Resident Aliens — Glenn Meldrum

For more messages by Glenn Meldrum and in his presence ministries go to www .IHP min Ist ry .com. You are welcome to make additional copies of this CD for free distribution.

We're going to be looking at Psalms 84. It's a beautiful section of scripture. It's broke up into three sections and And what we're gonna do is I'll just read each section as we go and we examine it and we look at the basic concepts Of it.

I mean there's so much in here that it could be preached week after week for some time just because of the amount of Substance that is in this particular psalm, but I'm just going to highlight some particular points and some issues.

Being the first verse it says how lovely is your dwelling place? Oh Lord Almighty. My soul yearns even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrows have found a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young a Place near your altar.

Oh Lord Almighty my king and my God blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. This was a psalm done By the family of Korah and the family of Korah. They're called Korites and they are actually descendants descendants from the man Korah that made rebellion against Moses.

When you go into the book of Exodus and you find that that he Started a rebellion against Moses and and the Lord judged the man and he was he paid the penalty for a sin. But his children didn't have to they were still allowed to worship in the tabernacle and they were still given that privilege.

So here hundreds of years later they're still the have the privilege of worshiping and and serving as gatekeepers in in the house of the Lord and They wrote psalms. There's probably about eight psalms that they wrote.

There are some debate about when it was written. Some think that these are written more towards the building of the second temple after the Babylonian destruction. There's others do believe that it was in the time of David.

Because it has the heart of David presented there this passionate desire for God that you see so much in in David's writings. So we really don't know nothing gives us some clarity with it. The only thing that it speaks of is that it does speak of the tabernacle.

Within this that they're longing for the tabernacle and so it does lean a little stronger to the concept of it being with David. One way the other they were people who had a relationship with God. They understood something that I believe is tremendously lacking in the church across this country and in this relationship as we will begin to look at is the sections are broke down and I would just Categorize them like this that the first section is a right desire for God.

The second section is going to be a right response to God and the third section is God's blessing and favor To those who live as aliens in this world. And so we're going to look at those at the right desire for God.

What is our our desire? How should our lives be in? Desiring God and there can be a lot of opinion a lot of thoughts that are out there. But but what does opinions matter if they're totally wrong? I mean you can have a you know.

You can go to the shop and you can hear all kinds of opinions about God and about politics. And what does it matter if their opinions are totally wrong totally contrary to God? Totally contrary to what God would desire to do in their lives.

What does the opinions matter? If our belief is not established upon truth, we can have the most profound Opinions and and stirring intellect and and and concepts and have it totally off base. What does it matter if we are not walking in the truth, and so they present here a Desire of God and what is that desire and how should our lives line up with it?

And he begins with the aspect of saying how lovely is your dwelling place? Oh God that term in the NIV that says lovely is not necessarily the best translation the best translation would put it as beloved.

How beloved is your dwelling place and the concept of beloved there gives a term of Endearment this this desire within says says you're your house your dwelling place. So God where you are. It is dear to my heart.

It is something that I yearn for. I love it is precious to me and This becomes something that is so important that that lays the whole precedent of what follows is an understanding of this yearning for God.

This desire for God we were created to worship. We were created to know him. We were created to be an intimate fellowship. Anything outside of that is a perversion of what we are created to do. Anything outside of that ultimately when we are in heaven, that's what we will do.

We worship and adore him and serve him and praise him and revel in his glory be awestruck by his Magnificence forever and ever and ever it will be fulfilled. But while we're on earth here We are to begin that journey and find the purpose of our lives which is to enjoy him and to know him.

The psalmist is bringing out. How lovely is your dwelling place? I love it. It's it's a beloved thing to me. And Malachi the Lord rebuked the children of Israel. And made a statement to them that You just think that the the work of God is a burden in the first chapter.

It refers to that is that the Israelites thought that the work of God and the service of God was a burden to them. And so God reproved them as a result of it. What a shame that the church can come to a point to think that the worship and the service of God is a burden.

But you see it's a hard issue. It's a hard issue. I mean the pastors went and made a Statements as well. We need nursery workers. Well, you know what the is if we understood that the work of God wasn't a burden.

