Beyond The Door Of Death: Heaven—Part 1
I’d like to ask you to take out your Bibles, now, and turn in them to the book of Hebrews and chapter number 11 in the book of Hebrews—Hebrews, chapter number 11.
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There is a base principle about life that everyone needs to come to understand, and that base principle in life is this: that in life, perspective is everything—perspective is everything in life. Just before the end of the Civil War, in 1864, a thirty-year-old lady by the name of Hetty Green inherited her father’s fortune which was worth, in that day, one million dollars. The equivalent in our day would be about twenty million dollars. So, in 1864, Hetty Green inherits the equivalent of twenty million dollars. And she did something with that money that she got; she decided to invest those dollars in Civil War bonds—many people weren’t buying them, but she did—and in a short time, her one million dollars became multiple millions of dollars. And you know what is interesting about Hetty Green is that Hetty Green lived like a pauper. She went to work everyday…in a bank. She would often pull out for lunch a ham sandwich that she’d jammed into her pocket that morning to eat. When her son was injured in a sledding accident, Hetty tried to get free treatment at a charity ward. She went to a charity ward asking for free treatment, but she was recognized and told that she would have to be charged for any treatment for her son. Well, she was unwilling to pay, and so she treated the wound herself. And then, later on, that wound festered and her son’s leg had to be amputated. And, ironically, at her death Hetty Green’s estate was worth more than one hundred million dollars, and that’s in Civil War dollars. In our dollars of today, she was worth nearly two times a billion.
Now, what was the issue there? Well, remember in life, perspective is everything, and Hetty Green lost sight of reality. And the interesting things is, that the same thing can happen to us, where we lose sight of reality. See, all too often, as believers in Jesus Christ, we can live as spiritual paupers; we can lose sight of the wealth of redemption that we have in Jesus Christ; we can lose sight of the treasure of the inheritance of heaven that is ours. And if truth be known, we spend far too many days living a shortsighted existence. We live far too many days of our life with an earthbound—if you will—mentality. And here’s what’s interesting, though. Having a clear view of reality—having one’s hope set on heaven—is a very key attribute of the people that are listed in Hebrews, chapter 11. We have God’s hall of fame, here in Hebrews 11; and having a clear view of reality, and having their hope set on heaven, was a key attribute in their life.
Look at chapter 11, verse 13—and has mentioned a number of people by name in the previous verses—and it says, “All these died in faith without receiving the promises; but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” See, is that really our everyday attitude that we have? Notice verse 14: “For those who say such [kinds of] things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.” Down to verse 16, “But as it is, they desire[d] a better country, that is a heavenly one.” You see, these individuals in God’s hall of fame had a clear view of reality, and they had their hope set on heaven.
Last week we launched in a series of messages that I have entitled, “Beyond The Door Of Death: The Bible On Heaven And Hell.” And last time we really did a general introduction to this subject matter. We did a very general introduction to heaven and the subject matter of hell, but we said the first thing we’re going to tackle in more depth would be the subject matter of heaven. That’s what we want to first investigate in more depth is heaven. And, today, we’re going to look at part number one, “Beyond The Door Of Death On Heaven.” Now, I want to share with you the plan of where we’re going to be going. This morning; we’re going to have a three-fold plan. First of all, we want to look at a problem that relates to heaven. And then, we’re going to look at the solution to that problem. And then—very quickly—we’re going to look at the basic A-B-C’s of heaven. That’s the very simple plan. We’re going to begin with a problem that relates to heaven—it’s a problem that I face and that you face—and then we’re going to look at the solution to that problem; and then we’re going to look at the A-B-C’s of heaven.
