Eternal Provisions

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Don Filcek; Revelation 22:1-5 Eternal Provisions

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You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,
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Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.
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Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak.
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I'm the lead pastor here, and we're going to go ahead and get started, so if you can find your way in and grab a seat, that would be great.
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I'm really glad that you're here, not only for the fact that I'd be speaking to empty seats if you weren't, which would be awkward and uncomfortable, but I'm glad that you've gathered together with God's people to worship him this morning.
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I mean, that's the intention of why we're here, and the weather hasn't been that great out anyway, so it's good to be inside, but I'm glad that you're here.
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I have one quick announcement before we dive into our text for this morning and kind of introduce where we're going on this
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Sunday, and that is that according to our new bylaws, the elders are going to begin to step off the board at a step, like kind of a staggered process in order to meet those new bylaws where we have some kind of, kind of, for lack of a better term, term limits on eldership.
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Rob Knold has been on board for seven years since we first started as a church.
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He's been an elder here, very grateful for his years of service, and this January he's going to receive, he's going to take a much needed break from the board, and so I would think it appropriate for us to just thank
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Rob for his service. Rob Knold, if you want to just kind of wave your hand or something, but he's been serving in that capacity for seven years, so grateful for that, and then further information is that Greg Schrock and Mark Klein, after prayerful consideration and unanimous approval of the board, have agreed to enter the process for elder approval.
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Now one way you could look at that is it's going to take two people to replace what Rob's been doing for us for seven years, but that's not necessarily the case.
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We've been wanting to grow our board here, and we're very blessed to have a couple of men who are stepping forward and willing to enter into that process.
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Now that means that the very extensive ballots that we have will be available next week, and we're going to be asking for those to be turned in by the church family.
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Remember, you don't have to be a member here to vote, and so we want everybody to grab one of those.
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They're going to begin to be available out here at the welcome table next week, and they are due November 20th at our family meeting in the evening, so they'll be due by that evening meeting over at the family meeting room on November 20th.
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And I would encourage you to please prayerfully cast your vote, and do not be intimidated by the form.
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I know that that form has intimidated people in the past. It's an extensive form that lists out the qualifications of eldership, gives you freedom to answer and respond to, has this person blessed you in this area?
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Are there concerns? Are there red flags? Are there yellow flags? Are there cautions there? And it's extensive. If you don't know the person that well, you can still vote yes or no, but we do ask that everybody puts their name on that ballot so that we can get a chance to kind of see where we're at and how that's going, and also for membership and things like that.
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So figuring that out. And I just want to point out the obvious, and I hope it's obvious to you, and that is that to conclude kind of the introduction and thinking about new elders, is that Recast has indeed been blessed by godly men who have been willing to step up and to serve.
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I personally have been blessed as a church planter with men from the very beginning who have been willing to share that load with me, and I'm very grateful for them.
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I am grateful for the service of Rob Canold, Steve Isham, Bruce French, and Mark Downing, who are our current elders.
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And I want to point out that this is not like a presidential election. Fortunately, we're not going to have them up here and debate, and we know that those can turn pretty ugly, so we, no,
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I'm just kidding. I know that it wouldn't be in this case, but it's not a presidential election in the sense that you're going to vote for one or the other.
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We've had people confused about that in the past. We know that because they've commented on the thing, well,
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I think this guy's better than this guy, so I voted for him. That's not, we are voting on both of them, and we will bring both of them onto the board if we have approval, and so I just want to be clear about that.
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You're not voting between Greg and Mark, but you are voting on the basis of the character of each individual.
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So that was a, I said it was going to be a quick announcement. That was not a quick announcement, but I am a pastor, so I know how to talk a little bit.
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But this morning, we're going to be reading and studying a text near the very end of the Bible. We've been marching through the book of Revelation.
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We're getting ready to wrap it up. Next week will be our last sermon in the series Thy Kingdom Come on the book of Revelation, but this week we're taking just the first few verses of chapter 22, and remember that what we're doing is last two, or two weeks ago,
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I was gone last week, but two weeks ago, we were taking a tour of the new earth and the new
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Jerusalem. A beautiful reality of God's great love shown for us. Now, it's something out there in the future, but it is love, nonetheless, that we can experience in the hope and the trust and the rest that we have, and knowing that there is this good thing that is out there coming for us.
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It's good out in the future. Now, what you read in the newspapers, and if you're watching any of this, how many of you know that there's some fear in our country?
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Maybe there's some fear in your chest. Maybe there's some fear in your life as you look out to what the future holds, but God, at the end of his book, wants you and I to know that there are good things coming for you if you're in with Christ.
