Heaven

Communion!

Men’s Fall retreat, November 19 and 20th (Thursday and Friday evening and return on Saturday.) We need a definite count by this coming weekend at the Men’s breakfast!

Baby dedication service: Elliana Noel Moseley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this week I saw a YouTube video of a young lady listening to a certain song for the very first time. This song was a hit in 1978 and from a band that I always liked growing up. The band was the Bee Gees and the song was, “Too Much Heaven”.

The gist of the song, is that no one can get too much heaven, or too much love. Something like heaven or real love, is hard to find and when you find them, it is impossible to get “too much” of either one!

But songs have been mentioning “heaven”, in some shape, form, or fashion for decades! If you put certain titles and song lyrics together, about heaven you may find that:

Some songs tell us that we’ve already found heaven, with the lyrics, “it isn’t too hard to believe, we’re in HEAVEN.

And we know that, according to one song, “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven”

Which begs the question then of, “I want to know, how far is heaven?’

This is of course answered with the lyrics, “Heaven isn’t too far away!”

And in case you’re wondering how far, “too far away” really is, the answer is that you’re already, “Knocking On Heaven’s Door!”

And you made it that far, because you were climbing a “Stairway To Heaven!”

But then you may arrive, only to find out that you’ve been “Locked Out of Heaven”

And that as you’re standing at the “Outskirts of Heaven”

You become sad and cry “Tears in Heaven”

Because you were so close to “Touching Heaven.”

Maybe you just arrived at the “Wrong Side Of Heaven” and when you were about “Halfway to Heaven”, you should have went across to the “Sunny Side of Heaven!”

Be that as it may, as your’e returning from your, “Little Trip To Heaven”, you get caught in a shower of “Pennies from Heaven”.

Which wasn’t quite as painful as having to listen to all of the people, upon your return, tell you that, “You’ll Never Get To Heaven” and that “Heaven Is In Your Mind” and not a place you can go visit silly.

They scoff and tell you that maybe you should have enquired before going, by writing a “Letter To Heaven”.

And they tell you that in reality, “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” and not some place you actually go to.

To which you reply, praise Jesus, I’m now “Heaven Bound” and “Closer to Heaven” than I ever was before!

I think that the point here is that there are literally hundreds of song titles and song lyrics in the secular music industry that use, or allude to the name of “heaven” in them. And pretty much all of the time, their use and understanding of “heaven” is that of a place that is linked to this life and the pleasures of this life that we can experience.

Friends, let me just go ahead and very quickly jump right in and let you all in on a little secret; this life and the pleasures of this world, (such as they are), are no comparison, their not even in the same universe, as that of the eternal abode of our heavenly Father and that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ!

There are many in this world who live their lives, grasping at the pleasures of this life, while living like different authors wrote of years ago.

They live lead lives of quiet desperation;

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in, A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh but the moans come double; And that is life!

There are many who behold their life, much like that of Ernest Hemingway and his observation of, “Man’s destiny in the universe is like a colony of ants on the end of a burning log.”

So, the secular use of the word “heaven”, is basically a dead word, because the life of a believer that directly follows this life, is beyond anything that we can imagine in our limited, natural minds.

I wonder, how many of us actually take the time to ponder on and think about what that realm, that place of eternity will actually be like?

Do you ever do that? Do you ever read in the scriptures about the dwelling place of God and wonder what it will be like?

I shared another message on the subject of “heaven” a couple of years ago, in which I mentioned about the view that many “Christians” in this country hold about God and His Word and our life after we leave this life:

According to a survey taken by LifeWay Research two years ago, Americans are so divided on their belief and faith in the totality of the Word of God.

The survey said that 60% of people in this country believe that heaven is place that EVERYONE will eventually go to, to be with there loved ones!

64% of Americans believe that God is accepting and okay with the worship of all religions, including Christianity and Judaism and Islam!

84% of those who hold evangelical beliefs say hell is a place of eternal judgment, where God sends all people who do not personally trust in Jesus Christ. (If you do not believe in the reality of HELL, then you cannot truly believe in the reality of HEAVEN either!)

65% of the people agree that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.

Fewer than half of all Americans, 47%, say the Bible is 100 percent accurate in all it teaches.

And this year, 2020, another study in this nation, discovered that 52% of professing “Christians” believe that they will make it to heaven, through a “works-oriented” relationship with the Lord.

Of the 65% percent of Americans who profess to be Christian, only 54% actually believe that they will experience heaven after they die.

Only one-third of adults in this country (33 percent) believe they will go to heaven solely because of confessing their sins and embracing Jesus as their savior; that is, by “faith” in the finished work of Jesus and not by works!

