Why Loss Makes Us Look Up

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You're in the precious name of Jesus this morning. It has been tremendous to be here already. I think we could all go home and we would have felt like we would have been fed, we would have worshiped.

The Believer’s Eternal Home

SPEAKER_01 0:13

This morning, um, the sermon title is The Believer's Eternal Home. And you probably know where this sermon stemmed from. And that's with what all has been happening recently, and just um different accidents and the deaths, and just makes you think. Uh, it just brings draws our minds to to heaven, and it makes you ask some questions, you know, what why am I here? Why what am I doing here? And it just causes us to reflect uh over our life and causes us to ask some questions like what's most important in life. And um just recently I just told somebody we just you can't replace people, relationships are very important in life, you know, it's easy to ask questions on like why, but God has a purpose for everything. Why did God choose to bring these people home? Then I I like to, and I'm sure you do too. Yeah, what are they doing? What are these people doing? You know, they're somewhere. We're we're eternal beings. Our souls are eternal. What is happening with our loved ones that have died recently and those that have died many years ago? I had to think of Mernita's dad. I don't know how many years it is now that he I think we I was maybe I was just a 13-year-old maybe or something like that. He was 48 when he passed away. I'm 48. You know Taylor is 61. Not old. We don't understand what God has in mind. What are they experiencing? What are they experiencing? What are they doing? Just reminds us, heaven is not just a distant dream, it is the believer's true citizenship and secure, a secure eternal destination. Heaven is a secure destination for the believer. So that's the title this morning was intentional: the believers, the believers eternal home. I didn't want to make that broad. I wanted to make it the believers eternal home. I would like to sometime this morning open it up to you as a congregation or even visitors who are all anyone that's here. You know, you've had, I think we've had people here that had visions, maybe on their deathbed. And I think that does us well to hear some of those stories. So I don't know, would there be anyone willing to share some of those this morning with us? But I'm going to be opening up here before too long. Um, I think it just does us well to hear hear some of those visions that have happened already.

To Live Is Christ

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Everyone is looking for a place of belonging, peace, and rest, rest. Yet this world frequently disappoints us with pain and loss. We are still here. Philippians 1, 21 through 24. It says, For to me, Paul, this is Paul, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I choose, which but yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ. In other words, my desire is to die and go and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. It was to the Philippians here that he was speaking. He recognized that he still had things to do here on this earth, but he would have rather died and went to be with Christ. So perspective, perspective. I think Paul had his had his perspective correct here. 2 Corinthians 5, 1 through 9. For we know that this is talking about us as our body as a tent. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, eternal in the heavens, and showing we are, yes, our bodies are temporal, but we are eternal as our souls are eternal. There's a tension. We often treat this temporarily earthly. Too many times I for myself I tend to live as if this is the permanent home. And we need these reminders that we are just temporal beings here, as far as our bodies are. This is temporary. So it's easy to get too comfortable and too discouraged at times because our focus is here, our focus isn't always eternal. It's easy. We're we're human, so it's easy to have our focus on here. But let's try to keep our focus on the eternal.

Deathbed Visions And Spiritual Battle

SPEAKER_01 5:49

I'm just gonna open it briefly here. Does anyone have any stories? Maybe a loved one that you know of. We're gonna have the mic ready for you. Um maybe somebody that saw a vision. I know my grandpa. I think it was grandpa maybe on my dad's side. He saw Jesus before he died. One day he just, I don't think my dad was with him maybe, but all at once he just sat up because he saw Jesus. Does anyone have any anything to share on that? Sorry, I don't know your name, but yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

But anyway, um my my grandma was bedridden for a while, like um before she died, and some days she saw Satan trying to tempt her, and she would say, get away in Dutch. Give it back to Alma Feint and my mom would say, What what do you see? She'd say, The devil's after me, and um showing that you know we face temptation up to the day of our death. I'm not sure if I'm on or not, but anyway, other times she would singing, and she would she would say, Ma uh my mom, come over here and look. And mom would say, What do you see? And she said, Angels, they're coming down, they're singing. You know, so some of it was becoming real to her before she died.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Thank you for sharing anyone else.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So

