In the first church that I attempted the pastor there was an older couple… They were like in their 50s… And they wanted Nancy and I to sing with them. And so they introduced us to this song which we sang together many times…
This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
I think that as we grow older we understand songs like this a little better. We start thinking about heaven.
The problems of life get us thinking about heaven.
Our physical condition gets us thinking about heaven. The ugliness of the world gets us thinking about heaven.
And we start looking forward to a heavenly home.
Last year we went through what I consider a spiritual, moral and political battle in our city and I was in it, I was in it up to my neck. And I experienced firsthand what we just witnessed in the recent Supreme Court battle. When I took my stand and what I considered an important issue that had ramifications for us even as a church I was confronted by foul, vile, ugly confrontational people who were as hateful as I’ve ever seen while they portrayed themselves as tolerant and accepting and open-minded.
It reminded me that this world is not my home.
It reminded me that Jesus spoke and said that his followers would face hatred and persecution simply because of Jesus and that makes me long for my heavenly home.
It reminded me of the moral revolution going on in our country that will stop at nothing to get its way and it makes me long for a heavenly home.
And when I see what’s on the news… It really makes me long for a heavenly home.
I live in world where not only are there the usualy problems, but I have an enemy in Satan who wants to steal my faith and destroy my Jesus life.
We are finishing a four week series of messages based on the movie “I can only imagine.” A beautiful movie of a man’s life who had a rotten father and a rotten home but then… God moved. We have imagined the perfect heavenly father. We have imagined what it’s like to be forgiven. We have imagined something called redemption; that God can wrap his arms around all the messes in our life and somehow use them for good.
Today we want to imagine going home.
Have you ever been homesick? I’ve been a counselor at more than a few camps and have had to deal with homesick kids. Everything is good during the day but that homesickness always strikes when it gets dark and you have to sleep in a strange place with strange people. Suddenly there is a deep longing for the safety and the security of home. It’s natural.
I remember being in college in Canada and I was in love and all I ever wanted to do was try to figure out a way to go home so that I could take Nancy out.
Even now I get a little antsy when I’m away from home for too long. I just want to get back to my routine, to my safe place, to where things make sense and where I belong.
Do you have a home? Where is your home? Where is your safe place? When the world gets absolutely crazy where do you go to and who do you depend on?
This morning I want to remind you of two spiritual concepts - these are supernatural concepts in that they come from Jesus - and they are here for your benefit. These two concepts are these…
1. Jesus wants to give you a home in the palm of his hand while you’re in this world.
2. Jesus wants you to be at home with him in heaven forever.
1. Jesus wants to give you a home in the palm of his hand right now…in this world and in our struggles.
Exhaustion. I think that might be the most fitting word for what I run into most when dealing with people. They are just exhausted.
They are mentally exhausted.
Spiritually exhausted.
Physically exhausted.
Financially exhausted.
They are carrying loads that are weighing them down. They have sins that are weighing them down.
They have responsibilities weighing them down.
They have worries that are weighing them down.
They have relationship issues and drama that are weighing them down.
They have past trauma weighing them down.
And on top of that they feel alone.
And if I were to mention to them anything about going home they wouldn’t be feeling safety or comfort or security they might think “that’s for my problems come from!”
And then we add church to that and it can become one more draining thing.
Here’s what Jesus said… John 14:18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
There is a lot to unpack and that verse but there’s two things that I want to point you to…
- We are not to live our life as orphans - spiritual orphans - with no home, no family, nowhere to go, on our own. Jesus is your security, your rock, your provider. I always knew that when I got home everything would make sense, be alright, and I would be safe. Jesus is that to us.
- And secondly, Jesus promises to live in us and when he comes he will bring life to us. Can you imagine what it must have been like to walk around with Jesus when he was on the earth? Don’t you think that you would always feel safe? Loved? Yet also challenged but somehow deep down you know that his challenges in his commands to you would just work out?
Jesus has a special place, a special relationship with us while we are alive on this earth that is unlike any other relationship. And in it we are safe. We are all right.
There is a safe place for you, it is in the palm of God’s hand.
John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
Jesus also said this to the exhausted world…
Matthew 11:28 – 30 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Here is the invitation of Jesus to an exhausted world…right now…
Rest.
