Speaker 1: Hello everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you're here.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 1: We're continuing our series from Psalm twenty three called Living
Speaker 1: in the Goodness of God. It's all about how God's
Speaker 1: goodness meets you right where you are and brings hope
Speaker 1: even in difficult seasons. In this message today you'll hear
Speaker 1: part two, called Heaven, God's eternal goodness to you.
Speaker 2: Now, the next question I want to look at is
Speaker 2: how is Heaven different from Earth? And of course it's very,
Speaker 2: very different. And as I shared it with you in
Speaker 2: the previous message, look at this verse on your outline. First,
Speaker 2: Corinthians two nine says this no eye has ever seen,
Speaker 2: and no ear has ever heard, and no mind has
Speaker 2: ever even imagined what God has prepared for those who
Speaker 2: love him. So you think up the coolest thing you
Speaker 2: could experience a life, the most pleasurable, the most beautiful,
Speaker 2: the most tasty, the most incredibly enriching experience in life.
Speaker 2: And God says Heaven is better than that. Nobody has
Speaker 2: even imagined. How cool, how great, how beautiful, how amazing,
Speaker 2: how pleasurable it's going to be to live in heaven.
Speaker 2: The reason why most people don't want to go to
Speaker 2: heaven is because, as I said, everything you've learned about
Speaker 2: heaven is wrong. Every movie generally makes Heaven totally white.
Speaker 2: Why would a god who invented color make heaven all white?
Speaker 3: Okay, and you.
Speaker 2: Got fog at your feet about a foot deep, Okay,
Speaker 2: so you can't see your feet. You're walking around in
Speaker 2: fog the whole time, totally white, wearing a white you
Speaker 2: know robe. You may have wings, which is not what
Speaker 2: you're going to have. You're not gonna be an angel
Speaker 2: in heaven. We talked about that last week.
Speaker 3: And you're playing a harp. That would be hell to me.
Speaker 2: And if that's what heaven is like, I would say, no,
Speaker 2: thank you God. I think I'd rather just stay here
Speaker 2: with the surf and the sunsets, because this is a
Speaker 2: broken world, but.
Speaker 3: It's still pretty beautiful.
Speaker 2: Heaven is in no way going to be like anything
Speaker 2: you've ever seen on a movie. The Bible says, you
Speaker 2: can't even imagine. So I can't really explain it because
Speaker 2: we don't have the capacity. But what I can do,
Speaker 2: it's actually easier to tell you what's not going to
Speaker 2: be in heaven, and that is a big deal because
Speaker 2: when you know what's not going to be in heaven,
Speaker 2: that makes.
Speaker 3: A cool place too.
Speaker 2: You see, you know what's here on earth, and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff here on earth that you don't like,
Speaker 2: and it's not going to be in heaven. Now, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of verses on this in the Bible. Let
Speaker 2: me just show you a couple. John who's one of
Speaker 2: the twelve people who followed Jesus, originally the Disciples, and
Speaker 2: he's an old man. God gives him a glimpse of
Speaker 2: heaven and he writes a book. It's the last book
Speaker 2: in the Bible called the Revelation, not revelations, not plural,
Speaker 2: it's the Book of the Revelation. It's a single vision.
Speaker 2: And let me just show you a couple of examples that.
Speaker 2: In Revelation twenty one, verses twenty two to verse twenty seven,
Speaker 2: John mentions nine things that aren't going to be in heaven.
Speaker 3: Look at this, you know what it says.
Speaker 2: In verse chapter twenty one Revelation, he says, there's no
Speaker 2: temple there in heaven. There's no temple? Why don't need it?
Speaker 2: God's everywhere in heaven. Why would we need a special
Speaker 2: building to go and meet and with him and pray
Speaker 2: with me.
Speaker 3: Anybody can talk to him any time.
Speaker 2: He's all over. There's no temple in heaven. The Bible
Speaker 2: says there's no sun or moon in heaven. They're unnecessary
Speaker 2: because God's glory shines bright and lights up everything. So
Speaker 2: he's the powerhouse. There's no sun, no moon in heaven.
