Homesick

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:02
I want to invite you now to please take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Philippians.
00:11
And we're going to be in Philippians chapter 3, and we're going to be looking at verses 20 to chapter 4 verse 1.
00:30
Before we read the text, I want to give a few introductory remarks.
00:35
In my life, I have not spent a whole lot of time traveling, especially over great distances.
00:50
I've never spent hardly any time traveling abroad.
00:54
In fact, I've never even had to purchase a passport.
00:58
The few times I have left the country, and it was always on a boat, I only needed my birth certificate to re-enter.
01:05
I remember how important it was to have that birth certificate, because if you didn't have that little important piece of paper, when you reached the U.S.
01:13
shores, they wouldn't let you in unless you were able to prove it.
01:16
So they made us take our birth certificates on the cruise with us, and I don't even think they allow that anymore.
01:22
I think now you have to have a passport, but this shows you how long ago it was that I even left the country.
01:28
In my life, I have been a citizen in various capacities.
01:35
I have been a citizen of the United States from birth.
01:39
I grew up in the small town of Callahan, and therefore I was a citizen of that metropolis for many, many years.
01:48
One day I plan to be a citizen again, if the Lord so wills.
01:52
I want to move back to that metropolis.
01:54
But for most of my adult life, I have lived as a citizen of Jacksonville.
02:02
Many people are very proud of their citizenships.
02:06
People from different areas of the world often boast of their hometowns.
02:13
I'm a New Yorker, or I'm a Texan, and there's pride in homeland.
02:25
It's much less elegant to tell people you're a Florida man.
02:30
Much less elegant.
02:36
But one of the most popular songs of the last hundred years played at every military graduation, played all around the world, oftentimes at various events, is the song, I'm proud to be an American, for at least I know I'm free.
02:56
Citizenship is an important reality in most of our lives.
03:02
And it played an important reality in the lives of the ancient world.
03:07
In the New Testament, several times the issue of citizenship arises, and it often arises in the life of the Apostle Paul, who was himself a Roman citizen.
03:18
Once he was beaten, and he went before the rulers, and he says, I'm a Roman citizen, and you beat me.
03:26
And they said, oh no, that's not good, because it was not lawful that a Roman citizen be beaten.
03:32
And then later, the situation would come up again, where he was threatened to be beaten, and he goes, hey, remember, I'm a Roman citizen, and they didn't beat him, because of his citizenship.
03:42
We believe the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down for his faith, but Paul was not.
03:50
We believe Paul was beheaded, and the reason why Paul received what many consider to be a much more humane death was because he was a Roman citizen.
04:01
Now when we get to the book of Philippians, Philippians is written to the people of Philippi, and Philippi has an interesting history, because Philippi, even though it was not in Italy, was considered to be a Roman colony.
04:21
42 years before Jesus, in 42 BC, the city of Philippi became a Roman colony, and the people of Philippi were very proud to be Romans.
04:35
And it's one of the things that distinguished their city.
04:39
When you went to city, you were going to a little Rome.
04:42
Philippi was a little Rome.
04:44
It was a place where everybody acted and behaved and spoke and did business like the Romans, because they considered themselves, though they were not in Italy, they considered themselves citizens of Rome.
04:59
Therefore, it makes sense, when the Apostle Paul is laying out his truth in this text, and he's talking to them about the importance of understanding who they truly are in Christ, he uses the concept of citizenship as his example.
05:21
And he says to the believers at Philippi, that ultimately, you're not citizens of Philippi.
05:28
Ultimately, you're not citizens of Rome.
05:32
Ultimately, you're citizens of heaven.
05:36
And through this, and what we're going to see today, is that as Christians, our ultimate allegiance, our ultimate citizenship, in fact, our ultimate home, is not in this world.
05:52
But it is in heaven.
05:56
So let's stand together.
05:57
We're going to read chapter 4, verse 20.
06:01
And we're going to read through chapter 3, verse 22, chapter 4, verse 1.
06:10
The Apostle says, But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.
06:36
Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my Beloved.
06:50
This is the word of the Lord.
06:52
May God write its eternal truths on our heart.
06:54
And may He give me the Holy Spirit as I preach.
06:57
You may be seated.
07:05
Philippians is a powerful book.
07:08
Several years ago, I took a few months and I preached.
07:11
It's only four chapters, so I had preached through it in a relatively short amount of time.
