Seeking a Homeland

I want to go home! Have you ever heard that? How about you parents? Have you ever heard your children use that statement? Small children, especially, but even us adults, I think, sometimes say, I want to go home. I remember back, I think it was 1985, maybe, or 84, 85, my wife and I were here at the Dells with our daughter, Jamie. She was three years old. And it rained every single day, all day long. At least it seemed like it. I've never been to a feast that had so much rain. As that particular feast said, I remember her, like the third day into the feast, I want to go home! She really wanted to go home. But we stuck around for the rest of the feast. My wife and I enjoyed it. I'm not sure she did as much. But we all say, I want to go home from time to time. And you know, our participation in these wonderful holy days of God Almighty should show to God that we are His little children. And we are shouting to Him our excitement and our anticipation about really going home. So, how badly do you want to go home?

Now, I'm not talking about some kind of ethereal home in heaven right after one dies, as some people believe. Of course, we don't believe that. I'm talking about a very real home in God's kingdom that's going to last for an eternity. And it is going to be a joyous, an abundant, a wonderful, a fantastic, an amazing, a literal spiritual kingdom. And we certainly want to go home. There really is no place like home. We've heard people say that before, and you probably remember Dorothy, at least those of you who are a bit older. Dorothy went on a long journey in search of getting back home to Kansas. She went through all kinds of trials to get back home. But Dorothy was determined to get home, and with the help of the munchkins, the tin man, the cowardly lion, and the scarecrow, she kept moving in that direction, and finally she made it. She made it back to Kansas. Americans, in fact, all people spend billions of dollars every year returning to the place they were born in their hometowns. Home is a word that creates longing. It creates nostalgia. Often for a spiritual or emotional place that we've never really experienced in the fullest sense. The word itself has a powerful influence over our lives and our thoughts. Many of us have experienced many homes. I've had homes in Ohio. That's where I grew up. But then I moved to Texas for three years during college, and then to California for a year, and then to Michigan for almost ten years, then to Oklahoma for a year, and then to Pennsylvania for five years, and then back to Oklahoma for nineteen, and now I'm home in Texas. So I've had a lot of homes, and probably a lot of you have had a lot of homes. But no matter how happy and how secure we feel in those particular homes, I believe there's still a longing in most of us that can't be satisfied by a physical home. Home, then, is a powerful yet elusive concept. The strong feelings that surround home reveal some of the deep longings within us for a place where we're safe and we're at peace, a place where we can feel and be secure, since we do live in a rather insecure, unstable world. We really don't know what we're going to wake up to each morning. No guarantees. No real physical place or physical family ever totally satisfies these yearnings that we have for home. No matter how satisfying and blessed, again, that home is. The only thing that's going to satisfy these inner yearnings is when we enter into our eternal, spiritual home in God's kingdom, a home that these days symbolize. It's very, very important that we are here during the Feast of Tabernacles to observe, to celebrate, to rejoice, in what these days picture and what they mean for us. All mankind is exiled from their homes and their homeland whether they realize it or not. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were exiled from the Garden in Eden.

And frankly, we've all been exiled from what God intends and wants for all of us. We firstfruits especially realize that we are exiles in this world. In fact, the song that was sung, mentioned being strangers and pilgrims, we're seeking a homeland. We're seeking a place that we can call home for all eternity. This is not our permanent home here on this earth. We understand what many do not, that we are always traveling, but we're never in this lifetime arriving. Now is our time of tabernacling. Now is our time of sojourning. We read about that in Hebrews 11. So please come with me to Hebrews 11.

I thought the special music tied in very, very well with this sermon. We didn't plan it that way. It just happened to be the special music before this message. In Hebrews 11, verse 8, Therefore from one man, from Abraham, and him as good as dead, he was a hundred years old, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. And these all died in faith, not having received the promises that the people that are mentioned in Hebrews 11, the men and women of faith, they died not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, they embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We are all, indeed, strangers and pilgrims on this earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.

They seek a homeland, and truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had an opportunity to return. In other words, if they would have longed for that country or that home, temporary home from which they came out, they would have wanted to return, as some who came out of Egypt wanted to go back to Egypt.

