HOA: Homes on Assignment
Your Dream Home • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Welcome
Today we are wrapping up our series Your Dream Home.
We’ve talked about
Laying the foundations
framing the House
process of building a home
intimacy in marriage
parenting
and last week divorce, brokenness, and restoration.
But today I want to wrap up with answering one final question:
What is the point of the house?
Turn with me to Acts 2.
Jesus has died, risen from the grave, ascended into heaven, and in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit has just been poured out at Pentecost. Three thousand people have just given their lives to Jesus.
And what Luke gives us next is a picture of what happened when the Spirit of God filled the people of God.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
I’ve Titled the message this morning:
Join the HOA
When you hear the letters H-O-A, what comes to mind?
Some of y'all just got stressed.
You’ll thought about:
rules
fees
complaints
letters
fines
somebody measuring your grass
being told what color your mailbox can be
Karen
I scoured the internet this week looking for the wildest HOA stories I could find…
Here is one: “My former HOA in my condo complex called me 'selfish' in their response letter when I asked for a handicapped parking space….” They would not assign me a space. I’m in a wheelchair btw."
This one one is wild…:
“Our HOA once fined us because a board member thought we left the pool gate open, when it was someone else’s kids who did. Along with the notice of the fine, a note was included saying also that my husband was cheating on me because he was seen at the pool with two women….but the “women” were me and our teenage daughter…”
Just a few weeks ago the HOA in Alyssa and I’s neighborhood sent out a notice that on trash day cans need to be brought in within 30 min of trash being picked up or there will be a $50 fine…so I guess if you are at work you have to leave to take your trash cans and go back to work….
HOA’s are wild…
Nobody gets excited when they hear HOA.
Because when we hear HOA, we think:
rules
restrictions
fines
expectations
somebody telling us what we can and can’t do
But at its core, an HOA exists because to keep neighborhoods running smoothly and maintained.
Nobody thinks about the HOA when their house is doing great.
We start thinking about it when the neighborhood starts falling apart.
What’s funny is that we often bring that same mindset into our faith.
We want Jesus.
We want blessings.
We want purpose.
We want a healthy marriage.
We want a healthy family.
But many people want all of that while remaining disconnected from the very thing God designed to help produce it: the household of God.
Today, I’m going to invite you to do something most people never want to do…
Join the HOA.
Not the Homeowners Association.
Homes On Assignment.
God never intended us to build dream homes and then lock the doors and live for ourselves.
I think it’s interesting the way that humans we operate….
We resist accountability while secretly craving community.
We want all the benefits of community without any of the responsibilities of community.
We want people to show up when we’re hurting.
We want people to pray for us when we’re struggling.
We want people to bring meals when we’re sick.
We want people to celebrate our victories.
We want people to help carry our burdens.
But we don’t always want people close enough to know what’s actually going on in our lives.
Acts 2 paints a completely different picture.
These believers weren’t just attending the same church service.
They didn’t just gather occasionally.
They belonged to one another.
Acts 2 is not a passage on church growth.
It’s a passage on how God intended Christians to live.
Think about this for a moment…
In Genesis 3, sin enters the world.
By Genesis 4, Cain murders Abel.
By Genesis 6, violence fills the earth.
By Genesis 11, humanity is building a tower to make a name for themselves.
Humanity keeps drifting further and further from God.
But not only that, humanity keeps falling apart.
Relationships break.
Families break.
Communities break.
Nations divide.
Humanity becomes scattered.
Isolated.
Divided.
Hostile.
Genesis 3-11 show us something important…
Sin separates people from God…and sin separates people from each other.
We see it immediately.
Adam and Eve hide from God.
Then Adam blames Eve.
Cain kills Abel.
Violence fills the earth.
Nations are scattered at Babel.
The story of sin is the story of separation.
And let’s be honest…
We still see it.
We see it in broken marriages.
We see it in broken families.
We see it in church splits.
We see it in division.
We see it in loneliness.
We see it in isolation.
We live in a world that is more connected than ever before and yet people are lonelier than ever before.
Many people don’t even know their neighbors anymore.
We pull into our driveway.
The garage door opens.
The garage door closes.
