Contents:
HOMESICK FOR HEAVEN
WE ARE NOT HOME
WE WANT TO GO HOME (HOMESICK)
JESUS WANTS TO TAKE US HOME
Hi, everyone. I presented this message, or a reasonable facsimile on Friday evening… I hope you enjoy it:
Today I had a very interesting experience… I went down to Curepe to shop, as is my custom, and I took a car, PBB 7311. I took my last $20 out of my wallet to pay the driver, and I put the change back in my knapsack pocket. I got out of the car on the right side down in Curepe, right in front of Disco Trax and went about my business, checking my barber, and the Farida’s Indian Fast Food establishment, which was pretty full, so I decided to return after shopping. As I passed KFC, I checked my pocket for the wallet… no wallet. I ran back to the taxi stand and found the taxi, but as the driver checked the seat, he found… no wallet. I went across to the road where I’d been dropped off, and still no wallet. I asked a couple of people in front of the store if they had seen anything, but nothing. At this point I was a little concerned, but still calm. I started to make inventory of what was in the wallet – one Trinidadian credit card, one Canadian credit card, two Trinidadian bank cards, a Canadian bank card, an international telephone calling card… plenty of opportunity for fraud. Even the prospect of having to replace those cards was starting to give me a headache. But I was cut off from all my money – I didn’t even have enough to dry clean my clothes. I could only pray that when I got home I’d have a call from someone telling me that they had my wallet. But my friends told me that it wasn’t likely. God sent two friends with money to meet me in the middle of my circumstance to provide me with funds to get a haircut and get through the day. But as I was there stranded, I was reminded that this is no perfect world… that there’s pain, hurt, and inconvenience, almost as if that’s the way life is meant to be… a reminder to me that this is not my home…
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
And everything was perfect. The leaves were perfectly formed, the grass, dewy and sweet, the air, pure and clean. The creatures, spoken by God into existence, played and romping with one another in peace, as they enjoyed their paradise home. At night, the sun would set and the perfect rays of light would filter through the foliage in a breathtaking panorama of creative genius.
And in the middle of that beauty, God placed Adam and Eve, to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. And they lived in the garden, and walked and talked with God. Ellen White writes in The Ministry of Healing, page 261, “Adam and Eve, in their untainted purity, delighted in the sights and sounds of Eden. God appointed them their work in the garden, “to dress it and to keep it.” Genesis 2:15. Each day’s labour brought them health and gladness, and the happy pair greeted with joy the visits of their Creator, as in the cool of the day He walked and talked with them. Daily God taught them His lessons.”
What is heaven? Webster’s dictionary defines heaven as “the abode of God”, where God is – heaven is the presence of God. And so when Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day, they were in heaven – in the presence of God.
But because of sin, our sin, we lost heaven – we lost our privilege of walking with God. In fact, we ran from God. We were lost, hiding from the very God who is our salvation. And so, cast out of Eden, we waited as a race for the coming of the Promised One, who would reconcile us to our Father and help us to find our Way back home. Jesus Christ was sent to bridge the gap that sin created, and allow us to one day again walk with God and interact with in Him face to face.
But now, and for now, we exist in a place where we don’t belong. This creation, given to us to subdue, now groans and screams. It’s as if the world is trying to vomit us off of the face of the earth. Earthquakes, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes – as if the world is trying to rid itself of the plague of humanity. We experience problems at home, school, work, within us, and outside of us, turmoil, stress, pain, tears, heartache and heartbreak. Something is desperately wrong – this is not where we are meant to be.
But within us, there still exists a yearning for God, a string that resonates only with the music of heaven; within us there beats a heart that longs to walk in the garden with God again. Deep inside, whether we accept it or not, there is a longing to be where we belong – in the presence of our Creator – we are homesick for heaven.
Webster defines home as “a place one holds dear because of personal feelings or relationships; a place of security and comfort.” Home is the familiar, the known, the comfortable… a place you can relax and be yourself, knowing that you are loved and desired. I spoke with a graduating student today, and she told me that all she thinks about aside from school, is going home – to sleep in her own bed, to eat food from her mother’s hands, to see the familiar sights and faces.
We enjoy the familiar, and we want to recapture that which has meaning for us. We want to go home.
And especially as Christians, this world is no longer our home; this world hates us, because we don’t belong here..
Jesus said, in John 15:18, 19: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
All of the great patriarchs: Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac… they all faced the scorn of the world, but they kept moving forward because, they were homesick for heaven – that was their focus:
Hebrews 11:13-16, “All these great people died in faith. They did not get the things that God promised his people, but they saw them coming far in the future and were glad. They said they were like visitors and strangers on earth. When people say such things, they show that they are looking for a country that will be their own. If they had been thinking about the country they had left, they could have gone back. But they were waiting for a better country – a heavenly country. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them”
We, too, look for a city with foundations, whose maker and builder is God.
Lost and away from home, God waits for us to recognize our condition, but too many of us are blind. We allow Satan to distract us with what this world has. We feel the pain of homesickness, but we don’t know what causes it, and so we try to kill the pain – to treat the symptoms. So we try to dull the feeling with what the world has to offer; we clothe ourselves with the riches of the world, we entertain ourselves with all manner of entertainment, just to dull that ache. We find drugs, alcohol, sex, the thrill of cheating death… anything to fill that place that only God can fill. As Clifton Davis once said, there is within us a space in our heart that only God can fill, and a you can’t put a square peg in a round hole.
We have been fooled by the devil into believing that here is all there is; we have exchanged the truth of God for a lie that makes us feel a little better. As so we live without a direction. We don’t have a home, and so we wander aimlessly, like nomads in the desert, from one grazing ground to the next.
I think of the conversation between Lewis Carroll’s character Alice, and the Cheshire Cat:
Alice: ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where—‘ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘—so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long
enough.’
But we who know and those who recognize the condition of homesickness and know where Home is can be tempted to despair because of the situations that we face.
But Jesus has a answer for us, found in John 14:1-3: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Jesus promises to restore us to Heaven – the presence of God!
And until we get there, Jesus will give you now, heaven – the presence of God – he will dwell in you – filling your life with His presence: John 14:23, Jesus replied, “if people love me, they will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” The Father and the Son will dwell in you now, giving you the presence of God – heaven – here and now.
So what’s holding you back? Here, we don’t belong, here we are lost, and either we know it or we don’t, but either way, we are lost. Jesus longs to find us again and be our way back home. This life is just a dream, but the reality of heaven awaits us.
Life is a Dream
(Da'dra Crawford & David Mullen)
There is a longing in the heart
There is a hunger in the soul
A thirst that can't be satisfied
And deep inside you know
You long for
Something that is much more
Than everything that's in your world
Life is a dream
And heaven's reality
And I'm caught in between
And though it seems this world has everything
It's never more than a dream
'Cause life is a dream
And heaven's reality
And if we just hold on
Then we will wake up to the face of God
Half of life's not even lived
There are parts we cannot see
But sometimes we catch a glimpse
As through a glass darkly
What should be
What life really would be
If heaven only could be now
Life is a dream...
There's a need to know and to be known
There's an emptiness that's filled by God alone
Life is a dream...
Here’s the reality:
Revelation 21:2-4: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be there God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away”
And by the way, when I got home, there was a call from Disco Trax.
"Someone turned in your wallet." And so I gave thanks to God, for
giving me a little taste of heaven – the reunion with lost ones – right
here on earth. Praise be to the Lord – Jehovah Jireh – my provider!
God bless all!
In Jesus,
Dave.