disciple verily, I say in you, you shall in no wise lose your reward.
Let us pray to every father.
Lord, I pray you fill the past with the Holy Spirit.
Lord, that I preach tonight.
Lord, let us be edified by your wonderful word.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Look at verse number 13 again, the Bible read
and at the house, be worthy, let your peace come upon it.
But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
And this evening sermon, I want to talk about guests
being a guest and hosting.
That's the title of the sermon, in fact, being a guest and hosting.
Now, I've been greatly privileged to stay with many people
and to even host many people throughout several years of my life.
And this sermon is in certainly no way in response to anything
that's ever happened. OK, this is just something that I've observed.
It's mostly the fact that my mother taught me a lot of these values
and the Bible teaches a lot of different things about it.
But I think it'll be a very edifying sermon
of just teaching you how to behave yourself whenever you are someone
that's going to host someone or whenever you're going to be a guest somewhere.
Just what does that look like?
What does the Bible have to say about this?
And in Matthew chapter number 10, he's sending out his disciples
and they're going to be going into the world.
They're going to be preaching the gospel
and they're going to be staying with different people and different guests.
And my first point this evening is whenever you're going to be a guest,
you should try to find a worthy home to stay in.
That's what Jesus Christ clearly tells them.
He says, hey, you know, look at verse number 11.
And what's over city or town, ye shall enter, inquire
who in it is worthy and there abide till you go thence.
So notice that he's instructing them to try and find a good place to stay.
They're not just going to stay anywhere.
They're actually inquiring of someone who is worthy.
And in fact, I've done this many times.
I, you know, whenever I have to go to a place
and I'm looking for a place to stay, I might ask somebody, say, hey,
who would be somebody I could stay with or is there a place I could go?
And basically they'll give me some kind of a recommendation.
And then I'll say, all right, I'm going to go to that place.
Now, when it's saying the worthiness here, especially in this context,
we have to understand that the worthiness is defined in this passage.
It says in verse number 12.
And when you come into a house saluted and at the house be worthy,
let your peace come upon it.
But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you
and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words.
We need to part out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
So you can trust one house with being worthy with a house
that what doesn't receive you and doesn't listen to your words.
So notice the worthiness of this house is not how big it is,
how nice it is, how accommodating it is.
It's about the reception of the people and whom are taking you in.
And specifically, this context would be the saved, right?
I mean, the people that are receiving their words
are those that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those that don't receive their words are those that are not saved.
And he's saying, hey, you should try to find people that are worthy to stay with.
That worthiness is going to be someone who's saved, right?
I mean, if I have to pick someone to save, stay with.
I think it makes a lot of sense to stay with someone who is saved, right?
If I'm going to be a guest somewhere,
I'm going to try my best to stay with someone who's worthy.
I'm not going to stay with the family where I know they're going to stay up late
drinking alcohol and they're going to be doing all kinds of drugs
and they're going to be tempting me to do all kinds of bad things.
I want to stay with that type of a person.
I would rather stay with someone where I know, hey, this person
is going to respect my, you know, wishes.
They're going to respect my beliefs, even if they're not exactly aligned.
Hey, this is another saved brother in Christ.
You know, this is the type of person that you want to stay with.
And look, it's a dangerous world out there.
We already learned that in the morning sermon, I hope. OK.
And so whenever you're going to stay somewhere,
especially if you're traveling with your own family,
you should try to inquire of someone who is worthy.
Don't look don't think that's a bad thing.
It's not a bad thing to ask around.
See whom you're going to stay with.
Find a good place to stay.
So being a guest, you should decide, hey, I want to look for some place
that's going to be worthy.
But notice if it is worthy, what does it say in verse 12?
This is my second point.
It says when you come into a house, salute it.
So my number two point is whenever you come to be someone's guest,
I believe that you should try to compliment
the guest's house or the host's house in some way.
Now, obviously, I'm not going to say flatter.
Flattery is what an insincere compliment.
But if you come into someone's house, hey, you like the way it smells.
Hey, you like the way it's decorated.
Hey, you like something about it.
Hey, I really like this about your house.
You should compliment the house.
You should salute the house.
You should say something nice unto the people in whom you're staying with.
OK, look, what does it very clearly says is when you come in the house, salute it.
So it's saying, hey, thanks for letting me stay here.
I really like your house. I really like this about it.
You know, I really like your yard or just something, you know,
but it should be sincere.
But what are you doing?
You're basically letting them know that giving them some kind of confidence
that you're glad to be there.
You're pleased to be there.
You appreciate the accommodations.
It makes people feel nice whenever you compliment the accommodations
that they're offering unto you.
Oh, what's this junky place I'm coming into?
You know, oh, man, what's that smell?
People are going to, you know, be like they don't want you to stay with them anymore.
So it's nice to compliment people if you get an opportunity to stay with them.
Go to Luke, chapter number 10, Luke chapter number 10.
So I'm going to give you some practical advice that comes from the Bible
on being a guest.
And if you're being a host, we're first going to talk about being a guest.
Now, the Bible has a pretty parallel passage here
and talks about some similar things as in Luke, chapter 10.
Look at verse number three.
Go your ways. Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves
carry neither purse nor script nor shoes and salute no man, by the way.
And whatsoever house you enter, first say peace be to this house.
And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it.
If not, it shall turn to you again.
And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give
for the labor is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.
So, again, part of the coming in even is the fact
you would allow God's blessing to come with you upon this house,
upon the accommodations.
And he's saying, hey, if you bless this house and it was a bad place,
your blessings is going to come back to you anyways.
OK, so don't get all inquisitive.
You know, let me see if I'm going to bless this house.
And I just bless it, you know, and then, hey, if the son of peace
doesn't happen to be there, your blessing is just going to come back upon you.
But my third point is this,
that the Bible teaches that you're not supposed to go from house to house.
Now, some weirdo out there tries to take this and say you shouldn't go soul winning.
This is not the context of soul winning.
OK, what this is saying is if I were to go travel to some area and stay,
I shouldn't just just like househop.
I shouldn't just go stay with this person and this person and be like,
what do you all have on Tuesday night for dinner?
OK, what do you all have it on Wednesday night for dinner?
No, you just find somebody that you're willing to go in
and you just stay with them and let them accommodate all of your needs,
all of your wants, and don't even feel bad about it,
because he says very clearly, hey, the labor is worthy of his hire.
So if someone's willing to take you in, even though it might seem like a burden
for them to take you in for a couple of days, you know, don't share the love.
Just let them be the ones to fully receive you, to fully take upon you
as their responsibility, because you're worthy of such hire.
