River Church NOLA
Sunday sept 28 Heaven
  • Your Grace Is Enough
  • No Longer Slaves
  • Raise A Hallelujah
  • Make Room
  • Intro
    Funny church Signs
    One writer wrote that there are over 8,000 promises in the Bible for you and me. And for the next few weeks we will look at some of these promises to you… promises of direction… hope… healing… blessing… guidance and direction.
    God’s promises are like a divine insurance policy because when God has promised to take care of your life, your stress level goes down. You don’t feel so anxious.
    Today we will look at some of God’s promises about heaven. People are more and more interested in heaven and what it will be like.
    Over 80% of adults in America believe in heaven and 70% say they are going there. The other 30% say they know someone who is not going there. Don’t look to the right or the left.
    I don’t know if you saw the movie, Heaven is for Real or not… it was a great movie. It's a story of this four-year-old boy named Colton Burpo. He had a near-death experience.  His appendix burst and his body was actually leeching poison for five days. They misdiagnosed it, and so he almost died.
    They took him, his parents got him to the emergency surgery just in time where on the operating table he claims he had a near-death experience and went to Heaven. That little boy, as he came home and he healed and recovery... Now, he's four years old, so his parents didn't know this right away, but then he started telling his parents some strange things.
    He said, "When I was on the operating table, Mommy, I saw you." She said, "Oh, really, sweetheart?" He said, "Yeah, I saw you. You were on your phone in the hospital room and you were crying and you were talking to Grandma." And she said, "How would he know that?"
    And he said, "And Daddy, I saw you. You were on your knees in a church," because he was in the chapel, "And you were yelling at God. Why were you so angry?" They were just like, "I don't know. That's kind of strange, but maybe his imagination?"     
    The next week he said, "Mommy, how come you never told me you had a baby die in your tummy?" They had never told their four-year-old son about a miscarriage they had had two years before. He said, "Yeah, why did you never tell me I had a little sister? I met her in Heaven. She can't wait to meet you and Daddy someday." It kind of like blew their minds. That's a pretty provocative promise.
    Whatever you believe with that kind of story, there are entire accounts of stories like it. Near Death Experiences. Newsweek rand a story called Heaven is Real: A Doctor’s experience of the Afterlife. It was the firsthand story of a neurosurgeon from Harvard who claims to have visited Heaven.
    On the one hand, four-year-old boy, and the other an Ivy League neurosurgeon. I think what these near-death experiences have in common is that there is this universal hunger for Heaven, the sense that life on this earth is not all there is. The Bible says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women. It simply means this, there's this innate sense to all of us that this life is not all there is. That our eyes can't see everything behind the curtain.
    Think of it this way. Right now, you and I are on planet Earth, would you agree? Let me give you a little global positioning moment, okay? Here we are. You are here. You are on planet Earth. How many of you live on the WB? Okay, awesome, awesome. How many are from East bank? How many of you don't know where you are? You're confused right now. This is you. This is me.
    Map pic of our location
    We're here on Earth. This is what's so important. Human instinct and Biblical truth agree. They tell us the same thing. That although you and I are on planet Earth right now, there will come a day, there will be this moment, when you and I draw our last breath and our body goes into the ground. At that moment, the Bible says, the true you, the real you, your spirit or your soul, will pass into eternity for ever and ever and for ever and ever and ever after that.
