All right. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans 12, we're continuing our series in the qualities of biblical love. Romans 12, and again, I want to read starting from verse 9 down to verse 13 for today. "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality." Let's pray. Lord, you truly are deserving of all honor, all praise, all glory. The more we think and the more we study of your word, the more we experience your grace, we want to honor you.

We want the world to know, Father God, what kind of God we serve. We pray, Father God, that the preaching of your word will be accompanied by the power of your spirit, Lord, in our hearts, that those who hear, that those seed would fall on fertile soil, that it may bear fruit 30, 60, 100 fold, and that it would rise up to greater and more sincere worship to your name.

So we pray, Father, you would anoint this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Can you do me a favor and just take it down just a little bit? I hear my own voice ringing in my ear. Okay, thank you. All right. As you guys know, we are studying through a book of Romans and we're in the section where Apostle Paul is challenging us to apply the things that he's been talking about.

Justification leads to sanctification. And so sanctification, the priority in sanctification, the highest priority, he talks about using our gift to build up one another. And ultimately, it's explained in love, that the greatest quality of any Christian, the greatest application of any sanctification is ultimately love. You can have prayer, you can have evangelism, you can have sacrifice, you can be generous in giving and making disciples, yet you do not have love.

It says it is absolutely nothing. It is meaningless because the ultimate goal of all of this is to love. 2 Peter 1, 5 through 9. I think I have the verse up here. 2 Peter 1, 5 through 9. You don't have that? Maybe I didn't give that to you.

2 Peter 1, 5 through 9, if you can turn to that passage, basically it sums up where Peter says, for this very reason, considering the gift that we have in Christ, considering the justification, make every effort to supplement. And again, some of your translation says to add, right? And it's no different what Paul is saying in chapter 12, considering his mercy, considering the great salvation that we have.

He says, supplement, add to your faith with virtue and with virtue knowledge, and with knowledge, with self-control, and with self-control, with steadfastness, and with steadfastness, godliness, and with godliness, brotherly affection, and with brotherly affection, with love. Let me stop right there. So if you notice what Peter is doing here, he's laying down in reverse order that sanctification, if you apply these things, add to your faith, add to your confession of justification, are striving after sanctification.

And it says, if you have virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, and ultimately leading to brotherly love, and brotherly love leading to love, agape. Does that remind you a lot of what he said in verse 10 of chapter 12? And he says, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, in love.

So again, Peter is saying in the reverse order that the goal of sanctification is love. So if you have discipleship, discipline, and prayer, and giving, and all of that, and it ultimately doesn't lead you to greater love, agape love, unconditional love, all of that is for nothing. All we have become is greater religious people.

All you have become is greater disciplined people, that you know more theology, you know how to play the game. But in the end, if it doesn't produce the character of Christ, then it is for nothing. And then he says in verse 8, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, meaning that it's not like, well, I have these things, and I've worked on it, and now my job is to tell other people.

No, he says every Christian that this quality should be constantly increasing. Our sanctification is not going to be done until we are actually glorified. If these qualities are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that you have a personal relationship with God, and yet you don't see the sanctification happening, and you're not actively pursuing these things, he says you become ineffective, unfruitful.

And then he gives the explanation of why this doesn't take place in some people's lives in verse 9. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, and having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. So what is the reason why somebody wouldn't be pursuing this?

He says he's blind, he's nearsighted. Now I was thinking about what does it mean to be nearsighted? Nearsighted is somebody who cannot see from a distance. He only sees things up close. So basically what he's saying is the reason why an individual is not actively pursuing his faith, his sanctification, and is not actively trying to love somebody is because all they see is what is right in front of them.

I think we can all relate to that. The greatest distraction in our lives, there's lust, there's temptation, there's compromise, all these things are all true. But on a day-to-day basis, what causes us to be ineffective is we are nearsighted. All we pay attention to is what is right in front of us.

The distraction of paying bills, the distraction of raising kids, the distraction of the next thing that's coming down the line. And so we don't have a larger picture of what Christ has done and what it is that we have in Christ and what is that ultimately going to lead to when I die.

We're only living for today. If I do this, I'm going to get a better job. If I do this, this is for my kids. If I do this, I'm going to be able to invest in stock or whatever it may be. He said he is nearsighted. He is living as if he has forgotten what it is that he has in Christ.

So every week, you come to Bible study, you come to church, and you have to be constantly reminded, do you not know what it is that you have in Christ? Because you forget. As soon as the service is over, you forget. Soon as you get into your car, you turn on the radio, you forget.

Soon as you go to your job, you forget. He says it's because you are nearsighted. All you are looking at is what is right in front of you today. That's why it is so important that we never forget. In view of God's mercy, what it is that you have in Christ, you and I, every professing Christian whose sins have been forgiven, you are a child of God.

The God who created the universe says you are co-heirs with Christ. And your inheritance can never fade, spoil, or perish. Guarded for you in eternity. And that even when you sin, he says he has a way to forgive you of your sin, cleanse you of all your unrighteousness. Anybody who professes to believe that and responds by saying, okay, I already know that.

How many times are you going to tell me that? Can we move on to something else? Tell me something different. I've already heard that, I've known that. I've been in church 20 some years. I actually teach Bible study. I'm a Sunday school teacher, I'm a leader at this church.

We can easily say, well, I know all of this, and then what? Anybody, in my opinion, anybody who responds that way, to me, it makes me question, do you understand what it is that you just said? The Son of God came and died for you on the cross, forgave you of your sins.

He has inheritance waiting for you, guarded by him. The Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf. Son of God himself has become the high priest that we are able to have access to him with confidence. And we hear that and we say, okay, now what? That response, not only is it inappropriate, it makes us suspect of the genuineness of our faith.

So that's why he says, a person who's not actively pursuing this, who's not desiring to apply this to love, is because he is blind. It's because he's nearsighted. All they're concerned about is today. What today is gonna bring for tomorrow, because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

It's always been around, this false teaching, false theology, false gospel has always been around. Because usually the false gospel isn't off by a lot. The false gospel usually doesn't go directly and say, I don't believe in Jesus. He wasn't resurrected from the dead. I don't think he's a child of God.

Usually, false gospel that usually is very effective in deceiving people is only off by a hairline. It's only slightly off. There's so much truth in it that it's hard for us to identify what is and isn't. And the two main heresies that the New Testament constantly deals with is the Judaizers and the Gnostics.

So the Gnostics, the Christian Gnostics, were from the secular camp, from the Gentiles. Basically, their main teaching was, flesh is evil and the spirit is good. So whatever you do with the flesh, he's already condemned. So you can do whatever with the flesh because Jesus Christ came and delivered you in the spirit.

So the application of that was, it doesn't matter how you live because one saved always saved. You're saved. He didn't save our flesh, he saved our spirit because these two things can coexist. And then you had the Judaizers saying that, well, if you really want to be saved, you have to go through this program.

You have to be circumcised. You have to keep the Sabbath. You have to do all of these convocations. And so they were perverting the gospel by adding, and then the Gnostics were perverting the gospel by subtracting. But either way, either of these false gospels were leading to disobedience. And Paul says, "Let him be anathema," because once you mess with the gospel, you've messed with salvation.

You've messed with God himself. The reason why I say this is because, you know, especially...I don't think this is only true in our generation or where we live, but there is a specific disdain toward any kind of rebuke in our generation, of any kind. And if someone feels guilty over their sins, that in and of itself is sin.

Feeling guilty for sins is a sin. I don't know how many times I've counseled somebody to sit down and say, "It is not." Let me give you a perfect example of that. In 1 Corinthians, Apostle Paul is rebuking this church, right? I don't know what kind of rebuke that you may have heard, but read 1 Corinthians if you want to feel rebuked.

1 Corinthians starts with rebuke and it ends with rebuke. And all throughout it, he says, "What is wrong with you? Why are you acting like you're worldly? Why are you divided? Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you?

And whoever destroys the temple, he will be destroyed?" I mean, it's harsh criticism. Because of that, there's sin in the church and they were relying on all kinds of sin to just take place in the church. Their communion table actually was dividing the church. People who were prophesying were standing up and say, "Well, God's talking to me, so I'm going to speak out of turn." And, you know, and it was just creating all kinds of chaos in the church.

So Paul comes down as harsh as you can possibly imagine, right? Of all the letters, 1 Corinthians is the harshest letter. And then he begins 2 Corinthians as a response to this first letter because there were two different responses to that letter. The first response was they felt guilty.

