Open Heart, Open Home: Hospitality and the Gospel

Amanda Kassian: Well, I am so privileged to be here, to be a part of True Woman. I came to True Woman when I first got married to Matt Kassian, Mary’s second son. I was here in 2014 and 2016 as an attendee just tagging along with Mary, and now I am here speaking. This is really exciting and such privilege! I am so glad that I get to be here to multiply God’s truth and God’s kingdom.

And so, thank you guys for coming. I am excited to talk about this topic of hospitality. This is probably my number one passion. Any time I do any spiritual gift-type test, #1 is hospitality, #2 is teaching. So I get to teach on something that I am very passionate about. 

I just want to say, too, that Nancy had asked us to kind of chat a little bit about “Heaven rules,” and what that means with our breakout session. I just want to remind you that God has prepared a home for us that is secure and eternal. We don’t have to worry about things on earth because we are secure in our inheritance in heaven. 

And hospitality is something that Jesus has done for us in many ways, and we’re going to talk about that today. But as I was preparing this message for you, you know I pray a lot. I prepare a lot. As I was preparing this message, I thought it was going to go in one direction, and God led me in a different one. 

I had some of my close friends read through my teachings and my talks. I said, “This is a lot different than I expected,” and so, I am anticipating that God has a message for you, today. It’s specific. I hope it encourages you, that it changes your faith journey in a new direction, and just helps you to see the gifts of hospitality with new eyes. 

So, I’m happy to be a servant to you today, and yeah, I’m excited to jump into this topic. 

Like Julie said, I live in Canada. I’m not Canadian . . . I just want to be clear. I sacrificed a lot in my marriage. I am Texan. I was born and raised as a Texas girl. So how did I end up in Canada? Well, love. Someone you may know that he’s Mary Kassian’s son, second son. He’s a hockey player. He was playing hockey in Houston; that’s where I met him. We went on a blind date. We got set up by a pastor, and the rest is history. Now I am in Canada. I’ve learned a lot about hockey, learned a lot about the winter. 

I am happy to be back here in my home country. I saw the ladies up here eating Chick-Fil-A. I was telling them when I go home to Texas, all I eat is Mexican food and Chick-Fil-A. That’s all I eat because we don’t have that in Canada. They try with the Mexican food, but it is not the same. 

I do want to see kind of where everybody is from. Did anybody here come from Canada? Okay, we’ve got one, two! Whereabouts? I need to know. Okay, Ontario, oh Alberta. How many of you that are in the United States know where Alberta is? I joke with my friends. I actually video them and ask them Canadian trivia, because Americans don’t know anything about anybody else’s country. It’s an American thing. Other countries know that. They’re like, “Oh, you’re American, so you don’t know anything about us.” So, I learned a lot about Canada. When we were engaged, my husband got traded to Ottawa. He was playing in the NHL and got traded to Ottawa, and I said, “What’s Ottawa?” And he goes, “It’s the capital of Canada.” 

I thought it was like Quebec or something. I’ve also learned a lot about hockey. I guess some of you more in the northern states, you probably know a little more about hockey. But in Texas it’s all football, baseball, volleyball, basketball . . . everything but hockey. So, I have lots of funny stories to say about that. My husband just shakes his head, because he clearly didn’t marry me for the sport. Like, I had no idea. 

I am very blessed to be in the Kassian family. Yes, if you missed it, Mary, we have the same last name, we are related. I married her son, so she is my mother-in-law. We came here together. We do a lot of ministry together. She is just a light in my life. I am very, very happy to have her in my life. 

Before we get started, I am going to pray, and then we will jump in. Lord, thank You for this opportunity. What a gift it is to talk about Your Word, to talk about what it means to be a neighbor, what it means to be hospitable, what it means to open our doors, and open our hearts, and open our homes to a stranger. Lord, You were the greatest example of that. And Lord, I know that You have prepared this message for the women in this room. I just pray that You lay a heavy spirit of encouragement, conviction, and truth, that magnifies who You are and also reminds us of our depravity and how we can grow in the practice of hospitality. 

We all have areas to grow. Lord we are all in process. We thank You for being our example, our King, our God who reigns, and our God who has invited us into His home, with no restraint. Lord, let us be like that, and emulate what You have done for us. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen. 

So, my aunt and uncle have a thing for strays. As former foster care parents, and current social workers, they take people in from all walks of life, varying ethnicities, skin color, sexual orientation, economic class, every different type of person that needed a helping hand or a place to stay for a period of time. They would welcome them into their home without hesitation. 

Growing up, my Thanksgiving looked different than most of my friends. We spent our holidays with my aunt and uncle, and they would invite their former foster care children to their home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. 

I grew up sharing a table with people who looked different and lived differently than me. And this was a normal part of my upbringing. It’s something I’m very thankful for today. 

Our holiday gathering happened before and after I made the decision to trust and follow Christ as my Savior. I grew up in a single parent household. It was at times quite complex, to say the least.

We didn’t have much; I didn’t have much. But what I did have though were several families and individuals over the years who helped shape the woman I am today through the simple blessing of opening their doors and welcoming me into their homes. 

From high school friends’ parents who welcomed me in their home every weekend. Who took time to invest in my life by simply asking me questions about how have you been doing? What have you been up to? 

To my college roommates’ parents who let me live in their basement rent free for a year while I saved money as a broke college student. It was in their home where I witnessed a husband and a wife wake up every morning, pray together, read Scripture, and serve their community. 

Coming from a divorced home, I had never seen this modeled before. In my early twenties a single woman welcomed me in, she discipled me, and she taught me about healing, forgiving, and the Old Testament. 

As a single woman in my twenties, married friends would take me in. They fed me meals and shared life with me as I struggled with painful breakups and the desire to be married.

Overall, the greatest growth in my faith journey happened not in my own home, but in the home of other believers.

So, the practice of hospitality is considered an important and valuable work of God. And similar to my experiences, it has the ability to transform lives in an extraordinary way. 

But overall, hospitality is important, because number one, we are commanded to practice it. We are commanded to practice it. The word “hospitality” comes from the Greek word philoxenia And philos meaning “friend” is derived from the word phileo which is a term for non-erotic love, it’s a friendly love. It’s a friendly brotherly love. Philos combined with xenos which means “foreigner or stranger.” 

So, philoxenia means “we are to be loving towards strangers, loving towards the other.” 

Hospitality was a virtue displayed throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors. We are called to be loving neighbors. Part of neighboring is drawing close to the people who are right in front of us.

Exodus 22:21 says, “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” 

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby have some entertained angels unaware” (Heb. 13:2), “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Rom. 12:13). “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). 

Whether we understand, like it, or agree with it, the Bible instructs us to be hospitable people. The Bible instructs us be a neighbor. When we are obedient to this command, we build community, we learn about ourselves, and most importantly we bring glory to God. 

Secondly, hospitality is important, because Jesus was hospitable to us. Jesus welcomed the outsider, the sinner to share a meal with Him, commune with Him, and ultimately by the shedding of His blood, share eternity with Him. 

He did this with and for those who were despised, those who hated Him, and those who were unclean. Jesus loved the stranger.

We often forget that we were once far off, and estranged from God, we were the stranger, we were the outsider, by His mercy and grace without expecting anything in return Jesus brought us in, sacrificed His life for us, sinners, so that we could share in eternity with Him. (see Eph. 2:13)

And Christ’s love and example compels us. It should compel us to lay down our lives for the sake of others in hopes to emulate the love that He has given to us. 

So, opening our doors and opening our homes has become a lost art in current Christian practices, especially in the West. But practicing biblical hospitality mirrors the gospel message and it is one of the most significant and influential ways that we can minister to, care for, and love our neighbors in and throughout our communities. 