So if someone willing to take you in, we need to do is you need to be content
and grateful for your accommodations and use them.
If you come and you stay with somebody, if you say, hey, I'm going to stay,
I need to stay here for a week and you stay there for one night,
you know what the message is that you gave them.
You don't like their place.
You're not appreciative of the accommodations that they gave you.
They'll think, oh, man, why they didn't why didn't they stay with us?
What? Our food isn't good enough.
We didn't cook enough for you.
We didn't have clean enough towel.
You know, they're going to get all upset and offended
when you don't take the accommodations that they offered unto you.
So it's important. Hey, don't go from house to house.
If someone's willing to put you up and you can be there, you can stay there,
then you need to just stay there.
Don't just be going around.
Don't be house hopping. Don't do these type of things.
We need to be very content
and grateful about the things that they provide us.
Go to Numbers Chapter 11, Numbers Chapter number 11.
You say, what is being content and grateful look like?
Well, here's one. It's not complaining.
Here's my fourth point.
When you're a guest, don't complain. Period.
Now, some people don't get this.
You give people all kinds of different things, you take them on trips,
you try to help them out, and they just want to complain about everything.
Well, when I have a sandwich, I always have chips.
Where are the chips at?
You know, anytime I have a burger, I need a Coke with it.
Where's my Coke? Oh, you don't have diet?
I can't believe you don't have diet.
I use Charmin Ultra.
Do you have Charmin?
Is that the, you know, I have to have a white towel, you know, over here on.
You just you ruin the experience for everybody.
Look, whatever accommodations they give you, they provide you.
Now, I'm not I'm not trying to put you in a box.
I'm not saying don't ask for things.
Obviously, you say, hey, can I have a glass of water
or can I have something to drink?
You know, if you need something, ask, and especially when they say,
hey, do you need anything?
Don't hesitate to ask.
But you shouldn't be asking to complain.
Well, do you have any mustard with this dry burger over here?
You know, this is so dry.
I just need something on it.
I mean, do you even have like a one?
Don't put a one on the steak.
Who are you? This is Texas, OK?
Get that a one out of here. All right.
I'm offended you even asked me if I wanted a one.
OK, I'm just going to
we have to realize whenever you're a guest, that you shouldn't be a complainer.
God hates complaining.
I hate complaining.
Every person hates complaining.
Look at Numbers Chapter 11, verse one.
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord
and the Lord heard it
and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord
burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
Look, nobody likes complaining.
The children of Israel didn't like the Lord Jesus Christ accommodations
for them in the wilderness.
Oh, this is light bread, you know, all this bread from heaven.
I don't want that.
You know, all we don't have anything to eat, just this light bread.
Well, they had the quail, didn't they?
They were like, man, the cucumbers
and the onions and the leaks.
Who really wants leaks?
I mean, I've never even met this person.
And look, when you start getting this complaining attitude,
whenever you look at a situation and you're always wanting more,
you can always find a way to complain, right?
Basically, there's two types of people.
There's two types of one person, no matter what the accommodations are happy
and the other type of person, no matter what the accommodations are always upset.
It's not about the accommodations, though.
Nobody's like, I just really wanted leaks.
They had a bad attitude.
So they're just trying to find any kind of excuse, all the leaks
and the cucumbers and the onions and the garlic and all, you know.
It's like, what are you eating?
I'll just take the meat.
You know, I'll just take the pancakes and the fried chicken.
I mean, that sounds good to me.
Maybe that's where the Blackheaver is lights come into play.
I don't know. It's a different subject.
Good at first to meet chapter number four, first to meet chapter number four.
So I don't like these kind of jokes.
Well, you can find another church.
Look, when you're a guest, don't complain.
Just eat whatever's set in front of you.
Just take the food, just eat it.
Complaining ruins the experience.
And honestly, if you complain, they're not going to want you
to be their guests anymore.
It really just ruined the experience.
You know, you just choke it down if you have to ask for extra water
and just take big gulps of water, you know, be an adult.
But at the end of the day, you need to do your best
to be thankful for what they blessed you with.
Look at verse two of chapter four, verse four.
Every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused.
If they received a Thanksgiving.
Don't refuse the food. Receive it.
God says every creature of God is good.
So if they put something in front of you, just think of this verse.
All right. Every creature of God is good.
I just kind of took it down.
Now, obviously, we had a food allergy.
OK, some people take things weird.
Obviously, you could say, hey, I'm sorry, I'm allergic to this.
You know, it looks great. I would love to try it.
It smells really wonderful.
I just have a food allergy.
So, you know, I don't want to partake in that.
Just be respectful. Be kind.
That's not complaining.
You know, don't be like, oh, you didn't know I have a food allergy.
How could you not tell?
You know, why don't you just make me say, you know,
I can't believe you give me this accommodation, this type of food.
You know, I need something more special.
I need my sandwich cut up.
I don't have crust on it.
OK, you know, where is my little carrots with the dipping sauce?
Do you not have dipping sauce for my carrots?
It's like, come on, buddy.
And look, you laugh.
People act like this.
You take them out.
You go on missions trips and you go to the restaurant.
Oh, I always get this.
You know, you cater a big order for 40 people or something like this.
It's like I always get soup with my, you know, with this meal
or I have these special crackers or, you know, it's like, look,
we'll go buy them, then have fun.
You know, and I try to be nice to people, even if someone's a jerk.
I just still say, OK, I'll help you out or I'll get your coke or whatever.
But the other day, it ruins the experience.
Don't be a complainer.
Don't complain.
And let's just take this out.
This is just for anything, not just this sermon, not just this context
in all context.
OK, go to First Corinthians, chapter 16, first Corinthians 16.
Now, here's here's my advice, OK?
And this is a this is a double advice.
If if you're blessed to stay with somebody
and the first night food is terrible and you had to choke it down, OK,
here's what you do the next night.
Hey, I wanted to take you out for dinner.
Even if the food's great, though,
I still think that this is something that you should do something.
My mom and dad always taught me.
They said, if you get to stay with somebody and they're in,
they're hosting you, it's customary to ask or provide a meal for them.
You know, obviously, there can be a little tug and war there,
but I'm just saying it's customary to say, hey, I want to take you out
for dinner one night or hey, we'd like to, you know, do something for you.
You're letting us stay here with you and you're doing this.
So blessing them with a meal or taking them out or buying them a dinner.
And again, this is optional.
This is just things you could think about.
But look what it says in First Corinthians, chapter 16, verse 15.
