[00:00:01] Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] You know, I am so thankful for what the elders shared last week, and I'll just go ahead and say it. We all should be thankful that our elders, our shepherds, will get up in front of us and share with us their plan for the future. I love that. I mean, it's not everywhere that you go that you have that kind of the beauty of that expression in front of us and to let us know what we're going to be doing. I know last year was great. 2024 was wonderful. And we look back on it with a lot of joy in our hearts. We've seen a lot of growth here. More importantly, the growth that took place inside, we focused on prayer and Bible study. We believe people were opening up their Bibles more. We believe they were spending more time in prayer and we believe they were spending more time in prayer together. And that is wonderful. So when I think about what they put in front of us this past week, it got me excited and I'm sure you are as well. I want to highlight three things in particular that I believe kind of coincide with what we're doing. The first thing that our shepherd shared with us last week was, or the first thing that jumps to mind is the fact that Jordan Abrams will be transitioning from youth ministry over into children's ministry. And if you know Jordan, you know he has that skill set, he has that passion, that excitement in his heart about it. We've seen him develop here. He's now in charge of our vacation Bible school with a committee of people who, who work alongside him. He's helping write the scripts and running our Madison Kids corner during this time of our worship. He does that every week and has teams of people organized to do that. It's not that Jordan is gonna be putting a lot of things on our calendar as much as he's gonna bring purpose and significance to what we're doing. With our children and to provide a source and a resource for our families to help their homes. So when I think about that very much what Jordan is going to be doing, and we're excited about that and excited about Richard taking over the youth ministry and kind of doing his part in leading them and Ashley and all the things I know she will bring to the table as well. But we're just excited to see this transition. But then also I think about what the shepherd shared with us about our facility. In many ways, this place is our home, right? It's our spiritual home. It's where we come together every week. We have our own homes, but we come here together for this purpose of encouraging each other and challenging each other. And you know, we recognize you come to Bible class. I think we had something like 850 people in Bible class last Sunday night. That's an amazing challenge. And when you look up and you don't have space, then certainly we need more spaces for Bible classes and those kinds of things. But don't miss the point while that is. This is our home for us to grow in our faith. It's also a place for others outside of our number to come in and to be a part of this. So that extra space is not just for us to get more comfortable in our classrooms. It's for opening up the doors to people that we've never met before. It's opening that door and bringing them into our home in a hospitable way, getting to know them and challenging them in their faith as well. And then the third thing that I think was amazing about this is the focus for this year, those two things that they talked about, fellowship and hospitality. The idea is that our home is a haven. It's a safe place for people to come and to be a part of our family life. We invite Christians in together so we can grow in our relationships together, deepen those relationships. But then we open up our doors to our neighbors and to our co workers and to people that maybe are outside the body of Christ, but give us an opportunity to not just bring them into the security and safety of our homes, but to let them know what's important to us and to share with them from the heart our appreciation for them, to get to know them in deeper ways. I just think it all works together. And when I think about it, it's perfect that we are taking a moment to focus on home. So when you think of home, what do you think of? For me personally, I did a little bit of nostalgia this past week and I went online on Google Maps and I pulled up every address of the homes that I grew up in. If you want to flood your heart with memories, laughter, tears, all of those things, all the feels, then you go online and you look up those addresses and then go to Street View, and you're gonna see the very front of that house. And then you have that 360 range where you can spin and look up and down the road, and you will. Every memory you ever had growing up will come to fruition. Well, here are. If you'll indulge me for just a few moments, Here are the three houses I grew up in. 309 Larkwood Drive, 708 Ashley Drive, and 2301 Shady Grove Lane in Decatur, Alabama. These were my stomping grounds. This is home for me. When I look at those houses, they flood me with all kinds of memories. And as I look at them, I can see some of the things that took place in that house. Like, I remember my dad in this first house, by the way. 900. I don't know where it is. Yeah, 900 square feet, baby. And it was built in the 50s, but probably had been painted over in the 70s, if you know what I mean. Like, we had that dark red, like, I don't even know what you call it. Burgundy carpet. And we had, like, dark paneled walls in the house. And everybody was just loving it. And apparently my mom want. Wanted to bring the sunshine into the kitchen because the cabinets were painted yellow and orange. And I don't get that, but I guess it goes well with the avocado refrigerator that we had in there. You know, it was an explosion of color in there, and it was very much 70s, okay. But it had a long hallway, and I remember my dad sitting in his chair. And by the way, that chair was a lot of things. That rocking chair was a place for my dad to study his Bible, to entertain us, to teach us, instruct us, and those kinds of things. I remember he would sit there with his guitar, and he'd play Johnny B. Goode, and we would stand there and sing along with him. And then the moment he said, now, go. Go, Johnny, go, we would all take off running down the hallway inexplicably, and then come running back. That was just our. That was the signal to run. And so I just remember those kinds of fun, you know, memories. It's in that house that I remember taking my little brother Chad by the hands and teaching him to walk. Walking in front of him. It's in that house that I remember when the devil walked into my room dressed like my mom and discipline me at 2am in the morning.
