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Knowing the BASICS – Knowing the Community: A Place To Be HOME! (Sermon Audio)

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This is the audio from the November 2, 2025 sermon, “Knowing the Community: A Place To Be HOME!”, shared by Tom Lemler at the Deer Run Church of Christ.

Text: 1 John 1

 

“I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.  Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”
1 Corinthians 10:15-16 (NIV)

Today we continued a sermon series about Knowing the BASICS!  This will be a six-part series looking at the basics of what we believe as the Deer Run Church of Christ, which corresponds with what I believe as a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus.  Foundational to our beliefs about God is a belief that the Bible is the true and accurate Word of God filled with the content He desires for us to know and follow.  Because the Bible is God’s Word, we believe and know God to be the authority over all things.  With God as the authority, we find through Jesus the example of knowing the submission we ought to live with.  As we submit to God, we discover a great invitation from Him to all people.  As we respond to the invitation of God, we discover a community of believers called to a unity through a communion with God and with one another.  It is in this community that we find not only find a place to call home, we find in Him a place to be . . .

  • Humble:  1 John 1:1

    • Our communion within the community of God is a place to be humble as we recognize Jesus as the One who call us to consider the needs of others to be more important than our own.  Humility ought to be a character trait that every Christian desires to see grow in their own life as it is an identifying characteristic of Jesus.  When the world teaches us to lift our self, God identifies the church as a place to be humble. 

  • Observant:  1 John 1:2-4

    • Our communion within the community of God is a place to be observant as we open both our eyes and our mind.  We “observe” the Lord’s Supper and the community it brings when we choose to not only see the elements, but to experience the meaning of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in our life.  When the world teaches us to look our for our self, God identifies the church as a place to be observant.

  • More: 1 John 1:5-7

    • Our communion within the community of God is a place to be more because our being becomes reflective of who God is rather than being limited by who we are.  It is the enemy who wishes to limit what God can do in us and through us, and sometimes we are willing participants in believing God would never be able to use us for something beyond what we can imagine.  When the world teaches us to know our limit, God identifies the church as a place to be more.

  • Enough:  1 John 1:8-10

    • Our communion within the community of God is a place to be enough as we put our faith and complete trust in the work God accomplished through Jesus.  Even as we understand God’s ability to do more then we can think or imagine, we also must learn the contentment of simply being enough when God’s work in us isn’t as big as we would like.  When the world teaches us to pursue greatness by its standards, God identifies the church as a place to be enough.

Today, how will you, and the community of believers you are part of, be HOME?