The Premium on the Household

Let you guys know that in the second service, a gal named Fannie Hung will, be baptized. So, you can be celebrating, with her, on that, that'll, that'll be taking place in the, the second service, this morning. And also be praying for the staff. Mike Barry has Had, severe, flu like, symptoms this week and has been laid out, the entire week, and I think he's just starting to feel, better, but he's not here today.

And then, Carlos Cuellar, who's been on vacation, but, but got in, I think on Thursday, but he's, he's out of commission with, similar kinds of symptoms and has, fever, chills, and, feeling pretty awful. He told me this morning he almost started writing his will last night. so just, be praying, for, for them. And I know there's a number of others that, that aren't feeling well.

There's a nasty bug that's going around that hits really hard. so take care of yourselves and be praying for those that, that are down. and, And also have an announcement, Last night, I turned the baptistery on at 2 in the morning and at 3:45 I came out of my office to check on it and I saw water pouring out of the Sunday school room downstairs. And, and so I got up here and there, there was water everywhere.

Fortunately, it, just barely came into this auditorium, but, Carlos's office and Mike has a little bit of, flooding in there, the classrooms down there and the youth room. so spent the night dealing with, with that and some, men from the church also came pretty early this morning to start taking care of that. but because of that, the, the youth Sunday school class that would normally meet, behind here will not be able to meet in that, classroom. so the, the youth Sunday school class, we're going to try this, will be held at the Kumamoto's household.

And, so, our, our young people, if, if maybe you and the parents with you could just meet out back, just outside the, the youth room. we do have, shuttle service that will transport you over to the, the Kumamoto's and, you'll have Sunday school and then we'll be brought back to the church by, by 12:00. so you can meet up, after this service back behind the, the youth, room. well, before we actually get into the, the, sermon time, for this morning, do, I, I think in your bulletin, there's an announcement regarding the gifts for Jesus, offering, and let me see if it's in there.

yeah, the yellow insert that's in your bulletin, you might want to take a look at that. every year, for those of you that are new with us in our Christmas service, which this year is going to be December the 19th, we have a time in our service where we give a gifts for Jesus offering in addition to our normal offering that we take every Sunday. And, what we do is we ask that you pray about what the Lord would have you to give to this offering and then wrap it the way that you would a normal birthday or Christmas, gift.

you could totally wrap it or you can put it in a gift bag or just an envelope, doesn't matter.

And, there'll be a part of our service where we'll have someone do a special musical number and you'll be able to bring, the gifts, down. There might be a Christmas tree or some item down here that will identify where to, put your, gifts. And, the proceeds of the gifts for Jesus offering this year, every penny of it will go towards, the Brad and Julie Lea family., many of us know them. We as a church support them.

They're serving the Lord in Albania and just going gangbusters for the Lord. God's using them in a tremendous way. a godly family and, making a great impact in a country that only recently has even been open to anything other than atheism. And, it's a blessing for us as a church to be able to, support them.

This offering will be a tremendous encouragement to them. They did not contact us and identify any needs to us, but we contacted them because whenever we want to do an offering like this, we, we try to draw out of a missionary, whatever needs they have so that we can get under them and help carry the load of those things through this offering. And on this yellow insert is identified some of the things that we were able to draw out of them that we'll be able to come alongside of them.

And just get underneath that load and help them in some practical ways.

Beyond the practical blessing that this offering will be to their personal lives, their family, and their ministry, it'll be just a great encouragement to their heart. And we do this offering as a reminder, That, at Christmas, it's Jesus' birthday, and we, Jesus says, in as much as you do anything for the least of my brethren, you've done it to me. And so when we lay these gifts in the special offering that will go to Brad and Julie Lee, Jesus takes those gifts as if we have personally done them for Him.

And at the judgment, almost as it were, Jesus will say, Remember when you gave me that gift.

back in 2010, December of 2010, and we'll be like, what are you talking about? And he'll say that gift that you gave to the lays, you gave that gift, to me. So, be praying about that. We'll remind you again next Sunday, and, we'll encourage you to give us the Lord leads.

It seems like every year that offering gets bigger and bigger, and I'm really excited about this being a great encouragement, to the lays and a very practical help to them. OK, well, let me have you guys, let's see, turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 51 Timothy chapter 5 for our time of study in the word this morning. today essentially begins. Our monthlong emphasis.

