Church At Home

Introduction

Everybody can brighten a room. Some of us by entering it, some of us by leaving it. And that’s not just true of people, that’s true of circumstances and events in our life, isn’t it? Something can happen in your life that just changes your life so positively. But there’s events in our lives that are just bad. All bad. Nothing but bad. And our lives are made better only when and if those circumstances and events can leave. And we can get back to life.

A year and a half, almost plus of a pandemic. Our life’s going to be made brighter when it’s just gone. And when all of the after-effects and side effects of it are just gone.

But that’s still a lesson, isn’t it?

And there’s lessons that can be learned from the negative circumstances in our life. In fact, if we’re honest, most lessons are learned in the house of mourning, not in the house of feasting. And so, as uncomfortable as it is to talk about, let’s talk about what we’ve gone through. And maybe try to learn a lesson.

Here’s one phrase that we heard that we never thought we’d hear before.

One of the blessings now as we’re reassembling in almost every assembly, there’s someone else that’s rejoining us, and we rejoice at that. But for a while there, this is what church looked like.

We’re thankful that it happened in 2020 when we had high speed internet and devices that we could still kind of stay connected. And we wrestled with some things as whether it was alright to do this. Was it all right to partake of the Lord’s Supper in my living room? Was it alright to lay by in store through an app on my phone? We still may be wrestling with some of those things. But for a while we did church at home. And like I said, that’s what it looked like for some of you. Now, be honest, it looked like this for some of you. You still had to get that seat in the back just to be consistent. And that’s alright. But I got to thinking about the concept of church at home, and as unpleasant as that was, and hopefully, again, if there’s no other lesson, it’s like those negative people, maybe we’ll never take for granted being able to assemble together and pray together and sing together and commune together.

And maybe if we slow down a little bit as we try as fast as we can to get out of this, if we’ll slow down a little bit, maybe there’s a lesson to be learned about the idea of church at home. You see where I’m going here? That in some sense that’s the way it should have always been. Not that we couldn’t assemble together like this, don’t misunderstand me. But maybe in our routine, and let’s just be honest, spiritual laziness. Maybe we got the idea that this is church. And that’s all church is.

1. Growing Closer to God Through His Holy Word

And that was wrong. And maybe sometimes it takes a bad event, some kind of things to shake us up a little bit to make us think that assembling a few times a week in a building isn’t all there is to church. And so this morning I’d like for us to talk about that concept of church at home and realize that that’s the way to some degree it ought to be. Here’s what church, real church at home, should look like, and that is that we’ll be growing and getting closer to God through his holy word. The point of this lesson is for us to understand that the essence of my Christianity, the heart of my relationship to God cannot be summed up by simply my attendance here at this building.

I am not saying that assembling is not important. It’s a part of our Christianity, an important part of our Christianity that was put there by God. I didn’t come up with it. God did. And if that opportunity is afforded you, you cannot be a Christian and forsake it. Because in forsaking it or in taking advantage of it, you are telling God what He means to you and how you value Him. And so, yes, this is important, and this is a part of our Christianity. But have we somehow salved ourselves into thinking that this is all of my Christianity? That my Christianity can be summed up in three or four hours of assemblies together. If so, we’ve missed the boat. And that becomes true of our study of God’s word.

Is my spiritual biblical education comprised of two Bible classes a week and one or two sermons a week. Let me say this as kindly yet as bluntly as I can. If that’s the case, then you’re biblically illiterate and spiritually weak. No preacher, as good as he might be, no Bible class teacher, as talented and prepared as they might be, no Bible class curriculum will ever make you the Christian that you ought to be. If that’s the sum total of your Bible study, it just won’t happen. In fact, those things, and again, I’m not saying those things aren’t important, but those things will become not only the sole source of your biblical education, they’ll become maybe the smallest part of your biblical education, but they themselves will be enhanced by your own private study.

You know one thing I’ve observed for 30 plus years of being a Bible class teacher? That I’m a much better teacher when you do your lesson. It’s just funny how that works out. And I’m a much better preacher when you’ve studied the word yourself. It’s time. As we maybe view this starting back up as a reset, it’s time to get serious about Bible study. It’s not just something the preacher’s going to preach about every once in a while and have as a point in several sermons.