[00:06:44] Now you're starting to remember, like, all these are coming back to you as well. This was a neighborhood full of little children, thugs, I would just say. We would go out into the backyard and just shout names and all of our neighbors and all of our friends would come running and we would gather in my backyard. And then from there we would lead off into other places and adventures and we would just shout each other's names and everybody. It was. It was great. We broke a lot of windows. Okay, it was good.
[00:07:10] But I have so many memories of my mom being gentle with us, teaching us the things of God. I remember my dad throwing that football across the room. And if we caught it, great. If we missed it, we had to tell him. The 12 apostles, you know, like, those kinds of things. When I move over to the next house, there was a little bit of a sidewalk that was a ramp. We would drive our bikes and jump off that little step on the sidewalk. We would create, you know, all these little. I don't know what you call them, just paths and racetracks around our front yard with our bikes and see who could get, you know, through with their race the fastest. In that second house. In the backyard of that house is the worst fight I ever got into. I mean, an absolute brawl with my brother Chris. He had it coming. We lost a basketball game, and then he told me that my girlfriend was ugly. So he was on. So if we rolled in the ground for a long time, we had a dirt basketball court. We fought until we were both muddy, you know, like it was that kind of a thing. But what I remember most about that is not so much the fight as much as I remember how my father handled the discipline of that. I remember him taking us to a room and stood us on the other side of the halls, and we're still, like, you know, like, still fighting. And my dad started pulling furniture out, and he said, I want you to know we're. This ends today. There are no more fights after today.
[00:08:30] So he started pulling furniture out of the room. And he said, you guys are gonna go in there and you're gonna beat each other's brains out.
[00:08:37] And I mean, this is it. So make it a good one. Like, give it all you got, and whoever loses, I'm coming in to finish him off.
[00:08:46] Well, that was a very creative way, I think, to get to our hearts. And right there, the greatest revival ever on 708 Ashley Drive took place. Because Me and my brother right then repented, hugged each other, cried and said, I'm so sorry, whatever.
[00:09:01] And I remember we never had another fight since then.
[00:09:05] Why do I tell you this? Because one of the things that my dad is, he took those opportunities to say, hey, you're a Preston.
[00:09:15] You're my boys.
[00:09:17] We love each other. And you don't mistreat the people that you love the most.
[00:09:23] You don't mistreat them the most.
[00:09:26] You are walking alongside each other. You're watching out for each other, and you love each other. That's what we do in our family.
[00:09:35] That's home.
[00:09:38] It's those moments that we're taught the things that are most important. It's the correction, it's the instruction. It's the safe place that we can go and be ourselves and we can love each other and we can grow in our relationship together.
[00:09:55] The bottom house. I don't have as many memories there growing up because I was a sophomore in high school when we moved there. I was driving. So you know how when you get wheels, you're gone, baby, you know?
