“Looking Forward to Home” – Hebrews 11:8-10

Have you heard the story about the old, faithful missionary returning to the United States to retire? He and his wife had spent over 40 years serving in Africa. But now he was alone. His wife and two children had long since found their final resting place in the dirt of Africa. As he got off the plane he saw a great crowd of people waiting at the gate. Some were holding signs, others were waving banners. He could even hear sounds of music above the shouting voices. For a few seconds he thought, "Can it be? After more than 40 years of service, all of these people have actually come out to welcome me home?"

But no, that was not the case. On his plane was a politician returning from a visit to Africa. During his visit he had been catered to and waited on and all his needs had been met in first class. And now he was being welcomed back with all the ceremony his admirers could provide.

As the old servant of God waited and waited at the airport, the contrast was almost more than the old missionary could bear. For a moment he began feeling sorry for himself. He started to pray. "Father in Heaven, why? I’ve served You faithfully for so long, and yet, look. I don’t expect much. But is it wrong to desire that there be some kind of a welcome home?" Then, almost as if God had spoken out loud, the old missionary said he heard Him say, "But my son, you’re not home yet."

You’re not home yet. It’s easy for even the most mature and wise Christian and servant of God to forget that. Because this life is all we know. This is all we can see. It’s all we can touch and feel and smell and taste and so sometimes it feels like this life is all there is. It seems like this life goes on and on and the pain and the troubles just never end. In fact, they are just getting worse and Satan seems to be attacking more and more and the world is getting nastier and more depraved and it’s almost too much to bear.

Do you ever feel that way? Maybe you need some encouragement. Let me do that right now with a passage that is supposed to be used for just that reason. Paul said to encourage each other with these words and as a mature believer, I’m sure you have read them or heard them many times but that’s okay. I will encourage you again from 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. This is not our text for this morning. I want you just to listen and imagine for a second. You ready?

“For the LORD himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air. And so we will be with the LORD forever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

And so we will be with the LORD forever! A lot of folks would say “Amen” right there. That’s good news! That’s something to look forward to. He is talking about going home. Now that passage is specifically talking about the rapture and we will talk more about that next week, Lord willing and the rapture doesn’t take place before then. But we ought to look forward to our heavenly home, our permanent dwelling.

Do we have anybody here today that is getting older? Anybody here that gets out of bed in the morning wondering which body parts are going to play nice and which ones are going to be trouble? Or maybe your mind is not as sharp as it used to be. I heard somebody say the other day, “My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.  Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.”

Two elderly ladies had been friends since their 30s. Now in their 80s, they still got together a couple of times a week to play cards. One day they were playing gin rummy and one of them said, "You know, we’ve been friends for many years and, please don't get mad, but for the life of me, I can't remember your name. Please tell me what it is."

Her friend glared at her. She continued to stare at her for several minutes. Finally, she said, "How soon do you need to know?"

Maybe you can relate to that. Maybe you can’t remember if you can relate or not. But all of us are getting older and some of us are getting old and the older we get, the more difficult everything becomes. I believe God planned us that way so that, along with the problems and heartaches of this world, it will cause us to look forward to our permanent home. And it has always been that way.

Also, ever since Jesus returned to Heaven, people have expected Him to return to earth and they should. Even the Apostle Paul thought he would see the rapture. Did you catch that in the passage I read a minute ago? Paul said, “17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together.”  Paul was expecting Jesus to come back in his lifetime and every good Christian since then has expected the same. We expect it because Jesus told us to expect it.

In Matthew 24 he said, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come.” Keep watch. That’s what we are supposed to do and what people have been doing since He left and all of us are expecting Him to come at any time. The problem is that for over 2,000 years, He still hasn’t come. He is obviously running way late. Obviously, He hasn’t watched the news and He doesn’t know what kind of shape this world is in. How could He miss the new abortion laws in New York and Virginia? It’s all over Facebook!

Has He not seen the desperate situation of Christians in the Middle East and in Asia? What is taking Him so long? How much more suffering has to occur? Well, to answer some of those questions the best that we can, I’m starting a short sermon series on the end times. This is not an exhaustive study of eschatology. We’re not going through Revelation verse by verse. I just keep seeing signs that point to the imminent arrival of Jesus to come and get His bride, the church, and I want us to be ready.

For today, I want to encourage you to turn to the powerful book of Hebrews and turn to the faith chapter, chapter 11. Abraham was a man of faith and when we say that, the first thing we usually think of was him taking Isaac to Mount Moriah and being willing to sacrifice his own son. (Genesis 22)

But I want you to see that he was a man of faith well before Isaac was born. So, if you are a person of faith and if you are looking forward to going home and need some encouragement and inspiration, turn to 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. 9By 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. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Somebody tell me what faith is. A great definition is found in the first verse of this very chapter. It says that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. I believe Abraham would add to that definition something about immediate obedience.

