Date:      24th February 2008                                                                (Sunday PM)                                                                        Ref: A00nn

Place:     Kambah P.S.

Title: This Ole House

Text:        & 1 John 3:1-3

Illust:     Realizing that he would soon be gone from this world one day, Moody said to a friend, “Someday you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of Northfield is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it.  “At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone higher, that is all—out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. I was born in the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die; that which is born of the Spirit will live forever.” – We shall be like Him

I.                   This old House

A.               Certainty of Death

i.                 One day we are out of here. – We know that should the Lord tarry we will all die. Moody likens his body to an old clay tenement. (flat or unit in a block of apartments) Peter speaks of these bodies as being like tents, nothing much, a temporary abode

         2 Peter 1:14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. (NKJV)

ii.               Certainty of death – we know that all die indeed the writer of Hebrews tells us;

         Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, (NKJV)

iii.             A coming judgement, Heaven or Hell. – The closer one gets to that final breath the more they realise that there is more than just eternal sleep – nothing. Even hardened atheists at deaths door have recognised that they have been wrong

      Sir Francis Newport, the head of an English infidel club, said to those gathered around his dying bed, “You need not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in His angry presence! You need not tell me there is no hell, for I already feel my soul slipping into its fires! Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever.”

      A newspaper article referred to a striking story in an anonymous book of memoirs published not long ago. The writer met the woman who nursed the great agnostic, Professor J. H. Huxley, through his last illness. She said that as he lay dying the great skeptic suddenly looked up at some sight invisible to mortal eyes, and, staring a while, whispered at last, “So it is true.”

B.               Aint gonna need this house no longer

i.                 In 1954, Stuart Hamblen an American radio personality & entertainer was on a hunting trip with a  friend when they came upon what looked like an abandoned shack, wherein was the body of an elderly man, apparently dead of natural causes. On the spot Hamblen wrote the lyrics to what would become a very popular song & has been recorded by a number of artists since: This Ole House:

This old house is getting shaky
This old house is getting old
This old house lets in the rain and
This old house lets in the cold
On my knees I'm getting chilly
But I feel no fear or pain
'Cause I see an angel peeking through
A broken window pane

Ain't gonna need this house no longer
Ain't gonna need this house no more
Ain't got time to fix the shingles
Ain't got time to fix the floor
Ain't got time to oil the hinges
Nor to mend the window pane
Ain't gonna need this house no longer
I'm getting ready to meet the saints

ii.               This body of flesh is a temporary home, a broken down & dilapidated home. Nothing compared to our eternal home.  Need to treat it as a temporary home. We are only renting – Yes we need to look after this home, but no point getting too attached to it. It is only temporary ~ One day we aint gonna need this house no longer

iii.             Paul was in that place of betwixt between when it came to death, not sure whether he wanted to be here or home to be with Jesus.

         Philippians 1:23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; (NIV)

II.                 Focus on Eternity

A.               The Prize

i.                 Why am I preaching this? – Just like a young athlete today would have his eyes fixed on the 2012 Olympics in London, so too we need to continually refresh ourselves by focussing on the eternal reward

ii.               Nurturing a heavenly perspective – realigning our lives to what matters by lifting up our eyes & looking unto the prize

         Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

iii.             Paul is using the sporting analogy because it is so applicable. If you are going to win a gold medal at an Olympics, Stand on the podium in Paris with the Yellow Jersey from the Tour de France, or hold up a premiership cup at the end of a season – it has to consume you be your life, dictate what you eat, when you sleep / train / workout / everything. – Same for you & I, as we fix our eyes on the heavenly prize it should consume us.

B.               Eternity

i.                 Eternity, Eternity, Eternity, written in chalk all over Sydney, emblazoned on the Sydney Harbour Bridge at the dawn of the new millennium. – Eternity let it grip your heart. – Fix your eyes on eternity – we can’t even imagine ~  & vs.2

ii.               We know that we will live in Mansions, beyond our effort to grasp

         John 14:2-3 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (NKJV)

iii.             Heaven will be a glorious city

         Hebrews 13:14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (NIV)

iv.             The New Jerusalem & Rev 21:2-4, 21-23;  & Rev 22:1-5, - It will be marvellous beyond our wildest dreams

III.              Putting Aside

A.               Be Pure

i.                 A call to a life that would be focussed on the things of eternity, lay aside this life’s fleeting pleasures to gain eternal treasure. ~  & vs.3  ~ A call to a life of holiness & purity

         1 Peter 1:15-16 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (NKJV)

         Ephesians 5:27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (NKJV)

ii.               Focussed on staying right with God & man. – living our lives with the prize ever in focus.

         1 Corinthians 9:24-25 24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. (NKJV)

iii.             Staying unspotted from the stain of sin, being light in this dark world. – A beacon, living different to the world – a walking testimony of the saving power of Jesus Christ to set you free from the power of sin.

B.               No Regrets

i.                 A call to live a life that is not consumed with the day to day things of this world, the meaningless trifles we worry ourselves about.

      Just before Talleyrand who was  widely regarded as one of the most versatile and influential diplomats in European history died a paper was found on his table on which he had written,  “Behold eighty-three passed away! What cares! What agitation! What anxieties! What ill-will! What sad complications! And all without other results, except great fatigue of mind and body, and a profound sentiment of discouragement with regard to the future, and disgust with regard to the past!”[1]

ii.               At the end of life do you really want to look back on the cares, agitations, anxieties & think what was all that about, how worthless & trivial those cares all seem now. – The words of the wise.

         Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. (NKJV)

iii.             Time is short, life is to be lived, lived in fullness of life in the love of Jesus Christ, in His power & His service – Give your all to Him, that there be no regrets.

         James 4:14  For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (NKJV)

IV.             Altar Call

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[1]Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations :