SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you all.
SPEAKER_00: If you can open up your Bibles, let's just open up one scripture here.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 25, 41.
SPEAKER_00: Then shall say, then he shall say also unto them that are on the left hand, depart from me.
SPEAKER_00: You're cursed into everlasting fire.
SPEAKER_00: Prepared for the devils and his angels.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you, may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: We're starting off this week with, or this month, this is the first week of it.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is real.
SPEAKER_00: Why what we believe matters.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you all believe that too.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that there's something for you after this life.
SPEAKER_00: That God has prepared something.
SPEAKER_00: That you're just not over when your time here is done.
SPEAKER_00: That it's just not, you know, finished, that there's something for you, that there's a reward for what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So on your sheet of paper, uh, there's gonna be a part, and if you look down on it, you'll see some writing in a red.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you're gonna participate today.
SPEAKER_00: This is where you're gonna ask me a question.
SPEAKER_00: And I will answer the question.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do not ask me that question, then I won't answer the question.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just go on.
SPEAKER_00: So it's to give you a part to be part of something that we're doing here.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is a concept that transcends humans' understanding into a central theme in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, to go beyond normal limits, surpass your expectation, rise above the restricted boundaries that we're at.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is more than what we can perceive or think it would be.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible does talk about it and the Bible does give us a little bit about it, but he still gives us enough to know that it's there.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Presenting the uh infinity and timeless nature of God and the everlasting life promise to his believers.
SPEAKER_00: And are we believers today?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible presents eternity as both the attribute of God, which is his uh quality, uh features, and characteristics, and it's also a promise to his people, which is a covenant he made with us.
SPEAKER_00: A covenant we have.
SPEAKER_00: We have a promise from God, divine assurance.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: So we will talk about God's internal nature, internal life for believers, eternal judgment, and internal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You can still believe in God, such as saying, Well, I believe there's a God, and still end up in hell.
SPEAKER_00: This is a concept we need to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Not run around saying, Well, I'm a believer, I just believe, I just believe.
SPEAKER_00: There's more to it than that.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna get into that later.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is not a symbolic gesture, it's not symbolic at all.
SPEAKER_00: Scriptures present it as a certain and unavoidable, unavoidable present in Matthew 25, 46.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna give you a lot of verse here, and the verses are down there, scripture down there for you to read later, such as it talks about righteousness into eternal life and wickedness into destruction, damnation, hell, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be their internal punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke more about eternity than anyone else in a Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Every person will stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 20, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us will stand.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: So we will stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing: coming to church, reading the word of God, praying to God, speaking in tongues, doing everything that God asks us to do.
SPEAKER_00: We are setting our life right now.
SPEAKER_00: We are setting ourselves up to be into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I do not set myself up to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: I don't set myself, it's easy to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you right now, it's easy in life to go to hell.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not easy trying to do all these other things.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why is because we are so far away from the presence of God that it makes our soul, it makes us difficult.
SPEAKER_00: It just seems like it's very hard to live for God.
SPEAKER_00: But once we're living for God, once you are filled with that Holy Ghost, once you're baptized in Jesus' name and you have and you took on his name, it's easy to start to come and read the Word of God and study and become members of the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And to live for God.
SPEAKER_00: So much that we get to a point to where we want to start teaching it in Bible studies and bringing other people to church.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the idea when he says, go unto all nations, preaching and baptizing and bringing them in here to the Word of God, because God doesn't want anybody to lose out.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't want anybody to lose out.
SPEAKER_00: God's desire that all come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter 3, 9.
SPEAKER_00: Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: The word should, when you look at it, that word when you look it up, that word should means to give advice.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you advice, you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we should go over there.
SPEAKER_00: It's advice to go over there.
SPEAKER_00: And God said this in scriptures, but that all should, I'm giving you advice, I'm giving you godly advice, should come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: That's godly advice.
SPEAKER_00: The word shall, S-H-A-L-L, that people go, well, you know, God's well, it shall come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: That's a promise from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's going half of it, it's a promise.
