---------OPTIONAL SERMON DVD VIDEO OPENER-------
Have you ever came home to houseguests like this?
OPENER: DVD CLIP Mrs. Doubtfire
START: 7:32 Scene selection #2 “The Birthday Party” | Time: 1 min 45 sec.
END: 9:10 | Robin Williams says
“You’re Home Early Girlfriend”
NOTE: It’s crucial that you cut it off after that statement because Sally Field yells a curse word soon after.
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POWERPOINT SLIDE OPENER (AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST)
SLIDE: List of Things That Houseguests Do That Bug Us
Sara, 25 year-old single girl living 27 year-old single sister
1. Inviting themselves over to stay the night
2. Staying longer than they originally planned
3. Not picking up after themselves
4. When they do not want to participate in your plans
to join you in the plans you already made (especially if they are "pop in" guests
Allen, 38 year-old married man with 3 children
1. Will not leave when time
2. Opens drawers and inspects things--looks through and reads personal things, like bills of bank statements
3. Break things
Aimee, 24 year- old married girl
1. When they leave the toilet seat up
2. When they are mean to my dog
3. When they bring their dog and it tears things up in my house
4. When they "borrow" a clothing item they forgot
and I never see it again
Suzy, 56 year- old divorced mother with teenage son
1. Stay too long
2. Don’t help after meals
3. Expect to be waited on
SLIDE: Title slide with verse info 1 Samuel 16: 14-23
There is an unwanted houseguest in the home of the disciple.
This freeloader--given to laziness and self-indulgence as well as pre-occupation with self is an enemy who does not have the disciple’s best interests at heart.
This unwanted guest wants the disciple to focus on them and them only.
The enemy of the Spirit in the life of the disciple, this unwanted houseguest in the home of the disciple, is “carnality” or the “flesh.”
What is the “carnality,” and the “flesh”?
In his book So Great Salvation, Charles Ryrie writes the following definition of the “carnality” and the “flesh”:
SLIDE: “Another way of describing the “flesh” is to describe it as that part of a person which is self-centered and self-seeking.
It is the flesh in the believer that perverts even spiritual things by seeking to appear more spiritual than they really are.
It is the flesh that seeks to put on a show and draw attention to self. It is the flesh that is proud and selfish in a person.”
Verse 14: When you leave the door open, anybody can come in
There are times when God himself, in His sovereign will, actually allows the demon hosts to carry out His will.
Such was in the case of Job
Somebody always gets hurt when you leave the door open in your home to anybody
In Oklahoma, legislators passed a "Make My Day" law that allows a homeowner to shoot an intruder in your house.
The “Make My Day” law should strictly be enforced when anything evil approaches. Or else we should build fences to protect our heart -- or as the Word refers to as spiritual strongholds.
Sometimes temptation even wins out when God places a fence to protect us from something...we just want to climb over it just to see or find out what’s on the other side.
ILLUSTRATION: THE HIGH DIVE
Harley and Matt lived in a nice neighborhood where the people were friendly-except for one man who lived at the end of the street in a big house with a gigantic swimming pool.
His pool had the highest diving board they had ever seen-so high they could see it over the big fence that surrounded his property.
Every day Charley and Matt walked past the man’s house wishing they could dive off that diving board. But the man didn’t allow anyone on his property, especially kids.
The No Trespassing sign made that very clear, but the prohibition only made the boys want to get inside all the more.
They made a pact with each other that the next time their neighbor went out of town they would sneak over the fence late at night and dive off his incredible high dive.
Two weeks later they noticed the man load a couple of suitcases in his trunk.
Peeking through the blinds in Matt’s bedroom, they saw him drive away. Charley and Matt felt a rush.
They knew that tonight they’d get to experience the thrill they had been dreaming about.
Around 11:00 p.m., dressed in their swimsuits and wrapped in their towels, they snuck out of their bedrooms to meet at the old man’s house.
Although it was a moonless night, they didn’t use flashlights in case someone might see them. They definitely didn’t want their parents finding out.
Climbing over the fence, they entered the man’s yard.
Even in the pitch-dark night they could make out the form of a second fence right next to the pool-which they immediately climbed over.
Inside the pool area they couldn’t see a thing.
Charley was feeling his way along, looking for a place to put his towel, when Matt bumped into the diving board.
He immediately started climbing to the top of the ladder. "Last one in is a rotten egg!" he called to Charley, laughing.
"Be quiet!" Charley said as he felt his way to the edge of the pool.