So, let’s begin by looking at this problem, and I believe it’s an everyday problem that I must struggle with and you must struggle with. And this problem that relates to heaven is this: earth limits our view of heaven—earth limits our view of heaven. And that is an everyday issue for me and for you. We talked a little bit, last time, about how heaven is part of the unseen dimension; heaven is beyond the door of death. There’s a door there that we don’t see beyond. Behind that is a really dark curtain of mystery for mankind. But here’s what’s interesting: because earth limits our view, it is very easy for us—very easy for us—to have a very narrow view of reality. See, it’s very easy for us, on an everyday basis—beginning like, for example, with our Monday tomorrow—to have a very narrow view of reality. It’s very easy for expectations to be limited to earth; it’s very easy for our dreams to be limited to earth, our plans to be limited to earth, and our hopes limited to earth. It’s very easy for that to happen. In fact, we are very vulnerable, because earth limits our view of heaven: to a pursuit of pleasure and greed and the here and now. We’re very vulnerable to that because earth limits our view of heaven. And to show just how vulnerable we are to that, just simply look around you and look around at the culture. What’s the culture doing? It’s in the pursuit of pleasure, the pursuit of greed, the pursuit of here and now. And that can be a real struggle for us because how much earth limits our view of heaven. It’s very easy for us—if we’re going to be honest—it’s very easy for us to be worshiping at the altar of temporalism. It just is, because earth limits our view of heaven.
And I really believe this at the core of my being, which is the basis for taking time out to do this study and not just doing it for one week, I believe we have a tremendous need—a great need—to have a biblical reality view of heaven. We have a great need for a biblical reality view of heaven.
You know, last time we talked about how even in the Christian community, today, heaven seems to have become an old-fashioned notion. Heaven is sort of functionally unimportant in the Christian life; it’s been somewhat banished to the outer reaches, because it’s viewed by many as an irrelevant issue. And there’s been a tremendous failure, even in the church of Jesus Christ and a failure in theological circles, to keep heaven as part of our everyday reality. Jurgen Moltmann, who is a German theologian, wrote these words; he said, “Present day Christian theology has not paid enough attention to the way heaven is talked about, and the Protestant theology of modern times has positively neglected heaven altogether.”
And as we look around, we find that heaven has nearly disappeared from our sermons; we find that heaven has nearly disappeared from our hymns and worship songs. Heaven has nearly disappeared from our everyday thoughts and discussions. When was the last time we really got involved in a deep discussion about heaven? Heaven has nearly disappeared; even from our prayers. And yet what’s interesting is, when you go back to Hebrews 11, you see that heaven is a key focal point for these folks—it is a key focal point for these believers in the hall of fame.
Now, when earth limits our view of heaven, that creates a problem for us, because we tend to be very earthbound in our thinking. And when we’re earthbound in our thinking—when heaven is denied, or heaven is just ignored—not only does it limit our view of reality, but it causes another problem. See, not only are we susceptible to the pursuit of pleasure and greed when we’re earthbound in our thinking, but when we’re earthbound in our thinking, it also leads to confusion and to calamity. I want you to understand that; I’m going to repeat that again: when we limited in our earthbound thinking—when heaven is denied or ignored—not only are we susceptible, you see, to the pursuit of pleasure and the pursuit of greed; but it also leads—there’s a ramification to it—it leads to confusion and calamity.
I want to read for you a quote by Joseph Stowell in his book, Eternity: Reclaiming A Passion For What Endures. And I’m going to read you a long quote. A lot of times I will tell young speakers, “Don’t read long quotes.” And I’m going to break that rule, because Stowell does such an outstanding job of taking what’s been happening in our society and capsulizing it in just a couple of paragraphs. This is fabulous. Especially if you’re a younger person, you need to listen carefully to this. This is what he writes.
“Look at where earth-side thinking has taken our society. In the final decades of the twentieth century…”—and now we’re in the twenty-first—“…America is more desperate and frustrated than ever before. The weight of unsolvable societal problems is crushing our national spirit. We find ourselves asking, ‘How did we get here from there?’ We can trace the decline to our university campuses, where academic leaders began to propagate the theories of rationalism and relativism.” And, by the way, you should be familiar with these terms. “In essence, they say that there is nothing supernatural and nothing that is absolute. Nothing is always wrong; nothing is always right. Rationalism and relativism leave no room for a righteous God and the reality of heaven.” Think about that for a minute. As you look back in history, “We were left to ourselves without God and an eternal home. Like children left at home alone, the results have been devastating. Earth-side philosophies soon gave rise to what we call pluralism.” That’s another word we ought to be familiar with. Pluralism is “the idea that everyone is entitled to believe whatever he or she wants to believe.” Now isn’t that what’s going on in our society?
“Men and women are entitled, pluralism says, to claim their own view of truth in themselves and about life in general. And as a result of such ‘modern thinking’…”—quote, unquote—“…tolerance has now become the highest value in our culture. Since nothing is right or wrong and, in essence, all are entitled to define what is right and wrong for themselves, we must be willing to believe that what everyone believes is equally valid; and as long as it does not hurt or violate someone else…”—doesn’t this sound pretty familiar?—“…as long as it doesn’t hurt or violate someone else, we must tolerate whatever someone chooses to do.” Now, what’s the ramification of that? “And so, each year about 1.5 million unborn children die by abortion. Variant sexual choices are offered to our children via the blackboards and video screens of their health and sex education classes in public schools. In the name of tolerance prayer has been taken out of our schools and condoms have been put into the schools.”
Now, he says this: “Many secularists celebrate this [celebrate this] as a season of enlightenment in America. They call it progress, and they say, ‘Our minds have finally been liberated from the shackles of the old Victorian, Judeo-Christian mindset. Now we’re free to think and do as we see best.’ ” But, he says, “The devastating outcome of a world with no God and heaven to hold us accountable is measured in an increase in crime, disease, substance abuse, and overall instability. Without God there is no solution, only increasing despair.” Now, listen to this: “Unlike those who make choices based on this world’s value system, authentic Christians fix their hearts and minds on eternity and make choices based on heaven’s value system.”
See, the problem that we have to fight, and we have to fight this every single day, is that earth limits our view of heaven. Now listen carefully, here. If we live as if heaven is not relevant, do you know what happens? We diminish our opportunity to be light in a dark world. If we live as if heaven is not relevant, we are diminishing our ability to be light. I mean, why should others look to Jesus Christ if we are fellow-victims of the hollowness of this world? This is a problem, that earth limits our view of heaven.
But I want you to know there is a solution to the problem—there is a solution to the problem. And the solution to the problem of earth limiting our view of heaven is that we set our hope on heaven. Now, when I say that, that seems like a rather insignificant thing to say, but it’s not. The solution to earth limiting our view is that we set our hope on heaven. And you must understand the power of focus—the power of focus.
Many of you, perhaps, heard about the man John Goddard and his Life List that he made out. Interesting little list. It contains 127 goals, and what he did is, he was in his kitchen in Los Angeles, and he took out a yellow pad, and he put at the top ‘My Life List,’ and he decided to write down a bunch of goals. He was just a teenager, at the time, and he wrote down 127 things at the age of fifteen. Since then, he’s now completed 108 of the goals. Now, what I want you to understand is, these weren’t just simple little goals, you know, like ‘buy a bicycle,’ or something like that. These weren’t simple, easy goals. They included things like climbing all of the world’s major mountains, exploring the vast waterways of the world such as the Nile, the Amazon, and the Congo rivers. One of his goals was running a mile in five minutes—that’s a pretty difficult thing for ‘Joe Average’ to do. He had down, on his list of goals, reading the complete works of Shakespeare. Now, that would have not been on my personal list of goals, but it was on his. Another one was reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.
Now, 127 goals; he’s gotten 108 of them done by the time this was printed. How did he do that? How did he accomplish so many of these amazing goals? Because he fixed, you see, his attention on that—completing his list—and that, you see, is the power of focus. And what we need to do, as believers in Jesus Christ—as a solution to the problem of earth limiting our view—is we need to set our hope on heaven—we need to set our hope on heaven. And you know what? We would not be the first people that ever did that. When you look back at chapter 11 in Hebrews, that’s exactly what these saints, who are in the hall of fame, did. That’s exactly what they did.
Look at Abraham, at chapter 11, verse 9. It says, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, [and] fellow heirs of the same promise…”—notice verse 10—“For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” What was he doing? He set his hope on heaven.
Look at Moses, in chapter 11, verse 25; how Moses chose to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. You know, there are a lot of passing pleasures that come with sin, and we have a lot of them available to us. In fact, Moses had a greater availability to them, and to be able to get them. He grew up in a power position; he had all the wealth that he needed to pursue it. But he chose not to pursue those things. Notice verse 26, “…considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt…”—and then, there’s a key phrase—“…for he was looking to the reward.” He set his hope on heaven, you see. And all us have been called by God, as believers in Jesus Christ, to do exactly the same thing—to set our hope on heaven.
