How to Share Your Home
Home. One’s own dwelling place. The habitual abode of one’s family. The abiding place of affections. A place of refuge, rest, or care. One’s native land. The eternal dwelling place of the soul.
A house is not a home
A man’s home is his castle
Bring home the bacon
Broken home
Charity begins at home
Close to home
Come home to roost
Don’t try this at home
Drive your point home
East, west, home’s best
Eaten out of house and home
ET, phone home
Feel at home
Go home in a box
Hammer it home
Happy home
Hearth and home
Home alone
Home and dry
Home away from home
Home for the holidays
Home free
Home front
Home grown
Home improvement
Home is where the heart is
Home is wherever I lay my hat
Home maker
Home remedy
Home run
Home stretch
Home sweet home
Home team
Home, home on the range
Homeward bound
Homework
Honey, I’m home
Keep the home fires burning
Make yourself at home
Nothing to write home about
Pick up your marbles and go home
That brought it home to me
The chickens have come home to roost
The green, green grass of home
The lights are on, but no one’s home
There’s no place like home
This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home
Till the cows come home
Time to go home
Welcome home
What a rich treasury of images the word “home” brings up. In one sense, we’ve all experienced home or the lack of it, along with a wide range of accompanying memories and emotions. Some of us have been blessed with good homes. Others have not found their homes to be a place of refuge or care. But every person shares a common longing for home. Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote over 350 years ago, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there, the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.” We often hear Pascal’s words paraphrased like this: there is a God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God Himself can fill. God has created us with a longing for our true home, a longing that can be fulfilled completely only by making our home in Him and allowing Him to make His home in us.
The key verse I want to look at today is in a tiny book near the end of the New Testament, 1 Peter 4:9. You’re welcome to look it up, and I also have it here for us on the slide. In the New Living Translation, 1 Peter 4:9 is rendered: “Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.” This is where the sermon title comes from – “how to share your home.” Let me clear this up at the outset – I’m not going to talk about duct tape and how you can mark a line down the center of the room in order to share it with your younger sister (though it might have technically been masking tape because I don’t think we had any duct tape at home in the 70s). But we are going to talk today about what it means to share our homes. Yes, this includes our physical homes and rooms, but primarily when we talk about sharing our homes, we’re talking about sharing ourselves, making room in our hearts for another. We’ll reflect on various aspects of what this looks like, trusting that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to each one of us today, whether listening in person on online. I invite you to listen to what the Lord is saying to you today. Let God’s Word wash over you as you still your soul to receive what He wants to give you.
Let’s pray – Father, open our ears to hear your voice today. We want to be fully open to all that you are, all that you want to do in our lives. We surrender ourselves to you and ask that you would have your way in us today. In the precious name of Jesus Christ.
Let’s start with the most important Other with whom we are to share our homes. It’s such an awesome thought, too big for us to wrap our minds around all that it means – the God who created everything that is, wants to make His home with each of us who love and follow Jesus.
John 14:23 (NLT) – “Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”
Have you ever thought about sharing your home with Christ Jesus? I want to recommend a tiny book called “My Heart – Christ’s Home” by Robert Boyd Munger. A simple but challenging classic, the author imagines what it would be like to have Jesus come to the home of our hearts. He moves room by room considering what Christ desires for us. In the living room we prepare to meet Christ daily. In the dining room we examine together what appetites should and should not control us. We even explore the closets in our lives that Christ can help us clean out. You get the picture.
“Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.” In the Greek in which Peter wrote this, it literally means, “Love strangers reciprocally without murmuring.” The reciprocal aspect tells us that we are to give love to others AND receive love from others. Who are these others? Strangers. Those who are strange. Those who are different from us. People who likely won’t ever repay us because of social barriers or because they’re just passing through. Jesus calls us to love the poorest of the poor. Harder still, He calls us to love even those people who have hurt us on purpose. And all this without murmuring, grumbling, complaint, querulous discontent, secret displeasure, or heavy sighing. The Greek indicates we are to have a cheerful and willing mind in sharing our home, our literal homes that we live in AND the homes of our hearts, our affections. We may have to break open some paradigms today. If I asked you, “would you like to share something”, be honest, is your first thought, “she’s asking me to share with her”, or “she’s going to share with me”, or both, or neither? I put it to you that the New Testament was written with plural pronouns and reciprocal words like “share.” Biblical sharing is always a two-way street.
When I arrived on the Camino de Santiago in Spain one afternoon last summer, I followed my daughter and her friends along the streets of Legrono through a door into a volunteer-run hostel with wall-to-wall bunkbeds. Even though I was jet-lagged, I was full of anticipation for the journey ahead. I had fondly hoped for several years to be able to go on this Christian pilgrimage after watching the movie, “The Way.” My first evening on the Camino was memorable, as our gracious host welcomed and conversed with each guest in his or her own language before a multilingual prayer meeting and shared meal. I volunteered for KP, so helped wash the piles of dishes accumulated by the 40 or so pilgrims. Others had helped prepare the wonderful food, others swept, mopped, or carried. It was a mountaintop experience as far as sharing goes. But let’s be real – it isn’t always such a joyful occasion to have others, especially strange others or hurtful others invade our space and on top of that be expected to share what we have with them. It’s much easier loving people whom we already like. The hard kind of love is loving people whom we don’t like or who have hurt us.
