The Heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22) | Worship Service

Good morning. This is new. Hang on a second. Sorry about that.

We are trying to fit everybody. So once again, if everybody can scoot in toward the center, we can have our wonderful ushers help find people a place to sit. That'd be great. Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning with a reading out of Psalm 144.

Verses one to four say, blessed be Yahweh my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle, my loving kindness and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.

Oh, Yahweh, what is man that you know him? For the son of man that you think of him, man is like a breath. His days are like a passing shadow. So before we sing Psalm 144, let's open up with the doxology.

I'm going to ask you to turn your Bibles to Psalm 132, Psalm 132.

And I just have one announcement while you're turning there, and that is that our church picnic is next week, immediately after our service. It'll be out here on the lawn and around the church building.

So you might want to bring some shade apparatuses and some lawn chairs to sit in. And then the other details for that are in the bulletin, including a link for you to register if you want to have the tri-tip, the smoked tri-tip that will be part of that.

It's always interesting on Sunday mornings that I get up here to make this announcement, and then there are email notifications on my screen telling me that somebody has already registered today. So people are still registering.

You have time probably till the end of the day today, and then that link will go down. The reason we're doing that is so we know exactly how much meat to buy for that potluck. So next week, it's not going to be the honor system.

You will have an invisible mark on either the back of your right hand or your forehead, and that will be the only way that you'll be able to buy and sell tri-tip. Psalm 132, a song of a sense. Remember, O Lord, on David's behalf, all his affliction, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob.

Surely I will not enter my house nor lie on my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah.

We found it in the field of Jar. Let us go into his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness and let your godly ones sing for joy.

For the sake of David, your servant, do not turn away the face of your anointed. The Lord has sworn to David a truth from which he will not turn back. Of the fruit of your body, I will set upon your throne.

If your sons will keep my covenant and my testimony, which I will teach them, their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever. For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever.

Here I will dwell for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her needy with bread. Her priests also I will clothe with salvation, and her godly ones will sing aloud for joy.

There I will cause the horn of David to spring forth. I have prepared a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown shall shine. You stand with me as we pray.

Our Father, it is entirely as an operation of your grace and your goodness that we gather here before you today to worship you, to enjoy our fellowship one with another, our singing, our time around your word, our meditation upon the truth.

You have called us out of this world, out of darkness into light for this very purpose. You have granted us faith to believe. You have turned us from our sin. You have opened our eyes so that we may see and behold Christ and count him as precious.

And then you have drawn us to yourself so that we may offer to you worship and praise and glory. And even what we enjoy here is merely a glimpse of the glory that is to come. It is a glimpse of the honor and praise which we will give you for all of eternity at Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

We long for that day when we will be able to worship you and praise you without any distractions of heart or mind, that we will be able to do so without any inclinations of sin, any impure motives or thoughts.

That our every heart's desire will be only holy and completely acceptable to you. So we pray today that our time of worship and fellowship in and around your word may be a glimpse of that, that you would be honored in the hearts of your people.

And through our time and through the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts for the glory of Christ, our Lord and our King, who will reign over us gladly for all of eternity.

Amen.

45 verses 22 and 23. Turn to me and be saved. All the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back.

That to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. We're going to end our music service this morning and sing Turn Your Eyes.

Look faintly down. Now in your copy of God's word to Hebrews chapter 12,.

Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to read our verses here in just a moment, but let's bow in a word of prayer before we begin. Our father is our great desire that we would hear from you in the pages of your word today.

We thank you that you have revealed to us everything that is necessary for life and godliness. And you have revealed to us even more than is necessary for life and godliness. You have revealed to us details about our future and our destiny that are here for us to unlock and to love and appreciate and to look forward to.

And we pray today that you would open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to these truths, that you would comfort our hearts, correct us where we are misunderstanding and ignorant concerning our future destiny.

And we pray that you would be glorified today through the preaching of your word and our meditation on this truth in Christ's name.