Speaker 2: And it says there are no shut gates in heaven.
Speaker 2: Why no crime, there's no need to Nobody has to
Speaker 2: shut a gate, nobody has to lock it. There are
Speaker 2: no keys in heaven. Why because nobody locks anything in heaven.
Speaker 2: Why because nobody commits crimes in heaven. So they said
Speaker 2: there's no gates. Gates are built for protection. You don't
Speaker 2: need any protection in heaven. You don't need a key.
Speaker 2: Nothing is locked in heaven because there's no no sin there.
Speaker 2: There's no no no shut gates. Then it says there's
Speaker 2: no night there in heaven. There's no night. You don't
Speaker 2: need it. Why, well, you don't get tired in heaven.
Speaker 2: For one thing, you don't get tired. And second, God's glory,
Speaker 2: his brightness shines for you know, everywhere. Then it says
Speaker 2: there's nothing impure or unclean in heaven. So everything is pure.
Speaker 2: You got pure water, you got pure air, your body
Speaker 2: is pure, everything pure. Everything is clean. For some of you,
Speaker 2: that would be heaven. Nothing dirty in heaven. Now some people,
Speaker 2: I don't care if it's dirty or not. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't mind dirt. But some of you, you're kind
Speaker 2: of neat Nixon. There's nothing unclean in heaven. Everything's clean there.
Speaker 2: It's pure, it's clean. There's no immorality in heaven, which
Speaker 2: is why some people probably don't want to go to heaven. Okay,
Speaker 2: because there's no immorality in heaven, all right, But here's
Speaker 2: a big one.
Speaker 3: No shame in heaven.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine living for the rest of your life
Speaker 2: with not ever feeling shame? How great that would be.
Speaker 2: No guilt, no regrets, no shame. The Bible says that
Speaker 2: heaven is a shame free zone, that that emotion is
Speaker 2: not even existent.
Speaker 3: In heaven.
Speaker 2: No one ever feels ashamed of anything, Nobody ever feels
Speaker 2: inferior in anything, nobody ever feels insecure in anything, nobody
Speaker 2: ever feels shame of any in heaven. That's going to
Speaker 2: be the environment living in the love of God. There's
Speaker 2: no shame in heaven, and the Bible says there's no
Speaker 2: deceit in heaven. Everybody tells the truth. You can't tell
Speaker 2: a lie. There's no possibility for a lie in heaven
Speaker 2: because Jesus said I Am the Truth, and his followers
Speaker 2: walk in truth. There are no lies, no deceit in heaven.
Speaker 2: So somebody tells you something in heaven, you know it's
Speaker 2: truth because there's no lying in heaven. Nothing's there. And
Speaker 2: then it says only people whose names are written in
Speaker 2: the Lamb's Book of Life are there. That means it's reserved.
Speaker 2: It's reserved for God's children. Everybody is created by God
Speaker 2: and everybody is loved by God, but not everybody is
Speaker 2: a child of God. You have to ask to get
Speaker 2: into God's family. How'd you get in your family? There's
Speaker 2: only two ways to get in a family, be born
Speaker 2: into it or be adopted into it, and both of
Speaker 2: those terms are used in the Bible. It's called being
Speaker 2: born again into the family of God and being adopted
Speaker 2: in the family of God.
Speaker 3: When you stepped across the line and put.
Speaker 2: Your faith in Christ, you were adopted into the family
Speaker 2: of God and you were born again.
Speaker 3: Into the family.
Speaker 2: God, both of those metaphors are.
Speaker 3: True in your life.
Speaker 2: And so he says, the people who are in the
Speaker 2: name Lamb's Book of Life, they're there.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: How is heaven different, Well, as he said, it's the
Speaker 2: stuff that's not there. Let me show you another verse
Speaker 2: in the same chapter, Revelation twenty one, verse four, it
Speaker 2: gives us three or four other things that won't be
Speaker 2: in heaven. It says God will wipe away all tears
Speaker 2: from their eyes, So no tears in heaven, and there
Speaker 2: shall be no more death in heaven. There will be
Speaker 2: no more sorrow in heaven. There will be no more
Speaker 2: crying in heaven, and there will be no more pain
Speaker 2: in heaven. All of that has gone forever.
Speaker 3: Wow, I'm in. I'm in.
Speaker 2: I want to be in a place for return where
Speaker 2: there's no more pain, no more sorrow, no more death,
Speaker 2: no more crying. That is the goodness of God. Why
Speaker 2: is there pain and death and sorrow and crying here
Speaker 2: because we don't follow God the way we should. Here,
Speaker 2: we follow our own things. We hurt each other, We
Speaker 2: hurt ourselves by making dumb decisions. You get hurt unintentionally
Speaker 2: and intentionally you get hurt by other people's decisions. Then
Speaker 2: there is sorrow. There is death the way this sin
Speaker 2: is death here. But when Christ has paid for all
Speaker 2: your sins, there's no more death. Nobody's ever going to
Speaker 2: die in heaven. There will never be a funeral in heaven.
Speaker 3: There's no sorrow.
Speaker 2: There's no grief in heaven because there's no loss in heaven.
Speaker 2: There's no crying in heaven. This is the place you
Speaker 2: want to be for eternity. This is the place where
Speaker 2: and if you've lived a life of chronic pain, and
Speaker 2: some of you have lived in chronic pain for years
Speaker 2: or maybe your entire life, Heaven's going to be a
Speaker 2: great relief to you because there's no pain, no pain
Speaker 2: in heaven. Now this is all through scripture. I want
Speaker 2: to encourage you to do your own study on this.
Speaker 2: If you were to look up the phrase no more,
Speaker 2: and look up the phrase no longer and study that
Speaker 2: through the Bible, you would find a list of many, many,
Speaker 2: many things that are not going to be in heaven.
Speaker 2: The Bible actually says no gloom in heaven, says no
Speaker 2: terrorist in heaven.
Speaker 3: Yeah says it.
Speaker 2: A lot of other things that it says that won't
Speaker 2: be there in heaven because it's a perfect place.
Speaker 3: So we know that.
Speaker 2: God has planned a beautiful place for us forever. Now
Speaker 2: you know, last week I gave you a gratitude list,
Speaker 2: and I did a thing called from A to the
Speaker 2: God's Goodness to Me, and I just took letters and
Speaker 2: I said, here twenty six different ways that God has
Speaker 2: been good you. This week, I made another gratitude list.
Speaker 2: And what it is. Things I'm grateful won't be in heaven.
Speaker 2: So I just thought i'd read them to you from
Speaker 2: A to Z. Things I'm glad and grateful won't be
Speaker 2: in heaven. A. Accidents, aches, anxiety, acme and ants.
Speaker 3: Won't be in heaven.
Speaker 2: B bullies, broken hearts, bad hair days none in heaven. Baldness,
Speaker 2: I'll throw that one into Okay, okay, c in heaven.
Speaker 2: No cancer, no crime, no car trouble, no cavities, no cellulite,
Speaker 2: d no dead ends in heaven. No delays, no dirty dishes,
Speaker 2: no diapers, no dementia. Everybody's going to be sharp in heaven.
Speaker 2: E No earthquakes or errors, no failures, no garbage, no hunger,
Speaker 2: no irritations, insecurities, injustice or indigestion. None of that'll be
Speaker 2: in heaven. No Jay, no June gloom in heaven. No
Speaker 2: keys to misplaced because you don't need any keys where
Speaker 2: nothing is locked. Hell, No lawyers in heaven. Now I'm
Speaker 2: not picking on lawyers, but the Bible says there won't
Speaker 2: be any preachers in heaven either, because they're not gonna
Speaker 2: need them, and there won't be any police in heaven,
Speaker 2: and a lot of us are gonna have to get
Speaker 2: new careers. In fact, the only career that we actually
Speaker 2: know will continue for certain will be worship leaders because
Speaker 2: we're gonna worship in heaven. So if you're a worship leader,
Speaker 2: you got job security. But if you're a nurse, start
Speaker 2: looking for another job, because we don't need any nurses
Speaker 2: in heaven because aren't any hospitals in heaven. Okay, m
Speaker 2: No misunderstandings or miscommunication or mosquitoes. Can't you imagine being
Speaker 2: able to have a conversation with somebody the opposite sex
Speaker 2: in heaven and they actually understood you. That would be heaven.
Speaker 2: But I thought you meant you're gonna get it right
Speaker 2: off the bat. There will be no misspcommunication, no misunderstandings,
Speaker 2: which means no conflict okay, in nose hair not in heaven,
Speaker 2: old age p. There will be no prejudice heaven. No
Speaker 2: political campaigns that would be worth it just to go
Speaker 2: to heaven for that one. Okay, no political campaigns, man,
Speaker 2: I'm ready to go now for that one. No quarrels are,
Speaker 2: no racism, no refugee camps, no receding hairlines.
Speaker 3: S this is a big one. No sales calls that
Speaker 3: would be rest.
Speaker 2: That would be peace of mind, not having somebody call
Speaker 2: you and try to take a survey tea, no traffic
Speaker 2: and most of all, no taxes in heaven.
Speaker 3: Okay, w no worry or wars or weeds, not.
Speaker 2: To pull any weeds in heaven. And the x Y
Speaker 2: s id in writing down You can make those up yourself.
Speaker 2: But the bottom line is we know that heaven is
Speaker 2: gonna what is gonna be great for what will not
Speaker 2: be there, as well as the stuff that we don't
Speaker 2: understand will be there because we're not capable of understanding
Speaker 2: those dimensions.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned last week, we.
Speaker 2: Live in a world that that's three dimensional, but Einstein
Speaker 2: proved that there are many other dimensions that we don't
Speaker 2: even understand. And there's a time space continuum in the
Speaker 2: way things warp, and other dimensions that we're we're just
Speaker 2: barely beginning to understand. So God can be multi dimensional
Speaker 2: in ways we're not even aware of in in heaven.
Speaker 2: All right, So that's an important thing. Now, what are
Speaker 2: we going to do in heaven? That's a big one.
Speaker 2: That's a big question because a lot of people they
Speaker 2: are like you know, when people write put on the tombstones,
Speaker 2: they write R I p rest in peace.
Speaker 3: In heaven.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, yeah, well I'd like to rest maybe for
Speaker 2: a few weeks. But do I want to rest for
Speaker 2: all of eternity. No, You're not gonna rest for all
Speaker 2: of eternity in heaven. God did not create you just
Speaker 2: for a permanent retirement to veg out and do nothing.
Speaker 2: So there will be interesting things to do. And let
Speaker 2: me give you first place. What what are we gonna
Speaker 2: do in heaven? Well, a lot of the stuff you
Speaker 2: can do here on earth, you're gonna be able to
Speaker 2: do in heaven. You'll be able to eat in heaven,
Speaker 2: but not gain weight. Uh, you're gonna be able to
Speaker 2: sleep in heaven. You're gonna be you party in heaven.
Speaker 2: You can obviously breathe, you can talk, you can fellowship.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of stuff you do now. You
Speaker 2: can relax in heaven. You can pray, you can sing.
Speaker 2: We know that God created you on earth for five
Speaker 2: purposes and all and four of those five you're gonna
Speaker 2: do in heaven.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: You're going to worship God. You're gonna love him and
Speaker 2: worship him. You're going to fellowship with other believers. That's
Speaker 2: all it's going to be there.
Speaker 3: You're going to.
