Final chapter, on Heaven

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of the book, Carson brought up something at the beginning which I thought was well worth mentioning.
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And if you remember, he brought out the idea of that when we think about the God who triumphs and when we think about the relationship that we need to have with God, a lot of it is dependent on where your heart is.
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And if you remember what Carson brought out, he brought up that scripture in Matthew where it says where your heart is, there your treasure will be also, right? And if you think about that, as we begin to think about that, if we're really gonna understand the purposes of God in redemptive history and the purposes of God for us in our lives, I think it's important that we first settle that issue.
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Where is our heart? Because as Jesus said, wherever our heart is, that's where our treasure is gonna be.
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And I also thought about this.
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I thought about, and maybe you will agree, maybe you don't, and we could discuss that a little bit.
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But I thought about how difficult it is in our country to maybe really understand what true treasure is because we have so much.
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Would you not agree that we live in a land of good and plenty? And I don't mean the good and plenty candy, although I do like the good and plenty candy.
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But would you agree that sometimes when you think about it, we live in such a wealthy way, we live in a way in which we experience so many blessings that it could be difficult to really understand what true treasure is.
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If we were to contrast that with, let's say, Christians in Afghanistan or Christians in China or Christians in a land where, in a sense, it's, not in a sense, in reality, it's forbidden and it's put down.
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I wonder if we would have a better understanding of what true treasure was.
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I wonder if we would be able to see a little more clearly.
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Because again, when you think about it, having so much is a great thing.
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Is there anyone here that wants less this morning than you had last week? Because if you do, just bring it to my house.
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But it's gotta be treasure now.
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Don't bring me junk, bring me treasure.
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I was just working on it.
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Yeah, but honestly, think about it.
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How many of us would, can honestly say, we hope we have less next week than we do this week? And again, if we think about it in that sense, it really is important for us to value or to see where our value is and to see where our treasure is.
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And again, not that having things, and don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to say that the things of this life and the blessings of this life are not given to us by God to be used by us, to be redeemed by us for his glory, and really for our own enjoyment.
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So again, I'm not against treasure.
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I'm just saying that when you think about it, and as we talk about these things in Revelation 21 and 22, as I wanna lay it out, just try to keep that in your mind.
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Where's your treasure this morning? Because the more you treasure the things of Christ, the clearer the things of Christ will be.
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Would you agree to that? That the more we treasure something, the more time we'll spend with it, the more clearly we'll enjoy whatever it is that's our treasure.
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So again, as you think about it this morning, as we go through this, just think about that.
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So, I thought about looking at the last two chapters, and again, out of chapter 14 in the book of The God Who's There, Carsten talks about the God of Triumphs, and he brings up Revelation 21 and 22.
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And again, I'm not gonna try to do a commentary on it, but I want us to think about it, and I wanna look at it from a very specific way.
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I want us to think about what the new heavens and the new earth will have, and what it will be, and then I want us to think of what the new heavens and the new earth will not have, and what it won't be.
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I think that's a very simple way to look at it, right? And we'll look at some scriptures in these two chapters that will help us to understand what the new heavens and new earth will be, what it won't be.
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And again, it's important for us, I think, at times, to really get hold of the simple things, the foundational things.
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In other words, if we can settle some things in our mind, it's easy to build upon them versus not having a good foundation, and of course, I would think you would agree with me that that's a reality both in this life and as we think about the new heavens and the new earth.
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So, I want us to think about what it will be like, what it won't be like, and then I wanna use this world as a comparison, and as I believe the apostle does, what will be.
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So, let me ask you a question, which is easier to think about? What this world is like and what the next world's like? We live in this world.
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Okay.
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Everybody just staring at me like I'm.
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We have a lot of time to try to acquaint the head.
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Yeah, we're trying to make that appear.
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It is, and the reason, as you said, Brother Dan, is we're so acquainted with this world, right? All of us have an acquaintance with this world, with the things of this world, and I agree with you, brother.