[00:10:04] But I do remember a couple of moments. I remember mouthing up that my mom was crazy up the stairs, and my dad came thundering down and reminded me that I was to respect my mother or to be invited outside for him to fix things, you know? So I remember those days, too. But I also remember that in that living room of that bottom house is where I got on a knee, put out a ring, and said, will you marry me outside of my relationship to Christ?
[00:10:34] What a blessing that place has been. And there's nowhere else I wanted to ask her except for in our home. Do you understand how important home is? And as I know that there are some in this audience that it hasn't been great. I know that some of you have experienced the worst of circumstances. There's been battles going on. There's never been peace. It's always been chaos, or it's always been a struggle, or it's always been temptation. There's always been something that's torn the family apart. I understand some of us have that. But I want us to understand that God gives us home for a reason. For us to nurture all of these strong spirit, spiritual, valued things so we can grow in our relationships together and create a place where our family feels they're right where they need to be.
[00:11:19] So as we're talking about this series, I got a question for all of you. Where is home for you? Is it your nationality, where you came from? Is it the community you lived in, is it that street address or is it simply being around those people where you share a common purpose and you're living this life fighting off temptations and struggles and with purpose, you're growing in your life together? Because I think if we look in scripture, that's what we're gonna find home was really meant to be. And to do that, we're gonna go to the very first book of the Bible in Genesis, we're gonna get to Genesis chapter one, verse one, where it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And if you can just for a moment imagine. And it's hard for us to wrap our brain around who God is above all the timelines that we live on beyond our scope of understanding. Like how is it that he was there before the beginning? We struggle with that, right? Trying to figure out how that's even a possibility. And right now, even as we look out into space, we look deeper and deeper and deeper into space and we're trying to find the end of this thing. And. And there is no end to it. The expanse of what he has created is so mind boggling that you and I can't even wrap our minds around that. But in the middle of all that universe, the earth was without form and void. Darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light.
[00:12:49] And there was light. Again, we what's all this for? Why is it that God is taking special interest in this particular rock in the middle of the universe?
[00:13:01] But God saw the light, that it was good, and he separated the light from darkness. And by the way, there's more to this than just he separated the light from the darkness. I think it's an opening way of God to remind us that there is a difference in light and darkness. And we need to understand that in our own lives, God called the light day, the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And if we were to continue on in the book of Genesis, chapter one, you're going to see the story of creation and how each one of these days there was a new element of this added God is fashioning for us the most perfect place for us to live In Day two, he separated the waters. It says he created the expanse. The idea is a canopy. It's like, hey, before I even put anything in there, I've got to create a protection for this environment. So there's this great canopy of water. I don't know how that is. As we look in the scripture and we see people living 900 plus years, how is that even possible? Well, it's because God created this expansive atmosphere that was perfectly suited for human life. Day three, he separated the Earth from the waters and he put some green things on the Earth and started to bring vegetation to life. Day four, he placed the sun, the moon, the star, all of those lights out in the night that give us a difference between day and night. You know, you look out there and whether those were objects that bore light themselves or whether they were the reflection of some light, how amazing and awesome is it? The order in which it happens, the rotations, the cycles, and all these things that we can see and explore and observe. Like, he's amazing, but he does these things to help us understand the pattern of life. Day and night, evening and morning, first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day. He creates the birds of the air and the fish of the seas, like the depths of the sea are so fascinating, you can go deeper and deeper and deeper, and we're still finding new species of fish, the birds of the air, just how many of them are there? But he filled the skies and he filled the oceans with those animals. Day six, he created the livestock and the animals that we have dominion over. And then also he created man. I guess what I'm saying is, after all of these things, what you have to stop for just a moment and imagine is that God is putting us in place of a place that's already set up for perfection.
[00:15:28] And so there in this world, he has placed mankind well. Now let's roll over to chapter two.