He wanted to check the temperature of the water. He sat down on the edge and tried to lower his foot in the water when he heard Matt spring off the board.
And just about the time Charley made his discovery, he heard a thud and a bloodcurdling scream.
What Charley discovered was that there was no water in the pool.
The old man had drained it. Matt hit the bottom of the pool feet first and suffered a broken back and other serious injuries which left him paralyzed the rest of his life.
Charley and Matt chose to ignore the fences that the owner had put up to protect people from the danger on the other side.
God puts up a different kind of fence to protect us from getting hurt, physically or spiritually.
When we choose to ignore God’s fences-whether it’s in the area of sex, drugs, drinking, honesty, etc.-we will experience consequences that could seriously hurt us
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When we are careless with God’s direction in our life, and want to try to do things our own way, or maybe think “God’s out of town for the weekend”, it often results in pain
Saul chose to do things on his own even though God had given him instructions in his life--this was the effect of Saul rejecting God, and an evidence of his being rejected by God.
Now God took his mercy from Saul (2 Samuel 7:15)
When men grieve and quench the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), by willful sin, he departs, and will not always strive all good goes.
To grieve the Spirit is similar to the way we grieve or perhaps quench the zeal in our spouse or children
We begin to DEMAND that they perform or do tasks according to our conditions
And eventually, it builds up after time which seems to create a suppression of tyranny over the household as you want it.
ILLUSTRATION: THE LIST
Once upon a time a woman was married to a perfectionist husband. No matter what his wife did for him, it was never enough.
At the beginning of each day, he would make out his list of chores for her to do, and at the end of each day, he would scrutinize it to make sure she had done all that she was supposed to do.
The best compliment she ever received was a disinterested grunt if she finished everything. She grew to hate her husband.
When he died unexpectedly, she was embarrassed to admit to herself that she was relieved.
Within a year of her husband’s death, she met a warm and loving man who was everything her former husband was not.
They fell deeply in love with each other and were married.
Every day they spent together seemed better than the day before.
One afternoon, as she was cleaning out boxes in the attic, a crumpled piece of paper caught her eye. It was one of the old chore lists that her first husband used to make out for her.
In spite of her chagrin, she couldn’t help reading it again.
To her shock and amazement she discovered that, without even thinking about it, she was now doing for her new husband all the things she used to hate to do for her old husband.
Her new husband never once suggested that she do any of these things. But she was doing them anyway-because she loved him.
Do you ever think of the Christian life as nothing more than a list of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots"?
That’s not what Jesus intended. In fact, he came to put an end to the long list of laws and regulations that governed Israel for so many years.
He came with a new law, the law of love. He said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37).
If you love God, you’ll do the right things-not because you’re afraid of breaking the law, but because you want to do them.
Saul became that bitter husband that demanded things around the household.
The consequence of this was that an evil spirit from God troubled him making him unfit for business, unpredictable in his counsels, vulnerable to his enemies, and a burden to all about him.
When the Holy Spirit left him he was open to an evil spirit of Satan to torment him.
Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 12:43-45
Top 5 Ways How The Evil Spirit Becomes Our Houseguest: (Matt 12: 43-45)
1. The evil spirit tries to undermine God’s authority (It’s OK to do it just this time…)
2. The evil spirit makes it hard for you to live a Christian life
a.persecution b. Peer pressure c. Peaceful preoccupation
3. Confuse the believer with false doctrine and become worldly minded
4. The evil spirit will try to hinder the believers service to Christ by disobeying God’s word—trying to justify their actions as opposed to what His word says
5. The evil spirit will try to cause believers to be hypocritical with each other and to trust in our own resources rather than depending on God to change the situation through fasting and prayer
Kick them out!
We’ve all had people we’ve had to drop hints to that it’s time to go!
And we need to do the same with many things that have set up residence in our lives.
Verse 15: People will SEE when you’re not full of GLEE
Other people can tell when you’ve invited something or someone else in your life that has become a hindrance to you
Friends can either help you or harm you when they see your home has been invaded
They can either be honest with you and let you know when something is different
Or they will isolate themselves from you for fear of not knowing how to deal with you on an honest level
Saul’s friends saw that he was different and wanted a quick fix so it wouldn’t upset the order of things as king
How much better of friends had they been to him if they had advised him, since the evil spirit was from the Lord, to give all diligence to make his peace with God by true repentance
To send for Samuel, the priest, to pray with him and to intercede with God for him!
Then might he not only have had some present relief, but the good Spirit would have returned to him.
Verse 16: Houseguests should make you merry instead of scary.
