This morning. Hey, you got children, get them down there. Enjoy, guys. Unless you want to stay, I welcome you to stay. Shake your hands with your neighbors. Say it's good to see you this morning. To our guests, I welcome you here. To all of you that are joining us online because you're vacationing this week and we miss you or you're traveling. Can't wait to see you here in a few while I'll be gone next week. So we'll see you when we see you. How's that? And so if you're here this morning, we say welcome. We're glad you're here. A lot happening here at Grace Bible Church, including the youth ministry. If you have a young person, summer night starts next Sunday night at the Heights Pond. We got a lot, we got a lot going for you guys. And so we want you to be excited about it. There's more dates. If you get on our Facebook page, you can follow the Grace Youth page now. And we've kind of got the dates posted as the cover photo there. But there's a lot of good things happening, amen. And uh as we go and as we journey, um, we're excited to see continuously what God's doing, what he's going to do. But today we got some exciting news because we're gonna welcome a new family into our church. You may know them. Uh is it we good? Is my clicker working? There we go. The Kendrick's give it up for Chris, Jennifer, Miles, and McKinley. They're sitting over here, and I know I'm making them uncomfortable right now, but we love you guys. We're glad that you're members. Um, we're glad we're glad that you're part of our family, and uh we're we're excited about what God's doing in their lives and what he's gonna continue to do in them and through them. And if you're here this morning and you're wondering how do I become a new member at Grace Bible Church, or even if you just want to learn about Grace Bible Church, what we believe, where we're at, where we're headed, things of that nature, kingdom-minded. Uh, the next one will be in August, and so you'll hear more details about that. But we're excited for them. And, you know, I always do this with all of our new members and families. I always like to pray over them. I'm not gonna have them come up here because I don't want to embarrass them. Uh, but I do want to take a minute a minute to pray over them. And so if you could, they're over here. Would you just stretch your hand toward them? Let's pray for them, their family, believing God's going to do a great work in them and through them. Uh, I think it's so important. I believe the power of prayer is evident. And so, God, just I believe for this family, Lord. I pray for the Kendricks this morning. Lord, I thank you for their love, their passion for the kingdom. Uh, God, Lord, I know that sometimes you call us to uncomfortable waters, but Lord, I believe the best for this family. So I just pray for their kids, Lord. I pray for their home. I pray for their life, God, and I just pray that while they're here, Lord, they wouldn't just be here, Lord, but they'll be uh doers of your kingdom and be a part of the mission here at Grace Bible Church, God, that we can change our community and we can change our world around us because of your power that's in us. And so we just thank you for that, Lord, and we thank you for their hearts, Lord, wanting to be a part of this family here, this unit of the kingdom. And we give you praise and glory for that, God. Be with them, protect them, guide them in Jesus' name. Somebody say amen. Amen. It's always exciting, it's always exciting. And so um when you see new life, when you see new families deciding this is where we want to call home, I think it's a great honor for the kingdom of God, and it's a good thing. We're we're we're joining into a new series here called Heaven. This is by far my favorite subject uh because I don't ever hear people preach on it. Isn't it weird that we go to church and we talk about the Lord and Jesus and life and everything else, but we never talk about like actual heaven? When's the last time you sit down with someone at a dinner and all you guys discussed was heaven? When's the last time? Eh, probably not. Most people talk about heaven at funerals. And unfortunately, heaven becomes a topic that we sometimes use to help us regulate emotions in difficult times. But guys, I want to tell you, heaven is so much bigger than that. And and and I hope that this series, now, this is an eight-week series that I'm taking you on, unless the Lord wants to take it longer, but it's an eight-week series, and today I will tell you um sometimes series. Have you guys ever started a series on TV? Uh, maybe uh a Netflix series or whatever, and you you watched it, but if you wouldn't have given the first couple episodes a chance, you would have never seen how good the show actually was. Only me? Okay. Is that a thing? Like, you know what I'm saying? You ever been there? Um, this is maybe going to be a little like that for you, maybe not. Because over the next eight weeks, I'm going to give you the best view of heaven that I can give you from the dreams God has given me in my life, from the visions, through his word, through his word, and then ultimately everything we do will be produced scripturally based. Because heaven is that important and it's that good. It's heaven! It's heaven! If you don't want to go to heaven, why are you here? Just curiosity, like if that's weird to