The Eighth Epistle.
DATELINE: Sunday, December 17, 2000.
A Place for You.
By Rev. James R. Bingham
Special to corndancer.com
Posted from Memphis, Tennessee
John 8:20-21; 14:1-3
8:20 These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.
8:21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come.
....
14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Let's start this conversation by looking at a couple of concerns that root or ground us into a sense of belonging. It is important to civilization to know that we belong and that we are advancing.
We are concerned about our final resting place. Where shall it be? In this instance, when I speak of resting place, I speak Biblically in the manner of God, who rested on the seventh day. His acts of creation came to a halt. Something stopped. An end came. That's one thing we are concerned about: our final resting place. How we advance to that end is critical to the way we live.
We're concerned about home. Home is where the heart is. There is no place like home. Every home has a frame in which it is housed. For many of us, the house of our parents is the place we call home. Even if our parents have passed, we often think of the house we shared with them during childhood as our home.
How many of you realize that in your heart, you still think of home as the place where your father resides, or where your parents live? Your home has memories and reminders of times gone by. We can find an example of this in this passage from the Old Testament.
I Kings 7:51
So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the LORD.
Precious Memories
Are Very Much a Part of Your Identity.
For Christians, those who believe and have faith in Jesus Christ, the place in which we live is not our home. Why? Because happenings in that place are only a part of the growth that occurs in your spirit on a much larger, broader scale. True, your precious memories, the treasures of your past, your recollections of who nursed and weaned you, are very much a part of your identity. They pull at your heart's strings. You remember who brought you to Christ.
Those treasures, however, are not the treasures I want us to claim today. God does not ask us to lay up treasures in our earthly homes.
Matthew 6:20-21
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Let's think again about our premise. Home is where your parents are. If the house of your childhood is no longer standing, you may still consider the town where you were born to be your home. Home overflows with sweet reminders, such as going to church, or realizing just how big our daddy's hands were, or hiding our hands when we'd done wrong; skipping school, laughing inside over a secret between siblings, being joyful over learning to ride a bike, or deciding that "Billy Bob, or "June Bug" is the best friend in the whole wide world.
The treasures of our past may be embodied in songs, or events, or objects we've saved through the years. Whatever their form, they bring back moments in life that help us remember where we came from. No matter how far away we go, even if we never care to return, the place we call home is where our heart is.
Our Roots Run Deep,
Home Lives Eternal in Our Heart.
Home is a very special place, the storehouse of our most poignant memories. We hear an old song and it carries us back to the treasure trove of memory. We come across a photograph from a long-ago family vacation. It transports us to a carefree time of innocence and security. We find an old hammer in the bottom of the toolbox and think of dad, a darning needle in the sewing basket and think of mom. Our roots run deep, intertwine 'round private treasures that tell us who we are and where we come from. Our home lives eternal in our heart.
Then you leave home and establish your own life. You make discoveries outside you father's house that aren't always so encouraging or uplifting. What is dear to you? Can you hold on to to the good you've brought with you? What makes you feel that this world is a place worth living in? How shocking it can be to realize that so much that is dear to your heart is not embraced by your new acquaintances and sharers.
At your home, in your father's house, there wasn't any such thing as stealing. If you stole something, and your parents found out, you would get a whipping, or in some cases a punishment, such as not being able to attend a school dance or watch television. Because of the possibility of punishment, because you knew that stealing was frowned upon in your father's house, you were more reluctant to steal.
Some of you steal anyway. You lie on each other. You kill for fun. After you escaped the rule of your father's house, you found like-minded heathens or church-covered hypocrites who stole for a living, or stole for sport. You wouldn't take those thieves home with you, but you will repeat their insult to the good order. Look at us. Stealing has become a part of our culture. We steal from each other in a minute. We will steal each other's possessions. More insidious is our proclivity to steal one another's esteem.
We turn our treasures and the opportunities to grow and develop into things both ugly and negative.
A Man Would Rob God?
Don't Be Too Surprised.
I don't want to get into talking about anyone in particular, but we have grown into a people who wear God chains on our necks and the devil ways in our hearts. But surely, you say to me, good Christians won't do anything on purpose to hurt and destroy one another.
Malachi writes that a man will rob God of tithes and offerings. The prophet was speaking of religious people, followers of Christ who deal with tithes and offerings.
Yes, there are people who think that when they tithe, their money provides for the care and support of the church. It does.
There are people who think that when they tithe, their wealth is given for the care and support of the pastor. It is.
On the other hand, many good Christians have discovered many a reason not to tithe. They have rationalized themselves into a convenient material shelter from the necessity of the tithe. They're determined to protect their bank account from the church! They say, "Man, I ain't giving my money to that preacher," or "This building is not worth being kept up," or "I've got to get me a new coat, I can't tithe; anyway, they don't know what they're doing with the money."
A Duty to Provide for God's Work.
Do you shelter your wealth from the tithe, much like the rich search for ways to shelter their dividends from the taxman? Do you really dare to compare the duty of providing for the needs of God's work to the dun of the State tax? I tell you, It is your duty to tithe. If you don't, you have in effect robbed God of that which is His. You see, all that you have, you hoard like a miser, when in truth all belongs to God. It is only loaned to you to see what you will do with it. Scripture identifies this as stewardship. God doesn't want the whole loan back, but isn't it right to give something back to someone who invests in you?
In the founding days of the nation of Israel under Moses, regular tithing was seen as a mark of a loyal worshipper. God makes it abundantly clear that the tithe is sweet. I'll increase what you have, he promises all who tithe.
If there are folks in your neighborhood who will rob God, don't you know they will steal from you?
