SPEAKER_00: Your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: Today, as it's the last Sunday of the year, we're going to be beginning the new year with the end.
SPEAKER_00: With the end of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And as we open up to Genesis or to Revelation chapter 19, I wanted to uh I wanted to start at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us in the very beginning, Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: How it starts the biblical narrative.
SPEAKER_00: How in the beginning, before there was anything, before there was anyone, there was God.
SPEAKER_00: And by the word of his mouth, he spoke, and there was.
SPEAKER_00: When he said, Let there be light, there was light.
SPEAKER_00: When he said, Let there be the ground, let there be the heavens, he made them.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of Genesis 1, he creates his final creation, mankind.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing in all of creation to bear his likeness.
SPEAKER_00: And when he took a step back and looked at all of creation, everything that he had done, he said these words.
SPEAKER_00: Everything was perfect when he created it.
SPEAKER_00: All the animals got along.
SPEAKER_00: There was no death, there was no pain, there was no suffering in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Mankind lived in the Garden of Eden alongside with God in perfect harmony.
SPEAKER_00: It said that he walked with God in the cool of the day.
SPEAKER_00: That was the habit of God with man.
SPEAKER_00: But then one day, one day, everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: A serpent, Satan, the devil, whatever you'd like to call him, he came into the Garden of Eden and he tempted mankind to define its own morality.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of trusting what God had said about what is right and what is wrong, Satan tempted mankind and said, You can have the knowledge, and you can have the deciding factor of what is good and what is evil.
SPEAKER_00: And mankind sees that opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of trusting after God, they seized the opportunity to define morality by its own terms.
SPEAKER_00: And mankind fell.
SPEAKER_00: Sin entered into the world, staining everything around it.
SPEAKER_00: And by sin entering into the world, there was death, there was pain, there was suffering.
SPEAKER_00: All of creation would be irreversibly stained.
SPEAKER_00: And God had to pronounce judgment upon mankind.
SPEAKER_00: No longer could mankind, because of its sin, dwell in the presence of God or dwell in the presence of that garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: Mankind had to be brought out of there, separated from God, because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: He also pronounced judgment upon the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: But when he pronounced judgment upon the devil, there was a glimmer of hope.
SPEAKER_00: The first ever prophecy given in all of the Bible is as follows.
SPEAKER_00: Between your offspring and her.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, we see the anticipation, the hope, the want, the need for this one who would come, born of a woman, who would crush the head of the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: There are many Bible characters who rose up.
SPEAKER_00: There are many Bible characters who were hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: We see Joseph, we see Abraham, we see Moses, we see Daniel, we see all of these people in the Bible who were great, who were used by God, but all of them had sin in their life, and all of them died.
SPEAKER_00: But three days ago, three days ago, we celebrated the birth of one born of a woman who would crush the head of the serpent, who would deal with our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And that person, the serpent crusher, is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrated his birth on Christmas Day, his first coming, as he came, God incarnate, God with us, born of a woman, living a perfect life, and by his death, his burial, and his resurrection, we can be clean, we can be free from the penalty of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that, but God showed his great love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so he saved us from that penalty of sin.
SPEAKER_00: However, his work is not done.
SPEAKER_00: Even though he died and he was buried and he was resurrected, and if we put our faith in him, we can have forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' work is not done yet.
SPEAKER_00: The presence of sin is still in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Satan, the Bible describes, is walking around this world, walking to and fro, seeking whom he may devour.
SPEAKER_00: He has not fully crushed the head of the serpent yet.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says what he will do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in John 14, 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.
SPEAKER_00: And I know this just as sure as I believe that 2,000 years ago Jesus lived.
SPEAKER_00: He was born of a woman, he died, and he was buried and he was resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: As sure as I believe that, I believe this, that Jesus is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will come again.
SPEAKER_00: As we celebrated his first advent three days ago, let's look into his second advent now, which brings us to the book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, the one to wrap up the story of the Bible, the story of Jesus' work and the story of human history.
SPEAKER_00: Let's jump right into it.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis, or Revelation 19 opens up with a lot of things that are for a lot of people really intimidating.
SPEAKER_00: They can be a little bit confusing.