Speaker 2: Serve God with your giftedness. You're going to grow. You're
Speaker 2: not going to stay the same in heaven. The only
Speaker 2: thing you're not going to do in heaven is talk
Speaker 2: to unbelievers about the Lord, your mission, your witness, your evangelism. Why,
Speaker 2: because there aren't any there. Have you ever thought about
Speaker 2: this that there are only two things that you can't
Speaker 2: do in heaven that you can do on earth. Only two.
Speaker 2: Everything else you can do in heaven that you're doing
Speaker 2: here on earth. In heaven, you can't sin, there's no
Speaker 2: sin in heaven. You won't be able to do that.
Speaker 2: And second, you can't witness to a non believer, tell
Speaker 2: somebody the good news about Christ, love and forgiveness because
Speaker 2: they're not any there. So if God leaves you here
Speaker 2: on earth, have you ever thought, why does God leave
Speaker 2: me here on earth? Once I step across the line,
Speaker 2: once I become a believer, Why doesn't God just kill
Speaker 2: me and take me instantly to heaven Because it's.
Speaker 3: A whole lot cooler there than here.
Speaker 2: Why does God leave me in a place of sorrow, suffering, sadness, sickness,
Speaker 2: you know, stress, problems, pressures, troubles, temptations, stress, and all
Speaker 2: of the other things that happen in life.
Speaker 3: Why doesn't God just.
Speaker 2: If he knows I'm I'm in the family, my name's
Speaker 2: in the Book of Life, why didn't he just take me? Well,
Speaker 2: as I said, there are only two things you can't
Speaker 2: do in heaven. Now, He could leave you here for
Speaker 2: those two things. One, he could leave you here so
Speaker 2: you could sin, I don't think so. Or he could
Speaker 2: leave you here to tell other people about him. Which
Speaker 2: of those two do you think God left you here
Speaker 2: to do? He wants you to pass it on. The
Speaker 2: only reason you're going to heaven is because somebody told you.
Speaker 2: Have you told anybody? Is anybody going to heaven because
Speaker 2: of you? Have you shared the good news with anybody else.
Speaker 2: If you have no intention of ever telling anybody the
Speaker 2: good news, how to get Kevin, or even how to
Speaker 2: come to church and find out about it, well, why
Speaker 2: didn't God just take you on now? And so you
Speaker 2: spare you all with the suffering and the sorrow and
Speaker 2: the sadness, and you know, and the sickness and all
Speaker 2: of that kind of stuff. So he leaves you here
Speaker 2: to tell others.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. Rick
Speaker 1: wants to encourage you with a closing thought.
Speaker 2: God has five purposes for your life. He wants you
Speaker 2: to know and love Him. That's called worship. He wants
Speaker 2: you to belong to his family that's called fellowship. He
Speaker 2: wants you to grow in him. That's called discipleship. He
Speaker 2: wants you to serve Him with your gifts and talents.
Speaker 2: That's your ministry. And he wants you to share the
Speaker 2: good news with other people. That's your mission. Now today,
Speaker 2: as we close, I want to talk to you about
Speaker 2: the third purpose, discipleship or personal growth. How do we
Speaker 2: grow Well, we grow through the nourishment of God's Word.
Speaker 2: It's how we get to know God. To know God's
Speaker 2: word is to know God's will. God's Word is the
Speaker 2: source of God's will, and God's ultimate goal for your
Speaker 2: life is for you to become like Jesus Christ. To
Speaker 2: do that, you have to fill your life with the
Speaker 2: word of Jesus Christ. Two Timothy three seventeen says through
Speaker 2: the Word, we're put together and shaped for the tasks
Speaker 2: that God asked for us. I remember in the Old Testament,
Speaker 2: the Bible says that Job treasured God's word more than
Speaker 2: his daily bread. That's how I want you to treat
Speaker 2: God's Word. That's how you grow in discipleship. Get into
Speaker 2: his word every day, study it, memorize it, and meditate
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 3: Apply it. Never take it for granted.
Speaker 2: God's word is as essential to your soul as food
Speaker 2: is to your body.
Speaker 3: So get into the Word today. God bless you.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.