Actually after service would be people running to him and saying, please please. Would you let me serve? Would you let me do it? But because our concept is wrong because we don't understand the privilege of it because we don't understand how lovely and Beloved is his dwelling place and not that the church is a dwelling place.

He doesn't dwell in temples made by hands. He dwells in something that is is even more simple and basic into the bodies of people right into us. It's not how beautiful an edifice that we can make whether it would be Laid out in gold and silver and and and precious gems would lie in the walls or whatever is that would not impress God.

He dwells within the hearts of men. We become the temple and now how beautiful is his dwelling place. That he would dwell in the midst of his people that he would Dwell in their very hearts in their lives and pour forth himself through frail broken individuals.

He brings out and he says my soul yearns even faints for the courts of the Lord. My soul yearns and it's saints to be in your presence. Well the chlorites they lived on the other side of the Jordan. And any time that that the floods would come in spring.

They wouldn't be able to get to the temple of the Lord because the floods would prevent them. They didn't have bridges as what we know today at other times when they went when Jerusalem would be besieged by armies and and there'd be all the Problems that would be going on as warfare the courts couldn't get to the city as well and and they would be kept from it.

Imagine for an instant. Here's people who know what it is to worship God and and love God and love the service of God and love to be in In the presence of it of a holy God in the presence of his people.

They're kept from it for some reason and you hear within them the longing desire says how I yearn to be with him. I'm kept from it because wars Sieging Jerusalem or or the floods are there and it's going to be a month before I can get across to go and worship God.

The yearning of the heart the pastor brought out the privilege that we have is as Christians to be able to come and to enter in a place of worship and adore him. In other parts of the world people are worshiping God and have worshiped already, but some did it in secret.

Some did it at the price and the possibility of life in prison. The church in China that has has suffered tremendous persecution. They have no pastors per se as what what we understand them. They have no seminaries or Bible schools.

They don't have bookstores. They don't have all the other things but yet the Chinese Church in one generation has increased 7 ,500 percent 7 ,500 percent because something is within them. They can't go to a building or a temple or some big edifice like what we can have in the States.

But you see there's something inside their hearts that bring the point of longing to worship so much that they would pay the price with their own blood that they pay the price with their own being ostracized and and thrown into a prison.

In Hebrews the 10th chapter it brings out how the the disciples had come to a point and they were even joyfully Allowing the confiscation of their goods because they look to a better Possession they look to something more lasting more enduring.

And so the early church would even allow all that they had to be taken from them in a time of persecution. Because their love of God was so great. Greater than what they own greater than what they could buy greater than that than anything of this world.

Because they had a greater desire greater love the yearning. The yearning the fainting for the courts of God back in Genesis 15 God reveals himself to Abram and the Lord says to Abram in a such an a Beautiful little statement.

He says be not afraid Abram. I Am your shield and you're exceeding great. You see this is what this psalms all about is. People coming to a place and understanding that God is there exceeding great reward?

Church is that a reality in your life? I mean we can say the words we can say Oh, I love Jesus and and we can say oh, yes I've surrendered all to him and we can make all kinds of bold Proclamations, but is our heart really yearning for him.

Is a heart really thirsty. Can I say that Lord you are my great reward? You are all if you took everything. If you took everything from me, it would be irrelevant. I would still love you. Is my love contingent upon what I received from God.

Is my love for him and my service of him. Gonna be if my life is all nice and easy and everything just goes away. Or is my love for him real and genuine and it will it will last and endure no matter what I face on this planet.

Where is the depth of my love. Is he my reward or is he my sugar daddy? What is he to me. If he's my sugar daddy He's he's just the one that I go to because I I want because I I need and I come to him and if I don't Get what I want, then I grow angry.

How many Christians grow angry at God because they don't get the desires of their heart they ask and they They don't get the things that they desire and so there's problems in their life and their struggles and and this song deals with it.

And we'll look at that in a few minutes. But you see God wants to bring us to a place in our life where he is our exceeding great reward. This is the depth of what Christianity is to be about. I mean, there's all kinds of shallow faith out there all kinds of shallow religions.