SPEAKER_00: There's judgments, there's symbols, there's the beasts, there's Satan, there's all these things.
SPEAKER_00: But what we want to lay the groundwork for is this is that up until this point in Revelation 19, all the armies of the Antichrist, all the forces of the of hell and of Satan have gathered together in a valley in the Middle East called Megiddo.
SPEAKER_00: You might have heard the other name for it, Armageddon.
SPEAKER_00: And they've gathered together to prevent the second coming of Jesus because they know that when he comes, their reign is over.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of the forces of every single bad thing come together in this world.
SPEAKER_00: All those who oppose Jesus come together in the army, uh the valley of Megiddo, and all of them are ready to prevent Jesus from coming back.
SPEAKER_00: But then one glorious day in history, a day that is not past, but the book of Revelation says will happen one day.
SPEAKER_00: The heavens will roll back like a scroll, and all eyes on earth will behold the one whom they have pierced, and our faith will be sight.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, I saw the heaven opened, and there was a white horse.
SPEAKER_00: Its rider is called faithful and true.
SPEAKER_00: He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus came the first time 2,000 years ago, he entered into Jerusalem lowly and humble, on the fawn of a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: And they cried out Hosanna for him.
SPEAKER_00: He came lowly and humble, but now in his second coming, the Bible says he's riding in a white horse, a horse of victory, a horse of reclamation, a horse that he is already won.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not coming alone.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says the armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen.
SPEAKER_00: You might think of this, and there's even an artist's depiction of it.
SPEAKER_00: We'll show it on the screen right now.
SPEAKER_00: You might think of this and say, Oh, well, that's the armies of heaven, that must be the angels.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible only describes one group of people, one singular group of people who are with Jesus, who have been given pure white linen by the washing of his blood.
SPEAKER_00: And you know who that people are?
SPEAKER_00: That's us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the church.
SPEAKER_00: That's all those who have put their faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: So right now on the screen, you see the front view of Jesus riding into victory, riding into reclamation.
SPEAKER_00: But one day you're not going to see his front side.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to look at the back of his head as you ride with him in victory against the forces of Satan, against the forces of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: We will have the victory with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: And it continues.
SPEAKER_00: And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just the king, he's the king of kings, he's the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when we see what the opposition is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to wage war.
SPEAKER_00: They're ready to bite, they're ready to claw.
SPEAKER_00: All of their guns are aimed to the sky.
SPEAKER_00: They're ready to try to annihilate him against the rider on the horse and against his army.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just against him, they're against us too.
SPEAKER_00: The Antichrist, all the forces of Satan with hatred in their heart, all the wickedness that mankind can produce, all of it is named in this singular point in the Valley of Megiddo, ready to take on the Son of God, ready to try to attack him, and they're ready to battle.
SPEAKER_00: And then there is no battle.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus already has the victory.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20, but then the beast was taken prisoner, and along it the false prophet.
SPEAKER_00: There is no battle, there is no struggle, there is no war, because Christ is king and Christ is in control, and he already has the victory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come back and he's fulfilled that prophecy, given all the way back in Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He's fulfilled the promise and he finally has crushed the head of the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: He's dealt with our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so now, what happens next?
SPEAKER_00: A lot of different Christians have different ideas of what heaven's gonna be like, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh a little symbol that I had in my head because of cartoons and stuff like that is that one day when I go to heaven, I'm gonna be a little fat little baby with wings, I'm gonna strive, I'm gonna strum a harp, and I'm gonna be on a cloud.
SPEAKER_00: That's not heaven, that's lame, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: I'd get bored of that pretty quick.
SPEAKER_00: That is not heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what the Bible describes because of what the Bible describes is so much more than that.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're ready to jump into what the Word of God says, what our final destination will be like, can I get an amen from the church?
SPEAKER_00: So let's jump right in.
SPEAKER_00: The last two chapters of the Bible, we'll start in Revelation chapter 21, the end of suffering and the dwelling of God.
SPEAKER_00: We see in the first five verses here.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us this that I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
SPEAKER_00: What God promises here is that once he has dealt with Satan, once he has crushed the head of the serpent and dealt with sin, that he is going to make a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: This current age, this current matter that we have here is stained with sin.
SPEAKER_00: There is death, there is suffering, there is pain in this world, and it has been stained all over every single piece of matter in this world.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says he's going to make a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: The first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, we see God coming down himself.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with who?
SPEAKER_00: With man.
SPEAKER_00: And he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be as their God.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament, there's that hope, there's that anticipation, there's that want of finally being at peace with God so that we could fully be his people and he could be our God.
SPEAKER_00: But through the work of Jesus, through his second coming, we see this that finally, after dealing with sin, after making something completely new, finally God can dwell fully with man.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to get into the implications that of here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But what are the consequences of God being with us?
SPEAKER_00: Of Jesus finally dealing with the sin and death and pain in our world, we see this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things are passed away.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at this term, that he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think of how when you were four, five, six years old, you were playing outside and you jumped our you jumped over a rock, maybe a little too much, or you tripped and fell, and you skimmed your knee, and maybe you fell really hard.
SPEAKER_00: And you go up to one of your parents, maybe your mom, and she was ready to comfort you.
SPEAKER_00: She was ready to help you.
SPEAKER_00: And when you had a skimmed knee and you were just crying, you were blubbering, your mom with open arms could just hold you, could embrace you, give you a little kiss on the forehead, hold you by the face, wipe away those tears, and say, everything's gonna be all right.
SPEAKER_00: And you believed her because of the great love that she has for you.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus does this, though, when Jesus wipes away every tear from our eyes, from the things that gave us pain, from the loss that we endured, from the sufferings that we have in this world, when he wipes away every tear from our eyes, he's doing so in that loving way, in that all-controlling way, where when he says everything will be okay, he means it.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: It might be difficult to wrap our head around because all we know here on this earth is loss, is suffering.
SPEAKER_00: There are moments of goodness, there are moments of greatness, there are moments of glory.
SPEAKER_00: But all too often, because of the nature of sin in this world, because sin is entered into this world, so has pain and death and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus has promised, Jesus promises us this in this new creation.
SPEAKER_00: There will be the removal of tears and of pain.
SPEAKER_00: No more crying, no more pain, no more death, no more kids with leukemia, no more hospital visits, no more funerals, no more anything like that, because Jesus is making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: We see the removal of death.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no hospitals in heaven, there will be no funeral homes in heaven, there will be no more saying goodbye to your loved ones in heaven, because if you have put your faith in Jesus, you will have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And there will be no more death in those times.
SPEAKER_00: And there's also the removal of grief.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no more mourning or crying or pain anymore because those former things are passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows what we go through.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows what it means to lose somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept over the death of his friend.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus enjoyed being with his people, but he knows the pain that ails you.
SPEAKER_00: This is a radiant city.
SPEAKER_00: This is a shining city.
SPEAKER_00: This is a brand new city because Jesus is making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: And typically, when you hear depictions of heaven, you think about what this chapter describes if you read it on your own a little later.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about the heaven being streets of gold, a gate of pearl, you might have heard that before.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible actually does describe it exactly like that, but that's not what the focus is.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, streets of gold, that sounds nice.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, shining city, that sounds nice.
SPEAKER_00: But what makes heaven heaven is not the things that we see, it's who is there with us.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, I saw no temple in that city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: This would sound strange to a first century audience, because if you're a Gentile, if you're a Greek, uh, you think of where do I go to commune with a God?
SPEAKER_00: You go to a temple.
SPEAKER_00: You go to the temple of Artemis, Zeus, Apollo, Athena.
SPEAKER_00: And even if you go to a famous Greek city today, one of the first things that people want to see is the ruins of the temple, the ruins of the Parthenon, the ruins of the temple of Zeus, all of those things, right?
SPEAKER_00: And in the Jewish mind, it was even greater because the centerpiece of Jerusalem was the Temple Mount.
SPEAKER_00: And even if you go to Jerusalem today, today, in this modern day, one of the first things most people want to do is they want to go up to the western wall, which was the outer boundary of what the where the temple used to be.
SPEAKER_00: People go up to it, they put on a little yarmulk, they pray, they kiss the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's where the temple was.
SPEAKER_00: But in this city, in this new creation, there will be no more need for a temple.
SPEAKER_00: Because there will no longer be the need to go to a building to commune with God.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is there, presently, physically there.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, and the city will have no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the lamp on the lamp is the lamb.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no need for a sun, no need for electricity, no more for an off switch, because of the radiant glory of God being there with us.
SPEAKER_00: It's so difficult to even comprehend it because in the Old Testament, people tried to come close to God.
SPEAKER_00: People we have high reverence for, people like Isaiah, people like Moses had a glimpse of God, but they couldn't even behold his full glory of everything because of their sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus makes all things new, and when he removes death and sin, and when he finally crushes the head of the serpent, finally we can stand in the presence of God and God will be there with us forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: People have so many different ideas of what heaven can be like, really.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are good.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, the one about the little baby and the strumming of the harp?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible actually doesn't even talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: But here are some things that people have an idea of what heaven could be like.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard people talking about how they're going to reunite with their loved ones in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: And that will be true.
SPEAKER_00: If you and your loved one have both accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you will see them again.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are gonna be great reunions in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Those Christians who have gone on before us, I I absolutely cannot wait to meet my grandmother who died when I was about two or three years old, who prayed for me every day that I would trust Jesus as my savior.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait to meet her and to thank her for her work and to thank her for her prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I absolutely cannot wait.
SPEAKER_00: Will there be that?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: People think I'm gonna be able to meet all the cool Bible characters that I want to meet.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me, I've got a list this long of questions that I want to ask the Apostle Paul, right?
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna be able to do that?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Some people have said when they go to like a worship concert out on Golden One Center, or they have a really great worship experience here at the church.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that was a little piece of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Will there be worship in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: The best you've ever had in your entire life will be in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We are gonna sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing praises to our God, and it's gonna be phenomenal being able to sing all nations, all tongues together with him.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not all that heaven is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss the forest for the trees, don't miss what we have for the reason that we have it.
SPEAKER_00: We have being able to reunite with those that we have loved that pass on.
SPEAKER_00: We have a great worship time of God because God is with us there, physically present there.
SPEAKER_00: That being face to face with God, that's the essence of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's what heaven is all about.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about being able to fly around with wings and doing whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what heaven is, as the Bible describes.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible describes heaven, the perfect splendor, the perfect paradise is this.
SPEAKER_00: Us being God's people and him being our God.
SPEAKER_00: And that should give you joy in your heart right there.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, and I've never heard anybody talk about this ever.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be a one-sided joy.
SPEAKER_00: God will be joyful, that we will be there with him.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us in Zephaniah 3:17 the Lord your God is with you.
SPEAKER_00: He will rejoice over you with gladness.
SPEAKER_00: He will quiet you, he will keep us still, he will keep us calm with his love, and he will sing over you with joy.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just gonna be singing over God, we're not just gonna be worshiping God.
SPEAKER_00: God himself, the creator of the universe, the one who made everything, the one who died on that cross, the creator of everything, will sing in gladness over the fact that his people are finally reunited with him forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: As joyful are we are as heaven, he will be just as joyful for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because heaven isn't about where we are, it's about who we're with.
SPEAKER_00: And that, my friends, is just beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: So finally, we see this described in the last chapter of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at the last few words of the Bible, the last few words of history, the last few words of what Jesus' work was here to do.
SPEAKER_00: We see the river of life and our final assurance.
SPEAKER_00: The last chapter of the Bible opens with this.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel showed me the river of water of life, bright as a crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: We see this symbol of water, and typically water in the Bible is used as a symbol of what eternal life is.
SPEAKER_00: We remember in John when Jesus said that he gives the true water, the eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: We see water being used as a symbol for that.
SPEAKER_00: But notice, notice, notice it.
SPEAKER_00: Where is that river flowing from?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the source of the river coming out of?
SPEAKER_00: It says, flowing from where?
SPEAKER_00: The throne of God and of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: So God being there, Jesus being there and dwelling with his people, and us being his people, and him being our God, because he is there, eternal life is flowing out.
