A Disciple Is... #3

A Disciple Is... a Person with a New Destination!

Just once, I’d like to try a kind of road trip of which I once read. The author said that he and his traveling companion set off. When a choice about direction was to be made, they tossed a coin; “Heads, right. Tails, left!” Letting chance take them wherever was an adventure! Would you enjoy a trip like that?

If I have a destination to reach, however, I don’t want to be making decisions based on a coin toss! I want clear, definite directions. That’s why I love my GPS guidance system. Last year, I made a trip to LaGuardia in NYC. It had been years since I’d driven that route, but I put the destination into the GPS and the navigation software guided me through every twist and turn.

Though I think I’d enjoy a road trip that left the next turn to random chance, I do not want to live my day to day life that way. I want to know where I am going, to have a goal and purpose for the way I spend the time and resources God gives to me. How about you?

So, it is important to ask ourselves, “What is my ultimate destination? Am I on course or just wandering?”

“But, Pastor,” you may be thinking, “do we have to be so morbid? Can’t we just enjoy life?” Yes, we should live to the full. In fact, those who have the hope and life of Christ should be the most creative, the least fearful people on the planet. But, I believe that everyone should consider their mortality from time to time. Being obsessed with death is morbid. Grasping the Bible’s declaration - "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment," (Hebrews 9:27, NIV) will bring an amazing clarity to the way we live our LIVES right now!

Ill.- My Mom and Dad called me this week after my Dad’s oncologist told him that his cancer is advanced and there is little that medical doctors can do to extend his life. Such news is sobering, to say the least. As I spent a couple of days with with him, I thought about the promise of Christ, about the assurance of an eternal home, and the impact that having Heaven as my destination makes on my daily life.

TEXT - John 3:16-17

The Word promises us that

A disciple is a person with a New Destination!

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the desperate plight of humanity apart from God; that sin places us, by default, in line for destruction. Hell, a real place and one of the most unpleasant and unpopular topics in the Bible, is - in fact - the destination chosen by many. Jesus said that road to Hell is wide and smooth! But, He also promised, as we just read that none need perish because ‘whoever’ trusts in Him, gains eternal life. The default setting in our eternal GPS guidance system is changed from Hell to Heaven! That choice not only changes where we spend eternity. Let me say it again. Having Heaven as our destination changes how we live!

Turn with me, if you will, to another text.

TEXT - 2 Peter 3: 3-4; 8-14 PB 1896

How easily we forget that we are eternal creatures! Dealing with life, making the deals, mowing the lawn, paying the bills – creates a kind of illusion that tomorrow will be just like today, doesn’t it? However, the Bible reminds us that both this Creation and I (and you, by the way) have a determined life span, known only in the mind of God. We also learn that when God says that “time’s up,” it isn’t the same as “game over.” The end of Creation or the end of my life brings judgment.

Does that word frighten you? It sobers me, but it doesn’t not frighten me, for two reasons.

∙ I have trusted Christ Jesus to change my eternal reservation to Heaven, and

∙ I am living with Heaven in my heart, right here and right now!

What does that mean?

Take a look at 2 Peter 3:14 again. {READ}

Heaven produces a life of devotion and holiness in us. The promise of Heaven can do in us what the fear of Hell can never accomplish!

Love is so much more powerful than fear. Do you realize that?

A wise parent knows the limits of trying to scare their kids into obedience. Punishment only goes so far, then that child begins to work out ways to hide his actions, to deceive his parent. But the child who deeply loves the parent respects the guidance given and follows the way even when Dad will never know what he is doing!

As a child of God, headed for Heaven, as one deeply loved, I am motivated to love and please God, not because of Hell, but because of His promise of Heaven!

How about you?

In Colossians 3: 1-2 – (The Message) we read this...

If you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is.

HEAVEN is my true home! It is set into the GPS of my soul and guides my decisions.

As the Word says, I am already living the Resurrection Life, already a person who possesses Eternal Life, but am I living like a citizen of heaven? Does my faith change my acts?

Perhaps you’re not impressed with the topic because you’re so busy living you never think of Heaven. I hope that this message will change your mind! Pastor Mark Buchanan writes about meeting a smart, good looking philosophy student at a wedding. At the reception their conversation moved to the topic of religion. The student was a skeptic who smirked at the idea of eternity. He said,

“Life justifies living. Life is its own reward and explanation. I don’t need some pie-in-the-sky mirage to keep me going. This life has enough pleasure, mystery, and adventure in it not to need anything else to account for it. Life justifies living!”

There was a time when I would have nodded in agreement with much of what that young man said. I’ve always believed in Heaven and accepted, by faith, that because of the grace of Christ when I died I would go to Heaven. But I actually supposed that thinking about Heaven was a waste of time while there is so much living to do. That only revealed my immaturity and my lack of interaction with experiences of people in a larger world, much of which is full of pain and anguish!

It is easy for a young man, full of himself and his dreams, walking along on strong legs, sustained by the illusion of limitless life and health to scoff at Heaven. But . . . the Believer who fails to think of Heaven, who fails to understand the how and what of the Kingdom of God, be they young or old, is a person who will live without clear purpose and direction.

I know why some reject thoughts of Heaven — the pictures painted of it are either without Biblical support or are fanciful due to poor understanding of how to interpret the Bible’s promises!

I’ve told you this story before, but it bears repetition. A few years ago I attended a funeral service conducted by a member of the Christian clergy. After reading the Scripture, the man launched into his talk.

“I was surprised to come here today and find Emily in lavender dress. I expected to see her dressed in black with a strand of pearls. I rather thought that I would smell the whiff of the smoke of fine cigars and the scent of Jack Daniels in the air. I thought I would hear, ‘Blue Moon’ echoing in the background. That’s how I see this daughter of God entering Heaven.”