Turn a few pages to the right to the letter of 1 Peter; 1 Peter, chapter 1. We see how Peter tells the believers it’s important that we set our hope on heaven. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3; he’s just, in his opening comments, talking to these believers, and he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain…”—notice verse 4—“…an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…”. He’s saying, believers set your hope there! Remember the power of focus!
Turn with me to the left a little bit to the book of Colossians, and chapter number 1 of Colossians. And, again, we have the opening comments to a group of believers, in Colossians—this time from Paul—and he says in verse 3 of Colossians 1, “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of…”—notice verse 5—“…the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel…”. He’s saying, listen believers, you’ve got to set your hope there; you’ve got to set your hope on heaven!
Now, it seems like, when we talk about setting our hope on heaven, there’s always some skeptics who step up to the plate and they say, “Wait a minute! You talk about setting your focus on heaven; that…that’s really a pretty fruitless, frivolous kind of thing to do. You do that; you’re not going to be any earthly good to anybody.” But, you know, the hope of heaven—our hope—is one of the base tri-virtues of the Christian life. If you study your way through the New Testament, there are three base virtues that we are to cultivate in our life. Those virtues are faith, hope, and love. And the hope refers to lifting our eyes outside of this world, you see, and setting our hope on heaven.
I like the way C. S. Lewis puts it. He says, “This means that a continual forward look to the eternal world is not, as some modern people think, a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but it’s one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who just thought the most about the next.” See, you’ve got to remember the power of focus.
You see, here’s what’s very important: when we set our hope on heaven…when we set our hope on heaven, it makes a difference—it makes a difference. And that’s what C. S. Lewis was alluding to. You see, it makes a difference in how we deal with our possessions. When we set our hope on heaven, it makes a difference on how we deal with our pain and difficulty in our life. When we set our hope on heaven, it makes a difference on how we view our career, how we view time, how we view people. When we set our hope on heaven, it makes a difference; it makes a difference on how we deal with our possessions. Are our possessions something to be just stockpiled here, or are our possessions a commodity to be used for eternal benefit? You see, it makes a difference when we set our hope on heaven. It makes a difference on how we deal with pain and difficulty. You see, if…if the pain and the difficulty we’re going through is a temporary thing—that there are better days ahead—then it’s less likely to damage us. Makes a difference when we set our hope on heaven. Makes a difference in how we view our career. See, our career, if we set our hope on heaven, is not something just for mere self-gratification and personal aggrandizement—to see how good we can be or how high we can climb. Rather, our career becomes a platform from which Christ can be seen in our life and the kingdom can be advanced.
When we set our hope on heaven, it makes a difference; it…it makes a difference…you know, even at the retiree level it makes a difference, if you’ve set your hope on heaven. If you’re a retiree—you’ve set your hope on heaven—you don’t spend your final years saying, “Well, I worked for a while; now it’s just time to lounge around.” No, if you’ve set your hope on heaven, you are seeking ways to invest your time that you have, to invest the wisdom and skills that you have developed, and to invest the goods that you have for the cause of Christ.
Some of you have heard that there was an automobile accident on Saturday, and Donna Vermillion’s 82-year-old father was killed. But what you don’t know is what he was on the way to do. Eighty-two years old, and he was doing the same thing that he did six days a week, and that is he went out in ministry with the Mennonite Disaster Service here in Oklahoma, ministering and helping and serving. Now, there is a man who had his hope set on heaven. And when you do that, it makes a difference, you see, in how you’re living your life.
It makes a difference on how you view time, if you’ve set your hope on heaven. Teaching a Sunday School class is not simply taking care of some kids so that the parents have some time together in a big room. No, spending some time teaching some kids with a view to heaven is: maybe some lives will be affected for Jesus Christ; some lives that will affect other lives long after I’m out of here and they’re still here. You see, setting our hope on heaven makes a big difference in how we view our time; even if we have to do “behind-the-scenes” work; even if we’re over there changing diapers or we’re doing some kind of odd jobs. Everything changes, you see, when you have your hope set on heaven.
And here’s what I believe—and, again, this is one of the reasons why we’re going to spend some time looking at heaven. I really believe this: I believe we need to re-program our minds. I believe that for myself, and I believe that for you. I believe we need to train our hearts to look beyond this world to the next world. We need to set our hope on heaven…we need to do that. The problem is that earth limits our view. The solution to that is that we set our hope on heaven. Remember the power of focus.
