Hospitality: Hinderances

Review: The Definition and Command of Hospitality

0:03 Now, as I look out tonight, I see that most of you who are here this evening were with us this morning, but there are probably a dozen of you or so who were not with us this morning, and because tonight is really the fourth point in one message, and I was not able to bring myself to preach around until 1 or 1.15 this morning, why it will be necessary to review for a moment and then pick up the thread of thought where we left off. So, I introduced our study in the scriptures this morning with the title, a rare thing for me, The Lost Art of Christian Hospitality, The Forgotten Duty and Lost Art of Christian Hospitality, and I first of all sought to define the biblical word for hospitality in terms of the symbol, that it symbolized by the open door, not primarily the full table,

1:03 but by the spread table, and by the prepared place of rest, why then they become, as it were, just the amen to the meaning of the open door, but the biblical concept of hospitality is not a fancy word. It is not a fancy spread of food for overly stuffed people anyway, but it is the concept of love that yearns for face-to-face communion and therefore opens the door. Then we look to the scriptures to see that the command to hospitality is given to all the saints of God in Romans 12, in 1 Peter 4, and in Hebrews 13, and in a peculiar way to the elders, the ruling, teaching elders within the assembly. They are to exemplify. The grace of hospitality in a peculiar way, and therefore we drew the conclusion, and it even got through to my son. He said to me at the table tonight, he says, Daddy, when you said this morning, it is sin, he says, you sounded like you were angry, and I said, well, son, we're supposed to be angry at sin.

2:21 I said, I wasn't angry the whole message, was I? He said, no, but he said, at that point you sounded angry. Well, I hope I was angry, in the right sense, not with a fleshly anger, but with that anger that looks upon. The failure to comply with the will of God in my own life and in others, that is indeed a righteous anger.

2:41 And so if we are not engaging in the art and duty of hospitality, then we are living in sin. I know of no blunter yet more scriptural way to state it. Then we consider the objects of hospitality. The scripture says we are to show hospitality one to another as saints.

3:00 Then Hebrews 13, 2. We are to show hospitality to the stranger. Then we close this morning by considering from the scriptures the ministry of hospitality. And if you'll remember, we saw three ministries in hospitality.

3:14 One, a tangible expression of Christian love. Let us not love in word, but in deed and in truth. Secondly, a natural opportunity for exhortation to the saints and witness to the stranger, to the unsaved. And thirdly, it's a means of personal blessing.

3:31 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

3:32 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

3:32 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Introduction to Hindrances: Natural vs. Spiritual

3:33 Extending it. Now tonight, I want us to consider from human experience and from the word of God as well, the fourth point under this general theme of the lost art of Christian hospitality, namely the hindrances to the performance of this duty. What would hinder the people of God from engaging in a duty that is so clearly stated in the scriptures, the blessing of which is so obviously declared in the scriptures, the need for the people of God to be able to do it? for which is so glaringly obvious to anyone who has his eyes half open, what would keep the people of God from engaging in this duty?

4:14 Well, the reasons, I believe, can be divided under two main headings. Natural, or what I would call non-moral hindrances. In other words, hindrances that are not sin in themselves, but are natural things. And then secondly, hindrances that are definitely spiritual, moral issues.

4:34 Issues of rebellion to the will of God, or of spiritual defect. Now let's start with the natural. Scripture says the order of things is first that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. And so starting in that direction, let us consider some of the natural reasons why we, and I use the we not editorially, but I hope some of these, these things have been true in my own experience, and I'm speaking sympathetically, why we do not engage in the discharge of the duty of hospitality.

Natural Hindrance 1: Misunderstanding the Nature of Hospitality

5:08 Now, the first reason I hope was sufficiently dealt with this morning, but I want to emphasize it by stating it tonight. Number one is a misunderstanding as to the nature of Christian hospitality.

5:22 I'm sure many of you realized when I talked this morning about the primacy of the church, the door and not the table, that this rang a bell with you. Because if I read God's people are right, we have generally thought of hospitality in terms of we've got to give people something to eat. And the table has been central. And so because we misunderstood what Christian hospitality was, there have been factors that have kept us from engaging in it.

5:50 Number one, the economic factor. Thinking that hospitality was primarily spreading the table, some of us just can't afford to, we're not going to be spreading the table very often, at least spreading it very sumptuously. We might spread it with some matzos in water, or some crackers in orange juice, but we thought, my, if hospitality focuses on the table, this is a pretty poor expression of hospitality. Now, we've misunderstood the nature of hospitality.

6:18 The emphasis from the Greek word, it's love to the stranger, love that opens the door. And as we said this morning, if the fellow comes through, the door staggering through weakness, then you spread the table. And if he's so groggy for sleep, you give him a place to sleep. But most of us don't come through the door in that shape.

6:38 Once in a while I've seen some of you that obviously needed either the bed for rest or the table for nourishment. But for the most part, we come through each other's door looking hale and hearty. And as I said this morning, some of us a little bit too hale and hearty. It looks like we could use some encouragement to stay away from the table.