But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. In fact, God is pleased and rightly proud to be called their God. God says He wants to be our God, and He wants us to be His children.

And why is that? It's because they desire. Remember, they desire a better, a heavenly country. We all have that desire for a better place, a better time. We long for that better time, that better place.

And you know, God does look on the heart, so He sees whether or not you truly desire His kingdom.

God looks at every one of us to see how badly we desire His kingdom. You know, many in the Bible were literal exiles.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of course, they were sojourners. They were exiles in a foreign land, as I just read. They hadn't yet received the promises of an eternal homeland.

Also, many in the Bible were literal exiles. Some were exiles because of their sins. Like many of the exiles from the house of Judah, who went into Assyria, and the house of Judah, who were taken captive into Babylon.

They also were exiles.

The prodigal son in Christ's New Testament parable was also an exile. Now, he was a voluntary exile. He went out on his own. Thought he could find a better place. But he came to his senses. He repented. And he returned to his home with his father. His father, who truly loved him, who couldn't wait to see him come back. The prodigal son is a type for all of us.

We, too, are going home. We've all sowed some wild oats in our lifetime. And we're all coming home to our Father in Heaven. He has a place for us, a much better place.

So the Promised Land, back the land of Canaan that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob went to, it was just a type of God's kingdom. First to be established here on the earth for a thousand years. But then to expand for all eternity.

And that's hard for us to conceive with our finite minds. It's impossible, really, to conceive what that means.

Life as an exile is never easy.

And even when life is good, there's always a yearning inside. There's always a hunger that's never satisfied if someone truly desires to be home.

So these days that we're observing, these holy days, the Feast of Tabernacles, and also that eighth day, the last great day, they reflect the end of mankind's journey in exile.

At the same time, they celebrate that someday soon that journey in exile is going to end.

Christ is coming back to establish the government and the kingdom of God on the earth. So these days look forward in hope to a time when we will no longer be wanderers, but we will leave our temporary dwellings forever, and we will live in our permanent spiritual home for the rest of our lives, and our lives are going to last for eternity.

Now, the Apostle Paul was mindful of this concept in 2 Corinthians 5 and 6.

Paul said, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, talking about this temporary body, this human flesh, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

So Paul longed to be with Christ in the kingdom of God. He's still awaiting the promise. He's in the grave. He's awaiting that promise to eternal life. And when Christ returns, Paul is going to come out of the grave to his spiritual home, with Jesus Christ for the rest of eternity. So, brethren, what can we learn now from being exiles in a foreign land? What can you and I learn? What can we learn while we're here on this earth so journeying? And how are we to cope as we wait in exile for a better time, a much, much better time, a much better world, as we wait for the return of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom of God? That's what I'd like to talk about in the sermon today. Some lessons from being in exile from those who are seeking an eternal homeland. So what is the first lesson?

The first lesson that we all need to learn is that we should do everything that we can to get home. We should do everything that we can possibly do to get home. Now, it's not always up to us. I know that. I mean, it's ultimately up to Christ living in us. But there is a part that we all have to play. We all have to be submissive to God and His will. We have to follow Christ, to put on the mind of Christ, to follow His example. So some exiles throughout time did everything possible to get back to their homeland. You might remember the Count of Monte Cristo, how he got exiled, sent to prison. But he didn't give up. He didn't lose hope. Finally, he made it back to his homeland. We need to have a fervent desire to get to the homeland. The more comfortable that we are in this country that we live in now, the less we are eager to go back, or to go to, for the first time, God's eternal homeland. Look at how many people went back to Jerusalem after the decree of Cyrus. You know, there were a lot more who stayed. You can read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. You can read about Zerubbabel, about the temple being rebuilt, about the wall being rebuilt. These were exiles who came back into the land of Israel. They desired to go back to their homeland. Many others stayed right there in Babylon. How comfortable are you in this society? How comfortable are you right now in this world that we live in? Certainly we should be grateful that God has blessed us with a great deal of comfort in this United States of America. We live in a very blessed land. But we should not allow that comfort to lull us to sleep and to selfishness. We should not let this comfort, this comfortable life that we have, deaden our senses to the snares in this society, or to the sufferings of others, and the need and the desire to pray, for these days to be fulfilled. Thy kingdom come! We need to be fervently praying God's kingdom come, because not everyone lives as we do. Not everyone has it as comfortable as we do in this wonderful land that we live in. And even then, we all have our trials, don't we? It's still certainly not God's kingdom here. So we should not allow ourselves to be lulled to sleep, but we should be ever alert and on guard and vigilant. We know that Satan is a roaring lion. We know that he is seeking whom he may devour. And he's quite diligent. So all of us do need to step out in faith. We must not get comfortable in our exile.

