"In This House" By General Pastor Peter F.
Paine March 2nd,
2014
I am glad to be here; I hope you
are, too. Greetings
from Sister Debbie
Paine, Sister Hazel Davis, and our church family in
(Preacher Howard) Good morning,
everybody. First,
let me thank Malcolm
Xechariah: I made
contact with him
recently, and we were talking, and he told me about the church service
here. I told him,
“Next time Pastor
Paine is in town, let me know, and I will come to church. He called me this morning
at eight o’clock,
and I’m here. I’m
very emotional because
this is the first time I’ve been to church in quite some time. I lost my vision, but I
didn’t lose my ability
to see. I’m
working, every day, to try
to get scholarships for children, especially bright young men, to get
into the
Air Force to become pilots. I
am
responsible for this young man, Pastor Paine, helping him to get his
pilot’s
license, and we flew many hours—in fact, we circumnavigated the
Before you leave the microphone, Preacher,
I want to ask you a question: “This
is Cessna
Eight Zero November, request permission to land on runway Two Three.” (Preacher Howard) “Clear
to land, runway Two
Three.”
If that seems silly to you, we heard
that many times in his airplane, and it was sheer joy to be up there
together.
Well, I heard that you had a little
theme this month: The
House of God. When
I heard that, I thought, “Lord, would
You give me something to say that would go along with the theme this
month,
‘The House of God’?” I
think God has
done that, and I’ve got good news for you, I think that this message,
if you’ll
work with me, will preach in about ten minutes.
I think this message will preach real fast if you’ll
wok with me. I
don’t think it’s going to take too long for
us to do it, but I would like to share some words today that I feel God
laid on
my heart. When I
heard the theme, “The
House of God,” I couldn’t help but think—and I know we could talk about
Heaven,
but today, I’m going to talk about Earth.
Today, I’m going to talk to you about this house
that God has given us
right here, right now. I’m
going to talk
about what it’s like for us to live here, and for us to gather together
as
brothers and sisters—brothers of different mothers.
We get to come together, we get to worship
together, we get to live together…
What’s it like to live, here on Earth together, this
House of God;
what’s it like to live here, and to share this journey of life together. Well, Debbie and I were
travelling—my wife
Debbie and I were travelling, not too long ago, and we saw, in a hotel
gift
shop, and it says this—it’s a poster-size wall hanging—and it says, “In
this
house…”—this is something that you would hang in your home, and the
words
caught me, and so, I would like to share them with you today. It’s something that, I
thought, “You know,
that kind of describes how I feel about our house, the house that my
wife and I
live in, the house that we raised our children in,” and I thought, “You
know,
those words kind of describe how I feel about this house. They fir where we live and
how we do life;
how we do Mondays, and how we do Tuesdays, and how we do Wednesdays,
and how we
do Thursdays, and how we do Fridays, and you get the point. It’s not just Sunday, it’s
every day. And it
says this:
Families do what they do in their
house. You know,
families have different
ways of saying, “I love you.” Families
have different ways of saying, “I’m sorry.”
Families have different ways of encouraging each
other. Families
have different ways of going the
extra mile for each other, and this is the family that God gave me. Christian Fellowship is
the family that God
gave me. In 1973,
when I gave my heart
and life to Jesus Christ, this is the family that God gave me here on
Earth. I know
there’s a bigger family
that I’m going to get to meet in Heaven—the Body of Christ is
larger—but, right
here, right now, you’re my sisters and you’re my brothers. I thank you for sharing
this journey with
me. I thank you for
praying for me when
I slipped and I fell. I
thank you for
lifting me up when I needed someone to carry me.
I thank you for loving me when I felt a
little lonely, and, yes, leaders can feel lonely.
I thank you for feeding me when I was hungry. I thank you for bearing
with me when maybe I
didn’t get it right the first time.
I
also want to thank you for your love every day of the journey, and I
want to
talk to you a little bit about his house, the house of God. I thin the Scripture talks
to us about how we
do what we do. I
spent some time
thinking on this idea of the House of God, and in the House of God, we
do love,
and sometimes we do it better than others, but we do love in the House
of
God—could the church say amen? Love
goes
the extra mile, and love bears a brother’s burdens and love—anybody
need a
little love? If we
can’t get it
here… If we can’t
get it here, we might
just make the mistake of looking for it in the world.
We don’t want the world’s love.
The scripture tells us that our ways are not God’s
ways, and God’s ways are not our ways, so we need to be continually
looking to God
and saying, “What’s Your way?” The
Scriptures tell us that God is love.