Now, the third thing we want to do, this morning—because we want to begin to investigate heaven in a lot more detail—is I want to lay out what I’m calling the A-B-C’s of heaven. It’s just some basic information about heaven. We’re going to look at three things related to the A-B-C’s of heaven. The first thing we’re going to look at is that there are three heavens in the Bible. These are just the A-B-C’s; just basic information—there are three heavens in the Bible. Let me give them to you. Number one, there is the atmospheric heavens—the atmospheric heavens—and I’ll give you some references; 1 Kings 21, verse 24—1 Kings 21:24—talks about the birds of heaven. See, the first heaven we have in the Bible is the atmospheric heaven. This is where the eagles fly and where the airplanes fly. Isaiah 55:10—Isaiah 55:10—talks about how rain and snow come down from heaven. There it’s referring to the atmospheric heavens. So, that’s number one, in terms of the three heavens in the Bible; we have the atmospheric heavens.
Number two, in the Bible, we have the heavens of outer space—the heavens of outer space. Turn with me to the book of beginnings in your Bible; that is, the very first one; that is, the book of Genesis, which is what genesis means—”beginnings.” And I want you to see second use of this idea of heaven, in the Bible, which is the heavens of outer space. In Genesis, chapter 1, verse 14—this is part of the creation—“…God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens…’ ”. Now, He’s not talking about the atmospheric heavens, here; He’s talking about outer space, “ ‘…to separate the day from the night…’ ”. He’s going to talk about the Sun and the Moon; “ ‘…and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and [for] years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth;’ and it was so. And God made…two great lights, the greater light to govern the day…”—that’s the Sun—“…and the lesser light to govern the night…”—that’s the Moon. And, notice, He says, “…He made the stars also. And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” So, the second kind of heaven that we have in the Bible are the heavens of outer space, where the Sun, and the Moon, and the stars and…and countless galaxies are to be found.
Then, the third heaven in the Bible is what we might call the highest heaven—the highest heaven. You have the atmospheric heavens, the heavens of outer space, and then you have the highest heaven. In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul talks about how he was caught up to the—as he calls it—the third heaven. He said, I was caught up, not to the atmospheric heavens, not to the heavens of outer space, but to the third heaven—to the highest heaven. And this is the heaven that is beyond outer space, that is beyond the entire universe; that is in another dimension. So we’re just giving you some basic A-B-C’s about heaven, and the first element of those A-B-C’s is that there are three heavens in the Bible—three of them.
Now, the second element in the A-B-C’s is this: the third heaven is God’s dwelling place—the third heaven is God’s dwelling place. Turn to Psalm 33. We’re just covering A-B-C’s about heaven, here. Psalm 33. The third heaven is God’s dwelling place. Psalm 33, verse 13—Psalm 33, verse 13—“The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men…”. Verse 14, in Hebrew parallelism, “From His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth…”. You see, heaven—this third heaven, the highest heaven—that is God’s dwelling place. Now, some of you are perhaps thinking, if you have your theological thinking caps on, “Well, wait a minute. I don’t understand this. I remember learning, early on in my Christian life, that God is omnipresent—that God is present everywhere. If God is present everywhere, what do we mean ‘heaven is God’s dwelling place’?” Well, I think John MacArthur does a good job of summarizing this. He says this: “To say that God dwells in heaven is not to say that He is contained there, but it is uniquely His home, His center of operations, His command post. It is the place where His throne resides, and it’s where the most perfect worship of Him occurs. It is in that sense that we say that heaven is His dwelling place.”
So, we’re just looking at some A-B-C’s. The first one is that there are three heavens in the Bible; the second A-B-C principle is that the third heaven is God’s dwelling place. The third part of the A-B-C’s we’re going to look at today—just the basics about heaven—and we mentioned this last time, and that is this: that heaven’s doorknob is on God’s side—heaven’s doorknob is on God’s side. See, we can’t even get there without His help. I mean, we can’t even get into the outer reaches of outer space, right now. We certainly can’t get to the third heaven—the highest heaven—without His help. In fact, the only way that we’re going to gain any awareness of heaven; the only way we’re going to gain any comprehension of heaven; the only way we’re going to gain any knowledge of heaven is if God tells us, or if He opens the door—if He opens the door. And the exciting thing about it is that God has opened the door.
