Hospitality
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to 1st Peter chapter 4. 1st Peter chapter 4, which might surprise some of you because we're going through Ephesians. But we're gonna take a break from Ephesians. I mean, I figured with it being reformation Sunday, we didn't need to keep diving into grace like we have been over and over and over. That was a joke and that's I'm not I'm not gonna use that for the next surface.
Joel Brooks:That's for sure. Now one of the reasons I want I want us to visit the text that we are doing is it's about hospitality, which is a core conviction of who we are as a church. And we're coming up on the Advent season. One of the things we do as a church is we have something called Advent gatherings. We see it as an intentional time of inviting people into our homes.
Joel Brooks:And, and so I wanted to remind us about why we do this. Why God has called us to be hospitable people. And really, it's nothing short of just demonstrating the very gospel that we believe. And so first Peter chapter 4, I'll begin reading in verse 7. The end of all things is at hand.
Joel Brooks:Therefore, be self controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. This is the word of the Lord. If you would, pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Our father, what a privilege it is to come here this morning, and simply to be able to open up your word, to read it, and to hear you speaking to us through your spirit. And we pray that that would happen, That we would be living stones here, joined together, becoming the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that you would blow in our midst. Lord, we thank you for what we've just seen in the baptisms, and how we've been reminded how in you we have died and we have been risen to life, and we celebrate the new life that you have given us. And Lord, we need life, But my words are death, and your words are life. So, Jesus, speak to us.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Rosaria Butterfield, perhaps you've heard of her.
Joel Brooks:In her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, she describes herself as this. Quote, as she once was a radical lesbian feminist professor. At the age of 36, she was a professor at Syracuse University, where she taught English and women's studies. She was a leading voice really against Christianity and a leading voice for the gay and lesbian community. And she would speak at rallies.
Joel Brooks:She would speak at advocacy groups. She openly mocked Christians, thinking them to be ignorant, close minded, not to mention judging and hateful. Christians were thinkers who, in her mind, quote, voted Republican, homeschool their children, and refused to inoculate them against diseases. They made terrible and what she saw as immoral choices. Always claiming that God was on their side, and it gave them the freedom to be hateful.
Joel Brooks:After Pat Robertson made his famous statement or infamous statement, I should say, at the Republican National Convention claiming that, quote, feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians, she decided to write a book about the religious right. And it was actually when she was writing this book that the Lord met her and changed her life. She had just written and published an article in the local newspaper, that was against the movement, The Promise Keepers. And she kinda wrote a scathing review about the Promise Keepers. And so she was receiving all of this mail in response to that.
Joel Brooks:And it was either hate mail or it was fan mail. And so as she kept getting this mail, she would put all the hate mail on this side of the desk, and she would put all of the fan mail on this side of the desk and it just kept coming into her over the weeks. But she got one letter that would not fit into either category. It was from a pastor. And the pastor, he was not hateful.
Joel Brooks:He was not arrogant. Yet he was firm in his convictions, and he simply just wanted to dialogue with her. And to ask her more about her life and more about her beliefs. And that letter just sat on her desk for over a week. And, her with an a type personality drove her crazy.
Joel Brooks:She's like, I've got to file this somewhere. It's gotta be either in the hate mail or the fan mail. She didn't know what to do. And so she called up this pastor simply for research sake. And she called him up, and the pastor's name was Ken, and he was quick to invite her over to dinner.
Joel Brooks:He said, well come over to my house for dinner and we'll explore some of those questions that you had. And I don't like to do really long quotes, but I'm gonna read you a section from her book. We had a nice chat on the phone, and pastor Ken invited me to dinner at his house to explore some of these questions. Before we ended our phone call, almost as an afterthought, pastor Ken also said that if I was afraid to come to a stranger's home, that he and his wife would be glad to meet me at a restaurant. I thought that was most considerate of him.
Joel Brooks:Almost chivalrous. I was comfortable with the idea of going to his house, because the gay and lesbian community is also a community that is, quote, given to hospitality. I honed my hospitality gifts, serving pasta to drag queens and queers, people like me. And I preferred discussing matters of disagreement around a private table. Plus, I really wanted to see how Christians lived.
