Text:\u00a0 Philippians 3:17-4:1<\/p>\n
Paul wrote this letter to Christians living in Philippi, a city in northern Greece in an area called Macedonia. It was different from the other cities in the area. It had been colonized and settled by Rome years before. \u00a0Many who lived there were retired Roman soldiers given land to live there.\u00a0 So even though Rome was far away and they now lived in a different land, they thought of themselves as Romans.\u00a0 They knew that their names were inscribed in the tribal records in Rome.\u00a0 So they dressed like Romans.\u00a0 They often spoke Latin, the language of Rome, and there they enjoyed Roman protection.\u00a0 \u00a0They were proud of what their citizenship meant.<\/p>\n
But here the apostle Paul pointed them to a far more wonderful citizenship.\u00a0 One that these Christians long ago now enjoy and we look forward to.\u00a0 Heaven.\u00a0 For heaven is our real home.\u00a0 That\u2019s where our prayers go.\u00a0 From there God dispatches his holy angels to serve and protect us.\u00a0 And heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s the place where our names are written in the book of life.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not something we earned or deserved.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something we inherited from our parents.\u00a0 It\u2019s a gift.\u00a0 A gift of God\u2019s grace that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. A gracious gift won for each of us on the cross of our dear Savior.<\/p>\n
Well what does that mean for our life here and now?\u00a0 The Romans in Philippi lived in a foreign land.\u00a0 But they sought to live their lives as Romans.\u00a0 What about we citizens of heaven?\u00a0 It seems to me Paul is reminding us:<\/p>\n
Live Like Heaven IS Your Home
\n<\/b>I.\u00a0 Many sadly squander the gift
\nII.\u00a0 Keep that forward look in your life.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In our gospel lesson, we hear Jesus speak words he would say again when approaching Jerusalem for the last time.\u00a0 With great sorrow in his heart Jesus would weep over the people in the city who had rejected him.\u00a0 He would weep because of the great tragedy they had brought on themselves by their unbelief.<\/p>\n
Here the apostle Paul shows that his heart beats the same rhythm as his Savior\u2019s.\u00a0 With tears welling up in his eyes, he speaks of others who are lost.\u00a0 Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ<\/span>.\u00a0 But here Paul is not describing those who had heard the gospel and rejected it.\u00a0 He is talking about people who claimed Christ\u2019s name for themselves.\u00a0 He is talking about people who if we asked them would call themselves Christians. Maybe someone your pastor baptized or confirmed.\u00a0 Maybe someone who grew up in a Christian home.\u00a0 They might claim to be a Christian, but for many as Paul writes here, the reality is different.<\/p>\n Something happened along the way.\u00a0 They made choices, sinful choices.\u00a0 And they lost sight of this truth:\u00a0 that God has saved us and called us to a holy life.<\/span> Not to just go on as before.\u00a0 But to be different.\u00a0 To live like heaven is your home.<\/b> Not to blend in with this fallen, dying world.<\/p>\n But many sadly squander the gift<\/b> by doing just that. And here Paul paints a dismal picture.\u00a0 Their god is their stomach<\/span>.\u00a0 By the way, don\u2019t get this confused with old saying.\u00a0 The way to a man\u2019s heart is by his stomach.<\/i>\u00a0 That\u2019s just saying, cook for your man.\u00a0 It works.<\/p>\n But this is something else.\u00a0 That word stomach represents all the appetites, all the desires that come our way.\u00a0 To make them our god is to serve them.\u00a0 To build our life around them.\u00a0 It\u2019s to make eating or drinking or leisure or success or sexual satisfaction our greatest good.\u00a0 What\u2019s our treasure?\u00a0 It\u2019s worth considering.<\/p>\n Paul makes another brush stroke on the canvass.\u00a0 Their glory is in their shame<\/span>. We live in a day like Paul\u2019s.\u00a0 We live in a day, where churches and religious leaders who call themselves Christian, speak of being tolerant and accepting.\u00a0 In some cases though such talk is just a cover for evil.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cover for throwing out God\u2019s Word and accepting things, even celebrating things that God plainly forbids. Things like abortion or homosexuality or sex outside of marriage.\u00a0 The Scripture says: Woe to those who call evil, good<\/span>.\u00a0 But that\u2019s what they do.\u00a0 They glory in their so called tolerance.\u00a0 They glory in what is shameful in God\u2019s sight and sadly squander the gift.<\/b><\/p>\n Their mind is on earthly things<\/span>, Paul writes.\u00a0 Now don\u2019t misunderstand.\u00a0 We need to pay attention to earthly things.\u00a0 We need to get an education, make a living and care for one another. But how easy it is to let those things consume us and choke the Lord and his Word out of our hearts.\u00a0\u00a0 The house, the career, the vacation, the sports, the exercise program, the internet. \u00a0Their mind is on earthly things,<\/span><\/p>\n So picture the tears streaming down Paul\u2019s cheek as he writes this.\u00a0 For such people were faces to Paul, faces he had seen in Ephesus and Athens and Corinth.\u00a0 They were people for whom Jesus had died and won a precious gift of life. \u00a0\u00a0The same kind of people whom your pastor has lay awake thinking about \u00a0and praying about.