A Near-Death Glimpse Of Paradise

SPEAKER_00 8:09

I'm I figure some of you probably know Lauren Miller. Um, it would actually be like Austin and Sherry, like Christy's sister, Sherry's husband, Austin, his dad, Lauren. Umita, I'm sure you you know him. Um, and I don't know, have you ever heard his story that he experienced when he was in that bad accident? Um, so correct me if this is not accurate, but I've I I've asked him twice just to recount his story, what he experienced um when he was in that bad accident years ago. I I talked to him somewhere, and then just more recently when I was at IGO visiting, it was like in 2013, I asked him if he could share that again with me. And basically he had a like a life after death experience um where he experienced um paradise, or he was close to the gates of heaven. Um and all those years later, I think both times that he shared the story with me, the tears were running down his face of what he saw, um, the colors, the just the absolutely amazing things he saw. And am I correct, Mernita, that he actually saw your dad there. He I I think if I remember right, he said that he had never met your dad in life, but he knew he could he could see Irvin. Um he was not allowed to go where Urban was, but he could he could see he knew when he saw that man that that is Mernita's dad, but he had actually never met him. Is that is that what you would recall? Yeah. So it's just an just an incredible story that he has to share.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Anyone else?

Bitterness Broken And Heaven Seen

SPEAKER_01 10:11

I had to think of John Thomas. Tim, you probably know the story better than I do on what he saw on his deathbed. He was talking with, I think they were moving him out of the room. John Thomas was an old bachelor in Baltic that was probably between 85 and 90 years old when he passed away. And he grew up going to church, but things happened when he was a young boy uh in Sunday school. He held bitterness for years. At 85, he was still talking about what happened to him in Sunday school when he was a kid, and he was not a Christian, and at times you couldn't even pray with him. But Tim had a lot, uh, spent a lot of time. My dad spent a lot of time. Different people spent time with him. Sean's used to live beside him, and Sean even got to crawl through his window one time to open the door for him. Um, and he was the type of guy that um he went berserk one day and knocked out his windows in this house, uh, tore up his house. And so he went through a lot of um, yeah, just he went through a lot rejection, things like that. Anyway, on his he was in his 80s when he accepted Christ, and um he was in the hospital or in the nursing home. Anyway, he was moved to the nursing home then, and one and he had already accepted Christ. Um, but long story short, um the the demons didn't give up, put it that way. They were still trying to get him, but he was faithful, and there were different men that would go in every day, read scripture to him. Uh, my mom and dad had given him a CD player uh that he could listen to scripture every day. And one day, um, my dad was sitting beside him on the on the on his chair there. He was in the bed. This was in the nursing home, and he and dad fell asleep and woke up and asked John, Are you sleeping? I said, No, uh uh, I'm listening to scripture. And he was like, Who's the man that was right here? And dad said, uh, nobody. Um no, I didn't bring anyone along. He said, Yeah, it's a man that had some black clothes on. He was sitting on the bed. I felt the pressure of his leg against me. He was dad was like, Well, what was he doing? Oh, he was trying to do something with my CD player, so it was it was a demon. And but he remained faithful, and not too long later, I'm not sure how many weeks it would have been, he was being moved out. I think they were taking back to the hospital. And Jackie was a friend of his, and there was a neighbor lady there as well. They were moving him out, and he started talking about what he was seeing. He was seeing people on streets, and they were smiling and welcoming him and just praising, just having fun. And there were little children walking. He saw he saw different kinds of people. It was uh different, different colors of people, and he was seeing, he was having a vision of what where he was going, so it's real. Heaven is real, we know it, and that's what I want the encouragement to be this morning is us as believers, it's real where we're

