Speaker 1: Are Heaven and Hell real places? And what are they like?
Speaker 2: Today?
Speaker 3: On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of
Speaker 3: Rick Warren, we continue his series called Eternal Realities, Heaven
Speaker 3: and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible
Speaker 3: says about heaven and Hell and how you can be
Speaker 3: absolutely certain you'll go to Heaven. Up next, here's part
Speaker 3: one of a message called the Reality of Heaven.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: The truth is a lot of times we're just not
Speaker 4: too excited about Heaven. I mean, we're much more interested
Speaker 4: in Earth than we are about Heaven. And really that's
Speaker 4: too bad, because we have been sold a bill of
Speaker 4: goods about heaven. The fact is the reason we don't
Speaker 4: get excited about Heaven is we have a faulty image
Speaker 4: of it. We don't realize how cool, how exciting, how incredible,
Speaker 4: how so much better than Earth it's gonna be.
Speaker 2: I like Earth? Do you like her? I like Earth?
Speaker 4: I love the sunsets, I love the sky, I love
Speaker 4: the water, I love the weather. Shoot, we live in California.
Speaker 4: I mean, come on, you know my idea of winter.
Speaker 4: As I put on socks, this is an incredible place.
Speaker 4: We live in paradise, and I like this place a
Speaker 4: lot in spite of the fact that it's broken, that
Speaker 4: nothing actually works the way it ought to work. No
Speaker 4: relationship is perfect, no body is perfect except mine.
Speaker 2: No, you know, no weather is perfect.
Speaker 4: Nothing is perfect on this planet because sin has broken
Speaker 4: the planet. But this is all we know, so we
Speaker 4: can't understand how cool heaven really is. And as I said,
Speaker 4: most of our ideas are warped because they came from Hollywood.
Speaker 4: Now let me just say it again. I've told you
Speaker 4: many times, when you get to Heaven, it's not gonna
Speaker 4: be all white. You're not gonna have wings, you're not
Speaker 4: going to be an angel, you're not gonna be a
Speaker 4: little chubby cherub, you're not gonna wear a white robe,
Speaker 4: you're not gonna float on clouds, and you're not gonna
Speaker 4: play a harp. As I've told you many times. To me,
Speaker 4: that would be hell. I can't think of anything more
Speaker 4: boring than to be in a colorless place having to
Speaker 4: play a harp. Oh, just that would make me not
Speaker 4: want to go to Heaven. So the night we're gonna
Speaker 4: look at the real thing. And honestly, there's so much
Speaker 4: material I'm gonna get I'm gonna hit you with a
Speaker 4: ton of verses that I can't even cover it all.
Speaker 4: There's so much, And sometime we'll come back and just
Speaker 4: do a series on this. Now, notice there on your outline.
Speaker 4: The Bible says this in Colossians chapter three, verse one,
Speaker 4: Since you have been raised to new life with Christ,
Speaker 4: set your sights on the realities of heaven. Circle that
Speaker 4: the realities of heaven, not what Hollywood gives you, not
Speaker 4: the bill of goods that you've seen by artists and
Speaker 4: what people have tried to think up. Set your side
Speaker 4: on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's
Speaker 4: hand and the place of honor and power. Now, in
Speaker 4: this weekend, we're going to look at the realities of heaven,
Speaker 4: and specifically, we're going to look at these five questions.
Speaker 2: What is heaven? Where is it?
Speaker 4: What is heaven like, how do we get into it?
Speaker 4: And what should we do if we're going to heaven.
Speaker 4: So let's just get right into it. We've got a
Speaker 4: lot of material to cover.
Speaker 2: First.
Speaker 4: What is heaven, Well, the Bible tells us three things.
Speaker 4: Number one, it's where God lives and rules. It is
Speaker 4: where God lives and rules through the Bible, it's called
Speaker 4: the dwelling Place of God, the House of God. It's
Speaker 4: called the City of God. Thirty one times. Jesus calls
Speaker 4: it the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven.
Speaker 4: Actually he calls it the Kingdom of Heaven because it's
Speaker 4: where God not only lives, but the Rules and the
Speaker 4: Bible says in Psalm one twenty three, Verse one, Lord,
Speaker 4: I look up to you, up to heaven, where you rule.