They were cut to the heart. And as a result of that, it caused them, this guilt led to repentance. And so Paul says, "You know, I regretted it for a little bit because I was so harsh with you, but I did not regret it because I see what it did to you.

It brought you to repentance and brought you to restoration." And so now he encourages them, "That brother, that guy that I was telling you to shun him from the church, now embrace him and love him in repentance." That was the first group. The rebuke led to repentance. Their guilt led to godly sorrow, which led to repentance and restoration and redemption.

And then the second group responded to that by saying, "Well, this guy's letter is so strong, but his presence is weak." And they didn't like what he had to say. And so what they did was they didn't want to live with this guilt and they didn't want to repent.

So what they did was they began to question Paul. Maybe this guy is not from God. We don't need to listen to this guy. He's not speaking from God. So 2 Corinthians is written to defend his apostleship against people who didn't like his rebuke. There were two responses. One led to repentance, godly sorrow led to repentance, and the other was who didn't want to repent, basically saying, "That guy is not an apostle." That's not unique to the New Testament.

That happened all throughout church history. And it happens today. Now, the reason why I say all of this is because if we don't have the proper understanding of the gospel, if you think that active sanctification is not something that a Christian should be embracing because we're saved so we don't need to worry, sanctification is just going to happen, so I don't want to hear that, "Just tell me what Jesus did.

Don't tell me what I need to do." Read the Bible for yourself. He says, "Because that person is nearsighted." The reason why he's not pursuing God is because he has forgotten what it is that he has in Christ, and he's not drawing near to Christ. He wants his life left alone as it is.

Ultimately, the right gospel will lead us to passionate pursuit of Christ. Why wouldn't you want to have an intimate fellowship with a God who loves you beyond what you can comprehend? Why wouldn't you want to commune with a God who knows everything about you, and yet he sent his only begotten Son to die for you?

Why wouldn't somebody who professes to know this God, who's opened access to this throne of mercy, we try so hard to pay so much money to get the best seats to watch a measly concert, and yet make so little effort to be in the presence of this holy God who loves us?

It's because we have become nearsighted. We have forgotten what it is that we have in Christ. That's the point that he was trying to make. The motivation behind why we actively pursue God is the gospel itself, is what we sing about itself. It is what we already have in Christ, to enjoy it.

Not to just sing about it, not to just talk about it, not just memorize it, but to enjoy the salvation that God has given you, to come into the throne of grace. No one buys a ticket to the Game 7 World Series $4,000 ticket and then sits at home and just talks about the ticket, celebrates the ticket.

Look at the ticket, take a picture of the ticket, put it on Facebook, let everybody see you have the ticket. The point of the ticket is for you to go. The ticket, the expensive, ridiculous ticket that was so hard to get, you have it, so you can go. So it doesn't make sense for Christians to take pictures of Bible verses, sing songs, go to church, talk about it, have Bible studies, yet they don't go.

They don't go into the presence of God. They're not actively pursuing God. That's what he means. The reason why he's not doing that is because you become nearsighted. You forgot what it is that you have. You forgot what it is that God is holding on for you. Ultimately, that's the motivation.

I haven't even started the message yet. That's the motivation because without that motivation, everything else that he's going to say is going to just sound like, "What is wrong with you people?" Do it. Just do it. Do more of it. Do more of it. Oh, you guys love one another.

That's great. But do more and more. That's all you're going to hear if you don't understand what it is that he's calling us to do and why we do what we do. It is an act. It is a reasonable response. Someone who is not nearsighted. Someone who is affected by the love of Christ.

Someone who is eager for Christ to come, to be redeemed from this fallen world. Let me get to the point here because I only have one this morning. I had two and then I boomed it down to one because we have baby dedication, second service, so I had to shorten it.

And I didn't want to just skim through these things because every one of these points, there's so many things. I mean, he just calls them, he just 24 imperative statements, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, but every one of these statements are principles and teachings of Jesus that are expounded in other places in detail.

So I don't want to just state it and then just move on. What's the hurry anyway? Where do you have to go? All right. We'll take our time. So the principle number 11, biblical love contributes to the needs of the saints and seeks to show hospitality. Biblical love contributes to the needs of the saints and seeks to show hospitality.

