The Heaven Tour

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All right, good evening and welcome back. Session three, or three and a half,
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I guess, for Heaven Tour. And looking forward to tonight's message and our being able to interact a little bit tonight,
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I think. Then tomorrow night, Q &A session, and I'll let Brad talk about that in just a few minutes.
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But let's turn to number 556. Let's sing just two hymns tonight, heaven -related songs.
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And the first is the song, Oh, That Will Be Glory. Let's stand, shall we?
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And ladies, help us out on those high notes in the chorus. Oh, that will be glory, his grace,
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I shall look on his face. That will be glory, just a smile from my
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Savior, I, the angels, be his grace,
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I shall look on his face. Well, I appreciate
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Jim Stroop's ministry with the law and grace and going to the jails every week and that faithfulness through how many years now,
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Jim? Only 33. That's a good, good round number there. Jim, would you please lead us in prayer tonight?
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Oh, Father, we are. Thank you.
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You may be seated. We're going to sing here in just a moment the song on the other side of the song sheet.
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We sang last night, Jerusalem the Golden, in a moment we'll sing When This Passing World Is Done.
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But a couple of announcements I just wanted to be sure to emphasize tonight. If you're on the texting program, then you got a text this afternoon about love offering for Brother Zockel and encourage you to give to that tonight and tomorrow night.
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Anything that's put in the offering box will go to him and I want to be generous with our speaker.
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The other thing is on the bulletin card from Sunday, on the back of it, we mentioned that starting a week from this coming
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Sunday, so November 2nd, I'm sorry, November 3rd, the dark months service schedule will begin.
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We fall back with our clocks Saturday night, November 2nd, and then that's when it gets dark at like 5 o 'clock in the afternoon.
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So with that time change, we adjust the Sunday schedule to an afternoon service at 1 o 'clock.
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The bulletin says that bring a light lunch after the morning service.
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But Chris and I got to talking about this. Mark and Rachel Barilla, our missionaries to Cameroon, are going to be here that day.
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And we thought, you know what would be fun is to have an international potluck, or think about that, okay, an international potluck.
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What's that mean? What that means is you plan to prepare some kind of foodstuff that is non -American, okay?
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You know, like, don't bring, if you want to do Asian, don't bring le choy, you know.
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But some kind of international dish. French fries,
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I don't know. But anyway, she was, who were you talking to about this?
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Becca Foster, yeah. And Chris was telling her at the fall festival that we had a week and a half or so ago, there was somebody brought some baklava.
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And Chris was telling her, oh yeah, we had this international dinner at our church in Vermont years and years ago.
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And Chris made a couple of big, big cookie sheet pans of homemade baklava.
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And she says, oh, that'd be good. And an international dinner, that'd be fun. So we got to talking about that, yeah, that would be.
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So we're going to do that a week from Sunday, November 3rd. So be thinking about, you know, what kind of international dish can
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I come up with? So no hamburgers, no hot dogs, you know, no pot roast.
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Not 12 lasagnas. Yeah, okay. Anyway, so there will be a sign -up sheet Sunday for that to, so we can have a good international variety for that time.
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And we'll enjoy the barillas with us, and I may see if they can come up with some suggestions for an interesting
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Cameroonian dish on that particular day. All right. The song sheet.
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When This Passing World is Done. The tune, you may have heard it, it's not an unfamiliar tune, written by Richard Redhead.
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And I, I mean, this is in 1853, so I've never met the guy, I've never seen a picture of him. But I do kind of wonder if he didn't have red hair.
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But the tune is familiar. The text, written by Robert Murray Machane, he was, he continues to be a very profoundly influential guy.
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He died in his late 20s as a pastor in Scotland, and had a very brief but powerful ministry under his, under his ministry.
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Actually, while he was away, a revival started in his region, and it just spread when he got back.
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Had very, very, very powerful ministry. So he wrote the text, and it's about, When This Passing World is
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Done, then I'll know something that I really didn't know before. Let's sing it together.
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Okay, I hope that sounds familiar.
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When this passing world is done, when has sunk the glaring sun, when
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I stand with Christ above, looking on the wombs of love, then,
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Lord, shall I fully know, not till then how much
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I owe. When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own,
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I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsinning heart, then,
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Lord, shall I fully know, not till then how much
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I owe. Chosen not for good in me, wakened up from wrath to flee, hidden in the
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Savior's side, by the Spirit sanctified, teach me,
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Lord, on earth to show how much
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I owe. All right, Brother Zockel, come on ahead.
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The first thing
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I need to do is, we have some giveaways there, but I don't want to stop the greatest rows of challenge.
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Mr. Dan, he answered every question. Was he not like seven for seven? And so,
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I'm telling you what, we've got to get you a vote here too, so. All right, let's see.
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We have some different, I have two more to catch, two at random, and I don't know if I'll have to go far, because this one, the first person's name is
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James, and it looks strong. All right, sir, congratulations.
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Thank you so much. All right, you have your choice. The next winner for the mug,
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Autumn and Kyle, are they here? Autumn and Kyle, congratulations. Let's give them a hand too, and let's give our
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Mr. James a hand. Well, let's go ahead and do our study here, as we would, and you're not going to believe this,
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I think I told you, the Clairol box came, this was no reflection on your pasture.
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This, my daughter's order for Clairol hair color came, and it was sent to Pastor Brian, and it came through,
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I have no idea why, I said, oh man, you don't even know this. And so, this was a mistake, but it actually came through, and I'm looking, and it says
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Amazon, your hair color sent it to Pastor Brian. I thought, oh no, I'm piggybacking on my orders,
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I think. All right. Tonight, we want to talk about our condition of the believers, and I want to do this, if I may.
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I'm going to ask for some of you to read some of the passages, and so if you have your
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Bibles out, and you wouldn't mind, I'm not going to call and embarrass anybody, but if you say, hey, you know, you'll be glad to take a passage and read it aloud,
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I'd like to, and have us take a look at some of the passages here. What is the condition of the believer?
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Numerous times that I have received on live stream or comments, and you may have too, somebody says, okay, when
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I get to heaven, will I be identifiable? Will people understand? Will I be recognizable?
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Will I still be me? Will you still be you? Will I recognize you? Will you recognize me?
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Will I recognize anybody? I've heard more than once from the pulpit of various churches, a pastor says, no, you won't know anybody when you get there.
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I have no idea why they would use that. So what we want to do is go to the scriptures. And so I'm going to pass out some scriptures here, and we'll read them and take a look at them.
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Would anybody venture to want to read one out loud? If you raise your hand, then I'll give you a passage that you can read as we go through.
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Would that be okay? Let me see. Who would like to read? I'm going to start right here. Sir Philippians 1 .6.
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Dan, you don't get another book for this. Okay. Don't get greedy, but I will use you. Okay. Ephesians 1 and verse 4.
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Ephesians 1 and verse 4, sir. All right. And then I need one more, one more person here.
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Let me see. All right. Mr. James, Romans 8 and verse 29. Romans 8 and verse 29.
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All right. All right. Let's go ahead and let's get, let's start talking about the condition.
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Now, I want to go back and share some things with you. As we talk about what is it going to be like whenever we leave this life?
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Well, we went over earlier the immediacy of the believer in heaven. All right.
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And so as I have shared with you, does the scripture say that when the believer dies, will he or she be immediately in heaven?
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This is very important that you see this because those that would hold to soul sleep will conveniently eliminate a very important word.
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As we take a look in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 6 through 8, I'll remind you 2
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Corinthians chapter 12. Paul has already been, as he writes that letter, he says, 14 years before,
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I experienced being able to be in heaven, see mysteries, some I'm not allowed to, in utterable things.
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I can't share these things, but you'll notice his boldness. Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 6 through 8, he then says, this is our confidence and this is our preference.
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And those that would hold to soul sleep say, oh, all it says in there is we would rather be absent from the body and present with the
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Lord. So, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you're going to read the scripture, read it in its context, read it wholly, don't cherry pick.
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It tells you there, and it says it twice, we are confidence, we are confidence, and this is our confidence, that when the
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Christian is absent from this body, he or she is present with the
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Lord. So, the immediacy is there. Philippians chapter 1 verses 21 and 23, for to me to live is
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Christ, living on earth is Christ, to die is gain. We said the Greek word is keredos, means better.
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Why? Because verse 23, if I leave this body, I will be with Jesus, which is far better.
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And then the illustration in Luke chapter 16, where Jesus himself says, this faithful one
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Lazarus, when he died, he was taken by the angels immediately into the presence of God. Those among other passages we see, that we're going to go there, there is no limbo, there is no purgatory, there is no soul sleep.
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The corruption of Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 5, as I said, those that would try to take that passage and justify soul sleep, it's an absolute abhorrent thing to take scripture like that and turn that.
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If you want to go back to an earlier live stream when I talked about that in detail, I want to remind you again, that has absolutely nothing.
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When somebody uses the quote, the dead know nothing, they are ripping it out of context if they're trying to use that to justify soul sleep.
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It has absolutely nothing to do with soul sleep in that passage, okay? So we are heading to heaven, believers, if you're coming to Jesus Christ, you've made a commitment to Jesus Christ, and then what is the condition of them, of the one?
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Well we know in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it tells you in verse 17, that when someone comes to Christ, then they are a new creation.
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Well the old things have passed away, behold, and that means pay attention, all things be come new.
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Now we know in Revelation 21 in verse 5, Jesus says, in this existence in heaven, all things will be new, and that includes you, okay?
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So let's start off with these different passages here as we talk about the condition of the believer. When you came to Christ, the
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Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 in verse 10, you've been made complete. That's talking about the condition of the soul.
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You have been made there, you don't have to improve on your soul in any way. You have been enrolled in heaven, as Jesus says to the disciples in Luke chapter 10, when they're excited about doing wondrous things in His name,
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He says, here's a greater excitement that your names are enrolled in heaven. And Hebrews chapter 12 verses 22 and 23 repeats that.
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If you were to look in Mount Zion, which is another name for heaven right now, one of the things besides God the Father, and the new
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Jerusalem, and countless angels, are those whose names are enrolled in heaven. The spirits of the righteous made perfect.
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We'll talk more about that, okay? So let's take a look first of all, and let's look at Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6.
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Who had that? Would you read that please, sir? Thank you very, very much.
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It's a very powerful word for the word complete. Some translations say perfected.
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So if you have something perfect, there is no need to do anything else. It is complete.
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What this is saying is, is we have a very good principled start here. That He who has begun a good work in you, you're what is called sanctification, you're becoming holy, as the
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Bible tells us, be ye holy for I am holy. And we're working toward that.
