INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n Homelessness is a miserable experience. We see it in our big cities especially: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, etc. But we also see it closer to home at with homeless beggars at many Grand Rapids traffic stops, and tent encampments along the banks of the Grand River. Who cannot feel sorry for the people in these awful circumstances. To be homeless is to be uncomfortable, cold, wet, vulnerable, lonely, insecure, hungry, pitiable, unhealthy, and afraid.<\/p>\n But the Bible teaches us that homelessness is much closer to home than the big cities, and even Grand Rapids. It\u2019s not just something we can see on our computer screens or through our car windows. It\u2019s something we can see in the mirror. Yes, you are homeless. I am homeless. We are all spiritually homeless to one degree or another. That\u2019s not how it was meant to be. That\u2019s not how God intended it to be. This was not God\u2019s purpose for us. We feel our homelessness from time to time. So, where is home and how do we get there?<\/strong> In John 14, Jesus tells us where home is and how to get there.<\/p>\n BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n But I\u2019m not homeless. I have a lovely home.<\/em><\/p>\n 1. WE ARE HOMELESS<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cLet not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me\u201d (1).<\/em><\/p>\n Our First Home<\/strong><\/p>\n God\u2019s created a perfect home in a perfect world for his perfect people (Genesis 1-2). Eden was the divine paradise that God designed and created for the first human beings, Adam and Eve. It was \u201cHome Sweet Home.\u201d<\/p>\n Our Eviction<\/strong><\/p>\n But our first parents rebelled against the home builder, disobeyed his rules, and were punished with eviction from God\u2019s home and God\u2019s presence (Gen. 3). They were put outside the garden, outside God\u2019s special nearness, and exposed to all the miseries of homelessness. Since then, we\u2019re all born outside of God\u2019s garden and presence.<\/p>\n Our Homelessness<\/strong><\/p>\n Even if we live in a big beautiful home with a big beautiful family, we are spiritually homeless. We are outside of God\u2019s family, God\u2019s home, God\u2019s presence, God\u2019s love, God\u2019s protection. We are spiritually uncomfortable, cold, wet, vulnerable, lonely, insecure, hungry, pitiable, unhealthy, and afraid.<\/p>\n Thankfully God has made a way back to him and his home. In the Old Testament, he provided a Tabernacle and a Temple for the spiritually homeless to find a home with him and nearness to him by visiting his home with a sacrifice. In the New Testament, God has provided an even better way home and even greater nearness to him by providing the sacrifice of Jesus and the fellowship of his family in his church.<\/p>\n But even those of us who come home to God through Jesus\u2019s sacrifice and Christian fellowship, still feel homeless at times. It\u2019s like we\u2019re in a halfway house. Being a Christian is better than being totally homeless and outside. We get special times of closeness and nearness to God and his family through Christ. But we still feel like pilgrims and strangers at times. God can feel distant, our enemies can feel close, our sufferings are long and deep. We sense that there must be somewhere better, somewhere that is really home.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the disciples were at in John 14. In the previous chapter, Jesus\u2019s words about his departure through death had left them feeling alone, insecure, anxious, and disturbed. He saw their perplexity and, in John 14, he begins to comfort them with the prospect of a far better home and a far better family in the future.<\/p>\n CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD\u2019S STORY<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you feel at home here?<\/strong> If you feel at home in this world, you have never been more homeless. You are homeless and you don\u2019t even realize it. It\u2019s like a homeless person living in a tent thinking that he\u2019s living his best life. Ask God to show you your homelessness.<\/p>\n Do you feel homeless here?<\/strong> That\u2019s good! Praise God for helping you to feel how bad that experience is. It\u2019s the first step on the way home. Jesus tells you how to get home in John 14:1, 6. If you are not a Christian, you should be thankful that God has helped you to feel homeless and given you times of feeling at home with Jesus and his people. But that isn\u2019t constant, is it? Like the disciples we long for more.<\/p>\n THE FIRST STEP HOME<\/strong> Where and when will we ever feel \u201cat home\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n 2. OUR FATHER PROVIDES A HOME FOR US<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIn my Father\u2019s house are many rooms\u201d (2).<\/em><\/p>\n Heaven is home<\/strong><\/p>\n Over the past seven sermons on purpose we\u2019ve learned that there are a number of tracks to our purpose in life. But, all of them have one great aim and destination. Home! Our greatest, ultimate, primary purpose is to get home. As Tim Keller said in some of his last words to his family (remember, this was a man who had fulfilled so much of God\u2019s purpose on earth). But listen to his final words to his family: \u201cHe expressed many times through prayer his desire to go home to be with Jesus. His family is very sad because we all wanted more time, but we know he has very little at this point. In prayer, he said two nights ago, \u201cI\u2019m thankful for all the people who\u2019ve prayed for me over the years. I\u2019m thankful for my family, that loves me. I\u2019m thankful for the time God has given me, but I\u2019m ready to see Jesus. I can\u2019t wait to see Jesus. Send me home.\u201d Randy Van Dyk and his family have expressed similar words in recent weeks. However much Randy wishes he had more time, and his family wish they had more time, they all realize that this life is all about getting home. That\u2019s our greatest purpose. We must get home.<\/p>\n Heaven is homey<\/strong><\/p>\n What makes heaven such a wonderful house is that it\u2019s our Father\u2019s house. It\u2019s not where it is or what it is but whose it is that fills us with longing and desire. If he\u2019s there, love is there, peace is there, power is there, beauty is there, wisdom is there, provision is there, delight is there, friendship is there, family is there.