Home Grown: Home

Devotional

Day 1: Raised from death, seated at the family table

A table holds more than food—it holds identity. To be “raised” and “seated” means moving from spiritual death to a permanent place in God’s family. Just as children inherit their parents’ stories, believers inherit Christ’s victory. The Father’s table isn’t earned through performance but received through grace. Every seat here carries equal dignity, whether you’re a prodigal or a lifelong follower. This truth reshapes how we see ourselves and others. [46:42]

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:6-7, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you still struggle to believe your seat at God’s table is secure? How might embracing your “raised and seated” identity change how you interact with someone who feels unworthy?

Day 2: Lingering at the table where souls are shaped

Sobremesa—the art of lingering after meals—is where life’s real formation happens. Arguments, laughter, and quiet confessions around tables mold families. God’s kingdom grows not through programs but through shared bread and shared stories. Like a grandmother’s recipes passed down, faith is transmitted in unhurried moments. What we dismiss as small talk often becomes holy ground. [42:29]

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
(Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

Reflection: When did a simple meal conversation unexpectedly deepen your faith? Who needs an invitation to your table this week, not to be “ministry” but to be family?

Day 3: Masterpieces pointing to the Master Artist

A poem’s beauty points to its author, not its words. Being God’s “poema” means our brokenness and healing tell His story. The recovering addict, the skeptical teen, and the tired parent all reflect divine brushstrokes. True humility isn’t downplaying our worth but redirecting praise to the Artist. Our lives become worship when we stop trying to edit the Poem. [56:18]

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
(Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

Reflection: What part of your story feels too messy to be God’s masterpiece? How could seeing others as “living poems” change your conversations this week?

Day 4: No junior or retired Holy Spirit

The table flattens hierarchies—teenagers and grandparents both hold the Spirit. A former prostitute teaches theology through resilience. A college freshman’s doubts sharpen a pastor’s faith. When we dismiss others based on age, education, or past wounds, we reject God’s seating chart. True family means letting the “least likely” disciple us. [01:02:52]

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
(Romans 8:14-15, ESV)

Reflection: Who in your community might God be using to teach you something you’d never learn from a sermon? What keeps you from leaning into their wisdom?

Day 5: Grilled cheese sandwiches and kingdom feasts

God’s banquet includes both filet mignon and Kraft Singles. The meal’s power lies not in the menu but in the “we” gathered around it. A water-stained tablecloth can hold more grace than a spotless altar. When we obsess over impressing guests, we forget the Host already approved the menu. True hospitality says, “Come as you are—the Chair fits you.” [01:09:30]

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
(Ephesians 2:19, ESV)

Reflection: What insecurity about your “table” (home, resources, or abilities) keeps you from inviting others? How might simple offerings become sacred space this week?

Sermon Summary

Paul roots the church’s identity in a grace that nobody earns. God raised his people from death, seated them with Christ in the heavenly realms, and gave them access to riches that belong to the family of God. The words raised, seated, and riches carry the feel of home: children raised in a family, people seated around a table, and an inheritance shared with sons and daughters.

God’s household is not made up of isolated individuals trying to make it on their own. Ephesians says, “we are God’s handiwork,” and that “we” matters. God forms his people together, around tables, in local churches, in homes, through conversation, fellowship, struggle, and shared life. The table is more than food. The table is sobremesa, the lingering fellowship after the meal, where people are shaped by one another.

Christ gives full citizenship to people who were once excluded. Christ breaks down walls of hostility and creates one new humanity from people divided by race, class, nationality, age, background, and past sin. The family of God gathers trafficked women, recovering addicts, teenagers, missionaries, parents, and children around the same table as brothers and sisters and fellow co-heirs with Christ. No seat at that table is better than another.

Grace keeps that table from becoming a place of comparison or pride. Paul makes it clear that salvation is not by works, so nobody gets to boast. God’s handiwork comes from the Greek word poema, the word behind poem. God’s people are his masterpiece, but the glory belongs to the Author, not the poem. God creates new life in Christ, and God prepares good works for that new life to walk in.

Good works do not purchase a seat at the table. Good works flow from already being welcomed there. God calls his household to testify to his goodness, share his riches, make room for people far from home, and pull up more chairs. The table stays wide when believers open their homes, welcome new people, give young people real places to serve, learn from those who are different, use their gifts faithfully, and leave room for others to do the works God has prepared for them.

God’s grace makes former outsiders into family. Christ makes broken people into brothers and sisters. God’s household becomes home when the church remembers that every chair is a gift and keeps making the table bigger.

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Key Takeaways

1. Grace gives the seat at table. Salvation does not come from earning enough, serving enough, or appearing worthy enough. God raises the dead, brings outsiders in, and seats his children beside Christ by grace through faith. Humility grows when believers remember that every place in God’s household is a pure gift. [55:06]
2. Every believer is a co-heir. Christ does not build a family with first-class and second-class seats. Age, education, nationality, income, maturity, and life history do not determine anyone’s worth at God’s table. The church becomes more like home when brothers and sisters receive one another as equal heirs of God’s riches. [62:18]
3. God gets glory for his poem. God’s handiwork is beautiful because God is the Author. Believers are his poema, his masterpiece, made new in Christ, yet the beauty of that new life points back to the One who made it. Good works become worship when they display God’s grace rather than personal achievement. [56:40]
4. Open the table beyond familiar circles. God’s household calls believers to notice who is lonely, new, overlooked, or far from home. A simple invitation, a chair pulled up, or a meal shared can become a picture of the welcome God has already given in Christ. Fellowship around the table forms people through the gift of being known and received. [69:30]
5. Good works make room for others. God prepares good works for each person, and those works are not all done in the same way. Faithfulness includes using personal gifts while leaving space for younger believers and others to grow into their own callings. The family of God moves forward when people serve with humility instead of control.

## [73:31]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[38:40] - What Does Home Mean?
[41:15] - Formed Around the Table
[44:30] - Saved by Grace for Good Works
[46:42] - Raised, Seated, and Riches
[48:16] - Adopted as God’s Children
[51:26] - Riches of God’s Household
[55:06] - Grace, Not Works
[56:18] - God’s Handiwork and Poem
[59:48] - One Family in Christ
[65:18] - Forming the Next Generation
[68:49] - Opening the Table Wide
[71:15] - Serving Across Differences
[74:54] - Pulling Up More Chairs
[76:34] - Prayer for God’s Family

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Ephesians 2:8-10
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” [44:20]

Ephesians 2:6-7
“And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” [46:09]

Romans 8:14-17
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” [48:16]

Observation questions

In Ephesians 2:6–10, what actions does God take for believers, and what does Paul say believers are created to do? [46:20]
According to Romans 8:14–17, what family words does Paul use to describe the relationship believers have with God and with Christ? [48:32]
What does the word “we” in “we are God’s handiwork” emphasize about how God forms his people? [45:10]
What examples of differences between people were named as things that do not determine a person’s value or place in God’s family? [52:22]

Interpretation questions

Paul says salvation is a gift rather than something earned by works. How does that truth reshape the way believers view their own place in the church and the place of someone whose life looks very different from theirs? [55:16]
Believers are called God’s children, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. What does this identity mean for relationships where differences in age, background, education, money, or spiritual maturity could otherwise create a sense of rank? [01:02:33]
Paul connects grace with good works that God has prepared beforehand. Why is it important that good works come after receiving grace rather than becoming a way to earn God’s welcome? [57:18]
If God’s people are his “handiwork” or poem, how can serving others point attention to God as the Author rather than to the person doing the work? [56:55]

Application questions

Where are you most tempted to feel that you need to earn your seat at God’s table—through serving, spiritual performance, being useful, or appearing put together? What would it look like to receive God’s grace as a gift this week? [55:36]
Think about the tables in your life: your home, workplace, friendships, and church connections. Who may be lonely, new, overlooked, or far from home, and what simple invitation could you offer them? [01:09:16]
Is there someone in the church whose age, culture, life experience, or background makes it easy for you to assume you have little in common? What might it look like to sit with them, listen well, and receive what God may teach you through them? [01:11:34]
What gifts, skills, experiences, or burdens has God given you that could become a good work of service this month? Where might you use them to strengthen God’s household or bless your community? [01:12:19]
Are there places where you are holding too tightly to a role, task, or ministry because you want it done your way? How could you make room for someone else—especially a younger believer—to grow and serve alongside you? [01:13:17]
Who has helped you feel welcomed into God’s family, especially during a difficult or unfamiliar season? How could you help create that same kind of belonging for another person? [01:16:34]

Sermon Clips

31s

#GraceAtTheTable

“And it's also our lifeline. Thank the Lord we don't have to earn our seat at the table. I cannot imagine a more exhausting existence than thinking that I have to earn the food that my mom makes me. Right? We are offered through Christ, through faith in Christ, a seat at the table. It's grace. Right? So it's not by works that we are in a spot at the table in God's family. It is a pure gift of gift of grace.”

51s

#WalkInGoodWorks

“We are walking in the good works that God has prepared for us to do. And those good works, one of them that we're here sharing with you is saying that you are called to testify to all of these gifts that Pete just went over, to all of these riches that God has given us. So Paul, in this letter to the Ephesians, is reminding the Ephesians of all of the things that God has done for them. And then he's saying, now you walk in that, walk in that freedom and share that with other people. Invite more people to the table. Those are good works that's testifying to the ultimate good work, is what God is doing in all of us. And that is what he's asking us to do.”

42s

#BiggerTable

“But that is our shared purpose, shared mission is joining with God in his mission to keep making the table bigger so that more of our brothers and sisters can come home. That's what we're here. That's what we're about. And I just wanna say, what a privilege to do this with you, Tab. Thank you for doing this with us at the ranch. We pray for you here in Norfolk. We're excited to hear about another brother and sister that's gonna be launched into into mission, into that kind of mission this morning as well. We are your family, and we love you, and we really appreciate that you're walking with us in all of this.”

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