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Our soul is secure in heaven, but we have this condition of wanting to learn to be more like Christ throughout our walk here on earth, facing the challenges.
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And here's a promise as we look in Philippians, and it tells us here. This is a confident thing, that He who has begun a good work in you is going to carry this on through and perfect it up to the day of Jesus Christ when we are in heaven and in the presence of Him, all right?
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First thing is, we are in a condition of learning in our behavior to be holy conditionally.
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Our soul is secure, but our body and our condition here is we're learning to be sanctified, being more like Christ each day.
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First Corinthians 10, 31, whether therefore we eat or drink or whatever we do, we're doing all to the glory of God. We're learning in practice.
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Now, the second one, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4 also gives us a teaching.
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I think that's Mr. Dan. Is that correct, sir? It's telling us, here's the desire of the
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Lord, that we should what? Well, just move on around or be narcissistic in heaven. We want what we want.
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No. The desire of the Lord is that we should be holy. What's holy mean? An easy way to put this is sacredly separate.
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Sacred separateness, that's an easy way to remember what holiness is. I see what the world wants to do to pull me down,
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I'm going to be separate from that, and I'm going to be blameless. So I want there to be nothing that people would call
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Jesus into question because of my behavior, my irresponsible behavior, which would bring blame upon.
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As Nathan told David, the reason why God is going to judge you is not so much you had a child out of wedlock or that you caused someone to die, but that the enemies of God had a reason to mock
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Him because of your behavior. We're to be holy, we're to be blameless. This is our intent.
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While we're here on earth, let's move on here in Romans chapter 8 and verse 29.
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Go ahead, sir. We are called to be conformed to the image of His Son.
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The icon is this word, to be like Him. Like you see an image on a coin, we're to be like that.
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If people see us, they should see a representation of Jesus Christ. Now we understand this, we're going in a long stretch from where we were.
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I mean, we realize when we came to Christ in our condition, like Jesus says in the first public sermon, blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see the kingdom of God.
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We realize there's nothing we can do. This is by the grace of God, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, that we've had this gift.
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It's not of our own works. The salvation is not of our own works. What we see here is as we're learning to be more like Him, that we're looking forward to that time when we shall be like Him in heaven, all right?
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So if you're taking notes, let's start talking about this. When you step into heaven, what will the condition of the
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Christian be like, all right? In no particular order, let's start talking about this. One thing we're going to say is you are in the eternity future.
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On the new earth, after the resurrection, you will have a flesh and bone body. Job, in the very first manuscript age -wise, the first book of the
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Bible is the book of Job. And in chapter 19, verse 25 and 26, Job in the spirit of prophecy has already said this.
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This flesh may fail, worms destroy this body, yet I do know this,
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I know my Redeemer lives and in my flesh will I see Him. In my flesh,
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Job says, in my flesh, and I will see Him with my own eyes and that not of another.
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So in the very first presentation manuscript -wise in the Bible, we already have the talk about the promise of the resurrection and the joy of seeing the
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Redeemer. Now when you go to 1 John chapter 3 and verse 1 and verse 2, you're also going to see a principled presentation of what the believer is going to be like, very fascinating.
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Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God, and so we are.
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Before I go on, understand this. You're standing, no matter what you look like or feel like, the condition is that you're part of the family.
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I want to remind you again, when we go to heaven, we're going to a person, we're not going to a place, and that's the same way.
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If I'm coming over, if I'm going to Thanksgiving, all right, what do you say when you're going, when we were kids?
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Well, we're going to 123 Maple Street over in Cincinnati, Ohio. No, you don't say that.
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You say we're going to Uncle Joe and Aunt Shirley's, right? Didn't you say that whenever you were going somewhere? You named the people's home.
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You named the residents of the home, the family members. You don't say, oh, we're going to this structure and we're going to shove turkey in our face.
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Okay, you're talking about we're going to go and we're going to enjoy things, but you will name the home, you'll name the residents.
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And what bothered me when I very first started this ministry was people would talk, you know, I'm having people following me on the internet channels through the many different ways, and there are amazing ideas of what people think heaven's going to be like.
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And they would talk about heaven as if it's a place of self -indulgence, sort of like a glorified
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Disneyland. I'm going to go and I'm going to have everything for me. Do you know one of the most asked questions that I have through all of this, you're thinking of all the myriads of questions, and I do encourage you,
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I think I have about five questions that have been handed in to me so far. If you have some, have them ready for tomorrow night.
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And if you go, oh, I forgot, tomorrow night, you're more than welcome to raise your hand during the time that we have allotted to ask questions.
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Do you know what one of the most asked questions that I had, especially in the early months of my ministry on heaven, ready?
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Will my pets be there? If I could tell you, if I had a dollar for every time somebody said, how can
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I relate to God the Father better, I would be in poverty. In the opening, there were people that came on by the droves and saying, give me, give me, give me.
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Tell me what I'm going to get. Well, the first thing is, there's a universalistic belief that everybody gets to go, and we've already talked about that, all right?
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And that shocked a lot of people. I remember one in the second month that I had this ministry, somebody actually wrote and said, how dare you say only
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Christians can go to heaven? Boy, did we have a good talk, all right? And you understand that people think it's just wide open.
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True statement, and being on live stream, I know a lot of my friends will watch this later on that are on there, and they can verify this.
