The Lost Art of Hospitality

Well, I was introduced to Southern hospitality, even before I left here to go off to Bible College, but I was really introduced to Southern hospitality in our first church in North Carolina. A genuine I, we're very young, inexperienced in the ministry. When we would go out to visit some of the older people in our church, we found some people who still practiced the old time Southern hospitality. I can remember going to Martha Garner's house for the first time and nothing would do but what she fixed fried pies. And boy, that was good. And then we'd go over to Koi and Florence, Colmer's home. And they were well into their 80s. This was in the mid 70s. They were well into their 80s by then. Nothing would do but what she prepared a whole meal while you didn't matter what time of day it was. If it was three o'clock in the afternoon, if it was one o'clock, it didn't matter when it was. She would prepare a whole meal. Let's eat, she would say, and she would start cooking on that wood stove that she had. Well, when I first had those things happen to me, I would decline. Especially if it was two or three o'clock in the afternoon, I would think they're just trying to be nice. Like people who say, drop in sometime. Why don't you drop by sometime? They would be shocked if you actually did that. I just thought, well, they're just being kind and offering food. The gracious thing to do would be to say no thanks. I appreciate it very much. And so we did. And I began to realize they were really hurt by that. And so I learned to schedule my meals around visitation. And especially when I was going to one of those kinds of places. The only place I've ever seen to match that kind of hospitality is the Muhammad home in Trinidad. And George, I'm glad you're here this evening because you and Angela are some of the best examples that I have ever seen of hospitality, biblical hospitality. The last time I was in Trinidad a little over a year and a half ago to teach a class there in the seminary, I was there for over two weeks and stayed in their home and had all of my meals provided there and the most gracious hospitality and place to stay and every need taken care of. And just such gracious hosts. And they do that all the time in Trinidad. It is a non-stop ministry for them. And so I'm glad you're here tonight as I'm preaching from Genesis 16 on biblical hospitality. Genesis 18, I should say. There goes my memory. Jim, I'm still a couple of weeks behind. Whenever I read or hear this story of Abraham and Sarah and their hospitality of the three guests who came by their home, I'm reminded of occasions like I experienced in North Carolina or have experienced in Trinidad and other places in the world as well. This is a beautiful example of biblical hospitality. What I would like to do this evening is to simply read the story and comment on it, get an understanding of the story first and then we will draw some lessons about hospitality from this passage and other passages in the New Testament that describe what biblical hospitality should be. But let's just read through the story first and get first of all an understanding of the story. Verse 1, The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of memory while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Now Abraham is going to be visited by the Lord himself. I'm sure your Bible has every letter of the word Lord capitalized which is an indication that this is the word Jehovah. This is Jehovah God. Israel's God, our God who pays a visit to Abraham's house. Abraham will not know that until he's already into the visit but God is going to pay him a visit at his home. Now Abraham is out sitting in the heat of the day near his tent and in that part of the world in the middle of the day it gets intensely hot, dangerously hot and so most people will find shade during that part of the day. It's very dangerous to be in the direct sunlight in that part of the world. Maybe Abraham is deep in thought but he is sitting at the entrance to his tent. Look what happens in verse 2. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. So Abraham looks up from where he's been sitting maybe deep in thought maybe in prayer we don't know but he looks up and sees three men standing. Now that was the equivalent of our knocking or on a door or ringing a doorbell. In the ancient Near East when you wanted to come to someone's home and come to see them how do you knock on a tent? So there's no doorbell. So what you would do is you would stand rather than passing by it was obvious that you had stopped there and you intended to pay a visit and so they were standing there. Now I'm not sure what would happen if your host never saw you. I guess you'd stand there a long time. Maybe there was another step which we don't know about where they would say something but they would stand and wait to be invited in and Abraham sees them and the Bible says he hastens, he hurries to go out and meet them and he bows low to the ground. Now that was a common courteous way of greeting someone in that day. It does not mean he yet recognizes who they are or at least one of those visitors is. He just simply is paying the common courtesy of the day which would be to bow in the presence of someone that you were going to entertain as a guest. Verse 3. He said, If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, notice small L that's a common greeting of courtesy. It's equivalent to our surr. So yet he does not yet recognize who this visitor is. If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat so you can be refreshed and then go on your way now that you have come to your servant. Very well they answered, do as you say. After giving a respectful greeting of surr or Lord, he very courteously requests that he might serve them and he wants to serve them first. This is very common hospitality in this part of the world even today. He would serve them first by providing water for them to wash their feet and then he invites them to rest, get out of the heat of the sun, rest for a while under this shade tree that I've been resting under and let me prepare you some food. Let's eat while you're here. So he's providing hospitality for his guests. Verse 6 continues the story. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, quick he said, Get three saiyahs of fine flower and need it and bake some bread. Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice tender calf, gave it to a servant who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. Note the enthusiasm here. He hurried. He said to Sarah, quick you know, let's get three saiyahs of flower. That is 20 quarts of flower. She's going to make more than a few biscuits. This is a lot of bread she's going to make and then he goes and gets a calf and a choice calf, one of the choice ones of the flock and a choice tender calf it says and has a servant prepare that. This is all they're going to take a little time and then the curds sour milk was considered a delicacy in that day like some people who drink buttermilk today. I don't understand why they consider that a curse or you know a delicacy but they did in that day as well. So that's considered a delicacy and then the sweet milk, the milk that we would normally drink. He also provided for them and all this is going to take some time to prepare. So after it's done and they're being served, he stands by them ready to serve in any way he can while they are eating. This is a beautiful scene of gracious, courteous hospitality. Let's pick the story up in verse 9. Where is your wife Sarah? They asked him. They're in the tent, he said. Now this is the first clue that something is unusual about this visit. I'm sure Abraham scratched his head as he answered thinking, how do they know my wife's name? I mean that's very unusual for someone to drop by that you've never seen before. He's a stranger, three strangers and one of them says, where is your wife Sarah? So this stranger knows her name and I think Abraham at this point is thinking these are not normal visitors. Verse 10. Then the Lord said, one of these strangers is now identified as the Lord. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent which was behind him. The Lord gives this promise. In about a year Sarah will have a son but the important thing to note in this story is that he has faced away from the tent. The tent is behind him and Sarah is inside the tent. That's an important note because this gentleman, the Lord, cannot see Sarah. What happens next is going to further indicate to Abraham that something is unusual about this guest. Verse 11. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought after I am worn out and my master is old. Will I now have this pleasure? So you can see again the reference as we have seen before in this story as we have traced Abraham's life. You can see that they are past the typical age of childbearing. Abraham is 99. Sarah is 89 and although people lived much longer than they still were past the normal age of childbearing even for that time. And so Sarah laughs to herself. Now please remember the Lord, this man that is seated with Abraham outside has his back to the tent. It's behind him. He does not see her. She is inside the tent and she laughs, not out loud. She laughs to herself. Kind of an inward chuckle. Have a child. And she's thinking this. Not verbally expressing it. And notice what happens next, verse 13. Then the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, will I really have a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son. Now the visitor clearly demonstrates that he is God at this point. He knows what Sarah was thinking. He knows that she laughed even though he cannot see her and she laughs to herself inside the tent. He knows all of this. Can you imagine Sarah hearing this? This stranger, this guest of my husband and me knows my thoughts. He knows that I laughed inside myself and I think she is quite alarmed at this point. But notice God says to Abraham, is anything too hard for the Lord. Now that's what we refer to as a rhetorical question. The answer is obvious. The answer is obviously no. Is anything too hard for the Lord? No. No, obviously it is not. Abraham recognizes that and by now he is recognizing he is in the presence of God. Verse 15 ends the story that we'll at least we'll stop it at this point tonight. Sarah was afraid so she lied and said, I did not laugh but he said, yes, you did laugh. I'm sure she was really afraid then. She is really in trouble. It's one thing to get called to the principal's office. It's another thing to have God in your presence correcting you and saying you have lied. You didn't tell the truth. She is fearful here. She is afraid. She is kind of caught off guard by the fact that this stranger is quite clearly not the ordinary stranger. This is God. The Lord rebukes her and the story goes on to talk more about the visitors talk with Abraham. We're going to stop there tonight because this story is a wonderful biblical example of hospitality and what may happen with hospitality. So I would like to draw some lessons about hospitality from the story and tie into some new testament principles that talk about hospitality as well. Let's begin with the meaning of hospitality. What are we talking about when we say hospitality? Well that word is actually used in the New Testament. The word hospitality comes