07:18
But it's been a while since I had preached through it, so I enjoyed this week having the opportunity to go through it again, to prepare for this message.
07:25
And it's notable among the epistles because it's regarded to be the epistle of joy.
07:31
Twelve times in four chapters, the Apostle Paul references either joy or rejoicing in the book of Philippians.
07:39
And what's interesting about that is he's writing from prison.
07:42
He's writing from a dank Roman jail cell.
07:47
And yet he's still able to proclaim joy and rejoicing in the Lord.
07:55
In chapter 1, he relates his love and thankfulness for the Philippians, their care for him, and all that they have done.
08:01
They had sent him a gift in prison.
08:03
And he's thanking them for the gift and the hands of the one through whom it came.
08:09
In chapter 2, he encourages them to remain humble in the midst of their world that is persecuting them.
08:15
He encourages them to remain humble, and he reminds them of the humility of Christ.
08:20
Have this mind in you that is in Jesus Christ, that though he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he came humbling himself as a man.
08:32
And so that passage known as the Carmen Christi, or the Song of Christ, is one of the most important Christological passages in all of the New Testament.
08:42
And then we get to chapter 3, and in chapter 3, the Apostle Paul focuses his attention on the enemies of the cross, what he identifies as the evildoers.
08:57
Look with me again at verse 18.
09:00
Perhaps we should have read this because I am going to mention it as we go.
09:04
This actually brings us into the text that we just read.
09:07
In verse 18, he's talking about those who he considers to be enemies of the cross.
09:13
Listen to what he says about them.
09:16
For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
09:25
Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.
09:35
Notice how he describes the people who are the enemies of the cross.
09:39
Number one, he says their end is destruction.
09:42
That's where they're headed.
09:43
They're headed to hell.
09:45
Those people who remain enemies of the cross do not have anything good to look forward to.
09:50
They only have destruction for which to look forward.
09:54
He says their God is their belly.
09:57
Now that doesn't mean that all of them were fat, just so you know.
10:00
What that means is their God was their appetite.
10:03
They were led around by what their flesh desired, and everything their flesh desired is what they went after.
10:11
They were people of the flesh.
10:13
So not only did they have a horrible end to look forward to, but even the life that they lived was governed by their own sensual desires.
10:23
He says their glory is in their shame.
10:26
They glory in their shame.
10:29
Think of our world.
10:30
Think of glorying in shame.
10:32
You can imagine that.
10:33
People who glory in shameful things.
10:36
And that's what he's saying here.
10:38
And he says finally, he says their minds are set on earthly things.
10:45
Their minds are set on earthly things.
10:49
So that's the fourfold description that Paul gives to those who hate the cross.
10:55
He says that their end is destruction, their God is their belly, their glory is their shame, and their minds are set on the things of the earth.
11:07
But then he comes with the word but.
11:11
And the word but is what we call an adversative conjunction.
11:17
Meaning that it's going to contrast the next statement with what came before it.
11:22
But is an important word.
11:24
It's a word that sometimes we don't want to hear.
11:26
If somebody says you're a handsome man, but.
11:29
You don't want to hear that.
11:31
Because you know what's coming next is the contrast or whatever just came.
11:34
Or you're a really nice person, but.
11:37
Just stop.
11:39
I like the first half, but I don't like what's coming after the but.
11:43
However, but can be a good word.
11:47
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
11:51
So the adversative conjunction can have a powerful and positive change to the situation.
11:57
Well that's what we see here.
11:59
Paul is describing a four-fold example of those who hate the cross.
12:03
And he says, but our citizenship is in heaven.
12:11
You might think, well that's not really a contrast.
12:14
It is a contrast.
12:15
Because what he's saying, he's saying you've got this group over here.
12:18
And this group over here are haters of the cross.
12:22
You've got this group over here who are headed towards hell.
12:26
You've got this group over here whose God is their belly.
12:29
You've got this group over here who is glorying in their shame.
12:33
You've got this group over here that is only focused on the things of this world.
12:37
But, there's another group.
12:40
That's our group.
12:42
That's we.
12:44
And when Paul speaks of the we, he's talking about believers.
12:46
He's talking about the born again.
12:47
He's talking about the regenerate.
12:49
He's talking about the saved folk.
12:51
He says, but our citizenship is in heaven.
