Three People You Meet on the Way to the Kingdom

About six years ago, Debbie and I bought one of these package tours of England. We did it through AAA. It was with a big company called Trafalgar Tours, which runs tours in Europe and probably America too and England. But they had a, they had what they called a Taste of England tour. It was five days, reasonable cost. We'd, she'd wanted to see England. She'd never been there. And so we did this about six years ago. Some of you may remember. I did talk a little bit about it.

And it was a fascinating trip. We met a lot of fascinating people on that trip. It was one bus full, about 40, 45 people from all over the world. Young lady from Beijing, China, was on board. And this was in 03, right after we had invaded Iraq. And she engaged me one time in the buffet line about how bad George Bush was in America for attacking Iraq. And I remember it nearly spoiled my roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

But she was, you know, she lit into me. We had people from South America. We had people from Africa. I met a couple there who used to be, well, was a fly-fishing buddy of then Vice President Richard Cheney. And they lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this couple. And their back door neighbor was Harrison Ford. So, you know, you sit down and you meet all kinds of interesting people when you get out in some of these trips. And it was an interesting trip. Met a lot of interesting people, just as you do when you sit out on a journey.

Whether it's a short journey of a long weekend or the Feast of Tabernacles for us. We go, we meet people from different walks of life, different places, different backgrounds, make lifelong friends in some cases. And, you know, you're generally enriched by what you see, what you do, and who you meet on just about any type of journey when you were traveling.

There was one gentleman on this bus tour we made. He was Chinese, but he lived in Perth, Australia, which is supposedly, I haven't been there, but they say that Perth is one of the most beautiful spots on the face of the earth. I hope one day to get there and see that.

But his name was Ben. I never got his last name. But he was Chinese, lived in Perth, Australia. He and his wife were on this bus tour. And Ben was one guy that he had a lot of cameras always with him, clicking away. And every time we would stop on the bus to see a particular site, Ben was the first one off. And he was taking pictures as soon as he got off of Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, whatever it was we were seeing. And he would go the furthest, if anybody else, because some of those stops you've got about 15 minutes to take your pictures and then get back on the bus and charge off down the road to the next stop.

And Ben was always the last one back on the bus. And his wife would always be sitting there dutifully, and we would all be waiting on Ben. And she was saying, it's always like this, you know, with Ben. One day I noticed that he was always carrying something back. He'd pick up something along the way, a branch, some leaves, a piece of trash. And one day after three days of this, I stopped him. I said, Ben, why are you always bringing stuff back on the bus?

What are you doing there? And he gave me a lesson. He said, everywhere I go, every street I walk down, every place I visit, there's something to look at and to see that other people don't see. He said, I walk down the street and there's design in everything I see. He'll pick up a branch. He said, I'll take it back. And I might make something out of that. Make a decoration. It might wind up in a centerpiece or something, or a piece of art.

In other words, he had trained himself, and this is why he was a photographer and so well at it, I guess, to see beauty, design, and art wherever he was, wherever he went.

He was very observant about his surroundings and about life. I remember I just wrote that down and I got it here in my notes because I wrote it down in my little hand diary that I had at the time because he struck me as an interesting person.

And he made an interesting comment about how to be observant about your environment in that sense, and I've always remembered that. And he's just one example of a person and of people that you meet when you go places. Think about whom you have met at the various fee sites that you've attended over the years in the church. Somebody you sit down next to at the service, someone you may room next to in the hotel or eat with, run into it on family day or one of the other social activities, and somebody that, you know, from a completely different walk of life in another church area, think about who you meet.

This year in Newfoundland, we met some very interesting people from Canada and other parts. In fact, I will have to give credit at this point that the sermon I'm giving here today, the sermon, is borrowed from one of the men that I met at the, one of the elders I met at the feast in Newfoundland this year, Gary Lucas, whom I had never met before, a gentleman from Barrie, Ontario. He gave this sermon, or the main points of it, and I'm adapting it to my purposes here today.