Joel Brooks:I had never seen such a thing, so I took him up on it. I was excited to meet a real born again Christian and to find out why he believed such silly ideas. And so she goes to his house, and we read this. The most memorable part of this meal was Ken's prayer before the meal. I had never heard anyone pray to God as if God cared, as if God listened, and as if God answered.
Joel Brooks:It was not a pretentious prayer uttered for the heathen at the table to overhear. I've heard a few of those at gay pride marches or in front of planned parenthood clinics. It was a private and honest utterance. And I thought as though I was treading on something real, something sincere, something important, and something transparent, but illegible to me. Ken made himself vulnerable to me in his prayer by humbling himself before this quote God of his.
Joel Brooks:I took note of that. During the meal I meal, I remember holding my breath and waiting to be punched in the stomach with something grossly offensive. I believed at this time that God was dead, and that if he ever was alive, the fact of poverty, violence, racism, sexism, homophobia and war was proof that he didn't care about this creation. I believe that religion was as Marx wrote, the opiate of the masses. An imperialist social construction made to soothe the existential angst of the intellectually impaired.
Joel Brooks:But Ken, Ken's God seemed alive. Three-dimensional and wise, if firm. And Ken and Floyd were anything, but intellectually impaired. Our conversation was lively and fun. If Floyd was a quote submissive wife, well she was also gifted, smart, perceptive, well read, and a great cook.
Joel Brooks:And if Ken was the quote bible thumping pastor, he was also a good listener, a balanced interpreter, a lover of good poetry, and a reader of culture and politics, and a husband who clearly adored, relied, and valued highly his wife's counsel. These people simply didn't fit the stereotype, And I simply didn't know what to do with this. Just like his letter, Ken wouldn't be filed away so easily. Just so I could go on with my life. Ken and Floyd did something at that meal that has a long Christian history, but what has been functionally lost in too many Floyd invited the stranger in.
Joel Brooks:Not to scapegoat scapegoat me, but to listen and learn and to dialogue. Ken and Floyd have a vulnerable and transparent faith. We didn't debate worldview. We talked about our personal truth and about what made us tick. Ken and Floyd didn't identify with me, but they listened to me and they identified with Christ.
Joel Brooks:They were willing to walk the long journey to me in Christian compassion. During our meal, they did not share the gospel with me. After our meal, they did not invite me to church. Because of these glaring omissions to the Christian script as I had come to know it, when the evening ended and pastor Ken said he wanted to stay in touch, I knew that it was truly safe to accept his open hand. After 2 years of constant dinners and a growing friendship, Rosario came to know the Lord.
Joel Brooks:It was through hospitality. Hospitality. The key to Christian evangelism in the 21st century, is hospitality. I mean how else are we going to reach the lost? I mean are we gonna do it through social media?
Joel Brooks:I mean, how's that working out for you? Have you have you got a lot of converts? Have we changed the world with the amount of social media verses we put out there? Those those little gospel nuggets or a lot of times it's more like, you know, little stones you just kinda throw via social media. Are we gonna win the world through tent revivals?
Joel Brooks:I mean, we've got that field across the street. I could just set up a big tent there, and we can invite all of Avondale to come. Do you think people will be there? I mean a generation ago, maybe yes, but not anymore. Are we gonna go hand out malls or hand out tracks at the mall if you can find them?
Joel Brooks:Go to the summit, hand out tracks. That's what I did as a child, and I remember when I finally finally my youth grew guilt in me into doing this, I had to hand out this track. I went, and I said the next person who comes out this movie theater, I'm giving him a track. And the doors opened and it was a guy who was 7 foot 1 who played for the Atlanta Hawks. And I was just like this little kid and I nearly wet my pants.
Joel Brooks:Is that what we're called to do? One strategy that the church has always had is still effective today. It's perhaps even more effective today than it was 2000 years ago, and that is hospitality. And if you read through your Bible and you look for it, you're gonna realize that hospitality is not something on the periphery. It is woven through the very heart of scripture.