And get this, only 20 percent of people age 18 to 29 believe that when they die, they will go to heaven, strictly upon their faith and belief in Christ alone!

I think that it’s very safe to say, that there is an extreme false understanding of the Word of God and of what it has to say about our entrance into eternity!

If I were to ask you this morning, “Do you believe in Heaven”, probably most everyone in this room and for that matter, everyone in every church in this nation, would resound with a, “yes and amen” to that question, right? In the message that I gave two years ago about “heaven”, I asked everyone the question of, “Are you excited to get to heaven, that is, are you looking forward to the day when God calls you HOME?” And again, I think that most church goers would respond with a “yes” to that question. Even though in reality, many, many “Christians” that fill churches every Sunday, have an extreme uneasiness and even a fear of the thought of death and of what happens at that point!

And many of these same people have uncertainty residing in their hearts about what it takes to make to heaven.

*Getting To Heaven*

The pastor was talking to a group of young children about believing in Jesus and going to heaven.

At the end of his talk, he asked, "Where do you want to go?"

"Heaven!" they all piped up.

"And what do you have to be to get there?"

"Dead!” one little boy yelled.

And the point that I made two years ago in dealing with this subject, is that “death” and the uneasiness that goes with it, is the preeminent thought that comes to mind for many people, when they hear of someone going to heaven!

If I say to some of you that “Mr./Mrs. So and So” went to heaven this past week, many people’s initial reaction and the thought that comes into their mind at this statement, is that “it’s so sad that they are...........dead”!

And the subject of death, brings fear to the hearts and minds of many people (young and old)!

This need not be the case friends! The way that a believer views their eternity, should shape the way that they live their current life! And many times over, it does, though not always for the better!

C. S. Lewis said, “It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, that they have become so ineffective in this one.”

So, many people either fear entering into eternity, or they never really give any thought to it at all.

Either way, both mind sets are wrong!

This morning, I wanted to take a little time and just convey to you, some truths about, “HEAVEN”. Over the past two Sundays, we have been dealing with the realities of sin, (specifically that of sexual sin) and of the cost that living in that sin will bring upon someone. So, today, it seemed only fitting to lift the weight and burden of the issue of sin, and put our focus on the reality of “forgiven sin” and what happens to someone who’s Lord and Savior, is truly Jesus the Christ, when they depart from this world!

Let me start off by saying with emphatic assurance, that HEAVEN is very much a real place. It is the dwelling place of Yahweh, the Lord God almighty.

I Kings 8:28-30, Solomon prays, “Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God.......and listen in heaven your dwelling place.”

Deuteronomy 26:15, “Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel.”

Heaven is also where our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ is at right now.

Mark 16:19 says, “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”

The Apostle Peter, in his first epistle, tells us that Jesus, “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”

Which also brings another point; heaven is the dwelling place of the angelic beings that serve the Lord God and minister to you and I.

Heaven is an actual, literal city and not a reference to the clouds, where we find all of us looking like little fat baby’s with wings and harps, sitting on the clouds and laughing!

Hebrews 11:16 tells us, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.”

Hebrews 12:22, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.”

And again, Hebrews 13:14, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”

So, heaven is where God the Father and God the Son are right now. (Question, since we just stated that God the Father and God the Son are in heaven, where is the third person of the godhead, God the Holy Spirit, right now?)

So, my point is, that heaven, according to the Bible, is a literal, real place. (The Bible, for a Christian, is the one true living, breathing Word of God, amen?!)

So, what else is a reality about heaven, that we need to know and be excited about? First and foremost, heaven is the destination (where we go when we “fall asleep” and its’ the place of the permanent inheritance of a true Christian.

I Peter 1:3-5 tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again (Being born again is the true criteria of a Christian. Remember that Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”) born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

And then Peter declares to us that, “In this (the knowledge that our salvation is guarded and secured in heaven) we rejoice!!!!!”

Dear friends, if you truly believe in your heart that Jesus is your Lord and your Savior, then you should be excited about where you are headed!

I can guarantee you that if any of you were told that you had inherited an entire tropical island, complete with the best resort that money could buy and that every luxury you could ever want was awaiting you, once you acquire your inheritance; you would be counting the days until that inheritance came into existence!

And your guarantee for your inheritance, would be a signed and stamped document of authenticity, validating and verifying for you that it was to be yours.

That way, any time that you wanted to re-assure yourself that what you had been promised was real and waiting for you, all you would have to do, is look at that document and call the attorney’s office and verify its authenticity!