It’s time that we really get serious and are committed to it. You alone are responsible for knowing the word and growing closer to God through it. Maybe, just maybe we have devalued the concept of Bible study, as unthinkable as that might be. Because we think of Bible study is, again, maybe just as a way to prepare for a Bible class, because I don’t want to be embarrassed that the teacher calls on me to answer number 11 and number 11 is blank. And so I’ll do my Bible study to avoid embarrassment. Or I’ll do my Bible study as talked about in our lesson of hospitality this morning, as an obligation, because I’m supposed to.

And the only way to truly know him and to grow closer to him is through his word.

And so I see it is not just as a study, not just as a mean to fill out the blanks, and not just the way to find out that thou shalt and thou shalt not, but it’s a way to get closer to God. Because every line reveals God and something about him. Look at the admonitions that we see in Scripture. In the Old Testament, look at the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter 1. As Joshua is about to embark upon his role as the leader of the people. God gives a commission to him. In Joshua chapter 1 and in verse 8, after having told him to be strong and courageous, we remember that admonition of verse 7. But don’t forget the admonition that follows it in verse 8 that says, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Don’t get away from the book.

Three things. You already know them. But three things we better get serious about doing with the word of God. Number one is reading it. Reading it. Just read the word.

Don’t read it for an assignment. Just read it. Study it. What does that mean? Is there some other verse that says something about that? And I’m going to tell you, here’s your best Bible study tip. When you read a verse that’s difficult or a couple of verses that are difficult, back up and read a couple verses before and go and read a couple verses after, and you’ll be amazed at how, oh, that’s what that means. Study.

And that is meditate. Meditate. That means after you’ve read it and studied it, think about it. Think about it. Let me illustrate. First, I talked in Bible class this morning about the church at Brundage, Alabama, that church of senior citizens. It was our first work many years ago. And we lived in the preacher’s house. That was kind of common at that time. The preacher’s house was right next to the church building. And that had some advantages and it had some disadvantages. But uh we would take turns, the men would, mowing the grass. And so when it was my month to mow the grass, I had to mow my grass and the churches. It was all one big lawn. And so, and I tried to convince the other men it was their month.

They were supposed to do the same thing, but that never caught on. But anyway, I was my month to mow, and what I would do many times when I was mowing, is I would meditate. I would think about my sermon. I’d been studying it and working it out and had some of it on paper, and I would sit there on the lawnmower, riding lawnmower, and I would preach that sermon. I would think about what I had studied. And sometimes a thought would occur to me. And being the absent-minded guy that I am, I would jump off the lawnmower and run into my study and write it down. One time I did that, and I came back out to find the lawnmower pushed up against the church building, still running and spinning.

But that’s what the meditate means. It’s just the idea now.

I’m going to maul that over in my mind. And just think about that. What does that mean? And what does that mean to me?

That’s church at home. And that’s the way it always ought to be.

2. Living the Christian Life That Will Bring Glory to God

That church at home or church outside this building, which is the way Christianity ought to be lived, means living the Christian life that will bring glory to God.

We said that our Christianity cannot be summed up by our assembly. It’s so much more than that. It touches every facet of our life. You know, we’re quick to criticize religious people who want to change the actions of worship to satisfy themselves. They want to introduce elements of worship that we don’t read about in the Bible because it makes them feel good. And we’re quick and rightly quick to criticize those people for changing the actions of worship. But let’s not be equally guilty of changing the purpose of worship. And to use our assemblies and our worship for an unscriptural means of satisfying myself that I’ve done my Christian duty for this week. That’s just as wrong. That’s changing the purpose of worship. That’s what it wasn’t about.

It wasn’t to satisfy me that I’ve done what I need to do as a Christian. The essence of my Christianity is so much more. It means, as Jesus would say, letting my light so shine before men that they would glorify my Father in heaven. Question, how are you doing at church at home? Let me give you another illustration. This is confession time this morning. When we let the last place we were at before here was Florence, Alabama, and we didn’t live at the preacher’s house, so I had to drive to the church building. And between my house and the church building was a little convenience store. And this convenience store ran a continuous sale on drinks. You could go in there, and for 59 cents.