[00:15:37] We find out in chapter two of Genesis that God, after seeing his creation, he took a break.
[00:15:44] He rested. It wasn't just a rest. It was actually meant to be an example for all of us. I mean, we still live these seven days weeks, right? Because God had kind of set this pattern in motion. And even as we discover more about this, how our bodies need rest, how we need that respite, God was demonstrating for us the rest. But in the middle of all of these things, God had a deeper purpose for all of us. So let's go to Genesis chapter 2 and let's see this picture starting in verse 5. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord, God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a tree or planted a garden in Eden in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that was planted, pleasant to the sight and good for food. The Tree of Life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first was the Paishon, and it is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold in that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It's the one that flowed all around the land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. For just a moment, can you imagine what they're seeing here and what a beautiful place God has provided for them?
[00:17:49] And so it says, the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden to work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. Think about that for just a second. Every tree of the garden, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat, for in that day you eat, you will surely die. Now I'm just imagining in my mind the perfection in which this is. You know, I think about our vacations.
[00:18:21] You know, if we could just have any place that we would go, we would probably go to some kind of place that maybe even resembles this, right? Some kind of, like, paradise. Some kind of place where the temperature is perfect. When you think about all the things that they experienced here, just imagine if we could go there and live there all the time, if that were our home. You didn't have to go find a florist to get flowers. They were right there. You didn't have to do a lot of things. The ground itself was bringing forth these fruits. And, yes, you were going to keep it intended. And we'll find out later that there's a little bit more that takes place after their descent, entered into the world, that they had to battle a little bit more through that. But ultimately, you imagine for yourself, this is the Home that God created, perfectly suited for us. I mean, truly a paradise, a haven, a place for us to enjoy this peace.
[00:19:14] But it's still not perfect. And so God does something else.
[00:19:18] It says, then, this is verse 18.
[00:19:21] The Lord God said, it's not good for the man to be alone.
[00:19:25] I'll make him a helper fit for him. Now, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called the living creature, that was his name.
[00:19:38] The man gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a help or fit for him.
[00:19:48] So the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man.
[00:19:51] And while he slept, he took one of his ribs, closed up its place with flesh.
[00:19:58] And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and then brought her to the man.
[00:20:08] And the man said, this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Oh, she shall be called because she was taken out of man. I think he was saying, hey, can I play with her? This is awesome. You know, how amazing to have a human looking me eyeball to eyeball, one that's beautiful and attractive, someone that I can spend time with. So God goes on to say, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. And we, because of our history and our life, when we think about being naked, that's always a shameful thing. But in these days, I want you to understand, they didn't need clothes.
[00:20:51] Why?
[00:20:53] They were in a perfect environment. It wasn't cold where they would need something to cover them up. It wasn't overbearing hot and beat down on them and cause like sunburns and all those kinds of things. They didn't have anything to cover. Then they were in a perfect environment. Do you understand the home that God created for them? And in the middle of that, he's like, you're my creation and you have each other. Do you catch us? You have an identity and you also have a relationship with each other. Identity, community.
[00:21:22] And those things were great.
[00:21:24] And that's what God intended for home all along. For us to be away from things that are harmful for us, for us to just be together with our people and to talk about the things that are most important and to, To Live this life just following God and obeying him. And there's only one restriction that's given in this whole passage.
[00:21:42] And yet we know what happens next, right?
[00:21:45] Says the serpent was more crafty than any of the other creatures. We know now through context and other things, that the devil came down and presented himself as a serpent. We don't know exactly what that serpent looked like, but maybe there were legs involved, maybe there was some other form that the serpent kind of looked like. Because we know later that when God curses it, it's going to be crawling on its belly, right?
[00:22:07] But the serpent came and immediately began to disrupt that harmony that was to be had.
[00:22:15] That joy of us being together, knowing who our Father is and trusting in him and obeying him. But because of the temptations, they fell. Let's read about it. In chapter three, he said to the woman, talking about the servant, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither should you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat it, your eyes are going to be opened. You're going to be like God, knowing good and evil.