from a Greek word, a double word which means lover of strangers. So the word itself, hospitality, means lover of strangers. We want to talk in just a little bit about what a stranger means. But for now, let me just say that what that is indicating is someone who reaches out to those outside the family or outside close acquaintances. Let's just leave it at that for now. We'll get back later to the word stranger. But we're talking about reaching out to someone who is outside our family, someone who is outside a close acquaintance with us. But hospitality means a lover of strangers. And the word love is the word which means to give of yourself for the good of another person. So the idea here in hospitality is to give of yourself or what you have to other people, even though they may not be a close acquaintance or in your family. To share with someone else your time, your food, your home and the emphasis in the New Testament is the opening up of our home to other people. There are examples in Scripture both in the Old Testament and New Testament which emphasize that opening of the home, sharing what you have with other people. And so we have come to think. And rightly so we have come to think of hospitality as referring to times when we open our home to other people. And that is the thrust and the emphasis. But some will protest. My home is not nice enough to entertain other people. I don't have any fancy China. I can't cook fancy dishes. So I really can't do that kind of thing. But none of those things are the point of hospitality. The size or the newness or whatever of your home is not the issue in hospitality. What kind of dishes you have or furniture you have is not the issue in hospitality. The kind of food you may share with a guest is not the issue in hospitality. What is the issue is the human contact, the fellowship, getting to know one another and serving others. That is the real point in hospitality. So we need to forget all about impressing people with the way we share our lives with them. Forget all about impressing others and just open our homes and ourselves, our lives to others. I want to come back to that in just a little bit. But there are lots of people, lots of Christians who never open their homes, never give of themselves to other people. And it's not necessarily having big parties at your house every Friday night. That's not the idea. The idea is when there is a need, you share what you have with others and you share of your heart with other people. I read about a couple in Illinois. Couples name was Jim and Linda Ownen. They lived in Wadsworth, Illinois. They wanted to build an unusual home. They wanted a home that would really stand out beyond anyone else's in their neighborhood. And so they built a 7,000 square foot pyramid covered in 24 karat gold. That is different. Nobody else has a home like that. That is really distinctive. But what really set the home apart was that they also built it with a moat around it. Now, at the time this story was published, they had planned to put sharks in that moat. I'm not sure whether the zoning board let them do that or not. I hope not. But do you see the symbolism in that house? We want a place that is opulent, but we want a place that will cut us off from everybody else. We will not have to entertain anybody because nobody would ever want to come here. And that's what that kind of a house says. Now the point is not what kind of house you have. The point in hospitality is how open our hearts are to serving other people. And I might say that hospitality is not even necessarily in your home. Typically in the Bible it is the opening of our homes, but sometimes that's not possible to do for various reasons. Hospitality may also be just an expression of a giving of ourselves to other people, where we serve them by going to them or taking to them, not necessarily having them in our home. But the biblical emphasis of hospitality is the opening of our home to share with others. That's the meaning of hospitality. Now the Bible also describes the recipients of hospitality. So if we're going to recover this lost art of hospitality that Abraham so beautifully pictures, if we're going to recover that then who should we entertain? Interesting that the Bible talks about different people that we should show hospitality to. Actually three different groups of people. The first is other believers. Other believers. Look at these verses. We'll put them on the screen for you. Romans 12.13 says, share with God's people who are in need. Share with them. Okay. First Peter 4.9 says much the same thing. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. And the word literally meaning lover of strangers, inviting others in and loving them in the sense that you share with them of yourself and what you have. So other believers. So we might say because Peter is talking to a group of believers and he says, share with one another in hospitality and Paul is speaking to a Roman church, a group of believers, we might say that what he's talking about here is other people in our church. Brothers and sisters in Christ we are to provide hospitality to. Second group of people that the Bible indicates we should be hospitable toward would be the Lord's servants. Now I'm not inviting myself over for Sunday dinner. Please don't misunderstand this. But there is a special type of ministry here that is indicated in the New Testament in 3 John verses 5 through 8. Look at these verses. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing Paul writing to a fellow believer there in the church he's writing to. You're faithful in what you're doing for the brothers even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the name that they went out receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality such men so that we may work together for the truth. Now you can tell from this passage and if you read the whole little letter of 3 John in the context you can tell what he's talking about is traveling preachers here. People who have been sent out for the name of Christ and they're not receiving help from the pagans. They're not expecting unbelievers to help them on their way to care for their needs as they go from place to place. But in order to support the spread of the gospel the truth as John says it, we should entertain those people. We should provide hospitality to them and he commends his brother in Christ in that epistle for doing that, for having these people in and taking care of them. Who are traveling preachers today that need hospitality? Missionaries? Other special speakers who may come our way? There's family in our church that has provided hospitality for George and Angela in the time they've been in the Princeton area. A traveling preacher, a missionary coming through our area needing a place to stay for a few nights. Hardy and Sally have graciously opened up their home and it has become your home when you've been there hasn't it George? You felt very much at home. That's the kind of thing he's talking about. People who have those kinds of needs we should provide hospitality. The Lord's servants who have need of a place to be entertained, to be taken care of while they are passing through, that is a biblical form of hospitality. The third group of people is the one that troubles us the most and that is strangers. Hebrews 13 too says do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it and that may be a direct reference to Genesis 18 because one of these visitors is the Lord quite clearly and he will stay on and talk to Abraham about his judgment of Sodom and the latter part of the chapter. But the other two were angels and they are the two who go on to Sodom, warn lot and then bring God's judgment down upon that city. So this may be a direct reference in Hebrews to the Genesis 18 passage that we've just read. Intertain strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Now this is where we have the most questions. Am I supposed to open my home to strangers? I mean just anyone coming through transients who get broken down on the turnpike? Anyone who is passing through town, anybody who comes knocking on my door, what about the safety of my family? Am I to be concerned about that at all? And many of you I'm sure have struggled with this very thing. I certainly have struggled with it from time to time when I lived out in the parsnage, I would regularly get calls from people who had stopped at one of the truck stops or one of the gas stations at the intersection and needed help. And they wanted a place to stay. And so I struggled with this issue and have in other places as well. What is our responsibility toward people like that? Well you might want to hold your place in Genesis because we're going to come back there in just a moment and turn to Hebrews 13 because quite often this passage is taken out of its context. If we just take that simple statement out of its context, do not forget to entertain strangers, then we might think, well yeah, anybody that shows up at my door, I'm required by the Bible to take them in. I don't think that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying. There's a context to this and it begins in verse 1 where the writer says, keep on loving each other as brothers. Now that provides the context that he will then give two examples of how to keep on loving the brothers in verses 2 and 3. But the greater context is the book of Hebrews. Remember that the book of Hebrews was written to Jewish people, Hebrews, who were in persecution. They were suffering for their faith. And because of this intense suffering for their faith, many of them were being tempted to leave the church and go back to the synagogues and kind of re-identify with the Jewish worshipers so that they wouldn't be identified as Christians and wouldn't have to suffer. And the whole purpose of the book of Hebrews is to warn those people, you cannot do that. You cannot turn your back on Christ and on the church. That's why he says in chapter 10, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. Don't quit going to church. Be bold in your testimony. Even if it means your life, don't shrink back. And it's in that context that he says, keep on loving each other as brothers. In other words, don't shrink back from identifying with other Christians, with other brothers and believers. And he gives two ways to do that in verses two and three. Verse two has to do with strangers. Verse three has to do with prisoners. Now, obviously, there were many of these Hebrews that were already incarcerated for their faith. They had been arrested because of their faithfulness to Christ. And he was saying, don't forget those people. You minister to them as brothers. Identify with them. Don't be ashamed to go visit them thinking, well, the authorities will now know I'm one of those Christians. And I may get arrested too. Don't forget your brothers who are in prison, he says. And don't forget your brothers. Verse one, the context, your brothers who are strangers, who maybe because of persecution have been forced out of their home, who have great needs. Don't forget about them. By the way, the word strangers here is the same word that we saw in third John talking about traveling preachers. So it could also include those kinds of situations of traveling preachers. I mean, again, put yourself in the Hebrew shoes if Christians in your town are being persecuted and a