Where Is Here?

Introduction

Have you ever been homesick? I mean, really homesick. Let me tell you a time that I was homesick that kind of explains, I think, the root of homesickness. Homesickness is not just you being away from home. But usually homesickness has as much, if not more, to do with where you are. I shouldn’t be here. This doesn’t feel like home. This doesn’t feel right. I cannot adequately describe to you how green and wet behind the ears I was entering college life. I had lived such a small and sheltered life in rural North Alabama.

You could not, I don’t know how things are now, but you could not buy pornographic material inside our county. It was not allowed. I grew up in a Christian, very conservative household and went to very small and limited high school. My parents sent me to college in the Tampa area. And I told you before they stood on the carport, Dad pointed south and said, Florida’s that way. And I got in my little car and drove south with my earthly belongings. In 1985, Rand McNally did not know where Little Florida College was. And so it wasn’t on my map. And so I had to find my own way. And I exited off the interstate. And if you’re familiar with Tampa, this may mean something to you. I exited off on Nebraska Avenue, which was not West Point, Alabama.

There were a multitude of prostitutes standing on the corner in front of numerous adult establishments and liquor stores. And I thought I had exited into Sodom and Gomorrah.

Stopped and finally, after asking several people, found Temple Terrace and found the little campus of Florida College. First time I had set foot on it. Made my way up to the third floor, the dormitory room where I was residing, where a third floor, by the way, there was no elevators, just stairs leading up to the third floor of C Dorm, and opened it up into the lobby that serviced the four rooms that would be suite eight. And in the middle of that lobby on the third floor, I remind you, was a big motorcycle sitting known that I had done some public speaking, my counselor asked me if I would be interested in joining the forensics team. To which I replied, Well, my mom watches Quincy.

But dead bodies kind of gross me out. And so I lay in what can only be compared to a prison cot that first night in college and felt homesickness. What am I doing here? And where am I? Was the question that came to my mind. You ever felt that way? Do you feel that way now spiritually? Where in the world am I living? This morning’s lesson is simply entitled, Where is Here? Now, before we get into the lesson, I need to explain our new closed captioning that you see there. I’m sure you may be questioning what that is all about. We have a family visiting with us, have been visiting for some time now from Iran. I don’t mean to embarrass them, but they’ve they have uh immigrated here from Iran.

They speak English, but their native language is Persian. And so we’re attempting a new process this morning. That closed captioning is in their native language of Persian, and it’s an attempt to help them to be able to understand more readily what we’re saying. And so if you’re like me and have no idea what that says, just ignore it. That is for them. And we’re going to see how good that works. I don’t know whether how it I had to add a driver into my computer to translate it from redneck to English, then to Persian. So there’s a lot going on there, but we’ll see if it works out all right. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Colossians, chapter 3. The basis for our lesson is for a group of people much like yourselves who may be feeling homesick.

And remember, homesickness is not just about being away from home, but it’s being in a place that seems foreign to you. That a place that doesn’t feel like home, to which you might say, What am I doing here? And so we want to simply ask and answer this question, where is here? Colossians chapter 3 prompts this question, beginning in verse 9. Colossians 3, verse 9 begins, do not lie to one another, since you’ve put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Then verse 11 says, here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

And so our question this morning, when the apostle Paul in the first century to the city of Colossae said, Here there is neither Jew nor Greek. Where is here? In Colossae in the first century, in that Roman society, there was certainly Jew and Greek. That distinction was clearly made. In the first century Roman world, in Jewish society at least, it certainly made a difference if you were circumcised or uncircumcised. In the general Gentile world, it mattered greatly whether you were a barbarian or a Scythian or whether you were a slave or a free man. That mattered greatly. And so where is Paul, where is the Holy Spirit through Paul talking about when he says, here there is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian or Scythian, slave or free man.

Where is here, Paul? And that’s what I want us to examine this morning. To those of you who may be feeling homesick, who may be feeling out of place where you are, is the question, where is that place that he’s talking about? Where is here? Well, first of all, there are two choices of where here is the world or heaven. Our two choices of where is here is either here or there. Now, you know the answer to this question already. You’ve already gotten ahead of me. We know that when Paul was saying, here there is neither, there’s not this distinction. There’s not this separation. There’s not this division. That Paul wasn’t saying Colossae. He wasn’t saying the Roman Empire. He wasn’t saying the world, because the world knew nothing but division and distinctions between races and between classes of people.

1. The World Under the Sway of the Wicked One

So Paul was talking about somewhere else. Some other place, some other mindset where there is no distinction. And so what are our choices? It’s either the world or it’s heaven. Let’s talk about those two choices this morning. Let’s talk first about the world. What is the world? Where is here if here happens to be the world? Turn over with me to the book of 1 John. You might hold a finger there in Colossians, but we’ll be coming back. But in 1 John chapter 5, John would speak to people who were struggling with this homesickness, with struggling of how to live here, and yet weren’t really living there. In 1 John chapter 5 and in verse 19, he cautioned them this way. We know that we are of God and that the world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

This world in which we live is under the sway, under the power, under the direction of the evil one. So much so, turn back to a more familiar passage in 1 John chapter 2, where he says, Do not love the world, this existence that’s under the sway of the wicked one, of the devil, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever.

2. Heaven: Conveyed Into the Kingdom of His Son

John adequately describes option number one of where we are to live, and he says, This is the world that’s under the sway of the wicked one, that is nothing but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride or the vainglory of life. And that is all opposed to God and the Father. But where else am I to live? Heaven. Look in the book of Colossians, go back to Colossians. When Paul in Colossians chapter 3, verse 11 says, here there is neither Greek nor Jew. Paul is going to have a lot to say in the book of Colossians about where here is. Look in chapter one of Colossians. And this time in verse 13, he says, speaking of God and the power that was demonstrated through the Son, he says, He, Colossians 1 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

The world that is under the sway of the wicked one. The world that is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and his anathema and opposed to our Father in heaven. He says that Christ has delivered us and has transformed or conveyed us into the kingdom of his son. That’s the here that Paul is talking about, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, where there are no distinctions. That translation or that conveying in the kingdom is what’s being talked about throughout Colossians. Look over in chapter 2. He’s going to talk about how they were transformed or conveyed from darkness into his kingdom. Look in Colossians 2. Let’s begin reading in verse 8. Beware lest anyone deceive you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of this world, and not according to Christ.

For in him all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, and buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all the trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us and was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Do you see how he says that Jesus Christ has conveyed us from the power of darkness into his kingdom through baptism, that we have been made new, and we have been released, he’s disarmed principalities and powers.

Look over one chapter in Colossians chapter three.

And so if you’ve been raised, he’s saying, if you’ve been baptized, if you’ve been conveyed into that kingdom, if you’ve been freed from that place and been given this new life, if you’ve been raised with Christ, keep reading in chapter 3, verse 1, seek those things which are above. Where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. That’s where we can live. That’s where here is.

3. Choosing God and Rejecting the World

And it requires you choosing God. Choosing to live here. We read there in Colossians 3, verse 1, seek, if you’ve been raised with Him, seek those things which are above. Set your mind to that. Setting your mind means making that laser-like focused decision that that’s what I want to do. I have set my mind on it. My mind is made up. And so I am going to seek those things. It means that the change takes place. Continue.

Skip down to verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on. And then he begins this long list of Christian graces or Christian attributes that we are to put on. It requires setting our mind, seeking that place above, and then saying, this is what I’m going to be. I am going to put on these things which are Christ-like things. And so it requires a decision, a decision to choose God, but it also requires a decision to reject the world. Remember, we read there in 1 John, love not the world, nor the things of the world.

We don’t want to live by this world standards. We don’t want to live under the sway of the wicked one. Stay there in Colossians 3. Skip down now to in verse 5. Therefore, Colossians 3 verse 5, since you have set your mind on things above, since you are seeking those heavenly, those their things, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. And again, he beg he begins a list of unchristian qualities, unchristian characteristics, and he says, put those to death. It requires choosing that mindset that I’m going to kill that old man who was under the sway of the devil. But here’s the challenge of that. Putting to death that old sinful, desiring man or woman, is not as easy as it sounds.

And it’s not just some one time decision or one time action. It’s certainly one of those things that falls in the categories of easier said than done. Putting to death that old worldly mindset, that old worldly person. That often means a daily killing of the old man. I liken it to some of the you remember the old classic Halloween movies where you’re being chased by the evil monster, and you kill the monster, and you think, well, that’s a short movie. But what happens? The monster comes back to life, and you got to kill him again, and then three-fourths through the movie, the monsters are back again, and you got to put it to death. That’s the way it really is, isn’t it? I didn’t decide I wanted to be a Christian and baptized, and I killed the old man, and I killed him 30, 40, 50, whatever years ago, and I’ve never been tempted to sin before.

4. Heaven Can Exist in Colossae

Has that happened with anybody? No. I’ve killed that old man, but he came back to life. That’s why I got to kill him again. I’m constantly living and making that decision that I don’t want to live in that place anymore. But here’s the challenge. When the apostle Paul spoke to the church, to the Christians in that city of Colossae, and he says, here, there’s not that distinction. Where was here? Well, here was heaven. In heaven, there’s not that distinction. There’s not that hatred, that sin, that ugliness. But he wasn’t writing to people who lived in heaven yet. He was writing to people who lived in the Roman Empire where there was hatred and sin and ugliness, who were under the sway of the wicked one. But he says, here, heaven can exist in colossae.

That is the heavenly mindset. The heavenly man and woman in Christ could live then. And God is saying the same thing to the residents of modern day Orlando. Where there is sin and ugliness, division, and hatred. But he’s saying here in us, there is not that. Here’s how we deal with the homesickness. Look in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, as Paul would describe this challenge. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul is saying, you know, there’s certain things you can’t tolerate. This has to do, this is that passage about withdrawal, that if a brother in Christ lives in this sinful way and will not come back, that some action needs to be taken to show him the error of his way. And so he says not to keep company, verse 9.

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Now if that would have been the end of that paragraph, the end of that chapter, somebody goes, Now, wait a minute. I can’t be around sexually immoral people. I live in Corinth in the first century. That’s all that’s here. Every time I go to the marketplace, every time I clock in at work, I’m going to be around sexually immoral people. He goes on to say, verse 10, yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of this world. Paul says, I recognize. I’m not some elitist gospel preacher who says that you should just absent yourself from the world.

He says, I know what real life is like. You’ve got to live here. You’ve got to be in this world. Remember Jesus’ prayer in John chapter 17. When Jesus prayed for his followers, both his immediate followers, the disciples that were with him when he prayed that prayer, and for you and I. Notice what Jesus’ prayer to his father in John 17, verse 15 and following says. Jesus praying to his father understood the reality of life here. I do not pray, John 17, 15. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Protect them, Father. The only way to protect us is we just have to leave this world.

5. We Can Make Here a Part of There

No. You’ve got to live in this world, Jesus understood. Paul understood. But here, here, Paul would say, there’s not that ugliness and that sin and that division. Well, where is here? Where is here in this homesick existence that we live? When I made my way to that small campus in Tampa and lay on that prison cot and contemplated my decisions in life, I wondered, where is here. And so I had a decision to make. Really, three decisions, as far as I could see it. And my first decision was I’m going back home.

That was one choice I could have made. Just cry and admit I’m a mama’s boy and just go back home. Choice number two would have been I can just absorb. And please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not demeaning Florida College and what they stand for, but I could have just absorbed the culture of Nebraska Avenue and all of those different things, and I could have just fit in, and I I imagine pretty soon I would have felt at home among my people there. But here’s what I decided to do. This is going to date me a little bit, but I wrote my parents. You remember when you had to do that? And I asked for a care package. But my care package was different than most. Most people wrote back home for a care package.

They wanted cash and cookies.

And I hung it up proudly. That became the curtains in my dorm room. They sent me an album cover of one of my, again, that dates me, doesn’t it? An album cover. Actually, two album covers. One was the greatest hits of the supergroup Alabama. With their hit My Homes in Alabama. And they sent me the album cover of Leonard Skinnard, whose best song was Sweet Home, Alabama. And they sent me all of my Alabama roll tide gear and memorabilia. And so I decorated that room as tackily as I could with Alabama stuff. And that is here. We have to live in this wicked world. But we can make here a part of there. When we set our mind on things which are above, when we seek those things.

So many times we feel homesick and we moan and we groan, and rightfully so. And as we talked about righteous lot that Peter talked about in Bible class this morning, we are vexed in our spirit about the wickedness of this world. But can I offer another suggestion that you look on the bright side and recognize that the darker this world becomes, the more valuable the light that I can shine is, and the more distinctive my light will shine. The apostle Paul, echoing the words of Jesus, would tell his brethren then and now that is shining lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That now more than ever my light can shine and is needed to shine. And hopefully, in my two years at Florida College, I introduced the Tampa area to a little bit of Alabama.

And hopefully, in my little time on earth, I’ve done my part to introduce this wicked world to a little bit of heaven. And where here is.

Conclusion

You can do that in a small way right now. By believing in him, repenting of your sins, confessing your faith, and being baptized, dying, putting to death that old man, being raised a new creation, being conveyed from darkness into his kingdom, then you can be here, where God and Jesus Christ are. And you can set your mind and seek those things which are above. Can we help you change zip codes this morning? Can we help you to be where here is? A slice of heaven on earth, and then finally heaven in its fullest sense for eternity. If we can help you in any spiritual way, let it be known. As together we stand and as we sing.