In John Chapter 8, when Jesus was speaking in the treasury of the temple, he said to the people in charge, you can't come home with me. Jesus said "I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come." Our Lord is saying, I'm going home, but I can't take you. Because you are so wrapped up in your sins, because you are so engrossed in the ways of wickedness, because you have so justified your wrongs in life, hear this: You will die in your way, not live in mine! You cannot, will not come my way. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
In the back of your mind, in the far region of your good conscience, aren't you tired of all this stealing, cheating, lying, backbiting, and bearing false witness?
Aren't you tired of people pretending to be what they are not?
You are not a wicked people. You weren't designed to trick, deceive and scheme upon each other. Aren't you tired of people finding a weak spot in your good nature, blowing it up, and using it to destroy your happiness?
Look deeply into your heart. Don't you want to live where people love one another for who they are by earnest desire?
Do You Cry Out
To Give and Receive with Grace?
Your heart is home for the temple of divine truth. In your heart resides the desire to live according to God's word. You cry out to give and receive with grace because to do so is your most cheerful expression of God's love. What can any of us receive from some grudge-holding backslider, who would just as soon give money to a drug pusher than help some poor struggling grandmother find a better way for the children in her care?
Doesn't it just break your heart to know that the people who need help can't get help from the church because the church has lost the true spirit of giving?
A spiritual master once told me that to rationalize means to be right for all the wrong reasons. We Christians pay more attention to the worldly reasons for not giving than we do for the spiritual reasons for giving.
Don't you want to live in a better place? How many of you look forward to living in a one-room shanty with no lights and no running water? Wouldn't you appreciate living in a mansion? Wouldn't you like to get ready to go home for Christmas, call home and say, I'll be home for Christmas, and I've got some friends, good friends, trusted friends, and I'm bringing them with me?
Will you knowingly carry a robber home with you?
You Have the Right
To Join Him in Paradise.
There is a better place than this place, life's veil of tears, which the world pulls over us. On the cross, Jesus said, On this day you shall be with me in paradise. Who was he talking to? I know one of the thieves who hung beside him asked to be remembered. But, Jesus didn't say, I'll remember you, he said, On this day you shall be with me. That was a message uttered for all ages and all eras, to all who believe and would believe. Jesus was saying because I lived and because I die, you shall receive the right to join me in paradise.
Did he say that? Look at John 14. Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe in me. I'm going home to my Father's house. If you believe in me, you can come, too. In my Father's house are many mansions. Believe me. If it were not so, I would have told you.
Jesus said, First, I've got to call home and let my Father know that I'm bringing company. That's why the Lord gave his life for us. His death was a phone call to the Father on our behalf. He died to reconcile us with the Father. He died to make it all right that we could go home with him.
Yes, Jesus went home, but when he did, his Father showed him how to defeat death! He's coming back, again, to deliver unto each of us who believe in him a personal invitation, written with his blood. He invites us to leave this earthbound shanty and claim our suite of rooms, our permanent residence in his mansion. He wants us to go home with him.
I Go to Prepare a Place for You.
Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. What does he ask us to do while he prepares for our arrival?
Pray a prayer for the weak, he commands us.
Suffer wrong for right, he commands us.
Cry for the pains of others, he exhorts us.
You, O Christian: You are the one who has been running a long time; you are weary, yet willing to run on to the end. I go to prepare a place for you, a place of eternal rest. Where I go, you may be also. You deserve it. You have heard my voice and responded. You have shed the old man and put on the new.
Take up your cross. It's not as heavy as you think it might be. The cross I put on you is not more than you can bear. My yoke is loose enough to let you breathe. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Sing with the Choir of Angels.
I want you to come home with me. My Father has a big old house. It has mansions like you've never seen before. The ceilings are high. It's always Sunday. There lot's of room. Bring your whole family. There is something for everyone. We have a choir of angels. You can sing with them. There is a warm pool for all to swim in. Golden streets for your evening and morning stroll. You can walk in paradise and reflect on how you got over.
There's more. You will possess a deed to your very own mansion, a great home with many rooms right inside my Father's house.
Just how big is my Father's house. My Father's house is as big as your heart. Remember when you were growing up? You recognized some as having big hearts. They forgave and they gave.
If you can forgive, then you have won a mansion. If you tithed regularly, then you have made your down payment on the mansion. If you praised God in the good times and in the bad times, then you've forged a key to the front doors of a mansion in my Father's house. My father's house is big enough for all the treasures of your life. Just when you think it's too crowded for anything else, you'll find that there's room for one more treasure.
Praise the Lord. Let not your heart be troubled, because there is no lying spirit in my father's house. There is no killing in my father's house, no cheating, no backbiting, no night rambling, no whore mongering, no gambling, no sneaking and peaking. No evil will be found in my Father's house.
Say Joy Twice?
I Can't Say Joy Enough!
Instead, you'll find a wonderland of peace, joy, love, longsuffering, temperance, and joy. Did I say joy twice? I can't say it enough! There is an abundance of joy in my father's house. A joy like you've never known before. It's the joy of Lord, the joy he will give to you, the joy the world can't steal from you.
In my Father's house there are many mansions and one of them....
Well, on one side there are mansions made of joy and one of them....
Well, on the other side there are mansions made from peace and one of them....
Well, on another level, on the plane of the Spirit, there are mansions full of temperance and one of them....
Well, I don't know the floor plan, or the color scheme, or the fine little details of the mansions in God's house, but one thing I do know, without doubt, with the surety of my faith, is that one of them....
Yes, one of them belongs to me.
Somebody say praise the lord!
Praise the Lord!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Rev. Bingham
can be reached by E-mail at
jamesrbingham@juno.com.
His phone number in Memphis is
901.785.5691.