En Casa Como En El Cielo, Abril 19, 2026

It's one of the hardest things I've ever done. Spiritual things aren't going to interest most kids. They want to play and have fun and learn and explore, and that's all good. We want them to do those things, but we also want to make sure that they know that that's not what life is ultimately about. God has given Harper, Max, and Jack to us, and it's our responsibility to teach them and to share the truth of the gospel and share what we know and what we've experienced and what we know to be true. I try to have my time with the boys almost daily. We've gone through different books, but more than that, I think weaving in our own witness when we're talking to them. It's not just reading the page and then we're done. It's applying what we're talking about personally to them and asking them, okay, what does this say about God? What does this say about us? What is so glorious about Jesus Christ? Are we showing them that we actually love God? We actually know God and how big and awesome He is? With Harper, I think we are kind of still figuring it out. The way that I might talk to Harper is not the way that I'm going to talk to Max and Jack about things. She's had a lot of difficult and heavy things go on in her life at such a young age. Her father died when she was four. I was not in a good place then, just like she wasn't, and so there was not very much discipling going on at all. That's a rhythm she and I are still trying to figure out, especially as she's gotten older. She asks a lot more questions and she wants to talk to me about more important things. I like to read, so my thinking on it is, well, we'll just read a book together. That fell flat on its face.

She hates to read, so that was over before it began. With her, it's been mostly long talks in the car on the way back from cross-country meets. It's quiet. It's just the two of us, and we can talk about what's going on with her and how our faith relates to what she's going through right now. Our kids will do or say something where we think that we failed as parents. We'll come in here in the morning and I'll tell them that we're going to do a Bible story. They will start fighting and arguing over everything, what book we're going to read, who's going to look up the scripture on my phone. One of them will hit the other one, they'll start throwing things at each other, and then I get mad, and everybody is mad and in a bad mood, and then it's just like, all right, let's talk about the love of God. Let's open up our Bible, and in God's providence, He's helped me see that even in the worst I can get them in front of me, and I can say, I want you to look at how you're behaving, and it's all over absolutely nothing. I can point to that, and I can say, there is something wrong with your heart, and you need the mercy of God. That is why Jesus died on the cross. That is why He died for sinners. Things like that just give me a glimmer of hope, because we don't feel qualified for this job. Harper, being a teenager these days, means that she's confronted with a lot. I want her to know what she believes and know what her faith is, so that when she is not living in this house anymore, which is coming up very soon, she's graduating this year, she knows what the Bible says and can apply that to any situation that she's faced with. I'm aware of my weaknesses and my inabilities, but that leads me to rely more on God and intercede for my kids more. We pray, and we may not see answers for a long, long time, but God tells us, don't stop. Buenos dias, Iglesia. Gracias a Dios por el testimonio de la familia Matthews.

Praise God for the testimony of the Matthews family. Que nos recuerda que estamos en el mismo camino, juntos, verdad, las mismas dificultades. That reminds us that we all go through the same struggles. Para aquellos que no me conocen, mi nombre es Alfredo Zuniga. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Alfredo Zuniga. Y es un gozo abrir la palabra de Dios cada domingo mientras nos reunimos juntos como iglesia. It's a joy to open the word together every Sunday as we come together as a church. And as we continue in our study of at home as it is in heaven, I want to remind you that as we go through, we're going to look at how each room in our home represents an aspect of God's word, reading God's word together. And our title today is The Study, The Joy of Walking in the Truth. And last week, Pastor Ben showed us this graphic. And how every room corresponds to a principle of bringing heaven into our home. And what we talked about first, it was last week was the living room and where we spend a lot of our time. And what we saw is that if we want God's kingdom to reign in our home, the very first thing that we have to establish is great relationships, quality relationships with one another. And it's the idea of showing the people around you the love that you have for them. And that's what Jesus did with us. He entered into our misery and our everyday life to show us just how much he loved us. But if everything we do is just simply have a good relationship and eat together and spend time together, that won't be enough to see the kingdom of heaven reign in our homes. And so, that's why today our second lesson is on the study. And so, most of us don't have a study in our home with a library and a giant big desk made of fine wood. And so, many of us, maybe the kitchen is where we do our studying. Or whatever room in your house you might learn in. And so, the idea of this study is that in addition to having great relationships, we