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If you're with him, then it is good stuff on the horizon. Chapter 21 described that new earth and new
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Jerusalem, but now our text will describe some of the provisions of that new place. God loves us enough to promise us his eternal provisions for his people, his preparing a place for his people where we will know no longer have pain, no longer have sin, death, sadness, no more darkness.
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We will not experience thirst and there will be no more hunger.
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Consider what a radically different place that is compared to where you live each day, to where you work, to where you thrive, and where you're trying to function.
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This place that we're describing, that God is describing for us, that we're taking a tour of this week, is not like Matawan, Michigan.
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The place that God is preparing for us is glorious beyond comprehension, and John is grasping at words to try to convey it to you and I that we might be encouraged and built up.
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And I would give us one caution as we enter into reading this text together. We need to be careful about the conclusions we draw from the biblical descriptions of this eternal place.
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I think many in our culture, and many you could tune in on the radio, you could hear people who are moved to consider how important we must be in light of God's love for us.
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We could extrapolate that love that God will show us then in that future kingdom and mistake it for God's provisions for us now and what he must give us now.
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In other words, we could look at this rich love poured out on God's people at the end and begin to think that we deserve a little taste of that heaven here and now.
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But don't lose sight of our Savior, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.
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He suffered in this life, but was exalted in the resurrection. We have hope, that is for sure, but we do not have a promise that everything is going to go our way in this life, do we?
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I mean everybody's striving for that, everybody's wanting that, and there's nothing wrong with praying for it, and there's nothing wrong with being that for others and trying to encourage others, and at the same time we know that our hope is laid up for us as treasure in heaven.
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So let's open our Bibles to Revelation 22, if you're not already there, 22, 1 through 5. If you don't have a
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Bible on your lap, I'd ask you to do me a favor and just raise your hand, only because we want to bring you a Bible. Eric's got a stack of them in his hand, and we want everybody to have a copy of God's Word that you can dig in and see for yourself.
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And if you don't have a Bible at your home or one that you own, you can just take that one with you, but we want everybody to have a copy of God's Word.
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And as we read this together, we are looking into the amazing place that God is preparing for those who are
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His. So Revelation 22, 1 through 5, recast, this is what God desires for us to hear from His mouth this morning.
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I want to read that again, verse 3. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in singing this morning.
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Father, I want to thank you for hope. We live in a world that can be full of despair at times, it can be full of frustration, diagnoses, difficult problems that face us each day, relational struggles and strife and problems and difficulties and sin that would entrench us.
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Father, there are so many aspects of our life that could lead us to despair, and in your text you give us hope.
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And so Father, I pray that you would put a swing in our steps, those that are in this room that belong to Christ Jesus, those in this room that have given their lives over to Him that are in a vital, life -giving relationship with their
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Lord and Savior, where they've received forgiveness. Father, I pray that they would they would receive joy and a swing in their step, because whatever assails us, whatever fights against us, whatever wars against our joy, cannot break into this place where we have an eternal hope in you.
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And Father, if there's anybody in this room who has not tasted that delight, Father, I pray that you would move them to boldness, to seek it, to try to find it in you.
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We try to find it in so many other things, but the only real hope is found in Jesus Christ. And Father, from a place of delight and joy and rejoicing, may we lift up our voices together as your people this morning.
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I thank you for each and every person that you've brought together, that our voices might mingle together before your throne, and we might worship you.
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And I pray that you would show us who you are in your glory and your majesty and your great care and great love for your people.
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And that from that launching place we might sing songs, not just with our voices, but with our hearts to you in Jesus name, amen.
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You can go ahead and be seated, yeah. And get comfortable. I recognize, and I say this often, but those seats that you're sitting in are not the most comfortable in the world.
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So if you need to get up and stretch out in the back, whatever it takes to kind of keep your focus on God's word for the next half an hour.
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So if you need more coffee, juice, donuts, you're not going to distract me. If you need to get up, restrooms are out the hallway at the end.
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Men's upstairs, women's downstairs. So we ask that you use the ones to the right here, even though there are some down here. We save those for our kids ministry, so if you need those, take advantage of that.
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And then please keep your Bibles open to Revelation 22, one through five, so that you can see that the things that I'm saying are coming from this text.
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We're going to walk through it, we didn't just read it, and then we're going to talk about something else. We're going to talk about that text. My conviction and my belief is that God's word is what transforms and changes us as we take it on and believe it.
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It's not magical like you rub it on your face and you'll be better. It's something that you have to believe and trust, understand, and then go out and live.
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And so that's what we're looking for. We're driving for joy today in this text. It's there for our delight, it's there for our encouragement, it's there for hope.
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And so keep your Bibles open to Revelation 22, one through five. And this morning picks up right where we left off two weeks ago with the same angel leading the tour of for John of the
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New Jerusalem. And so John records that for us, and now I have the privilege of leading you on this tour as well that we started back in chapter 22.
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Remember that John saw in a vision a massive beautiful city, shining, gleaming, made out of gold and silver, gold and gems and diamonds and all kinds of glittering things.
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And it was descending from heaven. And this is the place that Jesus spoke of when he said, behold I go to prepare a place for you.
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And in the descent of the city is the answer to the prayer that many of us have prayed over and over over the course of our lifetime.
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Some of us haven't memorized where we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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And one day that will be real. One day the kingdom of God will come to this earth and God himself will move into our neighborhood.
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He will come and live with us. That's an amazing thing. If you study that concept from the book of Genesis all the way through Revelation, your mind should be blown with the thought that God would live among us and yet he is choosing to eternally dwell among his people.
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The very bride of Christ, the city of God coming down to this earth.
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Now a couple of weeks ago we saw the description of the walls, we saw descriptions of streets of gold, the foundations of precious stones, the massive dimensions of this gigantic city.
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But now in verse one the angel shows John a river that flows through the city with the river of or with the water of life and its source is the very throne of God and of the
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Lamb. So we learn right off the bat that the throne of God is within this city. It's there within this place that comes down from heaven to earth.
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The throne is there and God will dwell in the midst of the city and from the base of his throne a river of the waters of life flows down the central boulevard of the city.
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There's a very clear prophecy by the way that we see in Ezekiel that John obviously either was aware of or they both were given the same vision because Ezekiel 47, 7 through 12 speaks of a city that flows east out of the temple of God in the
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New Jerusalem. Ezekiel receiving, I mean hundreds of years before John ever lived,
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Ezekiel was a prophet in the Old Testament and and he receives the same vision of a river that flows out of the presence of God.
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It's lined by trees that yield fresh fruit every month and I believe it's quite clear that that they received this same vision or John is actually a student of Ezekiel and had some understanding of that but what he's given is a vision and they both are equally given a vision of the eternal place where we will dwell.
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And I want to just kind of point out when you think about rivers we probably don't really have a I mean I think probably if I mentioned the
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Bible and rivers suddenly some might come to your mind but you probably don't think of that when you read about this river but rivers have had a pretty significant part to play in the entire history of the
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Old Testament and New Testament throughout the Bible. The chosen leader of the people of God during the exodus, the one that was the leader during the giving of the very law of God on Mount Sinai was pulled out of the
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Nile River. The river was a a means of salvation to him right? He's pulled out as a baby.
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The entry into the promised land began with a parting of the Jordan River to let them through and let them into the land of promise.
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The earthly ministry of Jesus began with his baptism in that very same river, the Jordan River.
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Again a river is significant in that event and now the eternal city of God will have a river running through it that flows with the waters of life and all of that's a big setup to say that if you're reading scripture it's accurate to say a river runs through it right?
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Some of you just had a movie just flash across your mind but water was a very important provision. Think about the the maybe you don't really understand the geography or the the context of where scripture was revealed.
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A very dusty dry region. In Michigan, in West Michigan when we use the word wilderness what do we usually mean?
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Well the upper peninsula or Canada or something. I mean but it's it's it's forest right? It's it's woods. Isn't that what you think of when you hear the word wilderness?
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In this day in the time and the place where the scriptures are being revealed the word wilderness meant dry desert no plant life just kind of like a hot dry parched area more like desert.
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And so what significance would rivers and water have to the original audience who were sitting down and reading this?
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Rivers were a source of life in that time. It was a very important image a very important picture of of sustenance and access to moving water.
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By the way moving water you want to drink if you're if you're out in nature you'd prefer to drink moving water rather than stagnant water that's just sitting there right?
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Like isn't that kind of a principle of I mean survival 101 right? And so to have a river with flowing water was significant in these dry and dusty regions of Israel.
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But the properties of this water will be pleasing to the eye according to the text by its brilliance. It'll be dazzling to see but more importantly this water will give life to all that it touches.
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If you were to cross reference back over to Ezekiel to read that passage and kind of understand all that's in there you would actually see that extensive text about the the nature and the properties of this water that it turns salt water to fresh water when it touches it.
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That everything that it touches comes to life and that the waters of this river will team with life.
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There will be all kinds of fish and all kinds of things living in it because it just brings life to everything that it touches.
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That's the imagery of this life -giving water. But of course where does the water come from according to our text in Revelation?
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It comes from God himself. He is the source. I think we probably have some understanding of this.
