MY FRIENDS, WHAT IS THE PRICE OF SEEKING THAT HEAVENLY HOPE?

May 20, 2017

MY FRIENDS, WHAT IS THE PRICE OF SEEKING THAT HEAVENLY HOPE?

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own.

If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Heb. 11:13-16 (NLT) My friends, there is a price in following Christ as we seek that heavenly home.

We are nomads, aliens in a foreign land with no set destination except that place eye have not seen nor ear has heard, nor have entered into the imagination of any man or woman what God has planned for the redeems final destination. The redeemed being His children, heirs through the blood of His Son, and recipients of that free gift, God’s grace life eternal, and that heavenly hope His faithful have received, that “inherited “birthright,” a status given only through Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son.”

And as heirs, the cost of following Christ in Luke 9:57-62 (NIV) tells us there were several who because of the status they thought they would receive as workers for an earthly king came to Christ seeking discipleship. One said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” But my friends, discipleship cannot be impulse driven because somehow as the Spirit was moving during church service we felt a portion of what everyone else was receiving. Discipleship is a committed heart to serve.

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Christ is telling Him I am a nomad of this world my residence is not of this world. Then Christ said to another follow me. My friends, Christ timing for a commitment can never be an inconvenience, we must be always prepared to go where He leads.

His reply, “Lord, first I must bury my father.” Jesus reply, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” consider what it means to desire heaven, and yet to turn away because of the conditions laid down. Procrastination eventually robs us of total commitment and discipleship as we carry our cross. Another said, “I’ll follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” My friends, to look back is to lose focus, on our destination. “Non-essentials must be of secondary importance” when it comes to discipleship, committed faith must be the only factor that drives that passion from within that takes us out on the front lines of the battle field or wherever Christ may lead.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, [choosing the life of a nomad] with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Moses commitment [to serve God was of] greater wealth than the treasures of this worrld, for he was looking to that final reward. [the promise land] Heb. 11:24 (NLV)