Our Home Speaks Volumes

The Home is a beautiful place. We share love, experiences, and life with the people who live in it. We’ve spent time in the the loving room and dining room discussing testimony, sabbath, and spending time building relationships with other Christians.

“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.

As I stated last week, people don’t want to go to church like they used to anymore. The ways that people were drawn to the church house doesn’t work the way that it used to. Instead of asking people to come to church, we bring the church to the people.

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 don’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, why would we the reached, not join Him?

It’s time to let our homes speak to the community.

2 Timothy 4:1–8 NASB95

1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, 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 of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; 8 in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

While Paul wrote this letter to Timothy as a message to all Pastors, every person who knows Jesus Christ can take this message into consideration as a believer.

Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is called to the ministry.

The older minister Paul charges the younger Timothy instruction on how to operate in the local church. Paul had two motivating factors in his ministry that he wanted to impart to all believers.

The 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God.

As Paul thought about the ending of his life, these two motivating factors gave him fuel to minister.

His charge to Timothy was to:

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 is method in which to speak to people.

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

Timothy might have been a timid leader 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 for us to stay there.

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

1. Be a Home that Stands for Truth.

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

There would be a time when people would turn their ears from truth towards a supernatural fascination of myths or a wandering into counterfeit truths.

Instead of hearing what they don’t want to hear because of how uncomfortable it makes them, they will just find new leaders who share what they like.

The people didn’t want to be held accountable to the truth, but found way to live in their own desire.

Paul wrote that being sober urges a moral alertness and coolness of mind toward what’s coming.

Be an evangelist - Preach the gospel. Do the work of a minister. Put your hand to the plough and don’t stop until the work is completed.

Debating 2 + 2 = 4 with you is a pointless venture unless I can convince enough people to join me in my belief. Especially people of influence.

At some point, the truth of God’s word was 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 the conversations we have at home reflect a belief in God’s truth?

Will we stand for this truth even if everyone has decided that we are wrong?

Do we seek truth in our daily lives?

The Bible provides every answer that we need and we must be diligent to grow in our study of it.

Accept that people will ridicule your stances.

Make the home a place of evangelism.

You and I are called to be gospel sharers. We can’t put this aside.

Paul is telling us to continue sharing truth to people. We can reflect this attitude through personal evangelism accompanied by living out truth daily.

2. Be a Home With a Gospel Purpose

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

Drink offering - wine poured out on the alter

Departure - a soldier nearing the end of the battle. He will eventually be released by his present restrictions.

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

Paul made no claim to have yet won the race but that he was content to have stayed the course.

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

Everyone wants a prize without the 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 with following Jesus. We don’t accept suffering with purpose. We don’t want to be different.

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

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

We must get to the point where we will do things we don’t feel comfortable doing because God’s plan is too important to not. It’s not supposed to be perfect or comfortable.

It’s hard. The best things are. We are in a struggle/race to do the work of God. This has to get out of the church building and into the neighborhood. Our eyes must be on the lost and we can’t be afraid of being ridiculed for it.

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

3. Be a Home For Heaven to Exist.

Paul was not looking back towards his ministry the struggle he had faced or was even facing in the present.

There was a crown in store for him. Olympic winners were awarded wreaths of honour and awards to 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. He had little to worry about in the present life. The life that awaited him in Heaven gave him the purpose to write this message to Timothy.

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

They loved Him and believed His message, repented of their sins, believed in His death and resurrection and bore witness to Him in their daily lives.

The people didn’t look to the present struggle they were facing, but looked ahead to the celebration of the saints who reign with with Christ.

Revelation 21:1–8 NASB95

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for 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 give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:

You look at me and say, “It’s hard to be a person that shares Jesus Christ.” The pressure is too much in this modern time.

The question I have must be asked then. What time are you living for? The modern world? The past? A Christian should not take into account past pain or present circumstances. Christians look ahead. Are eyes are on the East where our redemption is coming.

What are you living for? We can live for the present or even the end of this life. What then? Where will that get us?

You have a direction you’re heading and you need not stop. Trust God and keep moving. If you have never moved, then start right now. Drop everything and move forward.

How do our homes reflect this character?

The Kingdom of Heaven is an ever growing kingdom that takes land daily. Your home must be the first place that tells the world where you belong.

What physical objects in our homes are keeping our eyes off of Heaven?

2. What attitude is keeping our eyes off Heaven?

3. What sins in our heart are keeping our eyes off of Heaven?

What sins in our heart are keeping our eyes off of Heaven?

Life is too short and Jesus is coming back soon. Who needs to see the Kingdom of Heaven in the community that hasn’t? What’s going to change?