I’m Going Home
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I’m Going Home
Scripture: Rev 21:1-5
Revelation 21:1–5 (NASB95)
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
Good Morning and welcome to Alma School road Church of Christ. My name is Ryan Bitikofer and I work with the Youth and Family here at Alma School Road.
The other day I was getting a haircut and I usually get them all cut when I go. And, it struck me while sitting there in my barely breathable mask that it has been over a year now of fear mongering, draconian measures, no contact, no activity, no real intimacy among the body of Christ. I don’t know about you, but I have met several people who are so bent on staying in this life they are not ready to go on to the next. I don’t know about you folks, but I am ready to go home.
Now, I don’t mean tomorrow. I’m not talking depression or suicidal thoughts. There was time when it was perfectly ok to have feelings and emotions without overthinking, overreacting, and under teaching the next generation. There are far too many helicopter parents who will spend inordinate amounts of time and money parachuting in to protect their kids from life. I know many of you haven’t been on a college campus in years, but there are so many snowflakes who have no toughness or ruggedness for a marketplace of ideas that is vast and diverse with multiple ideas flying around. You might remember a few years ago the Australian doctor commenting on white collar disease. Do you know what white collar disease is? It’s where too many children stay indoors and because of that are not exposed to a variety of bacteria and viruses that help build strong immune systems they will rely on later in life. The doctor’s advice, “Go out and roll around in some dirt.”I don’t about you folks, but I am ready to go home.
One of my students in North Scottsdale came in one day wearing not one but two masks. A pretty floral print over a standard N95 mask. My staff and this student looked at me when I asked if the student was ok. Standard COVID protocol. The student said without hesitation, “Didn’t you hear the latest guidelines from the CDC and, a doctor who I will not name because he has already wasted credibility in his fifteen minutes in the sun, everyone should be wearing double masks. You can’t make this stuff. My staff member who I credit with good math skills but not common sense had the audacity to back her up. “Yeah, didn’t you hear? yada yada yada.” If I had double masks on I would pass out from not being able to breath. I don’t know about you folks but I am ready to go home.
JOHN WOODEN “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
Of all the can’t dos that the federal, state, and local authorities want to block us from doing there are things we can do. I can be ready to go home.
I’m talking about our heavenly home. I can know a few things about my heavenly home that are real today!
I can realize that satan was thrown down from heaven. He loses. Jesus wins. When we are with Jesus we can win just like John Wooden’s 88 consecutive wins. All we need is the One to win.
Revelation 12:7–18 (NASB95)
7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,
8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.
11 “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
12 “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”
13 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.
14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
15 And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.
16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.
17 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
7And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war,
8and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
9And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.
11“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
I am ready to go home. I want to be with God and Jesus and the saints singing God’s praise for eternity. I want to watch the replay of that video. When satan has ilk were beaten and thrown out of heaven. Tell me God doesn’t have that one on DVR.
Revelation 15:1–8 (NASB95)
1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.
2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.
3 And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!
4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5 After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened,
6 and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes.
7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
1Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.
2And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.
3And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!
4“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened,
6and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes.
7Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.
8And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
The end of time is not COVID or whatever other fear mongering someone wants to present. The end of time is when heavens open up and that great shout happens. We will all go to judgement and those with their name in the Book of Life will have their name read by the Lamb. He will welcome us with those beautiful words, “Thou good and faithful servant” and we will be home.
I don’t about you, but I am ready to go home.
Revelation 19:1–5 (NASB95)
1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;
2 because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.”
3 And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
5 And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”
1After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;
2because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.”
3And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”
4And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
5And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”
There are people who take Revelation and try to make it say that Jesus will come back to the earth and reign on the earth for a 1000 years. I don’t know about you, but even if that were true, and it’s not, I would not want this life more than I would want to go be with the Lord in my heavenly home.
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NASB95)
19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
19If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Howard Hughes the eccentric billionaire famous for the CIA project where the Glomar Explorer picked up the K129 Russian sub that was on the sea floor. Here’s what Wikipedia says about his later years.
“Hughes was widely considered eccentric, and suffered from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
“Hughes always ate the same thing for dinner, a New York strip steak cooked medium rare, dinner salad, and peas, but only the smaller ones, pushing the larger ones aside. For breakfast, Hughes wanted his eggs cooked the way his family cook, Lily, made them. Hughes had a "phobia about germs", and "his passion for secrecy became a mania.”
This eccentric billionaire thought he could save himself from germs by wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet. Isolating himself till he died probably more fear than anything else.
Friends, this life is not all that there is. Even if we had double masks and all the money in the world to fight off every disease that ever came our way, we would still face a certain death and appointment to meet our Maker.
I’m not worried about this life. This life is not all that there is. I mean in one sense I am certainly concerned for my children and the legacy I will leave them. I have told both my children they must marry a Christian to help them go to heaven. And, I want grandchildren to spoil. I hope they haven’t banned cotton candy by then.
But this isn’t the end. Your life matters and it matters a lot. Every human being is a precious soul Jesus died to save. But, you can not save yourself. You need Jesus to do that. If it’s a virus that gets me, I am ready to meet my Maker. Are you?
If not please come while we stand and sing.
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