You Belong Here

Two cowboys are lost in the desert, one cowboy sees a tree that draped in bacon. A Bacon Tree, We’re Saved! He runs to the tree and is shot up with bullets! Turns out it was a ham bush!

I love BACON! Is there anything better to waking up to the smell of bacon cooking? Just imagine sleeping in on a Saturday morning and by some miracle someone who loves you was in the kitchen making bacon and eggs. That’s my idea of heaven on earth.

It reminds me of home. Being at home is a wonderful feeling. It means safety, security, and freedom to be at ease. Home is really where you feel like you belong.

I believe that most people want to belong somewhere. It’s more than a “place” though. You’ve heard the phrase: “home is where the heart is” before? I think there’s truth to that statement.

Why is that true? It’s because the place we belong is where we are around family and friends. Home wouldn’t feel like home without being around those whom we love.

Heaven isn’t a place filled with the things and places we love - it’s filled with the PEOPLE we love and a Heavenly Father who loves.

For that reason, I want to remind you that this church is MORE than a building. It’s a family of people who are heading to a destination TOGETHER. I want us to be a church filled with love where people can belong.

I believe that people are desperate to find a place to belong. In this world that has gone a little off the deep end, we can be a light of hope in the darkness of confusion.

Think about the words of Jesus:

Matthew 5:13–15 CEV

13 You are like salt for everyone on earth. But if salt no longer tastes like salt, how can it make food salty? All it is good for is to be thrown out and walked on. 14 You are like light for the whole world. A city built on top of a hill cannot be hidden, 15 and no one would light a lamp and put it under a clay pot. A lamp is placed on a lampstand, where it can give light to everyone in the house.

We are supposed to make an impact on this world for good, Jesus used two common illustrations: salt and light. Jesus’ followers would be like salt in that they would create a thirst for greater information. We live in a different kind of way from the world that draws people in - they will want to belong because our lives are better because of Jesus!

A light is meant to shine and give direction. Jesus says we must radiate and point others to the proper path. Our influence must be evident, like a city on a hill or a lamp … on its stand. A concealed lamp, placed under a bowl would be useless. Light-radiating people live so that others see their good deeds and give praise not to them but to their Father in heaven.

In other words, Jesus instructs His church to do good things so that others will come to a relationship with the Father in Heaven. Show others that they have a place to belong if they too follow Christ!

We can do that by intentionally making this place a where people feel at home, find a family, and feel accepted no matter who they are, where they came from, or what they’ve done.

In fact, let me tell you the truth right now: You belong here. Whether you’ve been part of this church for years, months, or today is your first time you’re in the right place!

We are part of something so much bigger. Our home something greater than this building. Our home is found in Christ. He is the one who made it possible for us to belong. In fact, now that we do belong, the scripture says WE are part of what Christ is building for God’s own spirit to live!

Here’s our main portion of scripture we are going to study today:

Ephesians 2:19–22 CEV

19 You Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens with everyone else who belongs to the family of God. 20 You are like a building with the apostles and prophets as the foundation and with Christ as the most important stone. 21 Christ is the one who holds the building together and makes it grow into a holy temple for the Lord. 22 And you are part of that building Christ has built as a place for God’s own Spirit to live.

Paul reminds us that we were Gentiles.

I don’t like the word Gentile…it sounds negative, doesn’t it? What does it mean to be a gentile? It means that we weren’t part of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. As such, we were separated from the provisions and promises of God. Not only that, but we were separated from the Jews, who were God’s chosen people. They had the Law of God and they held the keys to pleasing God. The Gentiles had nothing but condemnation and hopelessness.

In our natural condition we were lost and headed to Hell, but so were the Jews. They might have had the Law of God (the ten commandments), but they did not know the God behind the Law. Both the Jew and the Gentile were lost. In Jesus, Paul tells us that we have been reconciled to one another and to God.

Jesus broke down the walls that separated the Jew and the Gentile, and He broke down the walls that separated lost sinners from God:

Ephesians 2:13 CEV

13 and you were far from God. But Christ offered his life’s blood as a sacrifice and brought you near God.

When Jesus died on the cross, He opened the door of salvation to all who would believe, whether they are Jew or Gentile.

Having told us how God saved us and has brought us together in Jesus, in verse 19 Paul tells us that we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but we are now part of the family of God.

We have a place to belong. We were once homeless, helpless, and hopeless. Through Christ we now have hope! We have help! And we have a home!

What does finding a home in Christ mean?

No Longer Strangers

As Christians we are no longer strangers to God, we are part of His family, and as such we have be given a permanent place to belong.

You are important to God. He created you for a reason. You were always part of His plan, and you will forever be part of His family. You have a home in Him.

In the same chapter of Ephesians we see something that speaks to the permanence of our Salvation.

Ephesians 2:8–10 CEV

8 You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. 9 It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about. 10 God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live. That’s why he sent Christ to make us what we are.