also have to communicate the truth. And so, before we enter into today's passage, why don't we pray together? Heavenly Father, this morning we come before you, recognizing that without you we're lost. Without your love, we are broken. And without your direction, we are lost. And so, we ask that you would open our hearts and our minds to understand your word in such a way that it would make an impact upon our lives and in the lives of those around us. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. The Apostle John in his third letter. Writing to Brother Gaius, I'm not sure how it's said in English, but in Spanish it's easy, Gaius. It sounds like the Spanish word for rooster, right? But that's not important for the passage today. He says how it feels to hear about how his disciple, Gaius, is walking in the truth. Verse four says this, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. And so, there were some brothers and sisters in Christ who traveled from the church of Gaius to where the Apostle John was, and they reported back about how Gaius was walking with the Lord and how he was living his life in Christ. And so, the Apostle John writes back and says, wow, I can't, I'm so filled with joy to know how you're living. And I say, if you have children, you understand this principle. And if somebody comes to you and they say, wow, your children, they behaved in such a wonderful way today. You feel just full of joy to hear that news, right? But sometimes you also hear the opposite. We hear the opposite. Right, right. Yes. John is like, wow.

No worries. But there's a joy that comes when you hear that people you love are walking in the truth. When Pastor Dave and I, when we start to pray for the church, and we see and talk about those who are taking steps of faith and obedience in the Lord, it produces a tremendous joy in us. A joy for us. But we also know that that will produce a joy in the people. And so, if we take a moment to analyze the root of the problems with humanity, we can come to a very simple yet profound conclusion. And it's this, that from the very beginning, humanity has decided to believe in a lie instead of in the truth of God. And you see the words that Satan said to the woman, did God really say that? That continues reverberating in our minds. We continue having that same struggle. Could it be that God really said that? The enemy said to the woman, could it be that God really has a good plan for you? Or maybe he's just putting limits on you. And as you start to look into those lies that come into our lives, you start to see this decline in the way in which we act and in the way in which we think, in the way in which we feel. Because in the moment in which we believe alive, the same thing that happened to Adam and Eve begins to happen in us. We disconnect from our source of truth. source of joy, our source of stability. We lose our sense of reference. And so this leaves us with just one solution. Walking in the truth. And we know that the truth is absolute. It is exclusive. And it can't co-exist, it doesn't co-exist with lies. In this sense it's like something can't be both black and white at the same time. And you could say, sure, pastor, that makes perfect sense. But what that means in our daily practice means that not all roads lead to Rome. Not all religions are the same. Not all paths lead to heaven. Not everybody adores and worships the same God. And those who are a little bit softer

and start to get a little bit more uncomfortable with these principles there. But it's not something we say. It's what Jesus says. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. The entrance through Christ, the entrance to heaven is only through Christ. Christ is the truth. The only truth. And you might ask, pastor, what about my cousin who he goes to a church and they talk about Jesus a little bit but it's not really the Jesus of the scriptures? Well then he's not in the truth. You should pray for that person. And present the truth of the word to him. Pastor, pero porque somos tan exclusivos que solo lo que la Biblia diga, que de este otro libro y que de esta historia? And pastor, why is it so exclusive? What about this other book and what about these other stories? Why must we be so exclusive? Because it wouldn't be loving to present a lie as if it were a truth. And so when we speak about the truth, we'd like to have, I'd like to leave you with three thoughts this morning. That we could apply it to our personal life and what's around us. And the first is that we all sit under the truth of the word. The word of God is over all. Even those of us who are able to stand here every Sunday and present the truth before you, we are under the exact same authority of the word that you are under. We are not over the word of God. And anyone who puts themselves above the word of God, puts himself against God. And that's why it's our desire every week to preach to you what God says. And not to tell you, God told me. No, God already said it. And just as you can see it there, I can see it there. should be humble. And this is especially important for those adults of us who have been in the church for a long time. As adults, when we've been in the church for a good while, we can start to have this attitude of, yeah, I already know that. And our kids learn from that attitude. And if you already feel like you've moved past that, well then what else is there to learn? We need humility, church. Look at what 2 Timothy 3, 16-17 says. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. What part of the Scripture is inspired, church? The word inspiration or breathed out. The word inspired, as it says in Spanish, inspirada, means breathed out. It's the idea as if a person is at an instrument, like a trumpet, and then they blow on the instrument, and it produces a sound. And so those wind instruments, like the saxophone and the trumpet, they don't produce any sound on their own. And that's the idea of this term breathed

