WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:06.480 So we're in the last of our series that we titled Imago Day, The Image of God. 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:10.320 We started it back in February. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:18.719 And on that Sunday evening in February, I offered five scenarios of five different portraits of people. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:27.920 One was a young professional, spent her whole day at work, had finally gotten in the car, was driving home, pulled into the driveway. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:36.960 And as she sat there in the driveway before she got out of the car, she asked herself the question: why is my life just feel so directionless? 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:49.359 Introduced a teenager taking his phone and scrolling through social media and asking himself as he was doing that, what is my life meant to be? 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:59.920 And then a man in his midlife, looking back on the past 20 years of a career, and asking himself, is this all there is? 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:14.319 And then we looked at a scenario of a widow who was sitting around an empty table, looking out the window, and in the middle of her loss and loneliness, wondering, Does my life matter anymore? 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:22.319 And all the way down to a child who asked a very simple yet a very profound question, why did God make me? 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:30.480 We began to look at those scenarios because they're human questions and they are uh our questions often. 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:35.200 They're questions I know I've asked myself in various times of life. 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:52.959 And we began to answer those questions by going to a very what is now familiar passage of scripture to us in Genesis chapter 1, where it says this, where God said in 126, let us make mankind in our image. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:03.920 We've been inside that verse and inside the truth of that statement, that we, humanity, have been made in the image of God since February. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:39.439 We've traced it all the way from the time when God announced it to his creation of Adam and Eve, to the rebellion of human uh sin, to the fracturing that that brings into all of our life, to the reclamation in the representation of Christ, but also in the redemption that comes in Christ, and then all the implications that that has for us as the gathered body of Christ to display his image in this world, to various areas about the dignity of human life, to our very bodies, and all sorts of different areas. 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:54.159 And this evening we're going to take that question and bring it to its final end, to its destination, not the journey so much as what the final place is, the arrival of that question: who am I? 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:55.759 Why are we here? 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:57.520 Where am I going? 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:07.520 And we're going to be looking at a place that is already arrived in the mind of God who made us, already arrived in the work that Christ has accomplished. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:16.560 And waiting for that day when the morning comes, and all of it will be the point of arrival, entrance into the fullness of why God designed us. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:20.560 And we're going to be looking at that in various ways this evening. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:24.800 In February, when we started that first series, I said there were three things. 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:31.039 We were made by God, we were marked by God, and we are to manifest his glory. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:35.120 And so we talked about God's design in making us. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:50.479 We talked about our purpose in uh in why we're marked by God, and then the destination that we have, in which we are to be fully manifesting his glory. 00:03:50.639 --> 00:04:15.120 And so tonight I want us to show each of these three things and where they're answered in the destination that we come to, where God has made us, our body, and where that ends up, how God has marked us, and how that ends up in a face-to-face knowledge with God, and how we manifest his glory by living our life to the full expression of his glory in everything that we do. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:25.360 So that's what we're going to be looking at: the image glorified, the image home, and the image finally seeing God face to face, that image in which we were made. 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:31.839 So the first thing we're going to be looking at is 1 Corinthians 15, that the image will be glorified. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.959 And the Apostle Paul brings us into a discussion about this in this passage. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.639 Like I said, in February, we said that we're made by God. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:59.600 We're not accidents, we're not biological accidents, we're not made by the random collision of atoms across vast stretches of time, but we're made by divine deliberation, Father, Son, and Spirit, determining to make us and not just bring us into life, but to give us his image. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:02.240 That's where this series began. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:15.279 And the question that we perhaps have been wrestling with is if I've been made by God to be in the image of God, what does God intend to do with what he's made? 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.279 My body. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.399 We realize we live in this mortal frame. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:41.680 This world is still groaning under the weight of loss and decay. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:46.160 And we've been holding on to that with our body for some time. 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:50.879 A couple of weeks ago, we recognized that our bodies are made by God's craftsmanship. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:57.439 And last week we looked at the idea that we needed to hold our body in hope of a future resurrection. 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:04.800 But a question underneath all of those that Paul answers here in 1 Corinthians 15 is what is God's intended end for us? 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:10.160 Our very bodies, this that He's made, what's going to happen? 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:16.399 Well, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul, in a very condensed, concentrated way, gives us an answer to that question. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:32.000 And I'd like for us to read verses 42 to 44, because in this very breathtaking way, he tells us that the what the body is now and what the body will be like on that coming day. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:34.000 Listen to verse 42. 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:56.720 So it is with the resurrection of the dead, sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, sown in dishonor, raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power, sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:09.120 In just three verses, Paul gives us four drastic contrasts between who we are right now and what we will be on that day of completion. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:10.879 Listen to that. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:22.560 Corruption, incorruption, dishonor, glory, weakness, power, natural, spiritual. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:27.360 And he's not describing two separate categories of things. 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:42.879 He's taking this body that we're in now and saying that this very body is not going to be replaced with something completely different, but the very material of us is going to be transformed. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:58.160 That this body, which is corrupt, dishonorable, weak, and natural is going to be changed into that which is incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:02.639 This very body of ours. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:05.120 And take a look at verse 49. 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:10.720 He talks about Adam and the second Adam. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:22.000 And here he says, just as we born the image of the man of dust, so we also will bear the image of the man of heaven. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:24.240 And there it is. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:32.240 We bear the image of Adam, the earthly man, the man of dust. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:41.840 When God made us, he pulled up some dirt and blew the breath of life in it, and we became living beings. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:46.159 We bear that image, made in the image of God. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:51.039 But after the fall, that image fractured. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:58.480 And Genesis chapter 5 says something extremely important to us about the transformation of the fall. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:00.559 Listen to what it says. 00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:04.960 This is the document containing the family records of Adam. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:09.279 On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:10.320 Grab a hold of that. 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:12.399 He made him in the likeness of God. 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:14.879 He created them male and female. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:19.279 And when they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind. 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:20.799 So there it is. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:32.720 Humanity made in the image of God, blessed by God, called out, male and female together, equal partners in this glorious image-bearing. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.360 Now let's get to the man Adam. 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:47.039 Adam was 130 years old when he fathered his son in his likeness, according to his own image, and he named him Seth. 00:09:47.679 --> 00:10:02.000 What Genesis 5 doesn't mention is Genesis chapter 3, that in between the time of God creating Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and now they bear children. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:13.679 And instead of passing on the likeness of God in its fullness as it was designed, they are now passing on to their progeny their fallen condition. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:16.320 And so it says this. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:29.679 Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:35.679 And so Adam's life lasted 930 years and he died. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:43.279 And when you read the genealogy of Genesis chapter 5, you have that same pattern. 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:48.399 And every time it ends with this, and he died. 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:50.879 And he died. 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:53.840 And he died. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:11:02.559 And every human from that point forward has lived under the light of this fallen humanity. 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:11.759 Every one of us in this room, every one of us who have drawn breath today, are bearing the image of this man of dust. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:16.080 And we bear the consequences of our fallness. 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:21.519 We live a life of woe, of decay, and death. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.960 But listen to what Paul says here when he talks about those who are in Christ. 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:35.200 Yes, we have borne the image of the man of dust, but we shall bear the image of the man from heaven. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:12:04.960 And he's there speaking about the second Adam, the one who is the true image, not created according to the image, but who is the image of the very God Himself, because he is God, the one in whom the image is never fractured, the one in whose resurrection body Thomas held and touched, the one who stood there on the banks of the waters and cooked food and ate together with his disciples. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:10.240 Paul says we will bear that image as well. 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:30.000 Not a spiritual image in some metaphysical way that's just metaphorically describing some spiritual disembodied state, but we embodied people as we are will be resurrected to a newness of life that is radically different than what we experience now. 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:37.120 So much so that we could contrast it with weakness and power, mortality and immortality. 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:43.600 We can take all of those things and say that is where the destination is for us. 00:12:44.639 --> 00:13:06.480 The body that was sown in weakness, sown in dishonor, who lives in the slow accumulation of everything that mortality has brought upon our human frame, will be the body raised in power, will be the body raised in glory, will be the body raised in incorruption, where death cannot touch it, and time will etch no mark on it. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:08.639 Made by God. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:27.759 Not a soul floating free of matter in some vague, pleasant spiritual state, but real people in glorified bodies, resurrected image bearers, fully and finally able to live the way we were designed to live in Genesis chapter one. 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:32.320 That's our design. 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:43.679 Think about that lady staring at the steering wheel, wondering why her life was so directionless. 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:46.559 She was asking an image question. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:55.039 She was asking the very substantive question of who she was, what she was here for, and where was life going. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:14:01.039 And without Christ, she had no answer, just gnawing questions. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:14.639 But the scriptures tell us that those who are in Christ can understand that they're designed by God and that their destiny, even for their physical body, is one of hope and life. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:22.480 This is the beginning of a story, the greatest chapters of which have not yet been written. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:27.840 We have no idea just how magnificent that is going to be. 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:40.799 But here we're told that image will be glorified, made by God, remade by God, raised by God, and completed by God. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:53.360 Let's look at the second point, not only about our body, but let's go to Revelation chapter 21, where we had talked about that first point, made by God, marked by God. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:03.039 And here in Revelation chapter 21, we get an understanding of this dignity with which God has made us. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:17.600 When I introduced that phrase, marked by God in February, what I was saying is the fact that we're made in the image of God invests us with a dignity that nothing that we do can acquire. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:43.440 That the dignity that we have as humanity is not vested upon us because of where we were born or what color skin we have or how educated we are or how large our bank account is, whether we're capable people relationally or any of those matters, that we are invested with a dignity from God because he has stamped his image on us. 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:51.200 It's not ability or productivity, things that we can achieve or fail to achieve that will change that whatsoever. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:16:01.039 We have been marked by God and have an inherent dignity about who we are that cannot be earned and cannot be lost. 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:02.960 But where is it going? 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:06.159 What does it look like in its fullness? 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:16.080 So here I want us to see in Revelation chapter 21 what the answer to that is, because Revelation 21 answers that very question. 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:21.200 And in Revelation chapter 21, John sees a new heaven and a new earth. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:25.679 The first heaven and the first earth have been transformed and passed away. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:29.600 And listen in verses 3 and 4 how he describes this. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:39.440 I heard with a loud voice from the throne, Look, God's dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:45.440 They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:48.960 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:50.879 Death will be no more. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:58.720 Grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:08.079 One of the most significant things about that is something that we need to let settle into our hearts deeper. 00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:14.880 It says this the dwelling place of God is with humanity. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:37.119 We possess an inherent dignity because we've been made in the image of God, but there's nothing so much so close to what the dignity would be to be actually received into the very presence of the Creator Himself. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:42.400 I mean, just think about that in an earthly perspective. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:48.240 I lived most of my life under the rule of Queen Elizabeth II. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.319 And how wondrous that would have been. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:54.799 And for those of you that don't know, I'm a dual citizen. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:55.359 I'm a U.S. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:56.640 and a UK citizen. 00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:06.079 So I salute the president and I said to the Queen that she's she's also something worthy of my honor. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:25.599 But to think about being in her presence, to be received into the very place where she would move, into the very throne room in which she held her court, where she would invite prime ministers in and ask them to form a government on her behalf, and to be brought into her presence. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:40.240 And you would think there's no better place of dignity or honor than to be received in that kind of environment as a citizen of or as a person within the populace of the United Kingdom. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:57.039 And here we are, created humans, made by God, and the highest place of dignity would be to be in his very presence, received into him where we might say, God is with us. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:02.720 And this is what John is writing about here. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:13.039 The God who walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening had been separated from his people after the fall, from that point forward. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:31.440 He had manifest his presence in the temple and the tabernacle, and yet there was a dividing wall there only by sacrifice, and with the high priest only once a year, after himself giving up offerings for himself and for the people, and only for a short amount of time. 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:37.920 The veil now separate, us and God. 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:46.160 And yet, here is this time when God says, I am going to be with my people. 00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:56.799 The distance that sin has created, the separation that's been there, is over. 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:02.240 We're brought into the presence of God, and we live forever with him. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:06.960 And take a look at verse five as it goes forward. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:12.559 It's one of the most quietly astounding sentences in Scripture. 00:20:13.359 --> 00:20:20.640 The one seated on the throne said, Look, I am making everything new. 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:50.240 He's taking all those things that we call us and transforming them, remaking them, renewing them, glorifying them, not discarding them and replacing them, but taking them up and transforming them. 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:59.279 The God who said, Let us make mankind in the beginning is the God who says he is making all things new. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:02.000 The maker becomes the remaker. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:05.279 The creator becomes the grand restorer. 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.960 And he tells John these words. 