6:56 You know, the famous saying, about what exercise you do to keep thin. And someone said, pushaways. Well, I think some of us could engage in a number of pushaways and it would not be to our harm. Now, if you've had this concept, I hope our study this morning and this evening has brought your thinking around to a biblical order.

7:18 In fact, I've got a sneaking suspicion that our food almost becomes to us what the cigarette becomes and the glass of wine or the cocktail amongst the world. There are actual studies that reveal that the reason a lot of people smoke and engage in social drinking is not that they particularly like the cigarette or the liquor. You know what the reason is? They feel all hands if they can't have something in their hands.

7:41 They feel awkward. And then these things sort of divert the focus of attention from face-to-face communion so that now the cigarette and the cocktail or the glass of liquor or whatever we have sort of becomes a common thing. A common conversation point or diversion, a diverter from face-to-face communion. And I think this is what has happened to many of us.

8:05 If we can come to the table and be commenting about the nice food and this wonderful thing and that wonderful thing and if we as hosts and hostesses can be engaged Oh, you folks, excuse me. I've got to prepare the goodies. We can somehow get away from sitting down with no food in front of us and looking each other in the face and beginning to share our hearts with each other.

8:29 And the table has become a substitute for the communion of the heart. Now this is a gross misunderstanding of the biblical teaching on Christian hospitality and I venture to say that this is one of the natural reasons why some of us have not engaged in it. But now what excuse will you have after today? Well, I can't entertain, I can't afford it.

8:50 Well, who says that the table is necessary for entertainment? Who said? Not the Scriptures. And if society says so, who cares what society says when it violates the Scripture?

9:00 I don't particularly care, do you? I hope we don't. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. You see how the world is intruded even in a simple duty like Christian hospitality and the world has perverted the biblical concept so we can't even think straight on what hospitality is unless the Lord instructs us from His Holy Word.

Natural Hindrance 2 & 3: Domestic Issues and Fear of the Unknown

9:21 Well, so much then for that first natural reason. Now a second very natural reason that is evident and prevalent in some of your lives is what I would call domestic hindrances. If hospitality is basically the open door, the door will not be open unless those who own that door are agreed that it ought to be open. And I speak sympathetically.

9:44 I know some of you have come and unburdened your heart to me and said, Pastor, I would just long to have the people of God in my home, but I have an unsaved wife, an unsaved husband, and there are domestic hindrances. Now, as I mentioned this morning, as in every other duty, where God has put us in situations where we are providentially hindered from the performance of that duty, He accepts the willingness for the deed. And I hope some of you take comfort from this, who with all your heart would long for your home to be a haven for the people of God. God sees that longing and He accepts the willingness for the deed.

10:19 But there are domestic problems, the domestic problem of a divided household, perhaps the problem that some of you don't even have a home of your own. All you've got is a nurse's room, of all places, and you can't do much entertaining there. Or maybe all you've got is a bedroom in your folks' home and you can't tell them who comes through that door. God understands this, and I want all of you to be assured that as a pastor, I certainly, I trust, am not blind and censorious and unthinking in my assessment of your response to this duty without taking into regard these factors.

10:57 There are domestic hindrances as well as this misunderstanding. And then the third natural, non-moral, non-sinful reason why we've not engaged in this is what I would call the fear of the unknown. You say, well, boy, I just don't know what I'd do. If I had the people there, they'd look at me and I'd look at them.

11:19 And what do I do? You see, and there's that fear because perhaps maybe temperamentally and personality-wise, you're not what we call the gregarious kind of outgoing person, and there's a fear of the unknown. What will I do? Sure, it's all right and well for you to stand up there and thunder at us that we ought to open the door, but you're not going to be there to take over once the door is open.

11:43 I'm there. What am I to do? I'm not much of a conversationalist. I just don't know what I'd do.

11:49 It's the fear of the unknown. And this is true in every area of life. Any path you're going down for the first time, you're fearful of it. And so this is a very natural, natural thing, and I would not in any way despise this.

Practical Suggestions to Overcome Fear of the Unknown

12:02 May I just quickly throw out a few suggestions? The Scriptures make clear that love is an enterprising thing. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, to the Jews I become as a Jew that I might gain the Jews. To the Greeks I become as a Greek to gain the Greeks.

12:18 I am become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. If your heart is set upon love of the brethren and set upon performing the duty of Christian hospitality, then you're going to strike out believing that God will give you wisdom in order to perform the duty to the prophet of his people. But I would give you several practical suggestions. So often we preachers are accused of telling you what to do but not how.

12:45 Some of you ought to make an investment in a tape recorder. Some of you have already done this. This can be a wonderful source of ministry. Tape that, other than your own preacher, you get tired of hearing this voice all the time, and I don't blame you.

12:56 I get tired of hearing my own voice. That's why I listen to tapes, and I get blessed. Well, you ought to make an investment in a tape recorder. A number of you have.

13:05 This would be a very natural way to open that door into a ministry. And as the tape is being played, why, you may want to stop it, and before long you've entered off on a dis...