    It's almost like this present world is a preview… of a coming attraction of the life to come. The average lifespan used to be in your 70s. Now some of you are doing exercising and eating right, so it's like 85. I'm hoping to live to 90, depending on what I do with ice cream. We'll see what happens there. The reality is how do you separate fact from fiction? What does the Bible actually promise about Heaven? When I say, "Heaven," what do you imagine?
    When I was younger I used to hear people saw stuff like we will be little angels floating around on clouds singing… that would be hell.
    But that’s how it is for many Americans. They draw their concept of heaven from pop culture instead of the Bible. So let’s look at some of what the Bible says about heaven.
    John 14:1–6 NLT
    1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
    You may be thinking like I did when I was younger. What do I care about heaven? It’s going to be a long time before I get there… I’m not going anywhere right now. That may be true for now, but let me burst your bubble. We are all terminal.
    If you Google the mortality rate, it’s 100%. None of us are getting out of here alive… unless Jesus returns and he is coming soon. By the time we get out of church today… depending on how long I speak, 8,000 people around the world will have died. Aren’t you glad you came to church today?
    It reminds me of a woman who went to the doctor with her husband. The doctor called the wife in alone, and he said, "We have a major problem. Bad news. Your husband's going to die. He has a heart condition. He has a very high stress load, and if something doesn't change, he's going to die."          
    And so she said, "Okay, well, what... " He goes, "Well, for about a year, if you can make some big changes." She said, "What are they?" And he said, "Every morning, you need to get up early and make him a big breakfast, like big, nutritious breakfast. And then for the rest of the day, don't let him do any chores. He's just got to relax, don't bother him. No complaints. There's no nagging. Please don't. That will just raise his stress levels. Make him a big, healthy lunch. If you have to massage his feet, that's good too. But most importantly, you need to make love to your husband several times a week. And if you do that for a year, he may make a full recovery."       
    And so they get in the car and on the drive home the husband says to his wife, "So what did the doctor say?" And she said, "He said you're going to die."
    Alright. We are all going to die at some point and that’s ok because if you are a Believer in Jesus, death is just a doorway into a new life, an eternal life… a wonderful life in the presence of God.
    Most people don’t think about heaven until the doctor tells us we need a Biopsy or you get older and become sick. When we are young, we think we are bullet proof. When I was younger I didn’t think much about heaven, but now I know a lot of people there.
    Look back at this passage. Jesus begins with John 14:1
    John 14:1 NLT
    1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
    The disciples were stressed and anxious. Jesus had just told them he was going to die… that his time was short.
    He basically said, I want you to know what's going to happen. I am going to die. I am going to be crucified on a Roman cross at the age of 33 years old. In my prime, premature death, I'm going to die on a cross. And then they're going to take my body, and they're going to bury it in a tomb. I'm going to be in that grave for three days because through the power of my Father in Heaven and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am then going to come back and return to my Father in Heaven.
    And here's the promise, "I'm coming back for you and you and you and you and you and you." And the disciples are like, "I don't know what He's talking about." There's a reason they were called the duh-ciples. They just didn't get it. He said I'm making you a promise. Don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.

