Residential Steeples - Our Homes Speak Volumes

The Home is a beautiful place. We share love, experiences, and life with the people who live there.

“The home is the most important evangelistic instrument in the believers’ tool kit, especially if our goal is to reach people far from God. The home is where unbelievers can feel the warmth of God’s acceptance. The home is where they can see our way of life up close enough to ask a reason for the hope that enlivens us. The home is where we turn ‘strangers into neighbors and neighbors into family.’” - Rosario Butterfield

Do we view our homes this way?

What do our kids say about their homes? Have you ever asked them?

A home has a different feel to it than a church building.

People don’t want to go to church like they used to anymore. The ways people were drawn to the church house don’t work like they used to.

We don’t ask culture to change so that we can reach people. We do whatever needs to be done to reach the heart of a nonbeliever.

“There’s no shadow you won’t light up, mountain you won’t climb up, coming after me. There’s no wall you won’t kick down, lie you won’t tear down, coming after me.”

If God is willing to go to such extreme lengths to reach His people, the church must do the same.

It is time to let our homes speak to the community.

2 Timothy 4:1-8

1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.

5 But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

8 There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.,

Paul wrote this letter to Timothy as a message to all pastors.

Everyone who calls Jesus Lord and Savior are called to the ministry.

The older minister, Paul, charges the younger Timothy with instruction on operating in the local church. Paul had two motivating factors that he wanted to impart to all believers.

2nd coming of Jesus.

The kingdom of God.

His charge to Timothy:

Preach the word - teach everything that we have heard.

Be prepared in season and out of season. - “to stand by, be at hand.”

Correct - “Convict of errors”

Rebuke - “To charge with a penalty”

Exhort - “encourage”

Great patience is the manner and careful instruction to speak to people.

Sooner or later, a relationship has to go from the shallow end to neck deep, eventually to the deep end.

Timothy might have been timid, but he couldn’t stay that way. He had to grow up and so do we. Jesus found us at our weakest, but He never intended us to stay there.

We must be willing to evangelize the lost by sharing the gospel and teaching others about Christ.

1. Stand for Truth

Paul wrote to be ready in a time when people have open opposition to the gospel. He looked ahead to a time when the gospel would not be tolerated.

Ear turned from truth to supernatural fascination or counterfeit realities

Instead of hearing truth that makes one uncomfortable, people would find new leaders who share what they like.

Instead of being held accountable to the truth, we find a way to live in our desires.

Be sober minded and alert in your mind to what is coming.

We live in a 2+2=5 age. You can be right just as long as you find a loud enough group who believes you.

At some point, God’s word became ignored by our society because enough people decided that it’s easier to live life the way they want to than accept that we are wrong.

Do our conversations at home reflect a belief in God’s truth?

Will we stand for truth even when others disagree?

Do we seek truth in our daily lives?

The Bible has answers

Accept that people will ridicule your stances.

Make the home a place of evangelism.

You and I are called to be gospel sharers. We cannot put this aside.

2. A Gospel Purpose

Paul faced the threat of death because of his ministry. He knew he was near the end and was already experiencing the feeling of being poured out.

Drink offering - wine poured out on an altar.

Departure - a soldier nearing the end of the battle.

He saw his life as a fight/struggle or a contest viewed within athletic terms.

Paul did not claim to have run the race, but was content to have stayed the course.

“I kept the faith” - The athletes promised to keep the rules. I kept myself within the lines of the playing field, and I haven’t stepped aside.

Everyone wants the prize without struggle. In the real world, people don’t hand out first place trophies.

We believe this about our sports teams or students in school, but we don’t want the hard stuff that comes along with following Jesus.

We are afraid of looking different or people thinking we don’t accept them.

We are called to be be different because we believe Jesus is the only way to salvation. The world does not need us to be the same. We must shine a bright light and be unashamed of the gospel.

Push past the ridicule.

Home reflects who we are. We get to decide if our homes are where people meet Jesus.

3. A Home that Represents Heaven.

Paul was not looking back.

There was a crown in store for him. Olympic winners were awarded wreaths of honor, and awards to be loyal subjects in military service were given away to soldiers for their services.

Paul looked ahead to what was coming towards him in the eternity of God’s kingdom.

Paul didn’t see this crown for himself only. Paul was what is awaiting every follower of Jesus Christ. All who witnessed Jesus’ appearance on earth as the messiah’s coming: The promised savior to the world.

Revelation 21:1-8

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:, Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples,, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.

7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8 But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

What are you living for? You have a direction you’re heading and you need not stop. Trust God and keep moving.

How do our homes reflect this character?

The kingdom of Heaven is an always-growing kingdom. Our homes are the first place we tell the world who we belong to.