[00:22:55] So the next part of this is so sad because they had one rule, one command, one guideline.
[00:23:04] But the serpent was tempting.
[00:23:07] So the woman saw that the tree was good for food.
[00:23:10] It was delightful to the eyes, it was desired to make one wise. And so she took of it.
[00:23:18] And then she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
[00:23:24] Here's the perfect scenario. Home.
[00:23:29] It's beautiful, things are great, we're in harmony. There's like this relationship. The Bible talks about God walking through the garden with them and those kinds of things, a side by side companionship.
[00:23:43] And yet this one decision creates a problem.
[00:23:48] Well, one they felt the immediate guilt of it. Now, I imagine that fruit was good. I imagine it tasted wonderful. Maybe the best fruit they had ever eaten. You know, I don't know what kind of fruit it was. We always think of the apple, but who knows what it was. But it was something that was especially tasty, enticing, great. And I imagine while they were eating, they were like, oh, this is amazing. But if you're like me, you have a really good meal that you think, oh, that was amazing food. And then you get home, you're like, what did I do? You know, that's kind of where they were, except for all of a sudden they hear God.
[00:24:24] And as they hear him walking through the garden, the man and the wife, they hid themselves.
[00:24:30] Like all of a sudden that harmony that we had in the home was disrupted and that disruption caused some headache. How many of us, when we get our families started and we get our marriage started, that we nurture it, we try to do all the right things, we study our Bible together, we pray together, we go to worship. Every time we're in Bible class, we surround ourself with good friends and we're protecting ourselves. And then we have that child. And man, we just want to keep everything so close and we want to do the right things and make sure we're nurturing this relationship. Oh, it's so awe inspiring. When you have a child and you look to God, you're like, oh man, he's entrusted me with this special blessing. I want to do the right thing. And then someone makes a decision that invites the devil's influence into our home.
[00:25:19] And the moment that happens, it takes that beautiful thing that we've had and it disrupts it.
[00:25:28] What should be a place of safe dwelling is unsafe. What should be a place of peace is unrest. What should be a place of, of just calmness is a place of chaos all of a sudden because of what the decisions we made and the consequences that we suffer as a result of it. So here they are in the garden and God walks up and he's like, where are you guys? Because they're not answering. They're hiding. They've created fig leaves to cover themselves. They're all of a sudden aware of their nakedness. And so they say, well, I hid myself because I was afraid.
[00:26:02] As you came in, who, who told you you were naked? Did you eat of that tree?
[00:26:08] And of course their guilt had overwhelmed them.
[00:26:12] Things were changing as a result. God places some curses on some folks. First to the serpent, he says, hey, you know, I'm going to put an enmity, that means a hostility between you and the woman's seed. And this is the first prophecy of Jesus. You know, the serpent would maybe take a bite out of the heel of the seed of man, of the seed of woman. But the heel would crush the serpent's head. An allusion to Jesus being put to death on the cross. And for the devil to think that that might have been a victory, but because he was raised from the dead, ultimately his victory was over this enmity.
[00:26:51] And so you're going to Be on your belly for the rest of all time. To the woman, he said, hey, you're going to have agony and childbearing. You're going to have it a lot more difficult. And man to Adam, he said, hey, you know, all those crops that you had, all those flowers and plants and everything that was, well, guess what? Now there's gonna be thorns and thistles, and it's just gonna be tougher. And you know, what was once so easy, now you're gonna have to labor just a little bit harder. Like, all of a sudden, the consequence of those decisions to be reckless and to not do what God said had brought in and invited into their home something tragic. And so the next scene is just so terrible because after these curses that God gives out, then they're pushed out of the garden, pushed out of that perfect environment to live outside of it and for it to be protected for perfection.
[00:27:44] What a. What a gut punch, right? To not be in that at all.
