HOSPITALITY

Few weeks ago, i was opportuned to take a teaching session on a Christian whatsapp group about hospitality.
The topic was strictly "Hospitality is not just for homes". Sitting on the couch in the living room, i was just reminiscing on the topic and so i decided to bring it to this platform. Who knows who will derive one or two new things about it.
Now let's go.

*HOSPITALITY IS NOT JUST FOR HOMES*

The word 'hospitality' is derived from Latin word 'Hospes' which means "host", "guest" or "stranger". Hospes is formed from hostis which means stranger or enemy. Hospes is thus the root for the English word "host" (where 'p' is dropped for convenience of pronunciation).
Hospitality, Hospice, Hostel and Hotel are all terms used to describe kindness in welcoming guests or strangers.

 Hospitality could also be referred to as bringing an end to Hostility. Being hospitable is not only applicable to the home but also to the church and also the work place. Real hospitality is the essence of evangelism. Christ is the root of hospitality. You can't show true love without having the spirit of God and you can't demonstrate hospitality without love because they go hand in hand.

 Hospitality is a demonstration of love. It is about sharing our heart, not a perfect home, a perfect meal or making it a perfect event. Instead, it's about sharing US. Giving a bit of yourself to someone in need and getting part of them. It is quite different from entertainment.
So many people can entertain but few show hospitality.

 Entertaining is about putting on a show, impressing people and being stylish. Hospitality is just about being me and loving other people.
Hospitality is both an attitude of the heart and also a practice of the hand.
 In the Bible, God's children are commanded to show hospitality. Deu 10 vs 18-19, Rom 12vs13.
The heart behind hospitality seeks to turn strangers into friends. People are almost always loved, not argued, towards Faith.

 Just like i said earlier, True hospitality is the true essence of evangelism. In a culture that's relationally broken, we have opportunities at work to share the gospel with love and friendliness. Hospitality is about the heart, not the home.
A good example of true hospitality is the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 vs 25-36. We'd discover in this story that the good Samaritan was the 3rd person to pass by the wounded man. A priest and a levite passed by consecutively without rendering help but when the Samaritan came, the Bible says "and when he saw him, he had compassion on him......".

You can't demonstrate hospitality without compassion, without mercy, without love.

Further more, "he went to him......."
Meaning you have to reach out. You have to go to the wounded. Just don't stay in one place and claim you are being hospitable.
Then "he bound up his wounds, pouring oil and wine....."

Someone out there needs you to 'bound up his wounds'. Someone needs encouragement. Being hospitable is showing you care. It is being part of the process of healing a wounded fellow.

Then, The good Samaritan "set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him"

After having compassion, going out to reach to the lost souls, being part of their healing process. Then you need to set them on Christ and bring them to an 'inn' - The Church, so they will be properly healed and taken care of.

 Grace is the hospitality of God to welcome sinners not bcos of their goodness but because of his glory. If God chose not to magnify the glory of his own self-sufficiency but instead to enrich himself by looking for talented and virtuous 'housemates', there would be no grace in the world, no hospitality and no salvation. We owe our eternal life to grace and grace is God's disposition to glorify his freedom, power and wealth by showing hospitality to sinners. Eph 2 vs 8
The ultimate foundation of Christian hospitality is God's unwavering commitment to glorify the freedom and all sufficiency of his grace.

Now, i'd be moving further to what we call *Strategic Hospitality*
But before i venture on that. Let's quickly see what happens when we practice hospitality. When we practice hospitality, we experience the refreshing joy of becoming one of the distributors of God's hospitality rather than being selfish with it. The joy of receiving God's hospitality decays and dies if it doesn't flourish in our own hospitality to others.
Then we experience the thrill of feeling God's power conquer our fears and our stinginess and all the psychological gravity of our self-centeredness. It gets to a point where we no longer think about ourselves.

 *Strategic Hospitality* is a kind of hospitality that thinks critically and strategically. It is a purposeful hospitality
Hospitality that has a goal👌

 It asks questions like

- How can i draw more people into a deep experience of God's hospitality with the use of my resources. Your resources could be your home, your workplace, your church or even your business.
Questions like

- Who might need reinforcements in the battle against loneliness and how can i provide the person with the weapons

Questions like

- Who are the people i can bring together using my resources most strategically for the sake of the kingdom

Or questions like

- What two or three people's complementary abilities might explode in a new ministry if they had 2hrs to brainstorm over dinner or lunch in my house

Strategic hospitality isn't just done to put food into one or two ppl's mouth. It is not inviting the same set of people over n over again. Now that's *Casual Hospitality*.

 Strategic hospitality capitalises on how to make the hospitality of God known and felt all over the world, from the lonely church member to the million masses out there walking to n fro the earth, running after peripheral things without being mindful of where they are going once they shut their eyes out of this world.

Hospitality in the home can also be used to propagate the gospel. Don't just Invite people to come nd eat nd enjoy the comfort of ur beautiful home. Instead  let them go back home filled nd nourished with the word of God

*IN CONCLUSION*
 Don't underestimate the power of your small living room as a launching pad for a new life, hope, ministry nd mission.
Even your car is a channel of hospitality. Let people encounter you and be a living testimony of their experience with you. Remember, you can't demonstrate True hospitality without love. Love is a fruit of the spirit, meaning you have to be filled with the spirit of God b4 true hospitality can be demonstrated.