Headed For Home
HEADED FOR HOME
(Blessing for the Journey)
May 17th and 18th, 2003
Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O 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,
O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you. Selah
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools. b
7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah
9 Look upon our shield, c 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 O Lord Almighty,
blessed is the man who trusts in you.
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools. b
7 They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
Message
And how blessed all those in whom you live,
whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
/[1]/
The Living Bible
6 When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,*
it will become a place of refreshing springs,
where pools of blessing collect after the rains!
7 They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.*
-Literally as we pass through hard places/weeping we transform them into pools of blessing.
-All of us are on a trip/ a journey.
-I want to help you take the “heart of a traveler”.
-If you are confused about where you fit it is impossible to have a sense of home.
-We watched a true story about these little Aborigines girls who were taken from their moms because they had white in them. They traveled thousands of miles across the desert to get “HOME”.
-Home has a pull on you. WHERE IS HOME FOR YOU?
Philippians 3
/20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. [2]/
1. SET YOUR HEART ON PILGRIMAGE
-That means a journey to a sacred place.
-In your case it means live in light of eternity and don’t forget that this is not really your home.
-A journey is defined as a passage from one place to another or even from one season to another like youth to maturity etc.
-The theme of Judaism is that life is a journey.
C.S. LEWIS QUOTE
-Like Dorothy, you’ve got to get home at all costs.
2. KEEP THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE
Hebrews 11
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
13 /All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. [3]/
-These people of faith didn’t check out of planet earth.
-They simply made choices here that mattered in the light of there.
-They lived here in faith and helped others but they knew at all times, this wasn’t their final destination.
-They were looking at the emerald city.
-How do we live our lives with the proper perspective?
-We make choices that are eternal choices and not just temporary choices.
-We are in good company when we focus on our destination/our destiny.
3. WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THE JOURNEY?
-I did all of that to get here and make the main point.
-I will be leading the Wednesday morning prayer group to pray this specifically for you in this church. We started last week.
-I want you to hook up with us in your faith and expectations.
3 John 2
2/ Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.[4]/
(NKJV)
Literally-BELOVED CONCERNING ALL THINGS I WISH YOU TO PROSPER AND TO BE IN HEALTH EVEN AS PROSPERS YOUR THE SOUL (Interlinear)
-I know that John was greeting someone but it also is the will of God for every one of His children.
Prosper- It literally carries the image of a successful journey.
-This puts prosperity in a new light. How much do you need for your trip?
-When we travel in America we pack out the van and have a portable VCR and the whole deal.
-When you travel overseas you cut way back because you have to lug your luggage everywhere.
-What do I need for my journey?
-I need to take care of my family, live in a house that we enjoy. Have some hobbies and some fun. That is part of life. God is fun!
-There are real needs for me to get to the other side.
-With the church. We have a journey. That determines our needs. In order to reach the people we need to reach and impact East Central Missouri we need several million dollars. Prosperity is having all you need for the journey you are on.
-Prosperity is primarily an internal thing. Once the course is set on the inside the rest is history.
-Prosper also means to “succeed in business affairs” or to “succeed in reaching”.
-It is a tool. The amount of tools you need depends on the work you are doing.
health – we get the words for hygiene from this word. It means to be sound in body.
-I have recently had the Lord direct me to take better care of myself.
-My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the vehicle of my spirit.
-I change my oil in my vehicles and take really good care of them. I don’t take as good of care of my body. One you will have for 3-10 years and the other you keep for life.
-I did the unthinkable and got a blood test. That guy did things to my body that aren’t natural.
-But it is very important that you get a check up.
-Do all you can do to care for your health in your faith as well as the natural.
-There is some great information out there. I study and read about it. Find someone you trust and educate yourself.
-God wants you healthy.
-I’m not giving up on supernatural healing. It is right and God is still God.
-I am trying to get a healing school here for a weekend.
-This term is used in the Bible for “sound doctrine” “sound words” and “soundness in the faith”.
Soul – the word for soul is psuche. Psychology is the study of the soul.
-Psychology doesn’t go far enough. There is more to your inner man than your brain.
-The Bible talks about “the inner man of the heart”.
-Your soul is the real you.
-The spirit and soul are indivisible except by the Word of God.
-You are connected together.
-In order to be emotionally, spiritually, and mentally healthy you have to de-tox occasionally. Computers defragment and physical bodies de-tox.
-In the same way you have to take times to spiritually de-tox.
-Example at Regent-prayer for us that after 18 years of pastoring they prayed that the wounds we internalized would be healed. My first thought was that I didn’t have any. The truth is, a couple have surfaced since then.
-I am taking a season to let God be honest with me as I am honest with Him.
-If you aren’t able to do that confide in a friend.
-The Bible says “confess your faults one to another that you may be healed”.
-If you need professional Christian counseling, spend the money and do it.
-In James in the Message it says, PURIFY THE INNER MAN.
Proverbs says, “ A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones.
/[5]/
m
-Take some time to do inventory. What should we pray for? What steps do you need to take? (physical exam? Time to write out some things to God and repent? To go apologize to someone?)
prayer
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I brejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater cjoy than to hear that dmy children walk in 1truth.
[6]
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b Or blessings
c Or sovereign
b Or blessings
[1]Peterson, Eugene H. The Message : New Testament With Psalms and Proverbs, Ps 84:1. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995.
*
Psalm 84:6
yuyuHebrew valley of Baca.
*
Psalm 84:7
Hebrew Zion.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Php 3:20-21. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Heb 11:13-16. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
[4]The New King James Version, 3 Jn 2. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996, c1982.
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version, Pr 14:30. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984.
b 2 John 4
c 1 Thess. 2:19, 20; 2 John 4
d [1 Cor. 4:15]
1 NU the truth
[6]The New King James Version, 3 Jn 2-4. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996, c1982.