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A lady had written, and she said, this is my heaven. I'm going to be sitting at the seashore on a lawn chair surrounded by my pets and my relatives drinking non -alcoholic pina coladas.
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And I said, can I ask you first of all, ma 'am, how can you tell me you're a Christian? Can you tell me what the decision was?
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And she started fumbling around. If you hesitate on telling your salvation, there's a problem. And I said, so what you're saying then is you're going to be in a narcissistic nirvana in heaven calling
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God as if He's some celestial bellhop. That's insulting. Well, when I went, usually if I have a conversation,
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I'll go to the person's profile that I might know them better. You can imagine what it's like. On her profile, in her presentation, there's absolutely nothing about the
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Lord. It's totally all me. And I said, I think we can tell you right now. I want to introduce Jesus Christ to you and what salvation really is, because you have absolutely no idea what heaven is like.
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I'm going to remind you, this is secondarily a place. It is a person. It's God's home.
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And it tells us here, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should, what?
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That we should be as rich or as strong or as tall or as good, like, no, that we should be called the children of God.
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And I love this phrase, and so we are. Then it tells you the condition of the children, the believers, the members of Yahweh's family through Jesus Christ.
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First John chapter 3 and verse 2. We do not know totally what we will be like.
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I paraphrase this. We don't know totally what we'll be like in our condition. And that tonight, in the time that I have,
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I can't tell you everything about the condition, but it does say this, but I can tell you this. We shall see
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Jesus as He is. Not as He was on the cross or not as He was as a shepherd or a miracle worker or a breaker of bread and passing out and feeding as He is.
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Well, how is He? Revelation chapter 1 very clearly shows you the magnificence of Him in there, in the symbolism of the hair, white like wool, denoting wisdom of ages, eyes of flame of fire, meaning that He's looking in judgment, feet of brass having gone through the tribulations.
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And also, this also can represent the feet of brass of stamping out the judgments.
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The belt of gold representing deity, the godness of Him. And then, of course, in Revelation chapter 19, it tells us
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He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We will see Him that way. We will see Him as He is and we shall be like Him.
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Could you say that again? First John 3, 2. We shall see Him as He is and we shall be like Him.
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What in the world? Oh, this opens up a whole doorway of reality and excitement here, all right?
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First thing, we will have a resurrected body. We will have a flesh and bone body.
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Jesus, we will be like Him. What does He have one? Yeah, Luke chapter 24.
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When He came back, He had a resurrection body. He appears before the disciples and they're shook.
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They would say, is this an apparition? Are we hallucinating? He's in the room.
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He appeared in the room. The door was locked. But wait a minute. This doesn't work this way.
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Go touch Him. You go touch Him. I'm not going to touch Him. You're going to go over there and everything. Jesus knows what's going on and He says, gentlemen, come over here.
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Feel my hands. Feel my hand, okay? Luke chapter 24. Look, feel my hand.
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A spirit, or some of your translation says a ghost, does not have flesh and bones such as I have.
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All right? We're going to be like Him. And then the very next verse, which always puzzled me as a kid, but it makes perfect sense.
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Then after all this is magnificent, you think He's going to go into this main sermon. He goes, do you have something to eat? And they hand it to Him.
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Well, you know why? Because He's then verifying. He eats it and then some of them go, it's going to fall through on the floor.
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It's going to fall through on the floor. He ate it. And this is the condition that we will have.
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We will be like Him. He had a tangible, feelable body of reality, of flesh and bone, and so shall we.
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Right now, my mom, my dad, my oldest brother, they're in a condition in heaven where they are in, they do not have the resurrection bodies.
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The resurrection has not happened yet. That's called the rapture in the Latin, but this is literally in the
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Greek, it's the harpazo, the snatching away. Somebody's going to ask you, why does this passage in 1
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Thessalonians 4 say that the dead in Christ shall rise if they're already supposed to be in heaven? Well, it's an easy answer here, and it's talking about the bodies.
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My mom's in heaven, but her body is buried in Delaware right now. My brother, he's buried in Florida.
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He's in heaven right now. His body is there. During the harpazo, that's the word, the snatching of away, the bodies will then go up in the condition.
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That's found. The description of the event is going to be in 1 Thessalonians 4, and then the condition of what happens is in 1
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Corinthians 15, and it starts about verse 50. It says, oh, we will be changed.
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That's the understatement of the Bible. We are going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Okay? And then it says in verse 53, we shall be incorruptible.
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Now, it's not hard for us to understand that we face corruption right now. Aging, weakness, illness.
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We went through 2019 where they closed down the school where I was teaching because of something called COVID. And even in the midst of that, we saw many in the
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Oak Ridge, Tennessee community succumb to that, and my father -in -law was one of them through that illness going through.
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These were all coming through, and they were taking people down. We're going to be away from that.
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We're going to have bodies that will be free from that. We're going to have a condition in which we're going to have bodies that do not have corruption.
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Remember this, the first thing is incorruptible, and the person says, okay, that's everything
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I know. No, incorruption means more than that. The corruption of the sin nature, the desire to get what
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I want or to win my argument or to face a battle of anger and to be constantly in this conflict.
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And you say, boy, if I was just like the New Testament saints where I would be above that. Oh, really? Okay. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 says,
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I have a battle. Romans 7, go about halfway through the chapter, and he says this, the good that I want to do,
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I'm not doing. The bad that I don't want to do, I end up doing. Well, so I'm in a conflict here, this flesh.