And we disappear.
We have mastered proximity without relationship due to social media.
We have thousands of followers and nobody to call.
We can instantly communicate with people around the world while feeling completely disconnected from the people next door.
This is what makes Acts 2:42-47 so interesting…
Because Acts 2 and really the entirety of:
The New Testament knows nothing of isolated Christianity
But us?
Oh we know it well…
We know how to attend without belonging.
We know how to consume without contributing.
We know how to watch without participating.
We know how to have Christian content without Christian community.
But when you read the New Testament, that’s not the picture you see.
You don’t find believers living disconnected from one another.
You find people devoted to one another.
Praying together.
Eating together.
Serving together.
Worshiping together.
Carrying one another’s burdens.
Living life together.
I want to walk back through this passage together because I think we miss just how radical it really is.
Let’s go back to verse 42.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
That word devoted is a big word.
Because for many of us, when we hear devoted, we think:
“Yeah, they attended regularly.”
That’s not what Luke is describing.
The Greek word is proskartereō.
It means to persist in.
To continue steadfastly.
To remain attached.
To hold fast to something.
To continually give yourself to it.
In other words, this wasn’t casual participation.
This wasn’t occasional attendance.
This wasn’t, “I’ll show up when it’s convenient.”
They remained attached.
Attached to the apostles’ teaching.
Attached to fellowship.
Attached to shared meals.
Attached to prayer.
Attached to one another.
The early church didn’t dabble in community.
They devoted themselves to it.
Notice what they devoted themselves to.
Not Sunday Mornings.
Not a small group.
Not an event.
They devoted themselves to truth and people.
And the by product was Sunday mornings, small groups, prayer meetings…
I wonder what would happen in our lives if we stopped treating gathering with believers as another thing on our calendar…
…and started treating it as a non-negotiable part of who we are.
Not something we squeeze in when we can.
Not something we do if nothing else comes up.
Not something we attend.
Something we belong to.
Because nobody says,
“I’ll spend time with my family if I can fit them into my schedule this week.”
Why?
Because family isn’t an event.
Family is belonging.
Family is attachment.
Family is commitment.
And that’s exactly the language Luke uses when he says they devoted themselves.
The early church had four devotions:
The teachings
fellowship
breaking bread
prayer.
Unfortunately, in modern culture too we have four different devotions…
comfort
convenience
entertainment
self
Here is a scary truth for you:
We become what we’re devoted to.
If you’re devoted to comfort, you’ll avoid anything that challenges you.
If you’re devoted to convenience, you’ll leave whenever something gets difficult.
If you’re devoted to entertainment, you’ll constantly need something new.
If you’re devoted to self, eventually everyone else becomes a means to your happiness.
But the early church devoted themselves to things that formed them into the image of Christ.
What is your home devoted to?
Well pastor I don’t have to go to church to be close to God…
You’re right.
Going to church doesn’t save you.
Sitting in a building doesn’t make you a Christian.
Salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone.
But that’s actually the wrong question.
The question isn’t:
“Do I have to go to church to be a Christian?”
The question is:
“Why would someone redeemed into the family of God not want to participate in the family of God?”
The New Testament doesn’t have a category for isolated Christianity.
Paul calls the church:
the Body of Christ
the Household of God
the Temple of the Holy Spirit
Those aren’t event words.
They’re family words.
It’s like saying:
“I love being an arm, I just don’t want to be connected to the shoulder.”
A disconnected arm doesn’t become independent. It dies.
Well pastor church sometimes is….boring….
to that I would say….
Yeah, Sometimes it is…
You know what else is sometimes boring?
Marriage.
Parenting.
Exercise.
Eating healthy.
Going to work.
Paying bills.
But we don’t determine the value of something by whether it entertained us today.
We determine its value by what it is producing in our lives.
look at the progression of verses 42 to 43
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
They didn’t start with awe.
They started with devotion.
They devoted themselves to teaching.
They devoted themselves to fellowship.
They devoted themselves to breaking bread.
They devoted themselves to prayer.
And then…
awe came upon every soul.
Isn’t it interesting that awe was the byproduct?
For many of us, we want awe without devotion.
We want the goosebumps.
We want the breakthrough.
We want the encounter.
We want the wonder.
But we don’t want the daily devotion that often produces it.
For many of us, the reason we’re not in awe of God…
is because we’re not devoted to Him.
I know that one hurt.
You’ll be okay.
Because I’m not talking about perfection.
I’m talking about direction.
The early church wasn’t perfect.
They were devoted.
Awe is often the fruit of sustained devotion.
Don’t be surprised when you’re not amazed by a God you’re rarely pursuing.
Watch what happens next…
they were devoted…
Awe came upon them…
then verse 44
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
They were so in awe of God…
They began too SHARE everything….
This wasn’t neighbors borrowing a cup of sugar…
This was oh you can’t pay your mortgage?
Here let me sell my car and give you the money to pay it..
Notice what happened.
The more captivated they became by God…the less captivated they became by their stuff.
It’s interesting to me that people today will spend hours arguing about giving.
“Do I have to tithe?”
“Is tithing even a New Testament mandate?”
Meanwhile, these believers were selling possessions to meet needs.
So I’d officially like to give everyone a choice this morning…
You can tithe…
or start selling your stuff and giving that money away.
I’ll let you pray about which one God is leading you toward.
Obviously, that’s a joke…..kinda
But here’s the point: They weren’t asking, “What’s the minimum?”
They were asking, “How can I help?”
That’s a completely different heart posture.
One asks:
“What do I have to do?”
The other asks:
“What can I do?”
One asks:
“What can I keep?”
The other asks:
“What can I give?”
One asks:
“How little can I sacrifice?”
The other asks:
“Who can I serve?”
When you are captivated by what God has done for you, giving no longer feels like a burden. it starts becoming a response.
look at verse 46 again
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
Stop right there.
Day by day.
Not Sunday by Sunday.
Day by day.
The early church wasn’t trying to fit God into their schedule.
Their lives were being built around Him.
They attended the temple together.
They broke bread in their homes.
They prayed together.
They worshiped together.
They lived life together.
This is one of the reasons we do preservice prayer every Sunday.
Not because it’s another church program.
Not because we need something else on the schedule.
But because we never want to become a church that just shows up and hopes something spiritual happens.
We want to seek God together.
We want to pray together.
We want to prepare our hearts together.
We want to make room for the Holy Spirit together.
You usually don’t stumble into devotion. You cultivate it.
Nobody accidentally develops a prayer life.
Nobody accidentally develops intimacy with God.
Nobody accidentally builds strong relationships.
Those things happen day by day.
That’s exactly what Luke is describing.
A group of people who stopped treating God as a Sunday activity and started building their lives around Him.
Day by day.
Not Sunday by Sunday.
In 42 they were devoted.
43 they were in awe
44-45 they were givers
46 they were day by day people…
and then in verse 47….They became a witness.
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Notice what Luke doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say they came up with a church growth strategy.
He doesn’t say they hired a consultant.
He doesn’t say they launched a marketing campaign.
He says they praised God.
They had favor with people.
And the Lord added to their number.
The byproduct of devotion was awe.
The byproduct of awe was generosity.
The byproduct of generosity was community.
The byproduct of community was a witness that attracted people to Jesus.
There is a direct connection between the devotion of God’s people and the growth of God’s church.
Don’t hear what i’m not saying.
Jesus said:
“I will build my church.
He didn’t say:
“Kyle will build my church.”
He didn’t say:
“The worship team will build my church.”
He didn’t say:
“A marketing strategy will build my church.”
Jesus builds His church.
But look at how He chose to do it in Acts 2.
Through devoted people.
Through people in awe of God.
Through generous people.
Through people living life together.
Through people whose homes were open.
Through people who genuinely loved one another.
The Lord added to their number…
But He added to a community that was living differently.
Can I tell you something?
Most people aren’t looking for a perfect church.
They’re looking for a real one.
They’re looking for people who actually love Jesus.
People who actually love each other.
People whose faith affects the way they live.
People devoted to truth.
People devoted to prayer.
People devoted to one another.
People whose homes are on assignment.
So let me ask you…
Will you join God’s HOA?