We call it the December seminar and, in the Sunday school, adult Sunday school class, today, they're finishing up the, managing God's money, God's way class and so forth. But starting next week in the Sunday school, classes, So, the, the theme of the Sunday school classes are going to be clustered around what you see here. In fact, there's an insert in your bulletin to tell you what the schedule, is and who's going to be speaking in the Sunday school hour and who's going to be speaking in the, in the pulpit.

but we're calling this series House to House, God's vision for your household.

And it's, more specifically, it's not simply God's vision for your household, but what we're gonna try to do, throughout this month is think out loud in front of you to, explore the strategic role that the household plays in the body life of the, the local church. a lot of times people, they're really into the family and the household, and then some people at the expense of family are really into the local church and they neglect the family as a result. But one of the things that we have been realizing in recent years and specifically this year is that, the scripture overwhelmingly communicates volumes about the strategic role that the household plays.

In the body life of the, of the church.

And this morning, my primary burden is to, just in a broad stroke fashion. hit us all with the importance. If you walk out of here this morning with nothing other than just saying, wow, the household is really important to the overall life of the local church, then, then I, I would feel if you're sobered by that and also excited by that and begin to get a vision for that, then I would consider. The message this morning to be a success.

So, the way we're going to frame things this morning is, the title will be the premium on the household, the premium that God places upon the household, or another way of saying it is the premium that the local church should place upon the household. let me, let me take a moment to define what we mean by household because this is going to be pivotal. throughout the month of December. A household, a modern day expression that's equivalent roughly to household is the expression nuclear family.

You ever heard that, nuclear family? In fact, some of you are probably thinking, yeah, I got a nuclear family. but that's not what we're talking about. It's, it's essentially the nuclear family is a family group consisting of parents and children who share living quarters.

A little bit more, broadly, it could include an element of what we mean by the immediate family. And that is a family group that consists of grandparents, parents, children, and other close relatives who have responsibilities toward. One another, there are things that God has called us to do towards our parents, even though our parents may not live in our household. That's, I would say, primarily the nucleus of what we're talking about when we speak of a household, and I know that raises the question and a legitimate one.

And that is, what about those that are unmarried or those that are single? I guess this series isn't going to have much to do with me. Well, I want to encourage you with the thought that the way we're going to end up defining household actually includes Those that are unmarried, those that, that are single. In fact, one of the things that's hit me this week is the very things we're even going to be seeing today.

there, there are unmarried individuals that I know that model these very things beautifully. let's, by way of extension, let's divine household, over the length of this month in this way. It's any person, It could be a single person living in a dwelling place or a group of persons living in a dwelling place, and the Greek word for a dwelling place or a house is oikos, and we're going to see that word a lot with resources at their disposal. And so a single individual who owns a home, a single individual living in an apartment or even a dorm room or condominium, they, everything we're going to be looking at essentially can apply to them totally.

And like I said, there are individuals that, that I know in this church and even beyond who, who are the only one living in their dwelling place, but what they're doing with their home, what they're doing with their household, the resources at their disposal. are beautifully portraying the very things we're going to be seeing in the scriptures, today. So, this includes everyone who's living anywhere, OK? and what we're going to try to do this morning is we're just going to stare.

We're gonna stare at the early church and make some observations about life in the early church in terms of the role that the household played in the body life of the, the early church. We're gonna observe the way the early church did body life and we're going to observe the vital role that the household played in The body life of the church and thus the premium that the household should have and that we should place upon the household and the way that we go about structuring ministry here at, at Cornerstone.

So, at the time we have, what I want to do is just make 8 observations. We may only get to 7 of them, but we'll see how far we get, this morning.

If we only cover 7 kids and number 8 is blank, you can still get a piece of candy. afterwards. 8 observations that I think will help us to appreciate the premium that the early church placed upon the household. My goal is for us to stare, to look at what we see in the early church, and then to actually begin to ask ourselves how can we imitate that.

God actually wants us to imitate a number of really excellent things that we see in the early church. Paul commends the Thessalonians, for example, I think in First Thessalonians 2:15, for becoming imitators of the churches of God that were in Judea. He's like, I commend you that you became imitators of these churches. And so when we see the early church, very specifically under Apostolic direction, doing things that the apostles are actually directing them to do and modeling for them to do.

God wants us to look at that and imitate what we see. So we're just going to observe these things in the early church in terms of the relationship of the household to the local church and the pivotal role that the household played. Observation number one. And the first few of these observations are observations we made when we were back in 1 Timothy chapter 5.