To have salvation in Christ, to find our home in Him, we must realize that we can’t earn it at all. We receive salvation by accepting Christ’s gift through faith.

There is a story of a man who came eagerly but very late to a revival meeting and found the workmen tearing down the tent in which the meetings had been held. Frantic at missing the evangelist, he decided to ask one of the workers what he could do to be saved.

The workman, who was a Christian, replied, “You can’t do anything. It’s too late.” Horrified, the man said, “What do you mean? How can it be too late?” “The work has already been accomplished,” he was told. “There is nothing you need to do but believe it.”

Christ has already prepared your home. He did the work on the cross what He did was permanent. We must merely believe what He did was enough.

You’ll never feel at home with God if you are trying to earn your place. What you need to do is surrender to Him as the Lord who is the only way, truth, and life. That’s when you know that your place with Him is absolutely permanent.

We Belong With God

I think one of the coolest progressions in the Bible is the dwelling place of God. God has always desired a relationship with man. Initially the Bible tells us that He walked with man in the garden. After man chose his own path away from God, we still see God interacting with man. Specifically, God had a dwelling place.

It all started with the Tabernacle. In exodus, the tabernacle built with detailed instructions so that it could move with the people as they traveled.

After they children of Israel entered the promised land, King Solomon built the first temple which was destroyed by Babylon.

After returning to the promised land Ezra and Zerubbabel built the second temple which is the temple we see in the new testament when Jesus was ministering.

Jesus said something very important about the temple of His time.

Mark 13:1–4 CEV

1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at these beautiful stones and wonderful buildings!” 2 Jesus replied, “Do you see these huge buildings? They will certainly be torn down! Not one stone will be left in place.” 3 Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. 4 They asked, “When will these things happen? What will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

Jesus was telling His disciples that a shift in God’s dwelling place was going to happen. In fact, we know that the temple was destroyed, but more importantly Jesus was telling them that He was the new dwelling place of God and that the building was no longer needed.

John 1:14 CEV

14 The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us.

This verse says that Jesus lived here with us. When Jesus came into the world as a human being, he was God’s way of being with his people in a more personal, direct, and accessible way than before. Jesus himself effectively replaced the need for a tabernacle or temple.

After Jesus was crucified and resurrected we are told something new about the dwelling place of God. Jesus promised the the Spirit of God would come to dwell in believers.

John 14:16–17 CEV

16 Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. 17 The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don’t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you.

That last part says the Spirit will live in you. We are now the dwelling place of the Spirit of God.

A house is made of brick or wood ; a home is made of relationship.

We have a place to belong because God has made His dwelling place inside of us! We have a relationship with God.

Back to Ephesians 2 - it tells us where God’s home is:

Ephesians 2:22 CEV

22 And you are part of that building Christ has built as a place for God’s own Spirit to live.

We have a home because we are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. We have communion with Him. We are in relationship with Him.

We are no longer strangers to God because He has made our hearts His dwelling place. He desires a deep relationship with us! If we belong to God then what else matters?

Rest in Christ

The gentiles that Paul was writing too in Ephesians were far from feeling safe and secure. They had no hope. They were considered foreigners and strangers. But through Christ they have become part of the family of God.

Salvation had come to them and it was permanent. They now could understand that they were the dwelling place of God. These new truths had to give them a since of rest.

My heart is pulled to Psalm 27 when I think of how these people must have felt.

Psalm 27:4–5 CEV

4 I ask only one thing, Lord: Let me live in your house every day of my life to see how wonderful you are and to pray in your temple. 5 In times of trouble, you will protect me. You will hide me in your tent and keep me safe on top of a mighty rock.

We need to remember that in our own strength we are going to fail. The only way you are going to find rest in your life is by seeking refuge with the Lord.

We should desire to spend more time with Him. Because we have been delivered, been given salvation and relationship with Him, we should desire to spend time with Him. When’s the last time you just wanted to sit in worship and prayer?

I’m telling you the truth, if you are feeling attacked, isolated, alone, like you don’t belong, it might be time to seek His face more than you ever have. When you do, you’ll find that He is protecting you. He is hiding you in His tent. He is keeping you safe on top of a mighty rock.

Find your peace in Him today.

Here’s the last thing I’ll tell you today. When people come here, they need to know that they belong. We need to be a church of open arms welcoming people home.

You might say, well, I don’t know how to reach them. That’s ok. Someone at one time in your life didn’t know how to reach you.

Ephesians 2:1 CEV

1 In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God.

But God reached you and gave you a home.

Ephesians 2:4 CEV

4 But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you.

I want people to find their place. There’s nothing better than feeling like you belong. To put it another way, I want coming to church to be the highlight of your week. Something you can look forward too. Like waking up to bacon sizzling in a pan. This is a place where we embrace each other because we used to be strangers, but now we are accepted by God, we have His spirit in us, and we find our rest in His presence.