I asked my daughter-in-law hope what I could get her for Christmas and she said, “to sleep in until noon.”
We don’t know how to do this, do we?
- We’re not sure how to come to Jesus
- we’re not sure how to rest.
- We’re not sure how to walk away from our weary and heavy burdens.
- We’re not sure how to take his yoke – or be connected with him - which is easy to bear and his burden which is light.
But we read about this experience throughout scripture.
We read in Psalm 46 to “be still and know that I am God” in the midst of the storm. We don’t know how to be still!
We read in Psalm 23 that he “makes us lie down in green pastures… And he restores my soul” but maybe you can even think of the last time there is green pastures in your life and you don’t even know how to lie down.
Psalm 91:4 says that we can abide under his wings, be in a safe and sheltered place. Do you know how to get there? Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
We are told in Psalm 48:9 to meditate on the wonders of who God is and to be renewed by that. Do we know anything about meditating?
Isaiah 40:31 tells us to wait upon the Lord and he will renew our strength. What do you know about waiting?
Isaiah 26:3 says that the person whose mind is stayed on Jesus will have peace. We don’t know how to keep our mind stayed on Jesus.
2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
When you are in the palm of God’s hand you are safe, you are where you belong and you know that it’s going to be all right.
I’ll tell you what we are good at; running,
staying busy,
chasing things,
drama and worry.
Even when life is supposed to be less busy at retirement I often hear people saying “I am busier than ever.”
We are also good at living by fear.
- Fear that others are getting ahead and were staying behind.
- Fear that our kid isn’t going to be able to make the team.
- Fear that were doing everything wrong.
- Fear that were not measuring up.
- We live by a fear that were not good enough and so we desperately try to prove ourselves and validate ourselves that we really are good people.
Were good at anxiety and worry.
Were good at overwork and trying to achieve.
It’s like there’s always something lurking behind us, that were never enough, there’s never enough. Like we have no home, no resting place, we are unprotected.
Now let me demonstrate the antidote - how we get to the palm of God’s hand…KNEEL. In Jesus name there is healing…hope…life…etc.
2. Jesus wants you to be at home with him in heaven.
The apostle Paul sometimes just felt like going to heaven and leaving behind the troubles of the earth. I know that some of you feel the same way.
Listen to something Paul said…
Phil. 3:18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
Remember that when he wrote this he was sitting in a prison cell. You can identify his physical weariness that came about because of the enemies of Jesus. And so Paul, in verse 20, remembers that he is first and foremost a citizen of heaven, the place where Jesus lives.
And then he says that he is eager for Jesus to take him home and change him forever.
I think as we grow older we begin to anticipate this. As we grow older and the toll of life, and the weight of our responsibilities, and the physical challenges abound around us we start longing for a better day.
Jesus spoke this…
John 14:1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Can I just tell you a few things about what lies ahead in the future for those who know Jesus?
What lies ahead is heaven. That is your real home.
Let me tell you some things you’ll never do in heaven…
1. You will never turn on a light in heaven. Because all darkness will be erased and everything associated with darkness.
2. You will never lock the door in heaven. No burglar alarms. No bad news. Nothing will ever be stolen.
3. You will never drive by a cemetery in heaven.
4. You will never face a temptation in heaven.
5. You will never visit a sick person in heaven.
6. You will never take medicine in heaven.
7. You will never shed a tear in heaven.
Why? Because there will be no more…
Pain.
Crying.
Cancer.
Temptation.
Grief.
Regret.
Wrinkles.
Surgeries.
Cavities.
Commercials.
ISIS.
Racism.
Sexual confusion.
Pornography.
Traffic.
Anger.
Rage.
Foul language.
Cigarette smoke.
Calories.
Weight gain.
Presidential elections.
Abortions.
Funerals.
Drunk drivers.
Ambulances.
Police chases.
Mortgage payments.
Family feuds.
Arguing.
Lying.
Alarm systems.
Taxes.
Drownings.
Snake bites.
Dog bites.
Jellyfish stings.
Mosquito bites.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Boredom.
Brokenness. (See Revelation 7:15-17.)
It heaven everything will be new every day, God will be near, satisfaction will be abundant and everything will be holy.
Not everybody’s going to heaven. God will not force you to live with him forever while you rejected him on this planet. Come to him and live in his palm now and in his home later.