Well friends, if you are a Christian and thus an heir to heaven and its eternal salvation, then you received God’s stamped and sealed promise of your salvation, which is Holy Spirit inside of you.

Luke 24:49, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you”

Ephesians 1:13, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”

And if you and I have an inheritance in heaven, then we must be called heirs to that inheritance, right?

Romans 8:16-17 tells us, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.   And since we are his children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.”

Did you catch that phrase of who you and I are to God? Not the part about our being His heirs, but the other part.

This is the part that should make everyone jump for joy and run out the doors screaming “hallelujah”!

“For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children!”

The moment that you I humbled ourselves and repented of our sins, out of our faith in who and what Jesus the Christ really is, and we entrusted our lives into His hands, then something amazing happened in that exact instant.

As soon as you cried out to Yeshua to save you and forever change your life, IMMEDIATELY, your spirit was washed clean by His perfect blood, IMMEDIATELY, He sealed you and marked you as His own by placing His Holy Spirit inside of you to guide you and strengthen and protect you and IMMEDIATELY, you were called a SON or a DAUGHTER of almighty God!

I John 3:1-3,

1 John 3:1–3 TPT

Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s marvelous love that he has lavished on us! He has called us and made us his very own beloved children. The reason the world doesn’t recognize who we are is that they didn’t recognize him. Beloved, we are God’s children right now; however, it is not yet apparent what we will become. But we do know that when it is finally made visible, we will be just like him, for we will see him as he truly is. And all who focus their hope on him will always be purifying themselves, just as Jesus is pure.

And let me give you one more piece of information to go with this. Jesus tells us in John 17:23,

John 17:23 AMP

I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.

Let that sink in for a second, “You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me.”

God love you and I, His children, the same as He loves His own Son, Jesus!

Everyone say, “I am a child of God!”

Now say, “I am an heir to God’s glory!”

STOP AND PRAY IF HOLY SPIRIT LEADS AND THANK GOD FOR BLESSED GIFT OF BEING HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS!

Friend, if you are God’s child, then you must believe and understand that this place, this world, is NOT your home! You and I have citizenship in another place. Philippians 3:20 tells us,

Philippians 3:20 NLT

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

This is not our home and these vessels are not who and what we truly are. Listen to what Paul says in the very next verse, after he says that our citizenship is in heaven, he says, “He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.”

This is all temporary, our bodies, our homes, our jobs. Everything will become new, the moment that you and I cross that thin veil.

The glory that we will behold is unimaginable! I do not put much thought or stock into all of the stories that keep popping up about people who says that they died and went, or were given a vision of heaven.

I’m not calling anyone a liar, I just don’t rely on everyone’s flavor of heaven, especially when you keep hearing different variations of the same place.

This is what the apostle Paul said about the vision of heaven that he was given by God.

II Corinthians 12:2-6,

2 Corinthians 12:2–6 ESV

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

The things that Paul were shown of heaven, were not allowed to told of! And for good reason.

We are unable to comprehend the glory that God has waiting for those who are His children!

We can convince ourselves that we have an idea. We can read of others visions and tell ourselves that its pretty landscapes and pretty colors with green fields and lots of flowers.

But the reality is, there is no way that we can even begin to imagine the splendor and beauty and glory that awaits us in the abode of the living God!

Yes, we are a part of the kingdom of God here on earth, but that is referring to our citizenship and of whom we represent as God’s ambassadors.

You can convince people of just about anything! [MENTION OF PHYSICAL THERAPY AND OF THE BRACELETS WITH THE “CHIP” IN THEM AND OF HOW GLENN AND I CONVINCED PEOPLE OF THE SAME THING BY OUR SUGGESTIONS!

Let me read to you what John says about what awaits us in Revelation 21 and 22. In Revelation 21:1-8, John records,

Revelation 21:1–8 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Further down in the chapter, John begins to try and describe the splendor and beauty of the New Jerusalem that comes down to the new earth. He uses descriptive terms dealing with rare and precious gems and jewels.

He give us the dimensions of the city and of its walls. (It’s like 1,500 miles squared. From the top of the United States to bottom, is right at 1,500 miles.)

He talks about the city being made of gold that is so pure that it is clear like glass! (And why would it be like glass? Because the glory of God will be refracting and beaming throughout the new heaven and the new earth!)

John tells us that in the New Jerusalem, there will not be a temple, because its temple will be the Lord God almighty and the Lamb, Jesus the Christ!

And there will no longer be a sun or moon, because the glory of God gives the new creation its light and there will no longer be night!

And John records that all who will be given entrance into the new heaven and the new earth and the city of God thereof, will be only those whose names are found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life!

I Corinthians 2:9,

1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—