New and Improved
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The word NEW elicits in all of us, an emotional response. The word put in-front of almost anything gets us excited.
New Clothes
New Shoes
New House
New Motorcycle.....Now we’re talking, right?
New Year.
We are approaching the end of 2020. It is finally almost over. As 2021 approach, we look forward with anticipation not just what is likely to be, but with hope of what could be.
This morning I want to take you beyond the temporal look of new things, but the eternal look at God’s promise of a new heaven and new earth.
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
18 “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.
19 “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;
And there will no longer be heard in her
The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.
20 “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.
21 “They will build houses and inhabit them;
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 “They will not build and another inhabit,
They will not plant and another eat;
For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,
And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.
23 “They will not labor in vain,
Or bear children for calamity;
For they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord,
And their descendants with them.
24 “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 “The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Death will not be present.
The description of what we see here is one that we would look at as a Utopian society.
This idea is in our DNA.
This is how our fairy-tails always end.....Happily ever after.
This is the end of our favorite movies. Evil is vanquished and good wins and lives in peace.
The thieves go to jail and Kevin’s family comes home on Christmas morning.
Han’s Grueber falls off the Nacatomi Plaza and John is reunited with his wife and kids.
Pinnoccio becomes a real boy.
This is the promise from our politicians:
That if you elect them, they will make everything better.
It is the hope of political theories of both Socialism and Communism.
Which in theory sound great, because they promise that you will have all you need and everybody will share everything. But have never and will never deliver on that promise, because the corruption in the heart of every man. Because enough is never enough. We want to have more than our neighbor.
God’s solution for this is to either remove the corrupted heart of a person, or to remove the person.
The preparation
The preparation
7 Years of tribulation on the earth.
Christ returns to earth. The battle of Armagedon
Christ reigns on earth for 1000 years.
Satan is set free for a period of time and runs amuck.
Then he is thrown in the lake of fire.
Great Whit Thrown Judgment.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.
12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The Purification
The Purification
New vs. New
That which was previously not know.
Shinny New Penny off of the mint.
New as in renewed.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Restoration:
The problem is not with God’s creation. ...
It was good
It was very good.
The problem is with our corruption of His creation.
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
The problem with this world is the curse that God put on it because of our rebellion.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Set free…Purified.
5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.
7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Bob Ross
new canvas.
Paint over another painting.
Scrape off the old paint, bleach and repaint.
This is what will happen to the new earth.
There will be no trace of the death and decay that we see now.
There will be no paleontologist in the new earth.
Remember the problem is not the creation, but the curse.
But look at this....
3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;
The Presentation
The Presentation
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
Where will we be while the earth is being prepared?
The new Jerusalem will be our Ark.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
What about our memory of this world?
If I have to be in heaven without ........I will cry.
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind....
Riding at night and you come face to face with a car with their brights on.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