I beseech you, brethren, you know, the house of Stephanus,
that it is the first fruits of Akia and that they have addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints, that you submit yourselves into such
and to everyone that help with us and laborer.
I am glad of the coming of Stephanus and Sifortunatus and Akiaakus
for that which was lacking on your part.
They have supplied for they have refreshed my spirit and yours.
Therefore acknowledging them that are such so notice.
Whenever he's talking about certain people coming, he's saying,
I really like these people.
They refreshed my spirit and they refreshed your spirit.
You don't want people whenever you come to they come to stay with you.
You think, wow, I never want them to stay with me again.
You actually want people to say, hey, when that person came and stayed with me,
it was great. We had a good time.
They took us out to dinner. It was wonderful.
I hope that if they come back, they'll stay with me again.
Notice how he's talking about certain people, certain people.
It's just great. And he's saying some people are bad, though.
You guys were lacking. They made up for your lacking.
OK, go to second to me. Chapter one.
Go to second to me. Chapter one.
I have a few different verses here that illustrate the same point.
I'll read for you one other verse.
Matthew Chapter two, verse 11.
And when they were coming, the house is talking about the three wise men.
They saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.
And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts,
gold and frankincense and myrrh.
So notice the wise men, when they came on the Lord Jesus Christ,
they didn't come empty handed.
They brought a blessing.
They brought a gift under the Lord Jesus Christ.
And look, people want you to stay with them if you're going to bring them a gift.
People want that, you know, to you to stay with them
if you're going to bless them and take them out and do these type of things.
You don't want to wear out your welcome.
You want people to think, wow, I like this person staying with me.
I like it when this person is with me.
I enjoy their presence.
They're doing good unto me.
They're helping me as well.
Look at second to chapter one, verse 16.
The Lord give mercy on the house of Onosyphus free off refresh me.
It was not ashamed of my chain.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me.
The Lord grant on him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
The apostle Paul loves Onosyphus.
Why he sought him out.
He wasn't ashamed of this guy.
And notice he often refreshed him.
Notice he often would minister unto him.
What is minister?
It's serving unto him.
It's doing good unto him.
So we as God's people want to try and be a constant minister,
doing good and other people refreshing other people.
You know, I there's certain people in my life that if they come and stay with me
or vice versa, we always it's always sad when we depart.
I'm always looking forward to the next time I get to see them.
There's other people.
As soon as they show up, you're ready for them to leave.
This is called family.
No, I'm kidding. In-laws, nicely.
I have great in-laws, but I'm just saying you guys, OK?
But here's the thing.
There are certain people that you really enjoy their presence
and there's other people who you don't.
And we as a guest, what you want to do is you want to leave on a good note.
You don't want to wear out your welcome.
You want to leave and make people think like, wow, that went quickly or wow,
I wish we had been able to talk more or I wish we could have done more together.
You want them to want you to come back, not for them to be like,
I can't wait for this person to leave.
I can't wait for this person to go somewhere else or making them
kick you out, basically.
OK, go to Luke Chapter 14, go to Luke Chapter 14.
And we're going to we're going to hammer that point a little bit further in a minute, but.
So number five, if you can take the host out to dinner or provide a meal for them.
Number six, you should have no expectations.
Look at Luke Chapter 14, verse 10.
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room
that he that when he that bathe thee cometh, he may stand with the friend
go up higher, then shout, they'll have worship in the presence of them
that sit at meet with thee.
Now, this is just a great principle and it's just one verse.
But essentially, we should not assume things.
We should not have high expectations of ourselves
of just, you know, inviting ourselves over either.
You know, some people are, you know, hey, what do you have for dinner?
It's like, I don't know.
It's like it's probably going to be good.
Yeah, I can't wait. What time six?
You're like, ah, yeah, somewhere, somewhere.
Someone's having dinner at six.
You know, what are you doing?
Oh, come and see you guys, right?
Don't don't invite yourself over.
Don't be that kind of don't have expectations.
You know, someone invites you over.
Oh, you're cooking me steak, right?
I like my done medium.
I could go for, you know, a 20 ounce porterhouse.
You know, what do you what do you got?
You know, don't don't have high expectations.
You know, don't have these these these crazy expectations or, you know.
Oh, you're giving me the master bedroom, right?
Yeah, thanks. No problem.
I'll take that. No, no, no biggie.
Yeah. Obviously, we want to have low expectations
and then we want to allow people to do good unto us.
We don't want to just set ourselves, you know.
Hey, I got the head of the table, right?
Nope. You can sit at the kid table, you know.
You can sit outside.
It's time for you to go.
We want to have no expectations.
Whenever you come to an accommodation, you know, don't look at the situation
is, oh, I always have a king when when I sleep.
You just have a queen.
That's going to be rough.
You know, I need three pillows.
You don't have three pillows for me.
You know, I have to have, you know, a five thousand count red, you know.
We just don't have expectations like that.
Just accept the accommodations.
OK. And you laugh.
But I'm serious.
Some people just need this to be explained to them very explicitly.
Look, don't have expectations.
Just take what people give unto you.
Go to First Peter, chapter number three.
Ask before you take anything, you know, don't just,
you know, just strip down and jump in the hot tub and, you know, just ask,
you know, be polite, be respectful of certain areas.
Don't just start walking around the house.
Ask to be shown around.
Even when I come into a house, I don't just start going,
looking in every single bedroom.
What do you got in this closet?
What do you got in this drawer over here?
You know, it's like, no,
you just ask if you need to go somewhere or do whatever they tell you.
You know, just try to be respectful.
Think about yourself.
You know, even when they say make yourself at home, don't take that too literally.
Nobody really means that, OK?
They just say that that's one of those expressions.
OK, look at First Peter, chapter three.
Look, verse number eight is my seventh point.
Finally, be all of one mind, having a passion, one another.
Love is brethren, be pitiful, be courteous,
not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing,
knowing that you are there unto called that you should inherit a blessing.
And the worst what I want to kind of pick out here
is the fact that we as God's people need to be very courteous people.
We need to be very pitiful.
We need to love and we need to have some type of compassion.
And and what this looks like is we have to realize
that if you go into someone else's home, OK,
it's not going to be your home.
They're going to do things differently.
They're going to have things that you may disagree with.
They may be things that they do that you don't like.
There's going to be certain ways they prepare food.
You wouldn't prepare it that way.
You know what? I never boil chicken.
That's just a bad way to cook, OK?
But if they boil me chicken, I'm going to eat it.
You know, there's going to be certain things they do that are just wrong,
like having ranch dressing.