Now, you’ve heard me say the phrase “the practice of hospitality,” and I want to touch on this a bit more. The word “practice” . . . Okay, we practice sports. I practiced this talk. The word “practice” means “the actual application or use of an idea or method as opposed to the theories relating to it.” 

We can all agree on that, hospitality is a good thing, the Bible says. But instead of just believing that it’s good, honorable, and stopping there, we take this theory and we put action to it. We practice it. We do it. 

The word “practice” also conveys, and I want to remind you of this, that we have not arrived. We have not arrived. It means that we are in training. So, I may be speaking on this topic today, but just like you, there are things that I need to practice. I’m in progress. I’m in process to become better in this spiritual discipline in my life. So, I have not arrived. Okay? There are things as I was doing that, I was like, “Woo, Lord.” I have some things to learn. 

We are working towards proficiency and exercising our muscles towards being more hospitable servants of God. So, as we talk about these things today, I want you to know that like you, I’m in process. I am working on my own practices of hospitality. Thankfully, we have a perfect example in Christ to follow as we grow in this area of our lives. 

Before we begin discussing the practice of hospitality, it is important to bring awareness to the hidden influences that hinder our obedience to this spiritual discipline. 

Number one, our culture is becoming increasingly more isolated. When I say these are “hidden” hindrances to hospitality, do you like that? Three hidden hindrances to hospitality. So, this is what we are up against. I say that they are hidden because we don’t even notice it. It’s so ingrained in our culture that we don’t even know that it’s affecting how we are hospitable to other people. 

So, number one, our culture is becoming increasingly more isolated. Psychological studies and science have proven that the need for social connection is crucial to our well-being. We are created to be with other people, to be together. 

Sadly, as our communities are unraveling, people especially in western countries, are becoming more isolated and disengaged than ever before. 

According to an article by Psychology Today, “Since the 1980s the percentage of American adults who report being lonely has doubled from 20 percent to 40 percent.”

More than a quarter of the population lives alone and marriage rates and the number of kids per household are dropping. Participation in social groups has been on a downward slope, and it appears to continue today.

So, what is driving this trend of increased social isolation? Number one, changes in family structure. Families are spending less time together. There is more suburban living. Back in the day, everybody lived in the city, now people are moving to the suburbs. We have more distance between our homes. People have commutes. So, we have increased time in our cars, alone versus together. 

We have misguided priorities. Money and status are increasingly prioritized in the West, sometimes at the expense of the quality of our relationships. We were brought up in a culture that tells us that the more money we make, the more things we accumulate, the better title and fancier job we have, the happier we will be. 

And lastly, technology. This is just a small list of the things that are hindering hospitality. Technology is one of the biggest culprits of social disengagement. We are the most connected we have ever been, yet the loneliest

Technology and mass media have become the medium of choice through which many of us spend our free time, usually alone. And I don’t know about you, but some of us leisurely spend our time connecting through social media with our friends who are in the same room. 

These factors can be hidden hindrances to how we operate in our families and in our relationships. So, our aim is to pay attention to this, pay attention to these hidden hindrances. And are prioritizing the right things? 

Secondly, our culture is fearful and suspicious of the other. We live in a world that is suspicious and fearful of others. I currently live in Canada as a permanent resident and technically, I am an immigrant. I am an “other” living in another country. I am an American, born and raised in Texas. hen I share with Canadians that I am from Texas, they often get really excited and intrigued and ask lots of questions, like, “Do you say y’all?” “Oh, Canada! Are you surviving the winters up there?” “What is chicken fried steak?” They don’t know what that is. You know the usual questions. 

I am an “other.” I am a welcomed immigrant in Canada, but this is not how all interactions go with people who are starkly different than us. For all of us, there are certain people we keep at a distance. 

We don’t take the time to ask difficult people or people we don’t understand friendly questions, let alone invite them over for dinner. Fear of this kind of the “other” is what drives our political division and dialogue in our culture today. We put the “other” at a distance, and we do not draw near to them.

Do you spend time with or pursue people who are not like you?