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:12.640 Write it down. 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:17.279 Because these words are trustworthy and true. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:33.279 This is not just a wistful hope or a dream of some special place and a special time in which we will all live in perfection, but a reality that God says is going to happen based upon his character. 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:40.480 And then in verse 6, he says this he said to me, It is done. 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.000 God speaks about it as the completed effort. 00:21:56.799 --> 00:21:59.759 And everything that the fall has brought into our life. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:09.519 By way of loss, tears, and separation and death being over, he said, Those things are done. 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:11.920 I am making everything new. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:30.000 This is trustworthy and true, and it's completed, because the one who speaks is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who holds every moment of history in his hand, the one where the end is as certain as the beginning, because all things are held by him. 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:37.200 And this is where we find ourselves in that place of ultimate dignity. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:54.000 Every person marked by God, no matter what place of weakness they might be in, are going to be brought into the very presence of God and received blameless and without fault in his presence and full of joy. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:23:21.039 So whether we're capable or not capable in this world, whether our bodies are marked by sin or disabled in any fashion, whether our mental capacities can rise or cannot rise to our potential, whether we're able to succeed or not succeed in this life, whether or not society shines or sets its shadow upon us, in that day none of that will matter. 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:29.920 Because the ultimate dignity of dignities will be laid upon his people when he says, I am with you, and you are with me. 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:35.359 That is the ultimate of what it means to be marked by God. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:45.119 And that day is as certain as the God who said it to be true, because he's the Alpha and Omega. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:51.839 And that leads us to our last point: made by God, marked by God to manifest his glory. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:24:02.240 God's determination and his design, God's dignity that he rests upon us, and God's determination for our ultimate destiny. 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:07.599 And I'd like for us just to turn one more page over in the book of Revelation to chapter 22. 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:15.839 And here in verses 1 to 5, we see the fullness of it all. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:25.359 He showed me the river, the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city's main street. 00:24:25.599 --> 00:24:31.680 The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:38.000 The leaves of the n trees are for the healing of the nations, and there will be no longer any curse. 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:47.680 The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him, and they will see his face, and his name will be upon their forehead. 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:49.279 Night will be no more. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:58.559 People will not need the light of the lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:12.319 We were made by God not simply to exist and not simply to bear an inherent dignity, but to have a destiny in which we reflect his character in everything that we do. 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:47.119 And for all of us, those aspirations to live to the fullness of our designed purpose have gnawed at us when we realize that our potential and our actual are very separate, that the things that we reach for and long for and want to do with life end up being a lot more like the book of Ecclesiastes than they are this passage of Scripture, where we realize that our aspirations falter and fail, that the race that we would run in this life doesn't end up the way that we hoped that it would. 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:52.319 And disappointment can often be our closest companion. 00:25:53.200 --> 00:26:09.680 But here we find an existence in which there's no mitigation whatsoever of the bounty that's there and of the blessings that can be had, and that God's people are living in the fullness of life as it was meant to be. 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:44.000 And this is why the Eden imagery is put here again, where where we were created now becomes the place in which we thrive once again, where there is that place that's lush and full and healthy and beneficial, where God's presence is and where people flourish in all of their fullness, so much so that it says about us that we will reign as if we were holding dominion over everything ourselves. 00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:54.400 That high school student who was scrolling through social media on his phone and saying, Where is my life headed? 00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:56.880 was asking an image question. 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:09.279 A question that's fundamental to who we are as humans, seeking purpose while flipping through people's manufactured realities on Instagram. 00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:11.279 Bad place to look. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:19.839 But here is the truth of God's word that speaks about the ultimate destination for us. 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:24.559 Where is your life really headed as a believer in Christ? 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:29.519 What is the fullness of this existence that I have? 00:27:30.960 --> 00:28:02.240 It is to be in the very presence of God with all the fullness of God's blessing in an environment that is without any taint of sin whatsoever, where all of your expressions are pure to the full glory of God, and that you could literally do anything you want, and it would be in a place of maximum pleasure to God and ultimate display of your gifts and your human purpose. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:04.640 That's what it's talking about. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:25.519 Why did God make us to see his face and to live fully before him face to face without any loss or any fear, but to be in that place of that permanent destination, to see the one in whose image we were made. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:30.880 Revelation 22 is the last chapter of the Bible. 00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:43.519 And it shows us some of this imagery of the new Jerusalem and the fullness of the city that's designed as a garden in all of its completion and surpasses even Eden in its original state. 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:50.319 A river with the water of life and trees bearing fruit, and the throne of God and the Lamb at the center of it. 