When I and Is Go Together!!!!!

     The teacher was teaching the third grade class on the use of pronouns and verbs.  She said, "Susie, make me a sentence using the word I."  Susie began, "I is...."  She was quickly interrupted by the teacher who said, "No, Susie, you always use, am with I."  So little Susie began again, and said, "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."
     Many a so-called intellectual has stumbled at the word is.  I refer at the moment not to our past president who so articulately raised the question, "What does is mean.?"  I am thinking of the scripture that proclaims, "The fool has said in his heart there is no God."  To deny the existence of God is to assume that something can come from nothing.  Could there be a correlation between the millions of people in the United States who think that the hand-outs they get for nothing, actually came from nothing.
     A recent letter to the editor of a state newspaper, written by a gentleman whose religious holiday is April 1, made several remarks about the invisible man that controlled things.  I do not need to meet the gentleman to understand his line of thinking.  He has not seen him, therefore, God does not exist.  I wonder if he believes in the existence of atoms in science.  By his rationale, obviously, he does not, for he has never seen one.  Years ago a college teacher said, "I do not believe in anything that I cannot  put in a test tube and analyze."  A quick thinking student said, "Pour me up a test tube full of love."
     One may stagger before the simple truth, "God is,"  all he will, but it will never change anything of the existence of God or the mortality of the individual.
     The sum total of all of the unbelievers rambling can be summed up in an imaginary conversation between a horned toad and a lizard beside the Union Pacific railroad in the desert.  The horned toad said to the lizard , "They say somebody one day built this huge railroad." 
     "Nonsense," replied the lizard, "It has always been here.  Why my grandpappy said when he was a boy this railroad was here then."
     "Not only do they say that somebody built it, but there is a president of this railroad that oversees the activity that takes place on these tracks."
     The lizard said, "Why that is ridiculous.  I have been here all my life and I have never seen a president of this railroad.  Beside that, if he is overseeing what is happening on this railroad, why did my daddy get run over by a train last year?"
     The horned toad then said, "If the president had come along and stopped your daddy from getting on the railroad track that day it would have made your daddy mad."
     "To let you know how firmly, I believe there is no president of this railroad, if there is one I invite him to come down here and kill me.  See nothing happened," said the lizard, as death in the form of the rattlesnake lashed out to destroy him.
     ...and one thing befalleth all living things. DEATH.

Homecoming County Line Baptist Church--2012

     Homecoming is always a very special time.  An unknown author said, “Homecoming means coming home to what is in your heart."  It is so great because it unites the past and the present.  Those dear men and women who came together and organized this church had no idea of how long it would stand, how many lives would be changed by the church nor that we would be gathered together today in this capacity.
      It makes no difference if it is a family oriented homecoming, school homecoming or church homecoming; it is always special.  Homecoming always brings to our minds memories of days gone by, never again to return.  Going home!  What a thought! John Ed Pearce said  “Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.”  But once you are older, it is good to get back home, even from a vacation, regardless of how wonderful the vacation may have been.

     My mind went back to a song that was written during the Civil War, When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again...  The first verse you may remember:

When Johnny comes marching home again, Hurray, Hurrah!

We’ll give him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah, Hurrah!

The men will cheer, the boys will shout,

The ladies, they will all turn out,

And we’ll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

But perhaps the fourth verse would be more appropriate for our homecoming today:

Let love and friendship on that day, Hurrah, Hurrah!

Their choicest treasures then display, Hurrah, Hurrah!

And let each one perform some part,

To fill with joy the warrior’s heart,

And we’ll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home.

     Permit me this morning to point out to you a few occasions mentioned in the Word of God of those who looked forward to returning to the security of the home.  You are all familiar with the story of the prodigal son in the 15^th chapter of Luke.  The circumstances of his life mirror the happenings in millions of people across America.  He did not know how well he had things at home, but there was another lifestyle that beckoned him to come.  He asked his father to divide his inheritance with him, then took his part and left to eat, drink and make merry.  He had an abundance of friends as long as the money held out, but soon the money was gone and so were the friends.

     When things go bad, outside of the will of God, it really goes bad.  Soon, he was feeding the hogs and was so hungry that he would have filled his belly with the corn shucks.  Satan never will have a famine of shucks and there will be plenty of people willing to eat them.

     The scripture says, “…and when he came to himself,”  Any person willing to feast at the table that Satan offers, needs to come to himself.  He is out of his head.  When Satan gets control of a person’s life they will argue against the very things they once held dear.  This young man had been taught that a hog was an unclean animal, now he is tending the hogs.  The young man said, here I am starving and my father’s hired servants have enough to eat and then to spare.  I will arise and go to my father and say, “I have sinned take me back as a hired servant.   But, the father was in no mood for that.  He said bring a new robe; put the family ring on his finger and new shoes on his feet.  Kill the fatted calf and let’s make this the best homecoming ever.  What a day, this my son was lost and is found, was dead and is alive.  How sweet it was!

