Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad you're here today. We're continuing our series
Speaker 1: from Psalm twenty three called Living in the Goodness of God.
Speaker 1: It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where
Speaker 1: you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. Right now,
Speaker 1: here's part one of a message called Heaven God's eternal
Speaker 1: Goodness to you.
Speaker 2: Today we come to the end of our twelve part
Speaker 2: series on Psalm twenty three. It's only six verses, but
Speaker 2: it took us twelve sessions to get through it because
Speaker 2: there's so much depth and meet on living in the
Speaker 2: Goodness of God. From the very beginning, I've been saying
Speaker 2: that Psalm twenty three is not about you or me.
Speaker 2: Are about our trust and faith in God. It's about
Speaker 2: God's goodness to us. It's not about our commitment to him,
Speaker 2: It's about His commitment to us. And in Psalm twenty three,
Speaker 2: he gives us twelve pictures of how God is good
Speaker 2: to us on a daily basis. Now, last, in our
Speaker 2: last session, we came to the last verse, which goes
Speaker 2: like this, So I'm twenty three Verse six surely, goodness
Speaker 2: and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Speaker 2: And and he's got this little connector word, and I
Speaker 2: will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Now, friends,
Speaker 2: this last sentence is the understatement of the millennium. And
Speaker 2: I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Speaker 2: To go through eleven pictures of the goodness of God.
Speaker 2: He's going to help you rest when you're stressed out.
Speaker 2: He's going to help you when you walk through the
Speaker 2: valley of the Shadow of Death. He will anoint your
Speaker 2: head with oil when you need healing, and he will
Speaker 2: he will overflow your cup. And all of the metaphors
Speaker 2: we look at how God is good to us in life,
Speaker 2: and then at the end he says, oh, and by
Speaker 2: the way, it just doesn't end here on earth. God's
Speaker 2: going to be good to you even after you die.
Speaker 2: And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Speaker 2: That's like saying on a TV game show you just
Speaker 2: won one year's supply of potato chips and three houses
Speaker 2: to eat it in. It's like it's a so much
Speaker 2: bigger deal because I will dwell in the House of
Speaker 2: the Lord forever. It's more enormous than all the other
Speaker 2: eleven pictures put together the other eleven things. He says
Speaker 2: that God's gonna do for you because of his goodness,
Speaker 2: only last while you're here on earth. But the last
Speaker 2: one says, and by the way, God's not just gonna
Speaker 2: be good to you here on earth. He's gonna be
Speaker 2: good to you forever and ever and ever and ever
Speaker 2: and ever and ever and ever for eternity, for trillions
Speaker 2: and trillions and trillions and trillions of years. I will
Speaker 2: dwell in the House of the Lord forever. This is
Speaker 2: the biggest ultimate expression of God's goodness. This is the
Speaker 2: eternal goodness of God to you. So what I want
Speaker 2: to do in this final session is look a little
Speaker 2: bit more in depth and what heaven. And I want
Speaker 2: to simply ask three questions, what is heaven? How is
Speaker 2: it different? And what are we going to do in heaven?
Speaker 2: And we're just gonna look at the front side. You'll
Speaker 2: be glad. So I want us to begin by simply
Speaker 2: asking the question what is heaven? Now on your outline.
Speaker 2: Ephesians chapter two, verse five to seven says this it
Speaker 2: is through grace that we have been saved, and God
Speaker 2: has given us a place with Christ in heaven. And
Speaker 2: why has God given this this place with Christ in heaven.
Speaker 2: Why is he saying that he wants us in his
Speaker 2: family and we're going to live with him forever and
Speaker 2: ever and ever.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: The rest of the sentence says, to show for all
Speaker 2: the ages to come, God's goodness to us because of Christ.
Speaker 2: This is the ultimate expression of God's goodness to you.
Speaker 2: He didn't just say I'm going to help you when
Speaker 2: you're down. I'm going to give you strength when you're weak.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give you the provisions when you lack something.
Speaker 2: I'll help you in your need. When you're scared, I'll
Speaker 2: be with you. In addition to all those, he says,
Speaker 2: I want you to live with me after you die,
Speaker 2: forever and ever and ever. And you're never going to
Speaker 2: die after that. This is phenomenal. And why does God
Speaker 2: do this? Why does God give us a place with
Speaker 2: Christ in heaven? He says, to show for all ages
Speaker 2: to come, God's goodness to us. God says, I want
Speaker 2: you to understand, my goodness is not time dated. My
Speaker 2: goodness is not limited to hear on earth. My goodness
Speaker 2: to you is for the rest of your life, and
Speaker 2: your life is forever and ever and ever. I have
Speaker 2: long range plans for you, not just the ninety or
Speaker 2: one hundred years you live on earth, but forever and
Speaker 2: ever and ever, and I will be good to you
Speaker 2: throughout all of eternity. So let's just look at this
Speaker 2: subject of heaven. And there's so much, as I've studied
Speaker 2: all this past week about heaven. Really, we could do
Speaker 2: a whole series on ed, another twelve week series just
Speaker 2: on Heaven. I'm going to be hitting the high points,
Speaker 2: hitting the rooftops, the peak tops of what the Bible
Speaker 2: says about heaven. Everything you've seen in movies about heaven
Speaker 2: is one hundred percent wrong. There's never been a movie
Speaker 2: that got heaven right. Never, never, never, Even the Christian
Speaker 2: movies don't get it right. Because it is Heaven in
Speaker 2: many ways is unexplainable or incomprehensible to the size of
Speaker 2: our brain. I told you in the previous message that
Speaker 2: for you to try to understand heaven is like an
Speaker 2: ant trying to understand the Internet. You don't have the
Speaker 2: brain capacity to actually understand how cool, how great it is.
Speaker 2: And all of the images that we have of Heaven
Speaker 2: are so inferior and so imperfect that it makes Heaven
Speaker 2: sound boring. Now, let me ask you when you go
Speaker 2: and you look at the surf of the ocean, and
Speaker 2: you look at the sunrises and sunsets over giant mountain
Speaker 2: peaks with snow capped, you know, mountains and beautiful valleys,
Speaker 2: and you look at the intricacies of you know, art
Speaker 2: and flowers and plants and animals. Does that look like
Speaker 2: boring to you? No? And this is an imperfect world.
Speaker 2: And if you think about all of the really beautiful sounds, sights,
Speaker 2: tastes and pleasures that God invented, every pleasure you've ever
Speaker 2: experienced was because God invented it. And this is an
Speaker 2: imperfect world. Heaven is going to be at a whole
Speaker 2: another level because there's no imperfections in heaven. So what
Speaker 2: is heaven? Well, let me just summarize what the Bible
Speaker 2: says in three sentences. You might write these down if
Speaker 2: you're taking notes. First, Heaven is a physical place, not
Speaker 2: a state of being. Heaven is the actual, literal, real place.
Speaker 2: It has a location. It is a physical place. It
Speaker 2: is not a state of being. It's not like Nirvana.
Speaker 2: It's not a dream it's not a kind of a
Speaker 2: subsistence or existence or you know, ouey guey metaphorical attitude
Speaker 2: that you've got out there. Now, this is a real place.
Speaker 2: Jesus told us about it in John fourteen, and he
Speaker 2: says to his disciples in verse two and three of
Speaker 2: John fourteen, there are many rooms in my father's home. Now.