out. And the miracle is that God used common men to bring about his complete and perfect word of that which he said. And so since all of God's word is breathed out, we can't use it like we would a menu at a restaurant. Ooh, I like this, I don't like this. Ooh, this is nice. Yeah, I like the French fries, but not the baked potato. All of God's word is inspired. And because of that, all of Scripture has authority. And so if there's something you hear today about why God's word is important, because it is God speaking it. And if you want to hear someone, and if there's someone who is worthy of being listened to, it's not your favorite influencer, or your favorite podcast. It is the creator of the universe. And if you would be willing to listen to an argument as to why you should apply the word to your life, I would hope that that argument would be sufficient for you. But praise God, he gives us even more reason. He says that it's useful for teaching. And it's that if you're not learning from the word of God, someone else is going to be teaching you something different. In this time of the social media, the whole world is a teacher. Everybody thinks they're an expert, and all they did was type something into ChatGPT. We need to be locked in on the word of God. If your children are not in the word of God, then Daniel the tiger is going to teach them how to be a good person. or bluey. And sometimes I like to watch those shows. But those programs don't come from a biblical worldview. And so since mankind's problem is sin, those moral lessons won't fix us. We need the word of God. That doesn't only teach us, but it also reproves us. And that idea of reproof is that it convinces you that you're wrong. And sometimes as parents we can struggle. We struggle because it can be hard as parents to say, oh, you're wrong. And one day we were with our children and I said, okay, let's sing to the Lord. And so I start to sing and they were just singing. And so I was struggling. I was thinking, do I tell them to sing or do I let them not sing? And when I tell them sing, they sang for just a moment and then they stopped singing. And it made me think about the theology of Song of Solomon this week. And I go to Psalm 150. Everything that has breath, praise the Lord. And so I came back the following week. And I told them, sing. Oh, why dad? Because God commands it. Read Psalm 150. And we read it. And I asked them, are you breathing? Do you have breath? They said, yes. And so I said, then you've got to do it. And so in that moment they know

they're not struggling with what it is that I'm asking them to do or not do. I'm just a simple human like them. But what their struggle is whether or not they're going to submit to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And it's worth mentioning that that's the exact same struggle that we have. And so in that moment, the Word convinces them that they are in error. But sometimes they need to be corrected. And the word correction means epo-ortosis. And so the Greek has to do with orthopedics. It's returning something to its proper place in a straight line. And so sometimes we have a tendency to be bent and to go off on our own. And so there's a saying that says, a bent stick, no one can put it back straight. God's Word can. And so for the most mature, for as mature as you become and set in your own ways that are bent and crooked, God can return you back. And we need instruction. And sometimes we don't know what righteousness and unrighteousness is. And so how can we get on to our children if we ourselves don't even know what's right and what's wrong? As adults, we continue learning. We have to continue learning what's right and what's wrong. Why? de Dios sea perfecto, so that the man of God may be complete, y la palabra perfecto en el original significa maduro espiritualmente, and some translations say perfect and that word perfect means complete or mature, no significa sin error, it doesn't mean completely without error, porque Jesús es el único perfecto, because Jesus is the only perfect, entonces si esta, la palabra de Dios hace obra en nuestra vida, entonces vamos a madurar espiritualmente, and so if the word of God does its work in our lives, then we are going to mature in this life, y vamos a ser equipados para toda buena obra, and we will be equipped for every good work, y me recuerda esta vez que nos invitaron a acampar unos hermanos de la iglesia por primera vez, and that reminds me of this time that as a family we were invited to camp with this family from church for the very first time, cuando haces esas cosas necesitas saber que tienes todo el equipamiento necesario para ir y tener una buena experiencia, and when you do things like camping you have to have everything ready so that you can survive and make it, y como a mi me gusta ahorrar, and so because I'm a big time saver, entonces busque a que alguien, alguien me regaló una tienda de campaña, I looked for someone who could just gift me a tent to camp, y se miraba hermoso hermanos, and it looked beautiful, hasta la puse antes de ir y se miraba bonita, and I set it up and it just looked so beautiful,