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Sometimes we try to take what we are acquainted with or what we feel we know and just try to polish it up a little bit or move it along the road a little bit, but it really is much easier to think about this world than it is the next world.
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The only thing that we have about the next world is what? The only thing we have about knowing about the next world is what? Sir, what'd you say, Mike? Yeah, but our ability to understand what the next world is comes to us by the word of God, right? Because we have an acquaintance with this world.
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We don't have that acquaintance with the next world yet, so really all that we can compare with this world to the next world has to be compared with the word of God because, again, none of us have yet gone to that other side.
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So again, I wanna use that as a comparison, and I want us to think about how we are so totally dependent upon God's word to really understand what it's going to be like, what heaven and earth, the new heavens and the new earth will be like and what it won't be like.
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And sometimes that's the best way to think about something, not only what it will be, but what it won't be, because once you start eliminating things, the things that will be there become clearer and clearer and clearer.
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So again, just a few verses, and you could jump right in, but so if you have your Bibles, turn to Revelation 21, and again, let's just look at a couple of things and have some discussion about it, and let's depend on God's word to give us the information rather than trying to create.
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And that's interesting.
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If you were to ask the average person whether they are a Christian or not, and say, do you believe in heaven, and many people say they do, and then you ask them what is heaven like, you'll get a whole bunch of different understandings, right? You know, if people who love baseball think it's just a big baseball stadium, right? And people who love this thing and the other thing, we will relate it too, but again, God's word is much different in that it gives us his understanding of it.
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So Revelation 21, just read the first verse with me.
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And I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea.
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And I want us to just think about it.
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If we really value where our heart is and where our treasure is, what we really desire, what we really want, what we really long for, and we read a verse like this, the new heavens and the new earth, because the first earth had passed away, it should cause us, I believe, to really think about how deep we're gonna dig roots in this world.
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In other words, how far are we going to extend ourselves into the things of this world, knowing that God says that this heavens and this earth will pass away? Let me ask you to think about this with me, just for a minute.
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And I don't want this to be, I want us to be joyful this morning, but if we're gonna do that, we need really to compare some things in order to get to that place where we could truly enjoy it.
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So when someone says to you, and we'll use it in a very real way, someone says to you, someone has passed away, what do you think about? See him again.
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Okay, you said see him again, and you said what? That he's passed away.
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Yeah, but so, okay, when you think about something, someone or something having passed away.
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They did.
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They died.
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Or if you think about it again, whether they were saved or not saved in the net, if they're not saved, they went to hell in the net.
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People who say they're in a better place.
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I just think they're gone.
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Sorry, I'm just gonna say.
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I just think they're gone.
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Well, you know what? They had an old car.
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And in a sense, that's one of the points I wanted to bring up.
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In other words, when you say something has passed away, and I understand all the things that you said, we'll see him again, and the reality of their estate, but when something is passed away, it's in a sense, it's gone, right? It's no longer attached to this world.
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Whatever relationship it had to this world has vanished.
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Would you not agree? There's a great separation when you think about something that has passed away, whether it be a car, or whether it be something else.
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And you think about that, and you think about when we say things like that, like someone or something has passed away, again, the thought is it's no longer attached to this world.
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It has no roots any longer here.
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Now, if we think ahead on the other side, and then we start having thoughts about people's eternal state, or comfort in seeing them again, or different things like that, but one of the realities of something passed away is it's gone.
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It has no effect any longer in this world, and it no longer has an attachment that it once had.
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Agree? Fair enough? Okay.
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And we can only, at this point, consider what kind of experience will be on the other side of having passed away from this life.
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Again, the reason being, we have not yet made it to that place.
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And I just want to mention, and again, I do not want to get into some sort of detailed thought about what every word and meaning is, but it's interesting to me when he says, I saw new heavens and a new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.
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Now, let me ask this quick question.