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You're sitting here in a church so you probably have some notion at least that the Bible teaches that all life comes from God and the sustaining of life in this new kingdom.
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The sustaining of life in that future place where we are told over and over again in scripture the phrase eternal life is used where we will live forever and ever.
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And the sustaining of life in that kingdom will not have anything to do with human effort as we experience here on this earth.
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It's not going to be the sustaining of life is not going to be wrapped up in seat belts, helmets, EMTs, doctors, cautious living, healthy eating, a strict regimen of exercise that will save and sustain your life.
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But life flows through the streets in abundance in that place. Not working to stay not working to stay alive.
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How many of you have made some choices in your life to try to live longer? Have you any? I kind of have four.
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Really? Really? That's it? I mean I think some of us are just asleep and then some of us raised our hands right?
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But I mean I think the majority of us I'm hoping that you've kind of made some healthy choices in your life. Like you
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I mean even if it was just to sit down and go should I eat the big piece of cake or the smaller piece of cake? Maybe once in a while you've made that kind of choice.
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Maybe. Depends on the day right? And especially after January 1st. There's a little bit better choices just a couple of weeks after for some reason.
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But yeah there's not going to be that effort. There's not going to be that push to maintain this life but it will be sustained for us.
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The main street of New Jerusalem will be a boulevard according to the text. It's going to be split down the middle. A river will run down the median and the river will be lined with trees.
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This paints a picture of a pleasant setting of beauty and of life.
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But the river isn't normal obviously and neither are the trees because the trees are not the oak tree.
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They are not the maple tree but they are the tree of life. What we find here in this text is that because the tree of life is growing on both sides you either have to posit some kind of large tree that straddles the entire river, which
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I don't believe the text is trying to implicate at all, but that the tree of life is a brand, it's a type, it's a kind of tree.
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And there's going to be more than one of them even though it appears to be singular like we might say the oak tree. But there might be many of them.
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It's the same way in this text. And this is a tree, I want to remind you, it's important to understand where have we seen this this tree before?
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The tree of life? Remember this is a tree that was kept from humanity after the curse of our rebellion against God in the garden.
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We were in part cast out of the garden of Eden so that we would not eat from this tree.
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It actually states that in the book of Genesis in Genesis 3, 22 through 23. I think it's going to be on the screen there.
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Maybe too small for you to read but I'll read it for you. Then the Lord God said behold the man has become like one of us.
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This is after they've taken, Eve has taken it, gave it to Adam, they've both eaten. Behold the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil.
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Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.
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Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
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That which was was to provide eternal life and the implication is that now that they're sinful, now that they're broken, now that they've messed things up, don't let them live forever.
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You wouldn't want to live forever in this state. You wouldn't want to live forever in a sin -cursed world where it's just pain and suffering and difficulty over and over again.
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And that which was taken from us through the curse will be ours forever for eternal access to it on the new earth.
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The garden of God's delights will be right along Main Street. Access to the water of life and the fruit of life will be right out in the public spaces.
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And this last statement in verse two, if you look at it for a second, it's a bit mysterious. It says, Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month.
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The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
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It's a little bit mysterious what that means. What's that got to do with anything? Every single commentary that I read this week interprets the healing properties of this leaf as a symbol for the spiritual healing that all will receive who are there.
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All will have received some kind of spiritual healing. The problem is that the tree, the leaves, are for the healing of the nations and there's multiple ways of translating that.
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The problem is there's no verb in the actual Greek there. And so the Greek text is not very easy to deal with.
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What does healing have to do with the leaves of this tree and how do those two interact?
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And there's been all kinds of ink spilled over this. Maybe the leaves of the tree in general represent the unity of the nations of the world who will come into the city to eat of its fruit.
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Just the common dependence on this crop would symbolize the real and true unity of the world around the provisions of God.
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Where do you go to get the fruit? Where do you go to get the water? You go into the city of God. All nations dependent on God.
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That would produce a strong sense of unity and healing among all peoples. The fact of the matter is he will be the source of the tree.
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But the big issue with this, and I don't want to spend too much time on it, but the issue of healing is the real issue and that's the real problem that people have a hard time understanding, is why would you need a leaf for healing in a place where there's no injury?
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And so that's where people kind of have to do a little bit of gymnastics to get around this. I have a radical theory and I'm opposed,
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I'm going against the advice of my theology professor. I'm going to share it with you anyways. But I have a bit of a radical theory and you guys can stone me later if this is heretical.
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Actually it's just a theory so I'm just throwing it out there. But my thought is that there could actually, and this might be too literal, but there could actually be painless non -life -threatening injuries that occur on the new earth that the leaves would be used to heal.