One author put it this way, he says, “Categorizing people as ‘other’ has a profound impact on our capacity to love.” It changes our desire for connection and responsibility to feel. Distance create fear and fear gives us a hermeneutic of suspicion, causing us to withhold care. 

Our culture is being built on a persistent practice of exclusion. You see it all over the news. Putting people against each other. Our instincts are continually sharpened to push others to the margins of our minds, our hearts, and our lives. 

My brother-in-law said it perfectly. He said our natural instinct is to fear what we do not understand. We mock the other, we fear the other, we shame the other. But the reality is, we do not understand the other. 

Maybe that’s a republican for you, maybe that’s a democrat, maybe that’s a progressive Christian. Who are you distancing yourself from? Who are you mocking? Who is the “other” for you? 

Christianity was never meant to be a safe comfortable journey. Oftentimes, God asks us to speak to others, love others, and invite others, and this may include inviting the other into your safe spaces.

I am not advocating that we let anybody into our homes. I’m not up here saying, ‘Alright, just take Jimmy off the street and just bring him in.” I do believe that we do need to be prudent and use discretion when we invite others into our personal spaces. However, some of our fears may be unwarranted, and this may be an area we need to practice courage. We need to wrestle through those fears with God. 

If you are struggling with fears of inviting others into your home, ask yourself, “Are my fears justified, and are they biblical?” Are we allowing our fears, our prejudices, our suspicions to hinder our obedience to God in loving others? 

Thirdly, our culture values business and productivity. Some of you may be listening to this message and thinking, Okay, how do we fit this practice into my life? We already have so many relationships to manage. We have so many activities. How can I add one more thing? We live in a world that values results, productivity, and activity. 

In their book, The Art of Neighboring, which I highly recommend, the authors say this, “Instead of having more free time, we’ve added more things in our already crammed lives. Even though we get more done, we still pile up the tasks. Our calendars continuously stay full, no matter how many time saving devices are invented.” 

We live our lives at warp speed. We’ve become champion multitaskers. We put our heads down, zip to work, dropping kids off at school or daycare on the way. We eat on the run while having meetings on the fly. We get home late at night, watch TV, check our messages, hang out with our kids, send text messages, do the housework, pay the bills, and crash. Then we wake up the next day, and we do it all over again. 

Does this resonate with you? Are you living your life at an unhealthy pace? Are you justifying your imbalance?

The reality is, when we are living a fast-paced life, we miss important opportunities to love others well. Jesus was not hurried. His life was full, but it was balanced. 

Every Sunday evening, my husband and I have a family meeting. Our kids aren’t old enough to join us yet. So, it’s just me and him. We check in on each other spiritually. We talk about the kids; we talk about our schedules. You know, who is picking up whom from gymnastics, who is doing swimming lessons? We’re figuring out the week and the meals and all of those things so we are both on the same page. 

At one point, we were going through a particularly busy season of our lives. I remember him saying, “Once we get through this, things will slow down.” And I looked at him and I smiled, and I said, “Honey, things are not going to slow down. We’ve got to start saying ‘no’ to some things.” 

I think we fall into this trap of believing that things will slow down, but the reality is, unless we take control of our schedules, and it’s a discipline.

Until we start creating some margin and balance, we will continue to live a fast-paced life that lacks true, meaningful, abundant living that God designed. Not our culture, but the way God designed it. We’d be missing that; we’d be missing an opportunity to live as the way God intended. 

John Ortburg coined this phrase “hurry sickness.” He says, and I love this quote, “Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have.”

If we want to be a good hospitable neighbor, we need to recognize that we will be at war with time, busy schedules, and hurriedness. 

So, today we’re going to look at a familiar story in the Bible, the parable of the Good Samaritan. This Bible story is very familiar to both believers and non-believers alike.Most know what it means when you call someone a good Samaritan. We even saw the Christmas box ministry through Samaritan’s Purse. It means that we are kind, we’re helpful, we’re merciful to those in need. 

It is a sincere compliment when somebody calls us a good Samaritan, it’s virtuous. 