We should move toward the kingdom of God. And there will always be obstacles. Ezra and Nehemiah had Tobias, they had Sanballat, they had Gershom, they had other people that were against them and opposed them. We will have opposition in this life. We'll have trials and tribulations of all sorts. But we must forever be moving toward God's kingdom and never losing hope. So that's the first point. Do everything that you can possibly do to get home. Secondly, be good citizens. While you're here, pray for deliverance from this temporary physical homeland. But be a good citizen in the meantime. Love the family of mankind. For God so loved the world that He gave His Son. So we need to love this world as well. Not the world itself, but the people in the world. God loves them. We should love them. We should want the best for them. We should certainly want Christ's return. Because that's when things are going to really start getting better for everyone. So we should love the family of mankind, but let us not become a part of the system of the God of this world. So what am I saying? I'm saying we are to be in the world, but not of the world. You know, the Scripture clearly tells us that we are going to be in the world, but we should not be of the world. In 1 Peter 2, Peter talks about that in 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2 and verse 13. 1 Peter 2 verse 13. He says, Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, not just to keep from getting a fine. Sometimes I find that's my tendency. I submit more because I don't want to get $150 fine. But we should learn to submit because God tells us we should. So we are to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. So we are to honor all people. Do we do that? Do we honor all people? Do we love the brotherhood?

Do we fear God? Do we honor the king? We should be good citizens, but we should fervently be praying for deliverance from this temporary, this physical homeland. The more we accept the standards of this world, the more we will naturally reject God's standards. So obviously there's a fine line here. You can't be of the world, even though you're in the world. The more we become hardened or deadened to Satan society and the sins in this world, the harder our hearts will become.

We may not be involved in those sins ourselves, but we will become apathetic if we're not careful. We will become lethargic and lackadaisical. The more we accept an alien culture and become a part of it, the less we will identify with and yearn for God's true homeland. In Romans 12, Paul tells us, as God is speaking through Paul, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves, your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

It's reasonable to surrender yourself totally because of what Christ has done for you. As the song, especially music, we are washed by the blood of the Lamb. Our sins are forgiven through our Savior, Jesus Christ. We should surrender to Him and allow His mind to become our mind. We should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove. So we're supposed to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So we have to be students of God's Word. We need to be diligent, studying the Bible so that we know what God would have us do in any given situation. God will give us wisdom and guide us, but we do have to do our part. Workmen who needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. If you have compromised and left your Heavenly Father's home in spirit, you're not there, then like the prodigal son, you need to repent. We all need to repent wherever we need to repent. We need to forsake the land of our exile that is filled with heartache and destruction, and we do need to run home to our Father as fast as we possibly can.

We need to get on the move. So that's the second point, the second lesson that can be learned in our exile is to be good citizens, but to also pray for deliverance and to learn the will of God and to live by God's will in our life today. Thirdly, we exiles need to keep the vision of our eternal homeland always before us.

We do need to have vision. Human beings oftentimes become blinded. We don't even know it, but we become blind. And that's one of the main purposes of the Feast, is to wake us up and to help us see clearly that a much better time is coming. And now is our day of salvation. Now is our time to be judged. We are the called of God at this time. So make this Feast a time to meditate on your spiritual homeland, what it's going to be like, and what you need to do in order to be there.

Again, we know that we're saved by grace. We can't earn our salvation. It is a gift. Because we've all blown it, haven't we? We've all sinned, and the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And God wants to give us that gift of eternal life.