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I don't want to do this. I end up failing there. I want to avoid this. I end up failing there. I should be doing this out of honor to the
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Lord. I'm not doing this. And suddenly he bursts out. This is the Apostle Paul, wretched man that I am.
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Who will deliver me from this body of sin? This is a man that we're really holding up to and being a great example.
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And he's saying this, relate to me. We are facing a battle. The last verse says, but I thank the
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Lord I find a victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Right now we're in a battle, which is why
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Ephesians tells us in chapter 6, putting on this armor, we're in a battle. There's going to be a day that we'll be delivered from that, and we will be incorruptible, and we'll be escaping the sin problem.
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1 John 2 and verse 16 says we're constantly in this battle. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
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Did you notice something that's not in there? Satan's not mentioned in there. I'll have a lot of questions.
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Can you tell me something? Well, you know, if Satan's gone in the millennial kingdom for a thousand years, how come people still sin?
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I said, well, he's not an automatic default to use sinning. There are people in there.
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Will there be a lot of sin? Oh, my. Revelation chapter 20, they're going to pull a siege around Jerusalem.
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There'll be so many in their self -centered ways, even in the beauty of the millennial kingdom, that they're going to cause a rebellion, and there will be scores and scores, ten thousands and possibly millions in rebellion that we don't need
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God. All right? You understand something? Then Satan is released. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, you don't have to have
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Satan pushing you along. We can do a mess on our own, right? And so we're free from this corruption and temptation.
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I want you to think about this. If you would please write this down. In the eternal kingdom, there are two home run verses which will tell you the condition of us in heaven beyond the fact that we'll never get sick or we'll never fall down, anything along that line.
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Revelation chapter 22 and verse 3, the curse is gone. The condition.
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Revelation 21 and 22 are absolutely fantastic, and if you haven't read them yet this week, I would highly recommend you, whatever your devotions are, excuse me, whatever your devotions are, you take time and you stop and make sure that you add that to your devotions, reading the promise of the believers in the eternal kingdom.
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And one of the things it says in there among the many things that we are going to be free from the curse, the curse to sin or the curse from sin.
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We're not going to have people in there in a condition because of the effects of sin that they have illness, that they have injury, that they have anger, that they don't communicate and the effects of sin of being hurt, of being a victim of this, those things are all gone, or the desire to sin.
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And somebody says, well, how can that happen? Do we have free will? Of course you have free will in heaven. Well, how can you have free will and not sin?
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Let me give you an example. I spoke, oh, about a year ago to a college and career group in Knoxville, Tennessee, and this question came up during a
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Q &A time. If we have free will, how can we not sin? I said this. Let me give you an example here.
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I've been with you for about a little bit over an hour in a Q &A. And during that time since I came in,
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I not once have had a desire to steal a motorcycle. I said there were no motorcycles on the street whenever I came in.
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I didn't hear the roar of a motorcycle. And anytime in this past hour, there are no pictures of motorcycles over here.
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You didn't sing a hymn about motorcycles. Nobody had a motorcycle in their discussion. Nobody even mentioned anything about a
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Harley Davidson or a Yamaha or anything. It has not come up. Out of sight, out of mind. It's not here.
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It has never been. I can tell you before the Lord, I have had not one iota of larceny in wanting to steal a motorcycle.
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It's not in the condition of where we've been. This would be the same way in heaven. Sin is gone, and so there are so many other things.
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We tend to think that heaven is a celestial library, that we're going to shuffle around in very thick slippers, wearing robes.
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We're going to be safe, but we're constantly shushed, and it's going to be boring. And maybe we've got a book or two to read.
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Are you kidding? The activity of heaven is absolutely astounding. We talked about this this morning.
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The holidays, such as the example of Revelation 19 and verse 9. The feasting. The first official holiday is the marriage feast of the
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Lamb. And, of course, the feasting and the celebration at the tables, Matthew 8 and verse 11.
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Recognizing people, and Matthew... I'm sorry, Matthew 8 and verse 11, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that's father, son, and grandson intimating.
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Families will be recognized. We see this. I love this passage. If you might write this down.
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Isaiah chapter 56 and verse 5. Isaiah 56 is a very blessed chapter to me.
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And the Lord says this in the Old Testament. If you follow me, Yahweh says, I don't care what your culture is.
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I don't care what your nationality is. I don't care whether you're a nationalist or you're a stranger, you're a foreigner.
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If you are loyal to me, and continue on, read that entire chapter, but it keys off in verse 5.
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In my home, once again home, and on my walls,
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I will make a memorial for you. And I will give you a name closer than if I were to call you a son or daughter.
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An everlasting name which will not be cut off. Can you imagine that? When I was speaking in Wall Hall of South Carolina, I'll be going back next week, as a matter of fact, speaking there.
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And I spent the afternoon with a very dear family. He's a head deacon, and they brought me over for the afternoon before I was to speak that evening.
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And they have this nice ranch house, and he said, come on over here. My daughter came with me. My wife was unable to travel.
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My daughter went in the kitchen, and they were preparing lunch. And he says, I want to show you something, Brad. Comes in the hall. Now listen. Immediately, some people are going to start nodding.
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If you remember this, either somewhere, or you do it yourself. He says, I want to show you the family. The hallway down to the bedrooms, all the grandkids, and the family, and the sons and daughters.