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Does that mean there's no water in heaven? No oceans? No Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, Indian, no Gulf of Mexico? Based on what he was saying, he's not really speaking of the water, he's speaking of the fact that the majority of the world, they saw the sea and the ocean as something that was a good thing, because they were seekers, or there's people that are receiving this, people in Jerusalem, they were more, I think he said landlocked in the book, and they thought of the sea as being chaos, something that's disordered.
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Yeah, I mean, if you go through the scriptures, and again, my understanding, so if you don't agree with me, talk to Brother Mike.
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But if Brother Mike disagrees with me, go Brother Keith.
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After that, you're on your own.
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But when you think about the sea, I mean, if you look at the scriptures, in many ways, the sea represents a number of different things.
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One of them is trouble, chaos.
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It's always churning, it's always rolling, and it's always being whipped up.
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And so I think in some senses, the idea is there's no more trouble.
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And I also think of the sea as separation.
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What separates one from another? The sea, right? It's a great way in which men have separated themselves, and I thought about that.
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And again, that wasn't my intent.
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I just wanted to at least mention that, that when he talks about the first earth and the first heavens and earth having passed away, that one of the thoughts it represents to me is whatever the new heavens and new earth is, there will be no separation for those that are in the new heavens and the new earth in a relationship with God.
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And there'll be no more trouble.
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And I don't know about you, but just that thought alone should be enough to bring us comfort, right? Whatever has passed away, it's gone, no longer tangible, no longer touchable, no longer, in a sense, experimental.
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But as you begin to think about the God who triumphs and what God has prepared for those that love him, one of the things that comes to my mind, and I hope to show you quickly here a number of other things but the reality is there's no more trouble.
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There's no more churning.
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There's no more restlessness.
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There's no more separation.
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Everything is united.
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And of course, we know that unity comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, right? So just one of the things that I think, whatever the new heavens and the new earth will be, there will be a place where there is no trouble.
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And now, as we read through some of these verses, and again, I'm just cherry-picking some of them, I think it'll explain what it means by there's no more trouble, there's no more restlessness, there's no more tumult.
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Just look at the second verse.
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It says, I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for a husband.
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And I thought about this idea of the new city and the new Jerusalem.
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So let me ask you a question.
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If you were looking at it from an Old Testament perspective, when you thought about the holy city and the new Jerusalem, what would come to your mind? Please don't all speak at once.
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Wait your turn.
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Come on, if you were looking at it from an Old Testament perspective, what did the city of Jerusalem represent? Temple.
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The temple, the dwelling place of God.
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It was where God put his presence and made it known, right? So you would think of it from that perspective.
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You would think of it from a perspective of that was where men came to worship God, to look, in that sense, to look up to God, right? If you were looking at it from a New Testament perspective and you think about the holy city and the new Jerusalem, what would come into your mind? Now, again, depending on your view of end times, it could be a lot of different things that come to your mind, right? But when you think about it from a New Testament perspective, what would you think about? Okay, well, I would think about this.
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I would think about in the New Testament understanding or New Covenant understanding, we're the temple of God.
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We are the ones who worship God in spirit and truth, right? And so in that sense, we look up to God, right? By the indwelling of the spirit, we look up to God.
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And I thought it was interesting, and I just wanna mention it, how this is worded in verse two, because it says this, then I, John, saw the holy city of New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.
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In other words, I thought about how in Jerusalem, people came, gathered together, worshiped, offered sacrifices, and to look up to God.
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And even in our day, we look up, waiting for Him in that sense.
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And yet it says that whatever the new heavens and the new earth will bring us, it is something that God is gonna bring down to us.
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It is something that God is preparing and has prepared and will bring it when He comes.
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And when He comes, we will be able to enjoy it in a way that we have never been able to do before.
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Again, another reason not to dig roots too far down in this world, right? Another reason for us to really set our minds on the things above, not on the things of this earth, right? Because the world is passing away, and you could allude to the scriptures that Peter talks about, right? That the stars will fall out of the sky and everything will melt away.
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And so again, we ought to really consider where our hearts are throughout all this, and then to begin to understand, as Carson brings out, I believe, that there's coming a day in which this, everything that we know will be gone.
