Sermon Central
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Integrating Spirituality In Our Living Space Series
Contributed by Brad Bailey on Jul 22, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: There is a false division of life… even if unclear or unconscious… that can cause us to compartmentalize and confine our spiritual growth. The result is that… • For 166 of the 168 hours in the week we lose our sense of God’s interest and involvement.
Integrating Spirituality in Our Living Space
This morning… take up our series on Integrating Spirituality into our Everyday Life.
Last week…introduction…
Noted there is a false division of life… even if unclear or unconscious… that can cause us to
compartmentalize and confine our spiritual growth. The result is that…
• For 166 of the 168 hours in the week we lose our sense of God’s interest and involvement.
• Our spiritual lives become less dynamic and daily. Our lives can become safely divided….
but also strangely divided.
We sense we are living two lives.
Jesus operated out of an entirely different reality… an undivided reality…. just life and His
Father at work in it.
• Heaven and earth are co-existent… and he comes to announce and embody this reality.
• “Let your kingdom come on earth as it… ‘will be’ in heaven ??? … as IT IS in heaven.”
• We are always living before heaven… living our lives in connection to that dimension…
and in relationship to the Father of all.
The apostle Paul came to understand this and declares…
Col. 3:23
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men…”
> God wants us to become “Whatever We Do People.”
(Wherever and Whatever)
The key isn’t about not dismissing some aspects of life as less spiritual but rather honoring and
heeding God’s involvement in them.
Fr. Gerald Weber
“Spiritual experiences are not a matter of finding God, nor are they a matter
of waiting till God fairly screams, "Look, here I am!" Spiritual experiences
surround us. We fall over them dozens of times a day. We can’t avoid them if
we try. A spiritual experience is simply a matter of recognizing and
acknowledging our relationship to God in whatever is going on in our lives at
the moment. God is involved in all we do and does not pop in and out of our
lives. We live surrounded by God. We live and breathe God just as we live and
breathe air. To know that either air or God is present, we need only to pause
and reflect for an instant to see that we are immersed in them.”
Ephes. 6:7-8
“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8because you know that
the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does…”
2
As we venture into the various dimensions of everyday life, this series will be notably
different from the way we usually approach seeking God’s Word to us… not beginning with a
particular text… not even simply a single topic… but a particular aspect or activity in life…
with the primary desire being that of seeking how God sees spiritual significance and spiritual
growth in such a dimension of our lives.
In future weeks we’ll consider our work, recreation, rest, entertainment, and citizenship…
but it only seems natural we begin where we begin and end our day.
Here’s a little visual introduction…
[ Video collage of Living Space related images ]
As the images just portrayed… begin with where much of our days begin… and end… our
LIVING SPACE.
Do all the activities associated with our home lives really have spiritual
significance?
I recognize that we represent a diversity of contexts and circumstances…so various aspects
will relate more to some than others… but with a little patience and creative thinking… I’m
confident that each of us can find news ways sense God’s involvement in our lives.
Four particular aspects related to our living space… general areas… which overlap
1. Homemaking - Shaping Communal and Family Values
I realize that many of us don’t live in actual houses… but a home is whatever context we
create to live in… for many apartments or similar living spaces.
Homemaking as a vocation has had it’s share of bad publicity in recent years. The popular
media delight in caricaturing homemakers. Those involved in the domestic dimension of life
are often pictured as less intelligent, less glamorous, and less important.
Who is the original homemaker?
> God… When God wanted to create beings in His image… he first created the
surroundings… took care of the preparations and provisions…
Homemaking is an act of human creativity. The attitude and personality of homemakers, the spirit
with which they approach their task, shape and define the homes they make. In the original act of
creation God brought order out of chaos. Establishing a home exercises a similar kind of
creativity.
What has Jesus said he has gone to do even now?
As Jesus spoke with his disciples about his ascension, he gave an intriguing glimpse into his
occupation until they would be reunited with him for eternity.
“… I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you
