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Homesick for Heaven
William MacDonald

William MacDonald (1917 - 2007). American Bible teacher, author, and preacher born in Leominster, Massachusetts. Raised in a Scottish Presbyterian family, he graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1940, served as a Marine officer in World War II, and worked as a banker before committing to ministry in 1947. Joining the Plymouth Brethren, he taught at Emmaus Bible School in Illinois, becoming president from 1959 to 1965. MacDonald authored over 80 books, including the bestselling Believer’s Bible Commentary (1995), translated into 17 languages, and True Discipleship. In 1964, he co-founded Discipleship Intern Training Program in California, mentoring young believers. Known for simple, Christ-centered teaching, he spoke at conferences across North America and Asia, advocating radical devotion over materialism. Married to Winnifred Foster in 1941, they had two sons. His radio program Guidelines for Living reached thousands, and his writings, widely online, emphasize New Testament church principles. MacDonald’s frugal lifestyle reflected his call to sacrificial faith.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the idea that God is in control of every aspect of our lives. He uses the example of a near car accident to illustrate how God's wisdom, love, and power filter everything that happens to us. The speaker also shares a story about two evangelicals who were refused food by a restaurant owner, but were helped by a police officer who took them to another restaurant. However, the food they were served turned out to be poisoned, but miraculously, a stranger appeared and provided them with goat's milk that saved one of their lives. The sermon concludes with the reminder that despite our smallness in the vast universe, God loves and cares for us, as demonstrated through the sacrifice of His son.
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Sermon Transcription
Would you turn to your, we're going to look at another psalm. Psalm 84. Do you like the psalms? If I were marooned on a desert island and could have only one book of the Bible, that's the one I'd want. However, I don't want to be marooned in the desert island. Psalm 84. How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even a sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will be still praising you, Selah. Blessed is a man whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. O God, behold our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. I was pleased in our song service when Mark got up and said that he wanted, they wanted to sing the first hymn about heaven because that's what I want to talk about too. That's always an encouragement. I know Mark wasn't peeking at my notes either. It's an encouragement. You feel the Lord is really guiding when something like that happens. I Entitled this psalm homesick for heaven. Is there anyone here who's homesick for heaven? Few not enough It's interesting to me that as I travel around there's one subject that occupies People's hearts and minds more than any other subject and that's the coming of the Lord the rapture of the church and It's not just older people either. It's young people Few weeks ago at our prayer meeting a young brother gave a Opening devotion and what was it about the coming of the Lord and he really he's like the son of here. He yearns he faints for the coming of The Lord and that has happened Repeatedly later where younger brothers were taking part in devotions or in preaching or something like that and they all gravitate toward the coming of the Lord very very encouraging Well in this psalm, of course the psalmist The sons of Korah They're away from Jerusalem. You can tell that they're in exile They're in exile and they're really longing to be back in the courts of the Lord How lovely is your tabernacle Oh Lord of hosts. How lovely are your dwelling places? His mind is wandering back their minds are wandering back to Jerusalem and Of course to the Jewish mind this is where God lived he lived in the temple in Jerusalem that was his dwelling place That's why the son could say I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help my help cometh from the Lord Well, the temple was built on the hills Jerusalem is part of the Mariah range there and That was synonymous There with the presence of the Lord. I like that expression Oh Lord of hosts would come to it again later in the Sun Lord of the angelic host Lord of the host of heaven What an exalted view that gives you of the Lord is marvelous that he condescends to people like us Isn't it? I'm glad that I lived in a day of the Hubble telescope when men have peered out into Into space further than they ever did before It's really wonderful And what it really boils down to is that this? This earth and which we live which we consider to be quite large. It's just a speck of cosmic dust Isn't it in the universe? In fact I heard the other day that man has only seen about a tenth of the universe or 10% of the universe that maybe 90% still lies unexplored So you didn't realize how? Small planet Earth is different if planet Earth is that small. We are just microscopic midgets on a speck of cosmic dust and The marvel is that the Lord loves us He cares about us And he sent his lovely son to die for us. That's marvelous. Isn't it? Absolutely marvelous, so I think it's nice when he calls the Lord the Lord of hosts gives you great thoughts of God Great thoughts of God. He says my soul longs even sings for the court of the Lord I tell you he's got a real case of homesickness doesn't he Longs and faints for the court of the Lord and you'd think at first that He was mostly interested in a place, but if you keep on reading in that verse you'll find. It's not really a place. It's person He quickly changes gears at the end, and he says my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God That's what he's interested in There's a song that I've heard recently goes something like this I've heard of a land that is wondrously fair They say that its beauties are way beyond compare In that place that's called heaven my soul longs to be But Jesus will be what makes it heaven for me Heaven for me heaven for me Jesus will be what makes it heaven for me If walls there weren't Jasper If streets were not gold If houses there crumbled If folks there grew old Still I'd see everything I've been longing to see But where Jesus is it will be heaven for me That's really what the psalmist is saying here in this first verse of this lovely psalm Jesus will be what makes it heaven for me Yeah, as I say when you read the first part of the verse you think he's interested in that place in the in the temple And it's environs you know the courts of him where God dwells in Jerusalem. Yeah, there's more to it than that He won't be satisfied until he sees the living God And of course that's what Fanny Crosby said in that lovely hymn we sang When my life's work has ended and I cross the swelling tide that bright and glorious morning I shall say remember blind through her life remember blind through her life What was she longing she was longing to have her eyes opened in heaven I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side and his smile will be the first to welcome me I Shall know him I shall know him as redeemed by his side. I shall stand. I shall know him I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand What will that first glimpse of the Lord Jesus be like huh, just take your breath away Then he says in verse three even the sparrow Has found a home and a swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young Even your altars Oh Lord of hosts my king and my God All right, I've often said people say to me. How do you study the Bible? I say with a question mark for a brain And I come to a verse like that, and I I think that's a problem here for me. I have a problem here Why would a sparrow and a swallow? build a nest at an altar I mean my mind goes to the tabernacle and this some this Hebrew comes through the The entrance to the enclosure and he's dragging a bullock after him Rope around the bullocks neck and he's dragging it after him and they come to the altar burnt offering I mean the traffic is really something of course the altar is hot There's a blazing fire in the altar and I say What's a bird ever going to build a nest there for with all that traffic And what is the answer? well Sometimes I think it's helpful to have a soul of a poet when you read the Bible So much of it is poetry and that's true of this too is poetry, and I would just like to suggest to you That the sonnet is speaking about himself or themselves in this case. He's speaking about himself He's the sparrow, and he's a swallow Well, what is the sparrow speaking about well it speaks to me of a lonely bird It's otherwise other places in the sonnets is a sparrow alone upon the housetop a Lonely bird and then the swallow well You know what a swallows like it it doesn't just fly in a smooth even steady flight jerking. You know Restless bird if I ever saw one so in the swallow and in the sparrow and the swallow you have loneliness and you have Restfulness restlessness and the sonnets isn't that's what I am As long as I'm here in exile. I'm lonely and I'm restless, and I'm longing to be home longing to be home Even the sparrow has found a home in the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young I think that's lovely where she may lay her lungs She wouldn't really build a nest ordinarily in such a place with such traffic as the altars of the Lord, but This is wonderful to me as a spiritual application, you know, it's a wonderful thing when Christian parents Bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord But I think I have so much to be thankful for I was brought up in a home where we all ate our meals together or that's a rarity isn't it and Not only that but my father would bring out the Bible and he'd read the Bible And we'd all get down on our knees the four of us we'd get down on our knees and we'd pray It's typically typically Scottish thing to do it's called family worship and every day we were reading the Word of God and Praying at least my father was praying to the Lord And I want to tell you that has a tremendous sanctifying influence on a home Really does Tremendous sanctifying influence and all called the family also the Scottish people call it family worship I was telling some of the friends last night. This is hard to believe but In the north of Scotland, it's so embedded in the people That even if a man is unsaved He's the head of the house. He would not think of going to bed without reading the Bible and praying He's unsaved. I have cousins right now and they're unsafe Read the Bible every night before they go to bed with the family and pray and In a way, all they're doing is heaping condemnation to themselves really As long as they don't as long as they do not trust the Lord Jesus In fact, that's how my father could say it's really interesting God, you know, God is wonderful. He he's so novel He has so many different ways of working doesn't he? He's let me say it reverend. He's got a wondrous imagination And my father came out to this country and he was like that he was unsaved and and He would we had family worship, you know, and one time an uncle of mine came to visit He was a man who used the sledgehammer approach to evangelism and He He sat at the table. This was my mother's brother and he sat at the table and my father Bowed his head and gave thanks for the food and we've got food. My uncle said Willie. Are you a believer? My father said, oh, no, I'm not a believer. Well, he said you just committed a sin. I never committed my father So what was that? He said you just called God your father and he's not your father if you're not saved But you know that plunged my father into conviction of sinning was saved shortly afterwards I never heard that testimony before or since did you I try to say God is wondrously Innovative in his ways of working But that's how he came to know To know the Lord But I once again I say it's wonderful and I I don't know what your home is like But I tell you I would urge you with all my heart to have time with your family in the Word of God and in prayer God really works in a way. I don't remember my parents ever putting pressure on me to trust Christ. I Don't remember them ever button-holing me to trust the Savior But they were of their knees Praying for us they claimed us for the Lord and God had his wonderful ways of working Because I'm reminiscing tonight but When I was a boy of five we were over there visiting in Scotland and I started school there and the middle of school year I developed diphtheria and Diphtheria and diphtheria you a mucous membrane forms across your throat and you're strangled to death and I Was so low that my mother turned her back so she wouldn't see me take my last breath and she had no sooner turned her back than a knock came in the door and It was my uncle my father's brother this time She invited him in and you know a Scottish woman It's a reflex action when anybody comes at you how she put the kettle on for a cup of tea She did it in spite of her sorrow in spite of she was distracted beyond description She put the kettle on the tea and then they sat down at the table He said let me tell you why I came He said your son is not going to die he's going to live Someday God's going to save his soul. You see he had been sitting by his fire In the next village and he was reading Psalm 91 Because he had set his love upon me. I will lift him up on high with long life for life satisfy him and show him my salvation He said me do you believe in divine healing? I said sure do I don't believe in divine healers, but I believe in divine healing And He God brought me through that terrible medical crisis and 13 years later. He saved my soul Tell you it's wonderful to have a home a godly Christian home Godly Christian relatives who are praying for you. I often say I live off the prayers of other people Well, it's been that way all through my life. I live off the prayers of other people Thank God for them So this is it the psalmist is saying I'm a sparrow. I'm a swallow. I'm lonely. I'm restless I know a place where I may lay my long young even your altars. Oh Lord of hosts. It's nice, isn't it? It's nice Blessed are they who dwell in your house. They will be still praising you see that Who are the happy people who well, they're the happy people who dwell in the Lord's house What do you mean dwelling in the Lord's house? well, I tell you this at the difference between dwelling there at the temple court and Dwelling out in the suburbs Joe was talking in a previous meeting about people are out in the suburbs Maybe they make an occasional visit to the to the center, but they they're not living there. It's a wonderful thing to live in Fellowship with the Lord the only life that really counts Life of surrender to Kim turning the keys over to him letting him manage our lives for us Those are the happy people You know the right there aren't many happy people in the world today awful lot of unhappy a lot of sorrow a lot of difficulty a lot of trouble and Mostly it's self-induced because we're not obedient to the Word of God there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and Obey we never can prove that the light that is love until all on the altar We lay blessed are those who dwell in your house. They will be still they will be continually praising you This is the mark of a spirit-filled Christian Continually praising the Lord you want to know whether a person is spirit filled or not listen to wait what he says listen to what? She says listen to the conversation that comes out of that person's mouth I Tell you it's wonderful to to be have contact with people and they're always talking about the Lord and how wonderful the Lord is