First of all, mothers and fathers, if your kid’s noisy, or grandparents, that’s okay.

I’m not bothered. So unless there’s a medical reason you’ve got to get out of here, it’s okay. So it’s okay.

I think that there is value in place, and what I mean is technology and the Internet and media and all its forms, it allows us to know what’s going on anywhere in the whole world and how everyone’s doing all the time, and work. We’re, because of that, very disconnected from the value of place. Like, you could easily, because of technology, like, up and move across town if you wanted to. You could up and move to another state, and for centuries, that’s not been how people could live.

You were very much so connected to place and time, and you were very aware of your own culture and your own people, and that was a special thing. And all the blessings of technology, I think we’ve lost the value of place. And I say that today because I think it is monumental or something of a landmark for us as a church to move. I don’t think it’s a small thing, even that we’re just moving locations, because God works in place and time. And so even though culture has maybe rewired us not to care about place and time, and I can be anywhere at any point through technology, that’s not healthy, because God works in place and time. God works in us in the places we live, in the time that we live. And though we’ve been here for two and a half years, we had to look back and say, God, you’ve been faithful in this place and in this time. And I think it also, it makes it sad, at least it’s sad for me, because I’ve enjoyed being here, and I’ve enjoyed being a church family here, and I’ve enjoyed how God has grown us here and all that He’s done through us here.

So it’s a thing to remember. But it’s also… It’s also a thing to be mindful of, because it reminds us of this, I think, as we move from one place to another, that we are pilgrims, and we’re on a great pilgrimage.

You know, when the pilgrims, you know, the Puritans that left England, you know, Holland for America, they really took this idea of a city of God serious.

They really were willing to see themselves as going out from the world and going to establish a place where a city and a people and a place and time was totally committed to God. And if you read William Bradford’s account of their coming to America in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he gets to the end of his life, and he kind of laments it never happened the way he wanted to see it happen. I mean, I think they had it for a little bit, but sure enough, people moved on, other colonies formed, more people… People that didn’t have their same Puritan ideas about Bible and life and what it means to serve God, they didn’t have those same ideas, so they’re integrating into, you know, the colony. And it’s a reminder, we cannot have and know that city now.

Nonetheless, God calls each of us by faith to be looking forward to sojourning onward towards that city we will live, we will have, we will know. And that’s not one in this life.

And so it’s our great pilgrimage as God’s people, as Jesus’ people, to travel onward, whatever that looks like, until we make it home to those shores. I want to preach to you this morning from Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13, verses 13 through 16.

Hebrews chapter 11, 13 to 16.

The Hebrew writer says, These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

And if they had been thinking, of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is,

they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city. He says, These all died in faith. Now who’s He talking about? He’s talking about the few people, the few characters that He lives. This is from the Old Testament. He said, These all died in faith, not having received the things promised. And He starts earlier in chapter 11, talking about Abel. He lists first Abel. And remember Abel.

Abel was able to give the very best of what he had in generous amount to God, while his brother Cain was not.

Abel, Abel was able to, if you let me kind of personify faith as hands, Abel had hands, spiritual hands, faith, to grasp something that he thought to be a far better treasure than what he had in this life. So we read, Abel pleased God, because Abel let go of the very best things he could get his physical hands on in this life. And what does Cain do? But he holds on tightly to what he has. And with a clenched fist, he rips it out. And here God, here’s something.

You see the difference in those two brothers, don’t you? So it’s amazing all the way back in Genesis, we’re already talking about this kind of saving faith that Jesus has come to make so explicit and so clear. And it’s this faith that Abel has, that he’s able to say, God, I can let go of all the good things that you’ve given me here, because you’ve given me faith to hold on to a better treasure that won’t fail and won’t ever run. And won’t ever come to nothing in a better city somewhere else. That’s Abel.

And then he talks about Enoch. And Enoch’s that very mysterious character in the Old Testament. And we’re told that Enoch, Enoch was so much like God, that he so pleased God. It says that Enoch walked with God, so much so that God took Enoch up. Now that’s amazing. How would you like it for it to be said? This person, their way, their character, they’re so intent and focused on being like God, being like a citizen of a city they have not yet seen or been a part of, very different from the city that they live now. They’re totally different from it. And they’re like God, so much so that God would just go on and take them up. You see, Enoch had faith. He believed in a better city. He believed in a better people. He believed in a better way.

Then he mentions Noah.

And Noah, you see Noah a lot in children’s stuff and wallpaper and all this, but really there’s a lot to be thought about with Noah, because here Noah is an increasingly old man. And God says to Noah, Noah, I want you to give up your best time. Right? That like the best years of someone’s life. Noah, I want you to give up the next hundred years and build a big old boat.

But God, I want to enjoy my, I want to enjoy my, you know, my retired days. I want to enjoy those days doing what I want. And, you know, yes, I believe in you, but that’s my time. That’s my life. These are, these are my golden years, right? I mean, Noah doesn’t say that Noah spends a hundred years building a boat because Noah believes by faith. There’s a better, there’s a better place. And, and there’s a time that won’t end in a better city somewhere else. And then we come to Abraham and Sarah. This is the last one that he mentions in that first bit of chapter 11. And Abraham, I think all those things like Abel, Abraham gives his best and like Enoch, you know, he walks with God and pleases God. And like Noah, Abraham gives up all of his time and he leaves his whole life behind. Right? God says to Abraham and Sarah, go out from your people. I want you to wander around on this land the rest of your life. And even though I’m telling you that you’re wandering around on this land and you’re going to inherit it and it’s going to be yours, you’re not going to get it in your lifetime, nor is your son going to get it in his lifetime, nor is his son going to get it. And oh yeah, after that, I’m going to send all your people into slavery for 400 years. And when they come back from slavery, they’ll only have the land for a little bit of time because they’ll disobey me and I’ll throw them into exile.

You see, Abraham wasn’t, wasn’t really wanting Canaan, you know, as you and I could get on an airplane and fly to Israel. He, he desired that and he wanted that. Like just naturally, we want, you know, place. We want to have a, you know, a heritage and that sort of thing. But what, what, what did Jesus say really about Abraham? Jesus said, Abraham by faith saw Christ day and was glad for it. In other words, Abraham believed there, there was a city coming. There was a place coming. There was a people coming and it was worth far more than what he could hold on to now. Far more.

The Hebrew writer says without faith, without faith, we cannot please God without faith. We cannot please God.

Abel by faith gave up his best Enoch by faith walked with God. Noah by faith built a boat. Abraham and Sarah by faith went out from, from their own land and people it’s by faith. And it’s really interesting because if you start in chapter 11, he says in verse three, it’s by faith. We understand that the universe was created by the word of God. Now that’s amazing because if someone had a perfect understanding of science, they still could not come to the belief and the understanding that Jesus Christ created the whole world. There’s no amount of knowledge you could get. It’s only faith to believe that Jesus created the whole world out of nothing much more friends. Could you and I please God if we didn’t have faith? Absolutely not. So it’s faith to just really believe that he exists. And he created everything and it’s faith to please him. It’s faith to please him.

And you know, pleasing God, it requires a death. It’s not possible for you and me to be us, live as we are with a real, real belief that God exists. It’s one thing to say, oh yes, I believe there’s some higher power out there. That’s not the kind of believing he’s talking about. You cannot be, be who you are. If you really believe that there is one true God who has created the heavens and the earth. He died on a cross and he’s coming back to judge the living and the dead. If you believe that you would radically change. You would choose either. So he’s got to die or I got to die. I’m okay. God, I’m not believing that God exists. He’s dead. I’m living my life or I have to say, no, I’ve got to die to Chad because I believe that this consequential God is there. And I want my life to look like his life. That’s what Abraham, Enoch, you know, Noah, all these people able were able to do. They, they died to say, Christ, you have your way. I want to live by faith.

So I really want us to grasp this text this morning because I believe, you know, by faith alone, it’s able to help us kind of lift ourselves out of our present circumstance where we’re caught up in living for the moment. We’re caught up in what we can have. We’re caught up in what we’re doing. We’re caught up in this comfort, that comfort, that treasure, that preference, that security, this reputation, my time, my life. And we’re able to be numbered among these few blessed saints and be lifted to a heavenly place and see Jesus and live for him in that kingdom. That’s what, that’s what I believe this text does. It enables us to hold loose all that we have and know here and hold on tightly to all that Christ has given us in his kingdom. That will be someday.

He says these all, these all died in faith. They didn’t receive it. Why?

Well, they saw the things they greeted them from afar, but they acknowledge that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They acknowledge that they were pilgrims. And what does that mean? And all the different senses that the Bible lets us understand that word. It means in that one sense that they are exiles. Now, if you’re an exile, it means you’re somewhere you don’t want to be. It’s not like, well, we found this neighborhood and we like that house, but we ended up buying this house and we didn’t like it as much, but we can be happy with that neighborhood. And it was just, that’s not what it means. You’re somewhere you hate being. It means you’re in a place that you don’t want to settle down. That’s what exile means. It means your mindset on a truer home, your love lies elsewhere in a different place, different, different, you know, topography, different culture. We eat different food. We talk different there. Like I’m an exile here and I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to cool down. I’m going to do everything I can do to get home. That’s an exile.

And it also means stranger.

It also means stranger. You know, the problem with the church is when it doesn’t want to be strange.

The problem with the local church is when we, we do everything that we can do and we compromise on every possible little thing. We can compromise to make the world happy and we’re left looking pretty normal and we’re not left looking strange.

Like I don’t eat your food and I don’t talk the way that you talk and I don’t wear the kind of clothes that you wear and I don’t have allegiance to your king and I don’t like your culture. And you know what? I love my city so much. I’m going to live in your city and try to talk all y’all and to come in with me to my city. I’m a stranger here. You know, we just can’t be an effective church if we’re not willing to be strange and we’re not willing to be looked down upon and we’re not willing to, you know, to not be liked anymore. It doesn’t mean I’m going out of my way to not be liked, but it’s just not possible to have faith that lifts me up to where Christ is seated in the heavenly places. And I believe he’s my king and he loves me and he’s called me to be a part of that world, not this world and not be strange and not be strange. You know, it’s an older Christian phrase that’s been used throughout the centuries is that veil of tears or valley is a veil. We’re all in this valley and it’s a valley of tears and hardship because I am not home yet. I am not home yet.

Chase read 1 John there in his worship and we’ve been reading that together in our family worship time every day. 1 John and Dawson like was perplexed because John says, don’t love the world. And he’s thinking like the world’s beautiful in the world. Like, why can’t I love? And, and I’m like, no, you’re, that’s the earth. Like, yes, the earth is beautiful, but the world is, is the culture. It’s the milieu. It’s the thinking. It’s the desires of a whole people who Paul tells us are under the authority of Satan right now. They’re, they’re children of Satan. The book of Ephesians tells us that’s what we cannot love it for truly exiles and strangers.

And he says, this is so because they have acknowledged that they’re strangers and exiles on earth. Now you hear that word, acknowledge it doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean I acknowledge the sky is blue. I acknowledge, you know, someone’s a president or a governor that I didn’t vote for. Like I, I know, like I know they’re true. That’s not at all what this acknowledge means when he says acknowledge, it means literally I’m willing to make an open and public declaration, confession. I’m acknowledging it. It’s a declaration. I’m declaring it. So everybody knows I’m a stranger. I’m an exile. I’m a sojourner. I’m on a pilgrimage. I’m on my way home and I’m not, I’m not here to stay. I’m not here to stay. So it’s a whole life thing. If you’re really going to acknowledge your pilgrim. Yes, it takes my words out of my mouth, but then at the same time, it takes my actions, doesn’t it? I’m not going to live this way. I’m just not going to be like the world. I’m going to follow Jesus. I’m going to treat people the way Jesus treats people. I’m going to love my family like that. I’m going to love God. I’m going to love God like that. I’m going to be sensitive to sin. I’m not going to give up on my convictions when culture tells me to. I’m going to resist my own sinful flesh when it calls me to do what I want to do. I’m just not going to compromise. I’m going to acknowledge it. I want my whole life to be lived with present discomforts and deep. Hear me say this. We need these deep inner longings for the life that is to come. Do you have deep inner longings for the life that is to come? Because he says, look in verse 14, for people who speak thus, what? Make it clear. People who speak thus, make it clear, they’re seeking a homeland. Now, if someone said they’re an avid reader, you’re like, oh, what book are you reading? I’m not reading a book right now. Well, what’s the last book you read? I haven’t read a book in a long time, but I’m an avid reader. You’d say, you’re not an avid reader. It is not at all clear you’re an avid reader. Because your words in your life don’t match up. But the Hebrews, be writers able to say about Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and hopefully us, they’re making it clear they don’t belong here, both in their words and their actions. They’re consistent. So to really acknowledge, church, that we are on a pilgrimage to a heavenly home, if we really want to acknowledge that truthfully, it means you and I are acknowledging it for the long haul. There’s no intermittent pilgrimage. Can you get somewhere if you stop your pilgrimage? No, you’ve stopped. It’s not some, you know, Abel didn’t say, hey God, I’ll give you some of my best. That’s not what happened. Noah didn’t build half a boat, did he? You even get to, you even get to Abraham and you see Abraham walk, you know, kind of, you know, waffling a little bit because they do the thing God said don’t do. And Abraham has Ishmael from his, you know, the servant. And he says to God, oh, that Ishmael might be the one. He says to God, and God says, no. God says we’re going to do it my way. It’s going to be Sarah. She’s going to give birth in one year. It’s all faith, all my way, 100%. It’s my way if you want to make your pilgrimage home to me. But it’d be so nice to do things like God’s way, 83%, and I get to do the rest. It would be so nice to kind of bend and twist God’s will a little bit, wouldn’t it? But that’s not acknowledging. I acknowledge I’m dead to me. And by faith, I’m holding on to a better, a better country with a better king. And I’m letting go of everything here.

That’s what it means, church, for us to truly seek a better homeland.

Is it clear in your life? Is it clear in your life that you don’t belong here? Is it clear from the way you live, the things you treasure, the things you value, that you’re waiting for Jesus to take you home? For what do you long? It is for that thing that you will live. To what king are you

truly surrendered? You know, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 7, Paul’s at the kind of the end of his life and he’s writing to Timothy and he says, you know, I’ve done all this. And he says, I’ve kept the faith. And there’s so much power in that. Like it’s an easy verse to read over. I’ve kept the faith. You know, and I want to say to those of you who are, you’ve been Christians for decades, you know, you are to be… in a way that’s not wrong, you are to be envied. Because you’re the ones that you can look back over decades and say, wow, look how God kept me. Look at the grace that kept me believing. And you’re the ones that get to, by natural causes, be in that country sooner than everybody else. Isn’t it just like the world to value youth? Isn’t it just like the world to want to clench and hold on to power and fame and relevance? Relevance, where really if we look at the Word of God, we can say, oh man, what a thing it is to grow old and grow gray. What a thing it is because I’m getting that much closer seeing Jesus.

So those of you that have been in the faith for so long, I want to say this morning, finish well. I want to say you’ve run such a race and you’ve been through so many valleys and you’ve shed so many tears and you’ve had so many ailments and you’ve won some fights and you’ve lost some fights. But guess what? But Jesus is still keeping you by faith. And it’s an encouragement to those of us who are younger in the faith. Look at their example. And that’s the whole point why he’s writing chapter 11. He’s saying, look at this cloud of witnesses and see how God was able to keep them. And He can keep you too. Just keep on believing. Keep on believing.

In verse 15 he says, Now if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

And how true is that? How true is that? How true is it for you and I in the year 2022 that everything is, again, back to technology, these little things, devices we keep in our pockets and just the comforts we’re afforded and the way that we can choose to live.

How easy it is for you and I just to take a pit stop or a permanent pit stop on our pilgrimage home. How easy it is just to turn the knob down and live for Christ. You know, when it’s comfortable. How easy it is to lose a fire for Jesus. How easy it would be to live for pleasures and comforts and self. And you know your own sinful flesh. You can’t even get away from that thing. I mean, it’s with you 24 hours a day. So you and I, if we’re going to be like them and we know the opportunity to give up on Jesus, it’s literally available to you 24 hours a day. I’ve got to constantly then keep my heart and my mind fixed on Jesus that the author and perfecter of my faith would constantly be with me. Constantly be feeding and growing and nourishing my soul so that the beauties and the wonders and the glories of heaven that is to come keep me desiring and believing as bad as I want to give up in the now. So guard your heart. So fix your mind on Jesus Christ. So drink from the well that is available to you.

I’ve been meeting with Wesley and Jordan on Wednesdays and we’ve been going through 1 Peter and it’s been such a wonderful reminder of these things. Because in 1 Peter, he says,

according to God’s great mercy, He has kept us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable. It’s undefiled and it’s unfading. It’s kept in heaven for you. Who by God’s power,

God’s power, think about it, you’re being guarded through faith for a salvation to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, how necessary. You’ve been grieved by various trials, so that, why? He says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, though it’s tested by fire, is found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus.

So I want you to see even what Peter’s saying additionally to Hebrews. The suffering and the hardship of saying, no, I’m not going to live for the present moment. I’m going to give up. I’m going to be strange. I’m going to be in exile. It’s not even like it’s miserable and I have to like bear with it and put up with it until I can finally get home. He’s actually saying, you should be glad that God is bringing suffering into your life because as you suffer for Christ, you’re actually being prepared for that heavenly country and city. So the suffering is not meaningless. It’s not a waste. God’s using it in you. Be grateful that God is growing your faith through suffering. So I want to say this, God is preparing for us.

God is preparing us for what He has. He has prepared for us. I want to say it again. God is preparing us for what He has prepared for us.

And Paul talks about that way to glory. He talks about that way to glory.

And I don’t think that that text belittles our suffering. It doesn’t belittle Sue’s suffering when she has pneumonia and is near death. It doesn’t belittle Lawton’s fears that maybe, you know, I’m not going to lose my wife. It doesn’t belittle, you know, persecution of Nigerians. It doesn’t, you know, belittle what ailments and battles and sin struggles you now face. It doesn’t belittle it at all. It just wants to remind you like the deepest valley of suffering and sorrow you’ve known, the weight of glory is going to be so much heavier. It’s not saying, oh, it doesn’t matter because things are going to be… It’s just saying, hey, as bad as it is, by faith, believe this. When you come in, when you come into Christ’s kingdom, the weight of the beauty, the majesty, the joy of God, oh, it’s going to be like you can’t even remember all that stuff. Like C.S. Lewis says, it’s all going to become untrue in that moment because the weight of glory is going to be so heavy.

This is the Israelites’ problem in Egypt, you know, or coming out of Egypt. These people, though they have sinned, seen God and though they have known God’s great power and grace and they’ve known what a wonderful God they have, they say this in the desert, oh, let’s just go back to Egypt because at least we had food there. Let’s just go back. I mean, we had carved out some life. No, it was a pretty miserable existence, but we had gotten used to it. You see, what were they doing? They were desiring those things that they could touch. They were desiring the things that they could smell and see. And even though there was no life in it and though it was literally sin, slavery, they’re saying, I’ll just settle for that.

See, our Hebrew writer says to us this morning, won’t you enter the hall of faith with these other people who can be lifted out of their physical senses and by faith hold on to a far better place, a far better country?

Or like the man says to Jesus, I believe,

help my unbelief. I believe, oh, but help my unbelief.

God is faithful to us, friends, even when we stray.

And Peter couldn’t write his epistles and give us any hope if that wasn’t true because we can read of Peter’s strength, but what has Peter found and what did Peter say in that passage? He says that your faith is being guarded by the power of God. So if you need any motivation to keep going however long you’ve been sitting on the side of the road in your pilgrimage and wasting your time on pleasures and wasting your time on sin and wasting your time on sin, and wasting your time on you, he says, guess what? If you believe, you’re being guarded by the power of God and that power will sustain your faith through everything so you can keep going and you can keep believing and you can keep running again and we can keep doing that as a church because God’s power is keeping our faith. What a wonderful truth and promise for us in any season. It’s not about, oh, I’m going to try harder to believe harder. No, believe that God is powerful to keep you believing. That is a freeing thing. That is a powerful truth for you.

There’s a better country and it says that the city, God didn’t hire out contractors.

You know, there’s no inflation on wood prices where God is. It says that there’s this city in the hands of God, not the hands of men have built it. Well, and there’s this city where Jesus, reigns and rules and there’s this city where nothing decays, not buildings, not people. There’s no natural disasters. There’s this city. There’s this country and it lasts and it’s good and it’s beautiful and it’s true. On Tuesday mornings at the pregnancy center, I serve with this lady and we pray every morning together and she prays that every morning and so I’ve adopted it because I love it. She says, Lord, help us say today to these people we meet something that’s good, beautiful and true. And I think, and I know what she means, like, who is good, beautiful and true? Jesus. So Lord, I want to live a life where I’m away from your good, true, beautiful city as someone who is a member of that good and beautiful and true city now. That’s what I want to do. You know, you think about Russia and Ukraine. You and I are Americans, right? And so, we don’t fear for our borders. Like, oh my, man, Canada’s pushing in. Are we going to, like, we’ve just never had to experience something like that. And I think maybe we lose the power of what really nations for, you know, thousands of years have always experienced as it’s nation against nation and we’re fighting to see who can get, you know, just a constant land war. And think about if you’re, it’s like a Ukrainian. It’s like, what’s happening right now? Is Russia going to take back over? Am I going to lose my country?

