Good Words from God’s Word
 
“HOME” is a great word. You’ve heard people say, “Home is where the heart is.” Dorothy, when she was wandering in the Land of Oz, was told by the good witch of the north that if she would click the heels of her magic red slippers three times and repeat saying, “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” she would instantly find her way back to her home in Kansas. Dorothy was right, there’s truly no place like home. 
 
When baseball players hit the ball over the fence, they call it a “Home Run”. Every time a baseball player steps up to hit, he touches home plate with his bat before every pitch. He touches home plate because that is the place he wants to wind up. The purpose of the game is to cross home plate. You do not score a run until you cross home plate. Babe Ruth said, “Every strike is one step closer to a home run.”
 
Whatever you say about your home, home is the place where God wants to live with you. The Bible says, “Now my eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For not I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and my eyes and My heart will be there forever.” (2 Chronicles 7:15-16)
 
That is God’s promise for his home and that is what He wants to do in your home. God wants your home to be a place where He dwells. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) Jesus wants to live inside your home. 
 
Years ago, had you stood on the street corner and watched the funeral procession, you would have been extremely impressed. You would have seen standing there, with his head bowed and his hat removed, and tears in his eyes, the President of the United States. Around him would have been the Cabinet, officers and members of Congress, dignitaries from Berlin, London, Tokyo, and Washington.

There was a tremendous crowd there watching that casket, draped in Old Glory, as it went down the road in that funeral procession. Well who was this? Who was this person who was so honored? Well, he never held an elected office; he wasn't wealthy. In fact, I will call his name in a moment and I doubt any of you will recognize it. He got into government service, ended up overseas in Tripoli and he died in Tripoli. But, he was so loved and so revered by the people of this country, and by people from all over the world, that they disinterred his body there in Tripoli and brought him back to the United States to give him this magnificent funeral. His name was John Howard Payne. Ring a bell? I didn't think so. 

Do you know what he was so loved for? He was so honored and loved because of one simple line that he wrote:

 
Mid pleasures and palaces,
Though oft I may roam;
Be it ever so humble,
There's no place like home.
 

And for that one phrase, they honored John Howard Payne. God loves your home. The highest honor your home can have is to make it a place where God feels at home.

Good Words from God’s Word
 
What smells good to you? When I think of good smells, I think of a baby who has just been bathed in Johnson’s baby lotion. I think of Robbie’s fresh baked tea cakes. I think of the Hiwassee River where I can sit on the river bank and smell the memory of my father teaching me to trout fish when I was 6 years old. When I think of good smells, I think of ocean breezes, spring rain, barbeque, or my mother’s fried chicken. Everybody likes a good smell.
 
When I think of bad smells, I immediately remember what a death ward inside a hospital in a foreign country where I traveled smelled like. I have never smelled a smell like that anywhere and I do not care to smell that smell ever again. Death is one of the most repugnant, sickening, penetrating smells you can imagine. Death is a smell you would like to forget, but can’t. The stench of it stays with you forever.
 
After the Judaizers did their best to stink up the church, the apostle James made a decision:
 
“Therefore it is my judgement that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles.” (Acts 15:19)
 
James made a statement that turned out to be a binding resolution which was adopted by the church. The word for “TROUBLE” means that they do not “CROWD” the Gentiles, or bully them.
It means that there be no ANNOYANCE or added COMPLICATION made upon these new converts. James said to the trouble-makers, “Stop making trouble! Trouble always stinks, so stop it.”
 
The photographer for a national magazine was assigned to get photos of a great forest fire. Smoke at the scene hampered him and he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made and he was told to go at once to a nearby airport, where the plane would be waiting. When he arrived at the airport, a plane was warming up near the runway. He jumped in with his equipment and yelled, “Let's go! Let's go!”
 
 The pilot swung the plane into the wind and they soon were in the air.
 
“Fly over the north side of the fire,” yelled the photographer, “and make three or four low level passes.”
 
“Why?” asked the pilot.
 
“Because I'm going to take pictures,” cried the photographer. “I'm a photographer and photographers take pictures!”
 
After a pause the pilot said, “You mean you're not the instructor?”
 
The Bible says, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God…” (2 Corinthians 2:15)
 
Without our instructor Jesus, we can become an odor rather than a fragrance. Make sure that Jesus is in the cockpit with you at all times. Without Him, we all tend to stink it up.

Good Words from God’s Word
 
The word I want to talk about this morning is a good Bible word, FELLOWSHIP. Jesus said:
 
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
 
The fellowship of the church is so critical that Jesus made it a commandment. Believers have no choice but to love one another because without love there is no fellowship. The second element in Christ’s command to love each other and build the fellowship is that loving one another tells people that we know Jesus. How can you convince someone that God loves them if you do not love others like He loves you? It’s impossible.
 
Rick Warren said: “Every church needs to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, and larger through evangelism.”
 
I’m glad he started with fellowship because it is impossible to grow larger apart from a warm and loving fellowship. Having a warm and loving fellowship at church is not something that happens accidently or by chance. It takes work and diligence to create a loving and caring church fellowship alive.
 
A.W. Tozer compared the power of Christian fellowship to the flow of electricity, “Unity is necessary to the outpouring of the Spirit of God. If you have 120 volts of electricity coming into your house but you have broken wiring, you may turn on the switch, but nothing works—no lights come on, the stove doesn’t warm, the radio doesn’t turn on. Why? Because you have broken wiring, there is no power. Unity (Fellowship) is necessary among the children of God if we are going to know the flow of power…to see God do His wonders.”
 
That is exactly the point made in scripture when the early church was:
 
“Day by day continuing with one mind (Fellowship), in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house (Fellowship), they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart (Fellowship), praising God and having favor with all the people (Fellowship). And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved (God’s Power).” (Acts 2:46-47)
 
God’s miracle working power accompanies the fellowship of God’s people.
 
Our church picnic and baptism event last weekend was a demonstration of fellowship and power. Our church family gathered like the early believers did in Acts under those pavilions at Bolding Mill Park to allow the love of Jesus to flow freely through us. WHAT A BLESSING!
 
Thank you ladies and men (Who Can Cook) for the delicious dishes and desserts you provided. There is nothing that builds good fellowship better than good food. Thanks to the men who got there early to grill the hamburgers and hot dogs. Thank you to everyone who helped set up the tables, provide the drinks, and arrange the condiments. Every effort and contribution added to the unity and fellowship of our awesome church.
 
Then, God’s power showed up BIG TIME. I felt God’s power in the testimonies of all those who were baptized. When each person baptized shared their testimony of faith, God’s power energized our whole church family. We all watched a miracle happen as 6 people gave witness to what God had done in their lives. Praise God for the fellowship of Grace Baptist Church. The fellowship of Grace and the power of God keep me charged up.

Good Words from God’s Word
 
Today is our celebration Sunday before Independence Day on July 4th, this coming Tuesday. With all her shortcomings, our nation is still the model democracy to every nation on earth. This country is still the best example of and earnest desire within people everywhere who long to be free.
 
George Bernard Shaw said, “Liberty is the breath of life to nations.”
 
That’s why we have an immigration overload in our land. People all over the world want to be free like we are free this morning to worship and live in obedience to our own conscience. Today, I thank God, along with you, my church family, for America.
 
General Omar Bradley said of our nation, “America today is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs down, God help America… We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
 
I think we can all feel the loss as our momentum from a godly ancestry runs down. Violence, greed, lack of decency and disintegration of the family all indicate that our society is headed in the wrong direction.
 
On this Sunday before Independence Day, God’s calls us to worship as a family of believers who have hope rather than despair. Our hope is not in the personality of the one who sits in the leather chair of the oval office. It is not grounded in the halls where men gather to determine budgets, cultural reforms or the laws of the land.  Our hope is found in God who gives us direction and a plan for the future:
 
“If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, they I will heart from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
 
We can pray for our nation today. We can determine to let God take control of our lives. We can do our part to influence and inspire our families and friends to turn toward God. Our hope lies in what God can do for our country.
 
Today, in my absence, Mr. Terry Weatherford will be preaching and leading our congregation in worship. We are excited about how the Lord is using Terry in his ministry with Gideon’s International. As you probably know, The Gideon’s organization places millions of Bibles throughout American and around the world. There is no stronger way to influence the direction of this country and others than pointing multitudes of people toward God’s word. Terry has taken a special interest in Grace because he and his wife Tina were former members and leaders here. Terry was with us during Vacation Bible School and personally prayed with a young man to receive Jesus as his savior. Terry joins with our Wednesday Night Bible Study group from time to time to share in fellowship and prayer for what God is doing. Be in prayer for Terry today as he opens the word of God and preaches what God has placed on his heart.
 
OF COURSE, HAVE A GREAT 4TH OF JULY HOLIDAY. Robbie and I will be in the mountains with our entire family cooking hamburgers, watching fireworks and cooling off while floating down the Hiwassee River. Thank you for giving Robbie and me the privilege of serving our great God as your pastor and for the joy of having a few days away to RECHARGE!