Priority 4 – That I may dwell in the House of the Lord. Luke 2:42-47, Ps 27:4-5

Romaine Park Church Service – 27/02/2022, Nick Booth:- Priority 4 – That I may dwell in the House of the Lord. Luke 2:42-47, Ps 27:4-5.
Text: Psalm 27:4 – 4One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life (Together).
Well it’s a different day today as we are online only for a week or two while we try and sort out and reduce the spread of Covid amongst our town and community. You might have noticed already that this doesn’t look like our church building and this there wasn’t our worship team up on stage to kick off the service.
We have a large portion of our ministry and worship team along myself in Isolation due to testing positive or being a close contact of someone who was. We have families who are spending more time together – thanks to the omicron variant. Wow what a contagious variant this has proven to be worldwide, We saw it in Sydney earlier this year and now I hear that the Northwest of Tasmania is a hotspot. We definitely punch above our weight! And I am not sure that is a good thing in this case.
Now, before I start in to my sermon for today, We haven’t had a chance to worship because of isolations so can I encourage you after the service to play a few songs on youtube and worship along with them. You get to be your own worship leader this morning.
Another important part of our worship is our giving. If you are willing, able and wanting to do so, I’d love to encourage you to give your tithes and offerings online this morning at our website via Stripe or via a direct debit/ bank transfer. The account details are on our Giving link at https://romainepark.church/giving/
Please also remember our missionaries and the feeding program in Zambia. To designate your offering to the feeding program or missions just add that in the reference details.
Well today’s sermon topic may seem a little ironic given that we can’t meet together, but I didn’t think it right to change it for this week either. So I think, maybe we need to take it under advisement that this topic is dear to God’s heart and should be to ours also. Today I want to talk to you about the Romaine value of Together! You see, our simple Vision Statement reveals our values, our priorities about what we believe a disciple looks like.
Our Vision Statement Says that Romaine Park is a church that is ‘Loving God, Serving Faithfully, Reaching People Together’.
No one thing is a stand alone aspect – they intersect and connect coincide with each other. We draw this from the Passage in Acts 2:42 – 47.
Let me read for you again today what this passage describes as the discipleship plan of the early church. I believe that it shouldn’t really be any different today: Acts 2 says about these believers that
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
For the Last 3 weeks I have been reminding us that God has certain priorities for us as believers and that we should have these same prioirites too. If we live according to them – life will generally go better. I really want to encourage us to Value the things that God values. To prioritise the things that God prioritises.
Week one, and you able to go back and listen to each of these messages online – you can check it out on facebook, on our youtube channel or on our Website also. Well the first week I spoke about Seeking First the Kingdom of God and Loving God with all our hearts!
Week 2 I spoke about the value of Serving God and serving one another. I mentioned that a sure fire way to beat anxiety is having an upward and an outward focus.
Last week (week 3) I spoke about our need to share the Love of Christ with others and reach people with the Gospel. See, Jesus last command needs to be our first Priority.
Today – I want to talk about the value of Together! There’s an old time word we often use for this and it is Fellowship! I know, its a weird word, but you probably know it at least from Lord of the Rings. But, while this might be an old-time word it is still a current time value. WE NEED OTHERS. We are not created to be in this world on our own. I often think about that word fellowship as a bunch of fellows in a ship. We are all in this together. And life works so much better in a ship if you are working together with a common goal and for the same purpose.
I have been so grateful for pastoral care team and connect group leaders this week. I got to say – you have all gone above and beyond – YET AGAIN. You did it in 2020 when we hit our first Covid crisis when this was all brand new. You have done it this week as you have cared for the people in our church and in our community.
This is one of the great value adds of being part of a Christian Community. You have this one another aspect where God’s love comes from and through God’s people. It is an extension of family. It is God’s family and we are God’s children in God’s house. They are some important aspects that I want to return to in a minute or 2. But first lets just read a portion from Ps 27. There is a couple of verses there that just really stand out to me.
David writes
4 One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
and set me high upon a rock.
There is so much to be gained by setting your heart, your intentionality, your full commitment into the things that God is committed to. When we are committed to seeking God and dwelling in his presence, He sets our lives in solid and secure places.
Have you been feeling a bit tossed around this week by the waves of Covid, perhaps by financial pressures? By sickness? By Family strife? It is so important to set our eyes back on God, Like I mentioned only a few weeks ago. And we do this best when we do it with others in God’s house.
We need to seek God individually,
But we also need to seek God Corporately!
It’s not an either or, it is a BOTH AND!
Let’s go back to our ACTS 2 passage
• Public Worship
They met daily in the Temple: That’s public/corporate worship – I don’t ask you to come to church daily, but weekly is a great place to start. Some of you come so infrequently, that I’m not sure that you could genuinely say to yourself let alone to God that church is a priority in your life.
A part truth that has been so promoted in the Body of Christ is this We are the Church – we don’t go to church. Yes, In the new covenant we are the temple and we are the place where God dwells both individually and corporately. But Jesus mentioned that there in a unique presencing of himself by the Holy Spirit when even 2 or 3 gather together (there is that word again) when 2 or 3 gather together in His Name. He is there! Hallelujah!
Church, we need each other and we need God. Both of those require that we meet with other believers. In fact, the Bible knows of no form of Christianity that exists outside of community!
When it comes to experiencing God in church, I hope that you have felt that many times, that special way where God has presenced himself in our midst! The old Testament uses words like Shekinah Glory for this kind of experience. If you have not ever experienced it, I want to encourage you to seek God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you, You will never be the same again.
• House to House – They met in people’s houses.
Some people like to do House church. We like to do public celebration and small groups. We call our house groups connect groups because we want people to connect to be part of community. Some people will try and tell you that House church is the New Testament mandate for how to do church. That is Baloney! It is not either or, it is both and. We have public celebrations and we have smaller groups for care and accountability.
You see, so much of genuine pastoral care happens from friends who care for each other. If a church waits for the paid minister to do all of this then the minister will end up failing his people. Any individuals arms are only so wide and there ae only so many hours in any given day or week.
• Serve together
The new testament, early church did life together with others. They were so close that when they saw a need, they helped to meet it for one another. I wonder, are we like that? Just this week I have seen so much evidence for the affirmative. Big word for YES WE ARE. I’m sure that we can all get better but Romaine, I congratulate you and I say well done!
I have mentioned just a couple of weeks ago about the horses working together. You know, when Jesus sent the disciples out – he sent them out 2 by 2. This continued in Acts and developed into Teams working with Paul to establish new churches n new towns.
I don’t mind if your service is in hospital visitation, or in doing our lawns. It is more fun when you do it with someone. It is a great opportunity to train people in how to do tasks! It lightens youlr load and if your doing in Jesus name, then it brings his presence into whatever situation or task it is that you are doing.
Finally, I talked just before about God’s house being God’s family. Maybe the most important question that you might like to ask today is how do I become part of that family. We don’t get born into it. We get born again into it by the Spirit of God. We all need somewhere to belong. God promises to put orphans in families! If you ae feeling all alone, God invites you to join his family!
But there is one issue that stops us, and that is our sin. God has made a solution for this. It is the gift of is only begotten son so that we can all become adopted children in the family of God. The offer is there, the decision is ours. He freely gives, will you freely receive that gift with thankful heart and give your life to him today. If that is where you find yourself today, Why don’t we pray this prayer of salvation together today.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I believe that Jesus died for me.
I believe that Jesus paid for my sins when he died on the cross.
I ask you to forgive me of my sins and to wash me clean.
I put my faith and trust in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.
Lord. I want to live my life for Christ.
I understand that my salvation is not based on my works but on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Thank you for saving me!
Amen!