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:56.640 And that final statement to culminate, we will see his face. 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:02.319 Moses wanted to see God's face, and God said no. 00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:10.240 He put Moses in the cleft of a rock and let him see his back as he passed. 00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:13.039 And that was as close as any human got. 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:22.640 But here is this time in which Revelation says the rock is gone, the cleft is gone, the veil is gone, and the face is seen. 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:37.680 We will see him in a real relationship with real worship, with real knowledge, and real love, in which we will dwell fully in his presence. 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:41.200 Revelation 22 arrives. 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:52.960 In Revelation 21 and verse 26, it says, The nations will bring their glory into the city. 00:29:54.880 --> 00:30:11.200 Everything that redeemed image bearers across all of history could make or build or cultivate or offer in obedience or creativity are now brought into the presence of God and received fully. 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:15.599 It's mind-blowing to think that way. 00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:21.200 And I think getting a hold of that is what prompted C.S. 00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:28.000 Lewis when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia to end those books with this story. 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:35.119 When he talked about Aslan's country being finally entered and the old Narnia passing away. 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:44.400 And he said that the things that were about to happen he couldn't write about because they were too great and too beautiful to put into words. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.640 And I think this is why the book of Revelation stops where it does. 00:30:49.279 --> 00:30:53.039 Because, like the book of Acts, you're longing for another chapter. 00:30:53.279 --> 00:30:58.400 You read Revelation chapter 22, and you're longing to understand, well, what's after all of this? 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:01.359 And this is how C.S. 00:31:01.519 --> 00:31:12.400 Lewis, with his ability, wrote the things that began to happen after were so great and beautiful that I cannot write about them. 00:31:12.960 --> 00:31:17.200 And as for us, this is the end of all the stories. 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:22.079 And we can truly say that they lived happily ever after. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:29.599 But for them, this was really only the beginning of the real story. 00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:38.480 All of their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. 00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:56.799 Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has yet read, which goes on forever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before. 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:03.519 That's Revelation chapter 23 and 24 and 25. 00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:22.160 We were made in the image of God, designed by God, given a dignity because he invested his image on each of us and didn't ask us to measure up in order to gain that dignity, conferred upon us because we were made by him. 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:32.000 But we were also designed for a destiny that is more glorious than our imagination can ever begin to wrap around. 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:44.000 This is why the apostle Paul said, Eye is not seen, nor is ear heard, nor is it entered into the hearts of men, the things God has prepared for those who love Him. 00:32:44.960 --> 00:32:57.359 These pictures in Revelation chapter 21 and 22 are simply taking imagery that we're familiar with to bring us to places we cannot yet imagine. 00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:02.640 And this is where God is bringing all who are in Christ. 00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:10.960 If you know Him, you this is your destiny, this is your dignity, and this is your design. 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:20.240 Those fundamental questions that get asked in the hollowness and the emptiness of our heart and our days have been answered by the living God. 00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:25.279 And he has the most glorious answer to every one of them. 00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:36.079 Hear him and live in hope and live in joy and live in gratitude because the fullness of it all has yet to be expressed. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:37.680 It's coming. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:45.200 And if you're here this evening and you don't know Christ, and those questions gnaw at you still, who am I? 00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:46.640 Why am I here? 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:48.240 Where am I going? 00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:52.240 This world will not answer those questions for you. 00:33:52.480 --> 00:33:57.359 You'll drive by people's houses that look 10 times larger than the one you grew up in. 00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:01.680 You'll see people with more degrees on their walls than you might ever acquire. 00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:08.400 You might find in magazines peoples whose images look far more beautiful or handsome than you think you could ever make yourself. 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:17.360 And I want to tell you, underneath all of those degrees and all that house and all of all of those looks is someone asking the exact same questions you are. 00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:19.039 Why am I here? 00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:21.840 Why am I existing? 00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:28.639 Because that question can only be answered by the living God who made you for himself. 00:34:29.599 --> 00:34:30.800 Let's pray. 00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:44.079 Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we've shared together as your body to learn more about your designs and purposes in our creation. 00:34:44.800 --> 00:34:57.519 And we pray, Father, as we go together through our life, longing and hoping for that coming day, may we encourage one another in this hope. 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:24.239 May we strengthen one another in faith, and may we be alongside one another when the woes of this world that we still live in, fractured by the fall, continue to weigh heavily on our hearts, to bear gently and kindly with one another, to pray with those and to weep with those who are in distress, and to rejoice with those who find the blessings of God in the land of the living. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:32.559 But in always, may we cast ourselves toward you as we find ourselves marching on forward to Zion. 00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:35.039 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.000 Amen. 00:35:36.400 --> 00:35:37.039 Amen.