And he was a very charming, interesting person, and gave a very effective sermon, which Marge and the Canis will remember, because I remember telling them, I said, that's a good sermon. You'll hear that again someday. And so they are. So we met, as you do, interesting people at the feast. We have a larger journey in our lives, all of us, more than just a trip to England, more than just a trip to a particular feast site. We all have a larger journey in life towards something far bigger, and that's the Kingdom of God.

The journey to the Kingdom requires every bit as much and more than every bit of effort we put into any trip that we make. All the planning, all the saving, all the preparation we make for any trip we make, the Kingdom of God requires even more. Overcoming obstacles, overcoming difficulties, challenges that are thrown her away every time we try to get out the door to go someplace, especially the feast, it seems.

The Kingdom of God requires even more. But that's part of life. And along the way toward the Kingdom of God, we meet all kinds of interesting people, just like you meet interesting people when you go to the feast or on any particular trip that you might make. Our trip along the way to the Kingdom of God allows us to meet some interesting people. I'd like to give you an overview of three types of people that you meet on the way to the Kingdom of God today in this sermon.

In these three types, we can learn something about ourselves and what it will take for you and I to be in the Kingdom of God. Let's look at the first type of person that we meet on the way to the Kingdom of God. This person is someone that we could label as a tourist. A tourist. Someone who's viewing, watching. We've all been tourists. I just described one tour that we took to England. There's something about a tourist and we've all been one and we've all done it and we will continue to because that's the nature of a tourist.

Nothing wrong with it, but tourists rush from place to place. We took a five-day trip of England six years ago. It was called a Taste of England. Our tour guide said, we really call this a Taste of England, he said, but it's really just a lick. And it was. We found out on that trip that when you read these really nice full-color brochures you get from the travel agency like AAA and they tell you what you're going to see, you got to read the fine print because they tell you you will view Windsor Castle.

Well, what that means is you're going to drive by about 60 miles an hour and they're going to point out the window, there's Windsor Castle. That's what view means. Literally, because I'm not kidding on that. If they say you will see Buckingham Palace, okay, that means you will stop and you'll have about 15 minutes outside the bus, take your pictures, go up to the guard, you know, stand next to the guard, try to make him talk to you and get your picture taken and get back on the bus. That is C. You will tour Stratford on Avon, home of Shakespeare.

Now, that means the bus will stop for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, so you'll have time to rush down a few streets, see the thatched cottage of Shakespeare's home and if you're really adventurous, you can run down to the church where he's buried, on the churchyard, see that, and then run back to the bus before the bus leaves you because they always tell you on these tours, we don't wait.

We don't wait. Now, they'll tell you where the bus is going to be that night so you can get a taxi or some other public transportation to meet them, but they don't wait for you. C. View Tour. That's how these things work. That's the nature of tourism. A tourist goes from place to place. You're there to see the sights, the historic sights, the beach, take lots of pictures, buy lots of t-shirts, fudge, shot glasses, coffee mugs, you know, things that we really need in life.

More coffee mugs. That's the nature of a tourist. You go to Acapulco? How many of you have been to Acapulco or Cabo San Lucas or Musselt Blonde or some of those places? You go to Acapulco, basically you've got a packaged tour. You're on a beach. You go there for the beach. You're on the sand and sun. You're waited on by the natives, locals, who work in a hotel. They're dressed in their white, nice uniform.

But most tourists don't get off the beach two blocks or three blocks inland to see how the real people really live. You don't shop where they shop. You don't eat where they eat. You don't walk where they walk. That's not what you're there for, is it? You're there to get the sun and the beach and an iced piña colada or whatever it is, Mojito or whatever the drink might be. You get a tan. That's the nature of tourists. We stay in hotels on the beach near the high life.