That's just that's just wrong, OK?
You know, if they offer me day one,
I'm not going to curse them at their house, OK?
You know, if they do certain things that if they say, hey,
you can't wear shoes in the house, I wear shoes in my house.
But you know what? I'm going to take my shoes off.
Hey, they're going to do things that you don't agree with that you don't like.
This is not your opportunity to tell them how to do things better.
Well, we have shoes in our house.
We actually season our food.
Oh, you know, it's like, what are you talking about, buddy?
Hey, we put the toilet paper on right, buddy.
We put it on, you know, on the top, not the down.
It's like, who cares? It's toilet paper.
Really? Do you really care that much?
I try to touch it as least as possible, you know,
just anything and everything.
You know, I got to straighten this mirror out for you.
You know, I got to I got to do all this.
Why do you have this picture? Why do you do this?
And what do you see the movie you had here?
And you see what your kids are over here and you see what you read.
It's not your opportunity
to tell them everything that you think that's wrong about their place
and everything that they're doing wrong and to pick them apart.
If you want to never be invited back, you know,
constantly tell them how they can improve.
Constantly instruct them.
I know everything they're doing is wrong.
They will not want you to come back.
Being a guest, you should keep your mouth shut.
What is that? It's called courtesy.
What is courtesy?
Don't tell everybody everything they do wrong.
You have a bad spirit when you have this type of attitude.
That is not the attitude of Christ.
That's not the attitude of a Christian.
We got to have compassion.
We got to be pitiful.
We got to be loving.
We got to be very courteous under people having manners, being respectful
and just realizing, hey, we're all compass about with sin.
Nobody in this room is perfect.
Nobody has the right idea about everything.
We all have to work on certain things.
Look, I don't even like everything about my own house, OK?
So obviously, if I was going with a critical spirit,
I could point out all kinds of things.
Hey, your office is really messy. You're right.
Hey, you need to work on your garage. Yeah, I do.
Hey, your gutters, they got a lot of leaves in them. You're right.
You know, I could pick my house apart.
Don't go around picking other people's houses apart
and all their different things and how they treat each other
and how they do these things.
Look, just pray for them. All right.
Go to first.
Go to first, that's in chapter five, first lens.
So what's point number seven?
Don't talk about how you would do things differently.
If you want to be such a good example, just show me.
But don't go around picking me apart and telling me everything I do wrong.
Be a courteous person.
You know, a person that's not courteous,
they just say everything that comes to their mind.
Just every single thing they think just is blurted out.
And these people are often bad people.
And I've been around people, you know, that it's just like you have any filter.
And it's just like, no.
Why they have no courtesy.
They have no love.
They have no compassion.
And they need to fix that.
Look at first, that's in chapter five, verse 18.
And everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ.
Jesus concerning you.
Another thing you need to do is whenever you're a guest
at someone's house is you need to constantly say thank you.
Thank you for letting me stay here.
Thank you for providing me a meal.
Thank you for giving me these towels.
Thank you. Just everything about it.
You need to be constantly thanking them
and being appreciative of everything they gave you.
Now, obviously, we still don't want to be insincere,
but you should be able to stir up in your heart the reality of saying,
even if it wasn't the best meal you've ever had in your entire life,
you could still say thank you for it.
Even if it wasn't the greatest, if it wasn't the Ritz Carlton,
you could still be very thankful in your heart
that they're willing to take you in
and allow you to stay there and to do good under you.
And we need to get the right attitude in the right heart of giving thanks
and notice in everything.
What does God say?
Well, I just, you know, I just can't believe I had to stay here
and I had to do that.
Look, you just have a bad spirit.
A good person that loves the Lord is going to be thankful
for a lot of different things.
There's a lot of things to be thankful for.
And if someone's bring you into their home, look, that's a sacred place.
The home is a special place. It's a sacred place.
We ought not treat that with disrespect.
We ought to be very thankful that someone would be willing to allow you
to come into their home for any reason,
any reason at all.
Go to Galatians, chapter number six, Galatians chapter six.
So let's give me give me a quick review recap.
Number one, go to places that are worthy.
Number two, salute the house, compliment the house.
Number three, just don't go from house to house.
Be content and grateful for all your accommodations.
Number four, don't complain about things there.
Numbers, it was a number five.
Number six, have no expert or number five.
Take the host out to dinner.
Number six, have no expectations.
Number six, don't or seven.
Don't talk about how you do things differently.
Number eight, say thank you for the things provided.
And another way you can even do this is give them a thank you note afterwards.
After you're gone, you can send them a special thank you or say something under them.
Number nine, clean up after yourself.
Wow. Do people need this one?
And this is just universal, OK?
Just people are bad at cleaning up after themselves.
Hey, here's one.
Aren't you a guest in the house of the Lord today?
How about you clean up after yourself?
Any house that you go into, clean up after yourself.
Don't be a messy person.
People understand this, especially your kids.
What usually happens is there's some people they come in and their kids
kids destroy somebody else's house and they're just like, see ya.
And it's like, man, I can't stand inviting them over.
They just destroy our house.
You need to clean up after yourself.
Look at Galatians Chapter six, verse two.
Bury one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
You need to bear the burden of cleaning up
and not even just cleaning up after yourself, clean up after them, too.
I'll even offer to do the dishes for them or to help clean up
anything that you notice that you can do.
Be helpful about the house.
Don't be a burden.
Bear one another's burdens when you come in, you're a burden.
Let me just help you out.
Every single guest is a burden, period.
You are the burden.
So you know what you need to do?
You need to try and lighten that load a little bit.
Clean up after yourselves.
Be willing to help them out around the house.
Hey, is there anything I can do to help with dinner?
Hey, can I take out the trash?
Hey, can I help you clean up this?
Hey, you see something spilled.
Can I clean up after that?
Hey, your kids are playing with these toys.
Let me go clean up after those things.
Go if you would to Second Corinthians Chapter 12,
Second Corinthians Chapter 12, the Bible says in First Thessalonians two.
Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others,
when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ.
So the apostle Paul, when they would come into a certain area,
they tried their hardest not to be a burden upon them.
What are some of the ways they did this?
Well, they wouldn't take any money or they would, you know, feed themselves
or they do all these different things. Why?
They didn't want to be a burden on other people.
And we should try our hardest not to be a burden on other people
whenever we're in their space, whenever they're in their situation.
We should try to be the least amount of burden upon them as possible.
Says in Second Corinthians Chapter 12, verse 14.
Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you
and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours, but you
for the children ought not to lay up for the parents,
but the parents for the children.