13:16 You may never get to finish that tape, you see, and it just may take you off in a wonderful time of mutual sharing in the things of God. I think it would be a wonderful thing if Sunday nights, when we invited each other into one another's homes, we discussed the sermons of the day. What did the Lord say to you today? What particular thing was most helpful to you?

13:37 I seek to drive the nails of truth into the board of your head, and you come along and bend the nail over, see? Now, I don't have time to bend the nail over. I spend all my time trying to drive the nail in. Well, you can come along and bend the nail over by getting together and sharing.

13:53 Doesn't the Scripture say, they that... they that loved him, how's it go there in Malachi, spake often of his name, and a book of remembrance was written, I've forgotten the...

14:03 I haven't quoted it accurately. They that feared his name spake often one to another. They that feared his name spake often one to another. This is a very practical suggestion.

14:14 Another thing we could do is just to gather together and after sharing a bit say, well, before our time passes, and I find that I must do this even when I get together with my friends, even when I get together with my preacher friends, we can talk away all our time about good things, but then we never pray. We don't talk to the one with whom it's most important to talk. Maybe after a few minutes you ought to just say, well, we've met together in the Lord's house today and or maybe this past week, but really we didn't have a chance to bear one another's burdens. Do you have any particular things you'd like me to share in prayer?

14:47 We open our hearts to one another. The Scripture says in James chapter 5, confess your sins one to another. Pray one to another. Pray one for another.

14:56 What better place to do this than in your own home? Galatians chapter 6 says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. I can't bear your burden unless you get it out where I can see it. You can't bear mine unless I get it out where you can see it.

15:10 We've got to get it out. And one of the hindrances to Christian hospitality is this fear of the unknown. What will I do? All right, I'm telling you and giving you some scriptural principles to guide you that you might be able to.

15:23 We might share our testimony with each other. There are some of you that would be thrilled to hear how the Lord brought someone else to a knowledge of Himself. Some of you, I haven't even heard your testimony as far as how God dealt with you. To me, it's a wonderful thing to see how the ways of the Spirit are like the wind.

15:39 How'd the Lord deal with you? How'd the Lord bring you to Himself? Well, let me share with you how He brought me to Himself and the blessing that can come. Here are some suggestions that I've just jotted down, four or five of them almost at random.

Natural Hindrance 4: Sense of Inadequacy and Its Cure

15:52 I hope that will forever rip away the excuse that any of you might have. I wouldn't know what to do. Can't say that now unless you've fallen asleep in the last five minutes. Well, a fourth natural reason, not only misunderstanding of the nature of Christian hospitality, domestic hindrances, fear of the unknown, but what I would call a sense of inadequacy.

16:14 And this follows close on the heels of this. Well, I just don't feel adequate for this. I just haven't had the social graces. I never did this growing up, and my home is nothing fancy.

16:25 I feel inadequate. Wonderful. That's good. That's a wonderful place to be because the Lord's got a lot of promises for people who feel themselves inadequate.

16:33 Doesn't He? He has some wonderful promises for the weak, for the helpless, for the needy, but He's got some terrible words for those who have no sense of need. Because thou sayest, Thou art rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, I am about to spew thee out of my mouth. But He's promised to lead the blind and the weary with what they know not.

16:53 He's promised to guide the simple. That gives me great encouragement. He promises to take care of the simple. He promises to support the weak.

17:02 He promises to strengthen those that are fainting. And so if you have a sense of inadequacy, which is a very natural thing, then let it drive you to the Lord. So what's the cure then for these natural non-moral hindrances? Well, the cure is face the facts as they are and then look to the Lord for grace to perform the duty that He's laid before you like any other duty.

17:25 What do I tell people who come to me and say, You know, the Lord's really been dealing with me about this matter, given Him His portion. I've been robbing the Lord, but I don't see how I can begin to tithe. I say, Wonderful. Wonderful.

17:36 Good. What virtue is it? If you can see your way clear to any Christian duty, what test of faith is there? But when you've got to stick your neck out and run the risk of maybe doing some forced push-aways, simply because there's nothing there to push away from to give the Lord His portion, now you're in the situation where faith is exercised.

17:58 Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord. Well, the same is true here. Well, I have no experience in showing Christian hospitality. Wonderful.

18:06 If you did, you might think you know how to do it and the Lord would just leave you at the mercy of your own resources. But because you feel inexperienced and you don't know how to go about it, you just might begin to pray that the Lord would bless it and come and undertake it. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? Yes.

Spiritual Hindrance 1: Willful Ignorance

18:21 To be able to sense that He began to use you in this ministry, that's the cure, just the simple trust that He asks of us, His people. Now, I move to the second area and of course I want to spend the bulk of my time here because this is really the root of the matter. Though these four things that I've mentioned apply to some of you, for the greater measure of us, the greater part of us tonight, the hindrances are not natural, though they may enter in to a greater or lesser degree, but the real hindrances are spiritual. And I wish I could dispense of the spiritual problems as easily as I've been able in fifteen minutes to dispense of the natural problems.

