The Journey

Intro

Recap the past week - Funeral - Birthday - Wedding - Baptism

Congratulate those that got baptized yesterday

Share your own baptism story - That was 30 years ago

I’ve been through a lot to be able to stand here before you today

Transition

Life is a journey — for most of us, a long journey — So how can we remain strong throughout all the seasons? How can we complete out journey in life?

READ Ps 84

The New International Version (Psalm 84)

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. 8 Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob.

9 Look on our shield,  O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 LORD Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

There are 3 blessings marked out for us in this passage - like checkpoints in our journey

Start the Journey

4. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

You can’t have a journey without a destination

> This is not our home

2 Cor 5:6-8

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

If we go through life thinking this is our home, we may miss out on our eternal home with God

> One day we will have to leave all this behind

Story of me leaving Mauritius - had to give everything away and leave all my friends

1 Corinthians 7

29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

In order to begin our journey, we need to know that this is not out home and that one day we will leave it all behind

Continue the Journey

5. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

The word strength here is not physical strength - but the Hebrew word for boldness or confidence

Confidence from having a big brother

> Our confidence comes from the Lord

God has our back, He’s not going to leave us out here to fend for ourselves

Psalm 84:11

11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

> Confidence builds more confidence - Confidence gives us determination

Psalm 84:6

7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

In order to continue our journey, we need to have confidence in God so that we can be determined to finish the journey

Finish the Journey

Blessed is the one who trusts in you.

He begins saying “those,” but at the end he says, “the one”

Everyone looks good at the starting line — Marathon example

> We will all cross that finish line on our own - Just you and God

> Your Trust in God is personal

— People can come alongside you on your journey but no one can trust for you

What is it we are trusting?

> He who began a good work in use will bring it to completion

Philippians 1:6

6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

In order to finish our journey we need to trust that God will bring us to the finish line

Summary

In order to begin our journey, we need to know that this is not out home and that one day we will leave it all behind

In order to continue our journey, we need to have confidence in God so that we can be determined to finish the journey

In order to finish our journey we need to trust that God will bring us to the finish line