Many people have unclear consciences—and seek anything for peace—prescription drugs, excessive alcohol abuse, leaving their family behind to seek a new horizon.
All in the name of trying to regain a clear conscious.
And many have ended up in a sad state of physical, mental or spiritual health in seeking to attain peace.
Saul’s servants were so desparate for a solution to restore things “the way they were”
And that was to send for music as a help to cheer up the spirits
If only they had sent for a prophet to give him good counsel.
What friends do you often have as houseguest in your life that want what is best for them instead of you?
Do they feel safe around you to tell you the truth as they see it?
Verse 21: When you invite Godly guests-you’ll rid yourself of sinful pests.
One of his servants recommended David to him, as a fit person to be the terminator for the evil spirit
It speaks very highly of David’s character which the servant of Saul’s here gives of David --- that he was not only fit for his purpose as a talented person and skillful in playing --- but a man of courage and conduct --- to be his armor bearer.
Associating ourselves with people that God has shined upon always seems to shed light in an otherwise gloomy house
Does your house have light? Who is your houseguest?
Verse 23: Seek and you will find --- peacefulness to your mind
David’s music was Saul’s peace of mind.
Music has a natural tendency to compose and exhilarate the mind, when it is disturbed and saddened.
Elisha used it for the calming of his spirits, 2 Kings 3:15.
On some people it has a greater influence and effect than on others, and, probably, Saul was one of those.
Not that it charmed the evil spirit, but it made his spirit sedate, and dispersed the roaring of its evilness --- that rear it’s ugly head in our lives by which the devil had advantage against him.
It is written that “The beams of the sun cannot be cut with a sword, quenched with water, or blown out with wind --- but, by simply closing the window-shutters, they may be kept out of ones house.”
David was sent to open the shutters of Saul’s mind and heart to peace--Is your house’s shutters open? How often?
Music cannot work upon the devil, but it may shut up the passages by which he has access to the mind.
Listening to music that brings joy to the heart will surround your thoughts with a theme of gladness and praise
Music of praise and worship, classical music, soft music—music to which you can hear the notes that form chords that form harmony rather than words that accompany them
If you’re tired of things that have set themselves up in your life as "house guests", it may be time to send them packing.
Kicking Out Your Unwanted Houseguest
1. Realize that Christ has victory over Satan (Hebrews 2:14)
2. Recognize the power of Christ can have in your life
(1 John 4:4)
3. Resist Satan’s temptations (James 4:7)
4. Enforce the Make My Day Law – spiritual warfare (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
What does Jesus see when He enters your house? What things in your house have affected your life? What rooms in your house to you hide junk in? Has anything become an overextended house guest?
----THIS IS MY VIEWPOINT----ASK CONGREGATION TO IMAGINE WHAT JESUS SEES AS HE ENTERS THEIR HOUSE ----- AS YOU TELL YOUR ENCOUNTER-----THIS CAN BE POWERFUL!
This is what he sees when he comes into my home to see how my house has affected my life...
As soon as Jesus enters through my front door and past the entry way, He finds the Study - books in your bookcase, the magazines on your table. Lots of videos – most of them from my Disney collection. Some books were about discipleship from my previous days of study.
He looks at me and says:
“Of which did you use to occupy your child when they were young and impressionable?” Disney or Discipleship?"
No one watches the Disney video tapes any more, they just collect dust -- having no lasting value
And then He said to me: “what could have been better…will still be good, what still is good, can be better…”
and then He moved to the Living Room. As he glances around, he sees my fireplace, sofa, comfortable room with a warm atmosphere
He says to me: "Indeed, we have had many good talks here - late nights when all where asleep in their beds - no distractions around."
"Our friendship deepened as I revealed the truth behind the scriptures to you. However, many pressures and responsibilities little by little decrease the time we spend."
"Many times I’ve sat in the living room waiting for you only to see you either rush by or doze off in your chair while watching television."
After realizing what I had done to the guest in my house, He told me a profound statement: “The trouble is that you have been thinking of time with me as a Bible Study—learning great truth behind the Scriptures, offering up to Me prayers of supplication and healing for people that you know and care about --- all the while, trying to grow spiritually in faith."
"But you have forgotten that this time means something to Me also. Remember, I love you---at a great cost---I redeemed you — to have fellowship with Me and My Father — I value your fellowship."
"Just to have you look up into My face warms my heart. Don’t neglect time if only for My sake”, He said, “Whether or not you want to be with Me — remember — I want to be with you — because I love you, for who you are through Me and not just what you do for Me.”