    Five Promises about Heaven

    Look what He says next in John 14:2-3
    John 14:2–3 NLT
    2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
    This is amazing. Write this down.

    1. Heaven is a physical place.

    It’s not a concept or a state of mind. It’s a real place. The word for place is Topos which means Topography. It ie an actual physical place.
    Story of mama and daddy dying. Mama looking forward to heaven… she got to meet my brother and I think a sister that died at birth…
    When our loved ones die, it’s sad for us. I cried all the way to Rome Ga for both my mom and my dad. But we don’t grieve like those who don’t know Jesus do. Look at what Paul said,
    2 Corinthians 5:8 NKJV
    8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
    Mama doesn’t need faith anymore. She can see Jesus for herself. her faith has turned into sight. We were sad, but she had a great reunion in heaven. And we will see her again.
    I hope that idea might comfort anyone who has lost someone you love recently. The bible doesn’t teach that we are to stuff our emotions… they are real. But we grieve with hope because we will see them again.
    Funny Story - A family was driving home after seeing their father and grandfather for the last time. The mom asked, How are you kids doing knowing Grandpa will be at home with Jesus? It was quiet. Then the 10 year old said, where are they buying the body? The dad siad, the military cemetery. He was a vet. Then the 10 year old say, Dad I think I’ll bury you in the woods where we built the fort. The mom goes that sweet. You and your dad spent a lot of time there. All of a sudden, the 6 year old daughter speaks up and says, I know where we will bury you mama. We will bury you at the Mall.
    In John 11, a broken hearted woman came to Jesus. her brother Lazarus had died. do you know what Jesus did? He cried. God himself cried over the temporary loss of his friend. But Jesus made a promise. In John 11:23 “Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”” He goes on in John 11:25-27
    John 11:25–27 NLT
    25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”
    That’s a great question that we all have to settle for ourselves.
    Maybe you are hearing me and you are kind of kicking the tires of Christianity but I hope that today will be the day of salvation for you… to settle once and for all that you believe and to claim this promise that the death of Jesus was to forgive you of your sin… all of your faults and failures… then to give you the righteousness of Jesus himself and a place in the presence of God forever.
    So that’s Promise #1 Heaven is a real place.
    People often ask if there pets will be in heaven. The bible says the lion and the lamb will be there so I think our dogs will be too… not so sure about cats…
    Jesus calls heaven His father’s house. If you grew up in a warm and loving home, you know the comfort of that. After my dad died and a little over a year later, my mother sold the house I grew up in. It was emotional to clean it out. I had a lot of memories… good ones there. My paretns would come to all of our games … it was fun growing up there.
    For years, I would drive by it just to see it… one time even stopped and talked to some new owners who were missionaries.
    I had a lot of love growing up, but it’s just a fraction of the love coming from our father in heaven. We didn’t deserve it… that’s why it’s called Grace. He doesn’t love you because of anything that you have done, He loves you because of what Jesus did.
    I still have the cowbell my dad would bring to my games. You don’t know the influence you have on your kids. Be careful with it. Invest in their spiritual journey because the payoff is eternity in heaven. the apostle John siad in 1 John 3:1 “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! …” god’s love for us is great.
    John says that we are God’s children and he loves us very much!!!
    When Jesus took your sin, it's like you never sinned, but it's more than that. You get Jesus's righteousness, which means God looks at you like you always obeyed, like you lived the perfect life. And so there's no need to perform, to be religious, it's all your Father's doing.
    So understand guys, Heaven is going home to live in the Father's house. That's a comfort because I realize not everybody had a father like mine, right?

    2. Heaven is being prepared by Jesus for you.

    My father-in-law always used to say, Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. Jesus is going to prepare a place for us.
    John 14:2 NLT
    2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
    Think of the most beautiful places you can imagine and heaven will be better than that.
    He created our world in 6 days. Pretty good right? He has been working on your home in heaven for 2,000 years… think about that.
    1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT
    9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
    Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven and it will blow our minds.