traveling preacher like Paul comes through, or Titus, or Timothy, or somebody like that, are you going to be the one to take them into your home and identify yourself quite clearly as a Christian and face the potential of persecution yourself? The writer to the Hebrew says, yes, by all means, you do that. You take those men in and you publicly take your stand with Christ. It is quite clear that the early church understood Hebrews 13 in that way. I want to read for you from a little booklet that was printed in the mid-100s called the Dittake. It's called the teaching of the twelve apostles. And this is representative of what the church, like from 95 to 150, A.D. believed about this passage. Here's what the Dittake says. Let every apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord, but he must not stay more than one day or two if it is absolutely necessary. If he stays three days, he has a false prophet. Now that's not necessarily true in our day today. This is not scripture. This is just one of the ways that they discern whether someone was trying to take advantage of you. And when an apostle leaves you, let him take nothing but a loaf until he reaches further lodging for the night. These are men that would go from place to place quite regularly. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet. That's a direct quote from the Dittake in the mid-100s. You know, it would be good for some TV evangelist to read that passage, wouldn't it? You know, if he asks for money, he's a false prophet. So that's what the early church believed about this passage. They believed it referred to brothers in Christ as the context suggests who may be passing through or may have needs because of persecution, you be sure you take care of those people. And you be sure if they get arrested that you identify yourselves as a fellow Christian and you visit them in prison. You go see them and take care of their needs. By the way, the same thing is true in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there are lots of instructions about strangers. Let me just show you one. The Viticus 19, verses 33 and 34. Moses says this, when an alien, that's the NIV translation, the King James has stranger. When an alien or stranger lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native born. Love him as yourself. For you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Who is the stranger in the Old Testament or the alien? He is someone who may be a foreigner or an alien if you will, but he is living in the land. He is living with you in your land. You probably know this person and there are many other passages like this in the Old Testament. You probably know this person, but he is not one of you. Maybe a different nationality may have moved in from another area. We might actually think of them today as unsaved neighbors. People who are living in our land, but not one of us, unsaved neighbors. Who is the stranger that the Bible is talking about, that we are to open our homes to without fear and entertain them and take care of them? I do not believe the Bible is necessarily commanding us to take in every person who just wonders down the road and may be a threat to our family. I do not think the Bible is suggesting that. Although it is not saying that it should not be done either. There are some people who have had a great ministry of doing this. Some of you may be familiar with the name Keith Green. Keith Green was a contemporary Christian musician back in the late 70s and early 80s and tragically killed in a plane crash on his ministry ranch in Texas back in 1982, I believe it was. Keith Green kind of grew up in the drug culture in Southern California back in the 60s and early 70s and the Lord miraculously saved him out of that hippie culture. He had this big ranch in Texas and he would just take people in, all kinds of people. He really had a ministry that way and it did not matter who they were, he took them in to his family and he would preach the gospel to them and share Christ with them and most of them got saved and began to be discipled. He had quite a ministry called Last Days Ministries. He was one of those uniquely gifted people that was called of God to do this kind of thing. But the Bible is not necessarily commanding that we take in everybody that just wonders along. The stranger in the Bible is one who is not a close acquaintance, may be an unsaved neighbor, he is not one of us or he may be like the other passages, a traveling preacher, a fellow Christian, we are to reach out to that person. It's someone that we don't really know well yet. It may be someone who is new in church, that may be the stranger or the alien to you, someone who is new here to Johnston Chapel, it may be someone who is younger than you, much younger than you, maybe someone who is much older than you and they are living in your land, they are close to you but you don't know them yet, they are unknown to you, could be someone who has completely different interests than you. They love sports and you love farming or music or whatever and your interests just don't really click but you need to get to know them or it may be a missionary speaker or traveling speaker that you don't know. That's who the stranger is in the Bible. So those are the three people that the Bible says we should be hospitable toward. Other believers traveling preachers, the Lord's servants and strangers. Well I want to spend just a few moments on the expression of hospitality and let's go back to Genesis 18 for that because this is the example that we are going to use tonight. The expression of hospitality, how should it be done? First of all with enthusiasm. You remember in the story we read that a