The interesting thing here, the word for contribute or some of your Bible say share, the Greek word is koinoneo. I think a lot of you already kind of nodding your head because you know what that word means. It means to fellowship, where we get the word fellowship. And that literal understanding of that word is to partner together.

So I talked about in last week, Philemon verse 6, where Paul says to Philemon that he's praying that the sharing of his faith would become effective in the knowledge of Christ. And again, we talked about the sharing of his faith. He wasn't simply talking about evangelism. He's talking about living out, right, living out his faith and being gracious and merciful and loving that in that context to receive Onesimus as a runaway slave, as a brother.

So he uses that word koinoneo, to share, to partner. In Philippians chapter 1, 6, Paul says of the Philippian church, and he's writing this letter because of their partnership in the gospel. And that word for partnership there is koinoneo, to fellowship. Again, so it's very different than the way that you and I use the word fellowship in our culture.

Fellowship, if two Christians get together, go shopping, get some boba, it's fellowship. You play some basketball, fellowship. We had board games, fellowship. Ping pong, fellowship. So I'm not saying that they can't be fellowship. All of that stuff can be fellowship if it is working toward partnering. We're partnering, we're sharing, we're spurring one another on toward love and good deeds.

If you ask an average Christian, what of the four disciplines, you have the prayer, you have the word, you have evangelism, and you have fellowship, you ask an average Christian, what are they usually good at? At least in where we live, we said, we're really good at fellowship. We're really good at fellowship.

We're kind of weak in prayer. Evangelism is almost non-existent. Word, I get it at church, if you go to church. That's usually how we think we are. If you apply the biblical understanding of fellowship, most Christians are pretty weak. I would say the word, at least where we are, is probably higher above fellowship.

And the reason why I say that is because when you really understand what this fellowship means to partner together, where you're deliberately spurring on one another, not spending time together, not having fun together, again, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that Christians should be killjoy. We should have fun with each other.

I hope Christians getting together is not a drudgery. It's a good thing. But if all it is is just spending time together, that has nothing to do with fellowship, not biblically. Partnering together, sharing with one another, and the specific context that Paul uses the word koinonia is sharing of what we have, which obviously the most tangible thing is the material good.

The material good, sharing with one another. In Galatians 6, it says, "Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." Fellowship, true fellowship, biblical fellowship, where brotherly love is leading to agape, is what God calls us to do. That fulfills the law of Christ. So if you think about in the book of Genesis, when they sin, what was the immediate thing that you saw happen?

Immediate. Did Adam and Eve just fall to the ground and die? That didn't happen. You and I wouldn't be here. What's the immediate thing that happened? Fellowship with God was broken. Fellowship with God was broken, and then husband and wife, the intimacy between husband and wife was broken. So fellowship was broken between the two, because they had to hide from each other.

And that was the result of the fall, that when sin comes in, it destroys fellowship. So those of you who are studying Leviticus with us, the peace offering represented the restoration of this fellowship. Restoration with God and restoration with mankind. So you give an offering, and then that offering leads to picnic.

And it was to remind the nation of Israel, true fellowship can't be had until there is true fellowship with God. And that's what that peace offering was teaching the nation of Israel. Paul is saying here, this biblical love leads to fellowship, true fellowship, meeting the needs of the saints, and to seek to show hospitality.

In fact, we see that in the early church. In the very beginning of the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, one of the evidence of the Holy Spirit was that they were fellowshipping, genuine fellowship, in Acts 2, 40, 45, and all who believed were together in all things in common.

They were partnering and sharing with one another in material goods, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. That's how the early church was described. When the Holy Spirit came upon them and they were convicted, the first thing that they did, they became very generous.

Acts chapter 4, 32 to 36. Now the full number of those who believed were one heart and one soul. No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own. But they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

There was not a needy person among them. For as many as were owners of lands and houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. That's how the early church was described.

When they were affected by the cross, one of the first evidence of it was they became very generous. There's reasons why these professional athletes who come from very difficult backgrounds, and so many of them come from backgrounds where they were living in poverty, and if you talk to them about, you know, they were a single family home and mom had to work three jobs just to make it, and then they come to the NBA, and all of a sudden they're multi-multi-millionaires.

