"The Church In Your House"

“…the church in your house…” / Philemon 2

This past weekend the HOPE Session spent some time at the beach on retreat.  Our MO (Mode of Operation) for our retreats over the past years has been to reflect on the past and plan for the future.  But these past two years we have visioned more on where we are going in God’s will for HOPE EPC than where we have been.  

Last year I presented the Worship, Grow, Serve theme and we spent time looking at how scripturally that fits into the Who and What God was calling us to be as a church.  This year we moved from a more inward focus to a more outward focus.  God is calling us to go and serve, so what does that look like.  The questions now are Who, How, & When as we live into Worship, Grow, Serve.  For our HOPE family, I will be sharing more about this at our Annual Meeting of the Congregation on November 20th.

Yesterday morning as I was reading my devotions (one of them always is the Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon), the words jumped out at me in relation to the focus of our weekend at the beach.  Spurgeon ask the question, “Is there a Church in this house?”  So I want to share his words with you in the rest of this article and I want you to especially take notice of the last paragraph.  I would ask you all reading this, not just the HOPE EPC family, how does Spurgeon’s call to be the Church live out in your life?  

(Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

“Is there a Church in this house? Are parents, children, friends, servants, all members of it? or are some still unconverted? Let us pause here and let the question go round--Am I a member of the Church in this house? How would father's heart leap for joy, and mother's eyes fill with holy tears if from the eldest to the youngest all were saved! Let us pray for this great mercy until the Lord shall grant it to us. Probably it had been the dearest object of Philemon's desires to have all his household saved; but it was not at first granted him in its fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus, who, having wronged him, ran away from his service. His master's prayers followed him, and at last, as God would have it, Onesimus was led to hear Paul preach; his heart

was touched, and he returned to Philemon, not only to be a faithful servant, but a brother beloved, adding another member to the Church in Philemon’s house. 

Is there an unconverted servant or child absent this morning? Make special supplication that such may, on their return to their home, gladden all hearts with good news of what grace has done! Is there one present? Let him partake in the same earnest entreaty.

If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it well, and let all act as in the sight of God. Let us move in the common affairs of life with studied holiness, diligence, kindness, and integrity. More is expected of a Church than of an ordinary household; family worship must, in such a case, be more devout and hearty; internal love must be more warm and unbroken, and external conduct must be more sanctified and Christlike. We need not fear that the smallness of our number will put us out of the list of Churches, for the Holy Spirit has here enrolled a family-church in the inspired book of remembrance.  As a Church let us now draw nigh to the great head of the one Church

universal, and let us beseech him to give us grace to shine before men to the glory of his name.”

Man!  Now that is something to ponder!

Blessings friends,

Pastor Marty

Worship, Grow, & Serve