitality, even if some may take advantage, rather than falling short of God's command.

Martin shares his personal experience of handling numerous hospitality inquiries, illustrating the increasing need for a structured system within the church to manage visitors.

And I have two prongs to what I want to say. First of all, the one is for what we call long-range planning for more formal hospitality that does involve opening our homes, perhaps to have people staying overnight or for a more lengthy stay. Some of you are able to provide overnight lodging and what we're going to do is prepare you a mini-graph sheet and make it available so that those of you who do have the facilities to have a single person or a couple or maybe a family of four, you know what your facilities are, how many Haida beds you have, how many cots and the rest. And we would like to h...

25:32 - 26:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Sign up on the Lord's Day to offer hospitality for meals and fellowship, indicating how many guests you can accommodate.

John shares a personal story of a couple who regularly hosted him and his wife, even giving up their own bed, as a practical example of sacrificial hospitality.

and thereby express a dimension of Christian grace and practical Christian love why I am convinced with your fellow elders that this is one way that we can by the grace of God do that well I've gotten done in less than my half hour it's taken me twenty about twenty-three twenty-four minutes and I've laid out the materials now it's open for questions discussion additional biblical materials yes John my wife and I in my first quarter we were commuting from Clark home about three years ago people come to remember on Saturday Saturday my wife was in the state of Columbia and I was in the state of ...

31:44 - 33:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not give with the expectation of return; if you do, it becomes a 'reward mentality' and you will be hurt.

The futility of forcing a flower to open is used to illustrate that one cannot force people to accept help or open up, but must patiently nurture them.

in the friendship and then you might just have to go and say look brother look sister I know the problem is with me but there's a sin that I can't deal with until I talk this out with you and then bare your heart and deal with him if you have aught against your brother go tell him his fault between thee and him alone yeah yeah yeah well then what you have to do Ralph is then you have to turn in another direction and find someone who's waiting to respond if you find that as elders there are people we want to help they won't let us help so you just have to say alright Lord you have to deal with ...

43:07 - 44:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not give with the expectation of return; if you do, it becomes a 'reward mentality' and you will be hurt.

Martin recounts how it took ten years for some church members to truly trust and believe in his love, illustrating the long-term patience required to earn confidence and build relationships.

or there's some people I'd give my right arm to open them up I can tell you I could mention names if it weren't embarrassing there are people sitting I don't know if they're sitting here I don't want to embarrass anyone but part of this church that it took ten years before they really believed that I loved them and they had any confidence in my love ten years of going out and feeling no confidence in return ten years of being held off held up held up held up held up held up held up and just continuing to show love continuing to show love and then suddenly almost like overnight you sense someth...

44:36 - 46:05 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have a low level of confidence or poor self-image, do not turn inward when hurt by ingratitude, but continue to show love.

Martin uses the example of cultivating friendship with children, requiring consistent effort and love over time, to illustrate the patience needed in building relationships and earning trust.

we've not earned their confidence apparently well what in the world do we have to do for how long before we earn it I mean how much what must we do before we earn the confidence there's some who still , have fundamental distrust of the whole direction we've gone with this building program and we still haven't earned an ounce of their confidence that all the hours of prayer and consultation with the wisest counselors we know have resulted not in infallibility but in judgments that are sound and rational well that hurts but what can you do you just got to keep doing what God tells you to do and ...

46:05 - 47:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Aim to offer hospitality at least once a month, balancing it with other fellowship and personal time.

Martin shares his personal practice of structuring Lord's Day hospitality, even with relatives, to ensure he has adequate rest before preaching, demonstrating the need for boundaries in service.

situation you're the boss if we have people over on the Lord's day which is rare now because I had to give it up a couple of years ago because I found that we couldn't just have them to have general social Christian fellowship when they had pastor they had an opportunity for an unofficial counseling session so I'd be all afternoon answering questions and by Sunday night when it came time to preach I was like a prize fighter in the 14th round just sort of going on instincts you know so we have to structure

50:11 - 50:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, pitch in with kitchen duties and help your wives, especially when extending hospitality, if they welcome the help.

Martin recounts an instance where he had to help a host's wife in the kitchen because the husband was insensitive to her workload while engaging in theological discussion, illustrating a husband's duty to cherish his wife in hospitality.

even my relatives if I have to preach in the evening we tell them this is our schedule we have our simple meal we're done at 2 o'clock everyone goes down for a nap from 2 to 3 now we're not going to tell you as our guests you've got to take a nap but you know whatever you do that's where we're going to be we turn the phones off and we say this is our structure for the Lord's day and we invite them to enter into that and to share that with us yes Phil several years ago once Phil your wife did all the work except this food on Saturday and you wrote it around the table at this point what you're d...

50:43 - 52:12 Read in full sermon