You
know, Satan offers a good counterfeit of love.
Somebody say amen.
I’ve often
said for teaching purposes that if someone were making counterfeit
bills, what
would they want them to look like? real dollar bills.
See, Satan has a counterfeit love, and it
looks like the real thing, and, for a short period of time, it might
even feel
like the real thing. Is
it okay to
preach today? Is it
okay to preach? You
see, we do love in this house. The
Bible said to weep with those that weep,
in Romans 12:15, and rejoice with those that rejoice.
When we weep with those that weep, and we
rejoice with those that rejoice, you see we go through the journey of
life
together.
We talk about our sister Christine
today; it’s altogether fitting and proper that we do so, because
Christine went
home to be with the Lord a week ago today, and her home-going service
was
yesterday. Christine
is a very special
part of this family. Did
I say, “was?” I
meant “is.” I
didn’t say was, because I
didn’t mean was; I said is, because I meant is.
Christine is
a very important part of this family.
Let the church say amen.
I heard person after person, yesterday, at
the funeral service for Christine Joyce Schultz, say, “She was like a
mother to
me.” You see, in
this house, we need
some motherly love. Some
of you know a
little but about my story; I lost my mother when I was young—she didn’t
die
when I was young, but she went to a nursing home when I was ten years
old and
so I didn’t have her influence in the home, and there were some other
people
who helped. That’s
what we do in this
family, isn’t it? We
help each other, we
fill in the gaps, don’t we? We
help each
other. Maybe you’re
a big brother for
someone who needs a big brother. Maybe
you’re a big sister for someone who need a big sister.
Maybe you’re a mother for someone who—come
on. Maybe you’re a
father for someone
who needs a father figure. You
might not
be able to be their natural father here on the earth, but you can be a
father
figure, amen? We
can do love in this
house. I’m going to
say it plain as I
know how to say it today, we can do love better in this house. I’m asking every one of us
to ask, “How can I
do love better, God? How
can I go the
extra mile? How can
I be a better
example? How can I
lift my brother or my
sister up in prayer? How
can I forgive
better when they slip and fall?” We
do
love in our house, and you know what else we do in the House of God? we
go the
extra mile. Sometimes
it’s not fair,
it’s just the way it is. Sometimes
it’s
not fair, it’s just the way it is.
You
know, when I was a young boy, sometimes I would say to my dad, “It’s
not
fair.” And he said,
“It’s not always
going to be fair, Peter. Get
used to not
fair.” My dad would
say to me, “Peter
get used to not fair, because not fair’s a good thing to get used to
because
it’s not always going to be fair.”
He
said, “Let me tell you something, son…” and my dad said it to me in the
most
loving way possible, so when I say it to you, “Let me tell you
something, son…”
it wasn’t mean, it wasn’t condescending, it was like, “I want you to
get this,
because you need to get this.” He
said,
“…but sometimes your life is better than fair.”
You know what?
In the House of
God, sometimes is all the time, because you know what we got here is
better
than fair. You
can’t buy this with
money. Somebody say
amen. What we’ve
got in the House of God is a gift,
and it’s more precious than silver or gold.
It’s more precious than silver or gold.
You can’t buy it with money, but you can give it
away. You know
what’s the nice thing about how we
do love in the House of God? the more you give, the more you get. The more you give, the
more you’ve got. You
know what? we’ve been loved into this
family. We’ve been
loved into this
family. I’ve been
hugged by mothers in
this church when I needed a motherly hug.
I’ve been hugged by brothers in this church when I
needed a brotherly
hug. I’ve been
corrected by elders in
this church when I needed a correction.
That’s what we do here, we do love.
I’m going to ask a question, and
this is really just a question to see if you’re paying attention, how
many here
have ever slipped and fallen and needed someone to help you get up? I’m raising both my hands
and both my
feet. That’s what
love’s about in the
House of God. Amen? Anybody here perfect? Come on up; help me preach. Anybody here perfect? Of course we’re not
perfect; we’re
people. Amen? We’re people.
In the House of God, we need each other, because
sometimes I’ll be
strong when you’re weak. Sometimes
you’ll be strong when I’m weak. If
we’ll
stay together—Hello?—we’ll stay strong.
We need each other.
So, in the
House of God, we do love, but, you know, that’s not all. In the House of God, we do
correction. Yeah,
we do correction. You
know what? love corrects. Loves
Corrects. Amen?
Amen? Preacher
Howard, you can’t
fly from point A to pint B without constant corrections. You can’t live a life from
point A to pint B
without constant corrections. Apostle
Paul
was writing to the church in Galatians
6:1 Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual...
…kick them while they’re down,
because that’s when it’s easy to get them!
No, he didn’t, he said: Galatians
6:1 Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of…
Say it with me:
Meekness.
And then he goes on to say: Galatians
6:1 …
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Let’s take that verse from the back
to the front for a minute. Maybe
I was
wrong; maybe this won’t be preached in ten minutes.
It might take twelve.
Here we go, from the back to the front: Consider yourself, because
you could be
tempted the same way. When
you see your
brother overtaken in a fault, consider yourself, because you could be
there,
too. Be careful how
you judge. Be
careful—somebody once said to me, Matthew
7:1 says, “Judge not…” but it goes onto say, “For with what judgment ye
judge,
ye shall be judged…” (Matthew 7:2)
That’s what this verse is saying.
Consider yourself.
You ever need
forgiveness? You
ever need someone’s
confidence? You
ever need someone’s help
without judgment? You
ever need someone
to help you? Good
God Almighty, I’ve
been a Christian for a long time; you think I haven’t needed a lot of
help? “You’re the
General Pastor! You
never made a mistake!” You
haven’t been around me much. I’ve
only been up about four hours, today;
I’ve made several already. You
want to
know what they are? (The congregation called out, “No.”) Good.
We do love in this house, and we do
correction. Let’s
say it again. Help
me start the verse. “Brethren…”
I’ll turn to it.
“Brethren, if a
man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an
one in the
spirit of meekness...”
How you doing on that?
How you
doing on that? Especially—watch
this: I’m one of
six children. I
would like to tell you that every day of my
childhood, from the time I was born until I went into the military at
age
eighteen, that I liked my brothers and my sister, but any of you who
have
siblings know that’s not true. There’s
moments you don’t like your siblings.
So, can I talk a little plain here, to the family? Sometimes you’re not going
to like your sister
or your brother, because we’re family, and that’s what happens. I said to my twin brother
one time, we were eight
or nine, something like that, and we were just having a kind of a
brotherly
squabble, I said, “I hate you, Paul,” and he said, “Good, because I
hate
you.” I said, “I
hate you more,” and he
said, “You can’t because I hate you the most.”
We had that kind of a thing going on.
The other day I texted Paul, and I said, “I love
you, Paul,” and he
texted back, “I love you, too, Pete.”
By
the way, next month, I’ll be sixty years old; we’re twin brothers. He’s eight minutes younger
than I am. He’s
already told me, “You know, for eight minutes,
I’ll be in my fifties, and you’ll be in your sixties.”
He said, “I’m going to text you every minute
of those eight minutes, and tell you how good it is to be young.” I texted him back, and
said, “I love you, Paul.”
You see, we
need to do correction, but
we need to do in the spirit of what? Meekness.
Why? considering thyself also, lest thou also be
tempted. You see,
that’s what we do in the House of
God. And the better
we get at it, the
better we get at God using us, amen?
Another
thing that we do in the House of God is we bear one another’s burdens. Now it’s verse two of
Galatians. Apostle
Paul said, Galatians
6:2 Bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law
of Christ.
In
the
House of God, sometimes we’ve got to bear one another’s burdens. You see, you didn’t get
the burden, you
didn’t create the burden, it wasn’t delivered to you, it didn’t he your
address
on it, but somehow, someway it came to your sister or your brother, and
yet,
come on, in the House of God, we bear one another’s burdens. We bear one another’s
burdens. If you’re
not willing to do that, you’re in
the wrong house. Did
I say get out? No,
I said, get in. I’m
not saying get out,
I’m saying get in, but get in with the right spirit that that’s just
the way
it’s going to be. If
you need a quid pro
quo (or however you say that—I’m not an attorney), then you need to
know
this: Sometimes you
need your burdens
beared. I know
that’s not good English,
but it’s a great message. Sometimes
you
need your burdens beared. Sometimes
you need
a brother or sister to come up and say, “Let me help you carry that. Let me help you carry
that.” It’s all
right, somebody say amen. “Let
me help you carry that, sister. Let
me help you carry that, brother.”
Come on.
That’s what we do in the House of God, we bear one
another’s burdens.
Now,
if you’re thinking that just leads to a sloppy house, did you not just
hear me
say that we do correction in the House of God?