There’s so much beauty and power and it’s going, there’s a country that its walls are never going to be broken down. And even if we read in Revelation, it says the gates are open always, which means, hey, there’s no chance of invasion. We just leave the gates open here.

So I say to us this morning, if you’re a senior saint or you’re a young saint, keep believing. Keep believing. Because you know, you know, you know who has, you know who has died, who did this, who said, you know what? I’m going to die completely to self. I’m going to live by faith in God. I’m going to live for a city that can’t be seen with eyes. You know who did that?

Jesus.

Jesus did this better than anyone in the hall of faith. Jesus died. He said, Father, not my will, but your will. And what does the Scripture tell us? Jesus, because He lived and He died and He rose again perfectly according to the will of Father, He was raised up. He was ascended to the right hand of God. He inherited what belonged to Him. And we can every knee bow and every tongue confess, man, this Jesus is Lord and I want His Spirit in me and by faith, I’m being kept by what Christ has accomplished and because Christ did what Christ did, I can do what I need to do according to the will of God.

So I don’t, you know, I don’t know, I don’t know if God will ever give us our own physical building. You know, I want it. Like, that would be nice.

But, you know, if God does, I hope it doesn’t become something it shouldn’t be.

I hope we never forget, friends, that you and I were pilgrims.

We’re pilgrims and we’re on our way home to somewhere else. Somewhere far better. Somewhere far better.

Let me ask you, just individually, what do you need to let loose this morning? It’s hard to travel when you’re bogged down with a bunch of bags, isn’t it? It’s hard to really make a pilgrimage to that place you long when you’re carrying so much other stuff that takes up your strength.

It’s hard to travel when you refuse to leave a place. You ever try that?

It doesn’t work. I’ve got to get up and I’ve got to leave the place and I’ve got to leave the stuff. But there’s this, I think there’s grace in it. None of us are on our own. You know, there’s the grace of togetherness. There’s the grace of being with God’s people. There’s the grace of Paul saying, you know, pray for one another. Love one another. Teach one another. Bear one another’s burdens. You know, if someone’s sinning and they’re not doing it, what does he say? Restore them gently. God is giving us every possible means through His Son, Jesus, and through one another as the church to keep us going and keep us believing until we reach the very end with Christ.

Ann Bradstreet, she was the first, technically, the very first American poet and the first American to be published in both England and the Americas. She came to America in 1630 with her husband. She wrote a ton of wonderful poetry

and, and Bradstreet had physical ailments her whole life. She always had really bad physical ailments and, you know, she knew what it meant to lose loved ones just as much in life. So, lived a very challenging life. She always penned her prayers. She penned her thoughts into poems. And so, I want to read you one of her poems. This poem is entitled As Weary Pilgrim Now at Rest.

As weary pilgrim now at rest hugs with delight his silent nest his wasted limbs now life-loving little soft that miry steps have trodden oft blesses himself to think upon his dangerous past and travails done the burning sun no more shall heat nor stormy rains on him shall beat the briars and thorns no more shall scratch nor hungry wolves at him shall catch his erring paths no more shall tread nor wild fruits eat instead of bread for water’s cold he doth not long for thirst no more shall parch his tongue for thirst no more nor rugged stones his feet shall gall nor stumps nor rocks cause him to fall all cares and fears he bids farewell and means and safety now to dwell a pilgrim I on earth perplexed with sins with cares and sorrows vexed by age and pains brought to decay in my clay house smoldering away oh how I long to be at rest and soar on high among the blessed this body shall ensue silent sleep mine eyes no more shall ever weep no fainting fits shall me assail nor grinding pains my body frail with cares and fears near cumbered be nor losses know nor sorrow see what though my flesh shall there consume it is the bed that Christ did perfume and when a few years shall be gone this mortal shall be clothed upon a corrupt carcass down it lies but a glorious body it shall rise in weakness and dishonor sown in power tis raised by Christ alone then soul and body shall unite and of their maker have the sight such lasting joys shall there behold

as no ear has heard nor tongue told Lord make me ready for that day then come dear bridegroom come away

so see

God’s done it before He’s done it before in her and He can do it in us He can keep us faithful and He can keep us going through all things for His glory and for our everlasting joy Amen

Let’s pray together