Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 19, 2017 | Route 66 - 3 John

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February 19, 2017 | Route 66 - 3 John · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: Jason, get up here.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Jason is our phenomenal student uh children's pastor.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: How long have you been working for us, Jason?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh one and a half years.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: One and a half years.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: He's a remarkable guy.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Now, um weather's really good outside, and of course you're gonna stay this way all the way up till June.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is um yeah, I can't guarantee that.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Was everyone enjoying this nice weather here?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: At least a little bit.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: And did you just take a trip to Arizona?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We did.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We just enjoyed the nice weather in Arizona while you enjoy the nice weather in Kansas.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk about summer programming since it's summer weather.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: So um tell us what's going on.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you've noticed, if you have children, have grandchildren, everyone's signing up for summer uh events, summer activities.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've had to register our kids to play baseball already.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh summer is coming, and it actually kind of feels like summer is coming, even though it's a couple months away.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I wanted, I was excited to come here today and uh explain and announce uh some of the summer programming that we're gonna have uh for TBC in this uh this summer.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so the camp that we're gonna be having this summer is called Camp Catapult.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Camp of the state slow, yes.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Catapult Catapult.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and hurl your kids right over to Stormont Vale.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: The the tagline uh that you see of their propelling uh propelling her to life in Christ, that is not a literal propelling.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not meant to be.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's one rumor to expel.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Another one is that we're not gonna be hurting uh hurting, not hurting either cats.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Someone said a cat catapult would be great.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, so don't.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we like we're cat lovers, most of us.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I wouldn't have supported this ministry if I'd uh yeah, anyway, go ahead.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so we're super excited about this new camp.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing it this summer.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh 12th through the 16th of June.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's gonna be a day camp, so it's gonna be nine o'clock in the morning to four o'clock.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know the last several years, I think six years that TBC's done Camp Canicook's.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was really good.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, the reason we are moving to this, uh, and it's really Jason, Jason's idea, it's just great.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us what the advantages of this are.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that I I communicate that Camp Canicook has been awesome.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: They had their top notch.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The couple of issues that we had with them, one of them was that we were just maxing out our spaces with them, and they could only have a certain amount uh that we could we could supply.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so this way if we do camp catapult, we'll be able to have more children come.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the second thing is that we want everyone that wants to come, play throw water balloons, use the catapult, uh, learn about Jesus, and hopefully give their lives to Christ and learn how to do that further.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: We want them to be able to do that, and we want to make it free for everyone to do that.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so this summer that's what we're going to be accomplishing by doing this camp catapult.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great idea.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: When Jason uh came to us with the idea, it's been a couple months ago, Doug and I go, You're crazy.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and then we reminded ourselves one of the reasons we were so excited about being able to hire Jason now a year and a half ago was that he had this reputation wherever he had been, tackling these gigantic special, you know, uh like weeks and so forth, and pulling them off at churches.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody talked about it.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: So he came to us and we go, Do you realize how many volunteers this is gonna take?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: He says, Yes, but think of the kids we extra kids we can bring and how it won't cost a couple hundred dollars for kid, and and and we said, Go for it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that you did bring up volunteers though.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, yeah, that's a good segue.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, everybody, we only need about a thousand volunteers.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, not a thousand, but we do need some people to help.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we've announced at the other two services, and I've been getting texts all morning of people saying, Oh, I'd love to help in the morning, or I'd love to help in the afternoon, I'd like to help with food or crafts.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's literally something for everyone to be able to do to help out.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I will say that if you have any free time any of those days, the 12 through 16, please email me, text me, Facebook me, whatever.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, get a hold of me so that you can uh you can be involved there.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I wanted to make sure we're we're trying to, it has gone out on our website, but we try to keep it a little low key until now.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're trying to make sure that we have time for our church family and your grandchildren and people associated with TBC to have first crack at registering.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: We still will have to crack uh cap the numbers because I assume that if I just say, hey, we'll take 5,000 kids, we might be able to get 5,000 into the code.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is the cap?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: So 366 is our cap there.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very specific.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's more than I think twice as much as we had before.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: So twice as much as we had a can of cook last year.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: 366, what is this, a leap year or something?