[00:27:52] But I think there's some things that we learn, first of all, in the garden. What we learn is there is identity and there is community, right? I know who I am in Jesus Christ, and he gives me the things that I need. I have had this special thing that I'm supposed to take care of and nurture. But also, God gives us the choice, and those choices sometimes lead us to making a decision that invites those evil influences in. So what home builds in us is this identity, community, and then enmity. And what I mean by that is something that we together are fighting against, its evil influence.
[00:28:32] We're working alongside one another, and we're trying to shield ourselves from this. Let me tell you how this works. My kids are all off this weekend. Kenzie and Caleb are in Montgomery. They're doing their thing. I've called them and talked to them. Hey, watch out for each other. Be careful on the road. All these kinds of things. We need to love each other. All those things.
[00:28:49] Call my boys. One's at golf, one's with some friends out of town. And to both of them, I said to them, you know, hey, I love you. You're my kid.
[00:29:01] Remember who you are, who you belong to. And while you're gone, behave yourself. Do good. Don't put yourself in bad situations. Be smart about what you're doing. Don't give a place for people to talk bad about you. Don't do anything that might cause people to doubt who you are. It's important who you are. And I love you. What am I telling them?
[00:29:23] Identity, community, enmity. Be careful. Of those things. But this communication is all throughout the Bible. I'll give you just several examples. Five, in fact. Joshua 24. I'm summarizing the whole chapter, but you know, he says we're God's people. He's delivered us, provided for us. We're not to embrace idolatry in the land of Canaan. Honor God in faithfulness, sincerity. Choose this day who you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve. Lord, what do you find in that? Identity, community, enmity. What about this passage, Ephesians 5, 8, 11. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. What's this saying to us? Identity, community, enmity. Another one. 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ?
[00:30:19] But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. So flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God when you are not your own? You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. What do you see? Identity, community, enmity.
[00:30:42] Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ. Who are we? We are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. What does it tell you? Identity, community, enmity. One more. First Peter, chapter 2, verse 9 through 11. Your chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. Do you feel it? Do you feel that God is saying you're special? You're segregated. You're separated apart. You're sanctified for a very special purpose. And he says that you proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Remember that darkness and light comment earlier. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. And once you have not received. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. What's he saying? Community. I mean identity. Community, enmity.
[00:31:45] We're together. You have an identity. We're together in this process, and we're fighting against the evil influences of this world. We want to get us back to the home that God ultimately created. So all of these things bring up this terminology, this concept in our lives, and it's a reminder for all of us to realize we need to be doing this in our homes. We need to be setting things in motion that glorify and honor God in this way. So let's talk about identity. You're a child of God. And it's interesting that these passages are. They're good for identity, but they're also good for community as well. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
[00:32:27] Well, In Galatians, chapter 3, verse 26 and 27, it says, we're all sons of God. And the word is sons, not children. Often we say children, but you're all sons of God. The reason sons is important because all of the heirs in their culture were the sons. So you're all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourself, you've put put on Christ. That's identity. You're a new creation. As Romans chapter six says, we're raised up to walk in newness of life. Second Corinthians 5:17 talks about us being a new creation.
[00:33:03] Romans chapter 8 talks about us being heirs of God because of our connection with Jesus Christ and the forgiveness and the relationship and the grace and mercy that we are poured on from him. So that gives us that identity. That's who we are in Christ. But those same passages can be used to help us relationship and how close we are. Romans, chapter 12, 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. Both talk about we're members of one another. If someone's suffering, we all suffer with them. If someone's rejoicing, we all rejoice with that person. We are united in the body of Christ, and that makes this a beautiful home. But what is it that we're fighting?
[00:33:41] You know, James chapter four tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We've got to come to this hostility, that we don't want sin to enter into our homes.
[00:33:52] And so it says in Romans, chapter 6, verse 6. For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with. And that we should no longer be slaves to sin, but also with. And that we should no longer be slaves to sin, but also.
[00:34:12] And this is really important because as our shepherds have talked to us about, not only fellowship but hospitality, the idea is that we need to use our lives, our homes, our family, our church family as a way to reach out to other people. This passage in Second Corinthians, chapter five says that we're ambassadors for Christ.
[00:34:33] We're supposed to be out there speaking from God, saying, hey, come back and be reconciled to him. That's our whole purpose and our mission in life. And we all need to be inviting ourselves into this mentality. And then Ephesians 6:11 talks about that spiritual battle that we face against the devil. Because the Bible says, your enemy, the devil is like a roaring lion. He's seeking whom he may devour. We have a clear enemy. And those influences that he wields can have a lasting impact on our family.
[00:35:07] Because when you think about this, what all of us are trying to do is get back to the garden.
[00:35:15] We want that haven, we want that safe place. We want that security. We want those good, warm feelings that bring us back to, you know, love, encouragement, accountability, and those kinds of things. And we battle through that. And we do so because it's a place of origin. It's where all this begins. And so all of these things that we've talked about remind us of who we are, whose we are, and what we are doing together in this life, how we are supposed to walk alongside one another and be a blessing.
[00:35:50] It's what we're facing together and what we're willing to fight over in regard to those negative influences and what we are to embrace together as a family.
[00:36:02] So I think these things that we're talking about going back and trying to recreate the Garden of Eden in our life and in our family life, actually, those longings feed us to the desire for something even better. And of course, you know these passages. None of these are, you know, brand new to you or anything like that. But Jesus, in his final remarks to his disciples, he talks to him about not letting your heart be troubled. You know, you believe in God, believe also in me. What is he going to say? In my Father's house are many rooms, and we get caught up in mansions, don't we? Like, I like the idea of mansion, robe and a crown, right? And that's wonderful. But this is what he's saying is God is the dwelling place. And there are many rooms that he's providing. But Jesus himself says, I go to prophet a place for you.
[00:36:52] If I go to prepare a place, I'll come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also.
[00:36:57] That's a powerful thing to think about, what he's providing for us, what he's preparing for us. Now, see, God created the garden, and something even beyond that is waiting for those of us who find ourselves faithful in God, you know, committed to him, dedicated to him, submitting to him. Because it says in First Corinthians 2, 9, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. Think about the words in 2nd Corinthians 4. He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. Wow.
[00:37:33] And there we will be with him forever.
[00:37:37] But don't miss verse 15, because this is the part that we need to be latching onto in our particular situation, for it is for all your sake.
[00:37:50] Catch this so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.
[00:37:59] Do you feel it?
[00:38:02] We have the pressure to create the environment and home that nurtures a strong spiritual life together.
[00:38:12] But we also have an obligation to open our doors to other people, to bring them in so we can help them in their life and show them the things that are important to us and open our hearts to them and get to know them and invest in them in the same way Jesus invested in all of sinful mankind. So this morning it's pretty straightforward here.
[00:38:40] I hope that it's reminded us of what we need to be doing in our homes for sure, but I hope it's also got us hoping for, longing for something even greater.
[00:38:52] We're going to sing a song in just a moment called When I Go Home.
[00:38:58] And it's a song, obviously, about when people pass from this life and the idea that happens as we look to heaven, and all that pain and that sorrow and that struggle that we faced is taken away and we're brought back into that situation where I have identity and I have community, but the enmity is done away with.
[00:39:23] Well, there may be some here who say, hey, I've just got to start a new pattern.
[00:39:28] I got to change some things. I got to have courage to make some tough decisions. And if that describes you this morning, I hope you'll come forward. But it may be a person who's just struggling internally, personally wound up in sin, and they are seeing the consequences of those behaviors and knowing that it's gonna create more chaos and more disturbance in their life moving forward. And what I'm saying to you is Jesus is saying to all of us this morning, come home.
[00:39:56] Come home to that place rest of peace, of security and safety. If you have a need this morning, please come. Altogether we stand and sing.
