God calls us to be neighbors—to engage those around us with compassion. Hospitality is about more than welcoming others into our home; it is extending the grace we receive from God to others.

Scripture References

Luke 10:25-37
Leviticus 19:33-34

Rise and Fall | Daniel Renstrom | iTunes

All Things New | Brett Younker | iTunes
2 Corinthians 5:17 • 2 Corinthians 5:21 • Isaiah 61:3 • Romans 3:25-26

In Christ Alone | Kristian Stanfill | iTunes
Jude 1:24-25 • Philippians 3:7-11 • Acts 4:8-12 • Romans 8:38-39

Raised to Life | Elevation Worship | iTunes
Romans 6:4-11 • 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 • Ephesians 2:4-7 • Colossians 2:12

Christ Be All Around Me | All Sons and Daughters | iTunes

Singing in the Victory | Austin Stone Worship | iTunes
Philippians 4:6 • Psalm 98:1 • Exodus 15

The One Who Saves | Hillsong Worship | iTunes
1 Chronicles 16:31-35 • Ezra 3 :11 • Jeremiah 33:11

Listen to this week’s set list on Spotify

1. In pursuing hospitality, self gets left behind. We are to elevate God and elevate others. In what ways do you need to leave self behind? How does selfish ambition get in the way of being hospitable to others?

2. Neighboring calls us to compassion. When is a time in your life that your compassion for someone else made you vulnerable? When have you been welcomed in and treated with hospitality? How was that person vulnerable in order to have compassion on you?

3. We are God’s people, and we are to share the blessing of being God’s people with those “outside” of us. How are you extending the grace that has been shown to you to others? What specific step do you need to take to be hospitable?

4. We need to remove the expectation that hospitality will always go well—hospitality doesn’t go well for God either. He created a hospitable, inviting world for people who reject Him. When have you been hospitable and it did not go well for you? How did you respond, and how could you respond differently in the future?

Thoughts to Consider

– Hospitality is at the core of who God is: He invites people in, He makes room for us, and He cares for us.

– There’s not one specific action that we perform that earns God’s favor. It is about a devotion of the heart, a devotion of the soul, and the way in which we are bent towards God in our affections. When our devotion and affection are set on God, we can extend this hospitality to others too.

– We need to stop evaluating who is and isn’t our neighbor and instead become a neighbor ourselves.

– If we don’t feel like we can extend God’s kindness to others, it may be because we haven’t actually experienced God’s kindness to us. We cannot love others well if we do not first understand the love He extends to us.

– In order to show compassion, we must make ourselves and our resources vulnerable and remove the idea that everything that comes to us is for us; not all of our time or money or energy, etc. is for us.

– God doesn’t always call us to the macro-levels of hospitality; God calls us to the side of the road—to the micro-levels of hospitality and generosity in our own corners of the world.