"Salt and Light: Engaging the World Through Hospitality and Business" by Leo Eby | KFW 2024

I greet you in the name of Jesus. The man had said to Mary, "Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace." The same man also said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of, and that meat is to do His Father's will."

Salt and light. I want to introduce this evening with my favorite passage out of Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17. It goes like this: "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, hath given unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, Him being Jesus.

That the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is His exceeding greatness of the power that He has given us according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over His body, which is His head over His church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who hath filled all in all."

There's something about that passage that excites me. Mark chapter 9, verse 49 says, "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, wherewith shall ye salt it?

Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another."

It is important that we have salt with our sacrifice.

Luke 11, verse 35 to 36 says, "Take heed therefore that the light that which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light."

John 2, verse 8, "A new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth."

Matthew 5, verse 14, "Ye are the light of the world."

Engaging the world through business and hospitality is the subject that it was given to me to address this evening. Part of my assignment also was to share stories of how business and hospitality affects this salt and light.

The kingdom of God only comes to earth in earth. Did you know that?

We are lively creatures of clay and dust. When God created Adam in the garden, He molded him and shaped him after His own image, and He breathed into him the breath of life, and we became a living soul.

The word spiritual and the word literal are not antonyms. Did you know that?

The kingdom of God does not exist or function in a vacuum or in a fantasy world.

The kingdom of God begins with a transformation of the mind and heart and made practical in crucified flesh that has been raised from the dead. If ye then be risen, seek those things which are above.

Did you know that God has a commandment that is specifically for the dead?

Ephesians 5:14 says, "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." That commandment is for the dead. It is assumed that the dead can hear the voice of the Son of God and live.

John also says the same thing. He said, "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth, some unto everlasting life and some unto everlasting damnation." There's no question about whether the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. The question is whether we're going to be raised unto life or raised unto damnation.

One morning I got to work, and one of my longtime employees said to me, "Leo, would you help me take a tree down that's hanging over my house?" I said, "Well, sure, John." He said, "I just don't want to wake up dead someday when that tree falls over."

I don't think he understood what he said.

I understood. He taught me something, but he didn't understand. That's the unfortunate part.

Let's talk about business for a little bit. What does the word business mean to you?

We say things like, "What kind of business are you in?" or "What do you do for business?" And by business, we usually mean something about economics or money or industry, things like that. We say sometimes, "We want to make money." But just for the record, I want you to know that making money is unlawful.

If you don't believe me, try it.

Is business something that some people do and others don't?

Business in its narrowest meaning means the transactions of good and services, usually with the intent from industry for a profit. But broadly, the word business means any interaction between one or more persons for any reasons.

And I want you to use that meaning this evening.

I love the story in Luke chapter 2. We have the story of 12-year-old Jesus, and they went to Jerusalem for the feast, and they're heading home. And two days home, they discovered that their son isn't with them. So they look around, "Where's Jesus at? Can't be found." So they turn around, and they travel back to Jerusalem. And where did they find this young man? He was in the temple having a conversation and a discussion with the doctors and the scribes and the lawyers.

And his parents were puzzled. "Why are you here? Why weren't you with us traveling home?" And he said to his parents, "Wish ye not that I must be about my father's business?" Now, I know in many translations that it actually says, "In my father's house."

But in the father's house, a lot of business is happening.

And my question is, who was his parents and the doctors and lawyers to not think who was the father that was being discussed? Was it Joseph? Or was it his father in heaven, which wasn't visible?

Do you think the doctors thought he was referring to his father's carpentry business? Or do you think they were able to perceive that there was another business in place called the kingdom of heaven?

And later on in John chapter 5, verse 17 and 18, Jesus said that his father's business was so important that him and his father, they work on the Sabbath day.

That's how important his father's business was.

Can our business be a separate business from our father's business?

What is our father's business? I think 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18 and 19 captures it very well. And all things are of God who hath reconciled to himself by Jesus Christ... pardon me... who hath reconciled to us by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit or to know that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto them the word of reconciliation. And that's what the father's business is about. So our business can be the father's business if it's about the word of reconciliation.

The father's business is, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." So my question to you is, does our business... does our business matter regardless of what we do? I'm a lumberman.

The wide spectrum of businesses.

I have a story to tell. About 36 years ago, I was just getting started in the lumber business, and I had a sawmill, and I... starting out with very little additional equipment, and I was rolling logs with a can hook into the carriage, and I had a can hook, and I was turning logs by hand. And one day, my neighbor, who was my mentor in the lumber business, came up, and he stopped me. He said, "Leo, after work," he said, "come back to my sawmill." He said, "I have something I want to talk to you about."