Really is great blessed is the man whose strength is in you. This is good blessed is man whose strength is in you not in himself We're so weak you know one day. We're in full athletic strength the next day a Non-filterable virus comes into our body, and we're just as weak as water Good thing to be able to draw your strength from the Lord and serve him in his power and his might Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. I like this whose heart is that's a very nice translation in the New King James Version Blessed is the man whose strength is in you whose heart whose heart is set on pilgrimage This is what really pleases the heart of God when he looks down on people today In the United States and Lawrence, Kansas, and he sees people who could be living high off the hog and People that could ever everything in life. You know hot and cold folding doors and their house, and you know the whole bit There's you know there's something better than this There's something better than this and that's what my heart set on the city which has foundations Whose builder and maker is God that's what happened to Abraham say Abraham Lived in 10th with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise They lived in 10th at that time the 10th was the badge of a pilgrim you know a temporary structure on a permanent home temporary structure and God had given that whole land of Canaan to Abraham and Abraham said in effect. Thanks very much Lord But there's something better than this there's something even better than Canaan That's what I'm really looking for and that's what you read about in Hebrews chapter 11 And God was pleased God is pleased with that. He's pleased with people in a materialistic age who? Who are living as faithful stewards for him? and He's pleased with couples for instance who? Sit down and decide on a standard of living that they'd be Satisfied with so that everything else could go into the work of the Lord that's Pilgrimage I Like what David Livingston said he said I'm determined to have or possess nothing except in relation to the kingdom of Christ Get it. I'm determined to possess nothing except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. You can use it for the kingdom fine Hudson Taylor said that he enjoyed the luxury of having few things to care for and that's good There's a luxury of having few things to care for One woman said I spent the first 25 years of my life accumulating things now. I'm of my married life accumulating things now I'm sending the second 25 and getting rid of them So think about that am I really a pilgrim at the beginning of the time. He's an exile. He's away from home now He's thinking about pilgrimage Like this is the life that pleases the Lord if he looks down from heaven. It's really true who as they pass through the valley of Bacchus and If you look in the margin of your Bible probably says weeping there does it the valley of weeping? If they pass through the valley of back that they make it a spring. This is something isn't it? they're going through trial and It turns out to be a season of refreshment the spring refreshment you know to me This is the miracle of the dispensation in which we live a lot of people think that the great miracle today is physical healing I don't think that's the great miracle of today. I think the miracle of today is to see Christians going through deep waters Going through the fires of suffering and affliction and worshiping and praising God in it That's a miracle really is a miracle. I've known so many People like that dear sister in Chicago years ago the nurse would come in with her With her tray of food there in the hospital and and she'd laugh and she'd say you want to keep me here I want to go home and of course the nurse thought she meant on Euclid Avenue or something like that What's the home she was talking about? I'm in a home in heaven Wonderful to see Christians. They've been tried beyond description. They say I thank God for the bitter things They've been a friend to grace They've driven me from the paths of ease to storm the secret place or as David said it's good for me that I had been afflicted I don't know if you've ever had this experience sometimes when you're facing Surgery, and you know, the future is all unknown You're closer to the Lord than when the things were good in life, you know The Lord is able to make his presence so real to people I Often pray that for people that are going through suffering a bit. So I just make your presence real to them I prayed that for a brother one night. He had um He had Lou Gehrig's disease And I just asked the Lord one night in the prayings or I just give Jack The vision of your glory and your power and the bitterness of death will be passed and that night While I was praying Jack went into the living room put his head back went to sleep And when they tried to wake him he was in a coma and he died the next thing the Lord answered my prayer But it's much better than I prayed for I thought it just gave him a vision in this life of it You know, but the Lord took him home to be with himself And his wife is you know, glorifying God and she's so grateful to the Lord that he didn't allow Jack to go through the last horrible hideous stages that disease Wonderful as you go through life to meet dear Christian people, they really are suffering They're really in sorrow and yet God is getting glory out of it We had that in a previous sound didn't we ask for God his way is perfect They pass through the valley of Bacchus. I make it a spring the rain also covers us with pools I think this is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is so near when you're going through the valley of weeping So near and it becomes a time of spiritual Refreshment to us they go from strength to strength. What does that mean from one degree of strength to another? Well, you think that pilgrims marching along it's a long journey, you know back home and you think they'd get more tired and more tired And more tired so that they go from strength to strength and you've seen this in the Christian life today The path of the justice like the dawning light that shines more and more under the perfect day You see the Sun arising over the horizon and here's the dawning light comes in more and more into a full Noon the splendor of full noon the path of the justice as the dawning light that shines more and more Until the perfect day they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength So mount up with wings as eagles to run and not be weary shall walk and not faint Here you have it in this sound they go from strength to strength every one of them appears before God in Zion What do you have here? You have the eternal security of the believer, huh? Eternal security of every one of them. Sure And what a wonderful Truth that is from the Word of God it's under attack today In fact, I think there's a mounting wave of opposition to the truth of the eternal security of the believer I have to go by my by my Bible, you know If I based my doctrine on human experience I could prove to you that people can be saved and then lost If I based my doctrine in human experience, how do you say? Well, I know a man who well I don't care how many men you know who what is the Word of God say, you know? My Bible says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall but never perish Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father which gave them is greater than all and no man's able to pluck Them out of my father's hand They said they said well, you could put yourself out of the father's hand. Well, it doesn't make any difference He said no sheep of mine will ever perish I go back to that verse all the time. They shall never perish. I Tell you he didn't go to the enormous price of purchasing me with his blood when I was an enemy To lose me about now that I'm his friend Huh? Doesn't make sense But there are hundreds of similar proofs from the Word of God that that Once in Christ in Christ forever. That's the eternal covenant stands None shall pluck thee none shall pluck thee from the father's loving hand I like that every one of them appears before God in fact every seat is going to be filled in heaven The question is will you be there? Will you be there? And if your sole hope for heaven is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be there be counted among the faithful Now that's first eight Oh Lord God of hosts hear my prayer give ear Oh God of Jacob Sela I Love that. I've already explained that expression Lord of hosts. That's the Lord of the angelic hosts. That's the Lord of the unfallen angels And we have no idea what a myriad that is in heaven at the present time I believe they're here ministering on earth, too I've never seen an angel, but I've been conscious of their ministry here on the earth I don't know if I told you that story of them I'm sure I did but won't hurt there'll be some here that never heard it Frank Haggerty down in Bolivia You know I'm doing a jungle work with another brother Then I can't remember Ben's last name But anyway, they were doing out in the jungles and one night They came to a little town and they were hungry. They set up camp outside the town and they they Hungry they they went into town. They noticed there was a hotel there with a restaurant They went in and they asked the woman for a meal. She she said she didn't have anything She knew they were evangelicals and she didn't want to serve them So they went down to the police station and they said to the sergeant, you know any place we could get food They he said of course, so there's a restaurant in the hotel. They said well, she told her she didn't have any food He said you come with me So he took them to the restaurant. He said that the woman get these men some food. She said come back in 45 minutes well, they came back in 45 minutes by then they were starved and She had cooked up a mess of lungs And potatoes the potatoes were cut in chunks and deep-fried so they sat down they began eating and and Frank said I don't like that meat and Ben said well, I tell you you give me your meat now. I'll give you my potatoes and Ben began to eat the meat and presume burn burn burn Terrible Bernie started to drink water and he couldn't get enough water to drink. She had put rat poison in the meat white phosphorus and He got awfully sick. So they had to leave they went back to their campsite and he began to lose consciousness Just before he lost consciousness. He said Just send my Bible back to my father in Australia And then he lost consciousness when he lost consciousness the tall man appeared upon the scene. He said your friend is sick he said I think he's dying and Man said I'll be right back and he went he came back with an earthenware vessel filled with goat's milk did you get your friend to drink this and Frank said look my friend is unconscious. He said just force it down his throat So he forced this goat's milk down his throat and after a little while Ben opened his eyes After a little while longer He said the burning is gone. Well, he recovered Well, I shouldn't say fully because he still has trouble from that today But anyway, they were able to continue the next day before they left They left the earthenware vessel put some money under it as a thanks to this Tall man who had left and some months later. They were back in that area and they Said we're going to look up that man find him and thank him what he did So they went to the nationals there and they told them about the citizen They said of how he brought goat's milk and they said a tall man They said we have no tall men here. And if you've been in Bolivia, there are no tall men in Bolivia when some of them met Brian killing to myself One of the fellows said I thought David killed all the giants said that So they told him about the goat's milk. They said we have no goats here No call men. No goats Was it an angel? Usually I mean at that time there was a doctor from the New Zealand assemblies there Dr. Brown and they told the story to him and he said the best known antidote for white phosphorus is goat's milk Wonderful, isn't it? Really wonderful. Oh God behold our shield and look upon the face if you're annoyed yet. I like to put the Lord Jesus into this verse, don't you? And Don't look at me Lord. I want you to see me in Christ in the Beloved accepted. Am I? Accepted in the Beloved one Then he says for a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I'll say so Just and we often feel that don't we day in the service of Lord how wonderful it is We might be physically weary, but wonder it is just On the Lord's Day evening after a day of busy service for the Lord and well, I think Spurgeon said The Lord's worst is better than the devil's best Of course the Lord doesn't have a worst does he but anyway, you know what he meant The Lord's worst is better than the devil's best the day in thy courts is better than a thousand In the courts in the service and worship of the Lord better than a thousand stents held square I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God and dwell in the tents of wickedness There's a most menial work for the Lord, and I'm not sure there is menial work for the Lord but the most menial work is better than the greatest work outside a Doorkeeper at the house of my God But of course, you know any work that's done for the glory of God It's a good work as far as God is concerned. I think we should remember that The good work as far as God is concerned And will be rewarded The Lord God is a sun and a shield. This is good for people who are pilgrims for people who are traveling He's a sun and a shield. What does the sun do for you? It provides illumination doesn't it and he's a shield. What does a shield do? It protects you So God for for his people Traveling home to heaven. He's a sun and a shield. He provides illuminate I like that, you know people have hung up on the subject of guidance How do I know the guidance of the Lord and the Lord is a son? He gives guidance and I think it's marvelous to think that the great God in heaven can guide you So unmistakably that if you were to refuse it would be positive disobedience I'm sure most of you have had that It's waited upon the Lord and the guidance has come from so clear and if I don't do this, I'm disobeying the Lord The Lord is the Sun and a shield. He's our protection along the way You know, we say these verses glibly, but we don't know what's behind them You know, I believe that God controls the traffic lights in Lawrence. You believe that You go there and that'll just as you're getting close to it the light turns red and well God arranged that you don't know what that saved you from do you? Suppose my light had been green you could have gone ahead and crashed I've been crashed into down the road We'll never know till we get to heaven How he controlled all of these things that I mean does he's in charge of it So infinitely glorious and gloriously granny knows the eternal story of every grain of sand And he's in perfect control of our life. I think that's a wonderful that everything that comes into your life and mine is filtered through his wisdom love and power and If you were to run your life You would run it exactly the way God runs it if you know what he knows If you had his love if you had his power That's a help to me You don't have to sputter fret Just commit yourself to the Lord in the beginning of every day And then for the next 24 hours just to meet something He'll do it just the way you would do it if you knew what he knew And he did his love and wisdom The Lord God is a son and a shield the Lord will give grace and glory Grace, it's a wonderful word But it has many different applications to here it's not the grace that saves But it's the grace the unmerited favor that gives you strength for the journey That's what it is When Paul writes to the Saints grace to be to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus I don't know. They're already saved They don't need saving grace, but they need keeping grace They need strengthening grace, and I think that's what he's praying for them in a case like that And I think that's what you have in this verse the Lord will give grace and glory Grace for the journey and glory at the end Well, you can't beat that I knew I knew that's wonderful Glorious and what's that glory at the end well of course for us it means a glorified body It means to have a resurrection body like the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus I don't mean that we look facially like the Lord Jesus, but we'll have that kind of a body forever free from sin sorrow sickness suffering death separation pretty wonderful Pretty wonderful if we if we really took it in we'd be discontent to stay here any Longer the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly The other day I visited in our home for senior citizens, and I was talking to a lady. She's 96 Yeah, her little body. It's just wasted away But I said to remain what's your favorite verse of scripture? She said no good thing will he withhold from them that walk on and that's not glad for 96 you know I Said what's your favorite hymn? No, I've lost it But I know I said I think you have another favorite hymn heaven above is softer blue and she started Quoting heaven above is softer blue earth below deeper green something lives in every view Christ the thighs have never seen The other one was being something about being reconciled by the blood of the Lamb You wonder what you can't stop to think of what a verse like that Has meant to people down through the years no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly And I think that's good if he withholds it. It's not good for you hmm It's good to remember that when you're praying for things from the Lord pray in his will Because he knows better than we know and he knows options that we don't know anything about too better to leave it with him I Forgot to say something in verse 8, which is not the first time verse 8 Oh Lord God of hosts give her all God of Jacob. You know oh Lord God of hosts the greatness of God, but then all God of Jacob God of the unworthy one dear friends The same one who's the God of the angelic host is the God of people like you and me That brings it down pretty close doesn't it God of Jacob the God of the unworthy one and then finally verse 12 Oh Lord of hosts blessed is the man who trusts in you. Isn't that good? Isn't that good almost you think well? He's back home now, then and his soul is at rest. No longer the sparrow He's no longer the swallow. He's just resting in the Lord now, then I found true happiness In dwelling with the Lord blessed is the man who trusts in you and truer words and those were never spoken pray that this sound will be a comfort to our hearts as we press on toward the heavenly home and That we'll be able to say Jesus will be what makes it heaven for me. Shall we pray? And we're going to get thanks for the food blessed father. Our hearts are overwhelmed When we think of the richness of your word and how it speaks to us how the Holy Spirit can take these verses of Scripture and speak comfort and Exhortation and challenge to our hearts. We thank you particularly Just now for the blessed hopes. It is before us that one day and perhaps soon The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel with the trumpet God Dead in Christ shall rise for as we which were alive Remains to be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air So shall we ever be with the Lord keep this blessed hope strong in our hearts Lord Keep us pressing on as pilgrims and strangers in the world that gave your son nothing, but a cross and a grave Keep us true to yourself though a thousand voices from the world may call Thank you now for the dear Saints and for the provision made for our food We acknowledge you as the giver of every good and perfect gift Thank you for luxuries, which we enjoy which the Savior did not enjoy when he was here on earth It's so good to us we look up into your face and tell you that we love you in Jesus most worthy and precious name Amen
Homesick for Heaven
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William MacDonald (1917 - 2007). American Bible teacher, author, and preacher born in Leominster, Massachusetts. Raised in a Scottish Presbyterian family, he graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1940, served as a Marine officer in World War II, and worked as a banker before committing to ministry in 1947. Joining the Plymouth Brethren, he taught at Emmaus Bible School in Illinois, becoming president from 1959 to 1965. MacDonald authored over 80 books, including the bestselling Believer’s Bible Commentary (1995), translated into 17 languages, and True Discipleship. In 1964, he co-founded Discipleship Intern Training Program in California, mentoring young believers. Known for simple, Christ-centered teaching, he spoke at conferences across North America and Asia, advocating radical devotion over materialism. Married to Winnifred Foster in 1941, they had two sons. His radio program Guidelines for Living reached thousands, and his writings, widely online, emphasize New Testament church principles. MacDonald’s frugal lifestyle reflected his call to sacrificial faith.