My Father’s House
By Pastor Jim May
Many years ago there was a movie produced that bore the title, “The Wizard of Oz”. Now I don’t believe that we should be honoring wizards, and I certainly don’t promote Hollywood and the movie industry as a shining example of righteousness, but I see in that story a little bit of what we all face in life.
When man fell in the Garden of Eden and was cast out, and lost that place of perfect peace with God, I can just imagine what went through Adam’s mind as he looked at the world of sin where he had been sent and he could well have said, “We aren’t in Kansas anymore, Eve.” (I guess, depending upon how much you like that area of the world, he could have said, “Well, I guess we’re in Kansas, Eve.) But seriously though, Adam, and every man since Adam, has had to face the powers of evil as he walked through life. Everywhere you look there are scarecrows, men who attempt to rule by fear and very few of them ever turn out to be very friendly. Every where you look it seems that there is a “tin man”, a man without a heart, who cares about no one, nor anything, other than himself.
Do we face the lions? Oh yes, we certainly do. There are two great lions in my life. Maybe someday I should preach about those two lions more in detail. One of those lions is Satan; the devil, who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But thank God for the other “Lion” in my life, for He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the symbol of the power and majesty of my Lord Jesus Christ.
At the end of that movie, after Dorothy had traveled the long, hard and dangerous journey with the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion, she finally discovered a wonderful truth and said, “There’s no place like home.”
That’s what I want to talk to you about today; I want to tell you that there’s no place like home. I want to welcome you home. I want to welcome you to my Father’s house.
There’s an old chorus that says, “Come and go with me to my Father’s House, where there’s peace, there’s love and there’s joy!” I like that chorus because it always brings to my remembrance just what I can find in my Father’s House. It reminds me that, in my Father’s House, is where I want to be.
When we were living in sin, chasing after the things of this world, and giving God little or no thought, there was no real peace. Oh we might have had a little cease fire in the battles of life every once in a while, but there was no lasting peace.
A wise man by the name of Job knew what he was talking about from personal experience when he wrote those words in Job 14:1, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." But peace doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of trouble does it?
We often think of peace as a time when no is going wrong, when the kids aren’t feuding, all the family is speaking calmly to one another, things are going right at the job, and there’s no fighting going on in the world. But how many of you know that you can have all those things and still not be at peace with yourself? While a part of peace may be determined by what is going on in the world around you, the biggest part of peace will always be determined by what’s going on inside of you.
Real peace can only come when we are right with God. He is the source of real peace. Jesus said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
The kind of peace that I can feel in my Father’s House is a peace that is there even when everything around me seems to be going wrong. After the boss has given us a hard time all day long, we can still lay our head down at night and rest in the peace that Jesus gives. There may not be peace in the home. There will be no peace in this world. But you can have peace in your heart when you live in My Father’s House.
There is a song that I always loved to hear. It always seemed to be such an encouragement. I went like this:
When my soul was disturbed with sorrow,
When my heart was burdened with sin;
Jesus opened His arms of mercy,
And He tenderly took me in.
There is peace in the time of trouble,
There is peace in the midst of a storm;
There is peace though the world be raging,
In the shelter of His arms.
There are storms that we all encounter,
Do not fear they will do you no harm;
In the Lord you will find protection,
In the shelter of His arms.
Is your life lacking peace today? Do you need the Prince of Peace to come into your heart and live? Do you have peace, even in the midst of the storm? Real peace can be found in my Father’s House, so come and go with me to my Father’s House.
I look around the congregation and I can see that not everyone who came in those doors this morning is happy. In fact, most of the time it looks like some of us have been eating nails for breakfast because we are still spitting out the tacks and nailing people every time they speak to us. We eat briars for breakfast, razor blades for lunch and cockleburs for dinner, and we wind up being very prickly and abrasive to everyone we are around. Maybe we are happy, but we don’t want anyone else to know it.
Happiness comes when life is treating you well. Is everything looking up for you? Are your bills all paid, your pantry full, your kids all saved, your dog smiles when you look at it, and your boss pats you on the back thanking you for the fine job you are doing every time you walk in the office?
But happiness is a fleeting thing. One wrong look, a wrong word or the least little thing and happiness vanishes like smoke in the winds of adversity. If my job is going right, and my car isn’t giving me any problems, I’m happy; if not then I’m not happy. If my wife has dinner ready when I am ready to eat, I’m happy; if not, then I’m not happy. If your husband takes out the trash, you’re happy; if not, then nobody’s happy. Happiness is a state of the mind and its often controlled by the conditions that affect this body of flesh with all of its feelings, senses, desires and needs. I like being happy.
My mother is here this morning and she always had a real profound saying. She said, “I’d rather be happy than sad any day of the week.” I agree with her. But no matter how much I try to be like old Abe Lincoln said, and make up my mind to be happy, it just doesn’t work, and I’m not always happy.
But happiness isn’t joy. They are two different things. Happiness depends upon the things that are affecting the flesh, but joy is founded in the soul. Joy comes by knowing who you are, what you are, where you are and where you are going. Joy comes by knowing that all is well with your soul and that Jesus is your Lord. Joy comes from within the heart, not the mind.
The little chorus says, “I’ve got joy like a river. I’ve got joy like a river. I’ve got joy like a river in my soul.” You can’t say I’ve got happiness like a river because happiness isn’t much more than a trickle that stops trickling from time to time. But joy comes from the wellspring of life that arises in your soul and flows from a never-ending source. That source is the Joy of the Lord in your heart and soul and it can only be there when you dwell in my Father’s House.
Are you having trouble serving the Lord and keeping that old sin nature on the inside of you under control? Are you constantly falling into the devil’s traps and losing the battles to temptation? If so, then you need to have more JOY!
Why do I say that? I say it because Nehemiah 8:10 says, "… Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
You came to the right place this morning if you need joy. I’m not talking about this building, even though that can be a part of it too. I’m talking about being in the place where Jesus can touch your heart and life and make a change in you.
Jesus is there, waiting, knocking, and asking you to let Him come in and give you joy. When you let Him into your heart, He will move in, set up His dwelling place inside of you and then begin to change your heart to be more like Him. He turns your whole being into His house and you become a part of My Father’s House.
1 Corinthians 6:19, "… know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
Then there’s a really wonderful thing that can be found in my Father’s House. It’s a wonderful thing called “LOVE”.
Mankind tries to describe love in many ways. Years ago there was an old song titled, “Love is a many Splendored Thing”. That sounds good if you know what "splendored" means. I can’t find that word in the dictionary. I can find splendid, splendiferous, and splendor, but not splendored. Of course we all can really understand what the song is trying to say. Love is a wonderful thing, a glorious thing and a magnificent thing.
Of course mankind’s definition of love can get really wild sometimes.
Men, what would your wife say if you walked up to her after church and said, Baby, I love you just like I love my dog?
Sir, what would you say if your wife walked up to you, gave you a big hug and said, “Honey, I love you just like I love my new dishwasher, only not as much.”
We love our car, we love our cat, we love our house, we love our kids, we love banana pudding or chocolate cake, and we love one another. We love music, we love silence, we love to sleep, we love to go on vacation and we love to eat. Then there’s side of love that isn’t love at all, but lust, that only seeks to satisfy itself at all costs. Now how many kinds of love is that? Trying to get a grip on what love means all the time can be really confusing, can’t it?
When men speak of love, we have to make sure what kind of love they are talking about. That’s the kind of “love” that you find in the world.
But there’s a different kind of love found in my Father’s House. It’s pure love, perfect love, and love that never fails. It’s the kind of Love that only comes from God. Let me try to describe God’s Love to you and how it acts.
- God’s kind of love is kind and generous and never seeks to satisfy it’s own needs above the needs of others.
- God’s love will put up with our shortcomings for a long time without getting mad and hitting us with a frying pan, or refusing to speak to us for a while.
- God’s love doesn’t turn green with envy when my neighbor gets a new car and I’m still riding in a 1978 Volkswagen Beetle.
- God’s love doesn’t go around bragging to that same neighbor when I do get a new car, just to show them up.
- God’s love stops pride in its tracks and says, “Don’t hurt them. Remember, you’re a Child of God, so don’t act like a Child of the Devil.”
- God’s Love will give, and give and keep on giving, never expecting or desiring anything in return.
- God’s Love doesn’t believe the gossip when it comes around, and doesn’t allow us to hold our feelings on our sleeves.
- God’s love says, take the fault, even if it isn’t yours, and then don’t think of ways to get even. Just let it go, humble yourself and let God work it all out.
- God’s love also puts up with the foolishness of people, and is thankful for the opportunity to serve even when others should be doing the work.
- God’s love only accepts, or will listen to, the good things that are said and refuses to dwell on a negative report.
- God’s Love is always hopeful for the best, believing for the very best and enduring what isn’t best until the best comes, no matter how long it takes.
You can read this description of God’s Love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
Have you experienced that kind of Love? You can only experience by being in my Father’s House. It isn’t found in the world. The world doesn’t understand the true meaning of Love, but God does because He is Love. When you read about the kind of Love God has, how can we get the idea that He is a God that is just waiting with a big stick in His hand when we fail? No, God is Love, and He is just waiting for us with arms open wide and saying, “Whosoever will, come unto me”.
Can you picture Jesus standing with nail prints in His hands and feet, with eyes filled with tears of joy, and with a big smile on His face, every time one of His children comes home? There’s such a look of love and peace in His face. Jesus died so that we could have the privilege of knowing the Love of God. He is standing here this morning, waiting for all of us to come to our Father’s House where He can speak to us, and commune with us as his brothers and sisters, because we have been adopted into God’s family as His own children.
I know that if you are hearing this message right now that you are in the church building. I know that you have a heart after God. The question is, Are you really a part of My Father’s House?”
You can be in the church and still not be a part of the church. You can sit in the presence of God’s grace, mercy, peace, joy and love and still not experience it for yourself. You can be in the midst of God’s people and still not be an adopted son or daughter of God.
If that describes you this morning, why not come and go with us to our Father’s House? Why not give your heart and life to Jesus completely, without reservation, and then let Jesus move in and make you a part of His family?
In My Father’s House there is Peace.
In My Father’s House there is Joy.
In My Father’s House there is Love.
You can have it all, if you are in my Father’s House. Will you be a part of His house? Will you come to Jesus right now?
Jesus has a place for you.
John 14:1-3, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