And there are some that are very demanding because they're legalistic and they're bondage and and there there is no joy. There is no service like Islam has no concept of intimacy with God. It does not exist within the framework of it.

All they understand God is as a harsh being and maybe they might make heaven their home and Then their concept of heaven is so perverted. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable their concept of heaven is that if a man goes to heaven He'll have 70 mansions with 70 bedrooms with 70 virgins in each bedroom.

I Mean, it's all sexual around the whole thing and the same with the Mormons. The Mormons have the same concept of heaven as what Islam does. Only In true Christianity are recalled to this place of intimacy with God that we can know him that he Becomes our exceedingly great reward not what he can give us.

You see when we go to heaven and we behold him. It's not gonna be streets of gold we're gonna walk on that it's gonna be nothing to us. We're really not gonna care about our mansion. We're not gonna care about about the crowns.

When you read in in Revelation the elders take their crowns and throw them back at the feet of Jesus understanding everything that they have done God accomplished. Through them not because of their own abilities, but because of the work of God.

The exceedingly great reward when we walked in pearly gates will be he who sits on the throne that now we can come before him. With no veil between us. Then we can come before him and we can behold him and see the beauty of his holiness and the splendor of who he is.

Our exceeding great reward. How lovely is your dwelling place. David Brainerd was a man God used to bring revival among the Native Americans in the 1730s. He prayed it in but David Brainerd wrote in his diary says when I really enjoy God I Feel my desires of him the more ravenous and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable.

Oh. This pleasing pain. It makes my soul press after God makes my soul press after God this pleasing pain this pain within. That's not the pain of the world that leaves emptiness and heartache and and and can never be satisfied this pleasing pain.

That's inside of yearning for God desiring God thirsting for God and tasting of him as he satisfies. But yet when he satisfies there's a greater hunger that rises up and so it gets more intense. And so you desire more and it's good.

It's clean. It's pure. It's holy. It's not what the world is and the taintedness of it and the ugliness of it or the perversion of it. It is purity beyond understanding this thirsting this yearning after God.

Salma says my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God. My heart my flesh. The serving of God is more than just what we do inside the soul or inside our minds. Or even inside our hearts is with our flesh.

One reason why we have so much problem with our flesh is because our flesh isn't crying out for God. It will cry out for something. Our flesh will cry out for something. It will cry out through lust. It'll cry out through pride.

It'll cry out through desire. It'll cry out for all kinds of things or it will cry out for God. The psalmist brought out something here. That is so important. He says my heart and my flesh yearn for you is if our heart and our flesh is yearning for God.

It will not be yearning for the things of this world. It will not be yearning for the lust of the flesh. It will not be yearning for pornography or for for pride or for possessions. It won't be yearning for those things.

Because the heart is in a different direction. It's attachment is to something that is not of this world a love that is pure and holy. Not something that is shaken by the kingdoms of men by time and chance and so on but something that is eternal established.

He calls us to a love that is better to something that yearns for him for the Living God. Something that cannot be shaken if it is truly founded upon it. I'd venture to say the majority of us know of Christians or people who who were Christian for a time and backslid.

But you know, there's absolute security in Christ. There's absolute security. Nobody has to turn their back on God. Nobody has to backslide. There's that place that we can walk in insecurity and not be afraid of turning back and and rejecting him.

There's that place every person that is backslid. It's always a heart issue. It's always that they got their eyes off Jesus that their flesh and their hearts stopped yearning for God and began yearning for something else.

Every single time it's never the fault of God's ability to keep us. It is always the fault of a wandering heart and a lusting eye and a lusting flesh. My heart yearns for you. My flesh cries out for you first.

Peter 2 11 says dear friends. I urge you As aliens and strangers in this world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Do you know if you feed the lust of your flesh don't be shocked when the lust of your flesh is running wild.

Don't be shocked as if you're feeding it with desire with wants of this world. Don't be shocked. That there's always this yearning that can never be satisfied for worldly things. As if you're feeding it with pornography.