It’s not sloppy to bear one another’s burdens. It’s spiritual to bear one
anther’s
burdens.
Something
else we do in the House of God, we do humility.
We do humility in the House of God.
Before I read Galatians 6:3, I want to give you an
example of
humility. How many
of you know that brother
Kirk Orelup was out of the country recently?
What most of you probably don’t know is that he
represented me, as the
general pastor, and our whole ministry in the island nation of
Let
me tell you something else we do in the House of God:
We do responsibility.
I didn’t read Galatians 6:3, but you can read
it. Now we’re going
to go to responsibility. In
Galatians chapter 6, the fourth and fifth
verse, we read these words: Galatians
6:4-5
But
let every man prove his own work...
You
see, you’ve got a work to do, and you’ve got to prove it. The word prove isn’t used
very often in the
Bible. It’s used in
Malachi 3:10. There’s
a chance we get to prove God. Here’s
a chance, in Galatians 6:4, where we
get to prove our own works, where we get a chance to day, “God, I’m
going to
live up to Your expectation of me.
God,
I’m going to do what You’d…” Remember
the parable of the talents in Matthew 25?
Here’s a chance for you to prove what God has
entrusted to you was
entrusted properly. You
get a chance to
prove that. Galatians
6:4-5
But
let every man prove…
And
there’s no gender there on that one, ladies. Galatians
6:4-5
But
let every man prove his own work, and then shall
he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another...
It’s
not enough just to be part of a good family, you need to make the
family that
you’re a part of good. I’ll
say that
again: It’s not
enough just to be part
of a good family, you need to make the family that you’re a part of
good. Amen?
Are you making this family the family that God wants
it to be, or are
you coming every day with your hand out?
I’m not putting you down; I’m not criticizing, I’m
just asking us all to
just ask the question, “How can I do better, lord?”
Amen?
Amen? We
do responsibility in
this house.
Look
at Matthew 5:16 where Jesus said, “(verse 14)Ye are the
light of the world …(verse 16) Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify
your Father which is in heaven.” In this house, we do light. It’s part of our
responsibility. You
ever wake up in a dark room and you
weren’t familiar with it? Maybe
you’d
been travelling, maybe you were… You
ever wake up in a dark room and you weren’t sure where something was at? You know, we’re the light
of the world; we
show people where things are at. What
we’re showing them is where the answer is.
Where’s Jesus in this picture?
Where’s Jesus in this picture?
Hello? When
you’re the light of
the world, you get to be an example, but they’re not looking at you. You see, when you’re on a
ship at sea, and
you’re looking for safe harbor, you’re looking for a lighthouse. When you get there, you
don’t tie your ship
to the lighthouse, because what you were looking for was safe harbor,
because
that’s what that lighthouse represents.
We’re not the light of the world so that people can
come to us; we’re
the light of the world so that people can come to Jesus. Amen?
Amen? So,
we do responsibility in
the House of God
Let
me tell you something else we do in the House of God:
We do forgiveness.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 14 and 15.
Now, the Lord just got done teaching the
Lord’s Prayer, didn’t He? The
first
thing that he thinks it’s important to highlight, right after He
teaches us to
pray—and I would like to suggest to you, that when I read the Lord’s
Prayer, I
think of it more as a how-to-live than how-to-pray.
I’ll say that again:
When I read what we call the Lord’s Prayer in
Matthew, I think of it more as a way to live than how to pray. It is a way to pray, but I
think, even more
so, it’s a way to live. So
let’s look at
what he says: Matthew
6:14-15
For
if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses...
You
say, “Pastor, you preached on that before.
In fact, I think you preach on that too much.” No, I think I don’t preach
on it quite
enough, and I’ll tell you why: Because
it’s an everyday challenge for us to do it, and it’s the devil’s
playground if
we don’t get it right. The
devil can
beat us with that stick until we’re beyond repair if we don’t get it
right. If we get to
the place where we
don’t forgive, we put ourself in a prison that has no key. I’m telling you that the
hardest things that
I’ve had to forgive in my life, when I finally got around to doing it
right,
set me free more than it did anyone else.
You say, “Well, that’s a selfish way to look at it.” Maybe.
I would prefer to think of it as the survival way to
look at it, or even
the correct way to look at it. Jesus
said it like this—don’t listen to how I’m saying it, listen to how
Christ said
it: Matthew
6:14-15
For
if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
(verse
15)
But if ye
forgive not men their trespasses…
Good
God Almighty. How
about we all get pen
and just scratch verse 15 out, and we’ll
just go fourteen to sixteen. What
do you
think? It won’t
matter come judgment,
because the lord will say, “I didn’t scratch it out.
