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 Give your sermons a visual impact with the "Offer Hospitality to One Another" PowerPoint template. Free to SermonCentralPRO members. Click on the image to go to the download page.
 Practice Hospitality by Mike Wilkins 1 Peter 4:7-4:11 As far as cultures go, Canadians have become relatively inhospitable people. Many new immigrants quickly learn that when we say, "you’ll have to come and visit sometime," we really don’t mean it! Pam and I more… 
Hospitality To One Anotherby W. Maynard Pittendreigh 1 Peter 4:7-4:10 One of the most important things we do as a church is to do what we did today – we installed and ordained elders. Now the reason I say this is because these elders are our spiritual leaders. You may have more…
Entertaining Angels (Hospitality) by Alan Perkins Hebrews 13:2 This morning, I’d like to talk about hospitality. Now, I realize that, being the Fourth of July weekend, you might have been expecting a sermon on a patriotic theme, something like "freedom", or "sacrifice", or "the more…
Holy Hospitality by Stephen Fournier Titus1:8 There is a story of a pastor who made it a habit of being hospitable and visiting his church members on Saturday morning. He came upon one house were it was obvious that someone was home. Lights were more...
 Hospitality 101by Thomas Black Genesis 18:1-18:8 A mother invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to her six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?" "I wouldn’t know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say what you more...
More Important Things to DoSam Rayburn was Speaker of the House of Representatives longer than any other man in our history. There is a story about him that reveals the kind of man he really was. The teenage daughter of a friend of his died suddenly one night. Early the next morning the man heard a knock on his door, and, when he opened it, there was Mr, Rayburn standing outside. The Speaker said, "I just came by to see what I could do to help." The father replied in his deep grief, "I don’t think there is anything you can do, Mr. Speaker. We are making all the arrangements." "Well," Mr. Rayburn said, "have you had your coffee this morning?" The man replied that they had not taken time for breakfast. So Mr. Rayburn said that he could at least make coffee for them. While he was working in the kitchen, the man came in and said, "Mr. Speaker, I thought you were supposed to be having breakfast at the White House this morning." "Well I was," Mr. Rayburn said, "but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in trouble, and I couldn’t come." SOURCE: Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes, Robert J. Morgan Contributed by: SermonCentral
Welcome…Now Move!Singer John Charles Thomas, at age sixty-six wrote to syndicated columnist Abigail Van Buren: “I am presently completing the second year of a three-year survey on the hospitality or lack of it in churches. To date, of the 195 churches I have visited, I was spoken to in only one by someone other than an official greeter—and that was to ask me to move my feet.” SOURCE: Cited by “Eutychus and His Kin,” Christianity Today, June 3, 1977 Contributed by: A. Todd Coget Making Friends Out of StrangersYou and I tend to offer hospitality to only a limited number of people--persons whom we already know, mostly relatives and a few close friends. But, in Abraham’s time, hospitality was extended to whomever needed it--strangers and acquaintances alike. In fact, in its original form, "hospitality" combines two separate words--one meaning friend and the other meaning stranger. So, from the beginning of its usage, hospitality has carried with it the idea of making friends out of strangers. SOURCE: James W. Cox, The Minister’s Manual, Harper, 1994, 109 Contributed by: Paul Fritz Welcoming Misfits Ryan Johnson, a minister in Glen Elder, Kansas, shares this story: "I was heading north out of Salina, Kansas when I saw him. His name was Charlie. Charles was sitting in the ditch with large army bags. The cold misty rain was drenching him and his bags. He wore his Vietnam jacket proudly. It laid over his 400-pound body like a tarp. I pulled over and asked if I could help. He asked if I would load his bags (and man did he mean bags) on the car and drive them to the gas station that was a hundred yards away, he would appreciate it. I did. He limped along following the behind my car. For a few fruitless hours I tried to talk him into going to a rescue mission. I prayed with him and left. I continued to travel North on HW 81 to my home. That’s when Jesus started in. I said, "Jesus, I can’t take him home. He could kill me. And Jesus, he really stinks…Jesus there is no way I am letting him stay the night… Now Lord, I prayed with him. I helped him." I felt the words he said, echoed from Matthew 25, "When you welcome me in...Not if you prayed with me..." So, I made a u-turn on Highway 81. I pulled up next to Charlie at the gas station. I said, “Charlie get in!” Charlie said, “Getty up!” For the next hour and a half, I rode with this 400 lb. man in my small car. I had to crack the window to be able to breath through the stench. I heard the story of how a once veteran became a misfit. It was the common dilemma of needing medicine to get a job and a job to get the medicine. We got to my place. I laid a sheet on the couch. I washed his clothes and belongings. The next morning I took him to the police station as part of the ministerial alliance agreement to get him a free motel room and a hot meal. Later that day I received a call from the local hospital’s Social worker. She said that Charles has been admitted and wouldn’t speak to anyone but me. I walked into room 104 and said, “Charlie what do you want. I’ve done everything. He said, “I don’t want anything. I just wanted you to know that they told me my heart is bad and I am dying. They want to ship me to Wichita. But I can never hitch a ride out of Wichita, so I want to stay here to die. Last night was the first home I have stayed in, in over 20 years. Because of that I felt welcomed. And I know Jesus is asking me to get my real heart right. I just want you to know preacher. I want you to help me accept the Lord." When we welcome misfits, The Kingdom will expand. SOURCE: Ryan Johnson in "Welcome to The Misfit Kingdom" on www.sermoncentral.com. Edited by SermonCentral staff. Contributed by: SermonCentral Love May Bring Heartache"We become vulnerable when we love people and go out of our way to help them." That’s what the wealthy industrialist Charles Schwab declared after going to court and winning a nuisance suit at age 70. Given permission by the judge to speak to the audience, he made the following statement: "I’d like to say here in a court of law, and speaking as an old man, that nine-tenths of my troubles are traceable to my being kind to others. Look, you young people, if you want to steer away from trouble, be hard-boiled. Be quick with a good loud no to anyone and everyone. If you follow this rule, you will seldom be bothered as you tread life’s pathway. Except you’ll have no friends, you’ll be lonely, and you won’t have any fun!" Schwab had made his point -- love may bring heartache, but it’s worth it! Contributed by: Davon Huss 
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