ARE YOU HOME YET?
Pictures of “home yet sign”
Have you ever taken a long trip and wished that you were home already. These signs can really speak to our desire to be done with the journey.
Home is where the heart is.
Home is where you are safe and secure.
there is no place like home.
Tabernacles this year October 16-23
Pictures of Booths
Leviticus 23:42–43 (ESV)
42You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
43that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
This is after he has delivered his people out of Egypt with Moses.
Why would God send his people away into slavery in the first place?
Genesis 15:13–14 (ESV)
13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
14But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
Even after that exile in Egypt was over, you would think we could off put that behind us.
Deuteronomy 24:21–22 (ESV)
21When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.
22You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.
We see every time they forgot, In his holy Jealousy, and loving kindness he would send them back. Back into slavery, back into sojourning, back in to_________deferred hope of a home. “
First the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then they return only to be occupied by the Romans.
All this was a type and shadow, a picture of what was to come. Because Jesus had other sheep, that’s you and me, to bring into his fold. When Jesus shows up in the middle of the Roman occupation, and the disciples ask if now is the time he will restore the kingdom to Israel, Jesus responds.
Acts 1:8 (ESV)
8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
and it’s not long after that great persecution comes on Jerusalem and the church once again are sojourners, exiles, scattered abroad.
Lord, why must we remember and rehearse this exile and sojourning?
Are you home yet?
NO
You are in Exile, this Earth is not your forever home.
How do you know you are Lot, You know those cities right int the valley look really good, Sodom is so beautiful and close to society.
Israelites asking to go back to slavery because they wanted the leeks and onions.
You know you forgot you live in Exile when…
Truth is found within my self
We live in a culture that has bought into a worldview that is opposed to God’s truth. a Psychologicalized self. Where our feelings are the basis for facts. Listen to these statements.
You discover the truth about yourself by looking inward.
You should pursue what you most desire.
You can believe whatever you want as long as those beliefs don’t affect society.
Truth is found within (look inside yourself, therefore truth is relative)
Desires exalted above devotion (whatever makes you happy)
We hear phrases like…
You do you
find yourself by looking with in
speak your truth
Well if it isn’t hurting anyone
Jesus Brand
Jesus is just one more brand competing for your loyalty. and we have mixed Branding of Jesus and every other competing lifestyle brand. buy the t-shirt, go to the concert, follow on Instagram.
Christian Concerts, Christian T-shirts, Christian Instagram, Christian lingo, Christian coffee cups, Christians schools, Christian books, Christian media, Christian
Christian is reduced to an adjective
Slap a fish or a dove on it…. and it makes it holy.
With 49% that are comfortable with the label “Christian”
With those that grew up in church and once considered themselves Christians,
78% will wear the label Christian but
But only 10% of those would say they have a meaningful relationship with Jesus. Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead to conquer sin and death, That Jesus is king, shaping their whole life, body, mind, heart, and soul. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and contains truth about the world.
We are so busy with “Christian things we forgot the Christ in the center of it”
This counterfeit for Holy Spirit Devotion to Christ-centered discipleship has contributed to the inoculation of the church to authentic relationships with Jesus.
Information Overload / Anxiety
we have more information than ever with more to worry about, more choices to make, more possibilities to miss out on than our grandparents could have imagined and that all by Tuesday at lunch.
Education by search engine
If I need to change a fixture in my bathtub and Home Depot didn’t have it. I call Paul, Google could do it.
When I’m struggling with leading in God’s church, search engines can’t communicate what looking into Pastor Dave’s eyes as he tears up over the pain of loving God’s broken bride for over a quarter century.
Tyranny of the Now
the most important things are not the most urgent.
We have poisoned our bodies with preservatives because we needed fast food
We find ourselves on a hamster wheel of constant updates and new. Once you get used to the software, user interface, whatever, it changes.
Ever since the Industrial revolution, we increasingly believed that newer was better.
$600 to change a head light. Having to take off half the front end of a car to change a head light. I don’t know if newer is better.
Entertain our time away
Sit on a plane these days, and the majority of people are passing the time, watching shows. Doom scrolling is real.
Filtering Reality.
News is sound bites
Social media is carefully curated content to communicate not our selves, but a filtered image.
…
Are you home yet?
NO
This is not your home,
we live in a digital Babylon
Heaven is your home and you are a sojourner, You live in Exile,
Your home is not in information overload, the tyranny of the urgent, Entertaining your time away in a filtered reality
Be in the world but not of it.
So what do we do?
1 Peter 2:11–12 (ESV)
11Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Go to church but don’t expect church going alone to bring intimacy with Christ.
that’s like me thinking I can have 2 meals a week with my family and I’m going to have deep connection with them. I need meals every week, one on one time, larger family time. Times for fun, times for working through not so fun things. Time where I’m weak and they carry me, and times where they are weak, and I need to help carry them.
Live Godward. Learn to listen to the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a two direction conversation. Learn to listen more than you speak. To others and to God.
Daniel was given the king’s food, education on the language and culture, all in an effort to indoctrinate him.
I’m not in exile, I’m home.
We must live with discernment
Joseph in Egypt
Jeremiah in the middle of being conquered by Babylon,
Daniel in Babylon
Esther and Mordecai after that.
Peter and John understood even after Jesus
Today technology
pushes the tyranny of now.
framing and filtering reality.
weaponizing humor by making snark cool
overloading our choices.
filling our time and distracting our minds.
making people even more image conscious
giving people a sense of interaction and participating.
This has lead to low level anxiety that has become an epidemic in our culture.
We must become discerning of culture.
I’m not talking about how the candidate is heaven sent to hell spawned.
I’m talking about how your attention has been torn away from heaven and is fixated on the temporal instead of the eternal.
1 Peter 2:11–12 (ESV)
11Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
train in and teach the whole Gospel.
We are made in God’s image, but we all sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God, Jesus was crucified, and raised from the dead to conquer sin and death and God’s ultimate plan for the world is to set things right with a new heaven and earth.
Christian Nationalism has distracted us from our home.
Kingdom Now, Dominion theology has distracted us.
Set our hearts on heaven.
Revelation 5:12–14 (ESV)
12saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
13And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
14And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
REPENT
The kingdom now Theology got it wrong.
You put on the Jesus t shirt. But you never picked and carried his cross
Lord Forgive us for making idols of this