Speaker 2: By the way, the word father's home is one of
Speaker 2: the many terms that are used to describe Heaven. Heaven's
Speaker 2: called the Father's home. Heaven is called Paradise, Heaven is
Speaker 2: called the Kingdom of Heaven. There are many, many terms
Speaker 2: to describe heaven in the Bible. But Jesus is talking
Speaker 2: about heaven, and he says, there are many rooms in
Speaker 2: my father's home, and I am going to prepare a
Speaker 2: place for you. He's talking to disciples. This is after
Speaker 2: he's died, the cross resurrected. He's got actually right before
Speaker 2: he's going back to heaven. I'm going to prepare a
Speaker 2: place for you, he says, I wouldn't tell you this
Speaker 2: if it wasn't true. And when your place is ready,
Speaker 2: notice God has a place specifically for you. When your
Speaker 2: place is ready, I'll come back to get you. So
Speaker 2: that you'll always be with me and live where I live.
Speaker 2: If Heaven is not true, Jesus Christ is the greatest
Speaker 2: liar who ever lived, because he said, I'm going to
Speaker 2: prepare a place for you, and I'm going to come
Speaker 2: back to get you. And if I come back, I'm
Speaker 2: going to take you to place, and I'm preparing a
Speaker 2: place specifically for you. You got a condo in heaven somewhere.
Speaker 2: God is planning the place that he wants you to
Speaker 2: spend eternity with him. Why because God is your heavenly father,
Speaker 2: and he wants his children to live with him at
Speaker 2: home forever. So it's a physical place, not a state
Speaker 2: of being. Number two. Second thing we know about heaven
Speaker 2: is that it's a permanent place that's going to last forever.
Speaker 2: It's not just a physical place, it's a real location.
Speaker 2: It is also a permanent place. It's not in ten
Speaker 2: years they're going to bulldoze it for urban renewal and
Speaker 2: build something else. This place will last forever. First Second Corinthians,
Speaker 2: chapter five, Verse one says here on the screen, it
Speaker 2: will be a home in heaven that will last forever.
Speaker 2: And another verse look up here on the screen. Ephesians
Speaker 2: Chapter one, verse ten says this, this is God's purpose
Speaker 2: that when the time is right, God's timing is always perfect.
Speaker 2: When the time is right, he will gather his children
Speaker 2: together from wherever they are to be with him in
Speaker 2: Christ forever. And where's that going to be. It's going
Speaker 2: to be in this place called heaven. There are already
Speaker 2: millions of people there, and other millions will join him.
Speaker 2: It's a physical place. It's a permanent place. But here's
Speaker 2: the third thing, and a lot of people get this
Speaker 2: one wrong. It is a reserved place. It is a
Speaker 2: reserved place for only God's family. Heaven is not for everyone.
Speaker 2: Everybody is not going to be in heaven. If everybody
Speaker 2: could go to heaven, you'd have backbiting and jealousy and
Speaker 2: gossip and war and lust and rape and murder and
Speaker 2: all these other things. Heaven would be no different than Earth.
Speaker 2: If everybody could go, if Hitler could go to heaven,
Speaker 2: and if Paul Pot and Stalin and Mao and other
Speaker 2: genociders who've killed millions and millions of people could go
Speaker 2: to heaven just the way they were, then what's the
Speaker 2: special thing about it. Heaven is not for everybody. Heaven
Speaker 2: is only for the children of God. It's God's home.