Luke 6:35 (ESV) – “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
Here are some thoughts on this from Bible commentator Matthew Henry. Listen to the Holy Spirit and pay attention to any names or faces the Lord brings to mind: “We must be kind to those from whom we have received injuries. We must not only love our enemies, and bear a good will to them, but we must do good to them, be as ready to do any good office to them as to any other person, if their case call for it, and it be in the power of our hands to do it. We must study to make it appear, by positive acts, if there be an opportunity for them, that we bear them no malice, nor see revenge. Do they curse us, speak ill of us, and wish ill to us? Do they despitefully use us, in word or deed? Do they endeavour to make us contemptible or odious? Let us bless them, and pray for them, speak well of them, the best we can, wish well to them, especially to their souls, and be intercessors with God for them. We must be kind to those from whom we expect no manner of advantage: Lend, hoping for nothing again . . . we must lend though we have reason to suspect that what we lend we lose, lend to those who are so poor that it is not probable they will be able to pay us again.”
Here are some further thoughts on two-way sharing from Scottish / English pastor and theologian Alexander Maclaren:
- its habitual exercise would go far to break down the frowning walls which diversities of social position and of culture have reared between Christians
- For us, in our quieter generation, actual persecution is rare, but hostility of ill-will more or less may well dog our steps, and the great principle here commended to us is that we are to meet enmity with its opposite, and to conquer by love. The diamond is cut with sharp knives, and each stroke brings out flashing beauty . . . It is a poor thing if a Christian character only gives back like a mirror the expression of the face that looks at it. To meet hate with hate, and scorn with scorn, is not the way to turn hate into love and scorn into sympathy. Indifferent equilibrium in the presence of active antagonism is not possible for us. As long as we are sensitive we shall wince from a blow, or a sarcasm, or a sneer. We must bless in order to keep ourselves from cursing. The lesson is very hard, and the only way of obeying it fully is to keep near Christ and drink in His spirit who prayed ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’
Sharing our HOME is about Hospitality (giving)
How can we show love today, this week, this year, through hospitality, welcoming others into our homes and hearts by giving of our time, talents, and treasures? To whom is God inviting you to show hospitality?
After walking 325 kilometers, my right leg was swollen and painful, and no amount of anti-inflammatory cream helped a bit. There was nothing for it but to hobble over to the hospital. Doc ordered 5 days of rest, so there I was, propped up in the kitchen of the large hostel on the hill in Astorga. I must still be very far from learning how to receive from others, because God keeps orchestrating situations where I’m out of other options and just have to rest and receive. I couldn’t walk to the store to buy groceries, I couldn’t cook, I just sat there and had lovely conversations with everyone who needed a listening ear. God knew my needs, and I knew He’d look after me. A Brazilian friend noticed my plight and shared his lunch with me. That evening, a British / Aussie / Dutch / American group of young people invited me to share the feast they’d cooked up.
We hold one another at arm’s length when we decline offers of assistance in our times of need. Saying yes, thank you, requires opening our hearts, and then we discover a more open and expansive life that we didn’t even know existed before. It connects our hearts to one another, knits us together – bonds formed in times of adversity are especially strong.
I want to read a fairly length passage of Scripture that speaks to this.
2 Corinthians 5:1 – 6:2 (NLT) – “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.3For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. 4While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
11Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. 15He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
16So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
(chapter 6)
As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it.2For God says,
“At just the right time, I heard you.
On the day of salvation, I helped you.”
Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.”
And then, just a few verses later:
2 Corinthians 6:11 – 13 (The Message) – “Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”
Sharing our HOME is about Openness (receiving)
Who is God inviting you to be more open with, to receive what they have to give you? Who are you or I holding at arm’s length because of embarrassment, awkwardness, past offenses or unmet expectations? Whom do we need to forgive?
Somewhere along the way, I changed. I was no longer a tourist or a passive bystander or an inexperienced and unprepared traveler or a foreigner in a strange land. Others were no longer strangers or threats or enemies. I could still be talking about the Camino, but I’m talking about the journey of life itself. Certainly, we need a healthy appreciation of stranger danger, especially if we’re young or in a potentially harmful relationship where strong and healthy boundaries are essential and wise. But when we continue to live in continual suspicion and fear, with an us-against-them mindset, we end up closing our hearts from both giving and receiving love. Our hearts simply cannot be selectively closed – if we close them to anyone, we end up closing them to God and to everyone else. It hurts us personally most of all. Closing our hearts means we’ll miss the gifts God has for us, and we’ll hinder others from receiving the gifts God wants to give to them through us.
But when we can begin to take the risk of opening our hearts, to see others beyond their labels, simply as people, then we can begin to love and be loved. What labels have you given yourself or have others stuck on you? Sometimes we label ourselves with how we’re related to someone else: “I’m Paul’s wife”, “Karis, Esther, and Michael’s mum”, “Amy’s friend.” Sometimes we label ourselves with what we do: “I’m a teacher.” Sometimes we label ourselves with our failures: “I lied to my parents”, “I made lots of parenting mistakes.” Sometimes we label ourselves with what others have said about us: “I’m a good listener”, “I procrastinate decluttering.” While all of these may have truth in them, we have a tendency to make these labels our identities. God didn’t design us to find our primary identity in another person or something we can or cannot do. He wants us to find our identity in Christ Jesus alone. When we are secure as a son or daughter of the King of Kings, we are free to truly live, openly and expansively.
2 Corinthians 3:16 – 18 (NLT) – “But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
Sometimes we label others. I’ve been inspired by Mother Teresa’s famous phrase that each person, especially those whom we find particularly difficult to love, is “Jesus in His most distressing disguise.” To love others begins with seeing Jesus in each person whom God created as a bearer of His image, even if they’re not reflecting His likeness perfectly yet.
Sharing our HOME is about Metamorphosis (changing)
Which labels is God inviting you to change or remove? Receive His invitation today to turn fully to Jesus, to receive your true identity as a son or daughter of God because of what Jesus Christ has already done for you in giving His life for you. Let Him change you completely from the inside out, like the metamorphosis that occurs when an earth-bound caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly that is free to soar. This is life, this is freedom. Ask Him to let you see others as He sees them, with the eyes of love and the confidence that Jesus can soften and transform the hardest heart, He can reach the unreachable. Let’s accept one another as Christ accepted us.
When life gets hard, it’s tempting to look for a way of escape. We might hope that our knight in shining armor is going to come and rescue us. We might think that suddenly everything will change, a miracle will happen, and poof, we’ll be in easier and better circumstances. We might think that if we just had a different job, relationship, location, financial arrangement, you name it, then everything would be better.
The reality is that God allows hardship in our lives as a gift to us, precisely because it is through enduring hardship that we grow in our character and Christlikeness. Paul and I try to work out together each day. If we stopped every time it got hard, we wouldn’t receive any benefit at all. We’ve gained some strength, endurance, and muscle tone, but we also know we have a long way to go. As we’ve seen others work out over the long haul, we’ve noticed that they’ve shed excess weight, gained more vitality, and enjoyed better health. So, we choose to endure and persevere, even though it’s really difficult at times.
We all face the challenge of keeping our eyes on the goal instead of getting discouraged when life gets hard. We can trust our good God and Father that whenever He allows hardship, it’s for our good. This is where we see most clearly our need for mutual encouragement. It’s tempting to give up, to withdraw, to hide, to move, to pretend everything’s ok, to put on a false self, to make excuses. Jesus is inviting us to live as true sons and daughters of God in the family known as the body of Christ. When we submit and surrender to God’s plan for our lives, even when it’s painful, we can truly live. I urge you – don’t give up – endure and persevere – lean on Christ, lean on one another – He will not let us falter when we trust in Him.
Hebrews 12:7 – 13 (NIV) – “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13“Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”
Sharing our HOME is about Endurance (persevering)
Is there any area of your life in which you’re tempted to give up? Can you trust Jesus with that? He loves you so very much. He’s a good, good Father, the absolute best, perfect Father who will never abandon you, never allow anything into your life that He isn’t going to use for your good. Can you trust Him? He won’t ever leave you. Never give up.
How do we share our homes? By loving others reciprocally without murmuring:
- giving in hospitality,
- receiving in openness,
- changing in metamorphosis,
- persevering in endurance.
We can do this through Christ who gives us strength!
I want to close by reading a very special passage of Scripture that is my prayer for each of you who is listening.
Ephesians 3:14 – 21 (The Message) – “My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!”
Now we’re going to segue into our monthly missions moment, a very practical way to share our homes right here. In just a minute we’re going to make encouragement cards for the kids that Jim & Dawn & Abigail are going to see in Haiti – they leave for their mission trip in 9 days’ time. The children they will be visiting are orphans – there are over 400,000 orphans in Haiti, children who have lost one or both parents. The Roberson’s will be visiting children cared for and sponsored through a Christian organization called “The Hands and Feet Project”, whose motto is “caring for Haiti’s orphaned and abandoned; fighting to keep families together”. Please choose one of the tables that are set up, and write and decorate cards. You may want to write a prayer or a blessing on your cards. I encourage you to open your heart wide to these children, and let the Holy Spirit guide your words. When your table has written all of the cards, please pray together for the children who will receive them. We have about <> minutes to make cards and pray together – go for it!
