THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME SERIES
“Your Home A Sanctuary: A Place For God”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth = B.I.B.L.E.
-kitchen sink set and the fridge
-bedroom suite
-Living room suite
-dining room suite
-play sandbox outside
Then we moved to Kokomo from Marion
-we have a dining room table and chairs
-we have a couch and TV and loveseat, library shelf
-bedroom suite
-kids rooms furnished
We can put a lot of time into thinking about how we want to furnish our homes; and don’t forget about the garage!
We need to consider how we furnish our hearts!
Listen to this story Jesus told: LUKE 11:24-26
The evil spirit came back to the house and found it swept clean in order, but empty. You cannot take something away or cast something out and not put something better in its place.
But how our hearts are furnished speaks of what is important to each of us. I don’t want to get psychological here. I do want to speak about how we can furnish our hearts and arrange them to reflect Jesus Christ. If you knew the in-laws were coming over, would you change your house around? If you knew the governor or the president was coming over would you change things around? If Tony Dungy called and said, “Hey! I am bringing a couple of the guys from the team over,” would you arrange your home differently? Our homes reflect a lot about our hearts…and if that is true, getting our house in order actually has to start from the inside and work its way out! Get your heart in order, and the house will follow! 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and speaks about how we can have our hearts furnished and arranged for Christ to feel at home in. Paul writes to Timothy that he can not only be furnished, but thoroughly furnished… What would your house look like if it was thoroughly furnished? What would your garage look like or workshop look like or den look like if it was thoroughly furnished? At this point I could go materially ballistic on you! Pull out all the stops and go for it on ‘thoroughly’ I mean we’d have some serious shopping to do! I’m thinking Binford tools all the way! If we went with the living room, I’m seeing recliners and lazy-boys, and a fireplace and big screen TV and nice sound and stereo system and wall-to-wall carpet. If I went to the kitchen, I’m seeing a walk-in fridge and freezer, a grill add-on for the stove and plenty of cupboard space and all of the necessities of cooking. In the garage…wow, well, we don’t have time to talk about all the power tools and wood working tools I’d need to be thoroughly furnished based on MY definition of thoroughly! What do you imagine it takes to furnish your heart thoroughly? I can start by saying that none of the things materially I have mentioned would qualify. Things I possess on the outside do not furnish me inside! Peter writes in his letter: 2 Peter 1:5-9 Peter speaks of the qualities of faith, character, spiritual insight, discipline, patience, reverence, friendliness and love. A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, Ryan, 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say ’Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’ Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!" What does it take to be a person of character? Paul tells us it has to do with being furnished by the Word of God! If you were going to furnish your home, you’d make a list of items and then you’d make a list of places to get those items: Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, JC Penny’s, and so forth. You’d spend time looking at sales ads and walking the isles looking at patterns, colors, and so forth. You would expect that it would just happen. You’d need to invest time, money, energy and resources into making your house a home. In the same way, in order to make your heart a home for Jesus Christ, you will need to invest time, money, energy and resources into learning and knowing just one book—the Word of God! Actually it is made up of 66 books! There are four things Paul states the Word of God does for you in the process called “furnishing your inner sanctuary of your heart.” 1. Teaching furnishes you = the Truth of God’s word sets standards for you live by! God’s Word furnishes you with the blue-prints for living so you can see what life is to be. Teaching gives you stuff to know! 2. Reproof furnishes you = deep convictions furnishes you with a conscience; God’s Word furnishes you with a T-square that measures one item with another and makes sure hey are compatible. It makes the home TRUE and defines what is to be in the home and what stays out! Reproof keeps you in line and true--like a T-square. Reproof gives you the boundaries for your stuff. 3. Correction furnishes you = the word means to update, upgrade, and improve. God’s Word does this in so many ways! Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and have it to the full! An abundant life! An upgraded life! Teaching gives you stuff, reproof show you the boundaries for your stuff, correction shows you where your stuff is to be placed appropriately! It’s like teaching says, “You need a couch.” And reproof says, “The couch goes in the living room not the kitchen.” And correction says, “It needs to go by that wall at this angle and can be used on Sundays for this purpose and not for Monday’s after meal napping when you should be taking a walk or doing something else.” Correction in God’s Word is gained by experience = the practical learning that comes from making mistakes! 4. Training furnishes you = we learn by our mistakes, but we can also learn by other’s mistakes…and the Bible is filled with story after story how people have made their mistakes so we can learn by them. The word for training is the process by which a child learns how to take responsibility for himself. Andrew is learning so much right now. But very soon he will learn how to pick up a spoon and eat with it all the time on his own, but not quite yet. After that, he will learn how to use the restroom without help. He will learn to change his clothes and put the dirty ones in the close basket. When Josh and Allie do not do what we have taught them, there is reminding and sometimes chastisement or punishment. Training furnishes us by repetition, reminding, positive reinforcement or removal of positives for a season. Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office. The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They talked among themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified. Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled.” The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That’s not fair!” The employer said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ‘If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.” I think many of us make the same mistake when it comes to Bible study. We study the Bible but we are not really listening for God’s voice and therefore we do not understand what He wants to say to us. We are easily distracted by busyness and the countless distractions all around us. God has spoken, and He wants to speak to you, but are you listening for His voice? In the early morning, when the light just begins to break forth from the night, we can barely make out the form of large objects; when we do, we see little definition. Yet in less than an hour, the definition is there, and objects much smaller in size begin to take shape. Then in another hour or so, even the smallest of objects become clearly defined--soon the bright light of day will even reveal objects as small as dust particles floating in the air. The Word of God is progressive in its revelation. What seems unclear at first is soon visible with study. Continued study sheds more light on the subject, so much so that even the youngest are stunned by the detail revealed. It is a wonder that the light of revelation continues to grow with study. Illustration: Fully furnished! Leander McCormick-Goodheart was a recruiter for the Ford Motor Company in 1944. He toured fifty universities across the United States to recruit the outstanding graduating student of each institution. At Leigh University, he met a young man named Lee and offered him a position at Ford. This was a dream come true fro any college student whose greatest ambition could be fulfilled at Ford immediately upon graduation. But, instead of leaping at the opportunity, Lee asked if he could delay the starting date of his employment for one year. Lee had the opportunity to earn a master’s degree from Princeton University. Even though he was ambitious and talented Lee…Iacocca had the opportunity to launch his auto-making career immediately upon his graduation, but he determined to be fully furnished for whatever opportunities might come his way in the future. (Richard and Henry Blackaby. Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda. Holman & Broadman Press. Nashville, TN. 2001. P. 114-115) Paul said, “So that you might be thoroughly furnished for every good work!” Surprise! Shock! An “information Center” that would not give the information needed. That’s just like our world isn’t it? The world will lead you astray! It will cause you to believe one thing and when you arrive, it won’t deliver on what it promised! God isn’t like that! His Word is 100% guaranteed! Truth is, the information we need to live our lives is only available from God!—for instruction and correction. (Proclaim: the Pastor’s Journal for Biblical Preaching. The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Nashville, TN. O-N-D, 1987. P. 38.) Here are some First Steps In Making Your Home A Sanctuary: First, Setting a definite time when you will spend that time focused on the Word—reading it, meditating upon it, studying it; 2) Sit with others who do the same and talk with them about what God is revealing to you in His Word and listen to what they are learning; 3) Don’t give up—keep reading it—it comes with a promise, every time you read it you are transformed—and you may not even recognize it! OUR ATTITUDE: Our attitude about God’s Word is so important! I have kids in the youth group who don’t understand how to listen to God’s Word because their ears are so clogged up with the world’s way of hearing! All they hear is that something sounds conflicting with what they believe or think so they say THE BIBLE isn’t right! When the right way to hear is MY LIFE isn’t right! WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE TO SAY GOD IS WRONG! So do a check up on your attitude: God’s word is profitable for DOCTRINE of right: Are you teachable? REPROOF with the right: Do you desire accountability? CORRECTION by the right: Are you correctable? TRAINING in what is right: Are you committed to the process? Do you have a plan? Don’t give up! Closing illustration: The Coal Basket Bible. There’s a story of an old man who lived on a farm in the mountains of eastern Kentucky with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading from his old worn-out Bible. His grandson who wanted to be just like him tried to imitate him in any way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Papa, I try to read the Bible just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?" The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and said, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water." The boy did as he was told, even though all the water leaked out before he could get back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You will have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was "impossible to carry water in a basket," and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You can do this. You’re just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got very far. The boy scooped the water and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Papa, it’s useless!" "So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket." The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket looked different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was clean. "Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, it will change you from the inside out. That is the work of God in our lives: To change us from the inside out and to slowly transform us into the image of His Son." The Bible: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth = B.I.B.L.E. Don’t give up reading it!