Amen.

The Tragedy of Ignorance About Heaven

Well, you've probably all seen the man on the street interviews where somebody comes up to somebody on the street and asks them a series of questions and they get these questions wrong. And we're not talking about gotcha questions like, you know, how much does the number nine weigh or anything like that, but questions that are fundamental and basic questions that any of us who are over 40 probably knew the answer to before we ever got into seventh grade.

Questions like, what year or what day did America declare its independence? From what country did America declare its independence? What century was the Civil War fought? Who was the first president of the United States?

Questions like that. And then you have seen people who stumble over the answers to that who are unfamiliar with any of that history or that past. And it is a kind of ignorance that is tragic. And the ignorance in our nation has tragic consequences because there are a number of ramifications that come out of such an ignorance of our past.

We live in a society where that ignorance is pandemic almost. It's an epidemic in our nation. We live in a country of people who are so easily deceived because they do not know the history of our country.

And therefore, they have no ability to understand what has brought them this great amount of freedom and luxury and opulence and security that they enjoy to this day. They don't know what has secured that.

They don't know anything about the sacrifices that have been made, the people who have made it possible, the economic system that has created it. And so they're able to sit on their cell phones and tweet out these ignorant things on social media about how horrible the world in which we live is.

And in fact, we have made tremendous amount of progress and we live in one of the best periods of time in human history. But we live among a people who are, it's almost a national experiment in national ignorance.

And I'm afraid that it's, at this point, irreversible and irreparable. We're now three generations into this experiment and I don't think that that bodes well for the future of our country. I don't think that it can be reversed and I don't think that it can be stopped, at least not at a national level.

But there is something that is even more tragic than an American citizen who does not know their history, and that is a citizen of heaven who does not know their destiny. That's even more tragic. There are churches who are filled with Christians who expect to go to heaven, they have loved ones who have gone to heaven, they have some concept that heaven is going to be grand and glorious and enjoyable in some way, but they don't have any kind of an idea of what heaven actually is or what it is that they have to look forward to.

Every believer in Christ is convinced that there is a heaven and they are convinced that they are going there by virtue of their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ and their repentance because of what Christ has done, that this ticket, this entrance into heaven, has been purchased for them by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're really not sure what it is that they are to expect.

And so some people think that heaven is standing around for all eternity, gazing into a bright light, that you are so transfixed by this bright light, it's a beautiful vision, it's brightness, and then once in a while you'll look away and you still have the glory of that brightness in your eye, like you look at the sun and then everywhere you look, you can see a remnant of the sun, but then you go right back to gazing at that bright light, and that's it, that's all of eternity, gazing into a bright light that emanates from the throne of God.

For some people, that's their concept of heaven. Some people's concept of heaven is that they are standing around in the clouds, dressed in white robes, running into people, most of whom they don't know, don't have a clue who they are, but every once in a while, they'll stumble across somebody that they're familiar with, whose paths they crossed on earth, and so they get to shake hands, reminisce a little bit, chit-chat, and then kind of move on to somebody else, go look for somebody else in this massive crowd of floating around in the clouds.

And then there's this old wives' tale about heaven that says we're going to spend eternity floating around, flying around heaven with our newly minted wings, playing harps in the clouds, singing to one another, and that once in a while, we'll be commissioned to come back to earth and touch somebody so that they can say they've been touched by an angel and that they can become an angel someday and then come back to earth and touch somebody else.

And so it's sort of a pay-it-forward thing. A lot of people think that's what heaven is about. Now, I think I could speak for you when I would say that none of that sounds even remotely appealing to me, not even remotely appealing.

So if that's your vision of heaven, and you've said up until now, I'm not sure what heaven is, but at least it's not the alternative, which is hell. At least I get to avoid the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, the fire that never ends, the worms that consume and never consume me, the constant dying but never experiencing death.