<\/p>\n Think of the relief of getting home when we\u2019ve been away for a long time, or if we\u2019ve had a hospital stay, or if we\u2019ve been serving in mission or in the military. That feeling of relief and joy as we walk into our home, is a fraction of the relief and joy we will experience when we get to our final home. However comfortable we\u2019ve had it down here, however happy, getting to heaven will feel like getting home after fighting in a long brutal war.<\/p>\n Heaven is huge<\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes when we go to book a hotel room, we are told, \u201cSold out\u201d or \u201cNo rooms available.\u201d That will never happen in heaven. There are many, many, many rooms. The kind of homes the disciples would have in mind when they heard this was the common Middle Eastern design of a large central garden courtyard where everyone gathered with multiple rooms built around it.<\/p>\n CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD\u2019S STORY<\/strong><\/p>\n Get home.<\/strong> Getting home is our greatest purpose. Nothing else matters. You must get home or you will become eternally homeless, eternally outside, eternally lonely. Start every day with \u201cI must get home.\u201d<\/p>\n Help home.<\/strong> If we know how wonderful heaven is, how homey, surely we want to do everything in our power to help others get there too. When people tell us, it\u2019s not for them, assure them of the many rooms. There\u2019s still room. There will always be room until the very end. As long as there is time, there\u2019s room.<\/p>\n MAKE YOUR HOME<\/strong><\/em> That sounds amazing. But how do I get home?<\/em><\/p>\n 3. OUR SAVIOR PREPARES A HOME FOR US<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also\u201d (2-3).<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus prepares our home<\/strong><\/p>\n When Jesus said, \u201cI go to prepare a place for you\u201d he was referring firstly to clearing the road home. The greatest home is useless if the access road is blocked. Jesus went to clear the access to God and open the door of heaven by dying on the cross to remove the barriers between us and God. Secondly, he was referring to our experience of heaven when we get there. He prepared earthly rooms as a carpenter and now prepares heavenly rooms as the Savior. He\u2019s preparing a unique place for each of his unique people so that each will have a unique experience of home.<\/p>\n Jesus takes us home<\/strong><\/p>\n When our kids are away from home for a while, we miss them and long for them to return home. Perhaps they are at college or working in another state. But then the date for their return comes and you are so anxious to see them that you don\u2019t wait for them to come home, but go and get them yourself. Jesus has that same longing to see each of his people and at the set time, he goes to get each one at just the right time and in just the right way.<\/p>\n Jesus welcomes us home<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus does not just take us home but welcomes us home and enjoys us at home. He takes us to himself and wants us to be with himself, literally \u201cface to face\u201d with himself. He\u2019ll show us around and introduce us to the rest of the family. \u201cLook at this and this! Look at her! Look at him!\u201d He\u2019ll take us to our room and show us around with delight. He\u2019ll remind us that there\u2019s no night there, no death, no sorrow, no crying, no pain, no sin, no Satan, no worry, no depression, no disease, no evil. There\u2019s no place like home.<\/p>\n CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD\u2019S STORY<\/strong><\/p>\n Praise the Preparer.<\/strong> He\u2019s done so much, is still doing so much, and will yet do so much to make your home, to take you home, and to make you feel at home.<\/p>\n Trust the Taker.<\/strong> Jesus has designed our taking so that it\u2019s best for us and the best way to get others ready for home too. Our arrival and departure times are on God\u2019s timetable. He\u2019s designed the road and the transport. It can be a long and rough journey, but remember where you are going and who\u2019s taking you there.<\/p>\n Anticipate the welcome.<\/strong> We cannot imagine how welcoming Jesus will be to us and for us. \u201cI\u2019m so glad to have you home\u201d he\u2019ll say, because his prayer has been answered: \u201cFather, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world\u201d (John 17:24).<\/p>\n HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n SUMMARY<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0A NEW CHAPTER<\/strong><\/p>\n Unbelievers<\/strong>: You must prioritize securing a heavenly home over your earthly home. Nothing matters more than this. You cannot get there apart from Christ (John 14:6)<\/p>\n Believers<\/strong>: While thankful for finding a home with God and with his people, while thankful for moments of joy and belonging, yet we still have times when we realize we are not yet fully home. It reminds us that here we have no continuing city but seek one to come (Heb. 13:14). Every day, remind yourself, \u201cI must get home. I must prepare for going home as Christ is preparing my home for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Prayer<\/strong>: Home builder and home preparer, we thank you for not only providing a heavenly home, but preparing it for us so that we can be eternally at home with you and so fulfill our greatest purpose.<\/p>\n DISCUSSION QUESTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. What does spiritual homelessness feel like?<\/p>\n 2. What makes a Christian feel homeless in this world?<\/p>\n 3. How did this sermon change the way you view the church, this world, death, heaven?<\/p>\n 4. How can you help others get home?<\/p>\n 5. What are the parallels\/differences between your earthly home and your heavenly home?<\/p>\n 6. If \u201cgetting home\u201d is our greatest purpose, what difference does that make to our lives?<\/p>\n\n
IS HAVING NO HOME<\/strong><\/p>\n
ABOUT GETTING HOME<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"http:\/\/headhearthand.org\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Screenshot-2023-05-27-at-8.40.57-PM-e1685234486653.png\")
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