Part 1: WHAT IS HEAVEN?

Isaiah 57:14–15 ESV

14 And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” 15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

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PRAY

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(The Story of Athur Malcolm Stace).

ARTHUR.MALCOM.STACE.

Arthur Malcom Stace was born on the 9th of February 1885 in the roughest part of Sydney downtown Australia.. He was the fifth child in his family, a family as it turns out of alcoholics. Life was hard, Life was ROUGH.... He was born into poverty. As the story goes he started resorting to literally stealing bread, milk and scouring trash for food as a kid. at the age of 12 and with no formal schooling at that time started working in a coal mine and was quickly taken as a ward of the state. As teenager he quickly fell into the same addiction that riddled his family and became an alcoholic. in this twenties he worked as a scout for inner city brothels and illegal gambling rings until the age of 32 while working as hired labor hand he joined the war effort in the Australian Imperial Force. After severe illness he was medically discharged and returned home to Australia in 1919.....

..... on the 6th of August 1930.... 11 years later he happened upon a church service in St Barnabas CHURCH, in Broadway not far from where he was born. He was there because the church gave out loaves of bread to the homeless.

It was a Wednesday night mens bible meeting and Arthur was there only to get his food, which was a loaf of bread that the church handed out.... but he stayed and sat in the service and was drawn to God through it. later that night on the way home, in the city, just a few miles from where he started his natural life, He knelt down underneath a Moreton bay fig tree and cried out to God “Have mercy on Me God for i am a sinner”

Just a few miles from the very place where his NATURAL life had started, His Spiruitual life, his REAL life BEGAN -Arthur Stace was radically SAVED.

2 years later Arthur was at the Burton St Baptist Tabernacle and an evangslist by the name of John G Ridley preached a message called “the echoes of eternity” where he shouted with fervency and an urgency these words:

“Eternity, Eternity, oh how i wish that i could shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You’ve got to meet it, where will you spend eternity”.

this message, God used and Arthur’s heart was arrested by that one WORD “ETERNITY”

That very day Arthur got his burden and his purpose: To get that WORD ETERNITY to the streets of Sydney...., and therefore into its people,

IT WOULD BECOME HIS MINISTRY. HIS SERVICE TO GOD. THE MESSAGE WAS ETERNITY AND THE MISSION FIELD WAS THE STREETS OF SYDNEY.

BUT THERE WAS ONE SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM......arthur didn’t know how to READ, or WRITE … even his own name.... but for some reason (which i know is the Holy Spirit) he was able to WRITE this ONE word:

ETERNITY.

(show the copperplate writing)

and in perfectly written copperplate writing (for some reason) the only word he could WRITE … was THAT WORD.

For the next 35 Years at 4am several days per week Arthur would go into the downtown sydney streets in the dark before anyone was there and with white chalk write THE WORD ETERNITY

Its estimated he wrote that word half a million times.

ONE MAN. ONE WORD. A MASSIVE IMPACT.

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SO WHAT WAS IT THAT CAPTURED THAT PREACHER?

WHAT WAS IT THAT CAPTURED ARTHUR STACE

WHAT WAS IT THEN THAT CAPTURED AN ENTIRE CITY?

What is it… and What was it about THAT WORD?

Its the very thing that KING SOLOMON Talked about.

Ecclesiastes 3:10-12 “10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)

11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

ETERNITY.

There is a longing.... a desire.,… a seed thats BEEN planted to WONDER and BEHOLD ETERNITY.

BUT SPECIFICALLY.... ETERNITY IN HEAVEN.

So were gonna spend some time for a few weeks talking about Eternal life & HEAVEN.

here are some questions that i often hear, and that i believe we’ll get to answer over thkis series eternityy:

What is HEAVEN.

Whats Heaven LIKE?

Who is in HEAVEN right now?

What happens when my life is over? Will i go to HEAVEN?

Will i know people there? (will people i KNOW here… NOT be there?>)

Are my LOVED ONES THAT HAVE GONE ON THERE?

What will we do WHEN we GET THERE?