But He looks on the heart, so our hearts need to be pure. And we need to be drawn ever closer to God and to Jesus Christ. And these days can renew that in us. If we allow them to, God can renew a spirit within us so that we will be ever more faithful and diligent in the days ahead.

Of course, now is not the only time to have vision once a year at the Feast. Obviously not. And God has given us a weekly reminder of His Millennial Rest. Again, these days are symbolic of God's Millennial Rest a thousand years on this earth. But we have a weekly Sabbath, too, brethren, that reminds us every single Sabbath of who we are. It's a sign between God and His people. So every Sabbath we should also be renewed. And it should be a positive reminder of our awesome future and what God has for us.

So incorporate practices and traditions on the Sabbath to help accomplish this goal in your family. And remember also that we need some daily trips into God's Kingdom. We need to take some daily trips there by using our minds, our imaginations, what God has given us. Meditating on our glorious future every day will help us endure this stressful, present life. When things get tough, we need to put our minds on a better time and a better world. I personally think that memorizing some Scriptures that talk about God's Holy Days, that talk about the Feast and the future ahead of us in Isaiah 2, Isaiah 11, for example, and there are many other Scriptures that we can memorize or at least call to mind as we take a side trip to the Kingdom of God each and every day of our lives.

Hebrews 4 talks about the Promised Land. It talks about the Sabbath, and there remains a keeping of the Sabbath for God's people. So we should never lose sight of these days, these Holy Days, the annual Holy Days, the weekly Sabbath. They remind us of God's wonderful plan for us. So the third lesson is keep the vision of your eternal homeland always before you. Have that vision every day, every week, every year.

A fourth lesson is don't lose hope in the vision. Don't lose hope. Sometimes we can become discouraged because life is tough, and there are lots of trials in this life. And that's no wonder because Satan really is the God of this world, of this present age. Hope is often a misunderstood word in the Biblical sense.

In English it is often used in the sense that a person desperately wants something to happen, but is unsure of whether or not it really is going to happen. In other words, it's hope with fingers crossed sort of hope. Very doubtful. That's not the kind of hope we should have. That's really not hope at all. When the Bible speaks about hope, it's something far different. So having this fingers crossed kind of hope is not the kind of future God has for us.

It is a sure future. We can count on it. It's going to happen. We can have faith and believe. The main words used in the Bible for hope talk about an expectancy, an expectation, a forward to an expectation, a longing for something that is confident or that's going to happen. So from the definitions that you find in the Bible, and I won't go into the Greek words, but there's a couple of Greek words.

You can look them up. It's obvious that hope is more than wishing. Something's going to happen. That's wishing. Hoping is different. It's not the belief itself, but it is the reaction that faith produces in us. Faith is the substance there. It's what's behind the hope. In fact, hope is impossible without first having faith. Spiritually, hope is an attachment to the future that we have with God. It is a longing and a pleasurable, anticipated expectation of the fulfillment of our faith. In fact, that's one of the definitions, is to anticipate, usually with pleasure, to anticipate something that's going to happen and be filled with pleasure as we think about it.

That's the kind of hope that we should have for God's kingdom. So these days are a time to enjoy that anticipation by living it to a small degree right here at the feast and to visualize and plan for our future trip home. My wife and I actually drove here to the Dells in one day. We drove over a thousand miles. In one day, we weren't planning on it. We were going to break it up and take a couple of days, but we both felt fine and we just kept driving. We wanted to get here.

We were expectant. We wanted to be here and we're glad we're here. Now in Romans chapter 8, here we find some very important verses in the Bible that talk about the sufferings of this present age. And I know that we do suffer in this lifetime. We are flesh. Flesh is not spirit. Flesh hurts. It can be filled with pain at times. And it seems the older we get, the easier it is to have pain. But in Romans chapter 8 verse 18, here Paul writes, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

There is a glory that's going to be revealed in each and every one of us because we are to become like Christ. Are we not to become just like Christ? Isn't that what the Scripture tells us? The resurrected Christ. We are to become like Him. We are to have that glory. It shall be revealed in us for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

We should eagerly wait with hope, with anticipation knowing because we have faith that it will surely come to pass. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now we're in bondage to this flesh. I don't want to stay in the flesh.