Speaker 4: It's where God lives. In Rules number two, it is
Speaker 4: a real place. Now, we talked about this last week,
Speaker 4: and let me just cover it again. It's not a
Speaker 4: state of mind. It's not a state of being. It's
Speaker 4: not some disembodied condition where you're gonna float around without
Speaker 4: a body. It's not nirvana. It's not nothingness. It's not
Speaker 4: a dream like state. It's not something intangible and ethereal.
Speaker 4: It's not a feeling. It is a real place. In fact,
Speaker 4: the Bible says that in heaven there are streets, there
Speaker 4: are trees, there is water, there are homes. It uses
Speaker 4: a lot, it hints, and in all likelihood there's gonna
Speaker 4: be animals there. There are mini scriptures that allude to
Speaker 4: the fact that animals will be there. It is a
Speaker 4: physical place, and you will have a physical body. It's
Speaker 4: not just some kind of floating around in outer space,
Speaker 4: which sounds pretty boring to me. Jesus said this up
Speaker 4: here on the screen in John fourteen to two. He said,
Speaker 4: there are many rooms in my father's home, and I'm going.
Speaker 2: To prepare a place for you.
Speaker 4: If this were not so, now less, he says, I'm
Speaker 4: going to prepare a place, not a state of being
Speaker 4: a place. If this were not so, I'd tell you plainly,
Speaker 4: heaven is a real place. It's not a state of mind.
Speaker 4: And in fact, notice there on your outline, Jesus said
Speaker 4: in Matthew six point twenty, store up for yourselves treasures
Speaker 4: in heaven. And then he tells us this where moths
Speaker 4: or rust can't destroy it. You know, moths either way
Speaker 4: close and rust destroys away metal, and where thieves can't break.
Speaker 2: In and steal it.
Speaker 4: Now, if heaven were just a state of mind, being
Speaker 4: a consciousness, you couldn't store anything up there. But he
Speaker 4: says you can store up treasure in heaven. Now we're
Speaker 4: going to come back to that, because he says it
Speaker 4: about five times in the New Testament. But it's where
Speaker 4: God lives and it's a real place. And number three,
Speaker 4: this is the cool thing. Heaven was designed for us.
Speaker 4: It was designed for you and for me, specifically designed
Speaker 4: for us.
Speaker 2: This is such an amazing.
Speaker 4: Thing that God not only designed the earth for us
Speaker 4: so we could live and it could sustain life, but
Speaker 4: he also designed heaven for us, not for himself, but
Speaker 4: for us. Notice the Bible says, come, you, who are
Speaker 4: blessed by my Father, Take your inheritance. I mean something
Speaker 4: I've been planning to give my kids. Take your inheritance.
Speaker 4: The Kingdom prepared for who you circle the word you
Speaker 4: was prepared for you, and it was prepared for you
Speaker 4: from the foundation or the creation of the world. We
Speaker 4: talked about this last week. When God start thinking up earth,
Speaker 4: he also started thinking up heaven because we're not meant
Speaker 4: to live here.
Speaker 2: This is not all there is. And if the only
Speaker 2: thing you.
Speaker 4: Get this week is is this that there's more to
Speaker 4: life than here. And now there's more to life than
Speaker 4: just this life you're gonna spend how many times have
Speaker 4: I said this eighty years on this planet, maybe a
Speaker 4: little less, maybe a little bit more, But that's about it.
Speaker 4: And really that's a good thing, because you don't want
Speaker 4: to live in an imperfect place forever. You want to
Speaker 4: live in a perfect place forever. So you're gonna spend
Speaker 4: eighty at the most one hundred years here on the earth.
Speaker 4: You're gonna spend trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions
Speaker 4: and trillions, gazillion gazillions. I'm gonna make up a word
Speaker 4: someday for the infinity to infinity and beyond. You're gonna
Speaker 4: live in eternity. And God says, I designed it for
Speaker 4: you now, friends, This is such an amazing expression of
Speaker 4: the love of God. The Bible tells us that God
Speaker 4: created the entire universe because he wanted a family. He
Speaker 4: wanted a family, and he wanted a family that would
Speaker 4: live with him forever. And I wasn't lonely. God has
Speaker 4: never been lonely because God has fulfilled in himself and
Speaker 4: he's in a relationship to himself because God is.
Speaker 2: Love, father, son, holy Spirit. So he wasn't lonely.
Speaker 4: But he said, I want to express my love by
Speaker 4: creating human beings. I'm gonna make them in my image.
Speaker 4: They're not gods. You're never going to be a god.