It's not a cessation of existence. It's pouring out of the wrath of God for me, upon me for my sin, goes on and on forever. I don't know what heaven is, but if it's not that, I can be content with it because I'd rather be bored than be miserable, right?

I mean, boredom is a kind of misery, but at least not a painful misery. So I'll take heaven as long as I don't have to go to hell. And so it's no surprising that when an idea about heaven like that gets into the bloodstream of Christian culture and into the thinking of Christian churches and into the minds of Christian people, that there is no interest whatsoever, not only in going to heaven, but even in researching heaven and finding out what it is, what heaven is like, what it is about.

Listen, our ignorance concerning our destiny is completely inexcusable. It is more inexcusable than our ignorance regarding our past, because the past is behind us. If you were going to a distant land, you were going to spend a week there and you've never been to that distant land.

You would spend weeks, months, maybe years, saving up, looking forward to it, researching it, figuring out who's going to be there, what are we going to do? What events are going on when I'm going to be there?

How am I going to get there? Once I get there, who am I going to meet? What am I going to see? What am I going to eat? What's the culture like? What's the food like? What's the people like? What are the activities like?

You spend weeks researching that, preparing yourself, getting ready, getting it into your head, thinking through every last step of it, and yet you're going someplace for eternity. How much time have you spent really thinking and researching and studying what that's going to be?

You see, our ignorance of heaven is completely inexcusable. So I am going to hope today, we'll see how well I do this, to remedy some of that ignorance, if you have that, regarding heaven. So if you're here and you've already studied this and you know what it is that you can expect because you've read some good theological books on it and you know what it is that you're supposed to anticipate, then I'm hoping that today for you, this will be just sort of an overview of sorts that will help sort of whet your appetite again and sort of inflame your heart in thankfulness and affection to Christ for what he has done to make this possible.

But if you're ignorant about heaven today, then I'm hoping that I will remedy some of that today and at least whet your appetite to do some further research and study on this subject. So you'll know what this place is that you're going to spend eternity in.

All right.

Heaven as the First Blessing of the New Covenant

Hebrews 12, verse 2, so great is our eternal home that this destiny called heaven is actually stands at the top of this list of blessings in verses 22 through 24 that have been secured for us by the blood of Christ through the new covenant.

There are seven of them there. Verse 22 mentions heaven, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. And then there are six other blessings that are listed there.

The heavenly Jerusalem is the first one. Myriad of angels in the general assembly. That's number two. Then the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. God, the judge of all spirits of the righteous made perfect.

Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and the sprinkled blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel. Heaven stands at the top of that list because everything else on that list is either in heaven or will be in heaven.

And everything else on that list is going to be delighted in and enjoyed in heaven. And is either now or will be for all of eternity. So really, the city that is described in verse 22, everything else in the list belongs to that city.

So that city sort of stands at the top. It's sort of the umbrella statement. We have not come to Sinai. That's verse 18 and 19 and 20 and 21. Instead, we have come to Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

Those are three designations for our heavenly destiny. The city of the living God, Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem, three descriptions of our eternal destiny. And each one of them is loaded with significance and meaning.

And each one of them tells us many different things about our eternal home. So here's what we're going to do today. We're not going to go through all seven of these like you might've expected, but we are going to get through all three of those, I promise.

We'll stretch those three out beyond today. But I want to focus on heaven. I want to focus on our heavenly home, the new Jerusalem, this place where we will spend forever and ever and ever and ever together.

If you were in Jesus Christ, that's our goal today. Let's look at these three designations. First to Mount Zion. First to Mount Zion. Verse 22, you have not, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God and the heavenly Jerusalem.

The first description is Mount Zion. Mount Zion is contrasted, you remember, with Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai was the mountain in verse 18 where God's judgment and his law was given and God's judgment was felt at Sinai.

There was this separation between men and God. You remember that? And the condemnation and nobody could approach onto Mount Sinai. It was not a welcoming environment. It was the place where the law came down and where men were condemned.