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And there will be a new heavens and a new earth.
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And the glory of that cannot even be compared with the glory of this, right? And again, we can't imagine it, and yet, right? I agree with you, we can't imagine it.
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And yet, we have God's word that gives us, if you will, a glimpse, right? And we struggle with what this means and what that means and all the nuances of it.
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And I'm not against that, because I think that's what we should do, is to contend and to study the scriptures.
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But my thought is for this morning, that when God ultimately comes in triumph, there will be something so fresh and so different.
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And I've said this to you many times, and I will continue to say, I do not believe that when we take our last breath, we take a slow train into the presence of Christ.
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I believe we explode into his very presence.
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And in that day, when the new heavens and the new earth come down from God, and there's that allusion to something so catastrophic that nothing can compare to it.
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Nothing 9-11 couldn't even begin to compare to that kind of a catastrophic event.
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But just something to think about.
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And it will be a place, even just in the second verse, it'll be a place for only one couple.
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It's the bride and the groom.
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It's a place prepared for only one couple, the bride and the groom.
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And that's what, at least if I understand what it says, coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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It'll be a place.
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Listen, the new heavens and new earth is gonna be a wedding like none other.
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Now, I've done, I've officiated many weddings.
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I've attended many more.
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I've been to some interesting weddings, and probably you have.
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I've seen a bride come up to the floor.
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I literally have, my niece came up to the floor.
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I attended weddings where they had to call the cops to break up the fight.
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That's a normal Italian wedding.
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So I've attended many, and I've officiated some of those weddings where they had to call the cops to break up the fight.
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But think about this, all that's gonna pass away.
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There's gonna be a wedding like you've never attended before.
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That's what God has prepared for us.
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A new heavens, a new earth, a wedding like we've never been to before.
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And there's something I really wanted to bring out.
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And I want you to look at verse three.
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And again, this is not gonna be a verse by verse.
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We don't have the time.
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I don't have the mind to do that.
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But look at verse three.
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Again, just to get us thinking about the new heavens and the new earth.
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Verse three says, I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them.
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They shall be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.
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And there's a phrase there that's repeated a number of times.
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You see it? God is with men.
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And then it says, and he will dwell with them.
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And then it says again, and God will be with them.
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Isn't that great? That the new heavens and the new earth is a place where God will be with us.
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And it doesn't mean that God is not with us now by the spirit of God, but there is coming a day friends, when we shall see him face to face.
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And I don't know about you, but you see if your treasure is Christ and that is glorious, isn't it? But if your treasure is tarnished, if your treasure is not really that much of a treasure, then to tell people that they will see God face to face, if he's not their treasure, well, well, I know I have some thoughts about different things, but again, just think about what it says that God will be with them, God will dwell with them and then God himself will be with them.
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Isn't that, you know something look, friends, we don't look forward to the new heavens and the new earth.
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The things that have passed away, in that sense, once they're passed, that's it, it's gone.
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In many ways and not to take out the personal aspect of it, because the personal aspect is very difficult to work with.
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But just like you said, brother, a car.
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And I've thought about it and so yeah, I got a new truck, it's out there.
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So you could all take a shot at me just for one day and then leave me alone, I don't wanna hear about it.
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But you know what I thought about when I bought that truck? I thought one day it's gonna be the junkyard.
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Now, my wife says I'm weird and I'll admit I'm weird, but I really did, I thought one day it's gonna be all crunched up and, you know, in those little piles and it'll pass away.
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When it talks about here about God being with, that will never pass away, friends, that will be with us for all eternity.
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It'll be, there will be a unity in the new heavens and the new earth like we could never understand.
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And so we have allusions to it in this life, right? Husbands and wives, intimacy, friends, fellowship, the body of Christ, all those things that teach us of unity.
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But honestly, as I understand what it says, I don't understand it, but I understand what it says, there's gonna be a unity there like never before.
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And I don't think that we should try to just take what we enjoy and multiply it by a denominator.