Don't be shocked that your lust is going wild man. It's if you're if you're watching television at times where where there's all kinds of immorality in the show and sexual joking. Don't be shocked that lust is a plague to your life.

Because you're feeding it you're feeding the flesh you're feeding something in you. We are told that if we live as aliens in this world that we will abstain from those Sinful desires that war against us that war against us because if we feed those things It's gonna keep wanting more and more as this ravenous beast inside that can never be satisfied wanting craving more.

Is there ever enough lust that can satisfy the lust of man? It can a man ever be proud enough? Where is it ever satisfied. Proverbs brings it out says can a man take fire in his bosom and not get burnt?

Can a fire itself ever be quenched. Does a fire ever say I've had enough wood. I've had enough. It's never satisfied if we keep feeding it. There'll be that eating away of our souls. Jesus brought it out in a different way in Matthew 6 19 through 21.

He says do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break through and steal but store up for Yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is there will your heart be also? That's not an issue in and of itself whether we have houses or cars. The issue is where our treasure is where heart is. Where our love is the desire to have more.

It's kind of like what the computer industry does to Americans they're constantly bringing out newer and faster computers. And if you have a computer that's six months old are you really satisfied with it?

And they're always telling you got to have something faster. And so there's this this in thing inside of you going since I need something quicker. I need something faster. I need something more powerful.

It's just ever just in in a simple way of the computer industry this ever desire that they keep calling they keep drawing you. It's not just time and chance. It's just not technology. That's advancing.

It is a purposeful marketing thing and trying to draw people into it. Because it deals with the character of man with the desires of man with the yearning the lust things of men. We have to have a love that is greater.

And you know that's a hard place to come into into a country. That has so much and to come to places with. Paul says I know how to abound and how to be a base. I know how to be content and everything.

It's hard to be content when you see people always trying better cars, and you were having bigger houses or more stuff. Last week we were in Wisconsin. We had the chance to witness to this man that was from Russia, and I don't know his whole story.

I didn't we didn't get that far. Somehow he had gotten out of Russia while Russia was still under the communist regime. And this man was filled with such bitterness such anger. He had such anger at the communist government, but not because of communism.

He was a communist. He believed in communism, but he believed in that that the communist government never went far enough and so his anger was that there were those in the communist government who had and then everybody else was left without and.

So he comes to America fleeing it because communism was such a disaster never never happened because it was never taken far enough. So he comes into America. And then he he had dreams of of what he could get and then now he's all filled with bitterness in a whole nother way.

Just a man filled with disappointment because he looked to one thing to satisfy and then another thing he goes from one country to another. Hoping that the answer will be in America, and he's still angry inside.

He was at a point of such despair. He says I just want to stop living. I want all of humanity to stop living. If he had a button that he could destroy all of humanity. I believe he wouldn't have thought twice about it.

Ravi Zacharias went and said it's not Poverty that brings people to a place of hopelessness. He says it's actually what takes place in America. Because we have such super abundance. And when we taste of all this stuff and all the dreams all the wants all the desires we say I'll be happy when I'll be happy when and whatever we get we lay our hands on we're not happy then it brings us to a point of hopelessness.

That's why the highest suicide rate in the nation is among doctors. And the second highest suicide rate is among attorneys. People who reach the pinnacle of supposed success find it empty at the end and here you find the remedy where Jesus tells us.

It says there are treasures that are better. Treasures that are better. I mean we need cars. We need houses. We need we need to take care of the basic necessities of life. Those are our things that God has no problem with but where is our heart?

Where is the yearning of our desire if it was all taken? What would the response be of our lives? I'm not gonna say if everything I had was taken that it wouldn't hurt. But would my Christianity be upset would I shake a fist at God and say why God I'm just trying to serve you.

Why is this bad stuff happening to me or would I draw near to him and see the remedy is him? Not my possessions not what I own not my job not anything in this world, but he is the prize. Count Zinzendorf a man that God used for the Moravian revival and I won't go through in the into the history of it.

But what defined this man what made the man the man of God that he was was a simple statement that defined his life. He says I have only one passion. It is Jesus Jesus only. And the testimony of this man was that he's a rich young ruler who said yes.

In Scripture you have the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and he said no when Jesus said sell all that you have and come Follow me. He said no and he walked away from Christ here was one of the men most destined to be one of the most powerful men in all of Europe and instead he becomes a pastor to a people that were persecuted and comes to his lands and he pastors these people that are from other parts of the world and have other ideas and so.

Then he passed him and sees revival break out. Because he had one passion one passion. You see he was not for sale. Are we for sale? Are we for sale? That's a real that's something we really got to ask us.

Are we for sale. Is there pain enough in our life that finally we would give up on Christ to get rid of the pain? Job went through some pain in his life and his and his wife came to us as well. Well job just curse God and die.

I mean could there be pain so bad in your life that you'd give up on God that you'd walk away from or would somebody if They came and offered you five billion or twenty billion or fifty billion dollars.

Whatever number there could be upon it. Would you give up your Christianity for that? How about a relationship? Maybe you've had nothing but miserable Relationships in your life and and somebody comes along your path and goes to offer you what you think to be the real thing finally.

Are you for sale? Is there a price on your Christianity that you would give it up? Zinzendorf said I Don't have one passion. That's what defined the man. The psalmist then brings out this beautiful little illustration.

About the sparrows and the swallows going in and making their nests in the in the temple. This is what he's referring to. He says these little birds get to go into the holy places that man isn't allowed to and they make their home there and they Have their little babies there and they live in this peace and tranquility.

Because there are no predators to take them in the presence of God there in the temple area. There are no predators no birds that is gonna take them or no animals that would take them away. They live in security and the yearning of this man says oh how I wish I could walk in such a place of intimacy with you.

To dwell at your altar to worship and adore you in this continual perpetual way. It's a statement of desire of a man yearning to be with his God yearning to walk with him in intimacy. That he would even envy the birds that could dwell in the in the house of God.

Now comes a second section. And this is a right response to God and let's look at this. And the fifth verses is blessed are those whose strength is in you who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca.

They make it a place of Springs the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer. Oh Lord God Almighty listen to me. Oh God of Jacob.

This is really where I'm wanting to go. And this is what I'm really wanting to deal with. Is this section of Scripture right here? He says blessed are those whose strength is in you who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

That's a very obscure Sentence there have set their hearts on pilgrimage. There is no Exact translation for it. It's a very difficult term. And so when you go to different translations and you look at them.

They'll give some different ideas and the King James says in whose heart are the ways of them in Who hearts are the ways of. That's kind of a weird saying isn't it in whose heart are the ways of them?

But the idea is is not even of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage has a concept of of this short-term thing. We're gonna go on a pilgrimage. We're gonna go to this place. You know whether you go to Jerusalem or whatever and you're gonna go on a pilgrimage and when you're done with your pilgrimage over there.

You'll come back and your pilgrimage will be over. It's on a temporary thing. And so pilgrimage isn't even the right word that they're using here. It's the concept of a highway says that their heart is on a highway to God.

It is more of the concept of a sojourner. I pass it for a time the Romanian congregation. But let's just say there's this Romanian and he wants desperately to come to America. He wants desperately he's doing everything he can inside because he has this other land.

He wants to go to this land of plenty that he believes it will be and when he starts doing that. Everything he does he's looking to another country. Everything in his life is looking to another place.

He has to go to work. But every penny he has he's saving so he might be able to get himself free and out of that country everything he does. He's not living like everybody else because he has his eyes on another destination another place.

So he lives different he asked him and he talks different. He saves money in a different way because his purposes are different. He'll go without because of a desire. He's a sojourner he's he's on a pilgrimage.

You see this gives us the idea of a lifetime pursuit. Not a one-time emphasis, but a lifetime pursuit and the emphasis is not on the travel but on the residency the emphasis is that we are now citizens of heaven and We are on a journey and that our loyalty is not to a nation is not to the people.