SPEAKER_00: Because the essence of eternal life, the essence of heaven is just him.
SPEAKER_00: It's him.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_00: But keep this in mind, make a mental picture now.
SPEAKER_00: You see a river flowing out of the city, out of the throne.
SPEAKER_00: But let's see what else in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Through the middle of the street in the city, also on either side of the river, there's the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding a fruit each month.
SPEAKER_00: The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: This is what struck me.
SPEAKER_00: We see a word here, the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know the tree of life is only ever used here in the Bible and then one other place?
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: You know where that place is?
SPEAKER_00: We have to go all back.
SPEAKER_00: We have to flip over our Bibles and go back all the way to the beginning, Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: When mankind fell, when mankind was separated from God because of our sin, God said, We cannot let humanity let we cannot let humanity eat from the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: They were barred away from that.
SPEAKER_00: They could not have eternal life because they were sinful creations.
SPEAKER_00: But now, because of the death and the burial and the resurrection, not anything that we deserve, but everything that God did to bring us here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, us being in paradise with God, we have access to the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when it hit me.
SPEAKER_00: That's when it hit me when we see the garden imagery, when we see the tree of life, when we see the river flowing through the garden, that new creation, the Bible is looping in on itself.
SPEAKER_00: And what we have here is a recreation of the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: When God made everything, He made everything good, we made everything great, and mankind dwelled with God in the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_00: But one day, one day when Jesus comes back, we will dwell in that same garden with him forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: There will no longer there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
SPEAKER_00: They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: They will need no light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign with him forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: There's an artist depiction of what possibly that new city could look like, the garden, the imagery.
SPEAKER_00: This is just what a glimpse, this is just what an artist thinks of it.
SPEAKER_00: Think about how glorious that day will be.
SPEAKER_00: When through the work of Jesus, he brings us into the fold, he reverses the fall of man, he reverses what was lost in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: Now we get restored in revelation.
SPEAKER_00: What the tree that was barred by our sin is now opened up because of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: What was once our exile away from the presence of God is now our homecoming because of the great work of God in us.
SPEAKER_00: It's that new, it's that full circle, that garden of Eden, and it's all because of one thing, because of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is there with us.
SPEAKER_00: That is absolutely everything.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's one thing to talk with somebody, it's one thing to communicate to somebody, it's another thing to be there with them.
SPEAKER_00: Just to finish off, guys, I want to tell you guys a little bit of a story.
SPEAKER_00: In October, I did something I almost never do.
SPEAKER_00: I overbooked myself.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened was this is that uh Nate and Cody, they wanted to go up to a pastor's conference in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, I don't think I'm doing anything else that week.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it was gonna be a Sunday night through a Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't gonna get home till like 11 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: or like when uh or like early, like midnight Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said, sure.
SPEAKER_00: What I totally forgot about was that I had already signed up earlier in the year for the FCC men's retreat up in Hume Lake, which was gonna leave here on a Thursday morning all the way to a Sunday night.
SPEAKER_00: So I was gonna go home, I was gonna lay my head on the pillow, and then six hours later I was gonna get up and get out of here, right?
SPEAKER_00: My main concern, honestly, was not my busyness.
SPEAKER_00: My main concern was this is gonna be the longest I've been away from my wife in the seven years of my marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Honestly, it was because like I enjoy the main goal of my day is to finish work and go home and eat dinner with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: That if I don't do that, then my day is messed up, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But so what did I do?
SPEAKER_00: When I went to North Carolina, I was texting her all day, I was sending her pictures of all the stuff I did at nighttime.
SPEAKER_00: We had a phone call, and that worked for the time.
SPEAKER_00: And when I went up to Hume Lake, if you if you've ever been up there, there's no cell service.
SPEAKER_00: But luckily, luckily, there was a fella up there who brought us Starlink, and whenever he turned on the Wi-Fi, I got on that Wi-Fi and I wasn't scrolling on my phone, I was texting my wife on Wi-Fi.