People are acquainted with the story, but not so acquainted with the point of it. And that’s what we are going to talk about today.

Yes, this is a story about hospitality, love for our neighbors, but it is also a heart check for ourselves. The story answers our central question for the day. Any time I teach, I always say okay this is our central question. So, when you leave here, and somebody says, “Well, what did you learn?” Well, this is the central question, and we’re going to have points that follow it.

I’m a former English teacher and so I have a little bit of structure that go into my teachings. 

These are the main points: How can I open my heart and open my home for others? 

How can I open my heart and open my home for others? So, to be a neighbor as the Bible describes means that we love others as we love ourselves. A genuine continual practice of hospitality seeks to love all people, without restraint. We ask ourselves, How would I want to be loved? And we love like that.

So, the avenue in which we open our hearts and homes for others, means we, number one, we see a need and we meet a need. We see it, and we meet it.

Number two is, we resist hostility and we extend mercy. So, similar to what we just talked about, we resist what the culture is trying to impede on us in terms of excluding other people out of our lives, we resist that. We resist hostility and we extend mercy.

Number 3, be willing to be inconvenienced. 

Number 4, be generous with our resources. Be generous with our resources. 

So, before we look at the parable itself, I want to set the scene as to why Jesus told it in the first place. If you have a Bible with you, I want you to open to Luke chapter 10. We’re going to start in verse 25. So, Luke chapter 10:25, “A lawyer stood up . . .” A lawyer at this time is a little bit different than what a lawyer is today. It is a scribe, and they were known for their expertise in the Old Testament law. 

So lawyers, like the religious scribes and the Pharisees were part of the religious establishment at the time. They were big influencers in the Old Testament law. “A lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” (v. 25).

Some commentaries would say that the motive of the lawyer was hostile. We know that from the Bible, the religious establishment was always testing Jesus. They were always questioning Him, wondering why He was doing certain things. 

His motive for asking this question did not come from a genuine pure place. It was hostile. His aim was to put Jesus to the test in hopes of embarrassment, in hopes to trap Jesus, so that they could condemn Him or execute Him. 

He asks an important question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And this is an important question. This the most important question any person could ever ask. But the question itself sheds light on the spiritual heart posture of the lawyer. He was assuming that one must do something, that we have a way to earn our salvation, to inherit the kingdom of God. And that salvation was up to us, we can earn it. 

Here Jesus doesn’t explain salvation. He doesn’t say, “No, no, no. This is what you have to do.” He chooses a different method. First, He responds using the Socratic method, which is answering a question with a question. He says, “Well, what is written in the law?” How do you read it? 

And the lawyer is like. “Well, this is my expertise. I know what is written in the law.” And the lawyer says, “And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live’” (vv. 27–28).

“Do this” is a present imperative, meaning a continual commitment required of Christians. Do this. Love God and love others and you will live. Live, meaning have abundance, flourish, have salvation. 

Now, the conversation should be over, right? The lawyer answered the question correctly, but he continues to push Jesus and further justify himself. So in verse 29 he says, “But the lawyer, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

And it is important to know that the lawyer is approaching this question with a self-righteous motive, because to him, he loves others well. He loves everybody, the Jews, who are like him, well. 

He thinks he loves God, and loves others perfectly, the way God requires him to. He loved people who were like him. And Jesus responds with a story, that’s essential to our teaching today. Am I a neighbor in the sense that Jesus describes in this story?

Jesus’ response is truly evangelistic in nature. It reveals our own depravity, while at the same time, revealing our desperate need for God. 

And He starts in verse 30. He says, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.”

Now, I want to explain this imagery to you, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, okay? It was a dangerous road. Jerusalem is up on a mountain; Jericho is down here. So, in order to get through and down to Jericho, its about seventeen miles and 3,000 feet down. It was a dangerous road to travel because it was easy for robbers to hide behind rocks and cliffs on this steep winding path.

We don’t know much about this man that was attacked. He wasn’t just robbed, he was beaten, stripped of his clothing, and left half dead. They took everything. He may just be in his underwear; he may be naked. 

Obviously, this man is in a desperate situation. He cannot help himself at this point. He needs someone to help him. 

Verses 31–32, “Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.”

Many priests had their residencies in Jericho, so they would travel this road and would return from Jerusalem when it was to officiate there. So, they would live in Jericho, but their time of work was in Jerusalem. They navigated this road often. 

And so, I bet this lawyer as he’s listening to this story, when he hears the priest and the Levite enter in, and they’re part of the religious establishment, he’s like, “Okay, I know what they’re going to do, they’re going to help this man.” But once he heard that the priest saw this man in desperate need, and I want to draw attention to that word “he saw him” it’s not like he wasn’t aware of the desperation. He saw that this man needed help. He probably assumed that the priest would help and save the day, further inflating and justifying his self-righteousness.

But what does the priest do? The original Greek uses the word, ante for passing by. Meaning he went against, completely on the other side of this man. He has complete disregard for someone in critical condition. 

And what does the Levite do? He came to the place and saw him. He not only just saw him from a distance, but he came up to the man, analyzed the situation, and then passed him by. Again, somebody who is part of the religious establishment sees and passes by. 

And this leads to my first point of our central question: how can I open my heart and open my home for others? How can I open my heart and open my home for others? We see a need; we meet a need. We see a need; we meet a need. 

I think it is easy to read this story and think we would be nothing like the lawyer, the priest, or the Levite. We read and we’re like, “Yeah, we wouldn’t do that.” But the reality is that this happens all of the time. I do it. You do it. We all do this. 

The response of the priest and the Levite are inhumane, but it’s not unnatural. 

Earlier, I mentioned the hindrances to our hospitality in our homes. Oftentimes, we are too busy or too self-absorbed, and too influenced by culture to even notice the needs right in front of our faces. 

Even more so, and I am not down playing this response, okay, I am not downplaying. But oftentimes, our only response to the needs before us is, I will pray for you. Loving our neighbor and extending hospitality means more than seeing a need and passing it by. 

I have led women’s Bible studies in my home for years. I was actually trying to think of how long it’s been. It’s almost been over twenty years. And for a particular season of my life, I was called to minister to single women in their twenties and thirties. I had them in and out of home for about four-and-a-half years.

One of the women I mentored was Filipino. She struggled to provide for herself, and she was also trying to provide for family who still lived in the Philippines. As I am listening to her share her struggle, the Holy Spirit prompted me to invite her to live with us. We had the space, we had an extra room. I brought the idea to my husband, and without hesitation he said, “Absolutely.” 

And so, she lived with us, rent free, in our basement for about eight months. My daughters loved seeing her off to work. They loved welcoming her home. They loved seeing her at church. She was a part of our family. 

She was able to save money and get her feet back on the ground, and she was a gift to us. And now, I get to be her spiritual godmother to her baby girl. 

But I often think, what if I never asked her? What if I just allowed her to struggle in her pain? What if I left it at, I will pray for you? I’m not downplaying that God can’t do things through prayer, He can. But what is on the side of our obedience? Is a transformed life on the other side of our “yes” to do something extraordinary?

How can I open my heart and home for others? We see a need, and we meet a need. 

Let’s continue in the story, verse 33 says, “But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him . . . ” He saw him, and what was his response? He had compassion. He saw him, and he had compassion. 

I want to tell you a little bit about Samaritans. This is biblical racism, okay? It’s not an old thing, this is biblical racism. Jews despised Samaritans. The people of Samaria were of mixed Israelite and foreign descent. So, the Jewish people did not accept them as part of their Jewish community. 

The Samaritans were despised and hated for ethnic and religious reasons. So, at this point in the story, Jesus introduces a hated person who sees a man in distress, moves towards the man in distress without any hindrance or reproach. The Samaritan resisted hostility and extended mercy. 