And the older I get, the less I want to. And when I'm 120 years old, I'm sure I'm really going to be ready for God's kingdom. Well, I certainly hope God comes back, Christ comes back long before that. But it's not in this flesh that we have hope. It's in the spirit that we have hope.

Because this is a bondage of corruption. But there will be glorious liberty for the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. In the Dallas Fort Worth area, we've had five babies born in the last month and a half. And I was at the hospital, and just I think every case, except one, and then I went to see her shortly after that. But it's really quite an amazing experience to be there while babies are being born.

And the expectation. They know it's going to happen. And they surely want it to happen soon. I mean, most women, when they're nine months pregnant or close to it, they really want to have that baby. Well, we should have that same anticipation for God's kingdom. We should want it that badly. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, because God has granted us His spirit.

Those of us who have been baptized and have received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. We have that earnest, that expectation, that guarantee that we are going to be a part of God's family forever. So, we who are first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

For we were sowed in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? We don't see God's kingdom yet, do we? But we hope for God's kingdom. We know that God's kingdom is surely coming. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

Yes, we do have to persevere in this life. We are called to a life of persevering. And we do need to stay faithful because only those who endure to the end will be saved. In Romans chapter 15 verse 13, Romans chapter 15 and verse 13, here it says, Now the God of hope fills you with all joy. So this is what Paul is hoping for every one of us, or is wanting for each and every one of us. Now the God of hope, God is a God of hope as well. He's longing also with anticipation the fulfillment of these days. He can't wait to send his son back, but he's ever patient. And he's going to do it at the right time and the best time for everyone. Now the God of hope fills you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. God's Spirit is not the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And we have that spirit in us. So we are to anticipate with pleasure. That's Strongs 1680, the word hope. God of... to anticipate with pleasure. So God also anticipates with pleasure the establishment of the kingdom of God here on the earth. And then a thousand years later, the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven where God will dwell with his people for eternity. So the fourth lesson, again, that we need to be learning is never lose hope in this vision of God's kingdom. Never lose hope. Don't allow Satan to discourage you. Don't allow anyone to discourage you from this wonderful hope that we have, this eager anticipation of God's kingdom. A fifth lesson is do everything you can, in the meantime, to establish a church home. A weekly church home. Every Sabbath getting together with people of like mind. A type of God's eternal homeland, you might say.

A safe house, a home for the brethren in this stressful world. So if you're not meeting every Sabbath with someone, find people to meet with. We need each other. We need the encouragement that we can derive from being around people who also have that same hope and that same faith.

In 1 Peter 1, verse 22, Peter says, Since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

So we have to spend time with each other, don't we? We have to get together as often as possible so that we can learn to fervently love each other. And certainly we should love others in our neighborhoods where we live, people that aren't a part of God's church.

But it's also important to have a church home where we can meet and be nourished on a continual basis. Let's learn to love each other fervently with a pure heart.

In Ephesians 4, Paul talks about being a prisoner of the Lord. He did go to prison literally.

We are all prisoners figuratively, aren't we?

If we truly surrender to God and He is truly our King, our Master, then we are His prisoner.

We are His bondservant, His slave, in that sense, in a right way.

Paul says, I therefore, in Ephesians 4, verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.

We are to walk worthy of this calling, this high and this holy, this mighty calling that we've been given, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, with patience, and being able to bear up under a lot of suffering, bearing with one another in love.

Again, meeting with each other, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

God wants us to learn to get along. He wants us to learn to love each other.

He says there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all.

So anybody who has God's Spirit dwelling in them is truly a brother and sister in Christ.

We don't always, perhaps, know God knows who His children are.

So we should love everyone, shouldn't we?

Philippians chapter 2 is read during the sermonette, so I'm not going to take the time to go there.

But I would just remind you that we are to be of one accord of one mind, and let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

But in lowliness of mind, we should esteem others better than ourselves.

In other words, we should be meek and humble.

We should want the best for each other, and we should be willing at times to suffer for others.

