10: BELIEVE - What Happens Next?

Welcome, Church Fam!

This week on The Dig we will...

D - Deepen our understanding on this week's BELIEVE Key Idea: I believe there is a heaven and a hell and that Jesus will return to judge all people and to establish his eternal kingdom.

I - Ignite our curiosity towards next week's Key Question: How Do I Honor God In The Way He Deserves?

G - Grow as fruitful, God-glorifying disciples in our time of discussion and learning together!

Scripture References:

• John 14:1-2
• Romans 8:24-25
• 1 Corinthians 13:12
• Revelation 19

Resources & Links:

• BELIEVE, Randy Frazee 
• Life Application New Testament Commentary

Transcript

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Welcome to the Dig Church Family. This podcast will serve as a way for the church and the home to connect outside of the church building, providing parents and spiritual families with a resource to connect what we learned this past week to our everyday lives and prepare our family for what we'll be learning next week. As always, when we dig, we're deepening our understanding, igniting our curiosity, and growing as fruit-producing, God-glorifying disciples. During this season of the dig, we'll be digging into our learning from the Believe series by Randy Frazy. Believe is our church family's focus for 2026. Like a lot of our episodes, each time we're together, we'll spend some time recapping or deepening our understanding of what we learned this past Sunday during our Sunday school hour and during our worship services. Then I'll share some things for you to think about as a parent or a spiritual parent to help your household warm up to next week's belief, practice, or virtue from the Believe series. Like you'll hear today, I'll be pausing within the podcast, giving you a chance to pause where you're listening and reflect in journal on your own or talk about your learning as a family. When this episode comes out, we'll be celebrating the Lent season. Lent is a 40-day window of time that starts on Ash Wednesday and leads the whole way up to Easter. It's a time for Christians to prepare their hearts for the time of remembering Jesus' death on the cross and the celebration of his resurrected life. Oftentimes, people give up things during Lent, sacrificing comforts to focus on Jesus. As a church family, we're challenging ourselves to take up a different spiritual practice each week of Lent. So instead of giving up, we're taking up intentional challenges, attitudes, and actions during each week of Lent. These taking up prompts will connect to each week's believe key idea too. This week's key believe question asks, What happens next? Our key believe verse for this week comes from John 14, 1 through 2, which says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have not told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? So, like every other week, we can answer our key believe question with our key verse and key believe idea, which says, I believe there is a heaven and a hell, and that Jesus will return to judge all people and to establish his eternal kingdom. Wow, thanks be to God that we have a sure and certain answer to this week's believe question. For those of us in Christ, there is no question and no doubt about what happens next. Sure, the details of it all can get kind of confusing. We've all probably asked, what will heaven look like? Or what about my physical body? Will I be married in heaven? Will I be with my family in heaven? And so on. These are great questions, and some of these answers are easy to find in God's Word. Some aren't so easy. Pause the podcast and share with your family or write down in a journal. What are some questions that you have in your head and in your heart about heaven? I know the mysteries of our faith in Jesus can be frustrating to some people. It certainly would be easier if it was black and white and we didn't have to question the who, what, where, when, and how. But in the gray area, the mysteries of things like heaven and hell and the Trinity and more, that's where our faith grows. If everything was black and white, we wouldn't need faith. Romans 8 24 through 25 says, For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Here's what that verse encourages us with. Our full redemption has not yet happened. It will happen when Christ returns. And that is why there is still hope for believers. Our salvation is both present and future. It is present because the moment we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, we are saved. Our new life or our eternal life begins. But at the same time, we have not fully received all the benefits and blessings of salvation that will be ours when Christ's new kingdom is completely established. While we can be confident of our salvation, we still look forward with hope and trust toward that complete change of body and personality that lines lies beyond this life. We do not know it all now, but we will understand it someday. Pause the podcast and grab your Bibles. Look up 1 Corinthians 13 12. Talk as a household. What does this verse tell you about the questions that we may have about eternity? When Jesus returns and we get to spend eternity with him in heaven, and we will still be fully known by him, as we already are. But then we will also get to fully know him. I just cannot wait to be face to face with my king. How about you? Pause the podcast and journal on your own or tell your family what are you most excited about in heaven? Over the last 10 episodes, we have been exploring the key believe ideas that help us grow to think like Jesus. So it's important to think about the idea that when we die, our bodies go into the ground and our spirits go to be with the Lord as we await the return of Christ. And when he comes to establish the new heaven and the new earth, our spirits will receive a tent of a new imperishable resurrected body, just like Jesus did. And in these bodies, we will live forever in the new garden with God and all those who believed in Jesus. And as followers of God, we are invited to ponder and understand these profound concepts in our mind, yet to really think like Jesus and experience the full life of Christ that He has given us, we must embrace the key believe ideas in our hearts, where our real decisions are made and act like Jesus. And that's where we're headed next. The next 10 episodes will look at the key belief practices that help us act like Jesus. Every time we're together here, we'll be challenged to ask ourselves the question: Will I do what God is inviting me to do? It's time to practice what we quote unquote preach. One of the ways we can practice acting like Jesus is this week's Taking Up Lent Challenge, which is to participate in some form of fasting. Jesus preached on the spiritual discipline of fasting, which is when we would go without food or another desire or want that our body has to purposely focus on God. Fasting does not make us super spiritual, but it does help us learn how to say no to our flesh, how to remember that we are weak as humans, and it helps us increase our focus. So maybe over the next few days you can look for some opportunities to take up the spiritual discipline of fasting. Here's some ways to try. You can give up lunch this week. Instead of eating, commit that time to pray for a specific request. You could give up all sugar this week. When you're craving something sweet, praise God for creating plants and animals that we can eat to be healthy. Or you could say that there's no eating after 6 p.m. or not until 11 AM. Every time your stomach growls, just pray. When Jesus returns, a new resurrected whole body will be ours because we have set our faith in him. Don't hold that to yourself. We have an important responsibility to invite people to join in the wedding supper of the Lamb that we read about in Revelation 19. Heaven is going to be the greatest party in the history of like ever. We should be in such a hurry to invite all of our family and friends and neighbors to join us there. Before we pray together to close this episode, pause the podcast and pray on your own. Ask God who you need to be inviting to join into this big, beautiful, eternal party. Ask Him to give you opportunities to share about His love to those people. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for having a perfect plan for our lives and the whole world. Thank you that this plan included sending your son to earth to live as a man and die a terrible death in my place. Because of Jesus' perfect and final sacrifice, we get to spend eternity in heaven with you when we put our faith in you. We are so grateful to be part of your big family. Give us the courage to share about your love with others so that they too can be a part of your big family and spend eternity with us and you in heaven. We love you too. In your name we pray. Amen.