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I like I like odd numbers, even though it's even so yeah.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um anyway, but please do.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested, your children are interested, uh, today or sometime very soon, go to discovertbc.com, backslash uh uh catapult and register.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and register, it's free, but we do need you to register because we will have to cap it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh also if the backslashes and front front slashes and side slashes get confusing like it does to me, just look type into our search bar or website, catapult, and it'll pull it right up there.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want more information, we have it at the um Welcome Center, and uh we're super excited to do this, Cam.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty exciting.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, I want to talk to you about.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know what I'll talk to you about first is one of my favorite country singers.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: He's uh he's uh uh I'm a big fan of uh of a country singer who's from down under, born in New Zealand, named Keith Urban.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: Keith Urban sang a song last year, about a year ago, called Three Johns.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Three Johns.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and the theme of that of his hit song that rose right to the top of the charts, a repeated line in there is I learned everything I need to know from John Cougar, John Deere, and John 3.16.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: So he repeats this line in the song over and over.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: If those of you that are just visiting or don't know this verse, John 3.16 is the best known verse in the Bible.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: It goes, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him won't perish, but will have everlasting life.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: And in the song, Keith Urban sings this line.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: He sings, I spent a lot of years running from believing, looking for another way to save my soul.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: The longer I live, the more I see it, there's only one way home.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I agree with Keith Urban about that.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's only one way home.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's only one way to save your soul, and that is by doing what John 3.16 says, which is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who then will save your soul for you.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if you've transplanted your faith, your trust, any for everlasting life, from yourself to Jesus Christ, then there's another three Johns you need to be familiar with, and those are the three Johns at the end of the New Testament.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: First, second, and third John are written to believers.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they're very, very practical books.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it seems to me that 3 John's message is, as it's on your study sheet, come on in.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Come on in.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Now, you'll understand this message better, but more importantly, you'll understand its importance in John's day and in our day, in a day when people are cocooning, when, like the book said 10 years ago, we go bowling alone.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: You see kids all the time, you know, alone uh texting on their cell phones, computers, TV.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: In a day like this, this is a message which we really need.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: And to help you understand the importance of the message, I want to tell you an old, old story, a story which was written and published when Jesus Christ was just a boy, but swept across the Roman Empire, became a famous story as Jesus was a teenager and older.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: A story that every single person who read the book of 3 John in the first, second centuries, was very familiar with this story, which is written by the famous Roman writer and poet named Ovid, O-V-I-D.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a story of an old couple named Balchus, that was her name, and Philemon, and that was his name.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: So a couple that were poor and they they hailed from a part of what's modern-day Turkey, which was then called Phrygia, P-H-R-Y-G-I-A.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: In the Bible, it's Colossae.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Colossae was the largest town in this whole county or this whole area of Phrygia, and they lived, they were a very poor couple, an older couple who lived in this area.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now the story actually begins up in heaven.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: It begins with the with two of the leading Roman gods.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Jupiter, whose name you may know as Zeus in Greek mythology, in Roman mythology, Jupiter.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he was the leading god, uh the head of all of the gods, and uh his buddy was Mercury.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Mercury was uh was the messenger god, so you always you know see him on you know FedEx or whatever, you know, and he's always carrying things, and he was, he was, he had a wit, he was he had a quick mouth, he was a lot of fun.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: And Jupiter loved his favorite thing to do.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: He got tired of ambrosia or listening to you know whoever play the lyre.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: But so he loved to come down to earth, disguise himself as a nobody, just a mortal man, and he loved to come down to earth and walk around and observe.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so he wanted to do that, and he called, he called uh Mercury to him.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: He said, I want to go down and I want to go down to Phrygia.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Oh, I want to walk around and I want to knock on doors and find out if anybody will give us food and lodging.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And and Mercury loved that because he's the god of hospitality.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so they went down and they wandered through this area called Phrygia, and they knocked on every door, and they asked if people would have them in, if people would give them food, or if people would give them a place to stay overnight, and they found that every single home they knocked on, out of the hundreds of homes they knocked on, well, the door was slammed in their face.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: For whatever reason, maybe people, you know, it was a poor place, and people didn't think they had enough money to spare, or maybe they had been hurt by doing it before, or whatever.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody would give them, would give them any hospitality or any kindness at all.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: And they were getting more and more upset, especially Mercury, because he's the god of hospitality.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then finally they came to the worst and the smallest little hovel of all.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: This tiny little uh sort of a hut.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: The roof was only made out of reeds that were plucked from the ground.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: And they met an old couple, and and she introduced herself as Bauchus.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: He introduced himself as Philemon.