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And I think, I thought that's what you were alluding to, brother, in the beginning, that we, there's something so far beyond our understanding that it's, all we could do is do that, right? Is to try to extrapolate based on what we're acquainted with.
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But if you think about this, that God will be with us and God himself shall dwell with us, there's gonna be a unity, a God with his people, his people with God.
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And let me ask you, or let me say this to you.
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The greater your view of God, the greater your desire to see him will be.
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In other words, the more you understand of who God is, I'm not, not just what God does, but who God is, right? The more you understand the very person of God, because God is a person, his attributes, what in essence pleases God, what displeases him, all those different aspects of his immutable character, the more you understand that, the more you will look in great anticipation to seeing him face to face, for him to be with you.
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Again, some people have a very dim view of heaven and what will come, because they have a very dim view of God.
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But if you have a bright and glorious view of God, then your anticipation I would think is at a higher level.
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I think about that, you think about it in a worldly sense.
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You know how they put these movie trailers out like six months before the movie comes out? And then all they ever do is give you little glimpses of the movie.
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What do they do? What are they really doing? They're just building that anticipation, right? They're just trying to carry you along.
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And then as it gets just before the movie is released, well, then they give you a little bit more.
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And all of a sudden, man, I can't wait to see that one.
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Why? Because your view of it has grown.
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And in that sense, it's a way for us to think about how the new heavens and the new earth would be.
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Let's just look at verse four.
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And again, I'm not doing verse by verse, but I wanted to at least get through these few verses.
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And look what it says.
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The old world is passed away and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
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There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, no more pain for the former things have passed away.
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They're gone.
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Every tear, death, sorrow, crying, pain.
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I picked this out and I'll read it to you.
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And I just, this was a thought by a man named Alfred Barnes.
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Let me just read it to you.
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It's very, it's short, but it'll make a point.
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He was talking about this verse where it said there'll be no more death.
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And he says this, and there shall be no more death in all that future world of glory.
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No one will ever die.
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Not a grave shall ever be dug.
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What a view do we begin to get of heaven when we are told there should be no more death there.
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How different from earth where death is so common, where it spares no one, where our best friends die, where the wise, the good, the useful, the lovely die, where fathers and mothers and wives and husbands and sons and daughters all die, where we habitually feel that we must die.
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Assuredly, we have here, and to whom nothing is more common than, I'm sorry.
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Assuredly, we have here a view of heaven, most glorious and animating to those who dwell in a world like this and to whom nothing is more common than death.
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In all their endless and glorious career, the redeemed will never see death again.
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They will never themselves die.
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They will never follow a friend to the tomb, nor fear that an absent friend is dead.
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The slow funeral procession will never be witnessed there, nor will the soil ever open its bosom to furnish a grave.
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I thought that was spot on.
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Isn't that great? I mean, again, when you begin to think about what God has prepared and will bring down in his triumph, in his triumph, it ought to make our hearts jump for joy.
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And if our hearts don't jump for joy, brothers and sisters, friends, maybe you got to ask yourself, where is your heart? Is your heart really so dug down here that all you could see is the things of this world? How many people there are? Just think about how many people you know this morning, because we all know peeps.
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How many people you know this morning that all they care about is how many toys they could put in their garage? I know I'm just talking about guys.
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Talking about girls, too.
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They might not have a garage, because the garage belongs to the man, right? But it's no such thing as a woman cave.
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That wasn't in my notes.
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That just flowed right out of me.
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Yeah, I know, yeah.
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Ma'am.
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Yeah, absolutely, yep.
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And remember Lot's wife, really.
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And why did she turn around? Because that's where our treasure was.
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And she suffered the consequences.
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So let me ask you just for a few minutes as we start to run out of time, I just want to get a couple of things about how, in contrast, what the new heavens will not be like and what won't be there.
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So just look, if you would, a couple of scriptures in the same chapter in verse eight tells us something.
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Look what it will not be like and look who will not be there.
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The cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
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And I don't know about you, but just that thought alone is most pleasant.