19:03 But with these natural problems I've just had to clarify a few issues and give you a few suggestions, and that was pretty simple. Because, see, these natural, non-moral, non-spiritual problems are problems basically of the head. You just need to get your head straight and think straight about this duty. But now when I touch the spiritual problems I'm touching the realm of the heart, and I can't straighten your heart out.

19:26 Only God can do that. And I trust as I mention these factors that as the Spirit of God wounds you and says that's the reason you and you and you have not been given to this ministry or not given to it to the extent that you ought, I trust you'll accept the wounds of God and then ask Him to pour in the oil and the balm of His forgiveness. And the first spiritual hindrance to performance of the duty of Christian hospitality is what I am calling willful ignorance. Willful ignorance.

20:02 Well, you say, that's a strange way to state something, Pastor. Willful ignorance. What is willful ignorance? It's an ignorance that is inexcusable.

20:13 The Scriptures are given to us as God's people to be a lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. And the Scriptures themselves command us to search the Scriptures. And as a child of God, I have professed, by virtue of my confession of being a Christian, that the Word of Christ is the governing principle in my life. Jesus said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

20:40 If I love Him, I'm going to have His commandments. I'm going to go out after them. I'm going to seek them out. Now certainly, the command to hospitality is not found in some little of two section of the book of Obadiah way down in the corner of the Bible.

20:54 I've quoted it this morning from passages like Romans 12. We all know Romans 12, 1 and 2. Why didn't we read down to verse 13? Given to hospitality, we've been willfully ignorant.

21:06 We all know Hebrews 11. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Why didn't we read on to Hebrews 13, 1 and 2? Let love of the brethren continue.

21:17 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. And so the reason why some of us have not been given to this ministry is what I'm calling the reason of willful ignorance. We have not discovered this duty in the word of God due to the indifference of our own hearts to the precepts of God. And beloved, that's sin.

21:41 That's sin. That's sin. Our Lord said in Matthew 12, John 12, in verse 48, The word that I have spoken unto you shall judge you in the last day. When you stand up before the Lord to give an account of the deeds done in the body when I stand before him, it will not do for the Lord to say now, My child, how did you do with the command to be given to hospitality?

22:05 Well, Lord, I didn't know it was in your word. I plead ignorance. The Lord will say, I gave you my word to direct you. You had two good eyes and you had plenty of time to search the scriptures.

22:19 When you're spending that 15 minutes every night watching the 11 o'clock news, why weren't you spending an equal amount of time reading my word and searching out my commands? You were spending a half an hour a day reading the Newark Evening News or the Newark Star-Ledger. Why weren't you spending an equal amount of time searching out my precepts? What will you say then?

Spiritual Hindrance 2: Sinful Conformity to the World's Isolationism

22:37 What would I say? That's willful ignorance. And this is one of the root causes for our failure to engage in this Christian duty of hospitality. Then the second spiritual reason is what I'm calling a sinful conformity to the gospel and a sinful conformity to the world.

22:58 Romans 12 and verse 2, a very familiar portion, where the apostle says, Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I like Philip's paraphrase here. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Oh, you say, but what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God?

23:21 Oh, you say, but what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? Oh, you say, but wait a minute, Pastor, I thought worldliness was going to shows and...

23:32 No, no, that's not worldliness. That's just one little expression of worldliness. What is worldliness? It's the thought patterns, the attitudes, the habits, the dispositions of society without God and allowing those dispositions to mold us instead of the Word of God.

23:48 Now, what's one of the forms of worldliness very present in our day? It's what I would call an impersonal isolationism where we're all, as it were, encased and entombed in a little casket of our own interest in our own world. Let me read from the statements of a man who's done a tremendous job in setting forth the biblical philosophy of marriage. I would advise any of you even married 50 years to get this and read it.

24:19 Designed for Christian Marriage. Wonderful book. And Mr. Small says regarding the problem that people face, even Christians, in coming to a God-honoring relationship in their marriage, he says some things that apply at this point and I want to read them.

24:32 Industrialization, that is, the tendency, of course, to move to the cities and to everything be mechanized, is a social force operating against personal intimacy. An industrial society has brought with it the mass man. More often than not today, a mass man is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who is a man who finds himself an impersonal cog an impersonal cog in a giant machine. His competitive relation to other individuals drives him along with but a single remaining motive to be a success at any price.

25:07 He lives in a culture that places more importance upon being a success in business than than upon being a success as a man. Now notice carefully. In business and industry men must try to get along with as little personal conflict as possible for they're not regarded A man must reveal as little as possible his individual differences of opinion, habit, and taste. He is accepted so long as he proves himself acceptable.

25:37 But he's not accepted for himself. Hence, he learns to hide his true feelings, to disguise his fears and inadequacies behind the facade of superiority, and to affect a cold efficiency in all things. Any personal intimacy with others in his workaday world might disclose his weaknesses, create distrust on the part of his associates, and possibly result in a loss of prestige. Personal intimacy has become a dangerous thing inasmuch as it might threaten his very security in life.