SPEAKER_00: But the word should is more like, you know, it's godly advice.
SPEAKER_00: We need to take his advice.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So looking down here, we see the first letter A.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in red.
SPEAKER_00: So I need everybody to ask me this question.
SPEAKER_00: Ready?
SPEAKER_00: We ever get bored in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You're not.
SPEAKER_00: How many get bored just coming to church?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you need to come to church whether you feel good or if you feel bad.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: God never says, come to church if you feel good or bad.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you need to come.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter, you know, if you're happy or sad.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be in church.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what your day was like yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to Pastor Cruthers.
SPEAKER_00: Mine was a horrible day yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't let it get me down.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing about it is, because it came to pass.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm here representing God, praising God, lifting my hands and my voice up to God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: How many got the Holy Ghost?
SPEAKER_00: How many prayed people through the Holy Ghost?
SPEAKER_00: When you got the Holy Ghost, did you sit there in the middle praising God and you're getting the Holy Ghost and you go, oh, hang on a second, what time is it?
SPEAKER_00: How long is this going to take?
SPEAKER_00: You're lost in time.
SPEAKER_00: You're lost in God's eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And when you're filled with the Spirit and God is blessing you, and the presence of God is on you, you're lost in time.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what time it is.
SPEAKER_00: I'm enjoying where I'm at.
SPEAKER_00: And how many had a good time praying through, speaking in tongues?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody go, oh, God gave me tongues.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't ask for that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you did.
SPEAKER_00: You were praising him.
SPEAKER_00: Something's going to happen when you praise God.
SPEAKER_00: It just happened.
SPEAKER_00: When you praise God, things are going, you're breaking through barriers.
SPEAKER_00: Things are going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I sit there and I pray and I praise God, I'm not just letting it go around the building here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to reach the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: I want my voice to be in the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: I want God to hear my voice and my presence.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reaching you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I want to touch you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I need your presence in my soul now.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So the answer is, will I be bored?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is filled with worship and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that word purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Joy and life, as it says in Revelation 9.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in Revelation 7, 9 through 12.
SPEAKER_00: And Revelation 22, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: It's the fullness of joy, the pleasure, forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: If you could imagine yourself when you were filled in the presence of God, that's life.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you're going to feel.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: B.
SPEAKER_00: How do we comprehend eternity?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't hear you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked me that.
SPEAKER_00: We can only partially comprehend eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Because God only gave us partially things to our partial things to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And we know it in parts.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: We comprehend eternity by the descriptions that scriptures have given us, not our imagination.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, when I get to heaven, I'll be happy if I just have a little log cabin on the side of the road.
SPEAKER_00: Streets of gold.
SPEAKER_00: Walls of jasper.
SPEAKER_00: Magnified.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear songs.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to hear music.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever think you're going to be this little dinky thing with a harp going.
SPEAKER_00: I don't imagine myself in that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I was telling a brother earlier, I go, man, I would sit there and just be happy and then, Lord, I just want to visit eternity.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to visit everything you made in a solar system.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at all the moons, all those new sun, everything out there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, I you're my tour guy.
SPEAKER_00: Take me.
SPEAKER_00: I was just going to enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, that's probably going to take you about 281 billion years.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: We're here for eternity, you know.
SPEAKER_00: It flashed by.
SPEAKER_00: But no, he's got direction going for us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There's something for us when we make it to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: God has something laid out for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: When we read some scriptures and we read it in 1 Corinthians, it talks about the glass is murky, but once face to face, it will be clear.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times you can't, you have a hard time understanding things in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like it's a blur.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really seeing clear on this.
SPEAKER_00: But yet, once face to face, the Bible says it's going to be clear, crystal clear.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to see exactly what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, I'm going to be happy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, don't listen to these fools that come from the left.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking political, I'm just saying that the Bible even says, you know, on the left side.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have heard people tell me, hey, I'm okay going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: All I need is a pair of sunglasses and six packs of beer.