And so you see so many of them out on their community. They set up charities, they're always giving, they're going back to their hometown and setting up schools and all that. They become very generous. The reason why they're so generous is because they know what it is that they have.

They were given the genetic lottery and they won. And so they know that what they had, that it wasn't like 50 years of hard work. Instantaneously, because they were good at dribbling the ball and putting the ball in the hoop, and they were better than anybody else, right? And it wasn't because they were better people.

They won the genetic lottery, and so as a result of that, all this wealth that they had, they become very generous. In fact, some of them are so generous that they lose all their money by the time they come out, you know, and you hear stories about these athletes who made like $100 million and they have nothing in their pocket because they weren't wise with their money, because they were just so generous with their friends and their family and everybody.

The reason why the early church became so generous is because they understood what it is that they had in Christ. They won the spiritual lottery. They didn't do anything, they weren't better people than the people who didn't. It was just by God's sovereign choice. They heard the gospel and they believed and they were convicted, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit in them started working powerfully, and as a result of that, they became generous.

They understood what it is that they had in Christ. So compared to what it is they had in Christ, this material stuff just didn't look that appealing to them, just like what Apostle Paul says. In light of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, everything else became rubbish. Anybody who is in love with the world, we don't have to go through spiritual assessment, we don't have to list all the things that you're doing wrong.

Automatically, we know that Christ is not that appealing to you. I don't need to sit there and do three years of biblical counseling to find out why you love the world. It's pretty simple. Because Christ isn't that appealing to you. That really is a simple reason why we don't pursue Christ.

We can say everything we want, we can have the right doctrines, go to the right church, but it's just, he's not as appealing as you say he is. See the early church, when they met Christ, I mean, and I want you to understand that this is not promotion of communism.

You're going to say, "Well, it sounds like communism. They sold everything and they distributed it for everybody else. They said none of this is mine. That's communism. That's China. Actually, even China is in communism right now, right?" Understand that this was not required. The apostle didn't say, "Hey, sell all your possessions, give it to the poor." He didn't say that.

It was not required. In fact, remember the very first sin that's being dealt with in Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira, they look at all the people who are being generous and instead of being really motivated to honor God, they're like, "Okay, maybe I should do this." And so they sold their possession, right?

And they give half of it and say, "Here's all of it." And as a result of that lie, what happens? Capital punishment. Both of them fall down and they die. And this is how Peter describes it, Acts chapter 5, 3-4. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?" In other words, we never asked you to do that, right? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? After it was sold, it was not required of you to do that. Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to men, but to God. So Peter basically is telling them this was not required to do. God was not establishing communism. So when the other people were doing it, they were doing it out of the abundance of their heart because of what Christ has done.

But in light of the surpassing knowledge of known Jesus Christ, the world seemed to look like rubbish. It wasn't anything. It was greater to share and to glorify Christ than to hold on to and hoard it. So they voluntarily did it. See, that was the early church. When we are affected by what Christ has done, it causes people to be motivated to be generous.

And that's what he's saying, that biblical love leads to fellowship, contribution. In fact, remember James 2? Remember that? It said, "Faith without deeds is dead." You can profess to have faith, but if your life doesn't back it up, it's dead. It's useless. It's just meanness. Even the demons, remember when they saw Jesus, they fell on their grounds.

They said, "Son of God, why have you come before the time to torment us?" They recognized him right away. They confessed orthodoxy. They confessed the right doctrine, right identity, Christology, when they met him. He said, "If all your faith is just a confession of orthodoxy, it is no different than the demons." So James says, "Faith without deeds is dead." Well, what deed is he referring to?

James 2.14. And if you've ever studied the book of James, you'll notice that this theme is all throughout the book of James. There was a problem with the rich and the poor, where the poor were envious of the rich, and the rich were looking down at the poor, and the rich would come in, they would get special seats, and poor people were not getting treated well.

And so the whole thing that he was dealing with in the book of James is this problem of the rich and the poor. And he says, "What good is it, my brother, if someone says that he has faith and does not have works?" Can that faith save him? He's not saying that you have to have faith and works.

He's saying, is that faith genuine? If somebody says that he has faith and it doesn't produce any works, is that real faith? Could that really be faith? That's what he's saying. "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" So also faith by itself, it does not have works, is dead.