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: And the moment that Jupiter asked, could we eat with you, you know, or stay overnight?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: They said, Of course, please, welcome, come on in.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: And they welcomed him into the little house that they stayed in.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it was tiny, they filled the whole house, but immediately Philemon went over and he dragged the stone uh the uh wooden bench over in front of the hearth and and began to stir up the coals to get the fire going.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: And and Balchus said, We don't have much, but what we have we'll give to you.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: And she got their pot.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: It was just a small pot, filled it with water, and hung it over the coals and to get it uh boiling.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: And and and Philema went out to the garden and he grabbed a cabbage and he came and he dropped it into the pot and then cut uh the pork, uh a little piece of pork that was hanging from the rafters, and he dropped that in.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: And Bacchus said, Well, we'll give you soup.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's really the best we can do.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: But we're so glad to have you here.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And she bustled around setting up the table.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: The table's legs were of different sizes, and so in the story, she's she's finding bits of uh broken plates, you know, and she props up the table so it'll be level and sticks a cloth over it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And eventually the soup's boiling, and so I invite them to the table, and there they are.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: They don't realize they're sitting with Jupiter and with Mercury, and the four of them are sitting around, and uh, and and Balka said, Oh, I'm sorry that we, you know, you couldn't drink the water in those days.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: She said, You know, let me make some wine.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so she grabbed some vinegar and she poured it in a mixing bowl, mixed it with water, and began to serve it.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the best wine they could give.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: And Jupiter and Mercury, you know, obviously didn't like it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, so it was just, it was really a nice but very, very simple meal.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then something happened, Bauchus and Philemon began to notice that no matter how often they poured the wine out of the mixing bowl, the mixing bowl kept refilling.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so they suddenly realized that they were sitting in the presence of gods, of divine creatures.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: And they were humbled and they were broken, and all of a sudden, you know, Philemon and Baochus said, Oh, we're so sorry.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't give you the best we have.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's a goose that we've raised from childhood, and we should have killed the goose for you, and we didn't, and but I'll get that.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: And Baalchus, who's trembling by this time, that she's that age, she has the she's chasing the goose around the hut, and she can't catch up to the goose, and it provides terrific humor, merriment for Mercury and Jupiter as they're watching her in vain try to catch this goose.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: And and I'm gonna stop the story right there because already you can tell that that for a story like this to be popular in that day, it shows you the importance in that day of hospitality, which makes sense because they had no motel sixes in that day, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: No Hilton's, no places.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you traveled around, you were utterly dependent on people to invite you and give you something to eat and a place to stay.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: There was an occasional inn, like the inn at Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary type, but those were filthy, those were oftentimes houses of ill repute where robbers would rob you.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: So Paul on his missionary journeys always stayed with somebody.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so, especially as the churches were being planted across the Roman Empire, John and his disciples, Paul and his disciples, as they went through towns, would knock on the door of someone in the church or would go to the church meeting and then say, I'm passing through.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: I need food, I need a place to stay.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: All right?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the New Testament has two books about this.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's how important it is.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Last week's book, 2 John, said, Don't watch out for people who take advantage of hospitality, false teachers, sift out what they say, and then don't let them stay with you if they're taking advantage of you.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: And by the way, uh there were three books in that day.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: 2 John, 3rd John.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: The other, there was a there was a book that's not in our New Testament called the Dida Keh, which means teaching, and that book's all about hospitality too, and it has these three rules about hospitality, which I think I find them funny.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think you will too.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: It says, it says, if someone claims to be a Christian, comes to you and asks to stay or asks for food, invite them in for one night.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if they stay a second full day and they eat a lot, begin to wonder about them.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: And if they stay a third day and ask you for money, kick them out.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, so they're always trying to balance, you know, who's who's who's genuine and who's not genuine, right?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: But the book of 3 John, the opposite of 2 John, is all about do it and open your door.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's how important it is.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: And this message is a message which I've I'm telling you already, I think is critical in a day when people get are getting more and more set apart from each other.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: We need to have a come on in attitude.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, the New Testament addresses this elsewhere, doesn't it?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: Romans 12, 13 is very clear.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Share with God's people who are in need, practice hospitality.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a focus.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, you ought to invite all kinds of people of all socioeconomic groups, wealthy people, poor people, you ought to invite them all.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: The wealthy people never get invited over, by the way.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or like large families.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up a family, 10 children.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Not often were we invited over.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: Promise you, but when we were, it was special.