\u00a0 For many sadly squander the gift.<\/b> \u00a0God forbid that this come true for them. \u00a0What Paul writes here: Their destiny is destruction<\/span>.<\/p>\n So think about what Paul describes. Their god, fulfilling their appetites, their mind on earthly things.\u00a0 Does this describe someone you know?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Or maybe you find yourself here in some way.\u00a0 I think we all we do at times.\u00a0 We fail to live like heaven is our home<\/b>.\u00a0 So this Word warns us, but it also encourages us to remember: \u00a0we\u2019re just passing through.\u00a0 We\u2019re pilgrims making our way through this life to a much better place.\u00a0 For Heaven is our home.\u00a0 Not this world which is perishing.\u00a0 So keep that forward look in your life.<\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0Live like Heaven IS your home<\/b>.<\/p>\n How can we know that?\u00a0 Think of what Jesus said in our gospel.\u00a0 I will reach my goal.<\/span>\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 goal was to go to Jerusalem.\u00a0 It was to change our citizenship at the cost of his own life.\u00a0 For our sins stood like thick iron bars keeping us out of God\u2019s heaven.\u00a0 Our guilt was like a big ugly stain on our soul that God cannot just overlook.<\/p>\n But Jesus offered himself in our place and his blood washes us clean. It is now possible for us to be citizens of a kingdom we had no right to hope for.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s what we are.\u00a0 Through faith in Jesus, we are citizens of heaven just as he promised.\u00a0 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.<\/span> \u00a0We can look forward to that.\u00a0 Not as a wish or maybe.\u00a0 No we can sing, we can look this world in the eye with all its sadness and trouble and sing:\u00a0 I\u2019m but a stranger here heaven is my home.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Well when we keep that forward look in our life<\/b>, it\u2019s going to make a difference in how we live right now.\u00a0 It helps us remember what is important and what is not really.\u00a0 What has lasting value and what is only for a time.\u00a0 Keep that forward look and you will remember.\u00a0 Our treasure is not in the driveway or investment account.\u00a0 Our home is not the house we live in.\u00a0 Our home is with the Lord. For our citizenship is in heaven\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n And we eagerly await a Savior from there<\/span>.\u00a0 How eager are we?\u00a0 I\u2019m not here to tell you, be eager<\/i>.\u00a0 Rather I want you to know why we can be.\u00a0 For on that day, something, something wonderful will happen, something we can truly look forward to.\u00a0 Jesus will transform our lowly bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n Think of these lowly bodies so prone to sickness and injury.\u00a0 Medical books contain hundreds of pages about human disease.\u00a0 Drug companies make hundreds if not thousands of medicines to treat them.\u00a0 And health insurance costs keep going up and up to treat these lowly bodies.<\/p>\n Of course, every now and then we hear of some great stride in medicine.\u00a0 Better treatments for cancer or heart disease.\u00a0 People once paralyzed may walk again. What a blessing to be part of a life saving transplant that kept a man with his family.\u00a0 And now even the possibility of eliminating some diseases through genetic research.<\/p>\n Yet there is one thing no amount of genetic tinkering can\u00a0 eliminate.\u00a0 There is one thing that clings to these lowly bodies like adobe mud on our shoes.\u00a0 That sinful nature of ours which we have to struggle with every day of our lives.\u00a0 And I know how some of you struggle.\u00a0 So do I, in my own way.<\/p>\n But when Jesus comes and he will, he transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body<\/span>.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 Then there will be no more pain and sickness.\u00a0 No more sadness and depression weighing us down.\u00a0 There will be no fear of our dying day.\u00a0 And the struggle will be over.\u00a0 That struggle with this sinful flesh.\u00a0 For then, we will be changed.\u00a0 And we will live.\u00a0 Life like it was meant to be.\u00a0 Life with our Lord.<\/p>\n We need to keep that forward look in our lives here and now.\u00a0 For when we do, it will make a difference in how we live.\u00a0 For those who are friends of the cross will show in their lives the spirit of the cross.\u00a0 We will love and serve because God\u2019s only Son loved and served us.\u00a0 We will love and serve because the blood of God\u2019s own Son has made heaven our home.<\/p>\n So live like it is.\u00a0 Keep that forward look in your life<\/b>.\u00a0 And look around you for those who do the same.\u00a0 For you can\u2019t fly with the eagles if you spend all your time hanging out with the Sonoma turkeys.\u00a0 Look for those who live like heaven IS their home.\u00a0 Guess what?\u00a0 You might find them here.\u00a0 For that is how you stand firm in the Lord<\/span>.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Paul wrote this letter to Christians living in Philippi, a city in northern Greece in an area called Macedonia. It was different from the other cities in the area. It had been colonized and settled by Rome years before. \u00a0Many who lived there were retired Roman soldiers given land to live there.\u00a0 So even though Rome was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}