So notice that he wants to not be burdensome unto them.
He is, in a sense, the parent in this picture.
OK, what's what is he trying to say?
He's the one that got them saved.
He's the one that's pastoring them and leading them and guiding them.
And he's saying it doesn't make sense for you guys to be taking care of me.
It makes more sense for me to be taking care of you.
What's a good pastor?
A good pastor bears the burden.
What's a bad pastor do?
He makes other people bear his burden.
That's the picture of a bad pastor.
Why? Because a leader is supposed to be a minister.
He's supposed to be ministering unto other people.
Now, obviously, for the work of the Lord to go on strong
and a good pastor or good leader is going to delegate.
He's going to allow a lot of other people to get involved
and shift off to other burdens.
But the minister, the primary leader, should not be shifting off burdens
that he wouldn't do himself.
He shouldn't be giving the hardest tasks to other people and just
and just taking it easy and just taking it light.
And hey, I'll just give you all the hard jobs.
I'll give you all the difficult things
and I'll just take all the easy things upon myself.
And I think that this could still apply.
Hey, when you come into the house, you ought to be as least burdensome as possible.
Go to Acts chapter 24, Acts chapter 24.
It also says in the Bible in second Corinthians 11.
And when I was present with you and wanted, I was charged with no man
for that which was lacking to me, the brethren,
which came from Macedonia supplied and all things.
I have kept myself from being burdensome under you.
And so will I keep myself.
So we see a lot of places in the Bible where the men of God
are trying their hardest not to be a burden.
And so because of them trying not to be a burden in some way,
I liken that on to being a guest.
When you're a guest, you should try your hardest
not to be a burden on the people any more than you already are.
Because guess what?
You're going to be a burden when you come into someone else's home.
Look at Acts chapter 24 verse 16.
And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void
of offense toward God and toward men.
The reality is whenever you aren't very self-aware,
whenever you're just relaxing and doing whatever and making all these messes,
you end up offending people, you end up causing them to be upset with you.
And the Bible says we should try our hardest not to offend our brethren in any way.
We should be the most gracious, kind guests that we possibly can,
one whom people are excited to have over, not a burden.
Go to Proverbs 25.
This is the last one I'm going to have for point number one about being a guest.
But again, being a guest is a special privilege.
We ought not take that lightly.
And if you want to continually be people's guests,
you need to take a lot of this advice.
You know, you need to take this and take heed to this advice.
My last point is Proverbs chapter 25, and we've looked at this a little bit,
but look at verse 17.
Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee.
And look, this, if you learn any point about being a guest, this is number one, two, three,
four, five, six and seven, do not overstay your welcome.
And my mother drilled this into me.
She hammered this point.
And, you know, sometimes you would want to stay longer, but you just need to leave.
And I've been in so many situations where you can tell
that somebody wants the other person to leave, and they're not getting the hint.
Like, to an extreme.
Let me give you the extreme, okay?
They're saying, well, we're getting in bed.
And they go, and they get their pajamas, and they come back out.
All right, we're going to turn the lights out.
We're getting in bed, and it's like, leave, you know, get out.
They want you to go.
Stop being in their presence.
And look, do not overstay your welcome.
You should leave where they want you to stay, not the opposite.
Not be like keeping people up way past, you know, midnight hours.
And look, obviously you're having a good time.
Sometimes time just flies, and sooner or later it's late, and you didn't even realize it.
Okay? But at the end of the day, you don't want people to just think, man,
I can't wait for them to leave.
I just, or you're just dropping hints, and it's just like, they're not getting it.
I mean, look, well, you know, thanks for coming.
Let me help you out.
When they say thanks for coming, you leave.
Well, I'm glad that you were able to come over.
It's time to go.
Hey, I'm glad you got to see me, you know.
Now, that's kind of sarcastic.
But whenever they start dropping hints, you probably already crossed that threshold.
You need to go. And sometimes people, they're just very polite, they're very courteous,
so they don't want to just spell it out for you.
They don't want to just say, get out of here.
Hey, it's time for you to go.
We're done. You know, hit the road, Jack.
So they'll just say, thanks for coming.
You know, can I get your coat?
You know, do you want me to warm up your car or, you know?
Obviously, when they start dropping hints, you need to get out of there.
Okay. And you probably should even apologize.
Oh, okay. Yes, sorry.
You know, we don't want to, we didn't want to take you too long or we appreciate you
letting us come over. We'll get out of here.
No problem. See you later.
You know, don't be like, ah, you want me to leave already?
What's this? Where's the dessert?
You know, where's the chocolate chip cookies?
You know. Oh, you're going to bed.
Don't worry. I'll lock up.
What's the alarm code? You know.
No, you just get out of there.
Okay. Go to Second Kings chapter four.
Go to Second Kings chapter four.
We want to be good guests today.
We want to be gracious guests.
We want people to enjoy our presence, enjoy our company.
And at some point, whenever you don't withdraw from your neighbor's house, they start
getting irritated. They start hating you is what the Bible says.
That's intense. They didn't hate you.
At first, because they wouldn't invite you over.
So you go from one extreme of enjoying somebody to now you never want to be around them.
This is the experience you get in college called roommates.
You like this person. You want a room with them.
By the end of it, you never want to ruin that person ever again.
It's like that person is a horrible person to live with.
And you say, why? Well, they weren't following any of these steps.
Okay. But look at Second Kings chapter four verse eight.
Let's talk about hosts for a moment.
And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman, and she
constrained him to eat bread.
And so it was that as off as he passed by, he turned and thither to eat bread.
And she said unto her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is an holy man of God.
Which passes by us continually, let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall,
and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick, and it
shall be when he cometh to us, he shall turn and thither.
Now, go to Judges chapter 19.
What I like about this story is they were really thinking about the needs of their
guests, weren't they? Hey, let's get this guy a bed.
Let's get this guy a table.
Let's get this guy a stool.
Let's get this guy a candlestick.
And then what's her attitude?
So then the next time he'll stay with us again, she's already planning the next time
she's saying, I want to be the such a great host, such a wonderful blessing unto this
person that there is no way they would go anywhere else.
And look, I stayed with people where I think, like, I don't want to stay anywhere else.
I love staying here.
I love being at this place.
It's great. They have such great accommodations.
They're so welcoming.
It's just wonderful.
I don't even want to go back home.
I'll just stay with them. You know, it's how you feel.
And she's trying to make it so great that any time he's traveling, oh, man, he's going
to stay there. He's going to want to stay with this type of person.