And that was the symbol of Sinai. Zion is completely opposite. Zion is where God dwells with his people. Sinai is where God appeared to his people. God appeared at Sinai, but he dwells at Zion. God came to his people at Sinai, but he dwells with his people at Zion.

So Zion is a much more welcoming environment. Sinai was frightening and trembling and it's fortunate for us that Sinai is not the symbol for God's eternal dwelling and for us in heaven.

Why?

Because then we'd forever have this image in our minds of separation from God and terror and condemnation and judgment and wrath. We'd have that in our minds, but instead, Zion is where God dwells with his people, where God is worshiped, where he is adored, where we commune.

It's where we approach God through the blood of the sacrifice. That's Zion. So in order for us to understand what Zion is, we have to have a little bit of information regarding how it is used in scripture.

And this will be the, probably the shortest and the briefest section of what I'm doing here today. Zion is actually a hill in Jerusalem. It's an actual hill. It's not just a symbolic reference to some spiritual idea that is in the land of Israel.

It's an actual physical hill in Jerusalem, one of the mountains upon which the city of Jerusalem is built. In fact, if you were with us in Israel back in February, you stood on Mount Zion. When we went through the remnants of the palace of David, south of the city of the Temple Mount there in Jerusalem, we're walking through that palace.

You were walking on Mount Zion. And then when you stood outside of the wall of David's palace and we had that devotional there, you were sitting on Mount Zion. It's an actual physical mountain there. It goes back, it is mentioned 150 times in the Old Testament, 38 times in the book of Psalms, which described the glory of God that dwells there.

It's his dwelling place. It's the describes the worship that happens there. And then it is mentioned 47 times in the prophets, which really describe in most references there, the future of Zion, a future reality, a future blessing, a future glory of that location.

The first time we read the word Zion is in 2 Samuel 5, verse 7, which describes David's capture of the city in 1000 BC. Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion. That is the city of David. It was a Canaanite city known as the city of Jebus at the time.

David captured it with his mighty men, turned it into the capital city for his kingdom. And it was from that point forward known as Jerusalem or as the city of David. It's appropriate, then, that as the city, as the capital city for the nation of Israel, the seat of David's throne, that that would become the place where God would appear to David and give him that promise that we read in Psalm 132, that describes God seating one of David's descendants upon his throne, promising David to do that and saying, I will not turn back from this.

This is still a plan. I'm going to sit somebody upon your throne and I'm going to give to that person your kingdom. So that is going to happen in the very city of Jerusalem that we see today. The Temple Mount later became known as Zion.

Now, the Temple Mount is a little bit north of Mount Zion. It was actually Mount Moriah. So originally Mount Zion was the city of David. It was just a hilltop city enclosed by a wall that David conquered.

Then David, after David, Solomon moved the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle up onto the Temple Mount, which was Mount Moriah, which was to the north of Mount Zion. Now, when I say moved it up and away from, don't think in terms of hundreds of miles, think in terms of hundreds of yards.

And when I say mountains, don't think of the mountains like we have around here, not those kind of mountains. And it's not like Switzer and Baldy. We're not talking about that kind of distance. We're talking about something you could throw a rock a couple of times and you basically gone the distance.

They're very close to one another. So after the Ark was moved up onto Mount Moriah, then the city of David and the worship complex, which were right next to each other, that whole thing became known as Zion.

So Zion then was a reference to where the Ark sat, where God met with his people, where the priest offered the sacrifices, where the priest interceded for the people of God. That became Mount Zion. After that, Mount Zion then expanded its meaning even more.

The idea was expanded even more to refer to the entire city of Jerusalem and that entire city complex. So the city of David, Mount Zion, Mount Moriah, that was all referred to as Zion. And anybody who, by the way, was a citizen of those cities was referred to as a citizen of Zion.

It is called the city of God. Psalm 46, verse four. There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. Psalm 48, verse two, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the far North, the city of the great King.