    3. Heaven is promised to God’s children.

    Jesus said he was preparing a place for us and when it was ready he would come back…
    John 14:3 NLT
    3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
    Not only will heaven be beautiful beyond what we can imagine, we will get to meet a smiling Jesus face to face. He will come and get us.
    Have you ever wondered what that will be like? To meet the one who created the world? who knit you together in your mother’s womb? who died on the cross for your sin? You may have been up-planned by your parents, but you were absolutely planned by God.
    You ever wonder when you get to Heaven, what will Jesus look like? It reminds me of two brothers who were always arguing over whether Jesus was white or if Jesus was black. One of the brothers said, "He's definitely white. I've seen the pictures. He's got blond hair, white robe. He's a white guy." And the other brother said, "No, I think He's black. I think if nothing else, He's Middle Eastern, so He's dark skinned."
    Both brothers died on the same day, but they were excited because they were like, "Finally." They run up to the gates of Heaven and Saint Peter's there and they're like, "We're going to settle this once and for all. So tell us, is Jesus black or white?" At that very moment, Jesus Himself walked by and said, "Buenos dias." I think we're all going to be surprised a little bit when we meet Jesus.
    In the book, Heaven is for Real, that little boy, Colton, his parents said, "Did you meet Jesus?" And he was playing Legos, and he said, "Of course." And they said, "Okay, what did He look like?" And he was young and they thought, "Maybe he's just making this up from what he's seen." So they showed him pictures of Jesus, "Was He like this?" And he said, "No, no." "Like this?" "No." "Like this?" "No."
    And so, "What did Jesus look like?" And he said, "He's not like that. He had red markers." And they said, "What do you mean red markers?" "He had red markers, Mommy." He's four years old they thought like, "Magic markers, Crayola, what does he mean?" He goes, "No, He had red markers. Everyone knows Him by His red markers." And they said, "Where does He keep these red markers?" And the little boy said, "Here and here."
    We will know Jesus by his markers… the wounds he bore for us. When Jesus rose from the grave, he still bore the scars from his crucifixion. I think they are permanent so that we never forget the price Jesus paid for us.
    So how do we get to heaven?
    In John 14, Thomas says to Him, "Lord, this is awesome, but we don't know where You are going. So how do we know the way?" You put, "Siri, directions to Heaven." There's no Google Maps, this is the first century. “Give me directions." And Jesus, good teacher and a great Savior that He is gives Him a very clear answer in a clear promise in John 14:6
    John 14:6 NLT
    6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
    That’s a promise. It doesn’t matte if you are religious… if you grew up in a religious home or not. the question is, Did you put your faith in this life transforming promise?
    It’s important because 100 years from now, none of us will be here. But Jesus said that he is the way for all of us to make it heaven to be with the Father. So write this down.

    4. Jesus is the pathway to heaven

    Heaven is the promise and Jesus is the path. When He died, he paid for your sin. When he rose, He crushed death and gave all who believe in him, eternal life with him in heaven. All we have to do is to ask for it.
    You got to be able to point to a moment in your life where you said, "Jesus, I believe. I believe You're the Father's Son, and You're the Savior. Come into my life. Live Your life through me. I want eternal life."
    Maybe you're here today, for some of you I think you've been kicking the tires of Christianity for a while. You've got questions, maybe you have some doubts like Thomas. But I think Thomas shows us you don't have to have all the answers to have faith in Jesus.
    You can claim this promise today. It takes faith. Maybe God is knocking on the door of your heart today. Open that door to him. Invite him in. As a matter of fact, the last promise in the last book of the bible in Rev 3:20
    Revelation 3:20 NLT
    20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
    That leads to promise #5 about heaven.

    5. You are personally invited to heaven.

    If you haven’t claimed this promise, what is holding you back? Your heavenly Father is inviting you home…
    Maybe you are here and you can’t ever remember asking Jesus into your life… I’ll lead you in a prayer in just a few minutes.
    Maybe you are here and you just feel far from God. …
    Grave markers say all sorts of things… One time I saw one that was sad… it said fingers crossed.
    You don’t have to have your fingers crossed. You can have Alive in Christ.
    You were each made for a person and a promise. Jesus is the person and heaven is the promise. You don’t get one without the other.
    So if you have not settled this yet, settle your salvation today. Let today be your day of salvation.
    Prayer
    Everyone pray out loud with me right now.
    Father, thank you for your amazing promise. The promise of salvation through faith in Jesus. I admit I've made mistakes. Forgive my sin. I turn from them now and put my faith in Jesus.
    Jesus, I believe You died on that cross for me. I believe You were raised to life. Come into my heart. Fill me with the Holy Spirit so I can live for You. Thank you for this promise of eternal life. In Jesus's name

      • John 14:1–6NIV2011

      • John 14:1NIV2011

      • John 14:2–3NIV2011

      • 2 Corinthians 5:8NIV2011

      • John 11:25–27NIV2011

      • John 14:2NIV2011

      • 1 Corinthians 2:9NIV2011

      • John 14:3NIV2011

      • John 14:6NIV2011

      • Revelation 3:20NIV2011

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
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