SPEAKER_00: No! You would wish.
SPEAKER_00: But there's parts in the Bible where I'm going to read it to you that they were begging for you to, for Elizabeth, put his finger in water and just touch his tongue because he was in torment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go telling me chaise and beard is going to help you out.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to get you worse.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's like, what are you thinking about?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're coming up with their own imagination.
SPEAKER_00: They can't comprehend heaven.
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: So it's easy to listen to the lies of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: See.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: God's ways are higher than ours.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 55, verse 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity belongs to God's realm.
SPEAKER_00: That's not ours.
SPEAKER_00: When something doesn't belong to us, it seems impossible.
SPEAKER_00: I just won't get that car.
SPEAKER_00: You're 12 years old.
SPEAKER_00: What are you worried about?
SPEAKER_00: A car for?
SPEAKER_00: I'll be 13.
SPEAKER_00: It probably still won't have a car.
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: But things seem, you know, or I'll never get a house.
SPEAKER_00: Who keeps putting this into your ideas or your brain?
SPEAKER_00: Because God wants the best for you.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to set you up in things.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: But God wants the best for us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't doubt yourself and definitely do not doubt God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: It's the same as people have a personal testimony.
SPEAKER_00: When you first got the Holy Ghost, how God delivered you, what God has done in your life, somebody was sick and God healed them.
SPEAKER_00: Those are your personal testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can tell that story about you than you yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm going to have to listen to somebody, I need to listen to the person who has that testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And we are now listening to the word of God who has that testimony about what heaven is going to be about.
SPEAKER_00: So we're sitting here and studying.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see, we're on uh Eternity and Examples in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I think I wrote these down.
SPEAKER_00: There's about eight of them.
SPEAKER_00: You could write them down.
SPEAKER_00: These things go ahead and write down.
SPEAKER_00: The first word is real, R-E-A-L, real.
SPEAKER_00: It's really going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And the word real means something that's true, something that's genuine, and something that's existing.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is that way.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, your conscience.
SPEAKER_00: You're awake.
SPEAKER_00: You will know where you're at, and you will know where you're going.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, immediate means it's happening without any delay.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, relational means you're connected to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's relational.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is relational.
SPEAKER_00: Permanent means it's forever.
SPEAKER_00: Number six, joyful for the redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: Great happiness and joy.
SPEAKER_00: Number seven, sobering for the lost.
SPEAKER_00: It means important matters that take place.
SPEAKER_00: And number eight, it's all centered around Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's our main focus.
SPEAKER_00: Number eight, it's all centered around Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Praising Him, worshiping Him, and the things He does.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is not symbolic, some abstract idea.
SPEAKER_00: It is the ultimate reality Scripture calls us to live for.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Example, let's examine some spiritual uh examples to learn, or spiritual examples to learn about eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Luke, chapter 16, 19 through 31, you'll be able to read these later, but I want to read just a part of it, part of it right now, and it will be in the book of Luke, 16, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
SPEAKER_00: The rich man also died and was buried.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the way the story tells about the beggar who was carried away by the angels.
SPEAKER_00: And then when the rich man who thought he had everything and treated everybody the way he wanted, he was just buried.
SPEAKER_00: Then verse 23, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
SPEAKER_00: And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in flames.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like somebody else is begging now.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to understand, these are some of the concepts that God has given us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the clearest narrative of a window into eternity.
SPEAKER_00: What it shows is your conscience exist after death.
SPEAKER_00: Immediate awareness, you are there.
SPEAKER_00: Fixed separation is fixed from heaven, the difference between heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_00: Because they had a great gulf in between them.
SPEAKER_00: Memory and identity intact.
SPEAKER_00: And sadly, no second chances.
SPEAKER_00: Your five senses kick in on this when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: You have five senses that you have in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You have the sight, you have smell, you have taste, you have hearing, and you have touch.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know us, notice the rich man felt the torment.
SPEAKER_00: So he was feeling the torment.