Speaker 4: You're going to be a human. You're not going to
Speaker 4: be a god in heaven. You're not going to be
Speaker 4: an angel in heaven. You're going to be a human
Speaker 4: being in heaven. But God said, I wanted to make
Speaker 4: these human beings so that I could adopt him into
Speaker 4: my family. Look at some verses here on the screen
Speaker 4: Ephesians one to five. God's unchanging plan has always been
Speaker 4: to adopt us into his own family by bringing us
Speaker 4: to himself through Jesus Christ, and this gave him great pleasure.
Speaker 4: You were planned for God's pleasure. We talk about that
Speaker 4: in the Purpose Driven Life book, that God said, I
Speaker 4: want you to be a part of my family. Now
Speaker 4: there's a word for God's family. Look at this next verse.
Speaker 4: It's verse Timothy three point fifteen, and it says there,
Speaker 4: God's family is the church. God's family is the church.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 4: The Church is the only thing that's going to last.
Speaker 4: God's family is the only thing that's lawdst. One day,
Speaker 4: this earth's going to burn up, and the only thing
Speaker 4: that's going to last is people who are part of
Speaker 4: God's family, who've chosen to be a part of his
Speaker 4: family in faith and in obedience. Now the Bible says
Speaker 4: this here on the screen one Peter one four. God
Speaker 4: has reserved a priceless inheritance that's heaven for his children,
Speaker 4: and it is kept in heaven for you. All the
Speaker 4: things He's gone plan for you, pure and undefiled, beyond
Speaker 4: the reach of change and decay. So what is heaven.
Speaker 4: It's the place that he's preparing for his family. Oh
Speaker 4: and by the way, another analogy in scripture, the Bible
Speaker 4: calls the church the bride of Christ. And it's like
Speaker 4: he's saying, I'm preparing this place for my bride. I
Speaker 4: want to give her the best. And he says, my
Speaker 4: family and my bride. He said, this is what I'm
Speaker 4: preparing for you to spend eternity with me forever. And
Speaker 4: the Bible says this up on the screen. This is
Speaker 4: God's purpose that when the time is ripe, he will
Speaker 4: gather us all together from wherever we are in heaven
Speaker 4: those who've already died, or on earth those who haven't
Speaker 4: died yet, to be with Him in Christ forever. Now
Speaker 4: know this, it says, forever. You've heard me say this
Speaker 4: before you were made to last forever. That's why your
Speaker 4: mail in God's image and the implications is you're gonna
Speaker 4: last forever one of two places, heaven or hell.
Speaker 2: And as we talked.
Speaker 4: About last week, you get to choose which door you're
Speaker 4: going to go out My way or God's way, Jesus way.
Speaker 4: Jesus said, I am the way. Hebrews thirteen fourteen says
Speaker 4: for this world, let's read this verse together, for this
Speaker 4: world is not our home. We are looking forward to
Speaker 4: our city in heaven, which is yet to come.
Speaker 2: You see, once you've.
Speaker 4: Become a part of God's family, there's a whole lot
Speaker 4: more to life than just here and now.
Speaker 2: And really, this world is not in my home.
Speaker 4: I'm just passing through. I think every believer should be
Speaker 4: given a green card because this is not your ultimate citizenship,
Speaker 4: your ultimate citizen. You're only here on earth sixty seventy
Speaker 4: eighty ninety one hundred years. God says, your ultimate home
Speaker 4: is in heaven. Now, that's what heaven is. It's a
Speaker 4: real place. It's where God lives, and it was designed
Speaker 4: for us. Now, the question then, is where is heaven?
Speaker 4: And the answer is we don't know. All we know
Speaker 4: is this. You can write this down. It's out of
Speaker 4: this world. We know that it's out of this world.
Speaker 4: We definitely know that it is not on earth. Heaven
Speaker 4: is not a place on earth. Regardless of what the
Speaker 4: songs say. Heaven is not a place on earth. It
Speaker 4: is out of this world. And that's why the Bible
Speaker 4: says in many places like Psalm fifty three, verse two,
Speaker 4: God looks down from heaven, it says, at people on
Speaker 4: earth to see if there are any who are wise
Speaker 4: and who worship him.
Speaker 2: Now, while we don't know.
Speaker 4: The location of heaven, it's a specific place. We don't
Speaker 4: know the location, but we do know the way. Jesus said,
Speaker 4: I am the Way. I am the Way, the Truth
Speaker 4: and the life. No one comes to the Father but
Speaker 4: by me, And the Bible says this up here on
Speaker 4: the screen Roman Street, God has shown us a different.