Later on, you might want to look in Ezekiel, chapter 1; because in Ezekiel 1, guess what happens? God opens the door to the third heaven, and Ezekiel goes on a little tour. Last time, we looked very briefly at Revelation, chapter 4, where God opens the door of heaven for John.
Now, let me ask you a question. Can you think of anything more intriguing than this? Can you think of anything more exciting than this? Can you think of anything that could be more intriguing and exciting than being invited into the third heaven for a tour? What I want you to know—Lord willing—next week that’s what we’re going to begin to do. We’re going to go along with the apostle John into a tour of heaven, and we’re going to look, in some depth, at Revelation, chapters 4 and 5. And we’re going to be looking in weeks ahead, in some depth, at Revelations, chapter 21 and 22. I can’t think of anything that’s more intriguing and exciting than that; to get a tour of the third heaven, or the highest heaven. That’s what’s ahead of us.
Now, as we leave our time together around the Word, you know we have a commitment to want to not just be in the word and then walk away the same person. And so, we want to suggest some life steps that we can all take; some life steps that you can take, this week. And I want to suggest two of them. Number one is to evaluate; number two is to investigate—to evaluate and to investigate.
The first life step I think we can take is that we need to evaluate. Remember the power of focus. What I want you to do is take a piece of paper, and you can make two columns. You can write ‘temporal’ and you can write ‘eternal’ across the top, and then, to the left, there’s some items you can list. You see, if our focus is merely on the here and now, we’re going to be operating one way. If our focus is with a view towards our future home, we’re going to be operating in another way. So then, to the left on this piece of paper, you can just write the word ‘possessions.’ And do some evaluation. How am I dealing with my possessions? Am I stockpiling them? That would go under the ‘temporal’ column—is that my orientation? Or, am I viewing possessions as a commodity for eternal benefit? You can write down, on the left, ‘pain and difficulty’—what’s my focus? Is it a temporal focus, so I’m allowing pain and difficulty to devastate my life; or is my focus more of an eternal focus, where I’m viewing the pain and difficulty as temporary, knowing there are better days ahead?
You can write the word ‘career’ on the left. How am I viewing my career? Is this my own self-glamorization, self-promotion, I want to be cool, I want to get to a certain level? Or is my career a platform where Christ can be seen shining through me? You see, that tells us what kind of focus we’re having as we evaluate. Write down the word ‘time.’ Am I spending my time in sort of just a frivolous way, or am I viewing time as an eternal resource that can affect other people for the kingdom? Write down ‘people’ there. I mean, how am I viewing people; what’s my focus on people? Are they just people that I’m kind of existing with in life, or are they people that I should be sharing my hope in Jesus Christ with; that I have the opportunity to influence for the kingdom of Jesus Christ?
I believe the first life step we need to take is to evaluate. And while we’re evaluating, it’s always good to be praying and saying, “God, where should I be making some shifts?”—letting the Spirit of God touch your heart a little bit. So, the first life step is to evaluate.
The second life step I’m going to suggest that we all take this week is to investigate. I believe it is vital, if we’re going to re-program our minds—if we’re going to train our hearts to hope in heaven—we need to investigate more about it. And as I stated, we’re going to move into—Lord willing, next week—Revelation, chapter 4. I would encourage you to read Revelation, chapter 4 and 5. I would encourage you to read ahead to Revelation, chapter 21 and 22. In fact, you might want to read everything in between, because it’s going to talk about some incredible last events on earth in those chapters in between. But we need to investigate, and re-program our mind, and train our hearts to hope in heaven.
Let’s pray together. Father, we thank You for the inspiration that we have from Scripture of men and women who’ve done it before us. And we pray, Father, that in the coming weeks that You will begin to re-shape the hearts of the men and women in this church, including myself; that we might begin to re-program our minds; that we wouldn’t be ‘Hetty Green’ kind of people who’ve lost sight of reality. Father, teach us, over the coming weeks, the power of focus and how much—more than I think we even can imagine—how much, when we set our hope on heaven, it will make a difference on how we live our life. Thank You for calling us into heaven. What a joy it’s going to be to learn more about it. We look forward to it with excitement, and we thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen.