This World Is Not My Home Series

That’s what happened back in the Old Testament: One of the most godly kings of Israel was a man named King Hezekiah. II Kings 20:1-3 tells us “… Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah… went to him and said, ‘This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.’ Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD… And Hezekiah wept bitterly.”

Why did Hezekiah week bitterly? He didn’t want to die! And he was a godly man. Lots of people don’t want to die. They don’t want to leave this world behind. I mean it’s all they’ve ever known. It’s easy to fall in love with this world.

But God says “Don’t Do That! It’s a trap!!!!” This world is not your home … we’re just passing through. As I John 2:17 tells us “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

And why on earth would you want to stay here? This is just the place where we get our pictures taken. The real park is just on the other side of the gate… and that’s where our Father has something far better waiting for us - just inside the gate.

As I was preparing the sermon and was looking of the various songs we know that talk about heaven, I stumbled across a song that sums up everything I believe the Bible is trying to tell us about this. It’s called the “Hymn Of Heaven” by Phil Wickham (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SY9w5JoUnc) and I’d like to try to sing it to you this morning:

“How I long to breathe the air of Heaven, where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets. To look upon the One who bled to save me, and walk with Him for all eternity. There will be a day when all will bow before Him.

There will be a day when death will be no more. Standing face to face with He who died and rose again. Holy, holy is the Lord. And every prayer we prayed in desperation, the songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear

In the end, we'll see that it was worth it. When He returns to wipe away our tears. Oh, there will be a day when all will bow before Him. There will be a day when death will be no more. Standing face to face with He who died and rose again. Holy, holy is the Lord. And on that day, we join the resurrection, and stand beside the heroes of the faith. With one voice, a thousand generations sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain." So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven. With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar. Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave - Holy, holy is the Lord.”

That song sums up what our view should be of life and death – this world versus the next.

CLOSE: When he was dying from cancer Nat King Cole observed that he’d learned that: The “So-called big things became small things, and the so-called small things were really the most important things.”

And what is the most important thing? Rick Warren noted that “it is knowing that this life is not all there is. Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal before the real production. You will spend far more time on the other side of death - in eternity -than you will here. Earth is the staging area, the preschool, the tryout for your life in eternity… This life is preparation for the next. At most you will life a hundred years on earth, but you will spend forever in eternity. Thomas Browne said, that this life is “but a small parenthesis in eternity.” You were made to last forever. (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life p. 36)

INVITATION