me. Don't tell me if you don't want to go to heaven, because that's weird. Okay. It's weird. In life, we have to know where we're headed. Because when we know where we're headed, it prepares us and it excites us to give us the strength and the ability and the discipline to stay engaged into where God's calling us, to be prepared for something. You know, this morning I got up and and it's dark because I'm up earlier and I don't want to wake my wife up, and I get I get dressed and get ready and all the things, you know, and I go down the other end of the office and and I'm praying about today, and and I leave my house and I get to church, and about 20 minutes ago, she looked at me and she said, You know, if I would have known your shirt was that wrinkly, I wouldn't have let you left the house. I would have let you been better prepared. Well, gotta be honest with you, if I would have known it was this wrinkly, I wouldn't have worn it. But I didn't look for it because I really didn't care what you thought about my wrinkly shirt. And at some point, we have to look for things. We have to look for things. Now y'all are gonna be fixated on my wrinkly shirt. That's cool. We have to look for things, and we should be looking to heaven. Here, let's get into it. The swimmer is Florence Chadwick, and in 1952, attempting to become the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel in California, she swam for 15 hours in freezing water. Dude, I couldn't last in 30 minutes. 15 hours in freezing water, thick fog before being asked to be pulled out. So she's she's attempting this, she's swimming this, she's been in this water for 15 hours swimming, but it's so foggy she can't see. And she later discovered that she had stopped just half a mile from the shore. She famously stated, All I could see was the fog, but I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it. I think this could be us with our idea of heaven in this life. Maybe if we could see heaven, maybe if we could see how close it was, maybe if we could see how close we are to dying, maybe we would be more committed than ever to the journey of following Jesus. And in this series, I'm gonna be coming from the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I encourage you to purchase it because it's a really great book. And he opens with a convicting observation. Many of us find it difficult to want heaven at all, perhaps, except perhaps as a place to reunite with loved ones. He quotes C.S. Lewis: most of us find it very difficult to want heaven at all, except insofar as heaven means meeting again our friends who have died. Our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world, on this world. Why is that? Alcorn explains that we've been under the spell of naturalism and Christo Platonism, the idea that the spiritual is good and the physical is somehow less, and we have heaven pictured as these disembodied spirits floating on clouds, playing harps or an endless, boring church service. No wonder you and I don't long for it. Like, I like you, but like the idea of doing this for like six hours on a Sunday ain't my cup of tea, man. Like, I love you. I mean, some of you are like, you're a pastor, you shouldn't say that. Shut up. Like, you know you wouldn't want to sit here six hours every Sunday doing what we just did. And I certainly don't want to preach three times in six hours to you. Okay? There's a dude in the Bible that falls asleep because of that. We can talk about that later. It's the reality. But scripture tells us a far more exciting story. God is not abandoning his creation, he is redeeming it. Heaven is not an escape from the real world, it is the fulfillment of the real world, purified and amplified. And Alcorn says it best: the best of this life is a glimpse of heaven. The worst is a glimpse of hell. And you're going to look today and you're going to see as I break in this first series on heaven, this first sermon on heaven, that heaven, how it's been preached to you over the years and your ideas of heaven is probably not even close in line to what you think heaven is. Maybe it will be. Today, as we launch this eight-week series, we're going to tear down the myths that and ignite a biblical longing for our true home. If you've ever felt disappointed by popular pictures of heaven, this series is for you. Let's discover what's real according to God's word, shall we? Philippians. If you have your Bible, turn to Philippians 3.20. We'll start here and we'll go through it. Philippians 3.20. This is Paul speaking to the church of Philippi. He says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven, the subject of heaven, heaven, where is heaven? I told you in the New Testament, John begins to preach that heaven is nearer, according to the text. And when we see the original, it means a arm length away. I told you that heaven is not some place that's thousands upon thousands and thousands of miles away, but it is a place that's very close that at any moment, even now, Jesus Christ can step in. He has a plan and he has a strategy and he has motives. And there's a story to this that's bigger than you. Last week I talked about how often we fixate our lives on the mountain peaks and the valleys that we don't see the full mountain range. There is a full mountain range and a plan that God has for you and I, this world and the one to come. But the first thing we must commit our lives to is that we are citizens in heaven. We're citizens from heaven. My citizenship belongs to heaven. I love the United States of America. I pray for our leadership. I pray for our parties and everybody else and all the things of our world. I pray for our country. I pray for our government. I pray for our local government. But let me tell you something and be a rest assured about me. I am more loyal to my citizenship in heaven than I am to the citizenship of the United States of America. And that's a big deal. Because I love our country. I'm as patriotic as they come. I believe, I stand proudly, I put my hand on my heart. That's loud, sorry. I put my hand on my heart. I love our country, but guess what? My citizenship belongs to heaven. I'm committed to heaven. This verse reminds us that we are not permanent residents here, but we belong somewhere better. We belong somewhere better. My first point today is going to be heaven is our true destiny and home. The apostle Paul declares that our citizenship is in heaven and that we're exiles here, just passing through. It reminds us of this in Hebrews chapter 11. Hang on because it's going to get a little bumpy here in a minute. Some of you are going to be looking at me sideways, but it's okay. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. You remember Moses, you know, he got mad at the rock and didn't do it the right way, so he didn't get to enter into the promised land. You remember that? This is what the scripture is referring to. They only saw from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. They admitted they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things so that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Somebody say city. That's pretty good. City. He's prepared a city for them. For who? People that realize that this is not my real citizenship. Like I'm here, God's placed me here, He's brought me here, but He didn't bring me here to say this is as good as it gets. No, He brought me here to bring heaven on earth to remind people that we are citizens of a greater place, going to a better place into which we belong. And there's a lot of us here that don't understand why we feel like we're longing for something else. Like there's gotta be something more. There's gotta be something better. It's gotta be better than a nine-to-five man. It's gotta be better than waking up at 5 a.m. every morning. It's gotta be better than just doing this. You wanna know why? Because there's something spiritual with inside of you that's telling you that you were made for a place that's greater than you've ever seen or you've ever stepped in. And it comes back to your original creation and intent in the very beginning when God made you in his image. That's it. It's hard to be made in an image and live in a world that is totally opposite of that in sin. The heroes of faith acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. They desired a better country. That is a heavenly one. This world is beautiful as it is. I mean, I've been all over the world. I've been all over, I've seen some of the most beautiful places. I could show you pictures, but in those beautiful places, I still find poverty. I still find people broken by sin, suffering, and death. Heaven is not away from everything good, it is where every good gift finds its perfect expression. God created us for a perfect world with Him, but sin ruined Eden, but Jesus is restoring it. This is something we have to have an understanding of heaven. You know, I wonder about our longing and our roots when I talk about this. I was in Honduras with a with a pastor named Pastor Wilmer in San Pedro Sulla, and he had the opportunity to take his family out of poverty down there where they were ministering. His whole family had grown up there their whole lives. And he had the opportunity to take a church in Florida and for his children to live in Florida, and he was excited about it. But his kids said, No, dad, we belong here. Why would you choose your roots in San Pedro Sula versus Florida? You have better resources in every way imaginable, but it was because it's where their heart longed for. And the same way their heart longed for that is the same way that our heart should long for heaven. For heaven. And my hope by the end of this eight-week series, you're gonna be like, Man, I'm ready to go to heaven. I'm ready to go to heaven. Says it like this in Ecclesiastes that he has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart. Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to the end. He set that eternity in your heart. You may not realize it yet, but he's done it. That holy homesickness is a gift and it points us home. Heaven is our destiny because Jesus promised in John 14 and 2. He said, My father's house, my father's house is many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? Think of that. This is a promise from God. This is a promise from Jesus. This is a promise. So I can tell you right now that there should be something within our soul and our spirit that should be a longing. And I hope for the next two parts of this sermon that that longing that I'm talking about will this will pique your interest and pique your curiosity for the next weeks that follow. Because I need you to know everything you need to know about