Speaker 2: He gets to choose who goes to it. Now you
Speaker 2: get to choose if you want to be a part
Speaker 2: of his family, and that's totally up to you. God
Speaker 2: invites everyone to Heaven, but not everybody's going because not
Speaker 2: everybody's willing to meet the conditions. And what's the condition
Speaker 2: that you accept God's grace, that you accept his forgiveness,
Speaker 2: that you realize you could never get to Heaven on
Speaker 2: your own power. Heaven is a perfect place, and I'm not,
Speaker 2: and neither are you. I stop being perfect about ten
Speaker 2: seconds after birth, and so I need a plan to
Speaker 2: get to heaven. And that's God's plan of salvation, where
Speaker 2: Jesus came and paid for all your sins so you
Speaker 2: could go. But it is a reserve place only for
Speaker 2: God's family. In the Book of Revelation, chapter twenty one,
Speaker 2: and we're going to go there. Several times in this session,
Speaker 2: verse twenty seven, it says this only those whose names
Speaker 2: are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be
Speaker 2: able to enter. Talking about heaven, now, what is the
Speaker 2: Lamb's book of life? This Lamb's Book of Life is
Speaker 2: mentioned several times in Scripture. In the Book of Revelation,
Speaker 2: the lamb is always a symbol for Jesus. He's the
Speaker 2: Lamb of God who is sacrificed for our sins, like
Speaker 2: the Lamb of sacrifice in the Old Testament. So he's
Speaker 2: talking about there is a book of Life that if
Speaker 2: your name's in it, you get in. If your name
Speaker 2: is not in the Book of Life, you don't get
Speaker 2: into heaven. How do I get my name in the
Speaker 2: Book of Life? Do what God says? Jesus said, I
Speaker 2: am the way. No one comes to the Father, but
Speaker 2: by me. I put my trust in God's son, the Lamb,
Speaker 2: who was sacrificed for me, so I don't have to
Speaker 2: pay more for my sins. He paid for my sins,
Speaker 2: and so I trust him. Then my name gets written
Speaker 2: in the Book of Life. But evidently there is a
Speaker 2: registration book in heaven. You gotta have a reservation. You
Speaker 2: just don't die and then decide, oh, now I'd like
Speaker 2: to go to heaven. You have to make an advanced reservation,
Speaker 2: and your name has to be in the Book of
Speaker 2: Life or you don't get in. Heaven is not for
Speaker 2: a first place. I don't know why anybody who doesn't
Speaker 2: want God in their life now would want to spend
Speaker 2: his life with God for eternity. That doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: Show me the person who goes. I want to live
Speaker 2: my life completely apart from God. I want to be God.
Speaker 2: I want to make my own decisions. I want to
Speaker 2: disobey what God says to do. I want to do
Speaker 2: what I want to do because I actually think I'm
Speaker 2: smarter than God. I know it will make me more
Speaker 2: happy than God. I don't even believe in God, and
Speaker 2: if I do believe him, I don't want to obey him.
Speaker 2: I want to be my own God. Why would that
Speaker 2: person that say when he dies, oh, now I want
Speaker 2: to spend the rest of my life with you. That
Speaker 2: doesn't make sense. And Jesus God says, have it your way.
Speaker 2: You didn't want me in your life when you're on earth,
Speaker 2: and I gave you all those years to decide for me,
Speaker 2: and you decided against me. Why in the world would
Speaker 2: you want to live with me now for eternity. If
Speaker 2: you didn't want me in your life on earth, why
Speaker 2: in the world would you want me in your life
Speaker 2: and eternity. You see, God doesn't actually send anybody to hell.
Speaker 2: You choose. You choose. A person chooses. If there's one
Speaker 2: door that says life eternal through Jesus Christ and salvation,
Speaker 2: and one over here says life separated from God, which
Speaker 2: is hell. If I go, I don't want to do
Speaker 2: it your way. I don't want to believe you. I
Speaker 2: want to trust you, I want to obey you. I
Speaker 2: don't want you to be my lord. I'm going to
Speaker 2: walk out this door. Who do I blame? To go
Speaker 2: to Hell? You have to do almost the impossible. You
Speaker 2: have to reject the love of God. You have to
Speaker 2: reject the grace of God. You have to reject the
Speaker 2: forgiveness of God. You have to reject God himself. Why
Speaker 2: in the world would anybody do that? Pride? Pride, that's why.
Speaker 2: Because I want to be my own God. I don't
Speaker 2: want anybody telling me what I should be doing with
Speaker 2: my life. And so God says, you got to tr
Speaker 2: I give you the choice. You want to live in
Speaker 2: my house. Here are the house rules, okay? And what's
Speaker 2: the house rules? Real? Simple? You trust me for your
Speaker 2: salvation because you can't be good enough to get into
Speaker 2: a perfect place, and you asked me for forgiveness. And
Speaker 2: you learn to love me as much as I love you.
