Living Worthy… THINKING MORE ABOUT HEAVEN    

Last week we began to think about the one hope we have been called to in Christ Jesus.  Because we, as Christians, live in the intersection of the two realms, this world and God’s, we have a connection to eternity. Because the Holy Spirit lives in us we exist in both worlds, simultaneously and at the same time.  Because Tanya has faith in Jesus Christ she is an eternal being.  She has eternity as a present possession.  What does it feel like to be in the presence of an eternal being?  What does it feel like to be an eternal being? 

We also struggled last week with why it is so hard to keep heaven on our minds.  All the stuff around me, the houses and cars, looking in the mirror, playing, and relationships keep me distracted.  It is hard to stay focused on heaven when I am so wrapped up in the activities and people and things.  I ended my sermon last week with a kind of weird thought.  All the things that are so often distractions to us can really be reminders of what I am wired to be; forever.  God designed me to want a permanent home.  He put in me the longings for beauty, and art and play and relationships.  That is who I am and who I am intended to be.  The challenge, the struggle is for me to use the desires of this world as pointers to the next.  The trick is not to become obsessed with or locked onto this world, which, by the way, is all going to come to an end rather dramatically.  But rather I need to recognize these desires for homes, cars and looking good and enjoyment and relationships as echoes of what is to be. 

There are two sides of this dilemma.  If we are not careful we can end up in the ditch on either side of this road.  One side of the road is attempting to find satisfaction in the stuff of this world.  We are wired to want these things. God wants me to be happy, I must have them.  Too many people have given up waiting for the next world and sold out for this one.  There are amble warnings against this in Scripture:

Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Our hearts need to stay in the other realm with Jesus.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world -- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

The cravings, lust and boasting are not from God.  But love is.  Appreciation is. The other side of the road, the opposite ditch, is to attempt to deny that we are designed by God to enjoy life. We have been given an abundant life, now.  We are intended to appreciate God’s blessings in our lives. We should look for joy in our activities.  We live in the now with hope for tomorrow. We are to live full lives with relationships and love and joy and peace.  Heaven is not something we are waiting for so much as we now have eternal life. We are beginning to experience what we will fully experience forever. 

James 1:17-18  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

1 Corinthians 15:42-49  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

We will have a real-eternal body like Jesus’.  It will be fully alive, powerful, imperishable and raised to glory.  I guarantee you there will no need for South Beach!

Number Eight – “Hey, can you hurry it up?”  How often to you say, “I wish they would hurry up?  What is taking so long?  Did they have to kill the cow before they bring us those burgers?  Something is wrong with this red light.  Attention shoppers, there’s no waiting on register 3. This is as slow as Christmas. Anytime before the first of the month. How long does it take to get dressed?” 

I am notoriously impatient.  It is inefficient and a waste to stand around and wait on others.  Maybe that is the problem there are lots of people in this world living on God’s Time, which doesn’t exist. “Come on let’s get a move on.” This might be my hardest thing to get used to. In heaven there will be no reason to hurry up.  Anything that is designed to make things go faster may not exist. Cell phones… Television… Transportation… Cars are people too.  With eternity before us, there will never be a need to be impatient.  There will never be a need to hurry up.  “Relax, we do have forever.” 

Number Seven – Thing you will never hear spoken in heaven – “Sorry, no vacancy.”  Have you ever tried to find a hotel room when everyone else is too? You end up just keep on going. 

I discovered something the other day.  Does anyone know what the largest house in the USA is? The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina was built by George Vanderbilt in the 1890s. At the center of 8,000 acres the Biltmore House, a four-story French Renaissance manor designed by Hunt was completed in 1895. Exterior walls are Indiana limestone brought by rail to the site. Its steeply pitched roof has a copper roofline with Vanderbilt's initials repeatedly inscribed along the crest. Said to be the largest private house in the United States, the interior floor area of the 250-room house covers four acres. It was designed as a country retreat for Vanderbilt, his family and friends, and to showcase his vast collection of art and antiques gathered in world travels--a collection that remains intact today. At a time when bathrooms were virtually unheard of, Biltmore House has 43. There are 65 fireplaces and three kitchens, along with 34 bedrooms, a grand Banquet Hall and a Library containing 10,000 volumes. Here is the point; it is not in the ballpark with my Father’s house. 

John 14:1-3 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Not only will you never hear, “No vacancy” in heaven! Here is a really cool thought.  There is a room in God’s mansion designed just for you.  You can speculate on what will it be like?

Number Six – This is a line I have heard recently which you won’t ever hear in heaven, “Hey, my car was stolen.”

You know how weird it is to realize your car is stolen?  There is a strange sense of who would do that?  That is so sad that there are people who would simply still your car. 

1 Corinthians 6:9-10  Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Have you ever wondered what this world would be without sin?  How great it will be to live in a world of people who all love the Lord! There will be no one in heaven who would want your car or who would steal it.  That’s cool.

Number Five – “I don’t feel so feel.  Or, I ache all over.  Or, I need an Advil.”

There will be no Advil, hospitals, or pharmacies; no headaches, backaches, or any kind of aches; no broken bones, torn ACLs, no hip replacement surgery; no glasses, contacts, or bifocals; certainly no cancer, HIV, hepatitis C or any other letter; no Hanta virus, West Nile virus or Bird flu. The world we are going to, will be without pain, sickness or disease! I need another Amen!

Number Four – “Stay in the yard. Hold my hand.  Don’t talk to strangers.” 

Isn’t that sad?  When Tanya and I go for a walk it is sad that we can’t talk to kids along the way.  Ask Leota about her lunch buddy and all the rules they have about being nice to kids.  In the next world there will be no rules about not talking to strangers or worried about our children being attacked or abused or molested.  Of course I’m not sure there will be any kids in heaven anyways. They will all grow up, I guess.  

Number Three – “I’m calling for the Whatever State Bank, and because of your great credit I have a deal for you!  OR, Good morning, do you own your home?  Or, this is the Special Olympics… Do you know how hard it is to say no to the Special Olympics? There are even do not call lists, caller id, spam detectors.  Here is another promise.  There will be no junk mail, commercials, door to door salesman, spam or telemarketers in heaven.  

Number Two – What are the four worst words you never want to hear in the middle of the night? When the phone rings and it is 2:00 in the morning and you know it has to be bad, what are the 4 worst words?  “There’s been an accident.”  Don’t you just dread those words?  There will be no phone calls in heaven, at all I suspect, but for sure there will be no heart wrenching calls.

And the Number One thing you will never hear in heaven is, one simple word you will never have to say, “Goodbye!”

Day before yesterday, we left California to come back.  Poor, tender-hearted Griffin just can’t do goodbyes.  He began to cry when we left and of course Tanya had to cry as well.  In heaven there will be no goodbyes.

At the end of our family vacation, we had to send all our family back to where they live and we had to say goodbye.  That makes heaven seem all the sweeter.  There will be no goodbyes in heaven. 

Those of you who have stood at the graveside of a dear one and had to say, “Goodbye” can take comfort in the fact that there will be no goodbyes in heaven!

NLT Revelation 21:1-7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband.  I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever."  And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true."  And he also said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega-- the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge!  All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.