number of things about Abraham's enthusiasm, in verse 2 he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and then in verse 6 he hurried to Sarah and he says quick, make some bread and he ran to the herd and selected a choice tender calf and gave it to a servant who hurried to prepare it. Then he brings all this food, sets it before them and while they eat he stands near them under a tree. Now that's real enthusiastic hospitality. I mean you don't get the impression that when Abraham looked up and saw these people he said oh no I had plans for this. Sarah throwing another bone in the soup we got people out here wanting to eat with us. You don't get the impression it was that way at all. I mean he just enthusiastically eagerly wanted to entertain these people. You know it has been said that tact is the art of making guests feel at home when you really wish that's where they were. And you know that's how some people entertain. That's how some people have people in their homes. I read about a little family one time who invited a preacher and his wife over for dinner on Sunday and it was an extremely hot just blistering hot day and when they all sat around the table the father asked the little six year old son to thank the Lord for the food and the little boy said daddy I don't know what to say. And so mother you know trying to impress the preacher and his wife that everything was wonderful in this family said son just say what I you've heard me say. And so the little boy said Lord why did I invite these people here on such a hot day. Well some people some people offer hospitality that way some people live that way but Abraham offered hospitality with enthusiasm. He opened his home with enthusiasm. Secondly we need to offer enthusiasm or offer hospitality with faith with faith. What you're going to look at verse 5. In speaking to his guests Abraham says in verse 5 let me get you something to eat so you can be refreshed and then go on your way. Now what you're going to notice is next expression now that you have come to your servant. New American standard translates that since you have visited the King James translates it for therefore are you come. H.C. loophole who was a very older from another generation Lutheran expositor who wrote a great two volume commentary on the book of Genesis. He translates it this way for on this account you have come to your servant. In other words what Abraham is saying is God sent you here and I'm trusting because God sent you here that I am supposed to minister to you and what Abraham does not yet recognize is God has sent them there to minister to him. Now when we open up our homes or our lives to other people giving time, giving of our possessions to others who have needs when we do that we should do it in faith. That God has sent them along for us to minister to and when we do that do we not often find that he actually has sent them to minister to us. It's exactly what happened with Abraham. So with the expression of hospitality open up your lives and homes with enthusiasm, with faith and thirdly with courtesy, with courtesy. I mean this whole passage just reeks of courtesy when Abraham meets them he bows to the ground. He uses courteous words when he speaks to the My Lord or Sir. He offers to serve them, wash their feet, rest under the tree, let me serve you some food. And when he brings it out he stands next to them so that as they are eating he can do anything else possible to serve them. He has taken great pains to make them comfortable and to make them feel at home. Not everybody knows how to do that or not everybody does that. I can remember some wonderful experiences and some very strange experiences back in our college days when Jean and I in 1973 I think it was traveled for a summer with a musical group from Piedmont Bible College. And we sang in a mixed quartet and we were somewhere every night, somewhere different every night and traveling through the southeast. And I remember one time we were in Ocala, Florida. And usually when we would get to a church the pastor would have the places where we were supposed to stay. Sometimes we would go ahead and get kind of settled into the home or sometimes it would be after the service. In this case it was after the service. And we always did kind of a coin toss for when we got to the first home who had the nicest home. I mean most of them didn't make all those arrangements ahead of time where they had somebody designated as they was somebody else. We would drive to a home and we'd say okay somebody needs to get out here. And so we drove to home in Ocala and it was a beautiful place. And it was genies and my turn to be in the really nice home. So we thought there's probably not going to be another one this nice. And so the other two couples said it's your turn. Y'all get out. Y'all stay here. So we got out. And we went in and we didn't find this out till later. This was an unsaved couple. They had just started visiting this church in Ocala. And the pastor when they asked to house one of the couples the pastor didn't want to offend them. And so he said why sure he didn't know anything about these people. I mean once we got in there and began to talk with them we found out that their daughter they were trying to introduce her to different religions so she could make a choice. I mean they had introduced her to Islam to some of the cults and all kinds of different things. And now they were going to try the Baptists. That's why they were at this church to start with. This was a crazy place. I will never forget when we walked into the bedroom that night and pulled down the covers it was very clear we were in the little boys bedroom. Sheets had not been changed and