     That homecoming was a little different than the one when Jacob was returning to meet Esau.  Remember, he had stolen his brother Esau’s birthright and also his father’s blessing.  Under normal circumstances he had reason to be apprehensive about this homecoming.

     When Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with four hundred men, no doubt he thought I am going to get paid back in full today.  He divided all his children up with Leah and her children, along with the handmaidens and their children up front then he placed Rachel and Joseph behind them.  I suppose he thought there was some type of protection afforded them in this manner.  Then he went out to meet Esau.  He bowed himself seven times to the ground.  Esau ran to meet him. Embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him and they wept.  Oh glory of all glories, what a homecoming they had.

      I cannot think of homecomings without thinking of the story of the old missionary and his wife who were returning home after a life on the mission field.  On the same trip was President Theodore Roosevelt returning from a hunting trip in Africa.  There was a band and a group of people there to meet the president.  No one was there to greet the old missionary and his wife. 

     They finally found a hotel and got settled into their room.  After a while the wife asked the missionary if he wanted to go get something to eat.  The old missionary said, “You go ahead and I will come on later.”

     After his wife had left the old missionary got down beside the bed and began to pray, “Father I don’t quite understand, me and the missus have spent our lives serving you on the mission field.  I noticed that the president had a large group to meet him when he returned home from the hunting trip, but there was no one to meet us when we got home.”

     There was no thunder or lightening, no audible voice, but an inner voice with a clear message than could not have been more plain if it had been proclaimed with amplifiers, “Son, you are not home yet.”

     When things don’t go your way down here and folks who do nothing for God, seemingly are getting by a lot better, remember, this old world is not your friend, it is your enemy.  Don’t you know the old song says, “This world is not my home, I am just passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world any more.”  You are not home yet, but we are all going that way.  Some of us are a lot closer than others, but we travel the same way.  Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great poet, said upon his approaching death, “Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine.”  Far too many are trying to put down permanent roots in a temporary world.

     We are going to move out of this old world down here and move into a new home over there.  It is going to be a great home; Jesus has been working on it for 2000 years. Moving day necessitates a lot of changes.  There are things to be packed ready for the move.  How are you doing in your packing?  Do you have any treasurers laid up in store?  Are you caught up on your praying?  How about your church attendance record, ready to present it to the Lord?  And don’t forget while you are packing there are some things you won’t need over there so you might as well start unpacking those things now.

     Back when many of the women folk often dipped snuff a lady inquired of the preacher about dipping snuff.  They would dip that little black gum stick into the snuff and insert it into their mouth.  I remember very well my grandmother doing that.  This dear sister asked the great Presbyterian preacher, Billy Sunday, “Bro. Sunday will there be any snuff in heaven?”  He answered, “If there is a person will have to go to hell to spit.”  There are a lot of things we have down here we can unpack before going over there. 

     One of the more uplifting statements about a person’s life was made about Enoch.  The Bible says, “Enoch walked with God, and was not because God took him.”  I prefer to think that in his walk with God, that one day he and Jesus were out walking, enjoying their visit so much that before they knew it is was getting dark.  Enoch said, “Jesus it is getting late we better head back to the house.”  Jesus said, “We can’t get to your house before dark, you just come and go home with me.”  Something like that happens in the life of every Christian when he approaches the moment we call death.  To be biblically correct we probably are escorted by angels into the abode of God.  At least that is what happened to the beggar, Lazarus, when it came time for him to go home.

     It becomes even more dramatic when you consider the first Christian martyr, Stephen.  As they were stoning him to death he said, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” This is the only time in the bible in which Jesus is standing by the throne.  Almost as if he was rising to greet Stephen when he crossed over the unseen line that divides us from this low land of sin and sorrow from that glorious place we call heaven.

     One of the great Indian chiefs, Tecumseh said, “When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home. “

     In closing my thoughts of this homecoming today, my mind is drawn to a homecoming over there.   That home coming is our going to the home of the soul.  Daniel S Warner wrote a song entitled, The Home of the Soul.  It is a beautiful worded song and I close with three verses from that song.

We are only at home in the bosom of God,
On earth or in heaven above;
Everyone who would enter must pass through the blood,
And reign in the kingdom of love.

Do not venture the hope that is waiting for death
To waft you to comfort and peace;
There’s no rest for a soul, in this world or above,
Not saved in the Father’s embrace.

We will enter no door that is opened by men
Who promise a home for the soul;
For in Christ we abide in the church that will stand
While ages eternally roll.