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You ever seen that before? And they have pictures all the way down. And here's grandkid, and he's showing these fascinating pictures all over the
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United States. And this one, they're very successful, and they go over. This one over here, traveling and everything. This is
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Isaiah 56 and verse 5. I'm looking at him, and I'm saying, Victor, you're very, very proud of this family.
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And oh, yeah, this is kind of like the Hall of Fame, right? That's Isaiah 56, 5.
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The Lord says, you know something? You have been faithful to me. In my house and on my wall,
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I'm going to make a memorial for you. It's an amazing, amazing passage. Give you a name even closer than if I were to call you a son or daughter.
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We are in the family. Did you notice this? God keeps being called the Father. Romans 8 tells us that we can call him
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Abba, Daddy, in a familiar way, that is not disrespectful, but showing the closest of Him.
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And He's calling us His children. Revelation 21 and verse 3, one of the conditions of us is we will be walking with Him.
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It says in chapter 7 of Revelation, He's going to spread His tent of protection over us.
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And in there, He'll be abiding with us. We'll be abiding with Him. We will be walking with Him.
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God will no longer be in a distant place, an apartment, so to speak, called heaven.
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He will be with us. Heaven will be on earth. Revelation chapter 21 tells you that. And He will be with us.
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And in that condition, what does He say? Well, we've got to get you ready for this. You can't have any more death.
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Revelation 21, 4, there's no more death. Well, we can't have you getting fatigued or injured or anything.
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And so Revelation 21, 4, there is no more pain. You're coming along. Are you enjoying yourself?
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Okay. There is no sorrow. As a matter of fact, Isaiah 51 and verse 11 says the condition of the believer is that you're going to have everlasting joy in your head.
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Luke chapter 6 and verse 21 says, oh, we will laugh. We will laugh. And of course, as we talked about this,
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Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 through 11, we'll be learning. They come up and they're asking God the
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Father questions. They're wanting to learn. The condition of pain was very, very important to my oldest son.
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At the time, he was four, four and a half, and we were having devotions in his room. My wife was down taking the littlest one, the infant, and getting her to bed.
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So I sat with Nicholas on the side of his bed, and we were talking about Revelation. He wouldn't know about heaven. And I came to Revelation 21, 4, and I said, and so there will be no more pain.
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He stopped me right there, very methodical. He's ended up in the military and all this tactical stuff.
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This is just the way he is. And he said, Daddy, there's no, you don't get hurt in heaven? I said, well, no, Nicholas.
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Look what the Bible says. He said, remember the age, okay, and remember the condition of running around, you know, bumping and stuff.
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He says, and so just think of the condition. He goes, so if you go out, if you're in heaven and you go down the driveway, we had a concrete driveway, and you fall down and you skin your knee or you get hurt, and I'm trying not to laugh.
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And I said, no. I said, you know, the Bible says you're not going to get hurt. This has intrigued him. So if you go over in the backyard and you're running and then you fall down and you hit your head on a rock, and so you're not going to get hurt in heaven?
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And I said, well, no, you're not going to get. Okay, so if you're on the back deck in heaven and you fall down the steps and you hit your head on a rock,
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I don't understand the obsession with hitting your head on a rock, and you fall down and you hit your head on a rock, will you get hurt?
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And I said, no, no, you're not. Okay, if you're on the deck and you're on the railing and you jump off in the backyard and hit your head on a rock, would you get hurt?
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No, Nicholas. Now, my wife's hearing. You can hear her cracking up in the other room. He's intrigued. If you got on the roof and you jumped off in the backyard and you hit your head on a rock, would you get hurt?
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No. And then this is the big one. If you went to heaven and you got on a mountain and you jumped off a cliff and you hit your head on a rock, would you get hurt?
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And I said, no, Nicholas, there's no more pain. He's like, sign me up. I mean, this is the only thing.
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You can have anything else about holiness but falling and not getting hurt. He was just intrigued by this, and we still tease him to this day, the idea of a pain -free existence.
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But then when I go around, and as you do in the community that I am in rural South Carolina, and so many dear friends when
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I go to the little country church that we attend, and so many people that will work their way down the aisle. Now, I believe that Brother Doug Kleckner is watching right now on the live stream, and he's over near the
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Harrisburg area in Pennsylvania. And he came over to a meeting in Mechanicsburg when I was speaking. When he came down the aisle, it just melted your heart.
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He's not going to care that I share this with you. He's almost at a 45 -degree angle moving, and his back is so torn up from multiple surgeries, and he's in his later years.
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And he came down the aisle to come, came across the state to come and meet us and to fellowship with us.
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And the whole church just absolutely took him in. And he carried under his arm, he carried a shoofly pie for me, which was absolutely amazing.
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But I saw him, and they were all, and I said, how are you doing? He says, oh, the back surgeries are not working. I'm in so much pain.
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But you know, things could be worse. But you saw the pain, and you saw how it was etched on him. And he says,
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I'm going in for another surgery. A couple of months later, he says, I had the surgery. It does not work, Brad.
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He says, I think I'm relegated to this. I have a dear friend who now travels on behalf of a particular
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Christian organization. He was my former senior pastor in Arizona. And I went to go meet him in Greenville.
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We hadn't seen each other in about 10 years. And as he went to pick up a glass and talk with me, it shook so bad he had to hold his hand and shake it.
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He says, I might as well just tell you. He says, I have Parkinson's. He says, and it's getting worse. He says,
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I'm taking medication to keep it calm. He says, no, I won't. He says, the doctor tells me I won't die of Parkinson's, but I will die with Parkinson's.
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And he goes around, and everybody is so gracious to him. But I think of the day that Dave will be free of that, or of my senior pastor who's a quadriplegic back in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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And we think of all these things, the corruption of pain, the corruption of injury. It's all going to be gone.
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We will have whole bodies before him. There is an incorruptible nature. The curse is gone, which is, as we know, in Romans 8, verses 19 through 22, everything's under the curse, which brings across these things as well.
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But it also tells you there, in the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21 and verse 27, in that domain known as the
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New Jerusalem, God's home, the rest of the New Earth is not open for details. There's so much in heaven.
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We're just concentrating on the main capital city of the New Earth, and it tells you in there in verse 27, there is nothing there that will defile.
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Nor will there be anybody who will defile. The condition of the believer in heaven is that we are free of any defect, physical or spiritual, nor any attack of anybody coming in, trying to disrupt this.
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Revelation 22 and verse 14 says, all of those that are in that rebellion, they're outside.
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Now, people will ask me, does that mean that we have the evildoers just dancing around the gate trying to get in?
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No, no. In the way that the construction of that passage is, it's like this.
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Right now, if you follow that, I am outside Pickens, South Carolina right now.
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That's the nearest hometown to where I live. I am not standing right outside the perimeter of the property of Pickens, South Carolina.
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I'm here in Illinois, and technically, according to that, I'm outside Pickens.
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That's what that's talking about. When it merely says outside are thieves and liars and perverted ones and things like that, it's saying they're just not in.
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So don't think the idea that they're standing, they're scrabbling at the gate, causing all kinds. It just means we are in, they are not.
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It is outside. So the condition of the believer is we're free from any threat. We are there.
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We're walking with the Lord. Here's something that I found most precious I wanted to share with you, which just came up recently in this.
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Whenever we're talking about walking with the Lord, I want you to understand something.
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If you say, oh, that's a neat condition, that kind of makes us better. John 10 .10, Jesus says, I'm giving you life here and here and afterward, and I'm giving it more abundantly.
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And that is an eternal truth as well as a temporary one here on earth. We now have hope.
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We have a future and all. And in that, there's something else. Everything has becoming absolutely brand new.
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I'll remind you the word kynos, everything, and that includes us. And it tells us in there when everything becomes new, as it's promised in Revelation 21 and verse 5, that means our condition.
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And one of them is physically in this sense. Are we going to taste more clearly?
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Are we going to, you know, some of you, as I do, COVID has taken away a lot of your taste or different problems with digestion.
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Are you able to hear? We see a number of people with glasses in the audience. You'll have a better vision. But here's a curious one.
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You're going to hear better. And the only reason I bring this up is something very precious that came to me in a devotional.
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When we get to heaven, one of the great joys is that we're going to hear the voice of Jesus.
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Now, we've sung about Him. We've read about Him. We may have had teaching from Him as we read the scriptures and He's talking to us.
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But to physically hear Him is something astounding. I want you to write this down and to give this to a devotional meditation later on.
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When we're in heaven, we are going to physically, as well as spiritually, hear the voice of Jesus.
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Here in Psalm 45 and verse 2, it tells us of the
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Lord Himself, Yahweh, Jesus being God, grace is poured upon your lips.
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What a beautiful phrase of all the things. It's not talking about octaves or the different tonal qualities of that.
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It's in grace. Then when we go more specifically into Jesus, Luke 4 and verse 22 tells us, and this gets biased in a devotional reading, but it says, they marveled, they actually wondered, they marveled in a positive way at His gracious words.
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As Jesus taught, it just enamored the people the way He spoke as well as the content of His speech.
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And then it says in John 7 and verse 46, if you remember this, the leader said, get
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Him and we're going to incarcerate Him. The soldiers came back and they go, what'd you do? Where is
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He? No man ever spoke like this man did. Do you remember that? We're not touching
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Him. His words are with power, with grace. And then I realized one of the grand things of the realization, we will hear the audible physical voice of Jesus in heaven.
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In such things as well done, thou good and faithful servant. What would Jesus say to you at the reward seat of 2
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Corinthians 5 and verse 10? You have done well. What did Luke 12 say?
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You sit down, I'll serve you. And these wonderful words of graciousness we see here.
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These great promises of the condition of the believer. When we see these different things and we're saying this, we're away from defilement, we're away from confusion, we are together, the condition of us being together.
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Psalm 133 and verse 1 says how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
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We're going to be together. And the final thing I want to in the time that we have is this, we are going to learn.
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There's so much more but I want to respect your time here. We're going to learn. A very gifted and a man that I greatly, greatly trust in his teaching made a comment in a message one time and it bothered me very much.
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And I won't say his name because I honor him and I think it may have been a slip of the tongue in a message. But he says, when we get to heaven, we won't have to learn because we'll know everything.
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And that's not biblically true. There's only one who's omniscient and that's the Lord. Is there scripture in which we'll learn?
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Oh, yes, many different places. For example, Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 through 11, they're asking the
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Lord questions. Why are you not enacting justice? They're learning. Revelation chapter 7, it says the
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Lamb will lead them. You are being led and you must be submissive to learn as you're being led.
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If I don't want to be led, then I don't want to learn. When I've come here, there are many times either
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I'm relying on the GPS or Pastor Bice is giving me directions. I don't know I need to learn how to move about.