The fifth lesson is do everything that you can to establish a church home right now.

Wherever you live, wherever you are, many of you already have a church home. Most of you have a church home. You meet every Sabbath.

Make that a strong, vibrant church home.

Love each other in that home. Make it a safe place in a very stressful world.

And then the sixth lesson is that we should all be comforted in the fact that God is indeed our refuge right now.

God is our refuge. God is our safe place. In a sense, God is our home right now.

Yes, we long for a better time when we will actually dwell with Christ and will rule and reign with Christ.

But now, right now, we can find refuge in God the Father and in His Son.

We are tabernacling with God. We have not been left alone as we go through this journey, this physical lifetime.

God is here for us. Christ has promised to never leave us and to never forsake us, so we should believe that promise and know that God is there for us.

And God is the God of all comfort, as it says in the Scriptures. God will comfort us. We now live in temporary dwellings.

But there can be a great deal of comfort in this lifetime right now because God is with us. God is in us. God is living in us.

And there's great power in that. And there's great comfort in knowing that, and we should not underestimate that fact.

In Psalm 119, verse 114, Psalm 119, verse 114, a man after God's own heart, King David said, You are my hiding place, my shield, I hope in your word. You are my hiding place, you are my shield, I hope in your word.

In Psalm 9, we're going to stay in Psalms for the next few verses. In Psalm 9, verses 9 and 10, the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

We are never left alone. In fact, when our greatest trials know that God is there with us to give us victory, to help us endure, to help us survive, God is there with us.

He is a refuge in times of trouble, and those who know your name will put their trust in you. You know God's name. You put your trust in Him. For you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

We are now seeking a homeland, an eternal kingdom, an eternal homeland. We're also seeking God in our life. He is number one in our life. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And all these things will be added unto you. And you need not take anxious thought for tomorrow, because Christ is with you today.

He'll also be with you tomorrow.

In Psalm 46, we're going to read a number of verses here, so if you might turn with me to Psalm 46, we'll begin reading in verse 1.

Psalm 46, verse 1.

God is our refuge and strength. He is a very present help in time of trouble.

Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed or shaken, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, and there is coming a time when that's going to happen.

There will be tumultuous times that will befall this earth before Christ returns.

And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God.

There is a city to be established, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

God is in the midst of her, this New Jerusalem. She shall not be moved. God shall help her just at the break of dawn.

When things seem to be the very worst, that's when Christ is coming back with power and with great glory.

The nations raged, the kingdoms removed. He uttered His voice. The earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Come and behold the works of the Lord who has made desolations in the earth.

Yes, God is going to pour His wrath out upon this earth, because we've sinned against God, and we continue to sin against God, and this land is far from God.

And a day of reckoning is coming, but God is our refuge, and we hold firm in God, and in Christ He makes worse cease to the end of the earth.

He's going to put a stop to all of that when Christ returns, and He puts down all rebellion.

Be still and know that I am God. Through it all, have faith and know.

If you happen to be alive when this all begins to happen, the great tribulation, the day of the Lord, the day of God's wrath, if you happen to be alive, you will need to take your refuge in God. He will be there for you.

So be still and know that I am God, and I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

In Psalm 57, verse 1, David cries out to God, Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you.

And in the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge, in the shadow of your wings, until these calamities have passed by.

Now we're just faced with minor calamities, comparatively. Some of you have some major calamities, I know that.

Some of you, with all the cards out in the front, on the tables, yes, there are many calamities that befall our people even today.

But there's coming a time when there will be even greater calamity. We need to be prepared for that time.

So how badly do you want to possess your rightful homeland? How badly do you want to be there in the kingdom of God when Christ returns?

How badly do you want to finally go home? To be home?

The promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the same promises of an eternal kingdom that God has made to His first fruits.

To each and every one of us, God has either given you His Spirit or He's working with you. Otherwise, why would you be here?

God is working with all of us to be His first fruits. We are here to worship the King. That's why you're here. That's why I'm here. I'm here to worship the King. And we long for the establishment of that kingdom, the kingdom of God. So let us continue to seek that wonderful homeland that God has in store for each and every one of us.