Sell them getting into the real neighborhoods and finding out how people really live. You don't know anything about the employment rate. You don't know anything about the literacy of the country. The economic levels, the living conditions, or the general quality of life. That's just the way it is. After all, that's not why you're there. You're just a tourist. When the problems hit, like a hurricane, you go home. You clear out of those places when the problems hit. On this tour of England, there was a young couple. I think they were from Georgia. They didn't read the fine print of the brochure. They wanted to shop. They wanted to stay longer, not to see Buckingham Palace, but to buy trinkets.

Every time we passed a mall or some type of a shopping center, they wanted to stop. That's what they wanted. Whenever they did have long enough to stop, they were always carrying big bags of stuff on to bring back to their nieces and nephews and their family. In fact, after three days, they got so tired of not being able to shop that they actually left our tour for about 12 hours so that they could go shopping. They missed Edinburgh Castle. They weren't interested in the pillar stone. They wanted to shop because they were tourists.

I remember it was palpable. They were really upset that they weren't getting enough shopping time in there. Tourists are people that are on their way to the kingdom, but they're just touring. In 2 Timothy 3, there's a scripture that I think does describe a tourist. 2 Timothy 3. Some of you are wondering, when is he going to get to a scripture? 2 Timothy 3, verse 5. This is Paul's description of the types of attitudes and problems in the last days when perilous times will come. Verse 1. He describes a spiritual condition of society and of people. Then he mentions in verse 5, we'll jump right to that. There will be people having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Such people turn away. A form of godliness.

An outward form. A form when you pour concrete or plaster, you create a form. You pour that concrete into it, then you knock it off and you've got your concrete wall, your steps. But you form up something in construction and you pour it in, but the form is not the substance. God says people will have just a form of godliness. An outward appearance. If you will, a tourist approach. They're just interested in going through the form of religion. A spiritual tourist isn't really interested in the destination. They're really not interested, really interested in Acapulco. They're interested in the sun and the sand of Acapulco, but not the substance that makes up Acapulco. Or dare I say, Panama Beach. Or anyplace else. Lost some of you, sorry. A spiritual tourist is not interested in the destination. They're mostly interested in the trip. Just the trip. Just what they can get out of it. You run into people like that in the church. They're interested in going through religion. They're kind of passing through. I've seen any number of people like that over the years. Both people who call you as a minister, they want to know more about the United Church of God, Church of God beliefs. And you talk with them, answer their questions. Sometimes they'll come through the door. Sometimes they will even become a member of the church through baptism. But they don't always last. Because when a problem hits in the church, or when a problem hits in their life, a bit of persecution, they're gone. Just like when a hurricane forms a hurricane and comes in the Gulf and starts heading toward the coast, people pack up and go, especially the tourists. Because that's not why they're there. A spiritual tourist has this to form.

There's not anything really deep. They have an internalized faith and belief. And so when a problem hits, when a difficulty hits, they're gone. Or they don't even sometimes even make it in the door. We have that. That's the nature of people. A form of godliness. We want to be sure that that's not us. Second type of person that you meet on the way to the kingdom is a group of people we could call explorers.

Explorers. These are a bit different than a tourist. An explorer, when you read a story of someone, a real life explorer, you read a story usually of courage. Someone who goes where no one has gone before. Mapping out a new territory, discovering a new place, usually on earth, unless you're an astronaut and you go off to the moon or do other things in space. They're explorers as well. But it takes a great deal of courage. When you read the stories of explorers down through history, those who set out across the seas looking for fame and fortune in foreign lands, discovering new territories, took a great deal of courage for those people to do that.

The story of Lewis and Clark is a fantastic story which we grow up with in America and have revisited many times in our history. Just a few years ago, having gone through the 200th anniversary of that famous trip from 1804 to 1806, where those two men set out in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and traveled out across the West, enduring hardship and the Indians in unknown territory, mapping, studying as they went, looking for a waterway passage from the Mississippi all the way to the Pacific Ocean for trade purposes and also to find out exactly what it was that Thomas Jefferson had purchased from Napoleon.