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I even called him last night. I got lost for a little bit. Here, okay, I have to learn. The Lamb will lead us, right?
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And we're going through there and we're learning. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 10 is very, very powerful.
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As you look through this passage and then it hits a keynote on verse 10 and it says this,
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In the fullness of times, all things will be brought together under Christ, whether in heaven or in earth.
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Now, there's a great depth and a number of Bible scholars will tell you, oh, there's so many layers to that, and one is this.
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The proper word in the Greek is, the King James Version says brought together, but you might have a translation that says everything will be summed up in Christ, whether in heaven and earth.
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And they say this, they said, let me give you an illustration. At the time that Paul is writing, in the accounting way, the term summed up meant this.
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You know, if I go to Aldi's or Walmart, I'll get a receipt and the total will be on the bottom. Here's what
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I bought in the bottom, correct? Well, in their days, the sum would be at the top. Here's what you owe or here's the transaction cost.
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Now, the itemized list is why we came with that conclusion. Everything is summed up. And so this is the key point.
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And they're saying accounting -wise, when we see Christ in His glory is there, and here are the different things in our life that brought that about.
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They weaved in. Why did this happen to me whenever I was a teenager? Why did this happen in my job?
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Why did this occur at that time in my life? Lord, I'm so confused. And he says, my child, do you realize when your neighbors were watching, when you faced this difficulty, they were watching to see, would you curse
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God, would you still maintain your testimony? That was a seed of salvation. And you're in heaven.
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I see, okay, summed up. To the glory of God, this person came to Christ, and you were one of the thousands of seeds in that person's life when you faced this persecution or that disappointment.
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Or when you went to the hospital, did you realize that your conversation with that somebody led them to the
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Lord or brought them around back into the walk of the Lord? And all these things are brought in there. The other way that this is presented is that when you take a look, that term summed up also means in a literary term.
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At the top is the headline in an article or the title of the chapter. Then you're going to see this and read the chapter, that's why that was named this or that's why that headline was there.
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It says this, this is the main point. Jesus is King of King and Lord of Lords. Here's the reason why.
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In your life, here is what was interwoven with your neighbor, your family, your conditions, and things like this.
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And all these things are brought together in a weaving. My father -in -law, who's since gone to be with the
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Lord, I talked about that when I first came in here. When Jill and I were married for about three years, this is back in the 80s,
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Robert brought out something for us. The 1982 World's Fair was in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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And as World's Fair, I've never been to one, but what happens is when they're finishing up through the summertime, these different exhibits from these different nations, they'll start moving on.
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And they're selling stuff because they don't want to carry it back to their country. Robert bought this. It's got to be almost five feet long and about two and a half feet wide.
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It was a tapestry of the Great Wall of China. From a distance, it looks like it's painted.
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It was a tapestry. And part of the Chinese exhibit in Knoxville was the ladies were on this other side and never looked at the other side.
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And they did it. It's a gorgeous tapestry. But the side that they're on is a mess.
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And because I've had to carry this thing around and take it to different things, on the one side, somebody goes, what is that until they see the other side?
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See, I'm on this side seeing things in its creation. I do not see the finished side.
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And in the scripture, it tells us this. We're on this side in this life not fully understanding.
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Ephesians 1 .10 says, well, let me explain from the heavenly side why this happened. We're like, it seemed like such a mess in my life.
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We will be learning and we will be humbled when we say, oh, Lord, in that case, if that brought salvation to that person, encouragement,
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I now understand why. And all these things we will be learning. There's so much more
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I can say, but in respect of time, I'm going to conclude here. If this brings on other questions tomorrow night, both by writing or by raising of hands, we're going to have a
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Q &A time, friends. I want to just encourage you, get into the scriptures that I shared with you.
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Read these for yourself. Let's close in prayer, okay? Father, thank you. As we're learning and we're growing,
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Lord, the condition of what we have, we just barely got started on this, on how we'll be.
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And when we feel your embrace in our resurrected bodies and feeling your resurrected body and seeing the wounds, which are not of a decrepit state, but badges of honor,
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Lord, we will celebrate. Lord, thank you in all of this we see of the most.
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We will sing alongside angels a new song, as we see in Revelation 15, in celebrating you in Revelation 19.
01:00:07
Worthy is the Lamb, Lord, you are just. You are leading us. And Lord, we thank you so much that we are just happy to be inside the gate of the new
01:00:16
Jerusalem. And yet you honor us. You tell us in Revelation 22 and verse 5, we will reign with you.
01:00:22
In chapter 3 and verse 21, we will sit on the throne with you. So many things humble us,
01:00:28
Lord. May we remember these things and thank you for this grace that you've given us in salvation and in the rewards of the future in heaven.
01:00:36
Thank you once again, Lord, and it's in your name we pray, amen. All right, take that sheet again.
01:00:54
And we'll sing the second stanza of this hymn we sang tonight,
01:01:00
When This Passing World Is Done. When you sing it this time, what you just heard all comes together in this second stanza.
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Let's stand together as we sing and close. I stand before the throne
01:01:24
Dressed in beauty not my own I see thee as thou art
01:01:33
Love thee with unsinning heart Lord, shall
01:01:41
I fully know Not till then how much
01:01:47
I owe All right, Lord bless you, have a good night, and trust you'll be back tomorrow evening as we wrap up this heaven tour conference with a good