26:13 Do you see what he's driving at? I mentioned this morning how obvious this is. If you just look into bus number 33 driving into New York with a commuter bus, where people are forced to sit by the very design of those seats, with hardly room for a newspaper to get between them, but somehow either one takes the nap and the other one encases himself in the newspaper, forced by geographical circumstances into a situation that would be a wonderful opportunity for true communication of person to person. But what does man do?

26:51 In our day, man encases himself. He doesn't want to. Why? Because what may happen before long is that this fellow may reveal that, well, everything's not going as well as it seems to be.

26:58 Sure, I've got my $15 hat on and my Hart, Schaffner, and Marx suit on, and I take home $17,000 a year from Madison Avenue, but my life's a wreck, but I'm ashamed to tell anybody. And, beloved, we're encased in this spirit of the world. You see, what happens when you begin to open your door to people, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it isn't long before you know it, it's not long before you know it. And people all look pretty nice from a distance, but when we get up close, we begin to see each other's warts and moles, and we don't like to expose our warts, do we?

27:19 We're afraid of the exposure that comes through intimate contact. So it's my sort of thing. Now, that kind of thing, I don't know if it's something that we call warmed up. I do not understand.

27:24 I do not understand. But the time has come. And we're going to face the end of that. And we're going to face the end of that.

27:29 We're going to face the end of that. And the time has come. We're going to face the end of that. to see each other's warts and moles and we don't like to expose our warts do we we're afraid of the exposure that comes through intimate contacts you see if some of us begin to cultivate this kind of open door relationship we're going to find ourselves instinctively beginning to confess our sins one to another and maybe that person who's been sitting six seats away from you for six years will really begin to discover who you are and you say horrors oh i kept up this wonderful image all these years and suddenly it begins to crumble before me i can't let that happen i dare not so i'll pull the newspaper around see coming to this church can be pulling a newspaper around you and i'm deeply convinced that this is one of the reasons that lies at the heart of our failure to exercise true christian hospitality not the table but the open door leading to the truth to the open heart it's because we've conformed to this world with its facade this wall this barrier this sham this pretense that we must not expose ourselves one to another whereas the

Spiritual Hindrance 3: Pride (for Wives and Husbands)

28:53 scripture sets forth the concept of the church as a body of believers my pinky doesn't go off on its own business and my thumb on its own in my eye on its own just try to picture tonight the grotesque picture picture , if there wasn't an infinite relationship between all the members of my body so that when my brain said look here this eye started over here and this one started up there and when i said up there this finger decided to point down here and if they were all just isolated disjointed uncoordinated members of my body what a grotesque picture it would be but beloved i fear that's the grotesque picture so often in churches that profess to be churches of jesus christ and from such may god deliverance and one of the ways he will the way the body can function as a body and share the needs of the other members of the body is by this matter of true christian hospitality then there is a third and very basic spiritual reason as to why we don't practice hospitality and it's this cursed spirit of pride and it's interesting that i got some of my sermon points for my wife and for the church is the spiritual reason why the church is so easily affected and is very easy to be affected and extremely edited and very easily edited and very from some of the folks to whom we were extending a little hospitality today. And it's interesting that when I asked them, what do you think are some of the hindrances, both of the women said is the first reason, pride.

30:20 Speaking from a woman's standpoint, they said one of the reasons, this was sort of getting the newspaper down, you see, we were experiencing some looking at each other's works. From a woman's standpoint, you want to have, and rightly so to some degree, you want to have the reputation of being an immaculate housekeeper and being a very clever cook.

30:47 Sure you do. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to excel in the area where God puts you. That's all right. Woe be unto the poor husband who's got to live with the wife who's only cooking now what she knew how to cook when they got married.

31:04 For the most part, that'd be miserable. I don't know what it'd be like to live with a wife who didn't know what it was to cut out recipes and be trying new things and being a cook. Being creative and seeking to excel in culinary arts, to give it the technical name. And the wife who's just content to let what will be, will be.

31:23 So if the kids drop their toys in the living room, what will be, will be. And if somebody comes through with muddy feet, what will be, will be. That's a terrible situation. You ought to seek to aspire to having a home that is ordered and regulated and in its very appearance speaks of those characteristics of a good housewife.

31:43 Now that's all legitimate, but now listen carefully, ladies. I want to direct a word of exhortation to you. When pride in your reputation for being a good cook and a good housekeeper is such that you will shut your door simply because you can't prepare a fancy meal and maybe you didn't get to that extra cleaning that you wanted and people will see the house the way it is most of the time. Not messy, but neither does it look like you could do a white glove inspection most of the time either, really.

32:12 There's a bit of hypocrisy. There's a bit of hypocrisy here, isn't there? When we're not going to let anybody through the door until the place looks like a military white glove inspection is about to take place, that's really a bit of hypocrisy because it doesn't look like that most of the time, does it? Does it?

32:28 And what you're trying to do is give the impression that really it does. Pride, isn't it? Isn't it pride? Just plain, stinking, rotten pride.

32:39 That's all it is. And when you would be more concerned about your reputation as a cook than the need of that person who desperately needs the love of an open door, what a terrible curse. Terrible curse. And I thank God for the wonderful way in which he's helped my own dear wife in this area.

32:59 When we first got married, I used to have to give her about a three months notice before we'd have anybody come to the house. And this was partly due to the fact that she didn't grow up in a normal home life. As many of you know, she was the product of several broken homes brought up by her father and then hired girls who came in as sort of daytime nurses. So she never knew what it was to be in a home that was given to hospitality.

33:20 But I was in a home where we would have been surely put on Johnson's poverty list. Really, my folks, you didn't go around asking for nickel or a quarter for something. There was no nickel or quarter to ask for. And we somehow survived, and I don't hate my parents and all this other business.

33:38 I thank God that we were brought up, as someone said today, brought up lean. It was good for us, it was good for us. But my wife not having this privilege felt very insecure as a housewife and as an entertainer. And I can remember the almost traumatic experience when I happened to bring someone home unannounced one time.

33:59 I didn't think she'd recover without some psychiatric help, perhaps. And she could sit here tonight if she were here and laugh about it now, because the Lord has graciously undertaken by making clear to her this principle, this principle. My reputation as a cook is not the paramount. . . . . . . . . . . . .

34:17 issue! It's the need of that one who's coming through the door, that's the important issue. So if they go away thinking I'm just a short-order chef, fine, who cares? But if they go away with their hearts needs met...

34:33 I know what it's like to go into homes that were elegant in their appointments, physical appointments, exquisite in the meal, and oh the dishes upon which it was served and the silver and all the rest. But I went away empty and barren, because there was no love that made it easy to communicate and to bear the heart. And that feast on beautiful China and with nice, lovely cutlery in a beautiful setting, it left one empty. Conversely, you and I know what it's like to go into a home where pretty slim pickings on the table, the tablecloth, maybe threadbare, clean the threadbare, and the place, while you knew the way they were cracked and scarred and marred, they'd been around many a year and had lots of seniority, and yet somehow you went away filled. Filled. Filled. Not just physically, but filled because of the communication of love and warmth amongst the people of God.

35:33 So, you ladies, you're going to have to die to your pride so that your husbands will feel free to come home at night with someone unannounced.

35:46 You wives are going to have to die to your pride. Now, you husbands, you know where you're going to have to die? You're going to have to die to the pride of wanting to give the appearance of being a very able provider. I can't bring people home.

35:55 I've been wanting to buy that new living room set for three years, and you just can't afford it, and the stuffing's sticking through it a few places. What will people think about me? Who cares what they think?

36:07 That's pride.

36:10 If the stuffing's sticking through is not due to your negligence or indolence, and you're doing the best you can to be an adequate provider, that's all God requires, and that's all any saint would ever ask.

36:23 Die to your pride. Bring them home to your threadbare couch in the context of warmth, of Christian love. They won't think about it. They won't think about that. They won't think about it at all.

Spiritual Hindrance 4: Selfish Indifference and Cliques

36:33 So we've got to die to our pride as husbands, as providers. Well, I don't want to labor the point, but I do want to show how this is a real hindrance, and I trust God has shown you where it applies in your own life. But now I come to perhaps the two most basic matters that hinder the people of God from engaging in this duty, and this fourth thing I would call, for lack of a better terminology, a spirit of selfish indifference. A spirit of selfish indifference. That spirit characterized by lack of vision, lack of interest in others. The best example I know, as I was meditating on this, trying to find a scriptural example, is in the parable of the Good Samaritan. For you remember, it's recorded that this poor man was left half dead, and the Levite came by, and he looked at him, saw him in his need, and he passed on. That was it. He

37:36 saw the need. He knew there was need, but in the indifference of his heart, he could pass right on, and go on in his religious activity. A religious man, but indifferent to the needs of others. And so we can come and expose ourselves to the singing of the praises of God, and to the preaching of the Word of God, and yet people all around us, in this very assembly, with needs, and we pass on, and never expose ourselves.

38:06 to that need. Let me be very specific. Those of us who have families every Sunday, we can go home to the warmth of our family tables with our wives and our children. But there sit among us, week by week, beloved, people who once sat about a table and knew the warmth of a husband's or a wife's love, but they're widows now, or widowers.

38:28 And they go home to the screaming emptiness of those four walls that once rang with the happy laughter of the communication of a husband and wife, and maybe children, and the children are grown and gone. And every time they step through that door, they can still hear in memory's ear the words of the wife, hello dear. And they can hear the happy giggle of the children.

38:52 And then they realize and wake up, it's just in memory's ear that the wife's gone, the children are gone. And the sense of empty, aching loneliness, beloved, is a very real thing. That we can go home to the happy laughter and warmth of our tables and couldn't care less. That the widow and the widower have been uncared for, and yet what does the scripture say?

39:12 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows. And to keep oneself unspotted from the world, James chapter 1.

39:24 It's at this point that my heart has been deeply grieved, where I have failed to see on the part of this assembly, that outgoing desire to the widow, to the widower. To the some of the students whom we take for granted. I know what it's like to be a student, to be hundreds of miles away from home. And to get so tired of not the institutional food as such, but of the institutional climate, and longing to get into the real climate, with real people.