heaven is right in front of you. My main point, number two, is that misconceptions still are joy. Why don't we long for heaven? Because we believe lies that contradict scripture. Randy Alcorn powerfully dismantles these myths. There's a myth that says heaven is an ethereal, non-physical place where we float as spirits. You ever been told that? Like when you die, you'll go and you'll be spirit, and then one day when Jesus returns, your body will meet your spirit in the air, and it'll be like bang. You ever heard that? I've heard a lot of theories over the years. My great-grandmother taught me that when I die, that I would be just dead on the ground until God came back. That was depressing. Um I've been told a lot of things throughout life. But what's the Bible actually say? And what does heaven actually say? Here's what it says. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city. You remember the new city? That city we talked about, the one I made you say earlier. Here we go. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, Write this down, for these words are true. These words are trustworthy and true. Now, this is important, okay? Because we need to understand this that the final heaven is the new earth. A lot of you have this idea that we're going a million miles away into the sky, somewhere, somehow. And that God's original creation, He's just going to wipe away and say, I'm done with that, and you can come to this new earth, this new world that's millions of miles away. Can I tell you something? That God does not make mistakes, he doesn't make mistakes. Sin has messed up his original creation. God is coming back and he's going to fix it. He's going to restore it. This is a scriptural basis. I am making everything new. I'm making everything new. I'm making everything new. I'm making everything new. I'm making everything new. Why is it that we don't understand that heaven is not a place, heaven is where the presence of God is. And he says, I'm coming back for my people. And when I do, I'm bringing Jerusalem with me. And it's going to be great because I'm going to be with them and I'm going to let them know everything they've experienced here. I'm making new. We'll get to more of that in a minute. What's the next myth? Heaven will be boring. No, you're boring. Let's just be clear. Your imagination is boring. You have no imagination when it comes to heaven because you have no longing for heaven. All you have is Hollywood and the ideas of what you've seen in pictures and on TV. But you've never actually spent time with God in understanding heaven, have you? You've never sat in your floor crying, longing for his presence in heaven. If you begin to sit in your floor, turn your phone off, flip the clock around, and spend time with the Lord, I promise you, he will give you revelation. He's looking for people that are willing to spend time with him, not be on his time. Or their time, but his time. I hope it challenges you. Here we go. Isaiah 65 for all those that think heaven's boring. See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Now, this is a really cool twist here because the formal things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind, but you will remember everybody. Isn't that crazy? Don't we'll get to it. We got eight weeks. Calm down. But that's crazy that he's that good, that he's that powerful. It's crazy. I will create the new heavens and the new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I will create Jerusalem to be a delight in its people a joy. That's your promise. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. I don't think that's boring. I think that's amazing. The one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child, and the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered a curse. We're talking about the millennial, another subject there, but it's heaven. 21. They will build houses and dwell in them, and they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. I thought we're just floating spirits. I thought we're just boring. I thought we're just walking around. No man, we're gonna build houses, guys, and we're gonna dwell in them. You get to dwell in them, and we're gonna eat fruit. It's gonna be amazing. I hope there's some fish. No longer will they build houses, and others live in them or plant, and others eat. For as the days are of a tree, so will these days of my people. My chosens, my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. You're gonna enjoy what you do there. Verse 23 they will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord. They and your descendants with them. There's a joy coming before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and the dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all of my holy mountain, says the Lord. Oh, he's coming back to restore it. The lions aren't even gonna kill anymore. There's not gonna be any destruction on this new earth because he has a plan to restore what the enemy has destroyed. And it's in Revelation 22 and 5, he says, There will be no more light. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever. So not boring at all. Let's keep going. What's another myth? We lose our personalities and memories. This is one of my uh, you know, this this is one, because the Bible talks about there will be no more tears and everything up. That's correct. But quit putting God in this little box like he didn't formulate your brain. Like quit putting God in this box, like you have this whole brain that you use, but most of us don't even reach 10% of its usage. You ever thought about that? You don't think that the same way God can limit your abilities and what you use of your brain, he can't also wipe away the bad parts that you shouldn't remember, that you can't remember, that you don't want to remember? Quit limiting God. Quit limiting God. This is what we see in the scriptures. Because when it says that we lose, people say we lose our personalities and our memories, this is the truth. We will be fully ourselves, only glorified and perfected. You need to know that. Alcorn reminds us that God love his love matters and he created it and he called it good. Not only is he going not going to trash this world, he's going to renew it. The new earth will have the new earth will be better than this one. Like this one isn't that great. Like you guys get that, right? Cities, art, music, animals, nature, only redeemed and far better. When people tell me there will not be animals in heaven, look, I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm not your animal advocate, okay? I got five cats over there. Is it five? Is that how many we have over there? You guys can all each take one. I don't care. My daughter's gone to Arkansas. Have a free reign, okay? I don't like animals. I don't, okay? So I'm not sitting up here as an advocate for animals. But when I hear people tell me that there won't be animals in heaven, I laugh at them because I'm like, yeah, I guess God's just gonna create that horse on the way down. Like, are we serious? Like he's just gonna, like, I guess ox and land, like the butt- the Bible's full of it. In fact, Psalms tells us that like he provides for the souls of animals and people. Like, like Psalm 36 and 6. You can go check it out, something like that. Check me on it. Here's the reality: you need to have a bigger mind of how great God is in this series. The next eight weeks can be so big for your life and exciting for your life. The fog around you of this world can clear out and you can see how close you are to the shore and how exciting it is. You and I have to have this opportunity. So it's going to be so much better, redeemed and far better. Revelations 21 says it like this the angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city. Now we're talking about Jerusalem. We're talking about that city that we were in, okay? Here's where it's at. He said, The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be twelve thousand sedia in length, and as wide and as high, and as long. The angel measured the wall using human measurements, and it was 144 cubits thick. Hmm. The wall was made of jasper, and the city was pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundation of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second was sapphire, and the third a gate, the fourth emerald. The fifth onyx, and the sixth ruby, and the seventh cresolite, and the eighth barrow, I'm probably saying that wrong. The ninth topaz and the tenth Torquorus, and the eleventh, don't ask, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelfth gates were twelve were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. I want you to think about this. This is the city of Jerusalem. We're talking about the new Jerusalem. This is this is where Jesus will be. I want you to think about it. You're getting a look at it. Use your imagination. It can't even begin to fathom. I do not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The same way that the Spirit of God is inside of you, that you are the temple, right? Will be the same way in which Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The Lord God Almighty, the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives its light, and the lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light. I want you to hear this. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. This is big because we need to understand this first week of what's actually transpiring here. On no day will its gate ever be shut. That's intriguing. What do you mean the gates never be shut? For there will be no night there. The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it. What do you mean the glory of the nations will be brought into it? Therefore, we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting way, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. That's in 2 Corinthians here. Let's let's talk about this for a minute. We don't lose heart because we know what's coming. But what's coming? If you think heaven is dull, you'll never treasure it. Replace the cartoons with biblical truth this week. Here's where we're at. The new Jerusalem is going to come down, guys. I'm gonna share this with you, and then you'll send me text and everything else and be like, we need to talk. That's okay. The new Jerusalem will come down. Do you know how big the New Jerusalem is? The one that I preached at the beginning of this. It's 1,500 miles east-west, north, south. That's the new Jerusalem. This current earth is 24 around 24,000 miles all the way around. When God comes down and he renews the earth, when he does this, it is going to change everything because there will be no more oceans. It