(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

men tonight I'm preaching on the subject of hospitality hospitality I touched on this recently in a sermon but it's such a great subject in the Bible and it's brought up so much in the Bible I decided to devote an entire sermon to this and really there's so much on this I almost had trouble cramming it all into one sermon so I want to get through the most important points on this tonight but first let me just start out by showing you four uses of the word hospitality this is where the Bible actually uses that word four times in the New Testament hospitality one of them's right here in Romans chapter 12 if you look down at your Bible it says distributing to the necessity of Saints given to hospitality and this is an injunction to all believers and later this is going to come up in the qualifications for the bishop that he should be given to hospitality and again this goes to show that the qualifications for the bishop or the deacon are the same type of life that we all should be living okay those people are supposed to be found faithful and then put in that position but really all of us as Christians should have that morality in our lives that is described in those qualifications but what I want to point out here is that notice that given to hospitality is mentioned in the same breath with distributing to the necessity of Saints you see in the ancient world hospitality was a necessity okay when we think of hospitality we think of going over to somebody's house for dinner right but when the Bible talks about hospitality what it's typically talking about is actually meeting someone's needs who is on a journey someone is traveling and you meet their needs or on the other side of the coin you're traveling and someone else meets your needs that's what the Bible is talking about with hospitality obviously back then there were no hotel chains and the hotel industry was not what it is today and so when you were traveling a lot of the times you'd be passing through small towns and you'd need a place to stay for the night and you would have to rely on hospitality not as an extra fun thing but actually as a necessity you needed a place to stay just in order to survive in order to be safe now if you would flip over to 1 Peter chapter 4 and while you turn to 1 Peter 4 I'll read for you of course from the qualifications for the pastor in 1st Timothy 3 2 it says a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality apt to teach then in Titus he says for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God not self-willed not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre watch this but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate so if we look at the context there in Titus the thing he says right before hospitality is not given to filthy lucre what would be a person who is given to filthy lucre what would we call that person we would say that they are greedy right greedy is something that we could bring up about someone who is given to filthy lucre and then it says not given to filthy lucre but on the on the other hand a lover of hospitality right so someone who's generous as opposed to the guy who's greedy the one who's given to hospitality is generous right he's willing to provide meals and lodging and the temporal needs for the traveler right and then right after the mention of a lover of hospitality it says a lover of hospitality a lover of good men OK so obviously there's a fellowship aspect of hospitality when someone comes it stays at your house or when you feed someone a meal obviously you're communing with that person you're having fellowship with that person and so the lover of hospitality is a lover of good men as well he loves to socialize with godly people he loves to socialize with good Christian men OK so first Peter chapter 4 verse 8 and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins use hospitality one to another without grudging as every man has received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God so again if we look at the context here of this commandment on hospitality right before that he talks about charity or love which obviously has to do with meeting people's needs taking care of them spending time with them using hospitality and then right after it says as every man has received the gift even so minister the same one to another because hospitality has to do with giving and receiving that which is free right you stay at someone's house they provide you with the meal and then next time they might stay at your house you might provide them with a meal etc so we can see from the context there what hospitality entails and then in verse 9 itself it says use hospitality one to another without grudging now this grudging could manifest in a few different ways number one it could be a grudge of you know oh man I don't want to spend my money or use up my food or use my resources to help out this other person because I'm stingy and greedy that could be the grudging right also the grudging could be on the recipient end because the Bible doesn't just say give hospitality without grudging it says use hospitality without grudging which actually implies more the receiving of hospitality being on the receiving end you say well why would someone grudge receiving hospitality because of the fact that they don't like the way that they're being put up now think about this let's say someone does you a favor they'd book your lodging they get you a hotel room they give you a place to stay or they give you a meal they take care of your needs and then you turn around and whine about it because it wasn't exactly what you wanted see how that could be using hospitality with grudging okay now in our society sometimes we've become picky eaters because we're just kind of given whatever we want and everyone special orders everything and I was guilty of this growing up I mean I was a big-time picky eater growing up so when I was a child and even into my teenage years I was extremely picky there I wanted everything plain there were a lot of foods that I didn't like and I got embarrassed so many times as a teenager being a picky eater because just not cool to be a picky eater right and so I'd be in situations where everybody's eating and I don't like this I don't like that you know finally I came to a point where I just made a decision I'm not gonna be a baby I'm not gonna be a picky eater I'm just gonna grow up and learn to eat what's put in front of me and I'm gonna branch out and sophisticated this palette and get to where I can eat all things and you know this is a place that we all need to come to in our lives especially you children and teenagers when you're still young and you're still able to form your views and form your habits you need to decide not to be a picky eater this is a bad attribute the Bible talks about sitting down and eating whatever is put in front of you and we're gonna get to that a little bit later in the sermon so if you're this person that has the super picky palette or you're just so restricted on oh I can't eat this I can't eat that look I'm not talking about somebody who has a medical condition okay if you have a medical condition and you're gonna go into anaphylactic shock don't just eat whatever is put in front of you okay but 99% of us we don't have these kind of extreme allergies and we can eat what's put in front of us even if it's not our favorite thing so you've got to learn to be willing to just eat and be thankful for the food that's put in front of you instead of just being all really picky and I don't like that it's rude when you're a guest in someone's home and they serve dinner clean your plate eat the food do your best to you know if it's not that good man wash it down with some flavorful beverage and just kind of swallow it like medicine if you have to but get it down because it's rude to look a gift horse in the mouth and it's embarrassing and it's childish and it's ungrateful and it's juvenile to be a picky eater you need to just be thank and really it's unthankful you know everything doesn't have to be a party in your mouth just eat it force it down I remember when I was in Germany everything was sauerkraut you know I don't like sauerkraut I still don't like sauerkraut but man over there you're eating sauerkraut for breakfast sometimes it seems like and you know I ate the sauerkraut I remember I was staying with these people and they were so excited and they said well oh man we're gonna take you out for a special treat Svebelkuchen it's onion pie oh wow what a treat you know they're gonna take me out for this Svebelkuchen and they say you know you drink it with this this this special grape juice new wine you know it's not alcoholic folks but you know they have us drink this drink and eat this onion cake and you know nowadays I love onions you know I'm just eating whole onions nowadays but back then I wasn't that big on onions okay so anyway we go to this restaurant get just this giant slab this is like instead of a meal just a giant slab of onion cake literally but it's more like an onion pie and the grape juice and you know I took the first bite and I was like you know this isn't so bad this actually tastes kind of good I kind of like this for a couple bites but it was like a whole meal of just just this pure onion pie it was it was strange but you know what I forced it down I thanked them you know now am I gonna order that when I'm by myself no way have I ever eaten it since in the 18 years since then no I haven't okay but you know you got to learn sometimes to just swallow it down get through it and once you do this for a while and just kind of force down things that you don't like pretty soon it'll get easy for you because your your palate will get a little more versatile where you learn to like things that aren't that good also I really strive to eat healthy okay you know we eat all organic food and we really try to eat things that are fresh and homemade and healthy but you know sometimes I go places and I'm fed a very junky meal or I'm fed a very unhealthy meal but you know I'm not just gonna turn my nose up and be like please you know I need something healthier than this you know it like I remember when I was in Trinidad this pastor's like brother we're going to Burger King you know cuz he's like I want to get you your food you know you're from America we're gonna eat your food I'm like that's not my food you know I told him I said I said I love the local food I said I said you like Indian food right that's what you guys eat here Indian I love Indian food and he's like no brother you're just saying that to be polite I know what you Americans want you want Burger King I'm like I'm like I was like well I haven't eaten Burger King in like ten years okay and he's like brother we're going to Burger King you know and I didn't want to be rude so eventually I decide you know what well if I'm gonna go big you know if you're gonna do it you might as well go big or go home so I got the double whopper with cheese you know supersize the whole coke and finish it off with a Dairy Queen you know now you say oh man all that junk food guess what a little bit of junk foods not gonna kill you if you're eating healthy 99% of the time in order to not be rude in order to just use hospitality without grudging guess what you can be a little flexible there and just say hey pass the whopper