RELATIONSHIPS AND HOSPITALITY
Text: Hebrews 13: 1- 8, 15 -16
Hebrews 13:1-25 Let mutual love continue. (2) Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (3) Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. (4) Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. (5) Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." (6) So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?" (7) Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. (8) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. …………… (15) Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. (16) Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Hospitality is a big deal for relationships. Relationships build or crumble based upon good or poor hospitality. How many times have you seen a show where the owner of a company showed up incognito to test his or her employees success as well as hospitality skills?
? Imagine if Ray Kroc went incognito to test a local McDonald’s like that.
? Imagine if Dave Thomas went incognito to test a local Wendy’s like that.
? Imagine if Harland Sanders went incognito to test a local KFC.
? Imagine if Truett Cathy went incognito top test a local Chic Fila.
? Imagine if Lee Loccoca showed up incognito to test a Chrysler dealership.
First of all, if any of these guys showed up at all it would be like Scrooge’s intimidating meeting the ghost of Christmas past to us because all of these guys are no longer with us. Second of all, it could be a good meeting or a bad meeting depending on the hospitality factors.
Today we want to explore relationships, hospitality as they relate to kingdom etiquette, kingdom priorities and kingdom building because they all matter.
KINGDOM ETIQUETTE
How many of us know what etiquette means? Etiquette is about custom and manners. I looked up a list of etiquette on Bing and got a list of fifty things. Let me share ten of them with you.
1) hold the door for the person following you;
2) never lick your knife;
3) be punctual;
4) don’t groom yourself in public;
5) be kind to your server;
6) don’t talk with food in your mouth;
7) don’t double dip;
8) treat janitors [servants] like CEOs;
9) treat others as you want to be treated [the Golden Rule see Matthew 7:12]
10) always say [“please” and] “thanks” or “thank you”.
50 Etiquette Rules, Examples and Tips to Live By - Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays
How well do we follow those rules?
What about etiquette in God’s kingdom?
1) Kingdom etiquette: Etiquette in God’s kingdom is about humility. Avoid selfish ambition and pride as Paul said, “Don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to think” (Romans 12:3). “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than you. Each of you should look out not only for your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3 – 4). It is as if Paul were echoing Jesus when He told us to “treat others as we wish to be treated” (Matthew 7:12).
2) Character: Doesn’t our etiquette say something about our character? When Jesus taught the parable of the Wedding Feast in Luke 14:7 – 14, He was teaching about not pridefully taking the seats of honor that the host might have prepared for another so as not to exalt one’s self and then be embarrassed when the host reseats you. How many people pridefully seat themselves instead of waiting for their host?
3) Pulling rank: Have you ever known of a leader to pull rank by saying something like, “Do you know who I am”? How many leaders today act just like that, asking “Do you know who I am?” when they are being confronted with breaking the rules or the law? I once had a church member whose son was a SC Highway Patrol Officer. One day he pulled over a leader for speeding and the guy pulled rank with his ”do you know who I am?” question. The officer reminded the local leader of who he was and then handed him his ticket. “For everyone, who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).
4) Entertaining angels unaware: Have we ever been neglectful of loving strangers? Loving others is easy when it is people, we know that are just like us. What about those who are not just like us? Do we treat them as less or disqualify them when God would welcome them? How many people carry unseen wounds and are reluctant to come because they have been rejected so many times before? It has been said that focusing on brotherly (Philadelphia) love is cozy but Hebrews 13:2 challenges us to practice a love that is called “philoxenia” which literally means “loving strangers”. (Dick France. The Bible Daily Commentary: Timothy, Titus and Hebrews. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001, p. 208). Angels are either divine or human and we will not always know which one they are.
KINGDOM PRIORITIES
Why does Hebrews 13:3 tell us to identify with the prisoners and those who are being tortured?
1) Perception: How narrow minded and nears sighted are we? Is it easy to condemn the prisoners rather than to show them love? Is it easier to ignore the plight and suffering of others because we have it better than them? Is this verse not telling us to love these people whether we know them ort not? Of course it is!
2) WWJD?: What did Jesus do in those same circumstances? Jesus came to identify with us because He came to seek and to save the last, the least and the lost! How well do we follow in His footsteps?
3) Judging our work: If Jesus were to come back today, then what would He say about our work, “well done or “you wicked and lazy servant?”
What about our relationship with money as a kingdom priority?
1) Mentioned twice in the New Testament: The New Testament mentions the love of money two times.
A) 1 Timothy _6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains (NRSV).
B) Hebrews_13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (NRSV).
