Some years ago in the air over the Red River, I experienced a defining moment. I was returning from a mission trip and as I looked out the window of the plane and saw the Red River I remember thinking, “I’m home now”. As soon as I had that thought, the Holy Spirit spoke to me strong and clear in the language of the heart. He said, “This is not your home, your home is with Me.”
As much as I love Oklahoma, I’ve never seen her in quite the same way since. As Believers, we’re not residents of Oklahoma who travel from time to time, we’re residents of Heaven here on a terribly important, yet temporary assignment. That assignment to be ON MISSION with the MASTER to MAKE DISCIPLES!
• David knew it. That’s why he said in Ps 119:19, “I am a stranger on earth…”
• Paul knew it. That’s why he said in Phil 3:20, “…our citizenship is in heaven…”
• Peter knew it. That’s why he said in 1 Pet 1:17, “…live your lives as strangers here…”
Life is a Mission Trip. If you’ve ever been in another country, you know what it feels like to be an alien. If you’ve ever been anywhere you didn’t know anyone, you know what it feels like to be a stranger. Heb 11 instructs us to live our lives as Aliens and Strangers on Mission for the Master! We ARE here but not FROM here!
Paul says it this way in 1 Cor 7.29-31, “29What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
Author John Ortberg puts it this way, “Let’s say you spend a week at Motel 6. How likely would it be for you to take all your money and spend it decorating your motel room? How probable is it that you would clean out your bank account to purchase van Gogh’s or paintings of Elvis on velvet or whatever it is that your taste runs to? Not very. You wouldn’t even be tempted, because the motel room is not home. You’re only going to be there a little while. It would be foolish to waste the treasure of your one and only life on a temporary residence.”
As Believers, we have the inexpressible joy of being ON MISSION WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! We cannot do that if we love this world or love the things of this world. 1 John 2:16-17 says it this way, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away…but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” That will as stated here in Hebrews 11 is to live as Aliens and Strangers.
One preacher said it this way: "God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful disciples for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose."
So what does it mean, practically, to live as Aliens and Strangers? Let’s context it within three questions:
Question #1What Are You Seeking (v.14)
Why do you do what you do? What do you strive? Why do you get up every day and work? What are you after? Physical security? Doesn’t exist on this planet. Financial security? Gone in an instant in today’s economy. Emotional security? Relationships are messy; it’s a human thing.
God KNOWS you need all these things; He just doesn’t want you to waste your time trying to provide them for yourself! Matt 6:33. In a daily act of trust, you can FIRST SEEK FIRST! That means you start your day with the Lord Jesus. I hear people say all the time, “I just don’t have the time or discipline or ability”. You don’t have a time or discipline or ability problem, you have a LOVE PROBLEM. Do you LOVE Him who loved you while he was chained to the whipping post? Do you LOVE Him who was nailed to the Cross? Do you LOVE Him who because sin so that you might become the righteousness of God? The way you love the world less and love the Lord more is to spend meaningful, significant time with him EARLY over days and weeks and months and years!
Question #2Which way are you Looking? (v.15)
Do you spend all your time looking forward or looking back? Are you living today in the miry muck of yesterday’s faults, flubs and failures? Do you dwell in the hell of regret? I don’t use that word lightly b/c the Enemy, the one who is from there wants to keep you captive in the marshland of remorse and the quicksand of regret.
God KNOWS you are prone to give in to this type of stinking thinking. That’s why He says in Phil 3, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.” Pressing on means laying aside the past and forging ahead as God’s Alien and Stranger being about HIS business of disciplemaking on this short Mission Trip called life.
For What are you Hoping? (v.16)
[In the movie “Facing the Giants”, Steve Williams plays Larry Childers, a man confined to a wheelchair b/c of MS. At the end of the movie……”I’m standing for my son!”. I can’t think of many phrases more encouraging than “I’m proud of you son/daughter!”. That is EXACTLY what the God of the Universe is saying to the one who chooses to live their life as an Alien/Stranger on His Mission Trip (v. 16)
Conclusion: All the people we read about a few minutes ago were ordinary people who chose to trust and re-trust God every day and, as a result, lived their lives as Aliens and Strangers on Mission for the Master. They recognized you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t get just little dose of God and try to work Him into your life most Sundays and whenever else is convenient or needful. You either are or aren’t on Mission with Him. You can’t be a little bit missional. It’s like being pregnant, you either are or you aren’t.
William Booth said, “Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters (and sons and daughters) not to come there. Then look Christ in the face -- whose mercy you have professed to obey -- and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”
Aliens and Strangers!
Maybe you’re here today and you’re tired of trying to keep all the plates spinning, tired of trying to fix relationships that just keep getting broken again, tired of trying to have enough, make enough, be enough or do enough.
Maybe it’s time to say to the world, “I quit; I’m stepping out to go with God”. This world may be where I live but it’s not my home. I’m getting kind of homesick for a place I’ve never been and until I get there I will live my life here as an Alien and Stranger on Mission for the Master!”
Jesus lived that way when He was on earth. Now He asks today, “who will go with me?”
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