Joel Brooks:So Hebrews 13, let brotherly love continue and do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. First Timothy and Titus both give as a qualification for becoming an elder. This person had to have proven themselves to be hospitable. Paul in Romans 12 says, rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation.
Joel Brooks:Be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality. And of course, we see the importance of hospitality here in with Peter. Not just in him mentioning hospitality, but in the very way he talks about it and the very placement that it has within this letter. Look how Peter begins this section before he hits hospitality.
Joel Brooks:Verse 7 again, he says this, the end of all things is at hand. Peter, he essentially grabs our attention by saying, the end is near. I mean that's what crazy people do. It's not quite a lead into hospitality. If you were to go downtown and somebody's holding up a sign that says, the end is near.
Joel Brooks:Would you like to come over to my house for dinner? Do do you do that? No, you walk on the other side of the street. Alright? But for Peter, this is something urgent.
Joel Brooks:The end is near. Now Peter doesn't know when the end is. He's not saying that that the end is, you know, next week or anything like that. It's it's been 2000 years. What what Peter is saying here is that we're in the last act of the drama.
Joel Brooks:That there was creation, there was fall, there was the call of Abraham, there were the prophets, there was Jesus coming and living and dying and rising again, there's Jesus ascending, there's Jesus ascending. There's Jesus sending his spirit to the church, and now we're going forth and proclaiming that, and now the only thing left is waiting for his return. We're at the end. We're at the final act. The end is near.
Joel Brooks:Peter then takes things up a notch further after grabbing your attention with this. Verse 8, he says, above all, keep loving one another since love covers a multitude of sins. Above all, above everything else, keep loving one another. This is the highest priority. He then adds the word earnestly there.
Joel Brooks:Earnestly and and the word in Greek simply means to stretch out. And the image is this. When you are running a race and the finish line or the end is near, as you're getting near that, what do you do? You stretch out with everything you have, to get to that finish line first. He's saying the end is near.
Joel Brooks:It's time to stretch out with everything you have And love. Love. Earnestly love. He says because it covers over a multitude of sins. And this is just his way of saying love sets the environment.
Joel Brooks:It sets the stage for us to forgive one another, be patient with one another. Live life with one another. It sets the stage for us to be a hospitable people. That's what love does. So after this enormous build up here of, the end of all things is near and you need to love and you need to stretch out, how be hospitable.
Joel Brooks:Now perhaps one of the biggest obstacles to understanding the biblical view of hospitality is the English word itself, and the images that it that it conjures up in our mind. When we think of hospitality, we think of Martha Stewart. We think of Southern Living Magazine. We think of hospitality as being entertaining. This, and this is somewhat misleading.
Joel Brooks:My wife, she used to work at Southern Living Magazine. And actually one of the things she did was she would edit the, the cookbooks. Mostly the Christmas cookbooks. And what that meant is that we had to actually be in a lot of them. So if you go back and look at all the old Southern Living, Christmas books, you're gonna find my wife as the hand model.
Joel Brooks:Okay? She's the hand model in all of these, but then occasionally, we're in there. And it's always me wearing some kind of awful sweater that I would never wear because I don't wear sweaters. But I do for my wife for this. And I'm wearing a sweater and it's July, yet they're taking pictures for Christmas.
Joel Brooks:And it's some really hot room and they have a fire going and they have this spread, on the table. And I'm like pouring a glass of wine, you know, looking into the camera. And it's supposed to be the picture of southern hospitality. It's not hospitality. It's entertaining.
Joel Brooks:It's entertaining. The Greek word for hospitality is philoxyna. Philoxyna. It's the combination of 2 words. Zena is stranger.
Joel Brooks:We actually looked at that last week. Philo is love, is loving the stranger. That's hospitality, not entertaining. Entertaining carries the idea of we gotta put on a show. And of course, to some degree, that's what southern hospitality is.
Joel Brooks:It's it's putting on a show. It's showing off your house. It's the chance to get to display your new furniture, that that new sofa or your new kitchen. It's when you get to show to everybody just how good you are at picking paint colors, you know, or or just how good you can decorate your house or find the perfect throw pillow. And men don't care.