Now, Judges Chapter 19 is a negative chapter, OK, I get that, but we can pick out some
nuggets of gold here. All right.
Look at verse 20. And the old man said, Peace be with thee.
Howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me.
Only lives not in the street.
So he brought him into his house and gave pro vendor under the asses and they washed
their feet and did eat and drink.
The old man does something very good.
He says, hey, let all of your wants lie upon me.
And that's the attitude of a great host.
A great host wants to take care of everything.
Say, hey, anything and everything you need, we got you covered.
We thought about it. We got all the food.
We got all the snacks.
We got water for you.
We got extra sheets.
We got extra blankets.
We got the towels.
It's not like, hey, we'll use the towel.
Oh, the dog only laid out a little bit.
Here you go. Here's an extra towel here.
Like, I don't want to stay there again.
You know, when people aren't really thinking about your needs or trying to accommodate
you or they they're not trying to satisfy every single one of your wants, it really
ends up being a place you don't really want to stay at again.
It ends up being not as comfortable of a place as it could be when the person is just
saying, look, everything you could possibly need.
I got it. And let me take care of it.
I got your food. I got your clothing.
I got everything you could possibly need.
Come here and we'll take care of you.
Number one point, being a host, all your wants should lie upon you.
If not, why be a host?
What's the point? If you're going to be the host, say, hey, we got you covered.
Go to First Timothy, chapter number five.
Go to First Timothy chapter five.
The Bible says in Luke nine.
And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor script, neither
bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece.
And whatsoever house you enter into, there abide and thence depart.
So Jesus, when he's trying to send his disciples out in the beginning, he says, take
nothing. You know what?
That's going to make them need to be fully reliant on their host for
their host to provide all their needs.
And that's why it said the labor is worthy of his hire, isn't because he's going to be a
burden on these people.
But that's what Jesus wanted them to do.
Look at First Timothy, chapter five, verse 10.
This is talking about widows, it says, well reported up for good works if she have
brought up children, if she have lodged strangers.
If she have washed the saints feet, if she ever leave the afflicted, if she have
diligently followed every good work.
Now, I've never had anybody wash my feet when I came in.
I'm not asking for that.
OK, but notice that's that's pretty subservient, isn't it?
That's a pretty gracious attitude.
Whenever she's hosting someone, she'll even wash their feet.
She's letting all of their wants lie upon her.
And some people don't understand the word stranger in the Bible.
Stranger here does not mean someone she's never met.
OK, it means a foreigner.
OK, it means someone that's not from that area.
What would this look like?
Maybe you have a friend or you know somebody that doesn't live here and they're coming
here and you're lodging them, you're putting them up.
Look, in today's day and age, we're not supposed to just take random people off the
street and put them in your house.
That is bad advice.
Don't take this verse and go to a weird extreme.
Don't invite the bum on the corner to live with you.
Don't invite random people that you have no idea about.
They're really sketchy into your home.
I don't I don't agree with that.
I don't believe in that.
Now, look, you know, I'm not saying you can't and I'm not saying there's not in a
circumstance where it might seem like you just want to be a blessing, but be very
cautious of that. And the lodging of strangers here is not in connection with just
taking random bozos and putting them in your house.
It's talking about people that have nowhere to stay.
There's someone that, you know, you're familiar with, they have a good report.
You know, Ruth is considered a stranger in the book of Ruth, but he knows all about
her. He knows where she's from.
He knows that she's a good person.
So, hey, if a pastor friend of mine calls me and says, hey, I have a church member.
They're a really faithful church member.
They're serving the Lord.
They're a great family.
I've known them for years.
They need a place to stay.
That's lodging a stranger.
It's not me going out somewhere, just finding some bum at 12 o'clock at night and
inviting them in my house.
That is not what the Bible is teaching.
Why in the world would a widow do that?
That is nonsensical.
OK, and historically, like old IFP churches and things like that, they're very
hospitable. If you call them and say, hey, we have a young minister, we have a young
youth pastor, we have a traveling evangelist or whoever.
They'll have people accommodate them.
Sometimes they're usually older people that their kids are left to empty nesters.
It could even be a widow in this case.
That's what the Bible is picturing here.
Being someone that would even lodge a stranger, go to Luke chapter number 10.
And look at verse 33, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he
was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him and he went to him and bound up his
wounds, pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an end
and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence and
gave them to the host and said in him, take care of him.
And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
Look at the attitude of the good Samaritan.
All of the wants are lying upon the good Samaritan.
And even in this case where he's the host, it's not even his physical dwelling.
And that can be the case, too.
You know, we have pastors come and preach for us.
They don't always stay in my personal home.
OK, we might get them a hotel room or we might get them some kind of accommodations
in the area, but hey, we're going to say all of your wants.
We want them to lie upon us.
We'll take care of it.
We'll pay for it.
We'll do good on you.
We want to be a blessing unto people.
We want to be such a good host.
They're like, I really hope Pastor Shelley asked me to come preach for them again
because it's such a great experience.
We don't want to be such a sour host that they're like, man, I can't stand being with
those guys. They put me in some fleabag motel and they don't even they take me out
to the worst dinner, you know, McDonald's or whatever Taco Bell.
It's like, what are you doing here?
Hey, you can have whatever you want to talk about on the dollar menu.
You know, don't get those expensive combo meals.
All right. That's where they get you.
You know, you can have the cheapest thing on the menu.
You know, don't go over five dollars either.
OK, this is a bad host.
All right. We want to be a good host.
We want them to be enjoying their stay.
Go to Genesis Chapter 18.
So point one, if you're going to be a host.
You should realize you should be a good host.
You should decide, you know what, if I'm going to host something, if I'm going to
accommodate somebody, I'm going to pony up, basically, I'm going to be the one to make
sure and take care of them and do good.
Hey, we'd like to invite you over for dinner.
We really like, you know, Marco's pizza, would you buy some and bring it over?
It's like what? And in fact, you know, we can only have dinner for about 30 minutes.
Maybe you just drop it off.
Look, that's not a good host.
OK, a gracious host.
Don't invite people to dinner, you know, invite them over to your home, expecting them
to bring the dinner, expecting them to pay for it.
You should be a good host.
I heard a story about some guy, I'm not going to go in there.
Genesis Chapter 18, look at verse number one.
And the Lord appeared unto him the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the
heat of the day, and he lift up his eyes and looked and lo, three men stood by him, and
when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the
ground and said, My lord, if now I found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee
from my servant. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched and wash your feet and rest
yourselves under the tree.
And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort your hearts after that you shall pass on.