13:01
The word citizenship here needs to be understood.
13:05
In the King James Version it comes across, I think, very confusingly.
13:09
Because the King James Version uses the word conversation.
13:13
It says our conversation is in heaven.
13:15
Now, the New King says citizenship, right? Brother Mike, that's what you read out of.
13:20
Oh, I'm sorry.
13:21
Brother Andy, you have a New King that says citizenship? See, the reason why the word is conversation in the Old King James is because that's the Elizabethan term, which in our day would mean citizenship.
13:33
In that day, the word was conversation.
13:35
And it simply meant a group that you're associated with or a part of.
13:39
It's the part of the group, and so conversation would have made sense.
13:42
Then, it doesn't so much make sense today.
13:45
The word that is being translated here does mean citizenship.
13:50
It is, in fact, a word that we could translate as the commonwealth or the city.
13:58
Maybe an easier term, where you belong.
14:03
Ever had somebody tell you, go back where you belong? Maybe you're in a different part of the country, and they can pick up that little southern accent.
14:11
Maybe you're moving a little slow for that fast-paced world that you're now in.
14:15
And they say, you need to go back where you belong.
14:17
You don't belong here, right? Well, the idea of citizenship is the idea of where you belong.
14:27
The Jerusalem Bible, which is just another translation, uses a word I think is very good.
14:32
The word used there is homeland.
14:36
Your homeland is in heaven.
14:38
You ever heard the song, Beulah Land? I'm kind of homesick for a country to which I've never been before.
14:47
No sad goodbyes will there be spoken, because time won't matter anymore.
14:52
Beulah Land, I'm longing for you.
14:54
Beulah Land.
14:57
And that word, Beulah Land, is referring to Jerusalem.
15:00
That's another word for Jerusalem, and it's the promised land.
15:03
But in the real sense, it's the homeland.
15:06
And that's the idea of the song, is we're longing for home.
15:12
We're longing for our real, true, heavenly home.
15:19
The meaning of this text when it says our citizenship is in heaven is that our true home is in heaven.
15:27
While the worldly cross-haters find their satisfaction here, the Christian finds his satisfaction there.
15:38
And what I want to show you today, and don't get too nervous because they're short, but I do have five points in today's message from this text.
15:47
I want to show you five things, or five thoughts from this passage about our citizenship in heaven.
15:54
I'm going to put them on the screen, because I know I didn't have a bulletin to print them in this week.
15:57
So these are the five thoughts about our citizenship, which is in heaven.
16:02
Number one, it is a personal citizenship.
16:05
Look at verse 20.
16:06
It says our citizenship is in heaven.
16:10
That word our is actually emphatic in the Greek.
16:14
Paul is pointing out the fact that we have a personal place in heaven that belongs to us.
16:20
Jesus said to His disciples, I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again, and I will take you to Myself.
16:28
That where I am, you will be also.
16:31
It's a personal citizenship.
16:33
Christ did not die for a nameless, faceless mass of humanity.
16:38
Christ died for us as individuals.
16:42
He knows my name.
16:44
The Bible says my name is written on His hand.
16:48
He knows who I am.
16:50
Jesus Christ died for me.
16:53
And if you are a believer, He died for you.
16:56
And when He died, He knew you.
16:58
And thus, your citizenship is personal because it has been purchased by the King for you.
17:08
So it is a personal citizenship.
17:11
It is also a present citizenship.
17:16
Look at verse 20 again.
17:18
Our citizenship is in heaven.
17:22
The word is is in the present active indicative, which means it currently resides in heaven.
17:29
You say, but we aren't in heaven.
17:30
How can we be citizens of heaven? Well, when I visited the Bahamas, I was still a citizen of the United States.
17:37
When I went to Cozumel, Mexico, I was still a citizen of the United States.
17:41
I weren't there, or weren't here.
17:45
I was there.
17:48
While I was there though, I didn't forfeit being an American.
17:53
While I was there, I didn't forfeit my citizenship, even though I didn't have my feet firmly on the ground of the United States.
18:02
Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 2.11.
18:04
He says, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh.
18:12
The word sojourners means strangers.
18:15
That's what we are in this world.
18:18
Anybody ever called you strange? Don't get mad.
18:21
They're right.
18:23
Especially if it regarded your faith.
18:26
If somebody said, you're a strange person, you're a strange bird, you're a weird person, you're peculiar.
18:31
Do you know we're supposed to be peculiar? In fact, the very Scriptures calls us a peculiar people, a set apart people, a strange people.
18:40
We are pilgrims in this land.
18:43
This is not our home.
18:44
This is where we are sojourning.
18:47
Here.
18:48
Our home is there.
18:50
Think about the pilgrim's progress.
18:53
I mentioned it in my prayer earlier.
18:54
Think about Christian as he goes from place to place never feeling quite at home.
19:01
He didn't feel at home in Vanity Fair.
19:03
He didn't buy the wares and enjoy the celebrations because he knew this isn't my home.
19:10
He moved through it.
19:12
He had to do it.
19:14
But he didn't get consumed by it because he had his mind set on the true home.
19:20
He had his mind set on the celestial city.
19:22
He was looking forward to his true citizenship.
19:28
I live here now, but home is in heaven.
19:34
So it is a personal and present citizenship, but it is also a patient citizenship.
19:39
Now I don't always give you guys an alliterated outline, so I just want you to know I did it for you.
19:46
It's not something I always do, but this is just the way I did it today.
19:51
It's a patient citizenship.
19:53
Now what do I mean by that? Look at the end of verse 20.
19:57
He says, We await a Savior.
19:59
See, I'm already a citizen of heaven, but my address is on earth.
20:04
I'm currently like an immigrant living with a green card.
20:08
I have a temporary address.
20:11
And that's where I'm at right now.
20:13
I'm waiting for my true home.
20:15
And what's going to change my address? What's going to change my address is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
20:22
When He comes again, I'm going to be a pilgrim no longer.
20:25
I will finally get to experience my real home with Him.
20:29
And nothing will ever feel like home in this place ever again.
20:37
So right now, I am supposed to wait.
20:40
And I'm supposed to be patient.
20:42
But I'm supposed to wait with what's known as expectant patience.
20:48
Meaning, I know that it's coming.
20:51
You know, some of us wait on things that never come.
20:54
Some of us get where we sit down and we're waiting, and we're waiting, and we're waiting, and it don't ever happen.
21:00
See, this is the difference between worldly hope and the Christian hope.
21:04
The worldly hope may not come to pass.
21:06
Well, I hope the stock market goes back up.
21:08
Or I hope that the businesses open back up.
21:11
Or I hope my favorite restaurant opens.
21:13
Whatever.
21:14
That kind of worldly hope, we don't know if it's going to happen or not.
21:16
But the Christian hope is confident expectation.
21:22
It's looking forward to something that cannot fail.
21:26
Because it has been promised to us by One who cannot fail.
21:32
And so I wait patiently for my Savior to come.
21:39
I may die before He comes.
21:41
And if I die before He comes, I'll be in His presence.
21:44
And I'll still be waiting because I'll be waiting for the culmination of all things.
21:47
Waiting for my glorified body.
21:48
I'll be in His presence, but I'll still be patient.
21:51
And when He comes and He splits that eastern sky and we get that new Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth, that's going to be our home forever.
22:05
So number four, not only is it a personal, present, and patient citizenship, it's a perfecting citizenship.
22:11
Look at verse 21.
22:13
It says, He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.
22:19
Here's the thing.
22:21
I am currently a citizen of heaven, but I am not currently fit for heaven.
22:27
Let me say it again.
22:29
I am currently a citizen of heaven, but I'm not currently fit for heaven.
22:35
This body, this mind, this man is not ready to take ownership of my heavenly home.
22:46
I need to be changed.
22:49
And I will be changed.
22:50
Now, I've been justified.
22:52
I've been born again.
22:53
I've been changed spiritually and given new life.
22:56
I've been regenerated.
22:57
But there's coming a day where this old dirty flesh is going to be changed.
23:04
And that's the change that's necessary and that's the change I look forward to when the Lord Jesus returns.
23:11
The Bible says, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him.
23:21
That's 1 John 3.20.
23:23
That's what we look forward to.
23:25
We look forward to the perfecting of ourselves.
23:30
Because guess what? Even though you're justified, you ain't perfect.
23:33
Anybody who believes they're sinless, stand up.
23:36
Let me find a chair.
23:38
Because I'm standing.
23:40
I ought not be.
23:42
None of us should be.
23:44
If you believe that you are sinless, the Bible calls you a liar.