SO HERE IS WHAT I NEED FROM YOU: YOUR HOMEWORK COLONIAL CHURCH!

..... BRING YOUR FRIENDS. INVITE PEOPLE WHO DONT KNOW THE LORD..... IF YOU KNOW LOST PEOPLE (WHICH WE ALL DO)

INVITE THEM TO CHURCH!

LETS BELIEVE FOR THEM TO BE GRIPPED BY THE WORD THE SAME WAY ARTHUR WAS

SHARE WITH PEOPLE … MY BURDEN

USE ME TO BRING PEOPLE TO CHURCH!

My Burden for this is the SAME burden Arthur Stace had: We need to TELL everyone about ETERNITY. We need to TELL everyone about HEAVEN.

So were going to be looking to scripture for the TRUTH about ETERNITY and about HEAVEN.

Are you ready for it?

i.HEAVEN IS REAL.

“Heaven is REAL, Hell is REAL.... and ETERNITY is but a breath away”. - Rev Billy Graham.

HEAVEN REALLY EXISTS.

We know because we see it in the very beginning of our bibles.....

So at the very beginning of this series lets start at the very beginning of creation!

Genesis 1:1 “1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Creation testifies to the very fact that HEAVEN EXISTS.

every looked up at the stars and wondered!

have you ever been someone really peaceful enjoying CREATION

and Thought to yourslelf:

“… this is LIKE HEAVEN”.

Matthew 6:10 “10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

there is the two ON EARTH… as it IS. in HEAVEN.

HEAVEN .... IS.

ii.HEAVEN IS WHERE GOD IS

Biblical definition:

“heaven is the area where God and spiritual beings reside distinct from earth, our current reality”.

Is 45:11-12 “11 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: “Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? 12 I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.”

God created the Heavens and the Earth.

And its God who is in HEAVEN.

Its where God lives.

God lives at #1 Heaven’s Lane, HEAVEN.

Isaiah 57:15 NLT

15 The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

Is 57:15 “15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Jesus said pray like “My Father, who is in HEAVEN

HEAVEN IS GODS ABODE> Its where God is.

Its what HE CREATED. Its DISTINCT FROM EARTH.

Its WHERE GOD IS>

ITS WHERE HE RESIDES.

ITS WHERE YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS RIGHT NOW..

And its HIS DESIRE FOR YOU TO SPEND ALL OF ETERNITY WITH HIM. But thats your choice and thats my choice and thats WHY this series is SO IMPORTANT.

iii.HEAVEN IS WHERE JESUS CAME FROM.

John 6:31-32 “31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”

John 6:33 “33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.””

Jesus didnt just DO miracles… HE IS THE miracle.

and the MIRACLE IS THAT JESUS CAME DOWN.!

John 6:38 “38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HEAVEN IS BECAUSE IT WAS JESUS STARTING POINT: He LEFT HEAVEN TO COME GET US.

HE LEFT HEAVEN TO COME FIND YOU.

HE LEFT HEAVEN BECAUSE ITS THE WILL OF THE FATHER THAT NONE SHALL PERISH… BUT ALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE,

BUT WHY>?

Why did Jesus come to BRING ETERNAL Life to all who believed?

Because ETERNITY Matters!

To Finish the satory i began with: ARTHUR!

He was arrested dozens of times and every time he told the authorities “higher” source had given him permission to write eternity on those Sydney streets. He was like a phantom in the night and no one really knew it was him until much later in his life.

After he died he became almost like a cultural icon. Someone i read said “he was the original graffit artist”. The Church where he Got saved and worked became a theatre called :”the eternity playhouse”. Athur became “mr eternity” and in 2000 a the turning of the millennium while millions around teh world and along the harbor gathered to watch the Sydney NYE fireworks this was what was the VERY FIRST word PEOPLE would see AS THE WORLD entered a BRAND NEW MILLENIUM.

“ETERNITY”.

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Why?

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Because HEAVEN IS REAL, HELL IS REAL......and Eternity is But a BREATH away.

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Altar Call.