Sermon snippet – Home Is Where God Has Placed Us
INTRODUCTION – We have spent the last nineteen weeks thinking about heaven, and it has been time well spent. Heaven is our eternal home if, of course, our faith is in Jesus. Our homes are important here, as well. First, the reality of a heavenly home provides the framework for our appreciation of the concept of home as a place of blessing, and belonging. Second, God has settled each of us in a home (and homeland), and He even provides that which is good. Third, God’s Word speaks about home and the family as the foundation of a well-built society. Let us briefly consider a few of the many passages which touch upon this subject.
- HOME IS A PLACE OF PRECIOUS MEMORIES
I know that for some people home does not have positive associations, and I am sorry for anyone who has been robbed of the good memories that God wants us to enjoy. Even in this wide and wicked world of sin, many of us have found remembrances of things past, including the old homestead. In II Samuel 23:15, David yearns for a drink of water from a well in Bethlehem, his hometown. I visit our family spring regularly on land we have owned for 300 years, and I cannot imagine the sorrow of seeing it taken away by foreign invaders like the Philistines (verse 14). I also cannot imagine being king; I would much prefer to be a shepherd as David had been in his youth in Bethlehem. The memories of his childhood home were important to David – important enough to fight for. The rest of this brief account (verses 16-17) shows both his men and David at their best, the soldiers risking their lives for their king, and David offering the water to the King as a sacrifice. Of such things are powerful and precious memories made. Certainly our Lord employs the good things in our past to encourage us now.
- HOME IS A PLACE OF PRESENT PLEASANTNESS
During a civil war, an older man named Barzillai remained loyal and helpful to David, who wanted to reward this godly elder by installing him at the palace in Jerusalem. Barzillai’s response in II Samuel 19:34-37 reveals a man uninterested in reward and promotion but deeply content with his present situation. His connection to his home was a major source of joy to him, and David, with his own love for his native Bethlehem, respected Barzillai’s desire to stay in Gilead. May our homes likewise be places of refuge, and may we be content in the places He has graciously granted us.
- HOME IS A PLCE OF FUTURE EXPECTATIONS
We anticipate good times and good things in our homes, for God is good (James 1:17). In Psalm 137:1-6, we read the lament of the people of Israel in captivity, sustained by God’s promise that they would one day return home. Until the day that Jesus returns for us, we can have a godly expectation of blessings here in our homes. Of course, one of those expectations is the certainty of His return.
CONCLUSION – II Chronicles 7:14 is a specific promise to Israel, but the principle applies to us. We love both home and homeland, and the two are obviously and inextricably joined. Let us be the people who perceive what is most crucial and pray for God’s goodness to be poured out upon us. Remember that, if even one godly person had been found in Jerusalem, the entire nation would have been spared judgment and captivity (Jeremiah 5:1). In both home and homeland, be that one.