pero estamos listos familia, le digo, and I said okay family we're ready, entonces cuando ponemos todo ya listo, todo se mira en orden, y viene la noche, and so we set everything up at the campsite and everything was in order and nice, y estaba a punto de llover, y les decía imagínense esa imagen, and as we were going to bed and it was dark, está fresquecito, no está caliente con mosquitos, it was nice and fresh, there were no mosquitos, y vamos a dormir con un sonido natural de la lluvia, and we were about to go to sleep with this natural sound of the rain on the tent, lo que no le puse atención es que el hermano que me regaló la tienda con muy buen deseo me había dicho que esa la había tenido por catorce años en el ático, what I didn't really put together is that that brother who had great intentions he did tell me that tent had been in the attic for 14 straight years, que cuando empieza la lluvia solo siento la primera gota en la cabeza, and so when the rain started I felt the very first drip come right on my forehead, y antes de darnos cuenta los niños tenían el agua hasta acá en la cabeza, and before I knew it we were laying in bed and the water was up to here on our faces, la experiencia no fue buena, the experience was not good, pero no fue culpa de ir al camping, fue culpa de que no teníamos lo necesario para enfrentar esa situación, and it wasn't the fault of camping, camping is a great activity, it was our fault for not having everything we needed for the experience, que increíble que la palabra de Dios tenga respuestas para todas las situaciones de tu vida, how amazing it is that the Word of God has answers for every situation of the life, tengo problema con mi hijo adolescente, I have a problem with my teenage son, la palabra tiene respuestas, God's Word has an answer, tengo problemas en mi trabajo, I have trouble at work, estoy luchando con mi salud, I'm struggling with my health, cualquier cosa que ustedes traigan, la palabra de Dios tiene la respuesta, anything that life brings your way, God's Word has answers, y por eso tenemos que hacer algo muy importante que es el segundo pensamiento o valor que quiero que se lleven And that's why we have to have this second value in mind, comunicamos la verdad de la palabra, we communicate the truth of the Word, esta mañana tuvimos un tiempo de lectura de la palabra, this morning we had a time of reading scripture, tuvimos tiempo de cantar la palabra, we had time to sing scripture, tuvimos tiempo de orar la palabra, we had time to pray scripture, para que ustedes sepan que no es tan complicado hacer lo mismo en la casa, so that you would know that it's not so complicated to use the Word and teach

the Word in our home, abrir la palabra, open the Word, y dejar que Dios hable, and let God speak, poner un parlantito o el teléfono y darle play a un pasaje bíblico, you can take out your phone and hit play and listen to a passage of scripture, si nosotros no comunicamos lo que Dios nos está hablando iglesia, if we don't communicate that which God is speaking to us church, como entonces el reino de los cielos se va a establecer en nuestras vidas, en nuestros hogares, en nuestras comunidades, how is it possible for the kingdom of heaven to be established in our home and where we live, mire lo que Pablo le dice a Timoteo, y lo que has oído de mi en presencia de muchos testigos, eso encarga a hombres fieles que sean idóneos para enseñar también a otros, look at what the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2.2, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also, enseñamos lo que vamos aprendiendo, teach what we are learning. We're not pretending that we have the answers to every single thing, but as we go learning, we can share what we learn. I don't want to happen to us what happened to this generation in the book of Judges. Judges chapter 2 verse 10, and all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Church, don't let it be that because of our refusal to communicate the word that the next generation would come up and not know what God wants them to know. The chaos that we see in this country is because a generation has arisen that doesn't know the Lord. They don't know the Lord nor what he has done. And the last point is that it's not just important that the word be communicated, but that it also be applied. The point is this, that we live in the light of the word. Not just hearers, but doers. Not just to enter into the truth of the word. Not that we enter into it, but that it would enter into us. The word of God isn't just to philosophize, it's to obey it.

It should change our lives radically. And while the worship team comes forward, I'd like to read this passage. It says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. That verse is there for you to memorize this week. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. When do you need to turn a lamp on? When it's dark. It's this church that life is going to get dark. You'll have those moments of rain, those difficult trials in your life, and what do you need? You need a lamp. A lamp that would give light to that moment. But as you see, our lives are not static. We keep walking. We need to know where it is that we're going. And I love to do this little activity with my kids when we read this passage. And so what we do is we blindfold our kids and we tell them, okay, walk from this edge of the living room to the kitchen. And maybe they do more or less good because they're familiar with how the furniture's organized. But then we move everything around and they fall down all over the place. We need the light of the Word of God so that we can walk in His joy. There are some of us that we walk with our eyes blindfolded. Sometimes our kids walk blindfolded. We need the Word of God. We need it for our hearts. We need it to communicate it to others. And we need it to transform our lives. As we conclude our service, we want to celebrate the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a special and an amazing event for us. That we remember the night that the Lord Jesus was handed over.

I'm going to ask that the ushers would guide you by rows to come take the elements and then we will take the elements together.