they were stained as little boys are want to do at times. That was our accommodation for the night. I'll never forget getting up the next morning and going to the breakfast table and the kids had already eaten they were headed off to school kind of early and we were seated at the table and the dishes were not cleaned up. We were offered food on the dishes that had already been used by the children. Needless to say it was a very interesting experience and I could give you several more stories about what happened that night and that next day. We were not made to feel very welcome. We were just kind of given the leftovers and things that most people would know are not right to do to someone when you are a guest in their home. But you see Abraham knew how to make people comfortable, how to make them feel at home and that's the way we should do it as well. And he also knew how to serve. I mean can you just imagine when they're eating this meal and Abraham is standing next and almost like a waiter waiting to serve them. Now you can over do that. In 1977 I was preaching a revival meeting at Bethel Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. And the pastor was a friend of mine. He was actually the pastor that I followed at the church. I was pastoring in North Carolina at the time. And I was preaching in this church all week in Richmond and we were going out to eat twice a day in people's homes, twice a day for lunch and dinner. And of course you know what it's like when we had the old time revival meetings and people would fix you a meal in the home and many of you have done that here. It was always your best meal, your biggest meal. And we're eating two of those a day. Now you know I can hold my own at the table with about anybody but that was too much for me. And by the end of the week we came to Friday and the meeting was to close on Friday night. We went to a home on Friday afternoon and I'm thinking Lord please just a below any sandwich would be fine. Something like that just a bowl of soup, anything Lord I don't want another big meal. But we walked into this home and this lady had 18 dishes of food. I will never forget five different kinds of meat, 18 dishes of food piled all over the table and the counter four different desserts and you had to try something a little of every one before she would let you get out of there. And she stood, she stood through the whole meal her husband and the pastor and I were seated and we ate. She stood the whole meal. When she saw us making a dent in the food on our plate she was right under our nose. Well then you want some more of this don't you? And she would start spooning it out. I mean you can overdo this kind of stuff. I was sick when I got out of there and we still had another meal ago to that evening. And you know what that meal was? A guy was cooking steaks on the grill and so I ate steak and now I'm supposed to preach I burped all through that sermon. I'm not sure what I preach but I know I laced it with a lot of burps. And all the way home that night for our drive home. You can overdo hospitality. You can overdo trying to make someone feel you know welcome and that kind of thing. I don't believe Abraham was quite that bad but the point is be courteous as you entertain people in your home. Now in closing let me just give you this challenge. I want to challenge you this evening to start or to resume genuine hospitality. Open your homes and your lives to other people. And for some of you it may not be possible to have others in your home. You can still reach out to others. You can still bring things to them. Share your life and what you have what God's given you with them in other ways. So I challenge you to do that. Secondly I would challenge you to reach out beyond your close friends that you've known for years. Beyond people your own age group. Beyond people who have just your interests in life. Reach out to new people. That's part of what the Bible says when it means entertain strangers. When it says entertain strangers. Reach out to someone that is new, that you don't know yet. I would encourage you thirdly or challenge you to open your home to missionaries, to guest speakers. Now through the years in the past we've often kept those kind of folks in the profits chamber. Now we put them in a motel. If you'll come to us ahead of time and if you promise you won't feed them on the kids dishes and you know if you'll change the sheets. You know we may even send them to your home. So you know consider that. Take that as a challenge and then lastly I would like to challenge you to open your home to unsaved neighbors. Unsaved neighbors strangers. People who are living in your land but are aliens. They're not part of the family yet. So open our homes to them. Our homes can be used as a vehicle for introducing people to Christ and for caring for the needs of others. And even it's not possible to have others in your home for whatever reason. Share your life with other people. Let's pray. Father help us to learn from this experience with Abraham what it means to be hospitable to others, to love strangers and to share our lives with them. Lord in the business of life help us not to become so self-centered that we're not willing to give to others. Share with others. Help us to be careful to do that for other believers and for servants of God who need our help as they come through. And also for strangers for unsaved neighbors for those that we don't know as well for new people for people of different age groups and interests. Help us to be willing to reach out to one another. And I thank you Lord for the many people in this church who do that so well. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.