SPEAKER_00: He also had a sight because it says he lifted up his eyes and he seen and he had knowledge of what was happening.
SPEAKER_00: And he asked to have Lazarus just touch, take, touch, dip your finger, touch my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: He can have that and the taste.
SPEAKER_00: For he was he was just wiping out all five of those five uh senses.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us five senses for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Those five senses that God gave us were protection.
SPEAKER_00: So my sight, my sight is to see the things of God, study the word of God, look for the things that God has for me.
SPEAKER_00: Not to look at things I shouldn't be looking at.
SPEAKER_00: Not to sit there and draw my eyes to things that the devil wants me to see or the world wants me to see, but for the good things that God wants me to see.
SPEAKER_00: He put in smell so I can tell the difference between a nice, fresh, good cooking home meal steak or food or the smell of you know, you know, the present of the flowers or something around.
SPEAKER_00: A good barbecue, but also I can know the difference between when there's an electrical fire and something that's not right, just doesn't smell right here.
SPEAKER_00: You ever hear that saying?
SPEAKER_00: Just doesn't smell right here.
SPEAKER_00: Taste, I can tell the difference between something I like and something I don't, so can you.
SPEAKER_00: Hearing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to hear the word of God, preached by the pastor, preached by the ministry, I want to hear the voices of the people, I want to hear good things about good things.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want to sit there and use it for listening to gossip, listening to things I shouldn't be listening to.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to sit there and take the things that are to protect me and use them against me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be touched by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need a handshake of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes on and he talks about all this stuff that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus was telling us it's not a metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not a metaphor, it's something that's really gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: He revealed the reality of eternal life, eternity, such as judgment and and the where you're at now.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to show you that it's gonna be, you know, eternity is for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: I could not handle or comprehend being in hell torment for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: It's just crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I want to listen to the good things of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to D.
unknown: What happened after that?
SPEAKER_00: What happens after death?
SPEAKER_00: Your soul is awake and aware and enters its internal.
SPEAKER_00: Condition immediately.
SPEAKER_00: You read that in Luke chapter 16, 22 and 23, because it talks about, remember, and in hell he lifted up his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He was there immediately.
SPEAKER_00: When he died, he was there.
SPEAKER_00: And people have a misconcept.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get probably get into that if I have time later about, you know, well, when you die, you know, you got your body, you got your soul, and you got your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going to clear this up.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: You're alive right now because you have the spirit of God in you.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit will go back to God.
SPEAKER_00: You have a body that's going to be deceased, it's going to be buried, cremated, whatever, but it will fade away.
SPEAKER_00: But your soul pays the price for what your body does.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Your soul's going to pay that price for what your body does.
SPEAKER_00: So your soul is going to be for internal with God or in damnation?
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the thief on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 23, 39 through 43.
SPEAKER_00: What it shows is eternity is immediate.
SPEAKER_00: It means today you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is relational.
SPEAKER_00: Because God said, Today you will be with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all that's all it takes, Lord, to look at any one of us and says, Come with me.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather hear that than those words, depart from me.
SPEAKER_00: Because he says things after that, and that doesn't sound very good either.
SPEAKER_00: The example reveals that eternity is real, near, secured by Christ's promises.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: E.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to E.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe you do or not?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain something.
SPEAKER_00: People go, well, am I going to go to heaven or hell?
SPEAKER_00: And why is that my choice?
SPEAKER_00: That's God's choice.
SPEAKER_00: He should put us all in one place.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me put it this way: if you go to church and you read the word of God, and the word of God says, be baptized in Jesus' name, and you obey the word, you're baptized in his name, you took on his name, and you are filled with the Holy Ghost, and you come and you repent, which is important to salvation, repentance, and you come to church and you do everything that God says, you are getting to know God.
SPEAKER_00: And God is getting to know you, even though he already knows you, but now he's getting to know you because you're showing, hey, these are my attributes towards you, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: So when your time comes up, between and you know, and God's gonna sit there and go, Welcome, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: You have done all I ask.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: But you also have the choice to say, I don't want to go to church, I don't want to read the word of God, I don't want to listen to people, I want to do things my way, it's my way or the highway, and I'm not worried about everything else.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just have my shades, my six-pack of beer, and I'm good wherever I go.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's gonna hear these words, depart from me, you work as iniquity.
SPEAKER_00: I have never known you.
SPEAKER_00: I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're all created, when we're born, we're coming the same, same everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's just how you're gonna develop your skills in life itself.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And one thing I got do not put anything before God.
SPEAKER_00: That's good advice.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Shepard, that's good advice.
SPEAKER_00: Don't put anything before God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't love anybody more than God.
SPEAKER_00: You'll understand that later.
SPEAKER_00: So we understand about what happened to the uh thieves.
SPEAKER_00: And there were two thieves.
SPEAKER_00: But only one said this, and he only spoke to one thief.
SPEAKER_00: The other one he didn't speak to because he didn't believe it.
unknown: E.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's we're on E, right?
SPEAKER_00: So the thief he chose God behalf of obedience and determination to his destiny in Mark 16, 16.
SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse this with James 2.19.
SPEAKER_00: James 2.19.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe within one God, you do well.
SPEAKER_00: Which is good.
SPEAKER_00: Even the devils believe it and tremble.
SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me?
SPEAKER_00: Are the devils that believe in God, are they saved?
SPEAKER_00: Not one.
SPEAKER_00: So don't confuse it that, well, all you have to do is believe.
SPEAKER_00: Well, right there says the devils believe it, but they're not saved.
SPEAKER_00: Don't confuse it.
SPEAKER_00: Three.
SPEAKER_00: Now, anybody ever read about Stefan?
SPEAKER_00: He got stoned.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like, instead of reading and just finishing the chapter and turning it a page, have you read it to understand it?
SPEAKER_00: Read it to understand where Stephan was.
SPEAKER_00: Where did God put Stefan?
SPEAKER_00: Where was he actually at?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we think of this when we read it, well, yeah, he was preaching the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: They stuck him out there outside and threw a bunch of rocks at him and killed him.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to read about Stephan and what God did with him.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they did do that.
SPEAKER_00: Stephan is being stoned.
SPEAKER_00: God let him see beyond the veil.
SPEAKER_00: The veil is the barrier.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he let Stephan see beyond because Jesus rented.
SPEAKER_00: He opened it up so now we can get closer to God and have that communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The veil is rented, there's no barriers.
SPEAKER_00: The devil will tell you there is, but there's no barriers.
SPEAKER_00: And Stephan was able to sit there and see eternity.
SPEAKER_00: He was able to see.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, me personally, I don't think Stephan felt the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I think he was so focused on Jesus and seeing eternity that before you know it, before he knew it, he was there.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is a real place.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is alive, present, and standing for his people.
SPEAKER_00: The believers' spirit goes immediately for believers, our spirit immediately goes to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And eternity brings peace even in suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you get suffering.
SPEAKER_00: My wife, right now, equilibrium is off, you know.
SPEAKER_00: She's trying to see experts and that is crushing her eardrum.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh she uh gets really dizzy, walking, and I don't help her much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm standing there going, hey, so how you feeling today?
SPEAKER_00: You know, everything all right?
SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Yeah, just bring me a baseball bat.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what do you need a bat for?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna hit you with it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh we have a tendency to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I feel like I'm tormenting her, but you know.
SPEAKER_00: On my side, it looks like my I'm loving her, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to do.
SPEAKER_00: So the veil, what the veil does represent was separation.
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember, you know, you you you got you know, you got the the uh the uh holy place and a holy of holies, and there was a veil there, and that was separation.
SPEAKER_00: Means you could walk in and see, you know, the menorah, you could see the table of showbread, you could see the altar of incense, and then the bell.
SPEAKER_00: And nobody can go there, just the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus rent that, and now you are to go there.
SPEAKER_00: God's letting you to go there, amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's letting me go somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: I'm happy with that, amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we read that, and um, you ever hear the thing where people talk about it all the time when they try to explain the things of God, they go, uh, body, soul, and spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You ever hear that phase?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, well, yeah, it's our body, soul, and spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's so backwards, you got it all messed up.
SPEAKER_00: You got its spirit, it's soul, and then it's body.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta put them in the right place.
SPEAKER_00: People do that, they mess up everything.
SPEAKER_00: They think they read the word of God and they tell us everything backwards.
SPEAKER_00: But why it matters?
SPEAKER_00: Because Stefan's vision is one of the most vivid biblical confirmation of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to F.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not gonna lose any earthly relationship.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna lose any relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Unless somebody went the other direction.
SPEAKER_00: But no, you're not, you know, you're going, you know, sorrow is removed in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: In Revelation 21, 4.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God shall wipe away what?
SPEAKER_00: All tears, death, sorrow, all that stuff, all that pain, that stuff's gone.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, new heaven and a new earth in Revelation chapter 21, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: John is given a guided tour of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: If God's giving guided tours, I'm signing up.
SPEAKER_00: There's places I want to go in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There's places I want to see in heaven, there's things I want to do in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't look at it like it's gonna be the pit stop.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't look at it that way.
SPEAKER_00: I look at it, there's eternity, there's a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: God has in mind to do a lot of stuff with us.
SPEAKER_00: He can't write down on a book.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he wrote down in a Bible and we read through it.
SPEAKER_00: That's not everything about God.
SPEAKER_00: That's just enough for us to meet God.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not everything about God.
SPEAKER_00: But he is opening up things for us to understand and to see.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I want to go on that tour.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is not clouds.
SPEAKER_00: Because these are what people think.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'd just be floating around on a cloud.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's a renewed creation, new heaven, new earth.
SPEAKER_00: No death, no pain, no sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: God's dwelling with his people.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect restoration of what was lost.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: You ever hear that thing when it comes back and it says in the book of Luke, chapter 19, I think, it talks about I came to save that which was lost.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God is looking what was lost in Eden.
SPEAKER_00: What was lost in Eden?
SPEAKER_00: Relationship with mankind.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the love connection there.
SPEAKER_00: That they comp they uh put everything on God.
SPEAKER_00: They they their entire life was about God until Satan entered in and did what he did.
SPEAKER_00: But you see, he wants that relationship with each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: It's personalized, it's a person, one-to-one relationship, face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he wants to restore.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Why it matters?
SPEAKER_00: This is the ultimate picture of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Not abstracted, but physical relationship and glorious.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to G.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Love is perfect and eternity.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't gonna just have you put the letter yes, but love is perfect and eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Recognition and relationship continue.
SPEAKER_00: You're going.
SPEAKER_00: I would say a little bit maybe different because you're looking at you know perfection.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that I'm gonna be looking at you guys and you're gonna be perfected.
SPEAKER_00: It means you're gonna look a little bit different than where you're at now.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not gonna go too far into that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to insult anybody, but you know.
SPEAKER_00: Love is perfect in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to H.
SPEAKER_00: A restored creation where God dwells with his people forever.
SPEAKER_00: Revelations chapter 21, 3.
SPEAKER_00: See, my family, my wife's family, my wife was raised, her family has rabbis and everybody in there.
SPEAKER_00: So we come from a Jewish background.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to, you know, restoration and stuff like that, perfect love, and when we come with, you know, God's people, we talk about the tabernacle plan.
SPEAKER_00: And God will write, you read this, that God will write, and he taught, you know, Moses, we're going to build tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: These are the instructions, this is exactly how you do it, and he lays everything out for them, and that's what they do.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, is they wanted to keep God in that box.
SPEAKER_00: God's too big to be in a box.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can hold God.
SPEAKER_00: But in their mindset, we'll keep them in the box, and then we'll do what we want, and in the year he's gonna come out and then you know, and tell us we're bad.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: They got it all messed up.