So the deeds that he's talking about, he said faith without deeds is dead. The deed he's referring to is what Paul is talking about here, contributing to the needs of the saints. When you're not generous, when you're not sharing, what good is it if you say, "Oh, I feel for you, go your own way." Could that faith be genuine?

Can somebody who has won the spiritual lottery be so stingy? Could that be real faith? Can somebody who has been targeted by the love of God to have eternity in heaven for him, a co-heir of Christ, who confesses to believe this, be so concerned only about himself? Could that faith be genuine?

That's what he was referring to. And the specific deed he's referring to is generosity. James 1.27, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this, to visit orphans and the widows in their affliction." That's true religion. That's true faith. That's basically, again, that's what James is writing.

So in this application, there are three things that we need to remember in priority. First of all, the priority of generosity is you need to be responsible for your home first. First is at home. First Timothy 5.8 says, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." This comes in the context of Paul saying to Timothy that you have these certain widows who are in need, but first of all, before the church gets involved, let the family take care of them.

Because if a family member sees their mother or father who is in need and ignores them, he's worse than an unbeliever. So the first priority in being generous, he says, is to your own home. But here's the problem. I think most people, some people have a problem with that, but most people will automatically, I mean, they're family, so you have to be generous.

But usually, we're generous with our families, and they said, "That's where it stops." I mean, I got to take care of my family. I got to take care of my brother, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, my grandfather, my grandmother, you know, my six children. I mean, there's no end.

So basically, usually that's where it stops. I take care of my family, and I fulfill the law of Christ. No. He said that priority-wise, that's where it starts. But secondly, in Galatians 6.10, second priority is practice love with brothers and sisters in Christ first. Galatians 6.10, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith." And over and over again, the Bible says the priority is the church.

The priority is the church, the people who are around us, or other Christians in other parts of the world. Typically, for whatever the reason, when we think of social justice, we think of outside, non-Christians. The priority is first, whoever's closest to us, and then second, to the brothers, to the brothers and sisters in Christ.

And then third, he calls us to strangers. The word he uses here in verse 13, he says the word "hospitality," "Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." The word for hospitality is philosania. You probably noticed the first part, right, philo, where we get the word philadelphia, brotherly love.

But the second part is zania, right? And the word for zania basically means outsider or stranger, right? To show affection to strangers. That's what hospitality is. So having your family members visit your house, that's not the biblical understanding of hospitality. Having your friends coming over for dinner on Friday night, right, that's not the biblical understanding of hospitality.

And some of you guys are really good at that. We think hospitality is just having a lot of friends and opening up your house to have the party. Instead of having it at your house, let's have it at my house because I'm hospitable. The biblical idea of hospitality is not inviting your friends to your house.

It's an active love toward the outsiders, strangers, people that you do not know. And it is in the context of a culture where there wasn't, you know, going to an inn or a hotel was not an option for most places. So when strangers would walk in and you don't show them hospitality, they would basically have to sleep out on the street, right?

And that's, you know, when you talk to the pastors in India, you know, a long time ago when they first started preaching the gospel, they said that's exactly what happened. They would go to these villages and preach the gospel and if people were hospitable, they would sleep there. So this is a, the pastor Matthew, you know, he has, he had four kids, little kids.

And he would walk into villages and if they weren't hospitable, he was out on the street. And I remember Pastor Sake, who was our main contact, he would tell me how much he hated it. He said when he grew up, he said the last thing he wanted to do was be a pastor because he remembered what it was like sleeping out in the fields.

So when he's talking about hospitality, he's talking about in that context of strangers coming in and taking care of them. That's the word that is used here. And the reason why this is so important is because nothing reflects the love of God. Nothing reflects the love of God so accurately than this word hospitality.

Loving strangers, loving outsiders. In fact, remember we're talking, we're studying the book of Leviticus, you look at the details and how God is so concerned for even the poor who couldn't pay. And so he had bull offerings, the goat offering, the sheep, and then he says to the pigeons or turtles, and even if you couldn't afford that, if you were so poor you couldn't even afford that, he says to bring a tenth of ephah, the flowers.

He made provisions so that nobody would be excluded. I mean he cared for them so much. But God's care and concern goes way beyond that. The fact that he looked at a nation who was rebelling against him, the fact that he didn't destroy them, that in and of itself would be like, wow, that's so much restraint for him not to destroy them.