I mean, it took two hands to carry that cup out for 59 cents. And so, not every day, but a lot of days on my way to the church building, I would stop. And I would get my wash tub full of Mountain Dew. And it seemed like nine times out of ten, the same cashier was there. And so we kind of got to know each other. She would always say the same thing.

And that bothered me. Here’s why it bothered me. She knew some things about me in our quasi relationship. She knew what truck I drove. Because I always parked it in the same place right out in front of the store where she could see it. She knew I liked copious amounts of Mountain Dew. Based on our interactions with one another, she knew I had a sense of humor. Well, she knew I thought I had a sense of humor. But in our interaction, she’s the one who said, Have a blessed day. That got to bothering me. She didn’t know I was a Christian. She didn’t know I was a preacher. And so one day I had to change that. I got back in my truck, backed out of the parking place, and then pulled right back into the parking place.

And got out. And apologized to her.

I was letting a light shine. She knew some things about me. But I wasn’t letting my light so shine that she could see my good works and glorify my Father who is in heaven.

3. Serving Others, Giving of Myself and Encouraging My Brethren

But I hadn’t missed the church service in years. But I really wasn’t being a Christian in the fullest sense of the word. Because I didn’t bring church home with me. Lastly, we must see that there’s so much more to Christianity outside of this building. And here, here is real Christianity. Not all of it, but the heart of it and a big portion of it. The church at home means I’m going to be serving others, giving of myself and encouraging my brethren. You remember a few years ago, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and I particularly remember bracelets were everywhere that said four letters. W, W, J, D. You remember those? Boy, those were a hit. What would Jesus do?

And not to be the resident critic, but if I had started that campaign, I might have changed one of those letters. I might have said, instead of what would Jesus do, I might have said, What did Jesus do? Because I don’t have to wonder what he would do. What would God do if he was here? What would God do when confronted with sin and sinful people? What would God do when confronted with hurting people, starving people? I don’t have to wonder what would Jesus do. I just open up my Bible and say, What did Jesus do? Here’s what he did. Look with me, if you will, in your New Testament in the book of Matthew chapter 9. What did Jesus do? And as you’re turning to Matthew chapter 9 and finding verse 10 there, I want to remind you that we’re talking about Christianity.

Christianity, which at its very heart is being Christ like.

It’s in the name itself, Christian. What did Jesus do? And then what will my Christ-likeness look like? Matthew 9, did I ask you to go to verse 10? It says, Now it happened as Jesus said at the table in the house that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And guess what? The Pharisees saw it. And they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And go and learn what this means. I desire mercy. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

What did Jesus do? He associated himself with what we and they would consider the dregs of society. Now it might be important to point out here that Jesus did not participate in their sin. He did not condone their sinful lifestyles and activities. He sought to remedy it. But the only way he could do that was by being with them. That’s what Jesus did, and it required him to get his hands dirty. What did he not do? He didn’t act like he was better than them. Although he was the only one on the planet who was better than them. But he didn’t act that way. He didn’t look for reasons and excuses to avoid them. He, as he would say himself, he came not to be served, but to serve.

To a bunch of grumbling, complaining, selfish, about to betray and deny disciples. He got down on his knees and washed their feet. That’s what Jesus did.

Conclusion

What did Jesus do? He allowed himself to be humiliated and spat upon and cursed and beaten and nailed to a cross when he could have stopped it. But he allowed it. And then he forgave the very people who did that. What will a person who dares to wear the name of Christ do? Oh, I’ll come to church. I’ll strive to be here every time the doors are open. But is that all I’ll do? To wear the name of Christ? To be a Christian at home and at school. And at work, and in the neighborhood, and on I-4. That’s what church at home really is. And that’s what Christianity really is. Would you be a Christian this morning? Accept the challenge to be better. To be more like Christ.

To allow him, because of his selfless love and sacrificial servant’s heart to forgive you of your sins when you spat on him and you cursed him and you humiliated him. Would you let him forgive you this morning and equip you to be zealous for your own good works in serving and encouraging and helping others? Would you be a Christian this morning? Would you come right now as together we stand and as we sing?

Lead me with life. Teach me thy way.

When earthly journey teach me thy way in our sub loneliness, in tasal distress, in failure or success. Teach me thy way. When thou rise