House - Part 5 - Model House Series

House

“Model House”

I. Introduction

We are a part of God’s House. In fact, we are God’s house. He is establishing His home in us! Person by person He places us together and constructs for Himself a dwelling place. However, He is not obligated to live in something He hasn’t built! So we must be built according to His plan and design. So we have been talking about House Rules. Authority is the rule of the house. He exerts His authority through His Word, Our conscience, and through delegated authority. We have talked about that in order to live productively in this House we must learn House Manners. We must live with regard and respect. We must learn to resolve relationships and restore those who fail to live by the manners.

Today, I want us to look at the idea of a model home. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like going to look at new homes. However, just walking into an empty space doesn’t really do it for me. I like walking through model homes because they paint a picture of the potential that is in the House.

I guess builders have figured out that supplying a furnished home also helps us in the buying process too. The builder’s desire is to turn your visitation into a habitation.

All across the country this morning God will visit churches. Those bodies will experience moments of divine interruptions, perhaps a sign, wonder, or miracle will break the monotony of a normal church service. That visitation will be talked about for years to come, but never repeated. It will be wished for, watched for, longed for and memorialized, but a one time or every so often occurrence!

However, I believe that we should build for something different! I am not satisfied with a visitation every other week or every other month or every other year. Just survive and wait patiently for another move some day. Sorry, I am not willing to set around and talk about the good old days of a visitation while trying to get the atmosphere just right in hopes that it will spark another such move! No, I think that a better scenario and a better model is that we do what is necessary to move from a structure that hopes for a visitation into a model house that brings about a habitation! I have heard people say you can’t create a move of God. I understand and agree that we can’t manipulate or flesh God into moving. But, I beg to disagree in that we can create a move of God by building a model house. A house that we construct and arrange according to His plan because He is obligated to live in what He builds! And I want God to dwell here! I want the lack of a miracle to be the out of the ordinary. I want the lack of a genuine encounter with Him to be so weird that we sit and shake our heads and wonder what went wrong. I want it to be normal (not in an “it is no longer special” way) to see Him and to sense Him! I want word to get out that God has taken up residence in our midst.

So today I want us to look at a model home that I think teaches some things about how to turn a visitation into a habitation.

TEXT: 2 Kings 4:8-17

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."

11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, "Tell her, ’You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ "She replied, "I have a home among my own people."

14 "What can be done for her?" Elisha asked. Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old."

15 Then Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 "About this time next year," Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms." "No, my lord," she objected. "Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!"