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That all these kinds of people will never enter there and they will never, never corrupt that.
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Whatever that, what God has prepared will never be corrupted by the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, because they will not be there.
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Look in verse, in chapter 22, again, just in a sense plucking a little bit of what will not be there, who will not be there, and what will not affect us there.
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In chapter 22, verse 15, but outside are dogs and sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
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Be no more, no more liars there, friends.
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No more deceivers.
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No more will we ever have to look at someone and say, I wonder what they're really up to.
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That's a pretty cool thought.
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They will not be there.
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And so the new heavens and the new earth could never be corrupted by such a kind of thought.
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And even in the same chapter, no, I'm sorry, in chapter 21, I want you to look at verse 27.
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Again, just looking at what won't be there and what will not affect us there.
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But there shall be by no means any, enter it, but there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
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There will be nothing to do any damage to what God is bringing down in the new heavens and the new earth, in whatever way you understand that.
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And hopefully our understanding is at least sought after by the scriptures.
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In chapter 22, verse five, look what it says.
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Well, I'll look at it from verse four.
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And they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads.
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And look, there should be no night there.
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They need no lamp, no light of the sun for the Lord gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever.
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Isn't that great? No night.
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When you think about night, by the way, what does that represent to you? Sin, sleep, darkness, lack of understanding, corruption.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I mean, it's just many thoughts that you can think about and it's not something that will affect us then.
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Because look in chapter 21, again, it says the same thing.
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And the city had no need of the sun, chapter 21, verse 23, and the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it.
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And the lamb is its light and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in the light.
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The kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor within it.
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I don't know, but if this is cherry picking, I'm good with cherry picking the last two chapters of the book of Revelation.
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I'm also very sorrowful for those that will be excluded.
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Those who have sought to lay so many treasures out in this earth that they can't see the forest or the trees and so they will find themselves in a situation where they will be excluded, cast out, and they shall forever, ever weep and wail.
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I really believe in that day, the great cry of men will be, what have I done with God's son? What did I do with God's son? And they shall never find consolation.
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Look at verse 23 for a minute as we close.
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And if you will, this is kind of like a summary verse, chapter 21, verse 23.
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Wait a minute, I lost my verse.
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No way, I knew I was gonna do that, I knew it.
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Chapter 22, verse 23.
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Nope, you ain't gonna find that either.
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Well, anyway, I just read it too.
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There'll be no more curse there.
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Listen, no more curse.
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I don't know about you, but that's kind of hard to understand, no more curse.
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There'll be no more curse in the creature.
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There'll be no more curse in the creation.
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There will be no more curse.
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And all the things that the curse represents, and there are many things, if you think about it, what the curse represents.
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I don't believe there's any hurricanes in the new heavens and the new earth, because there's no more curse.
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I don't believe there will be any disturbance in the new heavens and the new earth, because the curse will be gone.
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And that is a very difficult thought for us to work through, isn't it? And why is that? Because we're too acquainted with the curse.
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And to think of a world without curse is in that sense beyond our thinking.
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We can move ourselves a little bit, but after you move yourself so far, it's almost like gravity, it draws you back down.
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But in this new heavens and the new earth, when God comes in all his glory, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend with a shout, the curse will be gone forever and ever.
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But remember this as we close, not only will the curse be gone, but the cursed will be gone also.
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So as we finish the God who's there, if you remember the first chapter was the God who creates everything.
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And if you would, as we close the book, Carson's book, it's the God who triumphs and creates again everything.
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And all of history is between those two marks.
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God in the beginning and what God will do at the end.
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And then we shall see forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
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As brother Mike usually uses like 17 forevers when he says it.
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But forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
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All right, we gotta stop.
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Next week, we haven't finished the book.
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Next week, brother Michael's thought, it'd be him with the first two one another's.
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And I hope that that, it should take us a bit of time to work through the one another's, but I hope it will be positive and profitable for us all.
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So with that, let's just close with a word of prayer as we go in to worship.