Heaven On My Mind

Happy Sunday. It appears that Facebook and Instagram have done their best to hide my sermons. If I was guessing, that happened as a result of my series in support of Israel. Please know that you can find all my sermons on my website, David shi.com. It would be great if you would share that with your friends and your family.

Today, and for several Sundays to come, I'm going to talk about heaven. There are two books that have helped me a lot in my preparation. Obviously the Bible is, would be number one, but two other books: Facing Death and the Life After by Billy Graham is a good one, and Heaven by Randy alorn.

I love this story. It's about a little girl. She was spending her first night away from home. She with was with her cousins, and she started to cry at night, and her aunt asked her, "Honey, are you homesick?" And the little girl replied, "No, ma'am, I am here sick." Isn't that a great answer?

I can relate. The older I get, the more hear sick I become. In my life, I've spent most of my time in Georgia, Mississippi, and Indiana, and I love all three of them. When I'm in Georgia, I miss being in Mississippi and in Indiana. When I was in Indiana, I miss Georgia and Mississippi. When I'm in Mississippi, I miss Indiana and Georgia. It's just the way I am.

It finally came to me: this world is not my home. I totally agree with Hebrews 13:14. There we are told, "This world is not our permanent home; we're looking forward to a home yet to come." I am looking forward to it.

Historians tell us that early Christians were preoccupied with heaven. The Roman catacombs contain tombs of Christians with inscriptions of hope. One reads, "In Christ, Alexander is not dead, but lives." Another says, "He was taken, taken up into his eternal home." In 125 AD, a Greek named aristedes wrote to a friend about Christians, and he told his friend, "If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God, and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving, as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby." That's true.

Let me read to you these words from Philippians 3:20 and 21 about believers: "We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control." The, the older I become, I too eagerly await.

I think I've told you this story before. I remember it vividly, over 40 years ago, visiting with my father at St. Dominic's Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. He was in intensive care with a bad heart, and he looked at me and he said, "I'm ready to go home." And he was so confident. He was talking of his heavenly home, of course.

Colossians 3:2 encourages us by saying, "Set your minds on things above, not things of this earth." His mind was on heaven, and that's important. C.S. Lewis wrote, "If you read history, you'll find that the Christians who did most for this present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occ occupied with heaven." He goes on to say, "It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they've become so ineffective in this one." He concludes a statement by saying, "Aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you'll get neither." It's my prayer that you will have heaven on your mind.

Last Sunday afternoon, I officiated the funeral service of two dear saints of God, George and Joyce Hendricks. I've known them my entire life. For their service, their son Brian told me, he said, "David, just share the gospel of Jesus." I appreciated that. That day, I told those gathered, heaven's not automatic; it's a decision. We must choose heaven. If not, there is hell. Each of us must make ready.

This next story is a powerful reminder. A professional singer named Ruth was asked to sing at a wedding of a very wealthy man. She had her husband Roy were excited, mostly about the reception after the ceremony. Word was that the food and the entertainment were to be out of this world. So after the service, they drove to the reception, and as they approached the door to enter the party, the maer d' had a book in his hand, and he was asking for their names.

She gave his their names, and he looked at his book and couldn't find it. They weren't on the list. And Ruth argued, "There must be some mistake. I sang at the wedding." And the man said, "Sorry, your name isn't in the book." Ruth again protested, and she was told, "You know, it doesn't matter who you are or what you did. Without your name in this book, you can't come in." And they were turned away.

On the way home, Roy asked, "Honey, what happened? Why couldn't we get in?" His crying wife responded, "Well, when the invitation arrived, I was busy, and I never bothered to RSVP."

Let me close with these words from Revelation 21:27: "Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices sh shameful idolatry and dishonesty, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." In the weeks ahead, we'll look at what heaven will be like, see a lot of scripture. I first want to make sure that you've made arrangements to be there. If not, today should be the day. And if so, you should thank God for what he has in store for you.

Pray with me. Father, the older I get, the more it seems I know maybe more people in heaven than I do on earth, so many that have gone on before us. Not everyone gets there, but it's our desire, I hope, to get there. Help us to make arrangements. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless. Thanks you for joining me today.