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And that would kind of solve the grammatical issues that you have there. I only bring that up to everyone to remind you of one particular thing and that is that we will indeed for eternity be physical beings.
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Resurrection is our hope. Not that our souls would fly away someday but our hope of eternity is a physical realm where our bodies will raise and we will indeed have tables and we will drink water and we will eat fruit and we will be physical.
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And so I believe that our bodies will abide by some semblance of physics on the new earth. I mean everybody thinks we're going to fly.
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I don't know. I think God would have created us with wings if he desired for us to fly that way. I think we'll fly with the help of technology.
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I think we'll develop. We will continue to develop culture, technology all without sin. That would be a beautiful thing, an amazing thing.
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I think some of the technologies that we have here will be there. I don't think we've had enough of a sanctified imagination about what the new earth will be like.
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And so many of us have kind of thought uh you know that whole harp thing how many notes can you play on that thing and or floating on the clouds
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I guess it's better. I've actually heard this before. At least it's better than hell. What?
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Is that what we is that as far as we believe in our heavenly father that he delights to give us good gifts and we're like well it'll be you know how many rounds of shine
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Jesus shine can we sing. I mean my goodness. And then it starts to then you start to think maybe it's not better than the other place right.
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I mean if if it's just repetitive singing over and over and over again for eternity it's like that's to someone that's hell right.
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To someone that's that's punishment. Um so I kind of look at it and I go we just have not thought very clearly about this about what it's like and the fact of matter is we don't know and so I I would
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I would caution you about speculation. I'm just looking at the text going there's something about healing. There's something about leaves.
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Maybe maybe there's going to still be an ongoing healing that happens there. I don't know. Sorry Dr.
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Whitmer for not taking your advice and I went ahead and shared that anyways. But the leaves have something to do with healing and the fruit is also not normal.
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As I mentioned earlier these trees produce a crop of different kinds of fruit each month.
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Just that a tree would produce a crop within one month is a apple to form.
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But this every month it's going to have a new and different kind of fruit on this tree and then every year it repeats that process.
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So there's there's a new fruit every month and then after the end of that year it repeats itself again and starts over again and that's the implication from the text.
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And anybody who tells you by the way just from this text just from that that statement alone people will say oh there's no passing of time in heaven it's all just kind of like free flowing and stuff and on the new earth it says month and it says you know 12 months with a cycle of a year intended there.
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We will mark out the months we will mark out the years according to the production of these trees and so it's going to be it's going to be time just like we experience now.
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It's going to be linear in the way that we interact with each other. We again are created beings. We are not going to become gods and goddesses.
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We are going to still be in one place at a time and all of those kinds of things. But this opens a window on the uniqueness of this creation just that there's a new kind of tree that you and I have never experienced and that tells us that there is indeed continuity with this earth but there's also going to be differences.
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There's going to be changes. There this world that God has created has not exhausted his creativity.
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Did you realize that? This what we experience here in this world and in this place is not is scratching the surface of the creativity of our
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God and he will have new things there for us to discover. It'll be
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I believe new trees new as indicated here a tree that we've never experienced before but it'll be there and it'll produce fruit every month and it'll be a different kind of fruit.
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That is something anybody ever seen a tree like that? It'd be kind of unique right? This is a different type of creation.
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I believe there'll be new trees, plants, food, animals, many other features that we don't know and we don't even conceive of.
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Trees that produce a different kind of fruit each month are unnatural to where we live and we can only imagine what's going to happen.
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We can only imagine what other amazing discoveries God has planned for his children on the new earth. He tells us it's going to be glorious.
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He tells us it's going to be amazing. In verse 3 there's a breathtaking statement that probably didn't take your breath away when you read it.
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I repeated it because I'm just blown away in my study this week at this statement at the beginning of verse 3.
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No longer will there be anything accursed. We don't get the impact of that because it's nestled in a word that we don't use very often but what this is implying is the end of the curse.
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No more curse. What is it that you face and experience every day as the hurdle and the struggle of your life?
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It's curse. It's the curse that we brought upon ourselves by sinning against our creator and all of that relational crud that you can,
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I mean I think probably everybody in the room can think of or speak to a broken relationship that you want restored.
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Everybody can talk about some physical ailment or difficulty that you've had to endure or go through. Everybody can talk about just all kinds of things and hurdles that have gotten in the way of your joy and happiness and connection with God and connection with others.
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All different kinds of things that break that down but all of those things come down to this one word, curse.
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A curse that we brought on ourselves and here there will be nothing a curse and that's another way of saying there will be no cursed thing.