You did.”
Let’s read verse 15:
Matthew
6:15 But
if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
Good
God Almighty. Whoa! See, somebody came to
church today, and maybe
you’ve got just one more thing to forgive, but you’re thinking, “They
just
don’t deserve it.” That’s
okay. That’s okay.
It’s not about whether they deserve it, it’s about
whether you want to
be in this house. When
we talk about the
House of God, I’m not talking about the walls of this building, I’m
talking
about this family on earth that’s going to be the family in Heaven. Hello?
There’s probably not a person in this room—there’s
probably not a person
in this room; I know there’s some young people here, so—there’s
probably not an
adult in this room that doesn’t have something big that was hard for
you to
forgive. Maybe
there’s an adult in this
room that you haven’t come over that hurdle yet.
Come over it today; get it behind you. Quit holding a grudge that
doesn’t
matter. Quit
holding a grudge that
doesn’t matter. Hello? Hello?
Some of you re holding a grudge because you think
you’re going to hurt
the person that you’re holding the grudge against, and all you’re
really doing
is hurting yourself for holding on to it.
I’ve drank that poison in my life—I’ve spent a few
days and weeks and
months and even years saying, “really?
Do I have to forgive this?
Do I
have to let this go?” You
say, “(gasp!)
You? Why would I
listen to you?” Because
I’m here, and you’re here, and this
is the Word of God, it’s not the Word of Pete.
If you’re here today, and you’ve got to lay it down,
you’ve got to let
that grudge go, let it go. let
it go;
that’s what we do in the House of God.
Finally say, “God, You know what? this is Yours, not
mine.” Some of you
have got some great big hurts,
and you might think when I’m saying that, that I don’t know how big the
hurts
are. That’s true, I
don’t, but God
does. Hello? “You don’t know how wrong
she did me.” “You
don’t know how wrong he did me.” “You
don’t know how wrong they did me.”
I may never know.
I may never know your pain.
I may never be able to sit with you in a way
that I will understand your pain, but guess who does?
God Almighty.
And, by the way, any story you’ve got to tell—did
you ever hear somebody
that always wants to tell a bigger story than the one you just
told?—any story
you’ve got to tell about how hard it is for you to do what you got to
do in
forgiveness, listen to Jesus’ story.
Hello? Hello? Listen to the story of
Jesus Christ, and then
tell Him that you’ve got something to talk about; then tell Him that
you’ve got
something to complain about; then tell Him that somebody did you wrong. Huh?
He was beaten, He willingly shed His blood for your
sins; He was falsely
accused—He was the spotless lamb that was led to slaughter, willingly, for your sins, for my sins. Yeah, in the House of God,
we do forgiveness.
You
know what we don’t do in the House of God? we don’t do excuses. We don’t do excuses in the
House of God. 1
Corinthians 10:13 There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above
that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape, that
ye may be able to bear it.
Yep,
in the House of God, we don’t do excuses.
We take accountability, responsibility, and we
understand that God is
with us every step of the way unless we ask Him to turn His back while
we walk
away. I heard
someone say once that
Jesus is a gentleman, He won’t come where He’s not invited. When you have a temptation
in your life,
that’s the time to invite Jesus in.
That’s the time to invite Jesus in.
When you have a temptation in your life, that’s the
time to invite Jesus
in. I’m going to
share that verse again: 1
Corinthians 10:13 There
hath no temptation taken...
It
didn’t talk about someone else. “There
has no temptation taken you. Put your name there. 1
Corinthians 10:13 There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man...
You’re
not the only person who ever suffered that temptation.
“But you don’t understand!”
I’m not making fun when I say that.
I’m trying to help you understand that Jesus
understands. He
does understand. That
verse tells us He’s faithful, and He’ll
provide a way to escape. So,
in the
House of God, we don’t do excuses.
I’m
going to close with this: In
the House
of God, we do invitations. There’s
people out there that don’t know the Lord and Savior.
Stop thinking that the work is done because
you’ve accepted Him. Stop
thinking that
the work is done because your name’s written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. There’s people around us
that are going to
Hell, saints. There’s
people that you
know, there’s people in your family, there’s people in my family,
there’s
coworkers you have, there’s neighbors you have, that will go straight
to Hell
if they don’t get this invitation and accept it.
You say, “Well, I told them I was a
Christian.” I had a
lot of people tell
me they were Christians before I accepted Christ, but, one day someone
sat down
with me and said, “Can I show you what the Bible says?
It says that Jesus Christ is the Lord and
Savior, that it’s his name—Acts 4:12 says there is none other name
given under
Heaven whereby we must be saved.”
Then I
heard this simple invitation in John 3:16:
“For God so
loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have
everlasting life.” Have
you believed
in Jesus Christ? “I
believe that there’s
a God.” Do you have
a relationship with
Jesus Christ? How
do you take on the
name of Jesus Christ? If
my memory
serves me right, last time I was here, Justin did it.
It’s in Romans chapter 6:
Buried with Him in baptism, raised to walk in
newness of life (Romans 6:4). Amen? “Oh, pastor, don’t tell me
about baptism
again; you make too big of a deal about it.”
Blame Jesus. Blame
Jesus for
that, because He’s the One Who said, “Go
ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I
have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the
world. Amen.” That’s
what He
said, and when peter, and those that were with him, in the second
chapter of
the Book of Acts, they did exactly that.
Someone told me just the other day—I had a long
discussion with an
individual, this last Thursday, and he said, “In Acts 2;38, ‘name’
means
authority, it doesn’t mean name. I
said,
“Let’s see if that’s true.” We
went to
the concordance, and the concordance tells us that the root word for
name in
Acts 2:38 is ‘onoma’ and onoma is a proper noun; it means, name. I told him, I didn’t
search the word name in
every place in all of Scripture; there may be a place where it means
authority. I’m
going to go do that this
week; I’m going to take some time and I’m going to take the
concordance, and
somebody might even help me do that, but I’m going to look, and maybe
there’s a
place where name means authority, because that makes sense. He said, “It’s like,
‘Stop, in the name of
the law!’ Law isn’t
a name, it’s the
authority of the law.” I
said, “That’s a
great, and interesting, analogy, except for name means name.” You know, when I check
into a hotel, and they
ask me, “What’s your name?” and I say, “Well, I’m a father!” They say, “Okay, but
what’s your name?” and I
say, “I’m a son!” They
say, “Okay, but
what’s your name?” and I say, “I have
spirit!” They
say, “Okay, but we
want to see if we have a room for you, can you tell me your name?” I can say, “I’m here in
the authority of…”
and they say, “What’s your name?”
Name
means name, and, by the way, water means water.
It’s worthy of doing some study.
So
I’ll close with this: The
House of God
isn’t just for those of us who are here; it’s for whosoever will. So, if we’re really going
to be the House of
God here on Earth. You
remember the
Lord’s Prayer, He said, “Our
Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done…”
Where?
“…in earth, as it is in heaven.…” You see, if we’re going to
be the House of
God on Earth as it is in heaven, we’re going to have to do some things
right. No, I’m not
talking about works;
I know we’re not saved by works. I’m
not
preaching the law; I’m preaching love.
If we’re going to be the House of God, we’re going
to love people into
it. So let’s get
better at that. And,
yes, I’m pointing at me when I share
that. I didn’t come
here to do anything
other than to say to you that I’m going to try to do my best to better
every
day, to do better at that. I
got a very encouraging
text message today; it’s from my brother Gary, who’s a year older than
Paul and
I. I had the
privilege to share the
Gospel with
I’m
going to tell a story; I just feel it laid on my heart to do it. I went in the Navy in
1972, and a few weeks
after I went to basic training, my father said to me in a letter, he
said,
“Peter, it’s interesting…”—I grew up in a small neighborhood in a rural
area
not too far from Pittsburgh, and in the neighborhood I grew up in, in
fact,
there wasn’t a key for our front door.
The doorknob on our front door didn’t have a key, it
was just the kind
of knob that you would have on the inside of your house. We didn’t have a key on
the front door of our
house. So, we just
never locked the
house. We couldn’t
lock the house. I
suppose we could have afforded a doorknob
that had a key, it just never seemed to be purpose for it. My dad wrote me a letter,
and he said, “I
came home the other day, and four of your friends were on the couch,
and they
were watching the game on the TV in the family room.
I came in, and I said, ‘Hey, guys, you know
Pete’s gone; he’s in the Navy, right?’ and they said, ‘Yeah, Mr. Paine,
we know
that, but this always felt like our house.’”
Does this feel like your house?
Is it the kind of house you want others to come to,
not just to see you,
but because they know that it’s their house to?
God
bless you. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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