2) You can’t take it with you: “Fans of the American Wild West will find in a Deadwood, South Dakota, museum this inscription left by a beleaguered prospector: “I lost my gun. I lost my horse. I am out of food. The Indians are after me. But I’ve got all the gold I can carry!” Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [source of origin: Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 34 Job_1:21 He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (NRSV). How many of us are content with what we have? If the Lord is truly our shepherd who will never leave us or forsake then what more should we want?
What does our marriage relationship say about kingdom priorities?
1) The early church: William Barclay shared an excellent insight about the early Church. The influence of the early church changed the world because of how Christians practiced a different set of values. "Chastity was the one completely new virtue that Christianity brought into the world. In the ancient world sexual relationships before marriage and outside marriage were the normal and accepted practice. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled. That is an attitude that is not unfamiliar today, although often it is supported by specious arguments." (William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Revised Edition. Louisville: Westminster Press, 1975, pp. 150-151). The scripture says that God wants us to keep marriages pure and holy!
2) Godly honor in a marriage: The bible is clear that God wants a marriage to be honored with a covenant of fidelity, unconditional love and respect. As someone has summarized it well: “Fornication is a disregard for marriage, and adultery is a defilement of marriage”. (College Press Bible Study Textbook Series).
It is said of Jimmy Johnson that he used his wife as an image for “social occasions” in his college football coaching days until he became the coach of the Dallas cowboys when he threw the marriage and even his kids aside. “… He confessed that he never bought his boys birthday or Christmas presents. He just didn’t have the time, and they weren’t a priority. So he single-mindedly threw himself into his football team, and in January, 1993, he made it to the top, #1, they won the Super Bowl”. Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.
KINGDOM BUILDING
How do kingdom etiquette and kingdom priorities effect kingdom building?
1) Legacy: The etiquette and the priorities of the Kingdom of God on earth effect the building of God’s kingdom on earth and its legacy through the ages.
2) Rivals: God’s kingdom has rivals. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder build in vain (Psalm 127:1). The tower of Babble was built in vain because it was not according to God’s plan.
3) Prodigals: How many prodigal sons, daughters, families and nations are lost because of their waywardness and rebellion? The late Warren Wiersbe once wrote that “Jesus gave us the parable of the two kinds of sinners—-the fleshly and the self-righteous”. (Warren Wiersbe. The Lonely People. Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1983, p. 69). Those same two kinds of sinners are seen in this thirteenth chapter of Hebrews.
4) New Creatures in Christ: It is only when we have been made new creatures in Jesus Christ that we can begin to see who we were in the flesh and how H e has transformed us and made us new with His life —giving Spirit who leads us and guides us to the truth. The word of John Newton’s Hyman Amazing Grace describe wonderfully what is common for all who were once lost and blind but who can now see because of God’s Amazing Grace.
How do we build God’s kingdom in a world where it seems like many of the haves have written off the have-nots?
The story is told of a college professor who had his sociology class to go into the Baltimore slums and get the case studies of 200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation of each boy’s future. In every case the students wrote , “He Hasn’t got a chance” twenty years later a follow up was done. 20 of he boys moved away or died. The students learned that out of the 180 left, 176 had achieved more than extraordinary success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen. Upon further investigation it was discovered that the one thing that made a difference was a teacher. So they investigated further until they found the teacher so they could find out her secret. The old and wise teacher’s eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a gentle smile. “It’s really very simple,” she said. “I loved those boys”. (Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Chicken Soup for the Soul. Deerfield Beach, Florida; Health Communications, Inc., 1993, pp. 3 -4). We live in a broken world with broken hope as people who are called to be the light of the world because of the light of Christ in us.
There are people in the world who will tell us that our kingdom etiquette and our kingdom priorities don’t matter. Jesus came to seek to save the least, the lost and the last. He also has called us to be ambassadors in those world of lost sinners reaching out to others who are familiar to us and even strangers us to us because God is not willing that nay should perish.
A Chinese proverb tells us …
If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world. (Canfield and Hansen, p.v).
Our world needs order where there is discord, brokenness, division, chaos and self -destructiveness. Just like the legacies of restaurant entrepreneurs, we mentioned at the beginning, their success depends on hospitality. God depends on us to represent Him and His love in our hospitality to those inside and outside of the kingdom. This world is not our home nor was it meant to be a home for the lost who would perish without knowing Jesus Christ. That is why we are here. That is why our kingdom etiquette and kingdom priorities matter in helping to build God’s kingdom on earth.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