Jesus Prepares A Place

SPEAKER_01 13:35

headed to. It's worth it, it's worth to live. I'd like to turn to John 14 and just read verses one through 14 there. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people, starting in verse 1. By the way, we're gonna be reading a lot of scripture this morning. I might not even make a whole lot of comments as we go through, um, but we got to keep moving to get through all the scriptures. And um, but let's read John 14, 1 through 14. Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. This that this setting here is at the last supper, Jesus with the disciples. And I could imagine them kind of, you know, how you would do at home, you eat supper after you know you're kind of done, you start talking. And Jesus was just preparing them, keeping on preparing them for this. And they were a little troubled at what he was saying here. He says, Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also, and you know the way to where I'm going. Verse 5. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Verse 12 Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And if we would continue to read through this chapter, he would tell them, I will not leave you as orphans. You're the helper. We will send the helper, the Holy Spirit, to be with

The Day Of The Lord Will Come

SPEAKER_01 16:05

you. But now I'm going to go to uh let's turn to Second Peter uh chapter three, verses one through eighteen. The day of the Lord will come. Is the heading here that was in um in the Bible here. Chapter 1, 2 Peter 3. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, Where is this promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. Here we have doubters about the second coming. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. Verse 7. But by the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one thing, uh this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but his but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. I just want to pause there. Let's let's let's get for sure what he's saying there. The Lord is patient, his will is that we all come to repentance. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, verse 9, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Just I forgot to mention back in chapter 14 of John, it is only through Christ. Jesus was telling them, It is through me that you will be able to come to me. Verse 10 here. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavensly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in the in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hasting the coming of the Lord, coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for a new heavens, any new earth in which righteousness dwells. Verse 14. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace. In other words, let's just be faithful. Verse 15, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the air of lawless people and lose your own stability. Again, in other words, be faithful and don't uh stay focused in our lives. Verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

New Heaven New Earth New Jerusalem

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Now I'd like to go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 21, where it was speaking about the new heaven, and uh Brevin had alluded to this scripture about the new heaven and the new earth. Revelation chapter 21. We'll be reading 21 and chapter 22. 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 through 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, talking about what the Christians are experiencing. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain any more. For the former things have passed away. And he who has 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 Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have his heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murders, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, though their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death. Verse 9. Then came one of the seven angels who had on the had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates. The names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the walls of the city had twelve fountain foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia, its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its walls, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, agate, the fourth, emerald, the fifth, onyx, the sixth, carnelian, the seventh, Chrysalite, the eighth, Burl, the ninth, topaz, the tenth, Chrysopressi, the eleventh, Jacinth, the twelfth, Amethyst, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the streets of the city were pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has not has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory in into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor any one who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Going on into Revelation chapter 24, uh I'm sorry, 22. Then the angel showed me the river, the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, which is with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. A night will be no more, they will need no light of it of lamp or sun. For the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Verse 6. And he said to me, These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. This is the second coming. Jesus coming. I am, and behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But he said to me, You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, worship God. And he said unto me, Do not seal upon the words of Do not seal upon up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning of and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral and the murderers and the idolaters, and every one who loves and practices falsehood. Verse 16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star, the spirit and the bride say, Come, and let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues and describe in the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus will be with all. Amen.

An Eternal Perspective For Daily Life

SPEAKER_01 27:00

In closing, I'd like to turn to 2 Corinthians 4 and just read verses 16 through 18. And here we see our eternal home shapes our present life, our perspective on our eternal home. It really shapes how we live here. Verse 16. So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away. This is my encouragement. This was Paul's encouragement. And this is the encouragement I want to bring to everyone. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For the light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Heaven is a prepared place, prepared home for those who trust in Jesus. Jesus is the only way. Let's keep life simple. We can make life a little complicated at times. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So my encouragement to us today is as you go through life, let's keep our perspective eternal. So easy to have our perspective here on this earth. Let's keep it eternal.

Prayer And Final Encouragement

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Let's pray. God, we thank you for your promises, promises that we can claim. Thank you that someday, Father, we can spend time with you and to and see our loved ones again, Father. We just thank you so much for the testimonies that we have of people that have seen, have had visions and have seen you or have seen heaven. Father, we are so grateful for you and your love and your faithfulness to us. Just go with us now in your name. Amen. Turn the time back.