Speaker 2: I created you for a purpose. I have a plan
Speaker 2: for your life, and I want you to know me.
Speaker 2: So it's a physical place, and it's a permanent place,
Speaker 2: and it is a reserve place only for God's family.
Speaker 2: You know. One time in the Bible tells us the
Speaker 2: story how Jesus sent his original twelve followers, they were
Speaker 2: called disciples out to do some ministry to help people
Speaker 2: who were in need. And he said, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 2: going to give you the authority to do miracles. So
Speaker 2: you can go out and you can pray for people.
Speaker 2: They're gonna get well, and they're people who are oppressed
Speaker 2: and depressed by h by demons or by spiritual forces
Speaker 2: ac cult and they're gonna have freedom and you're gonna
Speaker 2: see miracles. And he sends them out, and you know
Speaker 2: what happened. That's exactly what happened. And these guys, twelve guys,
Speaker 2: come back a little later from their mission trip and
Speaker 2: I going, WHOA, you wouldn't believe what happened. I saw
Speaker 2: this guy here, and I saw this miracle here, and
Speaker 2: I saw this freedom here in this liberation there, and
Speaker 2: they're all celebrating it, and Jesus goes, wait a minute, guys,
Speaker 2: you're celebrating the wrong thing. He says, Rather than celebrating
Speaker 2: the fact that I used you and your faith to
Speaker 2: do miracles in people's lives, here's what you should celebrate.
Speaker 2: Look up here on the screen, Luke, Chapter ten, verse twenty.
Speaker 2: He said, instead, you should rejoice that your names are
Speaker 2: recorded in heaven. The moment you step across the line,
Speaker 2: as most of you have and has said, Okay, I'm in,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna trust Christ for my salvation. I know I
Speaker 2: need a savior. I can't save myself. I can't solve
Speaker 2: my own problems. I certainly can't save myself life from
Speaker 2: all my sins. And the moment you step across the line,
Speaker 2: evidently your name is written down in the Registry of Heaven,
Speaker 2: in the Book of Life. And when you die, they say,
Speaker 2: come on in. We have a reservation for you. We've
Speaker 2: been waiting for you. Welcome, Welcome to Heaven.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I am encouraged after
Speaker 1: that message. And let's keep the encouragement going with a
Speaker 1: letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Here's rick you know I love hearing from Daily Hope
Speaker 2: listeners like you. And here's one note that I got
Speaker 2: from Raymond in New York, your pastor Rick. I'd like
Speaker 2: you to know how much I appreciate the Daily Hope broadcast.
Speaker 2: The nuggets that I get I share with my lunch
Speaker 2: group at work, and my family benefits as well because
Speaker 2: at dinner time, my wife and my son here the
Speaker 2: nugget that I learned during the day, and we discuss it.
Speaker 2: It's awesome. Well, let me just say this, Raymond, thanks
Speaker 2: for writing me, and thanks for sharing your story. You
Speaker 2: encouraged me just now. I'm happy to hear that your
Speaker 2: sharingring Daily Hope with your co workers and with your family.
Speaker 2: If God has used this broadcast in your life, would
Speaker 2: you let me know about it and tell your story.
Speaker 2: It'll be good for you, it'll be good for me,
Speaker 2: and it'll be good for all the others who hear it.
Speaker 2: I love you, and I thank God for you, and
Speaker 2: join me next time as we continue to look into
Speaker 2: God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: Now, if you'd like to let Rick know how much
Speaker 1: this broadcast has blessed you, please feel free to send
Speaker 1: him an email. He loves it. Send it to Rick
Speaker 1: at Pastorrick dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com.
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 Daily Hope Ministries and your generous financial support