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you need to share with God's people who are in need and at practice, not it's a one, not a one-off thing where I did it last year, so I'm okay.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's something that you do regularly.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's 1 Peter 4 9, which is written to people, I think, who are married to someone with the gift of hospitality.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Where it says, offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: The grumbling is done by the person who doesn't have the gift.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um by the way, me standing up here talking about hospitality is like Rachel Ray's husband.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: He's an attorney and a rock singer.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_02: Rachel Ray's husband standing up talking about food.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: See, she he's married to someone who's great.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm married to Melody.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when I invite someone over, I always immediately go, oh dear.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I call her immediately on the cell phone.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: You are gonna be home, aren't you, honey?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because some people have the gift and they're really good at it.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: And the rest of us who are married to them, oftentimes we're doing the grumbling.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're going, it costs money.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: It takes so much time, it takes away from the family, it takes energy.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm tired, it's work, it's stress, right?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: And this verse says, Peter says, shut up, just do it without grumbling.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Or in a more modern translation, be hospitable to others, cheerfully share your home with those who need cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: So the New Testament focuses, thinks that this is really important.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Now we get to 3 John, shortest book in the New Testament, shortest book.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll whoop through the every verse in it quickly.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is the book on hospitality.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: It begins as 2 John did, with John identifying himself, not by his name, but by his title, as if I'd signed the bulletin this morning, pastor.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: He starts off, the elder.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: That was what people called him.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: He was an older man.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so he says, the elder, everybody knew what that meant, to my dear friend Gaius or Gaius.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a personal letter, one page, one piece of papyrus long, a personal letter.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: I love you in the truth.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now you have those two words, love and truth, which we preached on last week.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you haven't heard that message, you should.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's about the balance of love and truth in your life.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then he moves to verse two, which is one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, and a verse that really affects my prayer life a lot.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I the most important thing in the world is that is that you pray for other people to get closer to God, their spiritual life.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: But here is a verse in which we know that it's great to pray for all those other things, like physical health and emotional health and financial prosperity.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: So when I pray for you and when I pray for you by name, I pray for all this stuff.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because he says here, dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically, just as you are spiritually.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Someone once came up to me though and said, I don't understand.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: I can't get a good job.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, God's promise, you know, that if if we love him, you know that that he'll that he'll prosper us.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Where does he promise that?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it's 3 John 2.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, does it say promise there?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't it say pray?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a difference between praying for it and promise?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: See, this person had been listening to those TV preachers who we call help and wealth gospel, who say, who, who say, you know, if you're close, Lord, you will always be rich.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, you want to say to them, hold it, didn't Jesus have no place to lay his head?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: What wasn't he spiritual enough?
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the fact that you have a four-car garage and you're soaking your congregation for$200,000, does that mean you're more spiritual than they are?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, that was a little that was a little catty.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um but you know, I'm telling you, that's common.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: Now, here's what's interesting to me is the word prosper in here is a word that has uh that has uh the sort of an on the road word.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, he's saying, I wish for you a prosperous journey through life.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: I pray that for each other.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the most important thing is the spiritual life.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: I said to this person, by the way, I said, Do you want to be wealthy?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: But the verse focuses, it says the most important thing is as you are as your soul is prospering, how's your soul prospering?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, not very well.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: How's your spiritual life?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not very good.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, how how in the world, since that's priority one here and everything else uh builds on top of that?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you start there and then let's work with the other stuff?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now he then moves into the journey of life and inviting people who are on that journey into your home.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: And he says five things about hospitality that I think you and I uh I think it'll help us to hear them today.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: Hospitality first, he says, is living the truth.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_02: Living the truth.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: I was very glad, he said.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: John, this is John, who can't move out of his home much anymore.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's old, and he had Sent some friends, you know, uh some Bible teachers and stuff to this church, and he's so glad, he says, when brothers came from you and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, how you're walking in the truth, you lived the truth because you entertained them, you invited them into your home, and you kept them overnight and you gave them food, you're living the truth.