You notice there's not just a mountain that is a hill there upon which David's palace sat, but it is now an entire city. The entire city of Jerusalem is referred to as Zion. It's also the seat of God's anointed King, Psalm two, verse six.

But as for me, I have installed my King upon Zion. That is God's declaration that he will install his Messiah upon Mount Zion. And what Zion is he talking about? The actual Zion that's in the city of Jerusalem, that is the city of Jerusalem.

It became the place of God's dwelling, Zion did, became a way of referring to the place of God's dwelling. Psalm nine, verse one, sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion. Psalm 132, verses 13 and 14.

We read this earlier. For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. Became a place of pilgrimage. It became associated with deliverance and salvation.

Psalm 20, verse two. May he send you help from the sanctuary and support you from Zion. It was the place of worship where the people of God approached God through the blood of the sacrifice, where the priests interceded for the people for whom they had made the sacrifice.

Eventually, as you can see the trajectory here, all of Israel came to be referred to as Zion. God had chosen that whole land and had given it to his people. So it was not just the mountain. It was not just the temple complex.

It was not just the city. Eventually, all of Israel was referred to as Zion. That was the place where God dwelt. It was his land.

He chose it.

He set his throne there in Jerusalem. So that was the capital city, but Zion became the entire nation of Israel. And this has eschatological significance because there is some, there is a glorious future for the city of Zion and for the land of Israel.

Micah chapter 4 verses 6 through 8 says that someday, one day in the future, God himself will reign in Zion. Malachi, Micah chapter 4, in that day declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather the outcasts, even those whom I have afflicted.

I will make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion. That has never happened to today. It will. Which Zion? The one Micah was talking about.

The one I've been describing in the land of Israel. The Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion. From now on and forever. But as for you,.

Tower of the flock,.

Hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come. Even the former dominion will come. The kingdom of the daughter of Zion. That is God's promise. Isaiah 35. This is a familiar passage to most of us. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up to it.

These will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there and the ransom to the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy and sorrow and fleeing will flee away.

During the 1000 year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem over the entire world, you and I will get a glimpse of the ultimate Zion, the Zion that is to come. So there is a heavenly Zion. There is a heavenly city.

But in order for us to understand what that heavenly kingdom looks like, we have to see how it is that God has played out his plan here on Earth with his king, his reign, his seat, his promises, his land, his nation, and his city.

And once we get a glimpse of what that looks like, then we can say, OK, heaven is going to be that, but on steroids, much better, much greater. So there is a future for Zion. And there's tremendous overlap, by the way, between earthly Jerusalem and heavenly Jerusalem, between the earthly Zion and heavenly Zion, between that earthly kingdom, that earthly rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ described in Revelation 20 and the heavenly reality, which will be the continuation of that for all of eternity in the new heavens and the new earth.

The City of the Living God and the Heavenly Jerusalem

So it's described as Mount Zion. Second, it's described as a city, city of the living God. By the way, to give you another contrast between Sinai and Zion, if you went to Sinai and looked up, you would look at the top of the mountain, you'd say you could never build a city up there.

Why? Because it's just this massive rock outcropping. It is not even in the least bit attractive. It's not beautiful. You wouldn't describe that as beautiful. You would describe it as rather ugly and unimpressive.

Nobody would think to build a city up there because you can have water, vegetation, nothing like that. You don't have anything delightful or appealing at all. But Zion, that's the land that flows with milk and honey.

It's right next to the Jordan River. It's in a stone's throw. I mean, not literally, but it's close to the Jordan River. It's right there nearby. It's a plush land, a glorious land. Now, Mount Zion, you can build a city on top of that mountain, but not Sinai.

Sinai was foreboding and unwelcoming. Zion is welcoming and inviting, glorious, beautiful, luxuriant. It's described as a city. In fact, what's interesting is that heaven in Scripture is described as both a city and a country.

Both a city and a country. You say, why is that? I think you'll see in just a moment why that is. But heaven is described as both a city and a country. Remember Hebrews 11, verse 14. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

And indeed,.