will be large landmass. We will have Jerusalem, the new city, which will be 1,500 miles left, right, that way, and that way. It's going to be a huge city into which you and I and all the kings and all people can enter in of it and out of it. Because all the things that transcend on the world will happen and begin and end there. There we can walk the street of gold. There we can have conversations with people like King David or Moses or whoever you want. There is where you and your family can come to worship and leave after worship. That is the place into which we will reside. And you wonder how are all these people going to fit into heaven? Because we will have more landmass on this earth than we've ever had, because there is more ocean space on this earth than there's ever been land mass on this earth. And it's because of this and in this and through this that the things that you enjoy on this earth, all the things that you've enjoyed and all the relationships that you've built with your families and loved ones, and those, these things will still exist because your descendants will be with you. And you and your descendants, even the ones that you've never even met, isn't that incredible? That have known Jesus, you will have a perfect reunion and we will go together and we will worship the Lord. And we will enjoy the great parts of life. I don't want to get too far into it, but people are like, Pastor, like, there's no way you're going to be able to eat in heaven. Dude, Jesus Christ had just died, came back, and was sitting down with his disciples eating fish. But he was also walking through walls. Quit making heaven so small. Quit making my God small. You may want to make him small in your mind, don't make him small in mine. This is the King of Kings, Lord of Lord, God of gods, and he created all of this. The same Jesus Christ of Nazareth that walked on water, you're really going to try to tell me you have it figured out now? You don't. The scriptures do. And we will be able to be together in perfect harmony. No more sin, no more bad thoughts, no more evil. None. Done. Done. All the things you fight to do, like Paul said, the things I know I shouldn't do, I do, all those types of things. It won't even bother you. Hell has no rain. Satan won't be there. He has no ability. It will be God's original intent. And you and I will live together, and what we build will not ruin, and what we do will not ruin, and what we eat will not run. It will be perfect. I'm excited about it. So we don't lose heart, though the outer self in this life is wasting away. The inner self is being renewed daily because I know where I'm headed. Death will not sting. Death will not hurt me. For the moment that I close my eyes, I will open it and be ready to join the mission for what I was originally intended to be a part of. You don't have to fear death, church. This is the truth. For our life and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. You want to choose 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 100 years of this life to live for yourself when you can live for the King of Kings, which will give you a life for eternity that's better than anyone you could create here? Man, give me that deal every day of the week. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. I believe in it with everything that I've got, man. If I didn't, I wouldn't be up here preaching it to you. When we fix our eyes on heaven, suffering gains perspective. It's temporary. We invest in what lasts, people, generosity in God's kingdom. I don't need the shiniest things. I don't need the biggest home. I don't need any of those things. I don't need the most money. I just need the kingdom of God. I need his presence coming and leaving with me. I need I need his I need him to be the king of my life in my heart and in my home. I need him. I don't need anything else because what I need isn't here. It's gonna be with him. And he's bringing it. He's bringing it. So Matthew 19, 6 and 19 says it like this do not store for yourself up treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I need you to understand right now, in the city of Jerusalem, God is preparing things that you're storing up there. What do you mean, storing up there? Everything's eternal, guys. Every tear you cry in prayer, he's keeping, he's obsessed with you, he loves you, he's desire. You make the angels jealous because you can actually feel his presence living inside of you. He's passionate about you. Every time you choose to do something for the kingdom of God, he writes it down. I want you to know, put up your treasure where it actually matters, because soon you're gonna take your last breath, and everything you've worked for is going to show. You're not saved by your deeds or your good works. We know that. But if you are saved, you'll have good deeds and good works, my friends. That's a truth. We live with boldness and joy, knowing that this life is preparation for the next. We become heavenly minded and therefore of great earthly good. What's that old saying? Don't become so heavenly minded that you become no earthly good or something like that. That's trash. If you're heavenly minded, you're earthly good, baby. Because we bring heaven to earth. We change our community because we're citizens of that one. And I have the power of the Holy Spirit living in me and through me, and greater is he that's in the world. That's it. Through me. Colossians 3, 1 through 4 says it like this. Let me get through there. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above. If you if you've accepted Christ into your heart, you said, God, I'm killing the old man, I'm choosing the new one which you have created. God, I know that I've been raised with you, and I'm setting my heart on above, not the things of this world. I may be in the world, but I'm not of the world. My citizenship belongs to you. But man, I want the whole world to know how great you are. We're gonna set it on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Verse, sorry. Verse 2, set your mind on things above, not earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. This is a promise that you and I have. But the question is, will we pursue it? There was a woman, an incredible woman, Corey Tinboom. Don't know if you ever heard her story, but during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s, Corey and her family turned their Harlem home into an underground safe haven. They built a secret room behind a false wall in Corey's bedroom, providing shelter for Jews and resistance fighters. The family is credited with helping to rescue approximately 800 people. In February of 1944, a Dutch informant betrayed the family, and the Gestapo raided their home and arrested Corey, her sister Betsy, and their father Caspar. Caspar died in prison just 10 days later, while Corey and Betsy were eventually transferred to Ravensbrook concentration camp in Germany. Despite horrific starving conditions, Corey and Betsy held secret Bible studies and worship service in their barracks. Betsy died in the camp in December 1944, but just days later, Corey was released due to a clerical order. Days after her release, all other women in her age group were sent to the gas chamber. Following the war, Corey dedicated her life to traveling the world, speaking in over 60 countries about her survival, her unshakable faith in her family's life and in her life, and the radical power of forgiveness. She notably forgave the former Nazi guards who brutalized her and her sister. She detailed her family's incredible heroism and her time in the camps in her international best-selling memoir, The Hiding Place. Corey Tin Boom endured unimaginable suffering in concentration camps, and her hope in the coming resurrection and new earth gave her the strength to forgive others and love, knowing that one day she will be back with her sister and her father. This is the same type of hope that's available to you and I. Nothing is too small for his love. You know, this is such a true statement. Because we have access to heaven now. I hope you realize that. You have access to heaven now. When you get down on your knees, or you lay down on your floor, or you get in your bed, and you begin to talk to Jesus. I need you to know that he is listening, he is omnipresent, he's that good, he's that powerful. And do you know that when you begin to pray, that you begin to pray, things begin to happen. God doesn't care about me like that. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. God, God won't always answer the prayer that I want him to do. No, he won't always answer it the way I don't want him that I want him to. And thank God, because I only see the peaks in the valleys, I don't see the whole mountain range. But you know what? He does answer me. You know how he answers me, he gives me peace and joy, he gives me a life of fulfillment to be able to walk with him and know that he's near. And even in my brokenhearted season, he's there. He gave her the ability to keep her eyes on a hymn, even though they were being tortured in Nazi camps, the faith to keep moving because we believe what we see coming is where our home is. That we're not distracted by the fog. We're fully attuned to what's ahead. It's in this moment that I'm reminded that heaven's going to be big. There's a lot of stories and a lot of people like this. So I want to share with you what heaven's going to look like a little bit. This is what it's given to us in a vision. I'm done. Worship team of human or no. Yeah. No, we got community. We'll do that in a moment. After this, I looked. And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, and language. This is like day one of heaven, guys, for like everybody. This is gonna be cool. This is the vision he has. He was there. It's kinda cool. After this, I look, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, from every tribe, from every people and language. Standing before the throne, before the lamb. And they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. I get excited about it. You know what? I get excited about it. Because our minds can make heaven so small, but it's so big. I'm excited about it. You know what I'm excited about? I'm excited. I don't deserve it. I don't own it, earn it. If heaven's not a gift, I'm not getting in. But man, I can be in the very I can be the last person on the very back roll of everybody else with my palm branch, dude. And my white robe. I get so excited. And I can't wait to just be standing there and see somebody that I know and be like, man, praise God to see my family, see my grandma again. I hope I'm standing right beside her. My wife and my kids and her family and my family and those that I don't like just standing there in the presence of God. No more sickness. No more pain. Oh God. You lost a child, that child's gonna be right there with you. You lost someone you love, they're gonna be right there with you. For all who know Jesus Christ, for everyone that believes he made it so simple because he didn't want you to miss it. We're gonna be holding our palm branches together. And we're gonna be in Jerusalem, a city that is 1500 miles one way, 1500 miles another, 1500 miles behind us, 15 miles ahead, and it's gonna be perfect. It's gonna be perfect. Every tribe and every nation and every people and every language standing before the throne room of God. If you've never trusted Christ as your savior, today needs to be the day because I'm telling you that the spiritual warfare is only going to get stronger in these last days, and it's already evident. Listen to me. I'm gonna end worship team. You can't come back up actually. I don't care what affiliation you are, I'm a citizen of heaven. You know, you see this stuff on the news. Anybody been paying attention to like the UFO stuff? Yeah, you see that stuff coming out. All these declassified things. We've got the the series, the Netflix series, and Tim Burchett, who's in Washington from Tennessee. You know, you talk to him and he's very plain about it. This is what it is, this is what it is. You know, one of the members up there that I talked to, I've got a ton of pictures, but I asked, Do you believe in it? He's like, Well, it's something. We know it's something. We know it's something. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something? I know it's something too. I know it's something too. You want to know why? Because we live in a world of the supernatural. I'm not gonna go out on any crazy statement from a platform standpoint, but this is what I can tell you. I know that I believe more in the things that are unseen than the things that are seen. Because my Bible tells me to. And I believe his word is 100% true, and I believe that one day I will stand with you and I will stand along with a lot of other people before the Lord. Believers, this week, my challenge to you is to read Philippians chapter 3 and to pray and to get close to God and to let him stir your heart for your real home. Next Sunday, we're gonna continue the moment that you die and what you can expect in entering the present heaven. You'll disgrable, and you'll you'll discover the incredible joys that begin with the instant believers, or what happens instantly with believers when they hit death. But lastly, I want to end with this, and this is where I'm at. I sit with families and I sit with people all the time that go through so much heartache, that go through so much pain, that go through so much misery in this life. I've walked with people that from the time that they were born, they they they faced the biggest challenges in life, surgeries after surgeries after surgeries. I walk with people who are walking through some of the hardest hardships with cancer and and other disease and and battles, and I hate it. I hate it. And there's this reality that the enemy tries to get us to believe that when we die, that that's it, that there's nothing else. Guys, wake up. Wake up. My words right now will echo one day, but you gotta wake up because heaven is an arm length away. Would you stand with me? I believe in heaven because he tells me to. And he was killed, and he rose again, and he appeared again, and he ate with his disciples, and he went to heaven, and he was seen of 500, and the gospel spread all over the world, and all of those men were killed and bruised for the message. Nobody's doing that if it's not real, by the way. They did it for him, and because they did it, we're doing it, because I can promise you that when you close your eyes on this side of eternity, the things that are unseen are gonna be the realest things you've ever seen. That's it. I can give you more evidence for heaven. I can give you more evidence for Jesus Christ. I can give you more evidence for this gospel than I can give you for a lot of other things that you've seen in this world. That's how good he is. And I hope that you'll be encouraged and you'll start pursuing the kingdom of heaven. Pray with me this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you for your goodness. Lord, help me break it down each week for you. Let it be your kingdom, let it be your word. Lord, let us be excited, God. I'm excited because I know this isn't as good as it gets. There's more. There's more. Lord, I'm ready to see my loved ones. I'm ready to see those that I've lost. I'm ready to see my friends, but I'm ready to see you. Lord, I'm ready to walk in that city. I'm ready to do the things on that world. Lord, I'm ready. But Lord, let me, let me, let me bring heaven to earth now. Let me be what you've called me to be in this community. Let us be what you've called us to be in our homes. Let us be in filled with your joy and your power and your strength each day that comes from heaven. Lord, let us be more passionate and exciting about it than we've ever been. And Lord, let us not get distracted by the fog, but let us see that the shoreline is just a half a mile away. God, we thank you. We praise you and we worship you. In Jesus' name. Amen. At this time, I'm gonna invite