Our greatest loyalty is to God himself. We are to have a right loyalty to a nation of family and so on. There's that right place and right order but mark true citizenship is not as Americans. Our true citizenship as citizens of heaven and that is what I look for and that's what I yearn for and that's what I desire.

And that is where my goal is. And so everything in my life points to one thing. Points to one thing everything my money points to one thing my time points to one thing everything and What happens so often in American Christianity is that Jesus is a dimension of our life.

Rather than being our life and what becomes so important with this as he refers to our Citizenship to the aspect of having this one focus. To set our eyes on something greater than this world. Jesus went and said if your eyes single then your whole body will be full of light if you're high as one focus.

But if our eye is duplicitous looking on multiple things, how can we be loyal to anything? Paul brought it out. He says you cannot eat at the table of Christ and at the table of devils. Also, you cannot he says you cannot serve to God and in that situation.

He says you can't serve God and money. You cannot serve to God you will cling to one and reject the other and what will always happen is we will if we put God and Money in that place. We will always lean to the money because it ultimately becomes a hard issue.

He brings out he says blessed are those whose strength is in you and what does he say that happens to that? Strength what does that strength do it puts them on a pilgrimage it puts them on a journey. You see those who who find themselves strong in Christ.

It's not because of seniority. It's not because they've been saved X amount of years. I mean across this country I can I can be at churches and there can be people that have been in the church for 50 Years and be as worldly as can be and you have this newborn babe in Christ.

That is more spiritual than somebody that's been saved that long because it's the state of the heart. It's the yearning after God is the desiring of God. And here you have a situation that their strength.

Their strength and God brings them to a point to live as an alien. Their strength and God brings to the point that they have a love greater. Do you know this world is ever tugging and pulling on us ever tugging and pulling?

I mean pulling at us from a hundred different ways. Young people get it constantly. Young people get it from media. They get it from music. They get it from school. They get it from friends. I mean this pull to be worldly this pull to act like the world to dress like the world to talk like the world.

This constant pulling and tugging upon them. We have that same thing as adults. We've got a world tugging and pulling on us just like I said with with Advertisements they go to you and they say you deserve a new Ford today because they know you believe it.

There's this thing that says this is what it means to be successful. I'm in the workplace. It's given family can do that. I get together with my my dad and and my dad speaks of of one of his Stepchildren and both of how much money they got and all the gas stations.

They own and and the big huge yacht that they have and that's success. And we can have that flooded at us as as individuals and it can affect our Christianity. But when we grow strong. Nothing's gonna stop us from a pilgrimage.

Turn with me for a moment. We're gonna turn back to Psalms 84. Turn with me to Hebrews 11. I Want to take a moment and look at? Abram Hebrews the 11th chapter in the eighth verse. This is 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 by faith. He made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents as it Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same possession for he Was looking forward to a city whose foundations.

Whose architect and builder was God God went to? Abraham and says leave your family. His dad was an idolater. His family were idolaters. They all had their their whole bunch of gods that they worshiped on a regular basis and God speaks to Abram and says there's one God it's me leave everything and follow me.

That's a ridiculous thought ridiculous because because in that day and age everything was your family in America. The family is broke down and we can be all over there all over the nation and and so distant and see each other only.

Once in a while, but in that day and age family was everything I mean that was your livelihood that was your ability to survive. That was where where you'd be able to protect each other if war broke out and for Abram to leave the protection of his family.

Was it going to a place of disaster a place that could spell sure death for everyone? But yet he heard the voice of God and he was willing to leave it all because the voice of God spoke and Says I have a better place for you.

I Have a better place, you know, that's what it is with Jesus. Sometimes our Christianity has been twisted from a concept that says come to Jesus because he'll make your life better. And you know, he will make your life better.

I won't say no. But there's still pain and we're gonna look at that in just a couple of minutes. There's still sorrow. There's still agony there's still problems that happen in this world whether we're Christian or not and If we look to come to Jesus because he'll make our life better.

Sometimes it doesn't happen like that for a time. Sometimes it can be difficult and if it becomes difficult and we says Jesus I came to you just so you could make my life all better and If I look for everything just in the temporal the temple is not always going to give me what I want.