39:55 Not that students aren't real people, but it's awfully hard for them to be. It's an artificial world. And what it means just to be invited out into home to share some warmed over spaghetti.

40:09 Some of the single folk among us who in the providence of God have not as yet, or may never, be given a life's partner, men or women. They're in the business world all week, seeking to keep their minds and their motives and their hearts pure from the defilement and unbent by the pressures of a godless society. And to come and assemble with God's people in the Lord's day morning is such an oasis. But then many of them have to go back into ungodly homes and face more of that pressure.

40:40 What it would mean to them to be able to spend an afternoon with the people of God. About your table. Nothing special. Just being with a Christian.

40:49 But you see, we can be indifferent. We can get our vision so narrowed down to me and to mine that we don't care. We're not looking. We're not sensitive.

40:58 Looking out for the one among us who may have a need. Oh, may God smite us and deliver us from this cursed spirit of selfish indifference. And under this same heading, and this is the thing that leads to what I would call a cliquishness in our hospitality and even this morning, some mentioned that God spoke to them about this matter, where we extend hospitality to those whom we know can extend it to us in return. Who already are the objects of enough concern, and this is what I would pray you would ask God to give you. I could right now name three or four people who have been among us for over a year who have never once been asked into the home of anyone who is a member of the Trinity church in that whole year. And they've been with us faithfully. faithfully. And it's grieved them and hurt them. Not that they go around expecting it,

41:53 but they want some tangible expression of love. Oh, yes, you shake their hand at the door or in the assembly and you say by that shake of the hand, I love you, brother. But that could be just social kindness. But when you say, say, won't you come on over tonight after the service for a little fellowship? Oh, that open door speaks worlds and speaks it eloquently. But we can be indifferent, indifferent, the spirit of indifference. And then last of all, what I would call a very defective relationship to the Lord could be the root of our failure to comply with this duty. We return for a moment to the sixth chapter of Hebrews. Had someone checked me at the door this morning, say, Pastor, how could you overlook this passage? And I said, well,

Spiritual Hindrance 5: Defective Relationship to Christ

42:41 that's coming tonight, coming tonight, because this speaks so clearly to the issue at hand. Why is it that many professing Christians don't engage in the duty of hospitality? It's because there's something very defective in their basic relationship to Christ. The sixth chapter of Hebrews is one of those difficult passages speaking about people who came so near and yet missed it. It says in verse four that they were enlightened. They tasted the heavenly gift. They were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. It tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. Then they fall away.

43:22 Impossible, he says, to renew them to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put into an open shame. And then he uses an illustration in verse seven, for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. Now, whoever he's talking about in those verses, he assures them in verse nine that whatever they had, fell short of real salvation. For notice what he says in verse nine, but beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Now look up in your Bibles for a moment. He says, here are these people who've had an awful lot of light and they've had some kind of experience, but they have fallen short of the real thing and they ultimately fall away and you cannot renew them to repentance. But in contrast, he says, beloved, we're persuaded better things of you, things that accompany salvation. Now,

44:28 my question is this. If you were trying to think of what characteristic would separate these two, what is one of the primary characteristics between the person who almost makes it and the one who truly is the child of God? Would you put their knowledge of doctrine? Would you put their zeal and soul winning? Would you put their prayer life? What would you put? Well, it's interesting what the writer to Hebrews puts. Notice verse 10. Having said we're persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, he goes right on. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you've showed toward his name in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. He says the characteristic of your Christian experience is that it has

45:24 been evidenced in this outgoing love and ministering to the saints of God. And our Lord said essentially the same thing when he spoke in John 13, 35. By this shall all men know to hear my disciples, if ye have love one to another. What kind of love? Not a love that is merely a wispy thought or some kind of ethereal emotion, but a love that is demonstrated in deed. And in truth, even in performing the duty of Christian hospitality. And so could it be, beloved, that the problem with some of us is that maybe we're just almost Christians. We're content to hear and to receive and to stick our nickel in the plate, as I said this morning.

The Eternal Implications of Hospitality (Matthew 25)

46:13 But of that relationship to Christ that moves us out with love and desire to his people, we know perhaps precious little. Well, you say to me, Pastor, if the Lord were to come into the church, I think even though we were planning on the short side for dinner on Sunday, even though maybe there wasn't much left, I do my shopping on Monday, and so there wasn't much left in the cupboard after Sunday night service. I think if the Lord showed up at a service, I don't think I'd wait for another time. I think I'd invite him home, even though I didn't have too much. I think I'd invite the Lord into my house, even though the kids had messed it up and it didn't look the best and might be a little embarrassing. And maybe even though we're planning to buy that new living room set next June, I don't think I'd wait until next June. I think I'd capitalize on the opportunity. The Lord showed up tonight. Surely I'd show my love by

47:07 the open door to him. Is that what you're saying? Well, I want you to turn in closing to Matthew 25 to see if that's a valid kind of reason. We're in the parable of the sheep and the goats, and this is my last word of exhortation tonight. We find our Lord dealing with the sheep and the goats, and he says to the sheep, verse 33, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats in his left. Then shall the king say unto them in his right hand, that is the sheep, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And now he's going to describe the sheep. They're not getting into the kingdom because they did this. They did this because

48:02 they were in the kingdom by God's eternal purpose, prepared from the foundation of the world, wonderfully effectually called by the spirit, and now he's giving a description of how they acted because they were his sheep. For I was in hunger and you gave me meat. You see, the table was spread because it needed to be spread, not simply because that was part of what was to do. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. Naked and you clothed me and I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And then shall the righteous answer him saying, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry? We never saw you stagger into our church famished. Why, if we saw somebody saw you come in famished, Lord, we'd done something. We didn't see you come famished. When did we see you thirsty and give you drink? And when did we ever see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we ever see you sick and in prison and come

49:03 to you? And the king shall answer and say unto them, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye've done it unto one of you. Of the least of these, my brethren, that quiet person, that unobtrusive one who comes and takes his or her place, maybe over toward the side and over toward the back, sort of bashful and backward and comes and takes that place every week, morning, evening, week in, week out, one of the least unobtrusive of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The fact that you were motivated by a love that made you seek out.

49:43 The least of the brethren and show kindness. You were doing it unto me, but now notice the contrast. And shall he say to them on the left hand, depart from me, cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was in hunger and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger. You took me not in. Oh, you get that phrase. I was a stranger and there was no open door. Oh, there may have been a handshake. There may have been a how do you do? Nice to have you.

50:13 You added one more to our statistics. Maybe you put a dollar in our plate and helped our financial status. Nice to have you. Goodbye. But no open door. I was a stranger. You took me not in. Naked ye clothed me not. Sick and in prison ye visited me not. Then shall they answer and say, Lord, when saw we thee and hungered or thirst or a stranger or naked or sick and did not minister unto thee, Lord, if we ever saw you. Oh, surely, Lord, if you to come.

50:43 We'd invited you home even though we had nothing special. Lord, we'd had you over for a cup of tea and some Ritz crackers if we knew you were around. And the Lord says, inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these, the least of these, ye did it not unto me and these shall go away into everlasting punishment. Here are people consigned to hell because they refuse the duty of God.

51:14 Christian hospitality. That to me is a pretty powerful, convincing argument. To leave us with the impression, beloved, we better not take lightly what we've heard today. This has tremendous implications in terms of our own standing before God. Now, I hope we won't get into a battle royal, everybody so clamoring to get everybody else over to each other's home. We end up having the church for us. But I hope by the grace of God, we shall. Prayerfully seek to incorporate these concepts into the life stream of this assembly. For I try

Vision for a Hospitable Church and Evangelistic Outreach

52:00 to keep before me constantly one of the exhortations of dear brother Tozer who's gone home to be with the Lord when he said every preacher ought to have two churches that he's ministering to, the church that he's ministering to out there and the one that he sees out here that under God he hopes his own ministry and life and preaching will produce. And you know the church that I see right here now? I see a church where a few people have caught the vision of this and are giving themselves, they're persecuting, they're tracking down, pursuing hospitality, Romans 12, 13. But out there, I see a church which by and large is characterized in its totality by people who are not only given to holiness of life and zeal and witness, but who are given to hospitality, to the ministry of the open door. And you know what will be the fruit of it?

52:56 People popping up all the time here to hear the gospel that I have had no direct contact with, but they will have seen such a living demonstration of it in the love of your open door. They will have seen it at work. There's a house where everybody's not fighting and hollering at each other and veins sticking out and fist clenched and where everybody doesn't sit around in one room but isolated to the television. These people know how to enjoy life, the kids and the mommy and the daddy. They will have seen and felt the impact of the gospel.

53:26 And then when they come, it's your invitation to church. And I stand up and tell them what the gospel is. Your life and hospitality extended have acted like an arrow to pierce that hard heart. And then I'm privileged to follow that arrowhead with the shaft of the gospel message.

53:42 That's what I envision under God. Envision under God the tremendous evangelistic outreach of the ministry of hospitality. People who come out of churches that though they may be impressive in their size and numbers and even in their evangelical reputation, is simply a collection of a hundred or two or three hundred little individuals who come and sit in one building but go back into their isolated world. But oh, that they might sense that this is a body of believers, each one mutually concerned for the other, so that they'll understand something of what the scripture means when it speaks of the body of Christ and the body being built up by that which every joint supply.

54:25 That's the church. That's the church that I see out there. Now, am I an idealist? I must be.

54:30 For the scriptures must shape and mold my own concern for my life and our lives together as a people. And I trust that by the grace of God, I'll not have to die feeling I was just an idealist, but that we shall see this realized by his own mighty power. To that end, let us confess the sin of our failure. Let us cry to God for grace to perform the duty.

54:54 And then let's encourage God to do the same. Let's encourage one another. Why have you not been given to hospitality? Were there some of these natural reasons?

55:01 I hope they're cleared away. And if there are any of these spiritual reasons, I trust you'll settle these issues with the Lord and appropriate his grace. Let us pray.