23:51
If anyone says he has no sin, he's a liar and the truth is not within him.
24:00
Christ had a glorified body when He came out of the tomb.
24:03
And the promise is we too will have a glorified body.
24:05
1 Corinthians 15 says our bodies will be changed.
24:08
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we will have a change that happens.
24:16
So, some scholars, some theologians use a term, and I think it's helpful.
24:20
I think it's been misused in some places, but I think it's helpful for this.
24:24
They talk about living between the already and the not yet.
24:27
You ever heard that? Living between the already and the not yet.
24:31
What that means is there are some things that we've already experienced as believers, and there are some things we have not yet experienced as believers.
24:39
And we're right in the middle of the already and the not yet.
24:43
We've already been justified, but we're not yet ready for heaven.
24:47
We've already been saved, but we're not perfectly sanctified because we're still in the flesh.
24:52
We're already citizens of heaven, but we're not yet fit for the kingdom.
24:55
And so we live in the midst of this.
24:57
We're between the already and the not yet.
24:59
And that's a difficult place to be because we struggle and we strive and we have difficulties in this life.
25:05
But one day, the not yet will be the present.
25:09
And one day, this old world is going away.
25:11
And one day, the not yet will be the present reality forever.
25:17
And that's the perfecting of our citizenship.
25:23
Now I want to tell you, when I was writing this sermon, I stopped there.
25:27
But then as I was reading the text, I had one other point that jumped out at me, but it was in the next chapter.
25:34
And I had to be reminded that the chapter divisions are not part of the original text.
25:40
And so I want to show you how I think this concept of citizenship is continuing into chapter 4.
25:46
Because as I said, we have a personal citizenship.
25:50
It's ours.
25:51
It's a present citizenship.
25:52
It is in heaven.
25:53
It's a patient citizenship.
25:55
We're waiting.
25:56
It's a perfecting citizenship.
25:57
When Christ comes, He's going to change us.
26:00
But it should be a patriotic citizenship.
26:03
Now, I'm going to use that word patriot.
26:08
Understand what that word means.
26:11
A patriot is a person who loves his country, who stands with it, stands for it.
26:20
And I know many of you are wonderfully patriotic when it comes to the United States.
26:25
And I consider myself to be a patriot.
26:28
I consider myself very thankful and very blessed to have been born in the United States, to have been afforded the many blessings that come with being a citizen of the United States.
26:37
So understand that what I'm saying here has nothing to do with your United States citizenship.
26:43
What I'm saying is we ought to be patriots of heaven.
26:48
Because the text says this, Stand firm thus in the Lord.
26:56
Stand firm thus in the Lord.
27:00
We can have an allegiance to our homeland here, but I will tell you this, our greater allegiance must always be to our homeland above.
27:11
The Christian can be an American, but the Christian's greatest allegiance must not be to America.
27:19
It must be to our home in heaven.
27:25
The Christian should be a zealous patriot for heaven.
27:31
He should be a soldier in the king's army.
27:33
He should be a servant in the king's court.
27:36
He should be a disciple of the king's teachings.
27:39
He should be an ambassador of the king's message.
27:41
And most importantly, he should realize he has been adopted into the king's family.
27:48
And this reality should cause us to be the most passionate patriots of heaven that there are.
28:00
Many people boast of how thankful they are to be Americans.
28:03
Are you thankful that you're a citizen of heaven? If you saw someone stomping on a flag, you'd probably go and knock them off that flag.
28:13
But what if you saw a person profaning the cross? We see it every day.
28:22
And often we say nothing.
28:25
We are more offended by the one than we are the other.
28:42
I want to make an application today of this message and this text.
28:50
And I want to draw an application to our current state, the current state of our world that we're in.
29:02
If we were to try to find a word that perfectly encapsulated the last eight weeks, it would certainly not be the word normal, would it? Uncomfortable? Sure.
29:25
Strange? Yeah.
29:30
How about eerie? You go to the grocery store, people don't even want to look at you.
29:37
Walk far away from you, and if you cough, you get drug out of the store.
29:46
For many people, this has been a lonely time, a frustrating time, a depressing time, a frightening time, and it certainly has not been normal.
29:57
And one of the things that I keep hearing, and please, I'm going to say something right now.
30:01
What I'm about to say, if this offends you, I can only say what I believe is the truth, and I believe this is based on the word of God.