Joel Brooks:Alright? But but we love to put that forward and to just show off. And this is entertaining. It's entertainment. And we feel pressure when we try to entertain.
Joel Brooks:And the pressure comes because we are trying to impress. When you're trying to impress, of course, there's going to be pressure. If you are married, let me ask you this. Do you and your spouse often get in arguments right before you have people over? Or if you're single and you're having somebody come over, do you often get really anxious right before?
Joel Brooks:Why is that? Why is it so nerve wracking? Why do you get so angry at a time like this? It's because you're entertaining, instead of being hospitable. And of course, there's the pressure when you feel the need to impress.
Joel Brooks:So let me give you here a definition of hospitality. Hospitality is this, it is inviting the stranger in into your living space and treating them like family. It's inviting the stranger in to your living space and treating them like family. It's what we looked at last week when we were going through Ephesians 2. Remember that?
Joel Brooks:We started off as strangers, xenia. We're strangers. And then what happened? God brought us in to where we became part of the household of God. He treated us like family.
Joel Brooks:It was divine hospitality. And when we show hospitality, all we are doing is merely reflecting the gospel that we have been saved by. The gospel that we believe. Now notice that I said, you're inviting into your living space. You're not necessarily inviting into your home.
Joel Brooks:You don't have to have a home to show hospitality. Your living space is wherever you go to and and you just feel like you're you. It's, it's where you're comfortable just being you. It's the place you go to unwind, the place where you could go and let your guard down. Everybody has got a living space, whether it's a coffee shop, or it's an apartment, or it's a home.
Joel Brooks:Some place that you go to. And to be hospitable is to invite the stranger into your living space, and then to treat them like family. So at the very heart of hospitality is Jesus's words. I was a stranger and you brought me in. Now Peter here in this context, he's specifically talking about hospitality among Christians.
Joel Brooks:And that as Christians, since we are now the family of God, nobody here is a stranger, so begin acting like it. Inviting one another into our homes. And as we grow as a church, I cannot tell you how important that is for us, that we begin inviting one another into our homes and not just seeing one another on a Sunday morning. And so he's he's saying, open up your homes. Be hospitable.
Joel Brooks:But we're also to be hospitable towards those who do not know Christ as well. Because this is actually the best way for us once again to share the gospel, especially to those who are resistant to it. Now we tend to think, the best way to share the gospel is just to invite people to church. That this is how we evangelize. And so this is why I still get emails or texts or phone calls in the week that say this, Hey Joel.
Joel Brooks:I'm bringing in one of my friends who doesn't know the Lord this week. I'm like, okay. I just wanted you to know that. Why? Well, I was just hoping, like, maybe you could do, like, a little little extra in your sermon.
Joel Brooks:Like, I'm not gonna preach the gospel every week, but but they just want me to be aware. Like they have so much hinging on this one thing. I finally got this person to go to church. Now would you save them? And that's how we tend to think of evangelism.
Joel Brooks:Evangelism isn't telling somebody about Jesus, it's inviting somebody to church. I can remember, after the tornadoes hit and went through Tuscaloosa and and a lot of the surrounding communities, I got some other pastors together and we were going to help, just serve however we can. And there was a church there that was giving out meals, and we wanted to jump on board and, like, okay, we'll help do this. And with each meal, the people from this church were to invite the people to their church. And they had on there, they had a sticker that they put with their service times.
Joel Brooks:And over and over again, I'm like, I'm at another church, you know, and I'm inviting people to I'm like, what are we doing? Can I just tell them that Jesus loves them? That Jesus is alive and cares for them? Reaching out to the lost is not inviting them to church. It's telling them about the hope we have in Christ.
Joel Brooks:So your job is not to just try to bring people in there. Dude, that's great. They'll hear the word of God. They will hear the gospel proclaimed. But it's not the best way to share faith and it's never been the way that the church has primarily operated.
Joel Brooks:Did you know that in the bible, you will never find Jesus inviting anyone to the synagogue? He never says, come to the synagogue and hear the Word of God preached. What he does does does though is he didn't have a home, so he invites himself to everybody else's house. It's like, I'm going to your house. Zacchaeus, you come down.
Joel Brooks:You're coming to church with me today. I mean that's not what he says. Zaccheus, you come down. I'm gonna make you a hospitable person. I'm coming to your home.
Joel Brooks:I'm coming to your home, because being in somebody's home and breaking bed with them is the best way to talk about faith, to talk about things that matter, not just inviting somebody to church. Rosaria, her life was changed because she was actually not asked to come and to visit church, But somebody actually related to her as a person and loved her for who she was. She says later, she said, if somebody tried to just invite me, then she would have just seen that they were just trying to sell a product. We're not trying to sell anything. We're trying to demonstrate the love of Christ.
Joel Brooks:Now, I realize that opening up your home or your living space, whatever that favorite place is, opening that up to to strangers can be a difficult thing. Peter knows this too. That's why I love what he attaches to hospitality. Cracks me up every time. Verse 9.
Joel Brooks:Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Without grumbling. Because he knows we grumble when we invite people over. In other words, if you're a home group leader, Peter's got you pegged. He absolutely has you pegged.
Joel Brooks:He he knows the grumbling that takes place there. Having a bunch of people in your home every week is hard. This is why I tell our home group leaders, you wanna know what being a home group leader is? You wanna know what hospitality is? It's the picture of remember when Jesus was in a home teaching and people couldn't get to him because it was so crowded?
Joel Brooks:And so 4 guys, they brought the paralytic man, climbed up on the roof and tore through the roof in order to lower this person to Jesus. Hospitality is willing to have your house destroyed so that people will come to Jesus. That's why we have these homes and we invite people into our living spaces. Peter knows the end of all things is at hand. There's an urgency to this.
Joel Brooks:It's worth property being destroyed. I've heard so many excuses about why somebody cannot be for hospitality. I live in an apartment, or I'm living with a bunch of other people. I'm doing for hospitality. I live in an apartment or I'm living with a bunch of other people and doing whatever.
Joel Brooks:It's not really conducive to having people over, but this isn't an excuse. Once again, you're not showing off. You're not showing off. You're inviting people into whatever living space you have. I heard one pastor say this.
Joel Brooks:I love this quote. He says, the, the key to hospitality is this. Begin it. The key to hospitality is to begin it. Don't wait for a better home.
Joel Brooks:Don't wait for better circumstances. Do it now. I've also heard the excuse that my house is always a disaster. Whose isn't? Okay.
Joel Brooks:Especially if you have kids, who whose house is not a disaster. If you don't have time to make your house immaculate, once again, it's okay. You're treating people like family. Hospitality is doesn't mean that you have to get all of your laundry off the floor in order to have someone over. Do you know how many times I've come back home from work and there is my wife and some other, lady sitting on the floor together folding my underwear?
Joel Brooks:Alright. And Lauren's treating them like family. It's not entertaining, but you're inviting the person, you know, this is what I was gonna do. Let's hang out together. Come, be with me.
Joel Brooks:So so if you have somebody over and after dinner they say, do you need any help cleaning up? Say yes. Say yes. Would you like to help me wash the dishes? The best conversations happen when you're washing dishes side by side.
Joel Brooks:You're not entertaining them, but you're treating them like one of the family. It's honoring to ask them to come and to wash the dishes with you. Another excuse, maybe you've heard, is that you don't have the money, you don't have the time to be hospitable. I'll be blunt. Reprioritize.
Joel Brooks:The end is near. Stretch out with everything you have. You are commanded to do this. I've preached on hospitality before a few years ago, and the verses in which you find hospitality in them, they they still surprise me. And just the forcefulness behind them.
Joel Brooks:So when Paul tells Timothy, in 1st Timothy, about hospitality. He says this. He's talking about widows actually. He says, Little widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband, having a good reputation of good works, if she has brought up children and has shown hospitality. And what he's talking about here is, if you're a widow in this day, you're one of the most destitute people there is.
Joel Brooks:You don't have any money. You certainly don't have a big home. You are the lowest now on the social ladder you can get, and so they ask for benevolence from the church. They need help. And Paul says, but you don't give it to everybody.