For therefore, are you come to your servant, and they said, so do as thou said, and Abraham
hastened into the tenants era and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal,
need it and make cakes upon the hearth.
And Abraham ran to the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young
man. He hated to dress it, and he took butter and milk and the calf, which he addressed
and set it before them.
And he stood by them under the tree and they did eat.
So my point number two, if you're going to be a guest, you should constantly I'm sorry,
if you're going to be a host, you should constantly offer your guests beverages and
food. You should constantly offer them the things that they need.
Hey, they come in. Hey, do you need a glass of water?
Do you need anything to eat?
Can I get you anything?
Can we help you with anything?
You should be constantly offering because if you have a good guest, they're not going to
sit there and be like, I need some water now and I need something to eat now.
They're not going to be taking all these things.
So you need to be constantly offering them.
And most of the time people are thinking like, I wish you'd offer like five minutes ago.
You know, so if you're going to be a great host, you need to be constantly offering your
guest food and beverages and notice Abraham.
He's right on it. Right.
Hey, don't even leave.
Let me get something to drink. Let me get you something to eat.
Why don't you stay here? Let me help you out.
He's running into Sarah.
He's telling her what to do.
And she wasn't like, who are you to tell me what to do?
She just does it right.
Like a good wife, go to Genesis 24, Genesis 24, look at verse 19.
We have another example, it says right here, and when she had done giving him drinks, she
said, I will draw water for the camels also until they had done drinking this Rebecca
under the servant of Abraham.
And she's saying, hey, I'm not just going to feed you or give you drink.
I'll give your camels drink even.
So notice she's on top of it.
She's a good host.
She has a good attitude. Go to Luke Chapter 10.
Luke Chapter number 10.
So point one of being a great host, let all of the wants of the guests come upon you.
Be willing to take upon the full responsibility of being a good host and your
desire should be for them to stay.
What was the desire of the of the widow woman or of the woman hosting not widow, but the
woman hosting Elisha?
She wants to stay with them again.
Right. What was the attitude of Abraham here?
He wants them to stay with them.
That's the attitude of a host.
If you don't want them to stay with you, don't invite them over.
Don't bring them into your home.
Don't offer them these type of beverages.
Don't feed stray cats, OK, because they'll keep coming back.
All right. Number three point.
This is super important, OK?
Luke Chapter 10, verse three, go your ways, behold, I send you forth as lambs among
wolves. Whenever you invite someone into your home, you have to you have to still
protect your children.
Please protect your children.
Why did I say don't invite random strangers in your home?
Because you shouldn't. And, you know, I gave you a gift.
Hopefully, if you read that book, you'll see a good reason why.
Don't invite just random people in your home.
And even if you do, even if you think you know the person really well, they're not bunking
with my daughter, they're not bunking with my kids, they're going to be in a separate
space. They're not going to be in my kids space.
We're going to protect them and protect my kids.
I'm going to make sure my kids are safe.
I'm not going to leave them in the house with this random person.
I'm not going to put anybody in an awkward situation.
And in fact, I'm not going to leave a man with my wife in the home either.
And this goes to the point of being a guest to if you're a man and you're staying in
someone's home, don't stay alone with the wife, leave, just find something to do, just
go somewhere else.
If the man has to go to work or the man's not going to be there or the man's going to
go pick up milk or whatever, I'll go with you or hey, I'm going to step outside.
Don't put yourself in a compromising situation and don't put your family in a
compromising situation.
You don't know what's out there.
It's dark out there.
It's very dark and you need to protect your family.
Look, being hospitable is great.
Protecting your family is more important.
I would rather have nobody ever come to my house ever and have a bad rep for being not
being hospitable than anything ever happening to my kids.
You say, well, you couldn't be a pastor then.
Well, I'd rather not be a pastor and my kids not be molested.
Now, again, I'm not trying to say I won't be hospitable.
I've had people stay in my home.
You know what?
They're not going to be and I'm not going to compromise my children's safety by being
hospitable to anybody for any reason ever.
You make sure to keep your family safe.
You know, some people even make their kids sleep with them at night.
And I think that's a good idea.
You don't have to do that.
You know, the Bible, I'm not going to read for you again all of it, but it says in Second
Timothy chapter three, this know also then last days perilous time shall come.
There's a lot of bad people, a lot of false brethren.
I've known a lot of people who have hosted some bad people.
I've hosted some bad people.
OK, some really wicked people you don't even know.
Look, there's people that are child molesters that you wouldn't even believe.
Twenty five percent of children by the age of 18 have been molested in America.
Twenty five percent.
You know, that comes from bad guests.
Oh, Uncle Diddle came over.
And, you know, Cousin Diddle and Nephew, you know, it's like.
You don't trust any guest in your home with your children, period.
So I don't like that advice.
Well, you know what?
I don't want your kids to be molested.
You don't put them alone with your kids.
You don't put them in these places.
Your kids are too precious.
I'm going to read you some statistics.
During a one year period in the U.S.,
16 percent of youths ages 14 to 17 have been sexually victimized
Over the course of their lifetime,
28 percent of U.S. youth ages 14 to 17 have been sexually victimized.
Despite what children are taught about stranger danger,
most child victims are abused by someone they know and trust.
When the abuser is not a family member, the victim is more often a boy than a girl.
The results of a three state study of reported rape survivors under age 12,
which is so sick and disgusting, it says 96 percent were known to their victims.
50 percent were acquaintances and friends.
20 percent were fathers.
16 percent were relatives.
4 percent were strangers.
And when it's saying stranger here, it's not the Bible definition of stranger.
It's saying you didn't know them at all.
So, in fact, not knowing people
is a less likely occurrence of something bad happening.
Now, you want to know why?
Because when you don't know someone, all of a sudden you put on all your protection,
don't you? You don't you don't you put up you put up a lot of safeguards.
You're not going to trust them.
Guess what? Do that with everyone.
Because I don't like these statistics, these statistics are horrifying.
They're awful.
I looked up another article, Adicates for Youth 1995.
Child abuse and other risk of not living with both parents.
And this is where it really comes into play.
Published in Martin Daley and Margo Wilson, if their parents find new partners.
So this is talking about single parents.
And unfortunately, one of the highest abuse rates is among single parents
bringing in new people, bringing in people
they're not really that familiar with in the house.
Children are 40 times more likely
to be abused when their parents are single parent.
40 times more likely.
They're just I mean, it's like astronomical.
It says that those who are living with a biological parent
to be sexually abused or physically abused.
According to Missouri based study of children living in homes
with unrelated adults, children are nearly 50 times as likely to die
of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents.