In verse 8 it says that “when called to go to a place…” and that phrase should literally be translated “as he was being called…” meaning that as soon as he realized God wanted him to go, he started packing. And in Genesis 22 that talks about Isaac and Mount Moriah, it says that God spoke to Abraham and told him to take his son as a sacrifice and “early the next morning” Abraham took off.

He didn’t wait and fast and pray and get wise council or write Dear Abby for her opinion. Basically, as God was speaking, Abe starts getting up and getting ready. That is faith. When I tell my dogs, “Come on. Let’s go for a walk” they don’t hesitate. They don’t confer with each other or worry about where or how long or what the weather is. They have great faith that I know what I’m doing, which, if they were smarter, they probably shouldn’t have.

But Abraham had faith that Almighty God loved him and was in control, so he immediately obeyed. Now, look at verse 9 again. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. Let me read to you real quick the promise that God made to Abe from Genesis chapter 12. “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

So, he was promised a land but he lived there like a stranger and he lived in tents and never built a house, never started a city, much less a nation and never saw the completion of the promise.

Do you ever feel like that? Let me ask you: what has God promised you? What does He want for you? What is available to you that seems out of reach? How about a full and abundant life? John 10:10 says we can have it and God wants it for us. How about peace? We know God tells us He wants us to have peace. He wants us to have joy. He doesn’t want us to worry. He wants us to consider even the difficulties pure joy. Anybody there yet? Is there anybody here that can say, “I always have joy and peace even when Satan is attacking me with everything he has?”

Surely you can since we spent literally all of 2018 talking about how we should and yet, while hopefully we are all getting better in that area, I bet most of us are not there yet. We are living in the promised land but we are strangers here. This is not our home and until we are home, we will always struggle with worry.

I got a text just this week from a mature member of this family who was concerned about several others who were having surgery soon and she knows that scripture says to be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6) but she said she needed somebody to tell her that again.

This is not our home and until we are home, we will always struggle with considering everything pure joy. This is not our home and until we are home, we will always struggle with greed, lust, pride, lying, discipline…you know, being holy.

In our Thursday night Bible study, we just got through going through the little book of Titus and in it Paul encourages his young preacher boy, Titus, with these words (from Titus 2:11-13), “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12It (grace) teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope-the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

How did Abraham live day after day and year after year in the land promised to him by God but living in a tent? I can’t imagine. I can’t sleep one night in a tent or my back will be killing me. But he did it, even as an old man, day after day because…he was waiting for the blessed hope.

If we knew that Jesus was going to return on March 1^st, I bet we would all change our ways. We would spend this whole month praying and witnessing and getting closer to God and being obedient. I bet most of us could do that for a month. But how do you do it month after month after month? Verse 10 tells us that Abraham “was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Are you looking forward to Heaven? What are you looking forward to the most? No more tears, no more heartache.  In fact, nothing impure will ever enter Heaven (Rev. 21:27).  No more getting tired.  No more sin.  No more greed, or deception.  No lying or sickness, no more theft.  No locks on the doors or PIN numbers for our credit cards.  I sure am looking forward to that.  I’m looking forward to seeing all my loved ones.

When I get there, I know I’ll see my grandparents and my grandmother will probably pinch my cheek like she always did and tell me she baked some cookies for me.  That’ll be great but I’ll tell her, “Grandmother, I’ll be right back for those cookies in a few minutes.”

I’ll see my Uncle DeWayne there and I know he’ll have a great joke to tell me because nobody told a joke better than he did.  I’ll tell him, “Uncle D, I’m anxious to hear that joke.  I know it’s funny but give me just a few minutes and I’ll be back.”

I’ll see King David, my friend, there and I can’t wait to hear him tell about killing Goliath but that can wait a little while.  We have all of eternity.  There’s no hurry for that.  David, save me spot.

I’ll see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that’ll be great.  Elijah, Paul and I will take bald-headed preacher selfies in just a little while but give me a few minutes.  I need to find Jesus.  I told Him when I first got here but I want to tell Him again how much I appreciate His sacrifice for me.  I want to spend some time just worshiping Him and walking with Him and talking with Him.

Can you imagine that?  Having one-on-one time with the Lamb of God Himself?  It reminds me of the song, “I Can Only Imagine.”  I don’t know what I’ll do or say but I can’t wait to spend eternity with Him.  How about you?  Are you sure without a doubt that you will be there?  Again, the Bible is plain about how to be sure.  Repent of your sins, trust in Him and believe. Then confess with your mouth that He is God and live a new life on this earth until it’s time for the next life.  Be sure today.