Joel Brooks:Only give it to the ones who have proven themselves to be hospitable. Let that sink in. If you don't have the time, and you don't have the house, you don't have the money, you're the one of the most destitute people. Paul still says, you have to have proven yourself to be hospitable. It's a core value of who we are as Christians.
Joel Brooks:It's a qualification for being an elder. It's a qualification for receiving aid as a widow. Hospitality is to define the church. Nobody here has more excuses than a 1st century widow. So I wanna challenge you, church.
Joel Brooks:I wanna challenge you to move from just being a kind people to becoming a hospitable people. To move from kindness to hospitality. Just about all Christians are kind. I don't say every Christian is kind, because, hey. We know a lot of Christians.
Joel Brooks:But most Christians are kind, But that's that's not being hospitable. Hospitable is taking that extra step to move from kindness to hospitality. I was talking with one of our members, Edmund Perry, a few weeks ago, and he said that he was flying into, Dallas. Actually, he was leaving Dallas and somebody was flying in, who now lives there, and they were just striking up a conversation. And the person said, oh, you're from Birmingham?
Joel Brooks:And Evan goes, yeah. And he said, I used to live in Birmingham. Edmund's like, well that's great. And, the guy goes, do you go to church anywhere? Edmund's like, I go to Redeemer.
Joel Brooks:He goes, I know the pastor there, Joel. And he goes, how do you know him? He goes, Joel, led me to the Lord. But this is how, I mean, this is so fuzzy in my mind, but this is how this man was led to the Lord. He was just working at a shop here.
Joel Brooks:I think it was a place where they sold t shirts. I had to go there, make an order, and I went there, and this guy's working behind the counter. I make an order, it's not gonna be ready. It's lunchtime. And I start moving from kindness to being hospitable.
Joel Brooks:I'm an introvert. I just wanna eat by myself. Going to Chick Fil A, reading a USA Today, that's like heaven. Alright? But I was like, move from kindness to hospitality.
Joel Brooks:So I asked this guy behind the counter. You doing anything for lunch? You wanna go get lunch with me? The guy looks at me like I'm from Mars. I mean, who does that?
Joel Brooks:And he just stares at me. He can't think of any excuse as to why not. And so he's like, okay. So I I invite him and we just we have lunch together. That's it.
Joel Brooks:No agenda. We're just lunch. I wanna be a hospitable person. And so we went to one of my favorite places and we ate and we talked, and in the course of the next few weeks, the guy came to know the Lord. He's now serving in a Presbyterian church in Dallas.
Joel Brooks:He's a good husband, good father. All it took was moving from kindness to hospitality. Just a few weeks ago, at the gym where I'm a part of, there's a guy who I've been trying to get to know for a while and say, hey. I I know this guy would never come to my house for dinner, would never do it, so I invite the guy to a drink. He's like, hey, let's go to Ghost Train Brewery.
Joel Brooks:He would do that. And he ran out of reasons to say no, and he's like, okay, I'll go with you. He's like, great, I'm buying. And so, we go to Ghost Train Brewery and we just, over the course of weeks, actually, we began to share. I began to share the gospel with him.
Joel Brooks:And finally, at one point, he's like, my wife hates it that I'm here. She said, if I came back a Christian, she's leaving me. I said, well what are you gonna do? He goes, I'm gonna jump in with both feet. Simple hospitality.
Joel Brooks:I don't think I have a gift of evangelism. I don't. But what I wanna do is be serious with the Lord's words to be a hospitable people and to just take that extra step and invite somebody into your life, all the while praying, spirit of God, what are you doing? What would you have me do? I said, church, I challenge you.
Joel Brooks:In the next week, the next 7 days, find somebody and invite them into your living space. Invite them in all the while prayerful, asking the Holy Spirit, what would you have me do? What would you have me say? How can I show your love to this stranger? See what happens when you just commit to that.
Joel Brooks:If you would pray with me, church. Father, I pray for each person here, that the very gospel we believe would work its way out. We wouldn't just hold on to it, but it would be a conviction that moves us forward, guiding the way that we live, that we would be a hospitable people because we were strangers and you have made us family. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