So if you just happen to live with, you know, Steve and Bob or whatever,
50 times more likely to die.
Look, these statistics are just disturbing and scary, is what the article says.
And I agree.
But you need to protect your children.
I'm not trying to scare you about being a host.
We should be hospitable. We should be gracious.
But you know what?
There should be some clear boundaries, some clear protection.
And I don't like it when people, you know, try to put me in a compromising situation
because I don't want to put myself in a compromising situation
because I know if they'll trust me, they might do it with someone else.
And even though I know I won't do anything bad,
I don't want them to get used to putting someone in a situation
where they could do something.
I don't want them to put me alone with their kids.
I don't want them to put me alone with their spouse.
I don't want them to do these type of things.
I'm just going to completely stay away and even make mention of it.
No, I don't think it's appropriate for me to be here.
I'm just going to go somewhere else.
I don't want to put you in that situation.
I don't want to make you uncomfortable.
That's probably not a good thing to do.
And just help put them at ease, make them feel comfortable
putting boundaries, making things that are safe.
And if you're a guest, you should try your best to even put boundaries in place.
You don't want to allow your children to have any harm.
And there's a lot of precious children in this room.
You guard them and you protect them
and you don't let weirdos in your home.
Mark, Chapter 14, go to Mark, Chapter 14.
And just because they go to church doesn't mean they're a good person.
In fact, you might even be worse off.
Think about think about Genesis, Chapter 19.
Or Judges 19, yeah. Judges 19, they're traveling
and they don't want to stay abroad with the heathen
because they're so afraid of how dangerous that is.
So they stay with their brethren where guess what?
All the sodomites are.
Don't think that the land of Benjamin is always the best place to go.
Sometimes a Baptist church could be the most, you know,
the worst place to take your kids and drop them off
of the don't care and drop them off with, you know, the pedophile
behind the counter that you don't know about.
And look, I've been in independent fundamental Baptist churches
where men are behind the counter, taking the two year olds
and the three year olds, and it's weird.
No normal grown man want to change the diaper of any kid, even their own.
OK, I don't.
If you want to do that, you have problems, all right.
Mark, Chapter 14, look at verse 12.
And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover,
his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go
and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover?
And he sendeth forth two of his disciples and sayeth
and them go ye into the city.
And there shall you meet a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him.
And wheresover he shall go in, say ye to the good men of the house.
The master sayeth, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover?
Excuse me, Passover with my disciples.
And he shall show you a large upper room furnished and prepared.
There make ready for us.
Now we have to understand about the Passover.
You have to understand this.
It's a feast where everybody
in the entire nation of Israel is coming on to Jerusalem.
That's what they're supposed to do.
Now, a lot of people didn't do this, but all the faithful people,
they had to travel a long journey three times a year to Jerusalem
for certain feasts.
One of those feasts was the Feast of the Passover.
And the people that lived in Jerusalem, they know this
and they know that people are going to want to stay with them.
So this homeowner, he was already prepared for someone to stay with him.
He didn't know it was.
You know what? There's a prepared place for a prepared person.
And he happened to be the guy that gets to host Jesus Christ.
That worked out pretty well, didn't it?
Notice the guy that's not prepared.
He didn't get Jesus to stay with him.
But the guy that was already prepared, he's already a hospitable person.
He's ready to host people.
He gets to host the Lord Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples in his upper chamber.
I bet that was pretty cool.
Hey, that was the last supper of there, wasn't it?
Like, what do you mean by that? Never mind.
Be a fly on that wall, right?
Go to Luke Chapter seven, the last place of your turn.
Let me give you a recap.
If you're going to be a good guest, find a worthy home.
If you're going to be a good guest, salute the house.
If you're going to be a good guest, don't go from house to house.
Be content.
Number four, don't complain about things.
Number five, take the host out to dinner.
Number six, have no expectations.
Number seven, don't talk about all the things you do differently.
Number eight, say thank you for the things provided.
Number nine, clean up after yourself.
Number 10, don't overstay your welcome.
If you want to be a good host,
let all of the wants of your guests lie upon you.
And notice there's overlap there, isn't there?
The host, I'm telling you, provide them everything.
And if you're the guest, you're trying to take them out to dinner.
Why? Because you should be the most gracious person you could possibly be.
Obviously, there should be a tug of war naturally there, right?
And if they if the guest wants to take you out, let them take you out.
OK, don't refuse a gift.
Number two, offer your guests food and beverages.
Number three, protect your children.
Number four, have your place already prepared.
Be ready to take people on.
And number five,
as the host, offer to clean up everything.
Now, notice I'm telling both parties to do the same thing,
because this is what a good person is going to do.
There's going to be overlap.
A husband lays down his life for his wife.
The wife is a servant to her husband.
The husband's a servant to his wife.
Why? Because that's a great marriage.
When you have two people constantly trying to serve each other
and do good unto each other, it's great.
When you have two people trying to constantly take from one another, bad.
When you have a guest coming in, just trying to use up
all the resources of the host, bad.
When you have a host just trying to bum things off of the guest, bad.
You want the exact opposite.
You want the guest to be coming in, blessing the home,
doing good under the home, leaving early.
You want the host blessing them and doing everything for them.
So my last point is if you're going to host offer to clean everything up,
say, hey, don't worry about it, we'll take care of it.
You don't worry about it, you just relax, you take it easy.
We want to do it.
You know, there should be a natural inclination for you
to do as much as you possibly can.
Look at Luke, chapter seven, verse 37.
And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner
when she knew that Jesus sat at me in the Pharisees house,
brought an alabaster box of ointment.
And stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears
and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet
and anointed them with the ointment.
So notice this host.
She's doing everything.
She's even wiping his feet with her hair.
That's pretty extreme, isn't it?
I mean, can you imagine someone doing that today?
But, you know, the other host, he's like, you didn't offer me anything to drink.
You didn't do anything for me.
This woman's willing to literally clean his feet with her hair.
I think you can clean up after your guests.
If this woman can clean Jesus feet with her hair,
I think you should be able to be willing to clean some things up, shouldn't you?
Nobody's that.
I mean, look, nobody has to go to these type of extremes.
Typically, I don't have to do that kind of stuff.
And I'm not going to wash your feet with my hair.
OK, you don't want that.
It's going to be really awkward, really quick, OK?
But at the end of the day,
we should be willing to go over and above and beyond.
We should be a gracious guest and we should be a wonderful host.
And when we do these type of things, we're going to be like our father in heaven.
So I hope that that helped use some practical advice.
Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, for all.