Bonaparte. It's a fantastic story. Some of us have gone on parts of their trail and actually seen where they went. We stopped off at a place, Debbie and I, up in southeast Montana last year, last summer, a place called Pompey's Pillar, where William Clark, along with the Yellowstone River, had stopped on their way back from the coast when they were returning.

This large outcropping of rock in the middle of the plains there in southeast Montana, along the Yellowstone River, bears the signature carved into rock with his knife of the William Clark. He climbed up there. It was a place that the Indians frequented, and he carved his name into it. William Clark, I think it was August 24, 1806. It's the only physical sign left of that journey, the two-year trip they made. There's no other physical evidence that they made that trip other than what we have through history.

You can go to that spot and see his name carved into that rock. It's a national park service site today. It was a tremendous, courageous thing that they did. There's another fabulous story of exploration that has intrigued me, and that is that of the British explorer Ernest Shackleton, who in 1914 took a boat of men, went south, they were going to the South Pole.

They wanted to be the first to get to the South Pole. They didn't make it. They got ice bound. The story of every one of the men on that boat getting back off the ice and getting back to the first sign of civilization there in the South Seas is a fantastic story in courage, navigation. Everyone got back alive. Ernest Shackleton said, I will get you men home alive.

We did. Shackleton's trip in 1804, 1808, I'm sorry, 1914, 1915 was a fabulous trip in the story of exploration. Everyone, those stories that you read, you see people going out searching, looking for adventure, looking for fame, glory in some cases, looking to advance the fields of knowledge.

There's a mixed reasons that explorers have gone where they have. A lot of times it's been for money and fame. More so in recent times it's to advance knowledge. But they're continually searching. It's in the nature of an explorer to be continuously searching. When you bring that down into the church, the type of person we meet that is like an explorer on the way to the kingdom is an interesting study.

Here in 2 Timothy 3 again in verse 7, it describes another category of person who's always learning 2 Timothy 3.7. Always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. What does that mean? Well, I take it it's a perfect explanation of somebody who's a spiritual explorer. Always learning. They know the Bible.

They know the Greek. They know the Hebrew. They know the archaeology. They know the history. They memorize Genesis to Revelation. Remember the stack of memory cards you used to pick up?

They got them all memorized. Philippians 4a, they can tell you. Word for word. They can tell you where to put the comma. They win the Bible baseball trivia games. A Bible explorer could be someone who sets in services with an interlinear Bible. You know what an interlinear Bible is? It's a Bible that's got the English, but it's got the Greek there as well, or the Hebrew. When you and I are struggling with our young King James English to find it and then to read it, they're reading it in Greek.

They're making sure that the pastor is reading it just right. If he doesn't explain it right, or mispronounces the Greek word, they're going to write the elder a memo, an email later on, giving them the correct pronunciation of the Greek or the Hebrew word, because they know that. That's fine.

Or they may be reading the Bible in another language. Well, you and I are struggling to read it in English. These people can take the Bible apart. Word for word, verse for verse, study it, and then put it back together again. Kind of like a Bible mechanic.

They can tear it down, look at the individual parts, and then put it back together again, and know it forwards and backwards. Have you ever run across people like that? You think, oh wow, I wish I was like that. I wish I could remember scriptures.

Folks, don't ever knock yourself out because you can't remember scripture. I've never put anyone out of the church because they did not remember a scripture.

Never have. Don't worry about it. Worry about living it. Worrying about knowing the intent, the spiritual principle. Don't worry that you can't find it. I don't know how many times I've... Usually with an older person whose memory begins to fade, they'll lament.

That they can't remember certain places. I say, don't worry about it.

Somewhere is in your heart. God knows that. Worry about living it.

That doesn't mean we don't read it and study it and learn as much as we can.

And again, some of us are bent toward the historical application. There's a time and a place to know the Greek and the Hebrew. I'm not against any of that. It's not my gig.

But I'm glad there's people like Larry Walker, one of our ministers, or Ken Graham, Jr., who can sit there and tell me exactly some of those things. I'm glad they're there because if I need to, I'll send them an email and say, how do you pronounce this or what does this mean or whatever?

But I focus on other things.

An explorer is always looking for something but missing something at the same time.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul addresses a very important principle for us always to remember. 1 Corinthians 13.

And let's start in verse 1.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clinging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, sometimes people get their focus on prophecy.

And they can explain the details of the 70 weeks prophecy of the book of Daniel.

Or they can reel off Revelation 17 and show you how it connects with Revelation 13 and how that connects back to Daniel 7 and Daniel 2. They all work together.

They have three horns that came up.

I will tell you after 40 years of seriously looking at those things, I still have to turn to Revelation 17 and Revelation 13 to get it all straight as I try to explain it. And then I can load it up into my RAM for a presentation.

And you know, like that. But ask me two days later, I go back to the read through, make sure I get the wording right. That's not that I don't know it and don't understand it. And when it's all laid out there, I just, I don't know. It's one of my mental blocks.

You can know all prophecy and you can know the intricacies and the details. But Paul says that's not enough. He says you can understand all mysteries and all knowledge. So it's not just prophecy. It can be the Greek or the Hebrew. It can be the Bible history. It can be the setting of the first century world, the Greek world into which the gospel went and the church began.

All knowledge. You can have, you can be the smartest person.

And as I say, take this Bible apart, look at its component parts, put it back together. You can have perfect knowledge on that and it says, though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

I am nothing.

Now, knowledge, mysteries, prophecy, they are important and they have their place. And we should strive to have a working knowledge. And if, again, your interest tends a little bit deeper, that's fine.

Whereas somebody else's might not, that's okay too.

But keep it all in perspective.

It's not a matter of knowing everything.

It's not a matter of having more knowledge than someone else, even the minister.

It's a matter of love.

It's a matter of something much deeper.

Coming to the truth, is what Paul said.

Having all knowledge, having learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of truth.

You can spend a lifetime exploring the Bible.

But if you don't come to the deep truths of God that are rooted and founded in faith and love, then it's not going to be anything. You've got to come to the truth.

And the full-blown essence of what that truth is.

You've got to be, if I can put it another way, you've got to be a heart Christian rather than a head Christian.

A heart Christian rather than a head Christian.

It's been said that if we don't have doctrine, we don't have anything. And that's true.

Our doctrine, our doctrinal base and understanding is very important, very vital.

That must be defended, studied, understood, kept intact the integrity of our doctrinal belief.

But there's a corollary to that.

If all you have is doctrine, you don't have it all.

If you've got it all in the head, but you don't have it in the heart, the application of it, you don't have it.

You don't have the full measure of the truth of God.

Doctrine is important.

Heart and application of that doctrine is important, too.

You read the Apostle Paul's letters.

Look, take the book of Romans. He spends 11 chapters in Romans going through some of the heaviest walkthrough doctrines in the Bible.

Grace, justification, the Spirit of God.

And then he gets to chapter 12, and he takes off for the rest of the book an application of that doctrine.

Look at it, just, you know, not now, but later.

From chapter 12 of Romans to the end of the book, he gets into the application of it. And he does that virtually in all of his epistles.

You've got to have doctrine, but you better know how to apply it, and know when to apply it, and know the heart of what is there.

That is what takes you beyond just being an explorer.

In Matthew 13, the apostle Paul, or I'm sorry, Jesus Christ, in Matthew 13, used a parable of the sower.

And he describes some classifications of people in Matthew 13 as the seed of the gospel is sown. And I won't go through all of this, but in Matthew 13, verse 20, he breaks down these four categories.

And it's interesting to note, at least in verses 20 to 22, who he describes here, he who received the seed on stony places, as he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while.

This is a tourist, because when tribulation or persecution arises, because the word, he immediately stumbles, certainly describing a tourist.

They may take it in for a while, but when trouble hits, they're gone.

And then he goes on to talk about, verse 22, he who received a seed among the thorns, as he who hears the word and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choked the word, and he becomes unfruitful. This could be an explorer.

It goes a little bit deeper, but they're not completely fruitful in enduring fruit because of various cares, other situations. They're again, perhaps just searching for an adventure, or searching for head knowledge, and other things trip them up. So we've described two classes of people, tourists and explorers.

What do you think the third classification might be?

Well, let's call the third class pilgrims. Pilgrims.

I gave the sermon last month leading up to Thanksgiving. We talked about the pilgrims who came to America in 1620, what became America, and that group of people that are called pilgrims. And we went through their journey, their hardships, what they learn, what they are. A pilgrim is someone who travels with a definite goal.

They know where they're going, and they know why.

The pilgrims who came here, the pilgrims who have gone to any new land at any point in world history, they knew where they were going, and they knew why. They had a destination in mind.

A pilgrim can have a bit of a tourist in them, perhaps even a bit of the explorer, but in the end they are pilgrims. In the end they're pilgrims. We're here in Matthew 13.

Verse 23, I think, describes a pilgrim.

Is he who received seed on the good ground? Is he who hears the word and understands it? He hears the word. He studies the word. They take it apart to the degree they want to, to prove all things, but they understand it. They understand what they hear. In other words, it goes beyond the head to the heart to affect a change in the way they are, the way they look at each other, the way they look at people and life, and they understand it. And it says they indeed bear fruit and produce, some 100-fold, some 60, and some 30. And they spend a lifetime bearing that fruit so that when tribulation hits, they don't run. They don't run when things happen in life, as things happen. When it happens, they don't run. When the church may be attacked, or when the church may even have its internal struggles, which it always has and always will, they don't run. They say, I'm sticky. I'm staying.

You know, just to talk about our family for a minute, the church family, any of us that have been around any number of decades know that we as a family haven't always gotten along, have we?

I can, you know, since 1962, I can go right down through the years, which I'll tell you all kinds of stories. Some of you, none of you, live through. Some of them, we all live through collectively. We're still here. We're still here. Still producing fruit.

You have to get to the point where you say, I'm not going to do it that way anymore.

I'm not running. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying. And you face whatever you have to face.

You face whatever problem it is, whatever is challenging you at that moment, you face it, and you say, we're going to do this different than somebody did it 10, 12 years ago, or 20 years ago, or 35 years ago. We're going to do this one different because I'm tired and I ain't going anywhere. And it stops right here. You say, no more splits. No more.

And you start, you turn to whoever and whatever, and you say, let's start praying.

Let's start studying this Bible, and let's stay at the table until we get it solved.

Because I'm not going anywhere, and I don't want you to go anywhere. Too often, too often, some people want you to go someplace, and they'll tell you where to go. And they will pray that you will go. And they call you brother.

And you say, no, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. We're going to work this out. And we're going to stay at this table, and we're going to talk, and we're going to read scripture, and we're going to pray until we get it worked out. Now, folks, that's about as bare-bones as I can tell you.

Read between the lines. Read between the lines. You get to the point where you say, no more. No more. Let's work it out. Let's work it out. And you stop praying for the other person to go someplace, or to come around to your way of thinking, and you turn yourself to God, and you do whatever you want to do. You do whatever repenting you have to do, but you have to get up off your knees, and you've got to sit down and gut it out with somebody. That's just where it is, because you're a pilgrim. You're not an explorer. You're not wanting to recreate something. I've got one church in me. At this point in my life, I've got one church left in me.

I don't have another church in me. And I sure hope none of you do. I don't think you do. The way I gauge the mood of God's people today is they're tired too. I've got one church left in me in my life. And it's going to work, or I'll just die. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not telling anybody else to go anywhere.

I'm not running when hurricanes come. I'm not off exploring some other newfound land.

In your pilgrim, you start bearing fruit. And you know what your destination is. You know where you're going. A true pilgrim keeps the end goal in mind. God's people are pilgrims living in faith, knowing that we've never arrived. We're strangers in pilgrims. I can turn to the Scriptures. But a hallmark of a true pilgrim is faith. It is faith. That it can work. That God's way does work. That God's Spirit does move among His people. And when that Spirit is there, when that seed is sown on good ground and begins to bear fruit, it will continue to bear fruit. And no tribulation, no trial is going to take it away. That's what it boils down to. A tourist, an explorer, or a pilgrim. What are you? What are you?

A pilgrim, we can sum this up with a few points. We all like points. I had six here. Couldn't come up with seven. But I'm not going to give you six. But let me give you a few. Let's try to sum this up. You've got to have faith in your destination. You've got to know that God is working in you as a Son to bring you to glory. That's your destination, Hebrews 2 and verse 10. Bringing many sons to glory.

That's the destination, and you must understand that. You must come to that element of truth to move yourself beyond just a tourist, beyond just an explorer. You and I will have elements of being a tourist and explorer. We will move through those stages, but ultimately we must be a pilgrim to endure. But you've got to have faith in your destination. Secondly, you've got to be aware of the dangers along the way. Satan's goal is to suck the spiritual life from us in whatever way he can, and he will do that. Paul reminded us that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood in Ephesians, but against spiritual wickedness in high places.

That's what we wrestle against, but we have to resist that as well. God says and promises that when we do resist Satan's influence, he will flee from us. But there's going to be those pitfalls, and there's going to be dangers along the way, just like an explorer has dangers. Just like a tourist has dangers.

But as a tourist is going to leave that area, that they pay their good money to go see, you and I don't have that luxury. We have to stay along the road, along the path. Third point, we've got to remember that life is a mountain, not a beach. Life is a mountain, not a beach. Our society trains us that we're all the good things in life.

Make more money, buy a bigger home, nicer vacation next year. That's been jumbled around in recent months. But still, there's still that hope and that dream. A lot of people are finding it hard to come to grips with the reality that life may be permanently changed in some cases, because of the recession that we've gone through and are going through. That's a challenge in itself for a lot of people today. Our society trains us that we're all the good things in life, and yet God says that the godly will suffer persecution.

Those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. There will be trials. Count it all joy. On one occasion, Peter said, when you fall into temptation. Life is a mountain. We're scaling something. We're ascending. It's not just a beach. And fourthly, we have to learn to walk with God. You never know God until you walk with Him through the seasons and the trials of life. There's a song that was made famous a number of years ago, I'll Walk with God. It's been sung many times of special music in the church.

I'll Walk with God. Sigmund Romburg wrote that for the student prince a number of years ago. Beautiful song. I'll Walk with God. The lyrics. And how we learn to walk with God is something that we have to apply ourselves to. Walking with God is an art form. It's just a spiritual art to walk with God. Too many fail to take the time to master walking with God.

It's more than just thinking we're putting our hand out and putting our hand in God's hand. It's really an art that takes effort to master. To walk with God and to know that God is with us and to understand that. Once you come to that point and can begin to experience that, you're then experiencing a measure of joy. That part of the fruit of God's spirit. Because that is something that comes from within. And a sense of assurance and understanding that indeed your life is being guided by God. And you are looking at God. Not that you see God behind every rock, necessarily. You get superstitious about things. That's not the point.

But you know that God is guiding you. And you have that assurance and the calm that comes. A pilgrim has that. A pilgrim is walking with God. Three types of people that you meet on the way to the Kingdom. Three types. A tourist, an explorer, a pilgrim. Which are you? Where do you fall at this point in your life? Are you a tourist? Out to see the sights? Leaving with the first sign of trouble? Not hanging around, taking a bunch of pictures, just kind of living in the moment. An explorer?

Always searching, always learning, but not able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Or a pilgrim? With a clear destination in mind, recognizing that life is the journey. And that destination is a city whose builder and maker is God. Our journey to the Kingdom of God can begin in different ways and for different reasons. We may start as tourists and we may start as explorers. But brethren, the only way we will endure to the Kingdom, to the end, will be as pilgrims.