30:09
But listen to what I'm about to say.
30:11
One of the things I keep hearing people say is I can't wait to get back to normal.
30:17
Now, if what that means is, you know, I can't wait to go eat at a restaurant, or I can't wait to go to a film, or go to a festival, or go get my hair cut.
30:27
That's fine.
30:28
I mean, creature comforts, that's fine.
30:30
I look forward to when we don't have to social distance.
30:33
And here we can hug and kiss and do all the normal.
30:35
We don't normally kiss, but I mean, I look forward to that.
30:39
And I look forward to the time when we can start having the academy again, and we can start having our evening ministries, and American Heritage, and all the different things.
30:46
I look forward to that.
30:49
But what I want us to consider today is that for far too long, we have become comfortable with the normal things of this earth that we should not be comfortable with.
31:03
Consider what a normal day in 2019 looked like in the United States.
31:09
On a normal day in 2019, 2,500 babies were murdered in the womb.
31:18
More than 100,000 around the world.
31:20
2,500 just in the United States.
31:24
On a normal day in 2019, you could find a library somewhere in the United States that was hosting a man dressed as a flamboyant woman reading to children about the blessings of being a drag queen.
31:38
On a normal day in 2019, over 130 people died because of opioid addiction in the United States.
31:48
On a normal day in 2019, two men could legally marry one another in every state of the union and could adopt a child.
31:58
On a normal day in 2019, 68 million web searches were looking for pornography.
32:05
That makes up 25% of all searches on the internet were looking for some kind of pornography.
32:11
And over 116,000 of those searches involved looking for children's pictures.
32:17
On a normal day in 2019, untold thousands of people were trafficked across international borders and used in slavery.
32:28
On a normal day, 7,000 people died in the United States.
32:45
150,000 people died all around the world.
32:51
Many of those people, the majority of those people, died outside of Jesus Christ and went into an eternal hell.
33:04
Studies have shown average attendance in Christian worship has dropped to less than 20% of the United States population and it's just continuing to drop.
33:15
So on an average Sunday in 2019, more than 80% of people had no desire to be with God's people in worship.
33:28
And sadly, many who do go are in unbiblical, consumer-driven, prosperity-focused churches.
33:36
And they're not being fed the Word of God and they're not being taught the Gospel.
33:44
That's the normal that we live in every day.
33:51
And the sad thing is, most of us have stopped being bothered by it.
33:59
We all are praying for normal when what we forget is that normal is horrifying.
34:07
Maybe instead of praying for normal, we need to pray for revival.
34:16
If we are in Christ, this world is not our home.
34:21
We are citizens of another kingdom.
34:25
And I pray, I genuinely pray for my heart as well as yours, that God will give me a yearning for my true home and that I will stop yearning for this one.
34:36
Stop begging to go back to normal and start praying that God would bring revival.
34:45
If we're going to be homesick for something, let's not be homesick for what once was.
34:54
Let's be homesick for a country that we've never been to before.
35:01
Let's be homesick for heaven.
35:07
How can you know you're a citizen there? Well, here's the good part.
35:11
You can know you're a citizen of the United States if you're born here.
35:15
You can know you're a citizen of heaven if you're born again.
35:20
Jesus said, unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
35:24
So I tell you today, if you are not currently a citizen of heaven, if you have not currently become a citizen of heaven, I will tell you this, the Bible says today is the day of salvation.
35:37
The Lord calls us to repent of our sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
35:44
And if you've never done that, I would say today is the day.
35:48
And I would pray that the Lord would grant you the gift of the Holy Spirit whereby you would be able to cry out to God in repentance and faith.
35:56
And therefore know that your homeland is not here, but it's there.
36:06
Let's pray.
36:07
Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
36:11
I pray that even now that the Word of God would begin to bypass the ears and go right to the heart and would begin to challenge the men and women in this room about where their real affections are.
36:28
Lord, I understand how easy it is to become consumed with this world.
36:33
And I pray that You would by Your mercy and grace give us a yearning for the world to come.
36:41
Lord, some people say you can be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good.
36:45
That's not true, Father.
36:46
For Lord, if we are living with our minds set above, we will be even better servants of Christ in this world.
36:54
Lord, help us to focus on things that are above.
36:57
Help us to yearn not for the normal, but help us to yearn for revival.
37:04
We pray it in Jesus' name and for His sake.