Speaker 2: Way to heaven.
Speaker 4: Not by being good enough, which none of us can
Speaker 4: be good enough to get into a perfect heaven and
Speaker 4: trying to keep his laws, but by a new way
Speaker 4: promised in scriptures a long time ago. Okay, so what
Speaker 4: is heaven like now? This is the one we really
Speaker 4: want to know the answer to. And the Bible says
Speaker 4: that heaven is a mystery. It is a mystery, and
Speaker 4: part of it is we just don't have the mental
Speaker 4: capacity to understand other dimensions when we live in a
Speaker 4: three dimensional world. We live on a planet that rotates
Speaker 4: around the Sun and has a twenty four hour rotation,
Speaker 4: and so we have a concept of time. If you
Speaker 4: weren't living on this planet, you wouldn't have the same
Speaker 4: concept of time that you do as you do in space. Now,
Speaker 4: the Bible says this in job chapter eleven. Can you
Speaker 4: understand the mysteries surrounding God Almighty? They are higher than
Speaker 4: the heavens and deeper than the grave.
Speaker 2: So what can you do when you know so little?
Speaker 4: And these mysteries outreach the earth and the ocean.
Speaker 2: When I was a little boy, we lived in.
Speaker 4: Northern California, and one time we took a family vacation
Speaker 4: near to southern California and my dad was trying to
Speaker 4: explain to me what Disneyland was going to be, Like,
Speaker 4: what a waste of time? You can't understand Disneyland until
Speaker 4: you go. And when you get there, you're going, whoa,
Speaker 4: the very first time. Now, the hundredth time you're gone,
Speaker 4: it's just all well, after all, you know, But the
Speaker 4: first time you go and you're a little kid, you're going,
Speaker 4: this is heaven.
Speaker 2: And no matter how well my dad tried to describe it, he.
Speaker 4: Could not conquer, you know, communicate to me how cool
Speaker 4: Disneyland was gonna be. There are some experiences in life
Speaker 4: that are simply indescribable. You just can't excribe it, describe.
Speaker 4: I mean, when my wife has tried to describe to
Speaker 4: me the feeling she felt when she saw her three
Speaker 4: children for the very first time, the second after they
Speaker 4: were born. You know, I had my own feeling as
Speaker 4: a dad, I was there, but she had a different feeling,
Speaker 4: having carried those babies inside of her. That is an
Speaker 4: indescribable feeling. And there are some things in life you
Speaker 4: simply have to experience. And all the art and all
Speaker 4: its songs, and all of the writing and poetry and
Speaker 4: everything can't excribe, can't describe what heaven's really like, because
Speaker 4: the truth is there's really nothing on earth to compare
Speaker 4: Heaven too. We are a poor carbon copy, a xerox.
Speaker 4: We're an imitation of something much much greater, more fulfilling,
Speaker 4: more beautiful, more exciting. And the Bible tells us this.
Speaker 4: They're in First Corinthings two. No eye has ever seen,
Speaker 4: and no ear has heard, and no mind has has
Speaker 4: ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. Now,
Speaker 4: I know many of you are kind of like me.
Speaker 4: I've got a pretty fertile imagination. I can think up
Speaker 4: some pretty big things.
Speaker 2: People have accused me of being.
Speaker 4: A dreamer or a visionary, and I do have a
Speaker 4: pretty vivid imagination. God says, Rick, you think of use
Speaker 4: your imagination to think of the greatest thing you can
Speaker 4: think heaven could be, and.
Speaker 2: I can top that.
Speaker 4: So all I can do is take the five or
Speaker 4: ten top peak experiences in my life, throw them all together,
Speaker 4: and multiply them by an exponential factor of a billion,
Speaker 4: and go, that must be what it's like to be
Speaker 4: in a perfect place.
Speaker 2: So I don't.
Speaker 4: Really know, and even the things that I'm going to
Speaker 4: share with you today are just a pale explanation of
Speaker 4: what heaven's like.
Speaker 2: But the Bible does.