If they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they wouldn't have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. We are looking forward to a heavenly country.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. City and country used in the same passage to describe our ultimate heavenly hope. Hebrews 13, verse 14. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking a city which is to come.

In Revelation 21, verse 2. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. So it's described as a country, but it is described as a city multiple times here in the book of Hebrews.

In fact, Revelation chapter 21 and 22 refer to heaven as a city 15 different times. Now there are some, and let me pause for just a moment. There are some who at this point would say, OK, the idea of city is just a symbol.

That's all it is. It's just a symbol. And I say to you, what is it a symbol of? Well, it's a symbol of someplace where people gather. Well, Scripture could have had a way of describing a place where people gather.

Describes gatherings of other people. If it's not a city, what is it? Well, it's a symbol of something. What is it a symbol of? We don't really know, but we just know that that city is symbolic of heaven and that heaven is much like a city.

It's actually, heaven is, we're waiting for something like a city. Heaven is like a city, but it's not a city. It's just like a city. Guess what? You know what else is like a city? Stay with me now.

A city.

Very city-like. Lots of city features. In fact, if God, if heaven is not like a city and it does not have a city, then God was deceiving us in calling it a city so many times. It's described as a city.

Hebrews chapter 11 calls it a city. Hebrews chapter 12 calls it a city. Hebrews chapter 13 calls it a city. Revelation 21 and 22 calls it a city. It's described as a city and at no point in any of those that say we are looking for something that is like a city in some indescript way.

We're actually looking for a city, a city that is Mount Zion, a city that is a heavenly Jerusalem. That's what we're looking for. Now, if you take everything in Scripture that describes our eternal home, listen carefully.

If you take everything in Scripture that describes our eternal home in plain language, like city, nation, country, rule, kingdom, et cetera, and you take that as a symbol of something else and you say, well, it's a symbol of something else.

We're not sure what it's a symbol of. We just know that it's symbolic. We're not sure exactly what the correspondence is between the symbol and the fulfillment, but we just know that that's a symbol. It's not to be taken literally.

If that's your approach to Scripture, then your ignorance regarding heaven is self-inflicted. It's a self-inflicted wound. God wants us to understand what this place is like and he has laid it out for us in clear detail.

What happens in city? We're familiar with what goes on in cities, aren't we? We know what happens in cities. People come and people go for various purposes to conduct business, to make purchases, to be entertained, to visit people, to do administrative tasks, sometime on vacation, to see sights and to see sounds.

There is a government in a city with a ruler and a king and an administration building. There are palaces in cities, buildings and streets and residences and places to eat, places to relax, places to work, sites to see, curiosities to entertain us, bustling activities, cultural events, celebrations, gatherings, music, art, history, education, worship, entertainment, commerce, trade, industry and athletics.

It's just a short list of the things that go on inside of cities. Now, if those things are not intentional, then God has deceived us in calling heaven a city. In fact, Randy Alcorn in his book, Heaven, says if the capital city of the new earth doesn't have these defining characteristics of the city, it would seem misleading for scripture to repeatedly call it a city, close quote.

Now, if I haven't,.

If you haven't gotten.

This message before till now,.

You need to read.

Randy Alcorn's book.

Called Heaven.

It's thick,.

But it's an easy read. There's no pictures in it, but it's an easy read. And if you say, Jim, I'm not a big reader, I don't like reading, correct that and then go buy heaven and read that book. And if you read one book in this coming year, read the book Heaven.

It's not a fluffy thing about some guy's idea of what heaven might be like. It's a theological treatment.

Of what scripture says.

Regarding our eternal dwelling. He'll answer most, if not all of the questions that you could raise about this place we are going to spend eternity. Now, maybe you're like me and you say, I don't, I don't like big cities.

That's why I live here. I don't like the city. I live out off grid. I got solar panels. I crank my water with a crank. I come into town once a week to buy groceries, come to church, and then I'm out there.