Homecoming 

What things make a good Homecoming?

Celebration – Fun activities, fun outfits, excitement.  The band, the team, the cheerleaders, the student body.

Community – Those that previously attended the school return and celebrate those currently attending.

Connection – Chance to meet up in person, catch up, reconnect with people you haven’t seen in a while.

Team – home games, larger crowds.  Cheering for our side to win!

King and Queen – special clothes, some sort of “Royal” event. Honoring the King (and Queen)

What if you were so looking forward to the homecoming reunion and your best friend was unable to attend.  You get a text that reads, “sorry, I’m not going to make it.”  Such a bummer.  They’re going to miss all the things and you’re going to miss connecting with them. Sharing the experience, catching up on life.  Your own joy is diminished because they aren’t there.  You still go and have a great time, for awhile you even forget about your missing friend, but then at the end of the night while you’re reflecting you think to yourself, “that was a great day, if only my friend could have been there.”

Some day we will each have our Eternal Homecoming event.

We’ll die and for those of us that believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we will enter into a Celebration like none other.  We’ll be reunited with our team, the community of believers that have gone before us.  Those that helped us grow in our faith, those that walked life alongside of us and spoke God’s truth to us.  We’ll see people we’ve longed to catch up with and rejoice together. There will be music and rejoicing and the King will be honored.

But who will be missing?  It’s not too late to invite them to the party to follow up and make sure they’re making plans to not miss the eternal homecoming of a lifetime.

Who do you need to reach out to and make sure that they aren’t going to miss the Eternal Homecoming?

1 Peter 2:9-12 (NLT) 9 …for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,[a] a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
    now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
    now you have received God’s mercy.”[b]

11 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. 12 Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.[c]