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I have no greater joy than this.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Every parent, by the way, should be able to say this.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: I have no greater joy than this to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: And this is this is the truth with a pastor as well, or with John.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: No greater joy than hearing that the people I love, the people are walking in the truth.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I can't help, when I hear the hospitality is the truth, I can't help singing one of my favorite songs from a few years ago by Pharaoh Williams.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, song Happy.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Sing along if you feel like happiness is the truth.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: That song took the idea of happiness and moved it in the realm of truth, and it was so cool because it actually is biblical.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: In theology, we talk about soft virtues and hard virtues, right?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Hard virtues in Christian theology are things like righteousness, purity, discipline, hard virtues.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: Soft virtues are love, kindness, gentleness, hospitality.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so, and happiness.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so, happiness all of a sudden, correctly, Farrell Williams being the theologian he is, moved happiness.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Happiness is the truth.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: And here in 3 John, hospitality is the truth.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's living the truth.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that a wonderful concept?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so hospitality is living the truth.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: Second point, verse five, hospitality is faithfulness.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Dear friend, you are showing faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers, especially when they are strangers.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we're talking about a situation where you're here on Sunday morning and you see somebody, you've never seen them before, you go up and you ask them, where are you from?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: And they go, Well, I'm just traveling through.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: Or they say, uh, I haven't been to church in years.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I'd visit or heard about this church.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe that, you know, or maybe they're hunting for a place to stay, or maybe something else, or maybe they're, you know, just coming in for Joe D'Alfonso's, you know, the young adults program.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: They heard about that.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: But they're not churchy type, you know, whatever.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: They're stranger.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: But they're a brother.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: You talk to them and they know the Lord.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Hospitality says, that's it's faithfulness, faithfulness to the truth.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: To invite them out or go drink, say, you want to go drink coffee, you want to come around the house for lunch or whatever.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what is the truth that they're faithful to?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know what the answer is, of course.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's the truth that everyone who has believed in Jesus Christ is a brother and a sister in the family of God.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Your brothers and your sisters in the family of God are just as much your brothers and sisters, says Jesus, as your blood brothers and sisters.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: And you know a lot of them are closer to you than your blood brothers and sisters sometimes.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so you are faithful to the truth that we live in a family, the family of God, who when you are gracious and you are kind, and you say, Let me do, let's go out together.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Would you come over to my home?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Can I help you move into your apartment?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Something like that.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: And the whole strangers thing probably should remind us of Hebrews 13, 1 and 2, right?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: You go, yeah, that happened in the story of Balchus and Philemon.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: That happened in Genesis 18.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Abraham, remember, who came?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: Divinity, probably Jesus Christ, you know, disguised with some angels, and they came and Abraham and Sarah fed them.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to know when people are angels.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you can tell or not.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: When you invite them over, when they eat, take the biggest piece of pie.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, no.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: I I grew up, I grew up in a very small house, you know, uh, loads of children, a lot, small farm, three-acre farm.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I was the oldest son of everybody, and before I left for college, there ended up being 12 children, but when I was around, before I left for college, there were like 10.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I was amazed that my mother, even in a house that's like 1,400 square feet, that she would invite, and my father would invite in people.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: He was going, are you kidding?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he got a dozen squeezed around this table.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: So she'd put in an extra leaf or whatever.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: And the good thing about my mom is, you know, we didn't change anything for the guests.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't try to entertain them or treat them differently.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: So they just sat down at the table, they squeezed in, and then and then they watched in amazement as we went.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: The rule was you couldn't eat unless you'd said a verse.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: So starting with the youngest child going to the oldest, you know, Jesus wept, and then you worked through John 3.16, then you get up to the oldest.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I was always stuck with, you know, Ezra 34, 17 or something.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, there's not that many chapters in Ezra.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: But and then sometimes dad would freak them out.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: My dad would go, Would you like to say a verse?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'll go, Oh, she took mine.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, so and then and then there'd be the prayer, and then we'd eat, and we'd pass it around, and they'd see how we kids would fight over the potatoes, and you know, so they'd just see us as we really were.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: And if they stayed around for a little while in that evening, we'd have an hour of play before we before we were all called, we'd all go into the living room for our family devotions.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: We had those every every night.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: So we'd break out the Bibles and we'd hand them, grab a couple extra Bibles, and they'd sit there in some chairs, and and we wouldn't change anything for them.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: And start with the youngest to the oldest again, little kids, you know, the youngest, we'd read three verses until we got through that chapter of the Bible.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: We worked our way through the Bible several times growing up.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, no matter how long it took that three-year-old to read three verses, just ugh.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: So um, we were this this is my my parents' clever way of getting us older kids to tutor them during the day so that, you know.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, we'd read those verses.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Then came the singing time, starting from youngest to oldest again, stand in front of the hearth, in front of the fireplace, and sing a song, or else if you got older, you didn't want to do that, you'd sit down at the piano, you'd play a song, we'd all sing.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so they would be joining in, and then they go, whoa.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody just dives off their chairs, hits their niece, because you had to, in our home, you had to kneel down to pray.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: From youngest to oldest, we'd pray, and of course, well, prayers were always, thank you, Lord, for all the missionaries in the foreign fields.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we oftentimes kids pray the same thing every.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, they were there, and and and then wheelbarrowing up to bed and so forth.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that was hospitality in our place.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: And and in retrospect, I think it's so good that that we didn't change anything.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: And if you ask me, were there any angels that you entertained then awares?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I don't know any, but I certainly do know there were some well-known Christian leaders who, when they were young, and just Bible college students, you know, we fed in our house.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Luis Palau, who's an international evangelist, was there a couple of times when I was growing up.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: So, so who knows who it is that you entertain or that you that you show hospitality to?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that line.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: Make your home a place for angels and for other strangers.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that a good line?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Make your home a place for angels and other strangers.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like Balchus and Philema did.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: So, and then he has three more verses about faithfulness in which he basically, John, just just equates hospitality with love.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: They've testified to your love in front of the church, because hospitality is simply love that says, come on in.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: What's he talking about?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: Saying in the same way that you would entertain God.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: You give them food, you give them a place to stay, since they set out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from pagans, speaking of these traveling Bible teachers.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we can be co-workers with the truth.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Third, hospitality is simply saying welcome, he says.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: Or come on in.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Now he does this with a reverse sort of a negative example, a guy named Diatrophes.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: By the way, if you're writing stuff in the back of your sheet, you'll notice I left off.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, the words hospitality is.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: So there's not much room there.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: Put an eight, capital H in an equal sign or something.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hospitality equals saying welcome.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: And he's referring to a guy who refused to say welcome, always kept his door shut, named Diatrophes.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: I wrote something to the church about Diatrophes, who loves to have first place among them, doesn't receive us.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been to a church where, especially in smaller churches, where one person, one woman or one man controls everything?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: They're domineering, they're dominant, and you can't do anything without running up by them first.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Diotrophes was that kind of a guy.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: And this is why if I come, I will remind him, says John, of the works he's doing, slandering us with malicious words.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: So Diotrophes would say, listen, we've been burned before, and I'm not going to have any people traveling through in my house, and yeah, I don't want you to either.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and certainly nobody's from John.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: And he's not only satisfied with that, says John, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Can you believe it?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Hospitality is saying welcome.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: And here's a guy who not only was not saying welcome himself, but was refusing to let other people say welcome.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: When I first came to Topeka Bible Church, we had a reputation, we were a much smaller church, we had a reputation uh for not being welcoming.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a well-deserved reputation.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: For whatever reason, we were we were cold.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: And um now, for whatever reason, years later, certainly not due to me, uh, we have a reputation.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: The people who visit, who come for the who decide to join this church and so forth, when we ask them to list the reasons they're here, usually one of the top two reasons is this is the friendliest church in town I've been to.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: This church is so welcoming.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: There are people that came up to me, you know, and and not just during the greeting time, but they invited me out afterwards and so forth.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: And and and I love the fact that that Teresa has a hundred and some people, 120 people who are excited about being greeters, who stand out at a table or who stand at the doors and so forth, because hospitality is saying welcome.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's inviting people.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: When you see someone who's who you don't know, who's a stranger and you get to know them, then then you say, Welcome, can we do coffee this week?
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_02: Or can I get to know you better?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Are you doing anything for lunch today?
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: So uh number four, hospitality is godliness.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Godliness.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: Dear friend, don't imitate what's evil, but what is good, the one who does good is of God.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Not he's not saying you're going to heaven by hospitality.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: He's just saying you're God, this is a picture of godliness, because God is hospitable to us by sending Jesus to die for us on the cross.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you need to welcome and love people who does good is of God.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: The one who doesn't eat doesn't does, who does evil hasn't even seen God, certainly not lately.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: And here's a good guy, Demetrius.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's a guy who loves hospitality, has a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself, and we testify for him, you know that our testimony is true.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now listen, I think this is important for this reason.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: One of the objections that people like me, or you, some of you, have to hospitality sometimes is, well, I'm not good at entertaining.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a whole view of hospitality that I think is unbiblical.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's this view that puts the bar up high.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: That unless the house is clean to a certain extent, unless we have a certain level or kind of food, unless, you know, certain things are true, you know, I or unless I have a personality that's good at entertaining people, which looks at me as the entertainer, then I can't do it.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: But that's not hospitality.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: Hospital, hospitality, same word in English, come from the same root.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hospitality is just caring for people who need something, who need food or who need love, who need care.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's hospitality.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: And see, the difference is the focus of entertaining is impressing others.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: The focus of true hospitality is serving others.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you see, this is why I think Gail McDonald is exactly right in high call, high privilege, when she writes, never feel that a home is too simple, too unattractive, or too small for entertaining.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: Simplicity can be a witness in its own right.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: Orderliness and creative decor are more important than extravagance.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, in the New Testament, I think this is why, first of all, you can't be a church leader unless you're hospitable.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's on both of the lists of elders in the New Testament.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: You have to be hospitable or you're not qualified.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: But here's the other thing.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: When it lists what you look for in a widow, the poorest socioeconomic group in the old church, in the ancient early church, widows are listed as honor widows who are hospitable.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: Clearly, they had simple homes, simpler maybe than even Bauchus and Philemon's home.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: And yet they're expected to show hospitality.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: So don't give me any of this stuff like, you know, we haven't washed all the dishes in the sink.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: I love the fact that Melody doesn't mind a little bit of dirt, it'll water dishes and it's, you know, invite people over anyway, and then you rush through and you hide everything under the carpet or in the corner and so forth.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: But but you know what?
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_02: People don't care about that.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: They don't care if your lawn's not mowed or you haven't washed everything.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Even widows can invite people in.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, hospitality is friendship.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: The book ends.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I've got many things to write you, don't want to write you pen and ink.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: I hope to see you soon.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: Talk face to face, peace be with you.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: The friends send you greetings, greet the friends by name.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: Hospitality is of the essence of friendship.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's it, you see, it's not, do I have a perfect home, but how about my heart?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_02: Where is my heart?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: There's an emanation that comes out of my wife from her heart and genuine hospitality.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: You feel it, right, when you go to a house like this, and it can't be described.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is Washington Irving, wrote, there's an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality, which cannot be described, but is immediately felt, puts the stranger at once at his ease.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: Start thinking of hospitality as friendship rather than performance.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: So let me end with a couple quick stories.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: I learned this especially about it being friendship.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: When I was 19 years old, and I was uh trying to work to make money, to pay my way through college, it wasn't going very well.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'd been a door-to-door salesman for two summers, made nothing.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so this is the third summer, and I'm out in Pennsylvania, and uh and I'm I'm in York County.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's where they've told me.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in York County, I'm in Red Line.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I what I didn't realize until I got there was this is Amish country, this is Mennonite country.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm looking at a lot of black buggies, I'm looking at a lot of horses, I'm looking at big farms and so forth.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at a place where houses are quite a ways apart.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's versus the towns of previous years where uh you know, where it was easy to get from one to the other.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I'm 19, but I have no driver's license, I own no car, I didn't have anything.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, in fact, the only two things I had is I had a bicycle, which I had purchased for$10, and I also had I had my sales case, a little black sales case that had my samples in it, a sample of a Bible storybook, a sample, a couple Bible storybooks, a sample of a Bible history book, a sample of a Bible Concordance.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm gonna go around door to door.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, because the houses are a ways apart, I find that after just a couple of weeks, I can't, it takes way too long for me to ride my bike from the place I'm renting, you know, in the back of somebody's house, takes way too long for me to ride my bike up to up to the next house that I that I'm gonna knock on.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: So in the morning, by 7.30 every morning, six days a week, I'm out hitchhiking to hitchhike up uh Highway 82, state highway 82, up about 28 miles, to get up to what's called the Horseshoe Pike, which runs from Harrisburg through Lancaster and down to Philadelphia.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I find my bicycle where I've hidden it behind a gas station, and it's just a few minutes, usually before eight o'clock now, and I get on my bicycle and I begin riding west, northwest, up towards Lancaster, Lancaster, very famous Amish Mennonite territory.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm riding into towns with names like New Holland and uh Brandywine Manor and uh you know these famous, famous Amish towns.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and um and uh and I'm seeing all of these Amish people and so uh and Mennonites, and and so I ride my bicycle a quarter mile between houses or whatever, and then I ride down the driveway and I learned I learned very quickly that you couldn't sell anything to an Amish or Mennonite wife.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: Her husband had to be there.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I just ride out to the barn, and if he was milking or out to the cornfield or whatever, and I'd help him with that and try to show him, demonstrate, you know, while I was doing it.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: And and as often, you know, generally they didn't buy, but but always they would then say, Well, would you like to stay for lunch?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'd go, yes, I would think I'd so much rather eat than than sell because I'm 19 and I'm growing, I'm so hungry, and I love their food because I all made their own bread, and so I'd go in and and and they're so hospitable.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd have these, I ate my way through York County that summer.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Also happened to, I made good money, but uh, but um, but because I had such a great time.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: And here's the interesting thing is it wasn't just hospitality, it turned into friendship.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: I only spent 20 to 40 minutes at any home.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: 20 to 40 minutes.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: And if I had sold them something, I'd come back at the end of the summer and drop it off in five minutes.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's less than an hour.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: And yet I I developed friendships there, and they felt friendly with me so much so that 10 years later, when I'm at this church in Melody, and I have a couple little kids who didn't know what to do for summer vacation, I said, honey, would it be okay if we drive up to Pennsylvania, to Lancaster area, to Blue Ball and some of these other places, you know, where I've been, and now we knock on some doors and I introduce you to some of these wonderful people I met.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: And we did.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: And some of those people, again, 20 to 40 minutes, but hospitality was involved.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: Some of those people have seen that I take Israel trips and come on Israel trips with me.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: And several times, three, four times, they have flown me up to speak for a week of meetings up there, summer, summer Bible schools and stuff.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: Friendship, true friendship.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: How?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because we ate a meal together.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I won.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: I won big time.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I got free food, I have free friends, but that's what hospitality does.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now let me finish the story of Bauchus and Philemon.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: So Balchus is making them laugh, this old lady chasing the goose around the hut, and they finally say, Please stop.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: You're just making it.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's fine.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: And they say, you've been the only home, the only couple that has shown us any hospitality.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone else has slammed the door in our face.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: Balchus of Philemon said, Yes, they're not a very nice people.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: They have been mean to us.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they said, uh, Jupiter said, Come and look outside.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so the four of them walk outside, and Baalchus of Elimon see to their shock that the whole the whole place has been flooded.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: A flood has come, and everything is just water, as far as I can see.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: Judgment on the people for their lack of hospitality.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: Baalchus of Eileen break into tears for they say, even though these people have been mean to us, still, this makes us very sad.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: They turn around and then they gasp with astonishment.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: That little hobble of theirs has turned into this magnificent, beautiful home.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: And they see that part of it is marble pillars, and Jupiter says, This is your new home, but it's also not only a place for you to show hospitality, I want this to be my temple.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because you have made your house a temple for me by your hospitality.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: They said, Is there anything you want from us?
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: And Balchus and Philemon looked at each other and hesitatingly they said, Yes, there is one thing.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: We cannot imagine after these many years of loving each other and being together, we cannot imagine either of us dying alone.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: Would you please allow us to die at the same time?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Jupiter said, Done.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: The gods left.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_02: And the story goes that for years and years, Bauchus and Philemon lived on their home open to everyone, and a temple to Jupiter, and they operated, you know, as uh uh caretakers of that temple.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: And as they grew very, very decrepit and old, one evening they're standing out looking at the sunset and they're holding hands.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, as they as they looked at each other, uh Balchus said to Philemon, you're you're sprouting leaves.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: And he said to her, You're growing branches.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: And sure enough, what happened is that is that Philemon turned into an oak tree.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: Balchus turned into the linden, that female tree, winding around each other with the same one single trunk.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: The story goes that people came from far and wide to see this picture of true love.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: This story is just a myth, but this story illustrates some truths from the Bible, and those are these.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: Number one, God really deeply cares.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: Heaven is watching and deeply cares about hospitality.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: He comes down to observe how hospitable you are, how kind you are, how welcoming you are when you say, Come on in.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: He sees it, he cares.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it does not matter if you live poorly, if you have very little, still hospitality is required of his children, to our brothers and sisters.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, you need to know that he cares so much.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: He will reward you both now and forever if he will be hospitable.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_02: Can you say amen?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, thank you.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's a simple word, it's not the most theological or the deepest word that we've ever had, but it is a word that that lends itself to love and warmth.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: God, give us the love to tell other people just come on in.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for coming.