If Only I Had a Home

10-13-19 Sermon Notes “If I Only Had a Home”GFUMC
I have several cousins on my dad’s side of the family who live in Wisconsin. One summer Tammy and I were visiting up there, and we went in an antique store, and I asked the clerk about something. She looked at me funny, and I realized that my accent had given me away. (What? Me? An accent?) So the clerk asks, “Where’s home?” I said, “Alabama.” She said, “What do you do in Alabama? Pick cotton?” And before I knew what I was saying, I responded… “What do you do in Wisconsin? Make cheese?”
Yes, by the way, on both counts. But sometimes our “home” gets stereotyped, doesn’t it? Even the word, “home,” brings up different images for different people. Where’s “home” for you? Have you always lived in Gadsden? My family is still getting used to calling Gadsden home. Having moved around quite a bit, we’ve always tried to have the attitude that “home is where you make it.”
Or maybe you have heard the saying, “Home is where the heart is.” That saying has been around for a long time. It goes back to the first century – to a guy named Pliny. He was a Roman navigator and sailor. I guess it makes sense that, “Home is where the heart is,” comes from a person who probably spent a lot of time at sea. Picturing home in his mind… If only…
What if we looked at “home” from a different angle? What if we looked at it not so much in terms of geography but in terms God dwelling in us…and finding contentment there. “Home” is finding our rest in God – no matter where we on the GPS. I love the way the psalmist David puts this in Psalm 131…
My heart is not proud, LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
3 Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore. (Psalm 131: 1-3 NIV)

If we are not content and quieted on the inside, we can be sitting inside the house we grew up in, and still not feel at home. If we do have that contentment and quiet, then we feel at home anywhere. Home is not “somewhere over the rainbow.” Join us Sunday as we continue the “Overcoming Our If Onlys” series!
Grace and peace,