How can I open my heart and open my home for others? We resist hostility and extend mercy. Culture tells us to despise the other. There are people not welcome in our spaces due to differences in ethnicity, political stance, sexual orientation, medical choices, religious beliefs, and so on. 

Who are those people in your life? Do you find that you are more prone to distance yourself from people of certain categories? To be a good neighbor we set aside prejudice, and we show compassion for others. We move towards them, not away from them. We resist hostility and we extend mercy to those in need. 

Verses 34–35, “He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”

How can I open my heart and open my home? Point number three, I must be willing to be inconvenienced. He came to the man, and this is a stark contrast to the response of the priest and the Levite. He came to the man and bandaged up his wounds. He may have had to use some of his own clothes to nurse the wounds of this bleeding man. Then he took oil and wine, which most people carried at that time for meals. They would use oil and wine for all of their meals, and he poured it on him.

The word is “poured.” He didn’t say sprinkled or dripped. Poured, meaning it was a lavish, generous amount. Giving up his own for the sake of somebody else. Then he lifts the man and puts him on his own animal. He could have used this animal to walk himself, but he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn. 

Now, this man was walking somewhere. Nobody just walks this dangerous road for no reason. He probably had somewhere to be, something to do. The Samaritan halted his own agenda to serve the needs of a stranger. 

This fall is particularly busy for me in terms of ministry commitments and engagements, all of which I am very grateful for. But that doesn’t mean the needs of other people come to a standstill in my life. Just recently, even as I preparing for this conference, a tragedy happened with one of my really close girlfriends and her family. 

I was in the midst of prepping this talk as well as prepping for a conference I am hosting in Canada, while also caring for my family, which is my number one priority. I didn’t have a lot of margin; I didn’t have a lot of time to spare. But the needs were great. I remember the Holy Spirit reassuring me that He will provide for the time that was lost if I helped these people in need. He will multiply my time, my focus, my energy, to prepare for today. 

And so, I did. I prepped meals. I sat in the presence of others who cried and wept, and took time to be with this family as they worked through immense shock and grief. 

Additionally, I have had people call or text at the drop of a dime that they needed something and stayed in my home, talking through things till late in the night. We have always said that our home is an open door and all are welcome in it. My husband always jokes, “You’re welcome anytime, almost anytime, if you know what I mean.” I’m like, “Please don’t say that.” 

A neighbor is willing to be inconvenienced, and sometimes that means sacrificing our time, our resources, and our agenda for the sake of someone else. 

This leads to our last point. How can I open my heart and open my home for others? I am generous with my resources.

The Samaritan lavishly, not sparingly, poured out his own oil and wine to bandage a man in need. Additionally, he lifted him up on his own animal and then he brings him to an inn. He not only just took him to an inn, but he stayed with him. He provided food, cleansed the wounds, made him comfortable, and cared for this man through the night. How do I know that he stayed through the night? Because the next line says, “On the next day . . .”

On the next day, and it doesn’t stop there. He takes out two denarii, which is equal to a day’s wage. A nightly cost for a room in an inn at that time was 1/32 of a denarius. The Samaritan paid for this man to stay for two months.

He paid for this man to stay two months, and it doesn’t even stop there. He says, “Hey, I’ve got to go” to then innkeeper “but if you use all of this that I’ve given you, I will pay you back for anything that you spend on this man to care for him.” Basically, he was risking extortion. 

The Samaritan was lavishly generous with his resources and his time all for the sake of a stranger in need. 

I remember a girlfriend of mine feeling insecure about putting the pretty plates out before she invited new guests into her home. She said, I don’t know. I don’t want to look like I am doing the most or doing too much.” And I said, “Do the most. Do the most. Be generous with your resources, to make others feel welcome. Wouldn’t you want that? Don’t you want to be loved like that?” People go above and beyond for you.

That’s not to say that you need to go and buy all of the new things. I am not saying that you do it with a heart motive of “I need to impress people,” because that is wrong. But you’re generous with what you have. You offer that with a heart posture of genuine care for other people. 

And finally, Jesus says, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” (v. 36). And the lawyer said, he couldn’t even say the Samaritan, he says, “‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said, “‘Go and do likewise.’”

This is a neighbor. This is a neighbor who loves someone as himself. If you were the man in need, wouldn’t you want to be cared for in this manner? Someone bringing out the pretty plates. Someone going above and beyond the requirement of care. Of course you would! 

When we care for ourselves, we make sure we get the best attention. The products with the best reviews. I don’t know about you, but before I purchase anything on Amazon, I am looking at, I need the ratings to be five stars. The vacuum needs to be able to do this. The best ingredients, the best doctors, the best resources. We do lavish things for ourselves. 

This story is a story of lavish, limitless, love for an enemy. For an enemy. Let me ask you, do you love this lavishly for everyone, you see in need?

It’s not just prepping a meal, it’s not just sending money overseas, it’s not just a monthly transaction, these are all good things. But remember, the lawyer asked, “How do I inherit eternal life?” We love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength, and we love our neighbor as ourselves, all the time. 

And you’re thinking, that’s impossible. Because it is. The law summarized shows that we can’t do it. Without Christ, we cannot accomplish this act of lavish, extravagant love, perfectly, we can’t. 

We who were once far off, strangers and enemies of God, and needing grace and mercy, we are justified by faith alone, by His grace alone, through the blood of Christ alone. 

Which of these three proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? The one who showed him mercy. Go and do likewise. 

We practice hospitality because Christ has been hospitable to us. Once enemies far from God, outcasts of the kingdom in desperate need, needing our wounds to be bandaged, He took us in. 

So, you see, the lawyer shouldn’t be asking, who is my neighbor? Like the lawyer, we should be examining our hearts and ask Him, “Am I a neighbor? Am I a neighbor?”

If you are attending this breakout session, my guess is that you want to grow in this spiritual discipline. Some of you may be exceptionally versed in showing hospitality to others. But as we look to this story in Scripture today, I hope that God’s Word humbles us, and reminds us that we can never love all people with absolute perfection. Only Jesus could accomplish that. 

And we need to be careful that we are not like the lawyer, where we allow our self-righteousness to get in the way and think that we are doing enough. 

Humility will remind us there is always room to grow, in the practice of hospitality. By serving others we serve Christ, and we promote the advancement of God’s truth. So, as we seek to open our hearts and open our homes to others, let us remember to be watchful. To see those needs in front of us, to see those opportunities, and share in these encounters with Christ. 

How can I open my heart and open my home for others? I see a need; I meet a need. I resist hostility, and I extend mercy. I’m willing to be inconvenienced, and I am generous with my resources.

Let’s pray. 

Lord, what a gift You are to us, to be an example of hospitality. In this parable of the good Samaritan, You show us that without You, apart from Christ we can do nothing. We need Your supernatural power to have patience, to have the agape love we need to extend to other people, including people that we struggle with. 

So, Lord, I just ask for every single woman in here that You stir and work. Holy Spirit, would You invite them to a new meaning of what it means to be a neighbor. What does it mean to invite people into their home? And would You just cover with conviction and rest in truth any fears we are harboring when it comes to hospitality? Maybe it’s perfection? There are women in here who are struggling with perfection, that you have to have everything perfect before you invite somebody into your home. Lord, would You address that in their heart today? 

Maybe it’s fear of the other. Would You help women to extend mercy and see people, to show compassion. And Lord, if we are struggling with our things, if we are struggling with idolization of things and money, would You help us to reprioritize our lives so that we can be generous, so that we can pour out lavishly to those around us. Because what we have been given is truly not even ours, it's yours. 

Help us steward the things You have given us, and that includes our finances, and that includes our homes, and the things in it. We thank You for being a God who rules heaven and earth. You have invited us into an eternal home with many rooms. Thank You for taking us in, once strangers, once far off, to be invited into Your home. We praise You for Your mercy and compassion on our lives. Lord, would You work in this space in here and as we go. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen.