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The Christian Pilgrim (Hebrews 11:13-14) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  It is good to be back at the table with you.
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  It is always a pleasure to be here.
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  Oi want to start today's conversation with a feeling.
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  It's a sensation I think most of us have felt.
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  Maybe late at night when the house is finally quiet or maybe
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  when you're stuck in traffic on the morning commute or honestly,
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  even when things are going really well.
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  You just got the promotion, the kids are healthy, the mortgage
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  is under control. The quintessential I have made
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  it moment you've checked all the boxes society tells you to
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  check. Exactly.
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  But even in that moment, there's this this gnawing sense of being
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  unsettled. You look around at your life,
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  your furniture, your job, your city, and it all feels solid.
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  It feels real, but at the same time it feels like it's not
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  quite right. Like a coat that doesn't fit
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  perfectly across the shoulders. That's a great way to put.
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  It yeah, it's just a little bit off and you can't put your
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  finger on why. That is a very, very common
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  human experience. I mean, philosophers have
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  wrestled with it for centuries. But I think for the Christian,
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  specifically, for the listener we're talking to today, that
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  feeling isn't just a mood swing. It's not just anxiety or a
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  midlife crisis. It's something more.
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  It's actually a distinct theological reality.
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  It's a fact of our existence if we understand our condition
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  correctly. That distinction is why I'm so
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  excited about the text we're pulling apart today.
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  We're looking at a sermon that takes that feeling of
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  unsettledness and frames it not as a problem to be solved with
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  more comfort or better vacation, but as the defining
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  characteristic of the Christian life.
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  We are looking at Jonathan Edwards.
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  The heavy hitter. The theological architect of the
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  Great Awakening. The man himself.
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  Specifically, we're looking at a sermon he preached way back in
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  September 1733. Now, the title uses a specific
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  word that we're going to be careful with today because we
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  want to keep our language fresh. But the title is the Christian
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  Pilgrim, or sometimes it's catalogued as the true
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  Christian's life, a journey toward Heaven.
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  And right off the bat, we need to set the stakes here.
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  Edwards is not offering us a little life hack for better time
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  management. He is not giving us 5 steps to a
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  balanced life. No.
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  This is not a self help talk. Not at all.
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  He is presenting a total reorientation of reality.
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  He is arguing that if you are a believer, your relationship with
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  this planet is fundamentally ontologically different from the
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  relationship a non believer has with it.
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  Fundamentally different. So let's get into the text.
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  Where does he ground this? Edwards anchors this entire
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  concept in Scripture, specifically Hebrews 11.
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  That's right, Hebrews 11 verses 13 of 14.
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  This is the famous Hall of Faith chapter.
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  The author of Hebrews is listing the heavyweights of the Old
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  Testament, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and he points out
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  something fascinating about their psychology, their mindset.
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  OK, he says, these men confess that they were strangers and
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  pilgrims on the earth. Strangers and pilgrims, those
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  are heavy labels. That's not how you describe
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  someone who's comfortable. Not at all.
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  And verse 14 explains the logic. For they that say such things
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  declare plainly that they seek a country.
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  That's the key insight right there.
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  By admitting you're a stranger here, you are effectively
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  shouting that your home is somewhere else.
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  You can't be a stranger if you are at home.
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  Previously, if you are comfortable, if you feel
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  perfectly at ease, if the world fits you like a glove, then,
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  well, you aren't seeking anything.
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  You've arrived. You are a resident.
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  You've settled in. You've.
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  Settled in. But Edwards points us back to
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  Genesis to show this wasn't just a mood for them.
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  Look at Abraham in Genesis 23, verse 4.
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  He's talking to the sons of Hath, the locals, the people who
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  actually own the land, and he says I am a stranger and a
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  sojourner with you. And Abraham was wealthy.
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  We need to remember that he was not a vagrant.
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  He had power and possession. Extremely wealthy, the text
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  says. He had livestock, silver, gold,
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  hundreds of servants. But what did he live in his
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  whole life? Tents.
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  Tents he never built, a permanent stone structure.
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  He never dug a foundation and said this is it, this is the
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  family estate forever. He was always ready to move.
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  And then think about Jacob in Genesis 47, verse 9.
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  He's standing before Pharaoh. Now picture this.
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  Pharaoh is essentially a God king, the most powerful man on
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  earth, living in a palace of stone and gold, the very symbol
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  of earthly permanence, right? And Jacob describes his life to
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  him. He says the days of the years of
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  my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have the days of
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  the years of my life been. Few and evil.
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  That is not exactly the Instagram bio most people would
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  choose today. Living my best life?
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  No, Jacob says. It has been short and it has
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  been hard. It's a stark contrast to our
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  modern obsession with projecting success and happiness at all
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  times. But Jacob is acknowledging that
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  even though he has lived a long time and even though he's
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  accumulated wealth and a huge family, he never settled.
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  He never drove his stakes too deep into the ground.
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  He remained a transient. So this is the premise Edwards
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  sets up. We are not residents, we are
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  transients. And to explain what that
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  actually looks like, because that can sound very abstract, he
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  uses this incredible analogy of a traveler at an inn.
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  It's a vivid illustration, it really grounds the theology, and
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  it's something tangible and easy to grasp.
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  OK, let's unpack this. Edwards describes A traveller
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  who is on a long trek. He's been walking all day.
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  He's tired, he's hungry. He stops at an inn for the
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  night. Makes sense?
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  Now this traveller, he needs rest.
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  So he enjoys the bed, he eats the food, he warms his hands by
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  the fire, he is grateful for the shelter.
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  He is not sitting there grumpy and miserable, wishing he were
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  still out in the cold. Right.
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  He uses the amenities, He's thankful for them because they
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  serve a purpose in helping him on his way thus.
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  And this is the core of it. He does not start measuring the
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  windows for new curtains. He doesn't call a contractor to
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  talk about knocking down a wall to open up the kitchen.
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  He's not looking at paint swatches for the hallway.
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  Exactly because he knows he's leaving in the morning.
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  This is not his home. It's just a temporary stop.
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  Edwards says the traveler takes a transient view of the
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  comforts. If the inn is nice, with a soft
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  bed and good food, great. If the inn is a bit drafty or
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  the service is bad, well, that's OK too.
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  Because he is not staying. It doesn't ultimately matter
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  that much. And Edwards applies this to how
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  we view the natural world and earthly pleasures.
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  He talks about walking past pleasant meadows or Groves of
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  trees. The traveler might look at them
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  and say that is beautiful. He might enjoy the smell of the
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  flowers or the shade of the trees for a moment.
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  Sure, he can appreciate beauty. Absolutely.
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  But here's the key. He does not stop walking.
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  He doesn't build a house in the Meadow just because it's pretty.
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  He keeps moving because the Meadow is not the destination.
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  This is where the rubber meets the road for us because we live
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  in a culture that tells us to maximize our comfort right now.
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  Live your best life, treat yourself.
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  The whole message is build your perfect little Kingdom in this
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  Meadow. And make it as comfortable and
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  permanent as possible. But Edwards is saying no.
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  Possess these things, enjoy them, use them, but keep your
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  heart loose. That is the theological way of
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  it. It is about the posture of the
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  heart. We can have families, friends,
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  goods, careers. Edwards is not calling for a
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  monk like asceticism, where we own nothing and live in a
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  barrel. He was a Puritan, not a Gnostic.
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  He believed matter was good, a gift from God.
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  Right, this isn't about hating the world.
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  Not at all. It's about putting it in His
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  proper place. He is saying we must be ready to
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  quit them the moment God calls. The heart cannot be glued to the
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  furniture of the end. That is a tough visual.
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  If you are glued to the furniture when it is time to
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  leave, you are going to get torn apart.
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  And that is often why deaths or loss is so devastatingly
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  traumatic for those who have not adopted this mindset.
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  If you think this is home, eviction is the ultimate
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  tragedy. If you know it is an end,
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  checking out is just the next step in the itinerary.
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  There is another aspect of this traveler mindset that I found
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  really interesting and honestly a little countercultural.
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  It's the anticipation of the end.
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  Edwards says The traveler is actually happy when he puts a
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  mile behind him. Yes, this is completely
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  counterintuitive to the modern mind.
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  We are obsessed with anti aging. We tried to freeze time.
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  We have an entire industry, a multi billion dollar industry
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  built on creams and surgeries and diets to make us look 25
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  forever. We see the passing of time as a
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  loss. Every birthday is a little bit
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  sadder. We treat it as a tragedy, but
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  for the Pilgrim, every year that passes is a mile marker that
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  says you are closer to home. Every Gray hair is a sign that
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  the remaining distance is shorter.
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  That reframes getting older completely.
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  It is not a loss of time, it is a reduction of the remaining
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  distance on the map. It changes the birthday party
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  from a lament to a celebration of progress.
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  Edward cites First Corinthians 7 here versus 29 to 31.
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  The time is short and then Paul gives that very challenging
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  instruction. This one is tough.
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  It is it remaineth that both they that have wives be as
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  though they had none, and they that weep as though they wept
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  not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not.
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  OK, we have to pause there because that sounds harsh.
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  Those that have wives be as though they had none.
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  Is Edwards saying? Is the Bible saying we should
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  ignore our families? Just treat your spouse like a
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  stranger because you're busy hiking to heaven.
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  Yeah, like, sorry honey, can't help with the dishes.
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  I'm focusing on eternity, right? How do we understand that
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  without it becoming cold and detached?
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  No, and it is vital we clarify that neither Paul nor Edwards is
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  advocating for neglect. Edwards was a famously devoted
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  father and husband to Sarah Edwards.
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  Their marriage is actually legendary in church history for
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  its warmth and intellectual partnership.
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  So he lived this out in a loving way.
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  Absolutely. The point is about ultimate
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  reliance and ultimate satisfaction.
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  You love your wife, you cherish your husband, but you do not
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  make them your God. You do not make them your final
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  destination. So they're not the end of the
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  track. They are companion on the track.
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  You enjoy them as companions on the road, as aids to your
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  travel, but you hold them with that loose hand we talked about.
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  If your entire existence collapses because you lose a
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  relationship, it suggests that relationship had become your
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  home rather than a comfort at the end.
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  That is helpful. It is about the hierarchy of
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  affection. My spouse is a gift for the
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  road, but they aren't the destination the road leads to.
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  Radical subordination, which we will get to, But yes, it is
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  realizing that the fashion of this world passes away.
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  It is all temporary. The end will be torn down one
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  day. So we have the mindset, we are
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  strangers. Now let's talk about the method.
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  How do we actually travel? Because Edwards is very specific
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  here. You can't just wander around
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  aimlessly and hope you end up in the right place.
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  No, there is a specific route. There is one designated.
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  Rd. Edwards called it the Way of
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  Holiness. And he references Hebrews 12
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  verse one about laying aside every weight and the sin that's
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  so easily entangles us. This is critical.
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  The path to heaven is not a physical Rd. it is a spiritual
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  condition. It's a lifestyle of obedience
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  and sanctification, Edward says. We must choose to travel in this
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  way and no other. And here is where he is
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  incredibly realistic. I appreciate this about Reformed
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  theology. It does not sugarcoat the
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  struggle. Oh absolutely, he does not say.
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  Come to Jesus and life will be a bed of roses.
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  Quite the opposite, he says. The road is uphill.
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  Uphill. That one word says so much.
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  It's against gravity. It requires effort.
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  It's a climb and the terrain is a wilderness.
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  He talks about mountains, rocks and rough places.
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  If you are hiking a steep mountain trail, you expect your
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  legs to burn. You expect to be out of breath.
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  You expect fatigue? You expect to stumble.
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  You expect to stumble. You expect thorns and sharp
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  rocks, Edwards says. The Christian life is laborious.
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  It requires the exertion of strength.
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  That word laborious stood out to me.
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  I think sometimes we drift into this idea that grace means
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  passivity. Like God saves me, so I will
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  just float on a cloud until I die.
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  But Edwards is talking about sweat.
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  He's talking about effort. Grace grounds the effort, but it
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  does not eliminate it. The effort is the evidence of
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  the life within, and a big part of that effort is self denial.
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  This goes back to the luggage analogy.
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  If you are on this hard uphill climb and you have a desire, a
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  lust, a habit, a seemingly innocent pleasure that hinders
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  your climb, what do you? Do you drop it?
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  You have to. You have to.
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  Even if it is pleasant, even if you really, really like it, if
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  it stops your progress, if it makes the climb impossible, it
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  is a threat. It's like hiking with a backpack
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  full of bricks. You might like the bricks, maybe
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  they are gold bricks, but if they prevent you from reaching
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  the summit, they are just weights dragging you down to
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  death. That's a perfect image for it.
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  And this motion, this climbing, it's as continuous.
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  There is no retirement plan for the Pilgrim in this life.
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  You don't reach a certain age and say, OK, I've climbed now
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  we'll just set U Cam halfway U the mountain.
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  The daily work concept. Yes, Edwards oints out that this
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  starts early. He encourages youth to begin the
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  track. And it goes until the very end.
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  If you are not moving forward, you are not doing the work.
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  Every single day is a segment of travel.
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  You don't take a vacation from holiness.
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  You don't take a weekend off from obedience.
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  And he brings up the children of Israel in the wilderness as a
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  warning. They got discouraged.
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  The way was hard, the water was scarce, the food was boring.
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  And they said. Let us go back to Egypt.
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  Let's go back to slavery, because at least the food was
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  better. That is the perennial
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  temptation. The road is hard.
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  So we romanticize the slavery we left behind.
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  We remember the leeks and onions of Egypt, the fleeting pleasures
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  of sin. And we conveniently forget the
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  whip and the bondage. Edwards insists we must have
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  perseverance. We cannot stop short.
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  This leads us right into the next section, which is about
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  priorities. Edwards calls this
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  subordination, and honestly, this was the most challenging
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  part of the text for me personally.
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  It is a rigorous standard. It's meant to be.
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  So Edwards says that all concerns of life must be
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  subordinate to the travel. Not some, not most all of them.
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  And he gives us a filter question to ask ourselves.
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  Will this forward me and my way to heaven?
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  That is the question. Every action, every business
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  deal, every friendship, every hobby, you hold it up and ask,
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  does this help me get to heaven? Does this make the climb easier
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  or harder? And if the answer is no, Edward
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  says, we must quit the design. That is intense.
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  Think about how many things we do just because we are bored,
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  because everyone else is doing it, or just to kill time.
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  Edward would say we have no time to kill.
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  We are racing against the sunset.
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  Every moment is either a step toward home or it isn't.
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  And this applies to our money and possessions, too.
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  He returns to the traveler analogy.
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  A hiker carries money. Why?
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  To buy supplies to pay for the inn.
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  To get food and water. Right.
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  The money is a tool to sustain the travel.
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  It is fuel for the hike. It is not a collection for a
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  museum. If the traveler starts carrying
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  so much gold that he cannot walk up the hill, what has the wealth
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  become? A clog, A hindrance.
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  A very shiny, heavy hindrance. Exactly.
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  This is the Reformed view of stewardship.
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  We do not accumulate for the sake of accumulation.
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  We steward resources to propel ourselves and others toward God.
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  If your wealth is weighing you down, making you love the world,
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  making you anxious, making you forget the destination, it has
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  become a trap. It's radical subordination.
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  Everything gets demoted below the primary mission.
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  My job exists to help me get to heaven.
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  My house exists to help me get to heaven.
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  My bank account exists to help me get to heaven.
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  And if they stop doing that, if they become an end in
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  themselves, they have to go. Or at least our hearts
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  relationship to them has to change.
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  So we have talked about the how and the what, but we need to get
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  to the why. Why live this way?
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  It sounds hard. Why treat the world like a cheap
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  motel? Why deny ourselves these
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  comforts that everyone else seems to be enjoying?
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  This is the engine of the whole thing.
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  Without the why, the how is just legalism.
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  Right, it's just a miserable list of rules.
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  But Edwards explains the theology here.
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  He gives 2 main reasons for this transience.
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  First, simply the nature of time, man's days or a shadow.
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  He quotes Job 14, verse 12. Man lieth down and riseth not
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  again, till the heavens be no more.
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  It is the brevity of life. Even if you live to be 90, what
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  is that compared to eternity? It is a snap of the fingers.
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  It's a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
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  God never designed this world to be our permanent home.
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  It is a testing ground. It's a prep school.
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  It is the womb, not the life itself.
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  OK, so that's the negative reason.
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  In a sense, this place is temporary.
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  But the second reason is the +1. It's about what or who is
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  waiting at the end of the road, Yes.
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  This is where Edward Source he talks about the supreme good in
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  the Westminster Confession. The first question is what is
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  the chief end of man? And the answer is.
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  To glorify God and to enjoy Him. Forever to enjoy him, not just
• 16:45
  to obey him, not just to serve Him, but to find our ultimate
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  delight and satisfaction in Him. Edwards picks up on this.
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  He argues that heaven is the only place where our highest
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  good is obtained because that is where God is fully present.
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  And he uses this beautiful imagery of the sun and the beam.
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  I loved this part. Stunning, he says.
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  Earthly friends and comforts, a loving spouse, a good meal, a
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  beautiful sunset. They're just scattered beams of
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  light, but God is the sun. Wow.
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  And earthly goods, possessions, money, They're streams.
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  But God is the fountain. Earthly drops.
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  God is the ocean. That is such a powerful logic
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  check. Why are we chasing the beam, the
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  little reflection of light, when we can have the sun itself?
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  Why are we settling for a drop of water when we can have the
• 17:30
  entire ocean? It exposes the irrationality of
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  idolatry. When we love the world more than
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  God, we are preferring the shadow to the substance.
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  We are preferring the echo to the voice, Edwards is saying.
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  Look, everything you love about this world, the beauty of the
• 17:43
  love, the joy, is all just a tiny, imperfect derivative of
• 17:47
  God. It's like falling in love with a
• 17:48
  picture of a burger instead of eating the actual.
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  Burger, a very American analogy, but yes, that's exactly.
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  And in this life, our union with God is imperfect, is mingled
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  with sin. We see through a glass darkly,
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  as Paul says. But Edwards describes heaven as
• 18:00
  the place of perfect union. He says there our hearts will
• 18:02
  be, pure offerings and a flame of divine love.
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  That is a beautiful phrase, a flame of divine love.
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  It implies total assumption. We are fully absorbed in the
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  enjoyment of God. That is why we travel.
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  That is why we endure the rocks and the hills, because the ocean
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  is waiting. The sun is at the end of the
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  path. Now, this theology of transients
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  has some very practical and honestly very tender
• 18:27
  implications. Edwards talks about how this
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  changes the way we handle grief and death.
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  This is a pastoral section. Edwards was a pastor, remember,
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  He wasn't just an academic theologian.
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  He buried congregants. He buried his own children.
• 18:41
  He knew grief intimately. And he argues for moderation in
• 18:44
  mourning. Moderation.
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  That is a tough word. When you were standing at a
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  gravesite, it sounds almost cold.
• 18:49
  It does. How do you moderate that kind of
• 18:51
  pain? Well, follow his logic.
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  If this life is a hard uphill trek through a wilderness full
• 18:56
  of rocks and storms, and if heaven is the glorious home of
• 19:00
  rest in the ocean of joy, then what has happened to the
• 19:03
  believer who dies? They made it.
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  They finished the hike. They're home.
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  Exactly. They have reached the
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  destination. The fatigue is over, the danger
• 19:10
  is over, the struggle with sin is over.
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  Edwards quotes Ecclesiastes 7 verse one.
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  The day of death is better than the day of 1's birth.
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  That is hard for us to swallow. The day of birth is a
• 19:22
  celebration. The day of death is a tragedy.
• 19:24
  That's our default setting. It is hard because we are the
• 19:27
  ones left behind in the wilderness.
• 19:29
  We are still sweating, we are still bleeding.
• 19:31
  We feel the loss of their companionship on the trail, but
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  Edward says if we grieve immoderately, if we fall apart
• 19:38
  as if all is lost, we are acting as if they have lost something
• 19:41
  when in reality they have gained everything.
• 19:43
  He says they are drinking from rivers of pleasure while we are
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  still hiking the rough terrain. Right.
• 19:48
  To grieve without hope is to implicitly say you wish they
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  were back here on the painful trail with you instead of at
• 19:54
  home with their father. So we mourn because we are
• 19:57
  human, Edwards acknowledges. We have animal propensities.
• 20:00
  We miss their presence. We feel the sting of separation.
• 20:03
  But we mix that sorrow with joy. We mix it with joy for their
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  sake and with hope for our own because we are traveling to the
• 20:10
  same place. Yes, it is not goodbye forever.
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  It is. See you at the house.
• 20:16
  If you were on a road trip with two cars and the front car
• 20:19
  arrives at the destination an hour before you, you don't
• 20:22
  panic. You don't wail and tear your
• 20:24
  clothes. You miss talking to them on the
• 20:26
  walkie-talkie, but you know you will see them when you get
• 20:29
  there. That really changes the
• 20:31
  atmosphere of a funeral, does it not?
• 20:32
  It shifts it from a tragedy to a, well, an arrival.
• 20:36
  It's shifted to a coronation. Their struggle is over and their
• 20:40
  reward has begun. Now we have to pivot.
• 20:43
  Yeah, because Edwards does not just offer comfort, he issues a
• 20:47
  stark, terrifying warning. There's not just one Rd.
• 20:51
  No, and this is vital. This is the part of Puritan
• 20:54
  preaching that modern ears often want to skip over, Edwards says.
• 20:58
  If you're not traveling to heaven, you're not standing
• 21:00
  still. There's no neutral ground.
• 21:01
  You are traveling to hell. The two destinies.
• 21:04
  And while the road to heaven is uphill and laborious, the road
• 21:07
  to hell is a downward Sprint. It's easy.
• 21:10
  He describes wicked men spending everyday traveling toward
• 21:13
  destruction and he gets very specific.
• 21:15
  He lists some types of travelers on this wrong Rd.
• 21:18
  He does. He's not speaking in
• 21:19
  generalities. He mentions unclean persons,
• 21:22
  those living in sexual immorality, malicious persons,
• 21:26
  back biters, gossips, those who tear others down, unjust
• 21:29
  dealers, fraudsters, scammers, those who cheat in business.
• 21:33
  And Tavern hunters, which was his 18th century way of
• 21:36
  describing those consumed by partying and dissipation.
• 21:39
  The person whose life revolves around pleasure and distraction.
• 21:43
  Right. And he says these people, with
• 21:45
  every passing day, treasure up wrath.
• 21:47
  That's a chilling phrase from Romans treasuring up wrath like
• 21:51
  you're putting it in a savings account.
• 21:52
  And they grow ripe for destruction.
• 21:54
  That is a horrifying image, like a fruit that is rotting on the
• 21:58
  vine becoming perfectly ready to be discarded and burned.
• 22:00
  And he uses another water metaphor here, but it is not the
• 22:03
  ocean of God's love. No, He talks about a mighty
• 22:07
  river disembogging, emptying out into the ocean.
• 22:10
  He sees the multitudes of the world, the Broadway, flowing
• 22:13
  down easily, naturally with the current.
• 22:15
  Straight into the Lake of Fire. It is the path of least
• 22:18
  resistance. You do not have to climb to go
• 22:20
  to hell, you just have to float. Wow, you just have to do what
• 22:23
  feels natural. Precisely.
• 22:25
  Gravity takes you there. Sin takes you there.
• 22:27
  To go to heaven requires fighting the current.
• 22:30
  To go to hell, you just have to do nothing.
• 22:33
  Just go with the flow. That is sobering.
• 22:37
  It is meant to be. Edwards wants to wake up the
• 22:40
  listener who thinks, well, I am not a bad person, I'm just
• 22:43
  living my life. He is saying if you are not
• 22:46
  actively climbing, you are falling.
• 22:48
  There is no middle ground. So what do we do?
• 22:51
  We have heard the warning. We have seen the destination.
• 22:54
  How do we actually put this into action?
• 22:57
  Edwards doesn't leave us hanging.
• 22:58
  He ends with some very practical directions.
• 23:00
  First, he addresses the issue of conversion, and he makes a point
• 23:04
  that I think many modern evangelicals miss.
• 23:06
  He says conversion is the starting line, not the finish
• 23:09
  line. Right, I think we often treat
• 23:10
  salvation like fire insurance. OK, I prayed the prayer I'm safe
• 23:13
  from hell. Now I can just relax until Jesus
• 23:15
  comes back. Edward says that is madness.
• 23:17
  Conversion is when you enter the gate.
• 23:19
  That is when the pilgrimage begins.
• 23:21
  He critiques those who rest after getting saved.
• 23:24
  He says, actually you should strive more now.
• 23:27
  Why more? That seems counterintuitive.
• 23:30
  Because now you have tasted the grapes of Canaan.
• 23:33
  Now you know the value of what you are seeking.
• 23:35
  Before you were saved, you were blind to the glory of the
• 23:38
  destination. Now you see the goal.
• 23:41
  The motivation should be 100 times stronger.
• 23:44
  He references Philippians 3.13 forgetting what is behind,
• 23:48
  reaching forth to what is before.
• 23:50
  So the Christian life is active, it is a striving, it's a race.
• 23:54
  Always. Then he gives 4 specific
• 23:56
  practical directions for the listener for you.
• 23:58
  Let's run through these #1 realize vanity.
• 24:01
  This sounds grim, but it's practical, he says.
• 24:04
  Go to funerals. Look at the glass of death, the
• 24:06
  mirror of death. See how vain the world is.
• 24:09
  Stop pretending that you're going to live here forever.
• 24:12
  Let the reality of mortality sink in and break your addiction
• 24:15
  to the world that. Feels very medieval, almost the
• 24:19
  idea of memento Mori. Remember, you will die.
• 24:21
  It's a timeless spiritual discipline.
• 24:22
  It recalibrates your values instantly.
• 24:25
  OK #2 Get acquainted with heaven.
• 24:28
  This is about meditation, he says.
• 24:30
  Think about heaven constantly. If you don't know the
• 24:32
  destination, you will not walk towards it.
• 24:35
  You need to fill your mind with the glory that awaits.
• 24:38
  Read descriptions of it in scripture.
• 24:40
  Read good books about it. Pray about it.
• 24:42
  Because if you never think about heaven, the world will seem very
• 24:44
  big and very attractive. Exactly.
• 24:47
  If you think about heaven, the world shrinks down to its proper
• 24:50
  size. It becomes the Little Inn, not
• 24:53
  the palace. #3 use the door. This is the gospel check.
• 24:57
  This is crucial. We've talked a lot about labor
• 25:00
  and climbing and striving, and a listener might think, OK, I just
• 25:04
  had to try harder. But Edwards is clear.
• 25:08
  We cannot walk this road with our own righteousness.
• 25:11
  We need Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the
• 25:13
  life. Exactly.
• 25:15
  We seek heaven only through Jesus Christ.
• 25:17
  We rely on His strength for the climb.
• 25:19
  We do not climb to earn salvation.
• 25:21
  We climb because we have been given new life and supernatural
• 25:24
  strength by the Savior. He is the path itself.
• 25:26
  That's a vital clarification. And finally, number four, walk
• 25:29
  together. Christian Fellowship.
• 25:32
  He says company is desirable on a hard Rd.
• 25:34
  This is not a solo trick. If you trip, you need someone to
• 25:37
  help you up. If you get discouraged, you need
• 25:39
  someone to remind you of the destination.
• 25:42
  You're not fall out or argue. By the way, I like that.
• 25:45
  That's a great piece of advice for the church.
• 25:47
  Stop bickering on the trail. We have a mountain to climb.
• 25:50
  Precisely. We are a band of pilgrims.
• 25:52
  We need each other. We need to encourage one another
• 25:55
  and, when necessary, correct one another to stay on the path.
• 25:59
  So here we are. We have unpacked the Christian
• 26:02
  Pilgrim. We are strangers at an end.
• 26:04
  The world is not our home. The road is hard, it's uphill,
• 26:08
  but the destination is the ocean of God himself.
• 26:11
  It is a majestic, all-encompassing vision of the
• 26:14
  Christian life. It strips away the triviality.
• 26:16
  It really does. It makes all my worries about,
• 26:18
  you know, my long or MY4O1K seem pretty small on the grand scheme
• 26:22
  of things. They are small.
• 26:24
  They are temporary provisions for the road.
• 26:26
  Use them, be thankful for them, but do not worship them.
• 26:29
  Do not let them become the reason you stop walking.
• 26:32
  I want to leave you, the listener with a final thought to
• 26:35
  chew on. This week, Edwards challenged
• 26:37
  his hearers to declare plainly that they are seeking a country
• 26:41
  that's an outward facing action. So here's my question.
• 26:45
  If a complete stranger, a non believer, were to audit your
• 26:48
  life, if they looked at your Google Calendar, your credit
• 26:51
  card statement, your browser history and the things you lay
• 26:54
  awake worrying about at 30 AM, would they be forced to conclude
• 26:58
  that you are a stranger just passing through?
• 27:01
  That's a hard question. Or would they assume, based on
• 27:04
  all the evidence, that you are settling down, building your
• 27:06
  permanent Kingdom right here at the end?
• 27:08
  That is the question and only you can answer it.
• 27:11
  Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into reformed
• 27:13
  thinking. Keep climbing.
• 27:15
  Grace and peace.