pass the coke pass you know and just just do it now I don't normally eat or drink that way but in a situation like that it's more important to be polite it's more important to be thankful and friendly and just pray that God will you know protect you from the harmful chemical effects okay so if you would flip over to Philemon so we those are the four direct mentions of the word hospitality in the New Testament but also there are some indirect mentions of this concept of hospitality one of them is the word host you know the Apostle Paul in Roman 16 he talks about a guy named Gaius and he says Gaius is my host and he says that guys is also the host of the whole church so basically anytime the church needs a place to stay anytime the Apostle Paul needed a place to stay in that area they use Gaius so that was a great reputation that he had for hospitality that he gets an honorable mention he gets a shout-out in Roman 16 for being a good host also in 1st Timothy 5 you'll see the word lodging and if you look up the word lodging there are way too many mentions for us to look at in the Old Testament the New Testament many of which have to do with hospitality like for example 1st Timothy 5 verse 10 when it talks about the godly 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 have relieved the afflicted if she have diligently followed every good work so part of her good works would be that she's brought up children and that she has lodged strangers or used hospitality showed herself to be a lover of hospitality Philemon verse 22 the Apostle Paul says to Philemon but with all prepare me also a lodging for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you so Paul's requesting lodging okay and then we're not going to turn to all these for sake of time but if you would flip over to Matthew chapter 10 and of course there are mentions of this throughout the book of Acts the Apostle Peter is staying at a guy's house named Simon the tanner he lodges with Simon the tanner and then when the messengers from Cornelius come then the Bible says that Peter lodges the messengers of Cornelius so basically Peter is receiving lodging he's giving lodging this is the use of hospitality other people in the Bible there was a guy named Nason of Cyprus that lodged them Publius lodged them it's just a word that comes up over and over again where people are using hospitality staying at other people's houses then in the Old Testament book of Job when Job is talking about the fact that he is not guilty because his three friends are falsely accusing him he says of the wicked they caused the naked to lodge without clothing and they have no covering in the cold but on the other hand in chapter 31 verse 32 he said the stranger did not lodge in the street but I opened my doors to the traveler so part of Job's righteousness was that he was hospitable he opened his doors to the traveler he didn't make them lodge in the street in the cold without any help these are people that are traveling on a journey and they need a place to stay now in Matthew chapter 10 we see that when Jesus sent out his disciples to preach when he sent them out evangelizing doing missions soul winning right they relied upon hospitality as their way to have a place to stay have food etc look at Matthew 10 verse 5 these 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter you not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand yield the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils freely you've received freely give watch this provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses nor script for your journey neither two coats neither shoes nor yet staves for the workman is worthy of his meat and into whatsoever city or town you shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and there abide till you go then now when he says here don't bring any of these things because the workman is worthy of his meat what he's saying there is that you're doing the work of the Lord and so it is your right to basically receive hospitality you're coming in and preaching and winning souls and evangelizing and so while you're there you don't need to bring money or extra clothes or anything I got just rely on other people to provide that stuff for you because the workman's worthy of his meat you know you deserve that stuff because you're working hard and serving the Lord that stuff is provided by others when you go there and then when he says that they get to the town there to inquire who in it is worthy and there abide until they go then so they're supposed to pick a house in the town where they're gonna say they're gonna ask around and figure out where the best place for them to lodge would be and they're supposed to stay in that same lodging throughout their stay and we're gonna get to that in a little bit why that's important they're supposed to just find a place stay there that's where they're gonna lodge that's where they're gonna take their meals that's where they're gonna sleep they're gonna rely on someone's hospitality in the town now it says in verse 12 when you come into a house salute it and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it obviously we're not talking about the building you know hello house you know obviously it says it's saying here salute everyone in the household greet everyone and again we're learning here how to be courteous how to use hospitality be friendly greet everyone and then he says here if 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 when you depart out of that house or city shake off the dust of your feet verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city so if the city will not provide lodging and will not listen to the preaching they don't want to hear the Word of God then you shake off the dust of your feet and it's worse than for Sodom now it's interesting that Sodom is brought up here I want you to remember that because that's going to come into play later in the sermon go to Mark chapter 6 because I'm going to show you how whenever these instructions are given whether in Matthew Mark or Luke Sodom is always mentioned in a negative way with these teachings on soul winning and missions and hospitality now you say well pastor Anderson how come when we do missions how can we do bring money why do we bring a suitcase full of clothes and we bring money and we bring our own stuff why don't we just rely on hospitality well because of the fact that later on at the end of the Gospels when Jesus speaks to them at the end of the book of Luke he tells them hey when you went out with nothing did you lack anything and they say Lord we lack nothing you know when we went out and relied on hospitality we lacked nothing but then he says them but now I say unto you take the coats take the money take the purse and you know if you don't have a sword sell your garment to buy one you see this was a special situation this is not God's instruction to us today this was his instruction for the Apostles God miraculously provided some of this just like when Jesus needed a place to have the Passover you know he just tells them all right go into the city and there's gonna be guy carrying a pot of water on his head follow the guy with the water pot and just you know and just follow him and and then he's just gonna lead you into a house there's just gonna be an upper room ready to roll and that's where we're gonna have the Passover or like when they're told you go into the city and you're gonna find an ass all tied by itself and and you're just gonna lose it and if they ask you why are you losing the cult then just say hey the master hath need of it right and then they'll just let you go so Jesus has provided them with the lodgings that they need the hospitality that they need and he later brings this up by saying hey you didn't lack anything because God basically providentially worked it out that wherever they went their needs were always met but then he changes the instruction at the end when he's about to go to the cross and says you know now you do need to bring a purse you do need to bring a staff etc but obviously these teachings are still profitable even though we're not relying as heavily on hospitality as the Apostles were told to do there are still going to be times when we give and receive hospitality as I showed you the scriptures this is still relevant but not to these extremes okay this is obviously an extreme situation where they're just going out and preaching full-time and just not worrying about anything that's because they're told to do that we're not told to do that okay just like we're not told to only go to Israel don't go to Samaria don't go to the Gentiles we're told the opposite right go to all nations so these teachings in Matthew 10 mark 6 they're relevant to us but they've been slightly modified later okay just like the modification to teach all nations there's been a modification that says hey have some money in your wallet okay so anyway mark chapter 6 verse 7 and he called unto them unto him the 12 and began to send them forth two by two I'm sorry I'm reading this wrong let me start over and he called unto him the 12 and began to send them forth by two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only no script no bread no money in their purse but be shod with sandals and not put on two coats and he said unto them in what place so ever you enter into in house there abide till you depart from that place see that command again we're gonna get to that in a moment and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when you depart thence shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them barely I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment then for that city go to Luke 9 Luke chapter number 9 Luke chapter number 9 actually just go to Luke 10 and I'll read for you the verses from 9 Luke 9 3 said unto them take nothing for your journey neither staves nor script neither bread neither money neither have two coats of peace and whatsoever how she enter into there abide and thence depart now let's look at chapter 10 verse 1 after these things the Lord appointed other 70 also so first he sent out the 12 two by two now he's ordaining other 70 also so how many are there total now 82 okay so there were not only 12 apostles there are a minimum of 82 apostles and then if you add apostle Paul there's a minimum of 83 apostles and it's likely that there could be over 500 apostles okay so there were a lot of apostles special chosen witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and we see guys like Paul and Barnabas are apostles well who's Barnabas he's not one of the 12 right but Jesus ordained 70 other also he gave them these powers and they witnessed the resurrection etc so I would tend to believe that there are 83 apostles you know as far as just what we see in Scripture clearly delineated that would be my guess but of course there could be more than that but there can't be less than that because we see that minimum so it says here in verse number two therefore said he unto them the harvest truly is great but the laborers are few pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send for the laborers into his harvest 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 into whatsoever how she 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 let me just stop and say this if you bless the wrong person it's okay right because your peace will just kind of return to you you can just kind of like rescind that blessing so here's the thing you know we should not knowingly bless haters of God or people who come bringing a false gospel right the Bible tells us in the book of 3rd John if someone comes unto you not bringing this doctrine 2nd John receive him not into your house neither bid him Godspeed for he that biddeth him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds so you don't want to bid Godspeed to the purveyor of false doctrine right but that doesn't mean why I have to make sure anyone that I bless is a right person no it's okay to just indiscriminately bless you know I'm constantly telling people God bless you and and and blessing people just blessings here they're just blessings for everyone right because if you end up blessing someone who's wicked unknowingly well then you know what it just doesn't count it just doesn't matter okay so you should strive to bless and give people the benefit of the doubt and assume people are good people until they prove to you that there's some wicked false prophet or reprobate or whatever so you when in doubt bless okay because let's say you bless them and you cause your peace to come upon the house well if the Son of Peace is not there you know it'll just return to you again all right you just kind of bring that back just I'm gonna go ahead and withdraw that blessing okay so then look at verse number seven it says and in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give for the laborer is worthy of his higher go not from house to house now this might surprise you or you might think this is crazy or ridiculous I have literally had people point to this verse and say we shouldn't go door-to-door soul winning because the Bible says go not from house to house so this is a classic example of how you could twist the Bible and take things out of context to make it say whatever you want if you're dishonest right if you just want to take a verse and I've had tons of people well the Bible says go not from house to house when he's sending them out evangelizing he says don't go from house to house look there are tons of scriptures that speak positively of going to house to house for example acts 542 daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and praise Jesus Christ or acts 2020 you know you think of having 2020 vision is a good way to remember this we're coming up on the year 2020 here's a great theme verse for the year 2020 acts 2020 and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house so Paul talked about teaching the Word of God from house to house go out into the highways and hedges folks when he says go not from house to house it's about the hospitality here's what he's saying when you use the hospitality of a house you eat and drink such things as are set before you and you don't go from house to house here's what he's saying when you're using hospitality you don't have lunch here and get the gifts and get taken care of here and then be a glutton and go all right now let's go party at the next house and you're basically abusing hospitality by basically sleep here dirty the bedsheets and then up now we're gonna use somebody else's now we're gonna use somebody else's I eat breakfast here lunch here dinner over here shopping around for the best meals shopping around for the best logic look you just humbly accept the lodging that's provided and you stick with that one so that you're not just trying to just use hospitality all over the place and abuse the privilege does everybody understand what he's saying here that's why in Matthew Mark and Luke he gave that injunction that said hey look wherever you stay there abide till you go that's you know pick a spot stay there eat the food you know use the hospitality don't just borrow favors from everybody in the whole town and get all the gifts because it was common in those days to that when someone would stay with you they would give you a parting gift you know so not only would they give you food not only would they give you a place to stay as long as they give you a gift or something for the road you know and I've experienced this when I go places and preach sometimes they'll give me not only a lodging or not only a meal but they'll often send me home with a gift you know for example you know I just preached in North Carolina and I was given some books I was given the book war is a racket you know a great book so you know I was given some books and and sometimes you know we'll be given the the Reese's peanut butter cups for the road or whatever you know they'll give us gifts to take with us and and sometimes I'll have one of my daughters with me they'll give her a coloring book or they'll give her stickers some you know people will just give you a gift so you don't want to go from house to house just kind of collecting all the gifts collecting all the food collecting the drink collecting the coats and the and the clothing and the changes of raiment that's abusing hospitality so that's actually what that verse means so don't ever let anybody try to hit you with that one and then in verse 8 it says and into whatsoever city you enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you picky eaters you don't come in and say oh well you know can I have this can I have that can I get this you know different can I get a special order item and so that's why you got to start training yourself if you're gonna grow up kids you listening kids if you're gonna grow up and properly use hospitality and eat such things as are set before you you need to start practicing now eating things you don't like and if you start practicing now eating things that you don't like then when you grow up you won't be that pain-in-the-neck guest that refuses every meal you refuse the breakfast you refuse the lunch you refuse the dinner and then you you're you're going up to McDonald's you know you're being served a five-star breakfast but I don't like it and then you're going to McDonald's how do you think that makes your hostess feel when you're having the egg McMuffin and she's trying to serve you you know some kind of an omelet or something but you don't like eggs you don't like cheese you don't like this kind of bread you know you don't like sausage you don't like bacon you don't like chorizo something's wrong with you all right because these are the these are the finer things it doesn't get much better than chorizo amen so you know you don't you just don't want to be picking now look we all have our preferences right there's food that I like and food that I don't like but you know what food that I don't like I can still eat it anyway you know and when I'm on an airplane every calorie is precious and so I'll eat anything that the anything that they bring on an airplane I'll eat it I don't care what it is I eat stuff that I hate because every calorie is precious amen all right so let's get off this because I got a hurry for sake of time I just want to point out that in verse 12 again Sodom is referenced now why is Sodom referenced in Matthew Mark and Luke go back to Genesis 18 this is because Sodom is the quintessential example of bad hospitality in the Bible not only Genesis 18 and 19 but also judges 19 where it's not the literal city of Sodom but it's the sodomites in judges 19 who exhibit terrible hospitality in judges 19 the sodomites and Sodom itself so let's look at some hospitality examples we've talked a lot about you know what the Bible teaches what Christ taught what the Bible says but what about seeing this in action okay let's look at hospitality in action first we're gonna see the good example of Abraham in Genesis 18 verse 1 and the Lord appeared unto him in 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 so here we see the Lord appears to Abraham and he has two people with him right because it says there's three men the Lord's one of them and then his two angels that he's gonna send to Sodom in chapter 19 so this is what we would know as an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ because of the fact that we know that God the Father does not appear in a physical body right whenever we see a G whenever we see God in physical bodily form as a man we know that that's Jesus because no man had seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he had declared him so when we see a man walking up and it's the Lord we know that that's the Son not the Father of course just throwing that out there because you can't emphasize that too much but it says here that he sees these three men and the first thing he does is he runs to meet them from the tent door now let's analyze Abraham's hospitality here okay first of all you notice that he runs and greets them at the curb so he's very hospitable he's very polite you know if somebody's coming to your house or something isn't it nice if you go out the front door and kind of meet them hey how you doing you know what I mean so he's basically showing his enthusiasm at providing hospitality there's no grudging here there's no oh man you know he basically is just rushing out to meet them he meets them before they even get to the door and he bows himself to the ground he's being polite and said verse 3 my Lord if now I found favor in thy sight pass not away I pray thee from thy servant little 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 ye your hearts after that you shall pass on for therefore are you come to your servant and they said so do as thou is that I don't believe at this point he knows he's talking to the Lord okay I believe that he just sees these three men three sharp looking guys come up and he says you know what it's my job to provide these guys with hospitality they're travelers and and we know Abraham had the wherewithal you know he has 318 servants so he's well healed he has the means whereby to provide hospitality for the traveler for the stranger and so he offers hospitality with alacrity right he's not doing it grudgingly whatsoever and so he says to them look I'm gonna get some water for your feet we're gonna get some bread we're gonna get some food for you you're gonna rest under a tree you're gonna comfort your hearts and after that you shall pass on so he's saying look I'm just gonna provide some hospitality for you and then I'm gonna send you on to continue your journey right so he's being a great host here right then it says in verse number six and Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah and said make ready quickly three measures of fine meal kneaded and make cakes upon the hearth so he's letting his wife know look we have guests we're gonna make some food here and Abraham ran into the herd I love Abraham's enthusiasm I love the running okay he's not a lazy man God doesn't bless lazy people slow sluggish lazy people I mean this guy gets things done he's serious about work he's serious about hospitality that's why he's running a business with 318 workers and he rushes out he runs under the herd fetched a calf tender and good and gave it to a young man and he hated to dress it notice he doesn't find the calf that's got some problems you know that we well you know I'm gonna save the good stuff for my friends I'm gonna save the good stuff for my relatives even for the stranger he's willing to get a good piece of meat here he's willing to get a good calf young calf tender and good and he says hey this is what we're gonna eat with our guests and he took butter and milk so he's not just doing the minimum he's not just providing them with their basic caloric needs but he's actually making them a fine meal and giving them good things 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 and then of course I'm gonna skip the rest of it for sake of time I just wanted to focus in on the hospitality part of the story but jump down to verse 20 later on in the conversation they talk about how Sarah is gonna have Isaac and then they get into the issue of Sodom how Sodom is so wicked and God's gonna destroy Sodom and it says in verse 20 and the Lord said because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they've done all together according to the cry of it which has come unto me and if not I will know verse 22 and the men took their excuse me and the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom but Abraham stood yet before the Lord so the two men leave and now Abraham's only talking to the Lord chapter 19 verse 1 and there came two angels to Sodom and even so these are the two angels or two messengers that the Lord sends to Sodom as he remained and continued to talk somewhat with Abraham there came two angels to Sodom and even and lot sat in the gate of Sodom and lot seeing them rose up to meet them and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground now look isn't lot a lot like Abraham here I mean lots got the same attitude why because lot is Abraham's nephew and lot the Bible says was a just man or a righteous man so he has learned from his uncle how to use hospitality properly so he comes out to meet them he bows himself with his face toward the ground and he said behold now my Lord's turn in I pray you into your servant's house and Terry all night and wash your feet sound familiar and you shall rise up early and go on your ways so he's a lot like Abraham here he's trying to be a good host he's definitely hospitable guy and they said nay but we will abide in the street all night they wanted to they want to test out this town because remember their whole point is to go there and see how wicked Sodom is God sent them there to go and see whether it is as wicked as the cry but now obviously God already knows everything but this is all symbolic because of the fact that there's a scripture in Deuteronomy that talks about how if a city is wicked then they're supposed to basically send messengers to see if the city is actually as wicked if they're really doing that and so forth so God's basically modeling that example by sending the two messengers and going through this process and obviously he has a plan here because he wanted the story to play out the way it does so that we could get this bad example of how bad the sodomites are and how bad these wicked people were and what they did so basically they say no we're gonna abide in the street all night a lot he knows what the city of Sodom is like he knows that's not a good idea okay no we're just gonna lodge in the street we're fine out here and he pressed upon them greatly he's saying like no don't do it you you've got to come to my house let me take care of you let me lodge you so they say okay they turned in unto him and entered into his house and he made them a feast and did bake unleavened bread and they did eat but before they lay down the men of the city even the men of Sodom compass the house round both old and young all the people from every quarter and on and on the story goes so we see here that lot is striving to use good hospitality but it doesn't go very well okay now Abraham and lot they both start out the same way here's one key difference Abraham goes into the kitchen and Sarah's there so he can say to her hey you know let's make three loaves of bread let's get the milk let's get the butter let's get you know and so he's actually able to present a great meal whereas lot you know we don't see his wife she's a wall so basically he has to bake unleavened bread because men don't know how to do it with the leaven and you know I mean you think we're gonna go in and make these cakes and have yeast and we're gonna let it rise what I mean you know we're lucky to make pancakes okay so lot basically goes in you know his he doesn't know where his wife is she's out hanging around with the sodomites right because we're gonna see how she ends up later in the story so she's out pounding around as a fag hag with all our queer buddies okay and so he basically has to go in the kitchen and whip up the pancakes himself in order to have something to serve okay so that's the first place where his his hospitality suffers a little bit okay not because he's a bad guy but just because his wife's not around to help out in the process and then secondly he's living in the wrong town to provide good hospitality this is not a good town to lodge strangers in because the men are so wicked and so perverted that they actually come and surround the house and want to assault his two guests okay so but there's an interesting verse in the New Testament that points back to this story you don't have to turn there but in Hebrews 13 it says let brotherly love continue be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares and obviously this is one of those references about entertaining strangers and thereby entertaining angels unawares because lot didn't know that these are two angels he just thought he's just entertaining couple strangers even Abraham you know he just thought he's entertaining three strangers in the beginning so we see here hospitality going bad okay we see a wicked town that instead of protecting the stranger protecting the traveler providing a safe place for him to stop along the way they seek to assault and destroy his visitors