They're worded a little differently, but, but we're going back to 1 Timothy 5 and then we're going to launch from there. But looking at Life in the early church in the first century, we do observe that the early church recognized the distinct earthly households of which its members were a part. It's very interesting in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, Paul says, I write, I'm writing this book so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. Which is the church.

One of the things we learned from that is that if I'm a believer in Christ, I need to conduct myself in the household of God, which is the church. Every believer ought to find a local church that he can conduct himself in, right? And then First Timothy explains how to go about conducting yourself in a local church, but notice that Paul describes the local church itself. Self as a household, as an Oikos, it is a group of brothers and sisters and spiritual mothers and fathers and spiritual children that are all gathered together as it were under one roof, and we all have responsibilities towards one another.

There's a structure of authority. There's working together on things. We are a community, a community of faith. We are a household.

So the early church was aware of itself as a household. but not only that, in 1 Timothy, where the church is identified as a household, we see Paul throughout 1 Timothy several times, 6 times, actually making specific reference to distinct earthly households that the members Of the Ephesian Church were a part of Chapter 3, verse 4, his own household, which is Oikos. An elder needs to manage his own Oikos and, and verse 5 of chapter 3 in First Timothy, he says a man needs to take care of essentially his own.

Oikos chapter 3, verse 12, he speaks of deacons who are managing their own households.

In chapter 5, verse 4, he speaks of household again, chapter 5, verse 8. Again, a man providing for his household, chapter 5, verse 14, speaks of one who is managing. the, the household. So the church is a household, the household of God, however, it is composed of multiple individual distinct earthly households.

Does that make sense? the church gives recognition to that. What's significant to me is in 1 Timothy, but even beyond 1 Timothy, Paul makes reference to husbands in chapter 3, wives in chapter 3 and chapter 5. You jump 1 Corinthians 7, Paul speaks of the unmarried and gives instructions to them, coming back to 1 Timothy, in chapter 23 and 5, he speaks of children, chapter 5, verse 4, he alludes to grandchildren, and he speaks of parents also.

And Chapter 5, and it's implied in Chapter 3. So Paul is saying the church is a household, but it's composed of individual distinct earthly households, and the church under Paul's direction gave recognition to those households. in a way that's a no brainer, but I want you to ponder the fact that it didn't have to be that way., we've been learning in Romans 5 that we're a new race of people, right? We are descendants, as it were, of the second Adam.

We're dead to sin. We've been, transferred out of that realm of, of darkness and bondage to, to sin. We trace our lineage in a, in a way, more importantly back to Jesus Christ, more than, perhaps to the first Adam. And if God would have said in his word that in light of the fact that we are now a household and in Christ, we are brothers and sisters in extremely significant and eternal ways, as a result of that, all earthly connections are null and void.

If he would have said that, we would have thought, OK, I guess, I guess that's logical. But that's not what God does. Yes, we are brothers and sisters. Yes, we are a household, but in the way that we go about doing church, we observe in the first century that a lot of attention was paid to the individual distinct earthly households.

Not only that, But a second observation we can make, and this is very important, is that the early church didn't just acknowledge the existence of individual earthly households, but the early church honored these households as the first place where godliness was to be practiced by its members. so the church in the first The century not only said, yeah, we acknowledge these earthly households, but the church actually elevated those those distinct earthly households and gave them a position of honor and basically said that is the first and the primary place where you learn to practice godliness.

Paul says this in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 4. He's talking about caring for widows.

That's the context. And he says, in this passage that the church should not take care of widows that you in the household could and should be taking care of. And so if you have someone in your household who is a widow that you're able to help financially and to support her and provide for her, then you need to do that rather than burdening the church with that. And what he's saying essentially is if you do Have a widow in your household.

The children have a mother, for example, that needs to be cared for in the household. He says they, the children, must first learn to practice godliness in regard to their own family, in regard to their own oikos. They need to first learn to practice godliness in connection. With their family member.

He's pointing to the home. This is it. This is the first place. What we learn here is that the first place where you must learn to practice godliness is in your house in relation to your own family.

A lot of times it's easy to, to, to go outside of our house. Outside of our family and want to be involved in the church, but God points you right back to your home and says, go home and love your wife, go home and love your, your husband, go home and love your children. You guys know the story of that demoniac that had the demons cast out of him and the demons went into pigs that then ran off a cliff and drowned. as soon as that man, was delivered.