SPEAKER_00: So what it was was he goes, I'm not gonna be there no more.
SPEAKER_00: So that's not gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Bible talks about how God became into Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, born of the virgin, talks about the story of that.
SPEAKER_00: And God goes, okay, you know, um, and so he's dwelling, in other words, dwelling bodily, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore he did with Jesus, and then you find out what happened, what the people did, you know, and and uh you know I think we're we're going to sit there and put cross.
SPEAKER_00: God had no fear, or Jesus had no fear of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Just so you know that.
SPEAKER_00: He was hung up there, you know, put up there to die, but he had no fear of the crosses for a purpose to show us something.
SPEAKER_00: Everything God does is to show us something.
SPEAKER_00: So here we have it where he was the tabernacle plan to try to hold on bodily Christ, but now God dwells in the Holy Ghost inside of what temple?
SPEAKER_00: Us.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when you sit there and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, you have the Spirit of God fully developing in you for you to develop into God.
SPEAKER_00: Not God personally, but into the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the world tear that away from you.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the world tear that down by being sarcastic about the church, being sarcastic about the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: I know that there's people coming out and naming off, you know, tree huggers and all them other things coming out, naming off everything's of God and all that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get sidetracked with all that.
SPEAKER_00: You stay in the word of God, stay reading the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: To do things with God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel's vision of the ancient of days.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel sees the internal throne room.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I go to prayer, I want to pray to that throne.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm shooting through everything I can.
SPEAKER_00: I need to make it to that throne of God so that you hear my prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Because I feel my prayers are important.
SPEAKER_00: And I really want God to hear them.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't pray about people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'll pray for you and never say a word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to reach the throne of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: What it shows is God's kingdom is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: The judgment is real and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The saints receive an eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is filled with worship and authority.
SPEAKER_00: Why it matters?
SPEAKER_00: Because Daniel's vision anchors eternity in God's psalm and justice.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So I.
SPEAKER_00: What is the difference between heaven and hell?
SPEAKER_00: Heaven, God's presence, joy, life.
SPEAKER_00: Revelations chapter 21 and 3 and Psalm 16, 11.
SPEAKER_00: Hell, separation, torment, judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And you find out in 2 Thessalonians 1 and 9, Luke 16, 23, and Revelations 20, 14 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: It's important to read these things because I don't have time today to read all of them with you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is teaching on eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of John 14, 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus confronts his disciples before the cross that he is not afraid or show fear to that cross.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is a prepared place.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go now.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to prepare a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: If it was not so, I would not have told you.
SPEAKER_00: But when I read that, because I'm a general contractor, I think I can like map out everything I want in it.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to leave that to God.
SPEAKER_00: But whatever you give me.
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know how to build walls at a jasper.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't have enough money to make roads of gold.
SPEAKER_00: But he does.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to leave it up to God, whatever he wants to give me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready for it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to take it.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you are too.
SPEAKER_00: And not to fear the things of God, but to treasure the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: To treasure and hold them close to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, don't let anybody or anything take them away.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 6, 19, 21, and other ones.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation determines our eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Live with purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Evaluate priorities.
SPEAKER_00: Let eternity depend your, you know, deepen your walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: Make decisions today your future self will thank you for.
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 8.
SPEAKER_00: Very important in Galatians 8.
SPEAKER_00: But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you.
SPEAKER_00: Let him be a curse.
SPEAKER_00: Negativity is what it's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Negativity of when somebody else tells you it's not so, but yet you're reading it in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's better that they tell us they don't understand it so we could explain it than to fight and argue with us with animosity.
SPEAKER_00: Don't believe everybody's story about what they have about heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_00: Vaguely, they talk about heaven, they just talk about hell, what they're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: But let's not get into that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand.
SPEAKER_00: In closing, eternity is real.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is certain.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is unavoidable.
SPEAKER_00: Avoidable.
SPEAKER_00: Eternity is scriptural.
SPEAKER_00: And eternity is the reason Jesus came so that every person might choose life.