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What verse 3 is saying is that the curse that we brought upon ourselves at the creation will be undone.
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It will be abolished. The pain, the toil, the relational animosity, the broken creation, the decay, the reality of death, the scarcity of commodities, the abuse of power, the distance from our maker, all gone.
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All gone, no more. How I long for that day. Do you long for this day? Do you see it with with eyes of joy and with enthusiasm and with excitement over what he has for us?
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The fact of the matter is sometimes the very things that that are to produce joy in us are the things that draw us back because it's the very difficulties that we face that get our spirits down, right?
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And at the same time he's here saying there's a day coming, folks. If you're with Christ, there is a day coming where that will be no more.
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Anybody excited about that day? Anybody enthusiastic about that place and that that he is preparing for his children, those who he loves and those who love him?
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And instead of the curse, the presence of our God and the
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Lamb who has saved us. His presence instead of curse.
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They will dwell in our midst and we, his servants, will worship him.
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We will behold his face and his name will be on our foreheads as a sign of his ownership over us.
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I hope you can feel the glory of verses three and four. The reversal of the curse, the presence of our
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God and Savior, the pure and unsullied worship that we will offer him for eternity, the eternal seal of God's ownership tattooed on our foreheads.
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And lest you think that his ownership is like slavery, where we will begrudgingly serve him without joy, follow the words, follow the word they through verse five.
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The word they is a pronoun for his servants, that's us, and they will need no light of lamp or sun.
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He will be our brightness. He will shine his light and they will reign forever and ever.
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He's going to share. He's going to share with us. He kind of did in the very beginning, if you think about it.
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What did he share with humanity first and foremost that he hasn't shared with the rest of creation? His image. His image.
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And that image will be filled in us. Where right now we are broken mirrors, unable, incapable of really truly reflecting the one that we are made to reflect, the one whose image we are meant to look like.
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What is a man supposed to look like? What is a woman supposed to look like? A reflection of God.
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A reflection of him to the world around us. A reflection of him to the rest of humanity. And we are broken mirrors that God by his grace is putting piece by piece back together again in our lives that we might better reflect
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Jesus, better reflect our Lord. But in that place, he's going to share his rule with us because we will reflect him well.
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We will reflect him perfectly and rightly. Beautiful, amazing thought.
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There will be, the Lord will be the light of that place. It says there's no longer to be darkness, no need for lamps, no need for the sun.
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It doesn't say there's not, no text says there's not going to be a sun there. Just says that it's not necessary for light.
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It doesn't say that you can't buy a lamp. You just, why would you want a lamp if you can't, if you don't need to turn it on for for light?
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Some of you ladies in the room are like, well, just decor. Okay, I mean, you can, you can have that then. I'm sure that that's, that's acceptable, but I mean, it's not going to, doesn't, you don't need it.
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Okay? The people of God will be granted the rule humanity was given in the beginning according to our text.
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We were created to cultivate, we were created to subdue, we were created to explore, to create culture, art, beauty, and eternity will unfold before us with unending days of joy, delight, exploration, and creativity.
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We were created in God's image in order to reflect his reign to this creation, and in the end, we will finally fulfill that calling as he shares his reign through us as his image bears.
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Who will we rule over? What will we rule over? Creation, as we were intended to.
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My imagination runs wild like Tolkien's, or like Lewis, or like George Lucas. I imagine that we will be pleased and joyful to spend eternity with God and his
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Son, worshiping through, hear me carefully, worshiping through the daily activities of an unhurried, sinless, and beautiful new earth.
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Worshiping him, the way that he's created us, he didn't create us to worship with just singing voices.
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Now that's one great way that we can worship him, but worship is so much more than that. You can worship him while you're gardening, you can worship him while you're jogging, you can worship him while you're driving your car, while you're doing your work for your employer.
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You can worship him as you're relating to others, and having a relationship with your spouse, or with your children, or with your neighbor.
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All of those things can be rendered even in this place as worship to God, so how much more there?
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He's not created us to just stand in one place and sing a song. Now there are angels, it seems, like in the book of Revelation where that's all they do, they just kind of bow down all the time.
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Well that's angel business, but we weren't created angels, we were created creative.
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We were created to worship him with a whole host of activities, and we again haven't thought very carefully about what eternity will look like.
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Will there be sports in heaven? Probably. Does that mean somebody will lose? Yeah, I don't know.
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Probably be honing our skills. There's gonna be musical instruments, there's gonna be all kinds of things there for our delight, and for our joy, and for our use to worship
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God. It'll be an awesome thing. So what do we do?
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How does this impact us here in 2016? How does this strike you when we read a text about rivers, trees, thrones, and light?
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We have a pretty good hunch that we live in a world full of drowning, clear -cutting, broken leadership, and darkness.
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It's a reality that we have to face often. So let me suggest three applications as we wrap up this text.
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First application, you know it says that there's not going to be any sun, there's not going to be any any lamps, or there's not going to be the need for those, so go out and soak up some sun and buy a few lamps.
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That's your first application. That was supposed to be a joke, but kind of flopped there.
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That's not really the first application. Seriously, God wants to paint for us a clear picture of the abundant life in the age to come.
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So my first application is simply to store up treasure there.
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Store up treasure there. I fear that too many people are so caught up in sinful anxiety about this life, or a sinful striving after the joys that we will be given there that we try to grasp here.
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The kinds of things that are, and I'm talking about sin, I'm not saying, you know, I mean having a nice car is not a sin. I want to clarify that and be very, very clear at the outset.
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I'm not talking about storing up treasures there does not mean like that you can't drive a good car, or live in a nice house, or buy your wife jewelry.
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Like that's not the point. And some of you women are like, oh good. Did you hear that? But it does mean that we don't sinfully engage to try to obtain the good that God desires to give us in the life to come.
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And try to, like there's this idea out there that God only wants you to ever be healthy, and if you're not healthy then you're in sin.
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And that's bunk. That's junk. That's not true. That's false teaching. You can be ill and be in God's will.
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That's completely possible. That wasn't supposed to rhyme, but it did. You can write that down, trademark.
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Just kidding. But it's sinful anxiety that we're talking about.
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Sinful striving after. Sinful trying to grasp a life for myself. And a sinful hope in this life.
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Because let me just tell you, and I'm just going to tell you this, and I'm not the first one to tell you, but if your hope is in this life, in anything in this life, wealth, health, anything, you're going to be disappointed.
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If you haven't been already. And the fact of the matter is, it's ironic, isn't it, that many of us have already been disappointed, and we're still striving for it.
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We're still trying to make it work for us. The only hope is the life to come.
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The only hope is our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, who will give us a right relationship with God that we might actually experience these things that this text is talking about with joy.
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That we might hope for something beyond this life. Because without that, there is no hope. It's a store up treasure there.
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This text is meant to open our eyes to the glory of what God has for us when all is said and done.
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But I recognize that it can be so difficult to be motivated by these delayed visions of glory when the allure of immediate gratification is all around us.
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And that is why God calls those who will be in his eternal kingdom throughout the book of Revelation, he
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We conquer by faith and trust that God's reward is better than the rewards that sin offers us in this life.
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Forsake sin and put your trust and hope in God's way. And that leads to the second application.
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What is God's way? God's way is a person, and his name is
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Jesus Christ. When Jesus spoke, by the way, Jesus spoke about this place that we're studying here.
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He talked about this place and he told his disciples he was going to go there and he was going to prepare it for them and bring them to it.
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And then obviously he brings it down to earth in our text. And Jesus said that he is the way.
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He didn't say I've come to show you the way. He didn't point down a path and say that's the direction, take that road.
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He didn't say do what I do and follow my example and then you'll get there.
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He said I am the way. While teaching his disciples in John 14 1 through 6,
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Jesus told them this. He said let not your hearts be troubled. The disciples had some things to be troubled about.
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Jesus had already predicted that he was going to die, that they were going to go up to Jerusalem, he was going to be crucified. He had tried to make that clear to them.
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They had all kinds of reasons to be troubled. Not to mention scarcity in their culture and all kinds of difficulties that they faced each day.
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But he says let not your hearts be troubled. How many of you, just be honest, you got some troubles in your heart? You got some things that trouble you from time.
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Jesus is talking to you. He's talking to all of us. He says don't be troubled. Why? Well believe in God.
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Believe also in me. Jesus is drawing you your eyes to him. He's saying pay attention here. Eyes here for a moment, says
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Jesus. Troubles, yeah. If you fix your eyes on the things of this life, you're going to sink.
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You're going to have some difficulties. You're going to have some pressure. You're going to falter. But believe in God.
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Believe also in me. And then he gives this as motivation. In my father's house are many rooms.
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If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Obviously he had already told them and he's gone to prepare a place for them.
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And it's a rhetorical question. Of course you wouldn't deceive us. And if I go to prepare a place for you,
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I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may also be. And you know the way to where I'm going.
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You know the way to where I'm going, says Jesus. And his followers are befuddled. I imagine that Thomas at this point is boldly speaking on behalf of the other disciples who are listening to this.
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So you just, you're trying to comfort us by telling us we can follow you, but where are you going Jesus? Can you at least give us some directions?
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Can you tell us the way? Thomas said, Lord we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?
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I just love Thomas's honesty there because I mean if somebody says that to you, you're kind of like, well can you give me the address so I can type it in my
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GPS and I can follow you, I can get there too? And Jesus said to them this.
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I think you know it. I am the way and the truth and the life.
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No one comes to the Father except through me. Faith and trust in the work of Christ.
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Taking him as your Lord and asking him to save you is the way that you can be assured that this place is indeed yours.
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The way you can be assured that you have eternal life. The main question that will determine whether or not you will be in that eternal glorious kingdom is simply this.
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This question. Are you in with Jesus? Are you in with Jesus?
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Recast, it really is all about him and your relationship with him. That's what it's about.
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Not do you believe he existed? Not do you believe he died on a cross? But are you in a relationship with him in which he is your king?
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That is, he's calling the shots and you believe he has the right to call the shots in your life. Have you asked him to save you?
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Really, it's a relationship of Lord, King, and Savior. And you have to ask yourself, is
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Jesus my Lord? Is Jesus my Savior? Have I asked him? Have I come to him in humility? By the way, there is something that that releases us in asking because it is humbling to ask.
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How many of you have a hard time asking for help? You don't have to raise your hand on that. I know that many of you do. I do. And so it can be very difficult to ask for help and that's one of the things that God desires of us is a trust in him and a humility that comes to him and asks.
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So Jesus is the way. Lastly, number three, if you're indeed in with Jesus, if you're here and you answer that question, yes he is my
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Lord, yes he is my Savior, and I've asked him and I don't walk perfectly but I'm walking with him every day.
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I want him to call the shots and when I fail and when I falter, he picks me up and he gives me a new start.
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My encouragement to you, the application is simple. Let the joy flow.
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Open it up and let it flow. Live, walk, move, and breathe in joy that knows that no matter what we endure in this life, we have an eternity of joy ahead of us.
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The worst that life could throw at us is small compared to the glory that God has for those who are his.
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And even death itself is not the end, but it is just a beginning of new life for his children.
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We come to communion each week and we've got four tables set up in the corners of the room and we take communion to really take a cracker and a cup of juice as Jesus commanded us to remember his death for us.
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It is his sacrifice on the cross that has purchased us forgiveness from his Father.
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And if you're all in with Jesus, you know he is your King and Savior, then during this next song I want you to feel free to come to one of the tables, grab a cup and a cracker.
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You can take it back to your table, you can just take it there if you want, but I would encourage you to take at least a moment while you have that juice and that cracker in your hand to thank him.
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Just simply thank him. I'm not looking for you to cross off a litany of your sins and check each one and make sure you've confessed each and every one before you come to this because let me just tell you if that is the standard for taking communion,
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I would just shut it down and none of us would take it. If every single thing that you've done wrong has to be checked off and marked and taken care of, then you've never you've never taken communion in a worthy manner.
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Let me just suggest to you that a worthy manner is thankfulness and humility. Thankfulness and humility.
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Thank you God for saving me. Thank you for the cross. I couldn't do it on my own and I need you every day.
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Thank him. Certainly remember the gruesome price he paid for you on that cross.
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Don't let that drive you to guilt. Instead, let it drive you to rejoice at his great love willingly poured out for you.
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He's gone to prepare a place for you if you're in, if you're in with Jesus. Get a chance to glimpse that place this morning in the text.
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So let that reality put a swing in your step this week. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for hope.
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There are things around us that would swirl in our lives to create despair. I believe the evil one would desire even now to be reminding us of frustrations and difficulties that face us tomorrow and the next day and the next day and next week and next month.
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And we haven't even, and I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet. So many things could crowd out this message from our minds, but I pray that you would fight and war against that by your
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Spirit in our souls to produce joy for us. Everybody in this room has a measurement of guilt on them.
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Everybody in this room has some semblance of, oh, I'm failing in that area, I've broken in this area,
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I'm not making it work here. Father, I pray that you would honestly deal with our sin, that you would move in us to war against it and to fight it and to starve it out and choke it out wherever we see it in our lives and at the same time that it would not immobilize us, it would not move us to a place where we cannot function any longer.
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But Father, you could still move our hearts to joy this week. Thank you for the cross.
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Thank you for the blood of Jesus spilled out for us. Thank you for his body broken as a substitute for where we deserve to be broken, we deserve to be crushed, we deserved eternal condemnation, and he took that on his shoulders for us.
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Because a joyful, happy people filled with hope that are eager to share this message with others because we can't help it because it just bubbles out of us, even in the midst of the difficulty swirling in our culture, give us hope and give us joy.