INTRODUCTION:

Maybe you've heard about the absent minded professor. One day he and his wife were leaving church. The professor confronted his wife: "Ah-ha! So who is absent-minded now? You forgot your umbrella and left it in church, but I remembered mine and I picked up yours, too." His wife set him straight: "That's fine, dear, but the trouble is, neither you nor I brought an umbrella to church today!"

The next morning his wife reminded her absent minded husband: "Now, don't forget we're moving today. If you come to this house this afternoon it will be empty." You guessed it, the professor forgot until he came home from school to find the house empty. He mumbled to himself, "I wonder where we were moving to?"

As he walked back outside, he saw a little girl and asked her, "Did you see a moving van here today?"

"Yes," she replied.

Then he asked. "Would you happen to know which way it went?"

The little girl took his hand and said, "Come on, daddy, Momma said you'd forget." (1)

Moving is hectic, even if you do remember. As everyone of you who helped us pack and move can attest. It seems like every time you think you're finished, you find something else to pack or haul or load. It's like the stuff sits in the room and multiplies while you've got your back turned.

Mary and I have been married 34 years and in that time, between the military and the ministry, we've moved 17 times (I think). Every one of those moves was an experience. And nothing changed, except the amount of stuff we had to pack and unpack. It was hard work. But over the years there is one thing that hasn't changed. With every move you get a new set of keys.

Our passage of Scripture this morning talks about God's Moving Day and the Key to experiencing God's movement in our lives. Let's look at the passage and you'll see what I mean.

John 14:23-29 (NRSV)

[23] Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

[24] Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

[25] "I have said these things to you while I am still with you.

[26] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

[27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

[28] You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

[29] And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

In the very first verse, Jesus says: "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."

God wants to move in with you. Jesus wants to take up residence in your home and in your life. God wants to be a permanent part of your family. God wants to establish a new address and a new set of keys.

There are three KEY things we need to be doing to help make that happen: PREPARING, WELCOMING AND HONORING.

I. PREPARING:

A. The first key is PREPARING:

You really can't do anything without some preparation can you? Well it's especially important when you move.

After all the moves that Mary and I have made, we've sort of developed a certain method. And the very first thing we do is sift through everything and get rid of all the junk. You CAN take it all with you but why would you want to?

In PREPARING to move, you have to weed through everything because if you don't, the movers will pack everything up, including the trash. We've only had movers move us one time. We've always done all the packing. But friends of ours have told us about full trash cans being boxed up and moved from one house to the next. So, you have to get rid of all that stuff.

B. It's the same thing in our spiritual lives. If we are going to live life to the abundance that Jesus wants and promised, then we have to get rid of the junk.

There's a scene in the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance that I want to share with you.

The move is about a mythical golf match that takes place in the 30's in Savannah, Georgia, which involved golf legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen and a local hero Rannulph Junah. As a teenager Junah was fast becoming a Tiger Woods. But then World War 1 came along. Junah was the only one in his company to survive. Deeply wounded and scarred, Junah lost interest in golf and life in general. He wastes his life on gambling and drink until his former girl friend challenges him to play in the exhibition match. Throughout the movie, Junah fights with the demons of his past.

Through the help and guidance of Bagger Vance, who mysteriously appears out of the darkness one night while Junah is practicing, Junah begins to find his swing. He starts the match off horribly, but then begins to catch up and even take a two stroke lead. But by the 16th hole, on the last day, he trails again. On the 17th, he slices his tee shot deep into the woods. As he enters the woods, panic overtakes him as he is suddenly transported back to the battlefield and all the memories he's been running from. He drops his clubs and tells Bagger Vance that he quits. He can't go on. The shot out of the woods is too tough.

Bagger ignores him and ask him which club he'd like to use? Then he proceeds to tell Junah that his problems have to do with his grip: the grip the past holds on him.

"Ain't a soul on this entire earth ain't got a burden to carry he can't understand. You ain't alone in that. But you've been carrying this one long enough. It's time to lay it down."

Junah admits, "I don't know how."

Bagger replies, "You've got a choice. You can stop, or you can start walking right back to where you've been and just stand there. It's time for you to come out of the shadows, Junah! It's time for you to choose!"

"I can't," Junah protests.

"Yes, you can," Bagger says. "You're not alone. I'm right here with you. I've been here all along. Now play the game. Your game. The only one you were meant to play. The one that was given to you when you came into this world. Now it's time."

Junah found healing by laying down, getting rid of, cleaning out the garbage that was holding him back.

That's a major key in PREPARING for God to move in with us. We have to unload the junk of our past, the old hurts, the old guilt from old sins that have never been confessed and repented. We have to let go of the baggage of those old hurts we have caused and the ones we have received. We have to pack and unpack.

If you're going to have a long term guest or a new member of the family you prepare. The spare bedroom gets cleaned out, the house gets cleaned up and everyone else gets cleaned up.

It's the same when PREPARING for God to move in.

Get rid of the junk in your life. Leave it at the cross. Leave it at the altar. Jesus didn't die on the cross so you could pack up your burdens and take them with you. He died so you could leave them behind. While you're PREPARING for God to move in: use the Keys of repentance and confession. Let go of the garbage in your life. Get rid of it.

II. WELCOMING:

A. OK, you've spent your time PREPARING. Now it's time for the second key: WELCOMING.

A moving van was standing in front of a suburban home. The husband and wife were busy tidying up the front yard when a woman who lived at the other end of the block approached them. She smiled and said very sweetly, "Welcome to our neighborhood. Here is a fresh pie I have made to help welcome you to our street."

The couple looked back and forth at one another with a kind of awkward embarrassment. After a few nervous moments the wife spoke up. "I don't know quite how to say this, but we've been living here for almost three years. You see, we're not moving in, we're moving away." (2)

You know, some people are always welcome. And then there are people who are always welcome to leave. I think she fell into that category. We really do know how to make people feel welcome. And it's not just what you do, it's the attitude of the whole house.

For example, if you knew you were going to have someone stay with you for a few days, you'd very conscientiously make a place for their clothes and belongings in the spare bedroom, wouldn't you.

If you knew they were going to be there for a month, you'd make more room.

But still, they are really only a guest. And the spare bedroom is sort of treated like a motel room. This person may even be invited in as an intimate friend, helping to solve the family problems. But until that guest becomes part of the family, the guest room will be just that, a guest room, a motel room of sorts, temporary.

B. But the minute we welcome others as family, the whole concept of the room changes. It's no longer our room that we're letting them use. The guest room suddenly becomes their room. We move all traces of our stuff out of the room so they can have it and make it theirs.

When we Welcome the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus and the Father, into our lives; when God takes up residence in our hearts our lives become the dwelling place of God.

It's no longer our room. The residence is no longer a motel room. With the help of Christ, we've cleaned it up. We've moved all of our junk out of it. God who loves us, makes His home in our lives. And we become a part of his family.

Now the sad truth is, that we can maintain the relationship of God as a guest. We do that every Sunday that we do the kind of head bob acknowledgment to God. Or we can invite God in as part of the family. We are God's family, joint heirs of the Kingdom, with Christ, but only if we accept that offer. Other wise, God just remains the polite guest. And our lives are just a motel room for God to spend the night in. You see, it's all in the WELCOMING.

III. HONORING:

A. We've been PREPARING AND WELCOMING, Now we come to HONORING.

Honoring is more than asking what you'd like to eat. Or how about a cold drink? Welcoming is letting your guest choose what to watch on TV. Honoring them is turning over the remote control.

In our relationship with Christ, honoring is equivalent to obedience. The two words are synonymous, especially when we're talking about God, or the 10 Commandments. When God says: "Honor your father and your mother." It's not only means honor them but respect, obey and bring honor to your parents through your actions and your respect.

That's definitely what Jesus means in this passage. He said: "Those who love me will keep my word," That's obedience. There's no other word that sums it up better. If you love me, you will do my will. The proof of our love is our action, our faithfulness, our obedience.

And that obedience has a consequence: "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." If we are obedient and faithful God promises to Move in with us.

B. But the opposite is also true. Jesus said: "Whoever does not love me does not keep my words."

Our country and the faith we claim has been given a black eye because a few people did not keep God's word. Our credibility, our integrity and our faithfulness have been called into question by a few over zealous, self-righteous thugs who have forgotten what we as a people and nation stand for and what we've fought and died for. They might as well have put a swastika on the flag or adopted the name Saddam. They have not honored God or country or the people they supposedly represent.

Their action stands in direct opposition to every Christian teaching. And, especially to what we've read today. From a Christian perspective, the end never justifies the means if it means forgetting who we are a, who we represent and to whom we belong.

I really wish I knew what to do other than being appalled and disgusted and embarrassed. I really wish I knew what to say.

You and I are called to Honor God in all that we do. It's not enough to be PREPARING OR EVEN WELCOMING, WE HAVE TO STRIVE SO THAT EVERYTHING WE DO CAN BE SEEN AS A WAY OF HONORING GOD.

CONCLUSION:

It's like a story that someone tells about a young lady named Sally. Sally was growing up, becoming a woman preparing to go off to college. Her mother had struggled to provide for her education, an especially difficult task since her father had died several years earlier. Her mother made every effort within her power to raise Sally right. Now she would be on her own, an exciting and frightening time.

Sally had strong reservations about leaving her mother alone to mind the farm and the chores. She was also nervous about having to find her own way without her mother's guidance. As she prepared to meet the bus, bags packed and ready, her mother took her arm and said to her, "You're gonna see things an' do things you ain't never heard of, and you won't know which way to turn sometimes. You 'member how you used to tug on my apron string when you wanted something and I'd see to what you was after? You 'member how when you was too close to the road and I'd holler to you to tell you to get away from there'?" Her mother gently reminded. "Well, I'm gonna be there with you in your heart, but it'll be up to you to listen to what I told you. I can't kiss your hurts when you fall down an' skin your knee or quiet you when the big storms come rollin' through. But, I'll be close as a peanut in your pocket when you need me. If you're afraid, I'll stand with you. And if you are hurting, you can feel me close, and if you do wrong, I'll whisper the truth to ya so you won't do it no more."

The tears came to both their eyes. Her mother opened the dresser drawer and took out a neatly folded handkerchief and placed it in the pocket of Sally's dress.

Upon leaving, Sally felt completely alone. As she fought back the tears, she reached into her dress pocket to take out the handkerchief her mother had placed there. Then she noticed a knot in one corner just like her mother used to tie her milk money in her handkerchief. Upon untying the knot, she found a single peanut. She knew that her dear mother would always be with her in her heart. (3)

The Good News is it's moving day, God wants to dwell in our lives. God wants to take up residence in our hearts. God wants to be with us always, as close as a peanut in our pocket.

And the key to that relationship is simple: PREPARING, WELCOMING AND HONORING GOD. Let God Move in and into your life.

1. The Pastor's Story File (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), August 1997

2. Parables, Etc. (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), September 1989

3. Parables submitted by Ron Alberston

4.

www.SermonWriter.com (Copyright, Richard Niell Donovan, 2000)

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Preaching Magazine (Preaching Resources, Jackson, TN)

Circuit Rider, (The United Methodist Publishing House, Nashville, TN)

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The New Interpreter's Bible, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1995)

Lectionary Preaching Workbook, Cycle A, (CSS Publishing, Lima, OH, 2002) SermonPrep Version.

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