Speaker 4: Give us some very important information on heaven. And I'm
Speaker 4: going to throw a ton of verses at you because
Speaker 4: i want you to see what it is. And I'm
Speaker 4: going to give you five things that will not be
Speaker 4: in heaven. And there are five things that will be
Speaker 4: in heaven, and since I was going to cover all
Speaker 4: these verses, I even wrote them down for you.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 4: What's not going to be in heaven and what is
Speaker 4: going to be in heaven? So let's run through a
Speaker 4: bunch of verses together. The first thing that's not going
Speaker 4: to be in heaven is no sickness. Look at this
Speaker 4: verse up here on the screen. The Bible says, everything
Speaker 4: in the heavens has a body, and so does everything
Speaker 4: on earth, but each one is very different. Now, these
Speaker 4: earthly bodies will die, but the bodies that are raised
Speaker 4: will live forever.
Speaker 2: Our ugly and weak bodies.
Speaker 4: How did he know that will become beautiful and strong?
Speaker 4: Anybody want to say yay God?
Speaker 2: On that one? Yay God? Okay?
Speaker 4: It says our our ugly and weak bodies are gonna
Speaker 4: become beautiful and strong. Eat your heart out, bread pit.
Speaker 4: The Bible says that there won't be any sickness in heaven. Why,
Speaker 4: because you're gonna get a new, perfect body. You will
Speaker 4: have a body in heaven just like you got a body.
Speaker 4: When Jesus arose and came back to Earth, and he
Speaker 4: walked in and he actually walked through door a couple times,
Speaker 4: walk through walls, and so it's kind of there's a
Speaker 4: kind of a star trek thing to it that you
Speaker 4: know you can dematerialize and go here and there. But
Speaker 4: he also set out and ate a couple of meals.
Speaker 4: So I know we're gonna eat in heaven because Jesus
Speaker 4: did with his resurrected body. The only thing is your
Speaker 4: stomach's never gonna growl there, and you'll never have gas.
Speaker 4: And because you will never have any needs in heaven,
Speaker 4: and when you eat, it will eat simply because of pleasure.
Speaker 2: You just want to eat.
Speaker 4: But you're gonna get a perfect body. Now, the Bible
Speaker 4: says this up here on the screen. Just as each
Speaker 4: of us now has a body like atoms, that means
Speaker 4: we have a human body. Uh So someday we shall
Speaker 4: have a body like Christ. And we get a little
Speaker 4: fore knowledge of that. If you want to study this more,
Speaker 4: you can go and look at the kind of body
Speaker 4: Jesus had after he rose back from death. But we're
Speaker 4: gonna have a perfect body. No, So that means no sickness.
Speaker 4: Second thing, no sadness. Look at this verse. The Bible
Speaker 4: says God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Speaker 3: What a great message from Pastor Rick today, there's something
Speaker 3: I always take away from his message.
Speaker 1: Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support
Speaker 1: this ministry.
Speaker 4: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
Speaker 4: according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to
Speaker 4: love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love
Speaker 4: your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
Speaker 4: And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize
Speaker 4: them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign
Speaker 4: of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
Speaker 4: I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the
Speaker 4: Great Commission. We believe it Daily Hope, that a great
Speaker 4: commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will
Speaker 4: who is a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
Speaker 4: a great community.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good
Speaker 4: news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around
Speaker 4: the world. And we want people to know that God's
Speaker 4: word is filled with hope and truth and the power
Speaker 4: that we need to follow him every day is available
Speaker 4: to every single one. You know as well as I
Speaker 4: do that the Word of God changes lives. It's a
Speaker 4: live it's active, and it breathes new life and new
Speaker 4: love into all of our lives. So wherever you listen
Speaker 4: to this, whether you listen on the website, whether you
Speaker 4: listen on a radio station, or whether you listen to
Speaker 4: a podcast, you're a part of the Daily Hope family
Speaker 4: and I need your help. We could not do this
Speaker 4: without your support. We're one hundred percent listener funded. Would
Speaker 4: you continue to pray for this broadcast and would you
Speaker 4: continue to support us, and let write to me, let
Speaker 4: me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the stories
Speaker 4: that are sent to me. So write me, pray for me,
Speaker 4: and support this ministry, and God will bless it, and
Speaker 4: God will bless you, and we'll get to heaven. And well,
Speaker 4: thank God for all the people going to be in
Speaker 4: heaven because you cared.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: just go to Pastorick dot com. That's Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Or you can text the word hope to seven.
Speaker 3: Oh three to oh nine. That's the word hope to
Speaker 3: seven oh three oh nine. And really, from the bottom
Speaker 3: of our hearts, we thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 3: Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope
Speaker 3: of Christ with people everywhere. Hey be sure to join
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Speaker 3: our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's
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