"The times you are faithless, My faith remains in you —for I cannot be faithless unto myself."
Soon after that, he moves down the hallway toward my bedroom...
He stopped at briefly at my youngest daughter’s bedroom and peeked in while passing, while saying slightly under his breath — “Train up a child in the way he should go in truth, and when they are older, they will return to it."
He smiled when he saw her newly purchased drum set her grandmother had spotted for her at a garage sale and then said, “Let us make a joyful noise unto the Father”
He glanced around my oldest daughters room at her school mementos, her posters and smiled when he came He saw that she had posted scriptures around her room randomly to remind her of the truth and how to seek Him
He turned slightly to me and nodded with approval as if to say “well done”
He continued down the hall and I showed him me and my wife’s master bedroom
He looked it over and said to me, “blessed is the man who finds a good wife, for it is as a crown upon his head”
And as He turned around to leave the bedroom, he glanced at the 27” TV on top of our dresser and then looked into my eyes
Then He gently reminded me, “He who finds rest in Me, will not be disappointed, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light — remember to seek the rest frequently to balance out your service in life and unto Me."
"Learn what is true, what is pure and what is lasting, for nothing lasts forever — behold I will make all things new to those who endure to the end".
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If you are waiting for a special house guest or a special occasion to use something you cherish in your house, consider the following following article by Ann Wells that appeared several years ago in the Los Angeles Times:
ILLUSTRATION: A SPECIAL OCCASION
My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister’s bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie."
He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached.
"Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, guess this is the occasion."
He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician.
His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. "Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you’re alive is a special occasion."
I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death.
I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the Midwestern town where my sister’s family lives.
I thought about all the things that she hadn’t seen or heard or done.
I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special.
I’m still thinking about his words, and they’ve changed my life.
I’m reading more and dusting less. I’m sitting on the deck and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden.
I’m spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings.
Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savor, not endure. I’m trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.
I’m not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event-such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom.
I wear my good blazer to the market if I feel like it. I’m not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends.
"Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.
I’m not sure what my sister would have done had she known that she wouldn’t be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted.
I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles.
I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food. I’m guessing-I’ll never know.
It’s those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited.
Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with-someday.
Angry because I hadn’t written certain letters that I intended to write-one of these days.
Angry and sorry that I didn’t tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.
I’m trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives.
And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that the day is special. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is ...a gift from God.
Life is a precious gift from God, and he wants us to get the most out of it. Jesus came to give us life "to the full and abundantly" (John 10:10).
In other words, he came so that we would live our lives abundantly-full of purpose, meaning, and joy.
What are you waiting for? If it’s a special occasion or a "someday,"--- keep in mind that it may never come.
Is it time to invite someone as a houseguest?
Who’s been in your house? Your heart?
CLOSING:
Where is Jesus in your house?
Does He visit often, or just when you call him?
Is your house a condo that Jesus visits…good for just the weekend, and has to check out by noon on Sunday?
Has your house become so filled with the things of this world, that there is no room for Him to walk or reside as your houseguest?
Stumbling over things you have accumulated that prevent you from having true fellowship with the Master?
Or do you have a special room in your house just for Him, so he’ll “be out of every ones way?”--- Or can He walk freely and enjoy your home with your presence.
Jesus the key to your front door to come in any time He chooses to visit, perhaps today is the day to trust Him to do that
Perhaps you may need to come up today to the altar and surrender your home and take a key as a reminder for you that He has a permanent place in your life—as your houseguest
If that is your decision, then I would challenge you to come today—perhaps to the altar, or even the cross.
For some of you today, you’ve felt Jesus knocking at your door, but where afraid to answer it.
Afraid that He would be an unwelcome houseguest—to come in and point at all the stains and damage that your house has had from a life of neglect and living for yourself
You’ve tried to ignore the knocking, but only find that He wants in your life so much, that when you peek through your door, you can see the nail scarred hand that knocks upon the door that he received for you
Today, He wants to become your houseguest, to have supper with you, to have fellowship with you and to show you how much He loves you by giving your house a total makeover (Revelation 3:20)
Will you open the door? Will you take that step?
If that is you today, I would ask that you come up today and speak with one of our counselors who is waiting with anticipation in leading you to the Kingdom of Heaven to meet the King of Kings.
And for a few of you, you’re ready for that step of discipleship, to where you give Jesus the deed to your house
Not just to visit any time He chooses, but that you become the houseguest in His house that you surrender Will you take that step of faith?
Who’s in your house, today?