Jesus is about to get in a boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and the man said, please, let me go with you. Let me go with you. And Jesus would not let him. Jesus said, go to your family.

Go back to your family. And tell them what great things God has done for you. That's your first priority. Go to your family before you join up with me on my traveling crusade here as I am presenting myself and preaching the gospel to the multitudes.

Our family is the first responsibility and we all know that. I just, I just want to point out that the local church in the 1st century basically asserted that and gave honor to those Distinct earthly households that its members were a part. Paul says let them first learn to practice godliness in regard to their own family. What that means is, as one writer says, it's first, in other words, before other forms of Christian service.

You do this and you do this well before the church actually lets you do anything else. In the larger household of God, which is the church. We observe here that your most important ministry to the local church is actually what you do inside the walls of your own home. Your ministry to your local church actually starts at home.

It's not go home and serve your family, and then maybe one day we'll let you serve the church. No, the message of First Timothy 5 is, the primary way, the first way you can serve the church is to serve the members of your household. Husbands, I would say that the primary thing that you can do to bless this whole church body is to love your wife. Wives, the best thing you can do to love, and to bless this local church is to love your husband, husbands and wives, to bring up your children in the nurture and the discipline of the Lord.

Paul actually follows this paradigm in First Timothy because he says, like an elder, where are we going to get our elders from? He says, we're going to get the elders. From the household, he says to Timothy, I want you to look at the individual distinct earthly households and look for the men that are standing in front of their households and managing their households well. And the men that are leading their wives and leading their children and doing so well, those are men that in many Ways are already qualified to be elders.

When a man is leading his wife well and leading his children well, he's being an elder in his home. Paul says to Timothy, that's where you get your elders from and even where you get your deacons from. In chapter 3, verse 12, deacons must be Husbands of one wife and good managers of their children and their own household. What he's saying to Timothy is, Timothy, this is where to look for men that are going to serve in the church as deacons, as servants, and as elders.

Look for those that are doing a good job in their household. The household is viewed here as the location, as the context where leaders and servants are forged and where they're found. So that they can serve the larger body. Vadi Baum says this, today's churches look at resumes., when they're wanting to hire a pastor, they, they look at resumes and never examine the home.

In the New Testament church, a man's home was his resume. And we see Paul actually affirming that in the requirements for elders and deacons. So we see here that the local church in the first century is not only acknowledging the individual earthly households of which its members were a part, but the church is elevating those households to this incredible position of honor and points to these earthly households as the first place where godliness is to be learned and practiced.

And that even qualifies then an individual for broader ministry.

A third observation that we can make is that, and this is very intriguing to me. I've been fascinated by this all year long since we encountered this in January of 2010, when we were doing our study of First Timothy, and that is that the early church literally restrained itself from replacing what the household members should be doing in their household. Paul shows an amazing amount of restraint in 1 Timothy 5 and actually tells Timothy, don't do this. And it was obviously a problem in the Ephesian Church and, and the Ephesian church had a particular ministry.

and that was caring for widows. And Paul says, I want you to pull the church out of that ministry towards widows that are a part of households, the members of that household of which are able to provide for them. In other words, address the needs of those that are widows indeed. But if you've got a woman in the church who has is a part of a household, and her children are a part of that local church, her grandchildren are a part of that local church, she's living in the household.

Don't let the church do what the household should be doing in the way of providing for her. He says if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice godliness in regard to their own family and to make some return for their parents. And he goes on to explain to Timothy, I don't want, you using the church's Agape Fund to be providing full on support for widows that are a part of households that could be practicing godliness and providing support and aid to the widows that are a part of that household.

Paul's telling Timothy to pull out of that.

What we learn here is that a local church should be very careful. that it recognizes the households of which its members are a part. It honors them as the first place where godliness is to be practiced. And then not only when it comes to the issue of providing for widows, but, but I'm sure in other areas as well, is that the church is very careful so as not to encroach into what should be happening in the household in such a way that it takes pressure off of the household members to actually be doing for one another.

Does that make sense? just one example, and my point here is not to say that we should not have Sunday school here. our Sunday school teachers labor long and hard and provide a wonderful assistance to the parents, that are a part of this, this local church. But here's where something like that could, could be dangerous if it's wrongly interpreted and wrongly used, that a mom or dad can think, well, I don't need to provide spiritual instruction for my children.

I'll just drive them. To church and they'll get it. So wow, my children need instruction in the ways of the Lord. So what should I do?

I know I'll have them shower and get dressed and I will drive them to the Lindon Street campus where they can receive instruction. we got to make sure that that doesn't happen. It's a valid question for us to always be asking as church leaders and as congregation members, how are we doing church and are we doing church in a way, in any way, shape or form that's taking pressure off of household members from doing what God has called them to do? Are we playing an assisting role, a supplementing role, or are we playing a replacing role?

Paul is showing wonderful restraint and discipline here. He's telling Timothy there are things that the church is supposed to do and there are things that the household is supposed to do, and there's like delegation that's taking place, and he's telling Timothy, here's what you need to do as a church, and then here's what you need to delegate to the members of the household. There's a relationship and there's delegation that takes place. That leads to a 4th observation, and that is this, that Christians in the early church served the members of their households with an eye toward benefiting the church in doing so.

Christians in the early church served the members of their households with an eye toward benefiting the church in, in doing so. This is interesting. Paul, again, the issue is caring for widows, but he says in verse 16 of First Timothy 5, if anyone Woman, and we would say by extension or man who is a believer, has dependent widows, she must assist them, and the church must not be burdened so that it may assist those who are widows indeed. So, he's saying that if you've got a, a widow in your household, or in your family that you are capable of providing for, you need to do that.

So that the church will not be burdened with the doing of that. You need to do that so that the church can then be freed up to do what the church is supposed to do. So there's a division of responsibility, a separation of duties. Paul's saying, Here's what you need to do in the household, and if you do this, you're going to unburden the church.

You're going to benefit. You're going to bless the church in doing what God has called you to do in the household, and you will actually free up the church to do what God has. Called the church to do. For example, and by the way, don't look at these principles and what we're observing and say, well, that's all talking about widows and doesn't apply to anything else.

You don't, you don't want to do that. What we're doing is we're observing the way Paul thinks and his thinking is applied to this particular area, but we're easily able to go, wow, if that's how he handles this area, how would he handle other areas? For example, if you're trying to figure out how to be a good dad and how do I deal with my children when they do some wrong, And there's a dad in the church you really look up to and you find out that, that the child has stolen something from the pastor's office, OK?

And about it and you're watching as someone goes to the dad and notifies the dad that your child has stolen something from Pastor Milton's office.

You then see the dad go to the child and you're watching because you want to learn and, and you see the dad bend low to his child and begin speaking to the child in love and in affirmation. but gravely concerned and troubled over the sin of the child and brings that sin to the attention of the child and confronts the child over the sin and, but at the same time shows the gentleness and the grace of Christ. If the child is repentant, you see the dad just loving on the child and, and then confessing to the child, what, Daddy's a sinner too.

That's why daddy needs Jesus and daddy needs grace from the Lord, just like you need grace, from the Lord.

And then, you see the dad talking to the son about coming to Pastor Milton to confess what he had done. If you watch that, for example, and you're trying to learn how to be a dad, would you go, OK, I have learned this and only this. I have learned from the example of this dad how to handle, how to deal with my child when my child steals something from Pastor Milton's office. Would you think that?

I, I don't have a clue how to deal with a situation where they steal from somebody else. If they steal from a store or from their mom's purse, or I don't have a clue from what I've observed here how to deal with any sin or infraction on the part of my child. I've only learned how to deal with my child when my child steals something from Pastor Milton's office. Of you wouldn't do that.

You would see the way the dad deals with that and be able to generalize and say, I think I'm getting an idea of how this dad thinks and how I can handle any sin or wrongdoing on the part of my child. You need to bring that same sensibility to 1 Timothy 5. Yes, the issue is caring for widows, but as you just watch Paul, like how's he going to handle this? What's the thinking process, and And you see the way he thinks and the way he's talking to Timothy and the direction he provides, you actually end up getting a lesson on how to do church and how to divide responsibility between the church and the households.

So we're learning volumes here, more than just How to care for widows in the church. We're learning practically how to do church. And we learn here that Christians in the early church serve the members of their household with an eye toward benefiting the church in doing so. We, we need to think this way.

We all need to think that, what, the, the best way I can bless Cornerstone is to love my spouse, to love my children. To bring them up in the nurture and discipline of the Lord, to care for my family members, my parents and, and grandparents, and especially if they're a part of Cornerstone. this is my ministry to the church to do this. It's not church, stay out of my business and let me minister to my family.

No, I'm benefiting the church by ministering to my family. So that the church can be freed up to do what God has called the church to do. An example, take a husband who completely neglects his wife. Causing enormous hurt to his wife.

And, and in that neglected state, the wife ends up a number of sin issues begin to develop, and then relational issues begin to develop, not only in the marriage, but also with the kids and, And then the whole family ends up in one of the pastor's offices to receive counseling. OK? To a man in that situation, if you could backtrack and go, 2 years prior, you'd say to that man, listen, the best way you can bless your pastors and this local church is to love your wife and to love your children.

Because if you don't, the church will be burdened with cleaning up the mess that you've made.

And we've seen that, a number of times, and honestly, I'll have to confess to you that the elders have had to consume time cleaning up messes that I have made in, in, in my marriage. And that's time that they could have spent, Elsewhere, doing other things, making other investments that they would not have had to make if I was making the investment that I should have made. And so, if all of us just have that sense of calling that, I, I, I want to bless the local church that I'm a part of by, by engaging in the duties that God has called me to towards the members of, of my household.

We see that in the early church.

And then a 5th observation we can make, and this is going to take us to Acts chapter 2. You guys are welcome to turn there, and that is that the early church embraced the household as a premium location for body life. The early church embraced the household as a premium location for body life to take place. here's the, guys, think about it.

if God came to us, Today and said, your church right now is about 400 people. I can in one day grow your church by 3000 people. If you want me to. By the end of today, Cornerstone could be 3400 people, and I'm, I'm ready, willing, able to do it if you just say yes.

what would we say? I know some of us would say yes, some of us would say, what about facilities? this place isn't big enough to handle that, and we'd start worrying and fretting and trying to figure all of that out. Well, that, that's almost exactly what happened to the Jerusalem church.

It was, it was essentially 120 people, and by the end of one glorious day, it was in a 24 hour period, a congregation of 3120 people. How in the world did they handle that? Where did body life end up taking place in The Jerusalem church. Luke gives an amazing description of the way body life was done in the Jerusalem church.

In Acts 2, look at what he says. He says, and day by day, and I'm going to give you a literal translation of this. There's a word here that literally strength towards. And that's found in this, this text, literally day by day, applying strength toward one mindedness in the temple.

So we see them gathering in the temple, which was big enough to house large numbers of people. Although eventually, their landlord ended up wanting to kick them off the property and would arrest them occasionally and create problems for them. For now, they are gathering in the temple, and while they're in the temple, they're applying themselves towards one-mindedness. We want to come together so that we have the same mind, the same passion, not only that we're agreed on the gospel and the specifics of the gospel, as we hear the apostles' teaching, but we also want to be united in passion.

That's literally what this word one mindedness means, one passion. that our priorities, the things we're passionate about are the same. So they gather in the temple to cultivate this one mindedness. And then look at this, and breaking bread, literally according to household.

Breaking bread from house to house is the way the new American standard translates this. And now here's the main verb of the sentence. Everything that's been said is building up to this apex. This is the pinnacle grammatically of this sentence.

They were taking their meals together. That's amazing. Looking at the verse in total here on the screen, you see the all capitalized words. That's, that's the mountain peak.

Everything builds to this. This is what Luke is leading towards. Everything else is participles that are subordinate to and leading up to this. But when he gets to the words, they were taking their meals together, that's, that's what he's been leading to.

This is the pinnacle of life in the early church. We often think that, the ultimate of, weekly life. In the early churches, everyone gathering together, on Linden Street, and we worship the Lord and we hear the word taught. And that is a wonderful part of body life at Cornerstone and being in the temple was a great part of body life in the Jerusalem church.

But it's interesting that grammatically, all of that is subordinate to this pinnacle. They were taking their meals together, day by day, applying strength towards one mindedness in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house. They were here it is. Here's the big idea that everything revolves around, they were eaten together.

You like that? They were taking their meals together where in their homes, with gladness and sincerity, which means literally simplicity of heart. praising God and having favor toward all the people and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being, saved. We see the way these early Christians operated, and we see that body life didn't just take place at the temple, in the temple compound, but that Luke, at least in this passage, his emphasis is on the body life that was taking place, in the households in the home.

Palms and a lot of body life was happening around the table as they were eating together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, having favor toward all the people. And look at this, the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. It's so easy to read that last statement and say, oh, I know what Luke's saying. He's saying that more people were being saved.

That's not what he's saying. That's a part of what he's saying. What Luke is saying quite literally is. The believers I'm telling you about who are applying their strength towards going to the temple and cultivating one-mindedness, and who are having people into their home and exercising hospitality and eating around the table with one another, praising God and having favor with or toward all the people, get that picture in your head of these believers that are doing all these things in their household.

In the temple, and then he says the Lord was adding to their number. In other words, the people that were doing these things, the Lord kept adding more and more people who were doing these things. Those that he was saving, he was adding those saved ones to the number of people that were living this way and doing body life in the temple and from house to house gathered around the dining room table, as it were. These are brand new believers, guys.

And the very first expression. Of the fruit of the spirit or one of, one of the very first expressions of their newfound faith is hospitality. They opened up their home right away, and a significant amount of body life was happening in the household and around the table as they ate with one another., we observe in the Book of Acts that hospitality was not simply a virtue for the spiritually mature. Hospitality, the way we're seeing it here, was actually one of the first virtues to manifest itself in the lives of believers.

we see it here. These are brand new believers, and they're opening up their home. In Acts 16, Lydia comes to know the Lord, and what's her first good deed? Her first good deed is demanding that Paul come into her home and receive hospitality from her.

The Philippian jailer later in Acts 16, he gets saved and he cleans up Paul and silence his wounds and immediately he gets baptized. And the very next thing he does, his first good deed is he puts food in front of them in the context. Of his home. Hospitality is not just a virtue in the Christian life as we see it in the New Testament.

Hospitality, what one does with his home, with his household, opening it up to other people, it was one of the very first and sometimes the very first fruit of genuine salvation. We'll talk more about hospitality in the coming weeks. What I want to just emphasize here is that the early church, how do you handle 3120 people in one day? Well, the apostles, the leaders of the early church, they embrace the household as the context, as the venue in which significant, aspects of body life would occur, and much body life occurred as we see here, around the table, eating with one another.

Alexander Strau says hospitality flashes. Our love in a uniquely personal and sacrificial way. Through the Ministry of Hospitality, we share our most prized possessions. We share our family, our home, our finances, food, privacy, and time.

Indeed, we share our very lives. So hospitality is always costly, and he goes on to say this, through the Ministry of Hospitality, we provide friendship, acceptance, fellowship, refreshment, comfort, and love in one of the richest and deepest ways possible for humans to understand. And unless we open the doors of our homes to one another, the reality of the local church as a close knit family of loving brothers and sisters is only a theory, and we see in the Acts 2 church that it wasn't a theory.

They get saved and right away they're opening up their home and fellowship and ministry and body life is taking place in this context.

There's a 6th observation we can make, and that is that the early church embraced the household as a premium location for worship. The early church embraced the household as a premium location for worship. As they're gathered around the table, it says they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, and then it says, praising God. So they're, and this word praise is one of the words for worship.

In other words, they're doing worship. And where's that worship happening? Certainly they worship God in the temple. We see that in Acts 2, but they're also worshiping God in the context of their household.

In fact, they're worshiping God around a dinner table. They saw the household as a wonderful venue in which God could be worshiped. There's a 7th observation. by the way, let me say this real quick.

and Ephesians 5. We don't have time to turn there, but just think with me. Ephesians 5:18, don't get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody and your heart to the Lord. Subjecting another participle, subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

Now, in that passage, it's easy to have a church venue in mind, like, OK, when we all gather together, let's speak to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. But it's, it's intriguing to me, the, the grammar of that, that whole passage. Don't be drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another and psalms, films, spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord, subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ, wives to your own husbands.

That's literally how that's worded.

Subject yourselves to one another as a manifestation of the Spirit. You're worshiping, you're singing to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ, wives to your husbands. And then he says, husbands, likewise, you need to submit to the role that God has placed upon you towards your wives. Children, obey your parents.

Fathers bring up children and the nurture and discipline of the Lord, servants, which lived in the household, they were a part of the household. Here's how to be toward your masters, masters, here's how to be toward your servants. It's like Paul's like, be filled with the Spirit, be worshiping. And it seems like in the grammar of the passage, the venue that Paul primarily has in mind where that worship is happening, and everything else is in the context of the home.

And we see in Acts 2. That they're praising God. They're worshiping God. In the household, these brand new believers right away, their household became a venue for worship.

There's a 7th observation. That, we can make, And that is that the early church embraced the household as a premium venue for outreach. Is a premium venue for outreach. I'm not going to be overly dogmatic about this because just about every translation I've seen does not translate this passage the way that, that I would suggest.

I did come across one dissertation of a guy who was suggesting that it should be translated the way that I'm doing here. That doesn't make what I'm saying right. just take this loosely. but it's interesting, our translations say having favor with all the people.

Almost like it, the idea is that here's the Christians doing all this, exercising hospitality, praising God, and the people are looking at them and having favor towards these Christians. That very well may be the idea, but What inclines me in another direction is that literally the pre the preposition in Greek is the word toward. It's the word pros, which means toward. and this word favor is the Greek word for grace, charis.

So, we could translate this, that they were taking their meals together with gladness, sincerity of heart. having grace toward all the people. In other words, all the people, the people outside the faith at that time are the recipients of the grace, the recipients of the favor that is being shown to them by these believers around the table as they're eating together. And if you understand it in this way, the idea you get is that these believers were not just inviting, opening up their home and inviting their brothers and sisters to come and dine with them, but they're, they're inviting their lost neighbors and their lost friends, all of the people, they're inviting them.

they're home. It's like, what, my home is an extension of the campus of the Jerusalem church, my home de facto, the moment. got saved belongs to the Lord. And if it belongs to the Lord, it belongs to the Lord's body, the body of Christ, which is the church.

And so I'm opening up everything that I have. And I'm opening up my home as a base of operations for fellowship, and for worship, and also for showing favor, showing the grace of God towards all the people. Those who do not as yet know Christ. They viewed their home as just this, this is an embassy.

a base of operations from which we're going to, We're going to show forth the love of Christ. Towards those who do not as yet know him. Imagine, and I, I know there's a number of people in our church who operate this way. Your example is beautiful.

Imagine if every home, a cornerstone just was like, body life is going to take place. In my household. In my home, and hospitality will be exercised in our home. This, this house belongs to the Lord.

This is what we're going to do. We're going to open up our hearts and our lives to other people. And this home is going to be a place where God is worshiped, and we're going to worship Him as a family, but not only that, we're going to invite other people into our home to join us in worshiping and praising God. And not only that, but this is going to be a, a base of operations from which we can show God's grace towards all that they can experience the grace of Christ here.

In this home. I'll tell you what, let me just give you number 8, and you can just fill in the blank. We'll talk more about this, especially next week, and that is that the early church embraced the household as a premium venue for instruction and learning. Paul in Ephesians 6 specifically says, dads, you're the ones.

You're the, the instructors, and here's what I'm calling, You to do. You be the one who's bringing up your children and the nurture and discipline of the Lord, along with your wife, who's your help me. I want you to bring up your children and the nurture and discipline of the Lord. Don't expect the church to bring up your children and the nurture and discipline of the Lord.

You have that responsibility from the Lord. We will help you, but you are the one who receives, this calling. Well, what we're observing here is just the relationship between the household and the local church and the strategic role that the household seemed to play in the first century church. There's a lot we have not looked at.

Hopefully, we can look at these things in the coming weeks. But let's all let ourselves be struck by the importance that the household, The important position that it has and just how church is done. And let's wean ourselves off of, it all takes place on Linden Street, but that, no, some of it happens here, but a significant amount, maybe even a more significant amount of body life, worship, ministry, outreach is happening from these bases of operations, which is the homes. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning.

We're going to give an offering to the Lord. We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. And You're welcome to fill up the comment card, any prayer requests, praise items, put those on the back and we'll, Pray for those in our staff meeting on Tuesday and put those in our church family prayer sheet. If you would like for us to do that.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we, you, you are an amazing artist and with different strokes, Lord, you're, you're painting something beautiful here. And we're watching you as you're in process and, and I'm excited about what, not simply what cornerstone is, but I'm, I'm excited about what it's becoming, And you're trying to take us there, and I don't, I don't even know, Lord, what all it should look like. But help us to just.

To look honestly at your word and then where we observe things that merit imitation that we would seek to imitate what ought to be imitated. Help us as a church to more closely approximate the pattern that we see. And scripture that you have been gracious enough to provide for us. Give us open hearts, Lord, as pastors, we're not, Our goal is not to deliver decrees this month and final decisions, but just to think out loud because, We want to share what we're thinking and then hear from your people.

We want to process these things together and learn from each other. So, give us all open hearts, Lord, to learn, to grow, to be transformed by, By your word We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive. these offerings do much with them for the glory of Jesus Christ. And at the same time, we give ourselves to You, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,