We Are Sojourners - Travel Light

Kingston Church of the Nazarene

Sermon: Non-Series

April 29, 2020

Sermon Title: We are Sojourners - Travel Light

Sermon Scripture: 1 Peter 1:17-23 (key verse: 17)

{DO NOT READ} INTRODUCTION: WE ARE SOJOURNERS - TRAVEL LIGHT

We are traveling through life on a journey that leads to a destination. Some of you have an organized and well thought out plan and you know where you’ll end up. While others of you are living life at the whim of the culture around you hoping you will end your journey with a hopeful and prosperous end.

Everyone has been given one life to live on planet earth. But why do so many live as if this is the only life they will ever have? You were made not made for this earth; you were made for eternity.

The title of my message is: WE ARE SOJOURNERS – TRAVEL LIGHT.

TRANSITION – LIFE IS AN EXPERIENCE

Life is an experience full of many mountains and valleys, and every one of them offers life lessons to capitalize on for your benefit and for the benefit of others.

STORY: TACO A CANOE

While in college, I and a friend borrowed a canoe to go down the Animas River. Neither one of us had ever canoed before, but how hard could it be? Get in the boat and paddle downstream and go as far as you want until you’re done, right?!

The problem is we truly had no idea what we were doing. We had no life vests, and I didn’t even wear shoes. Off we set down the river. The water seemed calm and comfortable at first. Then we hit the rapids and neither one of us knew how to work together or even traverse the rock outcroppings. As you can imagine, we both began to panic and do our own thing. I paddled one way, he paddled another, and we found ourselves sliding down the river sideways and didn’t know how to get out of this predicament. The water was rushing faster and faster and we were at the mercy of the rapids at this point. We started bouncing off smaller rocks and we starting to spin us around and around. We were at the mercy of the river's power.

We needed help! We were out of control! It seemed death might be our only option to get out of this predicament.

Seconds seemed like hours! All of a sudden, we saw a huge outcropping of rocks ahead of us and we were headed straight for it. We were yelling at each other over the roar of the rapids – he went one way and I went another, and in no time at all, we hit the rocks. This time, however, we didn’t bounce off the rocks, we slammed into them and broke the canoe in half, and we fell out of the canoe, holding on desperately trying not to be swept away and lose our lives.

POINT: Tragedy/accidents change your perspective about what’s important in life. We were carefree and careless college students, but we came out with a renewed understanding that life is short, and what we do during your life matters.

That day on the canoe trip started out as a fun opportunity and ended up with the stark realization that life is precious and shouldn’t be wasted on unimportant stuff.

{DO NOT READ} TRANSITION – THIS WORLD IS NOT OUR HOME

The Bible is very clear that life is short, and we need to travel light because this world is not our home.

[slides] 1 Peter 1:17- 23 says,

[] “17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. [] 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

[] 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

{DO NOT READ} TRANSITION – WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

HAS ANYONE EVER ASKED YOU WHERE YOU ARE FROM?

• I’m never sure how to answer that question.

o Do I go all the way back to my childhood, college, since I’ve been married, or where I’ve lived the longest?