SPEAKER_00: And it was it was good for the time, it really was because I was communicating with her, I was checking up on how stuff was doing, I was making sure she was okay.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you this, and the fellows that were there, Dan, you can testify to this.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else that was out there on the parking lot when I jumped in on the parking lot, when I got here and I was unloading my bags, and my wife saw me from those double doors, she flew open the double doors, she ran up and gave me a huge hug from behind, and I turned around and I hugged her just as hard.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I would trade a million text messages for a minute with her.
SPEAKER_00: I would trade 10 hours of a phone call with just being able to talk with her face to face for five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: It can be hard to wrap your head around it, but one day, one day you're gonna be in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you put your faith in him, God promises he will make all things new, he will remove pain, he will remove death, and he will be our God, and we will be his people, and we will see his face all through the grace, all through the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you are with him, it'll be worth it all.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you that.
SPEAKER_00: And the church replies, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the last words of the Bible, the last words of revelation, the last words of all of the biblical narrative, all of human history are these things.
SPEAKER_00: And let's say that last word together when I get to it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21 the grace of our Lord be with you all.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And we say amen to it.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's greatest joy, God's greatest joy is just being with his people.
SPEAKER_00: Everything from Genesis chapter 3 onward, every work of God, every coming of Jesus, everything that God is doing behind the scenes has been getting to the point where we can be his people and he will be our God forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: That's our fairy tale ending.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just a myth, it's not just a story, it's a reality.
SPEAKER_00: The overall message of the book of Revelation is of victory and of hope.
SPEAKER_00: He gave hope to the people in the first century because they could look at this book and say, no matter what happens, no matter how bad it gets, no matter if Caesar or whoever is persecuting me, even if they put me to death, I know this that Christ is King and He has control over everything.
SPEAKER_00: He already has the victory.
SPEAKER_00: But it other has other ramifications and aren't just for tomorrow or for today.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us.
SPEAKER_00: That's active, that's present, that's today.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous of good works.
SPEAKER_00: So when we look at a message like this, we look forward.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to that day.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to the day where you won't have to worry about your kids.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to the day where you won't have to worry about cancer, we look forward to the day where we won't have to experience loss anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to that, but also it should cause us to look inward as much as it causes us to look forward.
SPEAKER_00: We look at ourselves now because we live with anticipation of what is to come, but we seek Him now because His presence is available now.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to wait for eternity to experience God.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a believer in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you right now.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go to a worship experience, you don't have to go to a building, you can experience the presence of God in his spiritual reality right now through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We have an amazing God and we have an amazing, He we know He has amazing plans for His people, but His plans aren't just future promises, they're current invitations.
SPEAKER_00: So, just two questions and we'll wrap up today.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this if we look forward to the day that sin will be no more, why would we walk in it?
SPEAKER_00: If the whole point is Jesus coming back to crush the head of the serpent, to eradicate sin and all the things that come from sin, death, suffering, pain, if we look forward to the day that Jesus will finally conquer sin, why do we make excuses for ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: Why are we apathetic in the way that we live?
SPEAKER_00: Why would we walk in the way of the serpent if we look forward to the one that would come to crush him?
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, if eternity is shaped around being with him, why wouldn't we seek him now?
SPEAKER_00: If the grand prize of everything, if the whole story of the Bible is just culminating in the point that we can finally be with him, why wouldn't we seek after him right now in this lifetime?
SPEAKER_00: The vision of the end isn't to make us passive, it's not to make us want to sit on our hands and say, Jesus, come back, I'm waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: No, it should make us want to pursue him more than ever.
SPEAKER_00: It should stir up a hunger in us, a desire, an urgency to live out this next year passionately and intently.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin 2026, let's seek him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's seek him more than ever.
SPEAKER_00: In just two weeks, we're gonna open up an invitation to the church where we're gonna go through a spiritual growth campaign.
SPEAKER_00: We always do this every year, and I hope this year, guys, it's not just a calendar thing on your check mark, it's not just the thing that you say, okay, well, this is another year, we're gonna do it, but really take it to heart to seek him because his presence is the grand prize of all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Let's seek out that grand prize today and right now, because the same God who will dwell with us then wants to walk with us now.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible ends and the story ends, and the work of Jesus ends with God dwelling with his people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin this next year with drawing nearer and nearer to him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together, church.