I must say that his vision of heaven as a kind of upscale bar was one of the strangest I’ve heard in a long time!

In Sunday School when I first learned about Heaven I heard some stuff that I could not appreciate. I’m sure I wasn’t the first boy to wonder if I really wanted to go to Heaven when my teacher described an worship service around the Throne of God and huge angels that thunder the phrase, “Holy, holy, holy” over and over again. By age 12, I’d sat through enough boring church services. For anyone to imply that heaven was going to be an endless church service truly made me wonder if I wanted to go there.

Then, too, Hollywood has given us inaccurate pictures of Heaven. The images of the misty fog enveloping transparent spirits floating in a ghostly realm, or the fat little cherubs strumming harps as their feet dangle over the edge of clouds, are equally nonsensical!

Some of the preaching I’ve heard about Heaven leaves me with the idea that it is a gaudy palace with golden fixtures in the bathrooms and jewel encrusted walls. Pearl Gates and golden streets are spoken of in the book of Revelation, but we need to understand that John was reaching for earthly words to describe an unearthly place!

If you’re thinking that Heaven is pretty irrelevant to your life today, listen to a great parable from Paula Rinehart. She discovered the value of having heaven on the horizon of life at all times...

"Seasickness, I'd always heard, is about as sick as you can get. I thought that claim to be wildly exaggerated until I found myself until I found myself gripping the side rail of a fishing boat caught in the rolling seas off the coast of Malaysia. With a flash of insight, I got the picture: this was seasickness. I was hopelessly ill among people who had no remedy for this malaise -- and no English to tell me even if they had one.
As a woman raised in the mountains and ignorant of the ways of the sea, I was at a loss, save the instinct to cling the rail for dear life. Finally, my eyes found the horizon -- a thin strip of gray that split the sea from the sky. Wonder of wonders, in a scene of sickening motion this line remain fixed.

As I glued my eyes to that horizon, the riot inside me began to quiet down. I discovered this remedy to be, in fact, my only hope. There was one still point in the universe, and my job was to keep my eyes fixed squarely upon it. I spent the next two hours staring at that horizon line! Then, the thought hit me -- that horizon line is like HEAVEN! From somewhere in my head, the words of Peter floated forward -- 1 Peter 1:13 . . .set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. -- Discipleship Journal, issue 136

The fixed point of Heaven set on the horizon of life is THE WAY WE STAY HEALTHY in a SIN-SICKENED world. IF we look away from God’s promise of an eternal home, we risk being deceived by the seductions of the Enemy of our soul. We risk chasing money, pleasure, fame, or power in a vain attempt to give our short lives meaning. Heaven is the reference point that draws us along and helps us to make wise, godly choices today; living in the Light of Eternity.

Take a look with me at what the Bible says about that Eternal Destination

2 Corinthians 5. (Read vv. 1-10)

∙ Clothed with our Heavenly Dwelling...

The Bible says that Heaven includes a new body. Paul says that when the ache of life grows intense we ‘groan and are burdened.’ Groan! Interesting word, isn’t it? The implication is that weariness of living causes us to sigh, the ache that comes from sin sickness causes us to long so deeply for God’s Presence. For what do we long? The Bible tells us that we long for the new life that we will enjoy in NEW BODIES.

That is a basic about Heaven we must not miss! Heaven is not about ghostly spirits! We will have a body of substance, for Heaven is a place of substance!

This passage goes on to remind us that when life is overwhelming and feels crushing, we should not think that strange. It is evidence that God has written a better promise into our hearts. Christians who long for heaven ARE NOT suicidal, they are anticipating true life! V. 4 NLB

Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life.

No more aspirin, Tylenol, Claritin, or Alka Seltzer! No more diets. No more diabetes, cancer, or Alzheimers. We will be given bodies - that are perfect and eternal!

∙ At Home ...

Most young people can’t wait to leave home! Our Chrissie talked endlessly of living in California when she graduated from high school. She enrolled in Vanguard University in Costa Mesa with great enthusiasm. 8 weeks later she was on the phone begging to transfer to an East Coast school so she could ‘come home.’

I’m a sentimental sap sometimes. As I’ve watched some of our troops return from duty in Iraq and seen Dads hug soldiers recently in combat, seen young men hold their wives close for hugs that seem to never end; I tear up for I know the longing for home that can be so powerful!

Occasionally our adult children are able to get to our house and pull up to the table. I love when they come ‘home.’ The Bible says that going to Heaven is being ‘at home.’

The Bible tells us that one of Heaven’s greatest joys is our unlimited access to God’s Presence. Whatever we have known of His Presence and love in this life will be like nothing compared to the joy of being at home with the Father.

∙ Already in our Heart...

Read v. 5

Heaven breaks into our lives! The Holy Spirit whispers to us, in our darkest moments, “You’re not home yet.” And encourages us that the reservation is guaranteed! When I’m traveling, I select my hotel in advance and I give them a credit card to guarantee the room. I want to know that whenever I arrive, a place is prepared for me.

The Holy Spirit reminds us that Jesus Christ has made the reservation for us, at His own expense, and gurantees our Heavenly home.

________________________

So, what the destination to which you’re headed?

Is Heaven set in the GPS of your soul?

Let’s let thoughts about our heavenly home come into our minds more frequently.

C.S. Lewis eloquently wrote:

"IF you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most about the next. It is since Christians have ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective (in doing God's work) in this."

____________

Let it be said of you and me that our true home is in Heaven and that we live here possessed by the promise of that truth. May Abraham, called the Father of the faithful, be a model for us all....

Hebrews 11:8-10

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Amen