Welcome Home

There is absolutely nothing like being home. This week we are headed to Florida for vacation. We will have a great time and are excited for some time away, but you know what is already true in my mind after being at the beach a week with 3 toddlers? Being home. Next Monday night when we get unpacked, the kids are asleep, I get cleaned up and pajamas on and lay down in that bed for the first time. I will let out a sigh of relief....... and pass out.

I remember when I moved away for the first time in my early twenties. I moved 9 hours away to South Mississippi. Brookhaven will always be a place where I bought my first house, I got married while I lived there and I had my first child there. But...... it wasnt home. It never could be for me. I can remember each time I made that long drive home to visit. By the time I got to Chattanooga and crossed the state line. I knew I was home. I knew mom was already cooking my favorite treats and that my sheets were clean and bedroom ready. It is comfort and peace that is tangible.

Last time we met we talked about the mission of KCC. We want to mobilize this community to make disciples. Tonight I want to talk about our vision for this city. Our vision is that we would see those who are wandering far away find their home in Christ.

There is a chapter in the Bible that really drives home what it means to have our Home be in Christ. Ill be honest, those are kind of churchy terms and some of you all may be wandering what I even mean by that, because we toss the word “home” around here a lot. Let me try and make sense of that. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. There are two sets of verses here that describe all of us.

The New International Version Chapter 2

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh m and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath

The New International Version Chapter 2

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world

Remember where you were

There is not one of us who can say that we were not once wandering far away from Christ. You know why so many people don’t act on this vision? You know my so many churches focus more on religion and hypocrisy rather than reaching those who are lost? Do you know why church for so many has become more of a country club for self righteousness than a hospital for the sick? It is because we have forgotten that we were all like this. And some of you may have walked in here tonight and you have never found your home in Jesus either. Paul is adamant to the believer that we remember these things. The word Paul uses is an imperative verb. It was a command from the apostle Paul. He knew how important it would be to remember who we once were. There were some people that would have known Paul the Apostle and not the fact that Paul was once a murderer of the very people he preached to.

What if my message to this community was this? Tonight lets go walk around this neighborhood and show everyone how good and perfect we are and how evil and wicked they are. OF COURSE we wouldnt do that..... but yet we often live that very way. We act that very way.

Imagine this picture of a burning home and everyone is in danger. You find a protected home safe from all danger and you step in and instantly forget those out suffering. If we are going to have a vision to see all the wandering find their home in Christ we have to first remember we were once lost as well.

Remember Who brought you home

Now here is the thing about having a good home. When I was in the womb I didnt sit back and decide what kind of home I would have? I grew up in a great home. But I didnt make it that way. My parents did. Finding our home in Christ is no different. We did nothing to make our Home in Jesus what it is. it is by His grace alone. The last two section of verses was Paul telling us to remember who we were. These verses are the answers that follow those verses in Chapter 2 of Ephesians.

The New International Version Chapter 2

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The New International Version Chapter 2

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

It is Jesus. That is the beautiful thing about helping people find their home in Christ. His arms are open. The meal is cooked. The sheets are turned back.

The Prodigal son

This is how you find your home in Christ

The Charge.