✍️ Making the meaning of hospitality from the people of the ancient near East. For a person from a nomadic nomad settlement, a question of hospitality might very well mean the difference between life and death. It was usually the custom to allow a passing stranger to spend a night in your town or settlement, but then the expectation was that the person would move on. However, permission to camp overnight was by no means assured. God Himself loves the stranger and provides the stranger with food and clothing. And then God's people are commanded to love strangers because they themselves were once strangers in Egypt. "Loving" the stranger certainly goes beyond what we normally think of as hospitality in our society. The biblical concept of "loving" someone, as you probably know, is not just about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you; it's about going further than that and actually putting their needs and welfare before your own.

Hospitality isn't just about smiling 😁 at visitors who walk into the doors 🚪 of our church. It's about an active desire to welcome and care for new people. Every group that meets in church, every committee, and every activity should be constantly thinking 'How can we reach out to those outside our church? How can we make our activities more welcoming? And this attitude of reaching out should become an on-going habit. When we really begin to live lives that genuinely seek the welfare of others, our lives begin to bubble over with joy and freedom and we become very effective witnesses to the Good News of the Gospel.

The good news of Jesus Christ, Paul tells us, is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Or, to look at it another way, God offered us hospitality when we were still strangers. In sending Jesus to die and rise again for our salvation, God was looking outside of Himself to our needs. God said, "These people need saving and I'm the only one who can rescue them". He didn't say these people are messing up the beautiful order of my good creation!

God doesn't ask us to become holy before He invites us into His kingdom. He doesn't demand that we cease to be strangers and sinners before He offers us hospitality. Rather, he goes out into the highways and byways and invites strangers and sinners into his kingdom and then He invites us to repent so that we can grow in holiness. The good news is that God is eternally looking outside of Himself to the welfare of others; we learn this when we practice the love of God in exuberant worship. The good news is that God gives us an exciting purpose to our lives: to look outside ourselves to the welfare of others; we learn this as we practice the love of our neighbour.

My declaration is that the reality of God's hospitality for us will fill our hearts anew this morning. And I also declare that, you'll be filled with joy at the salvation we have been given and also filled with thanksgiving at God's hospitality as we will go out today determined to spread Christian hospitality to everyone we meet. May God bless you🫵 more today as you🫵 continue on your journey to be an ever more fruitful, loving and fearless Christian in Jesus Mighty Name🙏.

SHALOM 🙏.