Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder
Be With Me is a daily 7 minute chronological walk through the New Testament hosted by Michael Smith. It is for everyone who is curious about what Jesus actually said and did in the gospels. Most episodes will leave you with at least one good thought to chew on for the rest of the day. We start with the Bible and hopefully end with Awe. We are walking through the chronological events of Jesus' life and then thoughtfully considering them. It is meant to spur the devotional life of the Christian and the not-yet-Christian. We occasionally venture into the Old Testament when it helps our understanding of the New Testament events. Everybody has 7 minutes. Everybody needs to wonder. Be With Me is hosted by Michael Smith who has absolutely no special qualifications to do a podcast. He is not a pastor. He has not been to seminary. He does not lead a mega-church. He is not a professional and he has no more credentials than you do. He does, however, follow a great God with an observant eye and a curious heart. Each day, he starts with a study bible and aims for astonishment. ‘be with him’ for 7 minutes as he sets out daily to discover the God who invites us to ‘Be With Me.’
Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder
How to STAY in heaven. S30e18 Ps100
What exactly KEEPS you in heaven? How you get there is another question, but we'll address a fundamental question: Upon what reality is your continuance in heaven dependent?
We will find that we desperately depend upon the Dependablilty of God. It is upon one particular feature of His Character that KEEPS you in heaven on day 10001. List 7 minutes today to find out about that day. Then subscribe if you are not going to heaven later today.
https://youtu.be/aB7vgj-2Ke8
The Psalms of My Friends
How to STAY in heaven. S30e17 Ps100
Today we are going to talk about How to stay in Heaven.
We talked yesterday about getting you to gladness. Specifically gladness in the Church. We cracked the code of how I move from regular service, or even grouchy service to SERVICE WITH GLADNESS.
100 A Psalm for giving thanks.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! service
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Serving with the saints, that serve the supposedly unlovely, are the ones that will also be serving YOU.
They will teach you how to be glad. The Lord WANTS to give you gladness. You should not be or endeavor to be a grouchy server. He wants you to serve for sure. He wants you to do it gladly.
. If you cannot yet serve the Lord with gladness, then serve along side someone who is serving the Lord with gladness. Why? Because that is how He is going to give you gladness.
Where do I find these people? Serving the unlovely.
The “answer” to your not serving gladly is in fact serving with the glad. They will show you how to do it: serve gladly.
Today other than wanting to remember how to be Glad, I want to remind us of the HESED that is in Ps 100, as well as 246 other places in the OT:
You cannot fully understand the interaction of God with the people of God without understanding the reality of HESED. (I say that humbly.Do any of us fully understand the interaction of God? No. not really.)
You cannot understand the OT or the NT without it. What is it?
It is God’s covenantal faithfulness. It is mentioned here as the foundation of this psalm 100: 5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
All the wonders of making a joyful noise, serving with gladness, responding with the right attitude and knowledge, enter His gates with thanksgiving, is all dependent upon the dependablility of God.
We desperately depend upon the Dependablilty of God******
Hesed isn’t theoretical. It is Necessary*****
It isn’t potential, it is critical.
It isn’t hopeful, it is crucial
Without God being good in this way, we are in big trouble.
Your eternal possession is dependent upon the steadfast love, the faithfulness, the rock-solidness of the Lord’s character. It is called His HESED. People for thousands of years have relyed fully on this characteralready.
We rely on it as we speak. He is holding all the atoms together. He is maintaining gravity and orbital accuracy.
We will rely on it when we are 1000 years in heaven.
Think with me about this in the future: Lets say 1000 years from your death, God stops being of the character of HESED. Faithful loyalty to His knucklehead people somehow stops. (Yes, I realize that this is actually HERESY)
If He is unfaithful, then we all fall out of heaven. *********
It, HESED, was the pillar upon which we were standing before Him for eternity
Without the pillar of HESED, 1000 years from now, we ALL FALL OUT OF HEAVEN
For if there is No steadiness with God,
there is nothing to stand on or at least nothing to stand on for long
Here is an amazing new thought: we absolutely depend upon the HESED character of God to put us into heaven, (or at least allow us a way that we could get there) AND we depend upon it for our continuance there**********.
Do you see ? It is Him, His grace, His steadfastness that keeps us there. Without His Hesed we’d be in trouble NOW, and in the future.
Hesed is the reason, one of the critical elements of How you will stay in heaven.
If you’d like to hear about how to GET to heaven, come back tomorrow.