I said, "Okay, I'll be right back." After work, I wrapped things up. I went back to see Mr. Cesna. He was there sharpening his saw. He said, "Leo," he said, "I want to replace my log turner. Thought maybe you might be interested in the one I have." I said, "Yes, sir, Mr. Cesna. I'd be interested."

He said, "What would you give me for it?"

I was very young, didn't know a lot about what the values of the equipment was, but I took what I thought was a safe shot. I said, "Well, how about a thousand bucks, Mr. Cesna?" He looked at me with a straight face, and he said, "I thought you was a Mennonite, not a Jew."

The shame that started to come down my face. Then he burst out laughing, and he said, "Nah," he said, "seven hundred is all I need."

You talk about a change of emotions.

But he taught me a lesson: is that business does matter.

Hospitality. Peter says that use hospitality one toward another without grudging or without grumbling. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Cheerful hospitality.

Peter seems to imply that this gift of hospitality is something that everybody gets. Maybe you don't read it and see it in there, but when I read it, it just seems to imply that this is something that is everybody's gift, the gift of hospitality.

Can our hospitality be a separate virtue from the father's hospitality?

Almost fifty years ago, one summer evening after supper, my brothers and I went out to the yard to play, and our house was right along the highway and had a white picket fence. There probably wasn't eight feet from the edge of our house to the highway.

It was a bright summer evening. We went out to play, and it wasn't long I noticed a man walking down the highway with a pack on his back. And the closer he got, he started coming towards the fence.

And he came over to me, and he called to me. He said... so I went over to him, and he said, "Would your mama make me a sandwich?" I said, "Probably." So I ran into the house. My dad and my mom were still in the house, and I said, "Hey, there's a man out here. He wants to know if you would make him a sandwich."

So my dad went out with me to meet the gentleman. My mom began to make a sandwich.

That sandwich turned into a two-hour conversation that evening between my dad and this man. I don't remember his name or anything. I just remember what they talked about. They talked about things concerning the kingdom of heaven. My dad was trying to convince him that this man, Jesus, was somebody worth his time to know.

Hospitality.

A memory that stuck with me. One of the most famous stories that Jesus told in the Scriptures in Luke chapter 10 about what we call the Good Samaritan or who is my neighbor. In that story, we have four men in business that day.

We have a certain man going from Jerusalem to Jericho. We have a Levite. He's on business. We have a priest. He's on business. We have a Samaritan. He also is on business. Now, we don't know what their business was, but we know the first man, the certain man, had a mishap, and he fell among thieves, and they left him along the road to die.

Along comes the Levite. He looks at him, decides it wasn't worth his time, and kept on going. After all, he forgot to budget any time for him today. Same way with the priest. He took a look at the man and said, "Nah, don't have time for him either. I got business to do. Things to take care of, things to do at the temple."

Along comes the Samaritan. He's on business. He discovers the man, has compassion on the man, pours in oil and wine into the man's wounds, lifts him out of the ditch, puts him on his donkey, and takes him to the inn.

And it says when he got to the inn, he took care of him there.

He nursed him. And it says on the morrow, he opened up his wallet, and he paid the innkeeper and said, "When I come back through, I'll pay the additional expenses, and this man gets better." Where did the Samaritan get the compassion for someone in the ditch?

He didn't even know him. He didn't have time for this interruption in his day. Why did he love him? He obviously loved this man. No, he never knew him.

He poured out his soul to this man.

I'd like to read Luke chapter 6:27 to 38. But I say unto you, which hear: Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer him also the other.

And him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take away thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again.

And as you would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? Think about the Samaritan. For sinners also love those that love them.

And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners do also do even the same... pardon me. For sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again.

But love your enemies and do good, lend, hoping for nothing again.

And your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest. For He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not... that ye be not judged.

Condemn not... that ye be not... that ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.

Now, I'm absolutely sure that there's some mistranslation in here somewhere.

How... in... how can a man lend hoping for nothing again?

I don't care whether it's a dollar bill or whether it's your hammer or if it's your favorite piece of equipment that you paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for, and he wants to borrow it. And you might even owe money on it.

And you're to lend it to him and not hope for it back.

Does that make sense to you? It don't make sense to me.

The standards of the kingdom of God are the very unfair, it seems to me. The short end always comes on this end.

In Corinthians, Paul says that we're to possess as though we possess not, and we're to have wives as though we have wives not. This is a mentality, a spirit, a heart that exercises love and compassion where there is need.

No, there is no mistranslation.

There are very few things that reveal who our Father is, like business and hospitality.

Business and hospitality gives us some unique opportunities to invite and to rebuke and to challenge and to share apologetics.

John was a seasoned masonry contractor. They called me one day and wanted me to come look at some trees he had. I'd never met the man before, but he had a reputation of a seasoned masonry contractor. I met John, and when he began to show me around, profanity began to pour out of his mouth.

And then he stopped, and he turned around, and he said to me, "You have to... I have to apologize for my language," he said. "It's just the language that we use in my industry."

So he said, "I hope my language doesn't offend you." I looked at John, and I said, "I'll tell you something, John.

You're not going to offend me, but you are going to offend yourself."

I said, "Your words that are coming out of your mouth are like a reverse periscope into your heart." And I said, "There is corruption in there." I didn't know John. I thought our business was over for the day.

John stood there and stared me in the face for a few seconds, and he said, "I never had somebody tell me that before in my life."

I began to shake because I didn't know where I even got the courage to say such a thing.

Today, when we pass each other, we have mutual respect.

I don't know about you and your world, but in the world that I run into, I'm always... I don't know if you say fascinated or... or that's the correct word to say, but people like to take the word holy and add other words to it.

They want to say holy, and then they want to add hell on behind it. They want to say holy, and then they want to say cow on behind it. And they want to say holy, and they want to say mackerel on behind it, and the list goes downhill from there.

So some years ago, I thought there's got to be a way to address this problem. So I said to a man one day when he said he combined holy and cow together. I said, "Sir..." I said, "You know, there is no such thing as a holy cow." "Really?"

I said, "No." I said, "The last time somebody thought there was a holy cow, Moses ground it up and put it into drinking water and made them drink it."

I get a call one day from Ashley, real name.

She says, "We desperately need help. We got pushed out of our apartment. We have no food for our children. We are out of money. We're in a hotel with gift money from another church, but they are not providing for us anymore. And we called your pastor, and your pastor gave me your number. My husband, Sue and I, would appreciate some help."

My question to you is, what's your next step?

It's an awkward situation.

Do you provide housing? Do you provide food first or last?

This problem continued for weeks. Finally, I was getting a little tired of it. So I said, "I give her..." I said, "Here's another brother. Call him."

So they called him. Unfortunately, he didn't get no help, so she called me back.

Some years ago, in 2013, I was invited to take a business trip with an acquaintance of mine to Europe to visit the lumber industry, and the trip was planned to start at Denmark and come down through Germany... through Germany and into Italy. It was a 13-day trip. So I talked to my wife about it and my business partners, and I wanted to go.

But I didn't... I just got reluctant support from my family, but the... I didn't want to go.

So we landed in Denmark, visited some sawmills there, traveled by train down through Germany, spent three days at a lumber expo in Hanover, Germany, continued down through... beautiful country, beautiful scenery. Down through southern Germany, through Bavaria, down into Italy to visit... in northern Italy, there were lots of lumber bending facilities in northern Italy that my business partner wanted... I mean, my business traveler wanted to visit.

The second week was almost gone, and there was nothing in this trip that was profitable for me. And I began to wonder whether I should have really took my wife and father's advice and maybe just stayed home.

The last day, my business partner... I mean, my traveling partner had scheduled everything, and our flight out, I think, was May the 17th of 2013, and it's on Friday morning. On Thursday afternoon, we had a few hours, and we were flying out of Venice, Italy.

We had a few hours left on Thursday afternoon, and on our own, I could go do sightseeing, whatever I wanted to do. So I decided I wanted to go see Venice, the city on the water. So I took the rail from the mainland over to the city on the water, and it was... the weather was adverse that day. It was raining and windy, and the water level was high. The water was coming over the streets. All the gondolas were shut down. So I began to wonder how I was going to use my couple of hours. So the water taxis were still running. So I decided, well, I'm going to get me a water taxi, and I'm just going to spend the afternoon trip going up down the streets in the water taxi.

The water taxi had an enclosed cabin, and in the back of this water taxi, there was just like a little canopy. And so I went out there in the back, sat by myself, and the wind and the rain were blowing in on me. I was there by myself for a few minutes, and all of a sudden, the door opened up, and a father and a mother and three children came out and sat down in this open area on the boat, and they had their raincoats on, and they had their raincoat pulled up over their head.

And they were speaking in a language I didn't understand, but I was fascinated with them. It wasn't long until they popped up... opened a whole jar of olives, opened up that jar of olives, and they ate that jar of olives like now.

So I said... I finally said to them, "I like your family," and they replied in English. So I knew the new English. So they began to ask me about my family. So I showed them a picture of my family, and it was my wife, eight children. They said... the lady said, "Eight children to one woman?" I said, "Yeah."

And they said, "Well, we're Jewish, and we're from Paris, and we're here to spend the weekend... the week at a friend's apartment here in Venice, and we know this place very well. We can show you around." I said, "Okay.

That's great because I don't know where to go." "Go."

So it wasn't long. They said, "We need to get off here at this next stop. There's a chocolate shop back here. We want to show you." So we get off, and we start down the street. Meanwhile, this thing about them being Jewish is running through my mind.

So finally, after walking for long ways, I said to... I said to them... I said, "You know, it's interesting that I find that you're Jewish." I said, "Because I'm a Jew."

They looked at me. I said, "Not... not by DNA now." I said, "But spiritual lineage." I said, "I'm... I'm a Jew." I said, "Do you understand?" They said, "No, we don't understand." I said, "Well, I can explain it to you."

And for 20 minutes, they left me tell them their own story from Abraham to Jesus.

And when I got done, we were coming to a place where we had to part ways, and I said, "Would you like to know more about this?" They said, "Yes, we would." The lady gave me her... their email address and their phone number, and we parted ways.

I was on a spiritual high. I could not believe what just happened. I said, "That's why I'm on this trip." So I went home... I went to my hotel that night, and I told my traveling partner... I said, "I just can't believe what happened."

So I told him, and he was excited too. So I immediately sent them an email because I didn't want to lose their contact. A week goes by. Didn't hear a thing. Finally, a week later, I got a little reply. It just said, "Acknowledge to who I was."

And I had put a picture in there, and I had taken of them so that... so that they know who I was. Last I heard of them. I sent them email after email, year after year on that anniversary.

No reply.

I don't know. I just know one thing: that that's the reason I was on that trip.

Not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls.

First Thessalonians 2:8, "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls because you were dear unto us.

For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto you... any of you, we preach unto you the gospel of God."

Suppose Jesus preached a crossless gospel. Would the gospel have been effective? Suppose there were no stories of compassion, no forgiveness, no healing, no tears, no emotion, no fellowship, no multiplication of loaves and fishes, no garden of gethsemane, no cross, no exhaustion, no prayers, no shedding of blood, no resurrection. We would say, "What's left of the gospel?" And rightly so.

Jesus' soul was overwhelmed with sorrow. If the gospel we preached didn't include our souls, would it make a difference in the outcome? At what point does someone become dear to us, before they believe or after they believe?

Did you ever notice that Paul refers to the three times, "My gospel"? What right did Paul say... have to say, "My gospel"? Did he own the gospel?

"From henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom also you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."

Humanity is on a collision course with a man named Jesus. I see I'm running out... I ran out of time.

"Because He the Father hath pointed a day in which He shall judge the world in righteousness by that man Jesus, whom He hath ordained, whereby He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised them from the dead.

Then the resurrection is the proof of this collision. For we must all be fearful for the judgment seat of Christ, that every man must see the things done in his body." What are they going to do? Who is this Jesus? Sometimes we take... like myself, take Jesus for granted. He is the Judge of the earth. He is the Word of God. He is the Great I Am. He is the King of kings. He is the King of the Jews. He is the Lord of lords, and He is the Almighty. He is the Lamb of God.

He is the Bread of Life. He is the Rock. He is the Elect. He is the Son of God. He is the Son of Man. He is the Way, the Truth, the Light, the Door, the Good Shepherd, Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. He is the Resurrection, the Amen.

Grace... here's the good news, friends. Grace is in humanity's favor. How do we know? John says, "And He, Jesus, is the perpetuation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world."

The Judge that we're about to meet also is the best and only hope humanity has. I met a man one day that was dying, and he was one of the most wisest men in the lumber industry I ever met.

He always had wise things to say and to share, and I wanted to say something to him before he died. I said to him, "Mr. Huff," I said, "do you know if you eat right, you'll never die?"

I felt like the cruelest person in the world when I said that thing... said that to a man that was dying.

He said, "What's the clue, son?" I said, "Read John chapter six," and I left.

Business and hospitality as opportunities to bring salt... salt and light. Our sacrifice needs to be salted. Invitation, rebuke, testimony, apologetics, and experience. Does our sacrifice include salt?

Honest business isn't necessarily honorable business. I'm told this quote came from the late Luke Martin. This is something to take seriously. This is... this is... trust begets trust. This is risk. It will be well worth the risk. Try it. You will suffer loss. You will also be amazed at how this works.

If the thought of being taken advantage of keeps you from being generous, you are too stingy. A quote from the late Dwayne Tucker.

My last thought is something that I feel like I've learned over the years, and that is the subject of self-righteousness. When we see this word self-righteousness, we all duck, and rightly so. Including me, the implications are despicable. If there's one thing I think I've learned in this, it's this: humanity is self-righteous.

The sin is as native to us as our own breath. I used to think that self-righteousness was only a sin you found in religious circles, but I was wrong.

It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, churched or unchurched. It's ours because the tree of knowledge of good and evil looked better to us than the tree of life.

And this was one of Paul's top concerns in Philippians chapter 3:9, that I might be found in him not having my own righteousness, and if he wouldn't have clarified it, we would be maybe scot-free. But he said, "Which is of the law or the Decalogue, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death."