But in Leviticus 19.34 he says, "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." If you really studied from his perspective, not from our sinner's perspective, we're selfish and everything that we value from our perspective, you study the Word of God from his perspective, why does he care?

Why does he care that some stranger is coming into town, that he has something to eat? Why does he care about this guy who's most likely a pagan, an idol worshiper, coming in and leave a corner just for him? Deuteronomy 10.18-19, he executes justice for the fatherless and the widows, and loves the sojourners, giving him food and clothing, loved the sojourners, therefore, for you were sojourning in the land of Egypt.

He said, "Don't forget, this is who you were. You weren't deserving of mercy. You are a sojourner. You are a foreigner. So don't forget." Isaiah 58.6-7, "Is it not this, that the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of the wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?" The reason why he calls us to biblical love, to share, and to pursue, do you notice that?

He didn't just say, "Practice it." He said, "To pursue hospitality. Actively pursue the strangers who you wouldn't normally run into." You don't have to pursue your family. You don't have to pursue your brothers and sisters, but you have to pursue the strangers, because strangers aren't here. We could live the rest of our lives not practicing hospitality, just having friends over to our house and thinking we're practicing hospitality, but to actually practice hospitality, you have to be deliberately pursuing the lost.

You have to be deliberately pursuing people who can't pay you back, people who are not in your vicinity. That's why he calls us to actively pursue, and the reason why he challenges us to pursue actively is because that's the core of the gospel message. We didn't stumble upon God.

God wasn't just looking around and saying, "Well, I'm going to choose these people." The Bible says that he had us in his mind before the creation of the world. Ephesians 1, 3-13, repeatedly, over and over again, he says, "He predestined us. He purposed." And he says over and over again, "He chose us.

He predestined us. He purposed according to his mind, according to his purpose," over and over and over again to remind us that it didn't just happen. It wasn't by accident. A sovereign God planned to pursue sinners, sojourners who are hostile against him. And so when he calls a church to practice hospitality, he's telling us to practice what he did with us.

If we want to be an aroma of Christ and we ignore this command, we ignore the very essence of how you got saved. Remember, Jesus gives a parable of a man who's been forgiven, like millions and millions of dollars, and he refuses to forgive a man who owes him a few hundred bucks.

Remember what happens? You wicked servant. You wicked servant. Considering how much you've been forgiven and you refuse to forgive him, is it the very nature of who we are requires us to be generous if we really believe what it is that we have? If Jesus is not something or someone that we use so that we can have a better life.

If Jesus is being used because I want a better job, because I want to have peace, I want to have security and not go to hell and go to heaven, if that's who Jesus is, then it would make sense that we wouldn't be generous, that we would be hoarders.

There's a whole purpose of why Jesus is here so that we can hoard more. But if that's not the case, if the Jesus that we profess to believe and sing about, that he forsook everything so that he can make us co-heirs with Christ, he abandoned everything so that you and I could have everything, if that's the Jesus that we profess to believe and that's the Jesus that we follow, it automatically, we assume that that's the nature that we would take on ourselves.

That we would not be short-sighted. Let me conclude with this. Hebrews chapter 13, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." Again, there's always a debate between who wrote the book of Hebrews, I personally think it's Paul, but again, I could be wrong, you're right.

But whoever wrote it, I think was very aware of the parable that Jesus was giving in Matthew chapter 25, 31 to 46. He gives a parable how at the end, the goat and the sheep are going to be separated, and the way that they're going to be separated is, he says, "For I was hungry and you gave me food," verse 35, chapter 25, verse 35.

"I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and clothed you? And when did we see you sick and in prison or visit you?" And the king will answer them, "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me." Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." Then they also answered, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or strangers or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?" Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Our greatest act of worship, tangibly, is to love people. And the most tangible way that we can love people is by being hospitable, by being generous, by meeting the needs, recognizing what it is that we have in Christ, to actively, deliberately pursue those who are in need.

That's biblical love. Would you take a minute again as we ask the worship team to come up? Let's take some time to pray and again, examine our own hearts. Are we practicing this hospitality? Are we practicing this fellowship that the Bible describes? Are we living me-centered lives or is it truly Christ-centered?

Again, as our worship team leads us, let's take some time to pray in response to God's