Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we come before you. We're grateful to worship. We're grateful that you speak to us through your word. We're grateful to have the chance to gather together. Lord, we're, we're coming at this from so many different perspectives. And today, when we speak and we talk and we wrestle with, I can't think of a more important topic, we're grateful that you are here with us and that you'll walk us through this. So I pray now that you'll do just that. In the name of Jesus, we pray this. Amen. Don't you guys say hi to some folks around you and then have a seat. Alright? The ancient of days, we should probably talk about that for a second. So, the ancient of days is, uh, it's an Aramaic title found in scripture for God. It's, uh, it's, it's found in the, in the seventh chapter, Daniel. It's the only place that you find it. The, the seventh chapter. Daniel, is this kind of freaky vision that he has of what we think is judgment day. It's God on his throne. Thousands upon thousands of angels are ministering to him , times, ,. It's a, it's a way of saying it's an innumerable number of people are now gathered around the throne, the kings and the rulers and the mighty people throughout the ages are now gathered around the throne of God. And, and, and in the middle of this worship, in the middle of all of this acknowledgement of the one who created time, he is at the ancient of days. If that weren't enough, Daniel sees this mysterious figure called the son of man. The son of man shows up in this vision and he approaches God as if he's an equal. And God gives him the authority to rule over all the universe. He's the son of man. Anybody wanna guess Jesus'? Favorite title when referring to himself in the gospels. He was the son of man. He was the son of man. Listen to me. There will come a day when you and I will stand before the creator of all. And the question will be, what did you do with the Son of God? The son of man, the Lord of all. And I'm excited that we get to talk about some things today. I'm also excited about something that's happening this Friday here at Chesterfield in the hub. Let me just explain to you what's going on. We said a little bit about this, uh, on my social platforms, and a lot of you have heard about this, this, uh, thing that's kind of brewing around the world. We just want to invite you into it. You see, what if, what if the . billion people who don't know Jesus yet, what if they could hear who he is? What if something was now brewing in the Capital C Church around the world? Like we love what we're doing in Zimbabwe and the fact that the gospel is being proclaimed. Let's celebrate that. I mean, I think this is a perfect way to sort of wrap up the week. But what if there was a spiritual hunger, particularly in younger generations of people saying, I wanna know the truth. What if there was a revival? Can I use that word, a revival that was happening around the world? I mean, who, who would ignore that? Not me. Wouldn't you wanna be a part of something like that? Lemme just tell you something. As this church continues to move into the new thing that God is calling us in the coming weeks and months and years, I think you and I are gonna have a decision to make. Because at some point some people are gonna go, y'all are getting too excited again. You just, I'm gonna sit this one out or in 'cause I, I really do believe that God's not finished with us yet. You see? So we'll have that decision that we get to make. But I want you to know that there is something that is brewing that you're being, well just watch this and then I'll, I'll finish the thought. Go ahead. Watch this. Imagine if the . billion followers of Jesus on the earth right now joined together for one global gathering with one goal to go and make disciples of all people. What you're imagining is a sacred meeting, unlike any other in history. What you're imagining is gather from every continent and culture. Jesus followers are coming together in the year for prayer, worship, repentance, and commissioning. Connected live from Africa and Australia, from Europe and Asia, from North and South America. An unprecedented gathering across every time zone. Okay? All right. All right. I'm just gonna stop it there. I'll get too excited. So here's what I want you to know. This is an event that will happen over hours where the Capital C Church is going to gather together and broadcast from each time zone. So you'll hear about, you'll, you'll hear from the African church, you'll hear from the European Church, north America. You'll just go through in these hourly kind of multiple hour chunks. And it's a chance to pray. It's a chance to worship. It's a chance to hear what's going on in the church. It's a chance to remind each other. God is up to something. We are going to be a host church for Gather , particularly for the North American segment of what's going on that happens here in the Hub. And it starts at this Friday. You're like, well, I need to make plans. Well, there it is. It's this Friday, . We'd love for you to join us. I, we're just gonna hear stories. We're gonna, we're gonna confess, we're gonna pray. We're gonna, we're gonna ask God to, to do amazing things. We're gonna worship, we're gonna hear from people around the world. We're gonna keep the doors open through the whole North American window, which means we'll be here from to o'clock Friday night. You do not have to be here that long, but you can come and go as you please. Is anybody else longing for revival? Is there anybody here at our sites anywhere that is willing to pray for revival? Now, I just wanna say this. First of all, welcome to those of you at Fenton and Mid Rivers and Grants Trail. Those of you who are joining us in overflow here at Chesterfield and the many, many people around the world who are joining us online. But I say, let's do this and let's pray that God does something and we should pray for the event itself. 'cause it's nations that are gonna be sort of connected technologically. You can imagine how many different ways that can go wrong. Uh, the person who really kind of cooked this up and is coordinating this is our friend Jenny Allen. She's an author. You've probably seen some of her stuff know that Well, Jenny's a friend, and we just, we just want to cheer her on and pray for her. I'll tell you, uh, a while back, Robert and I were at something and, uh, I just looked over Jenny and I had talking. But I look over and she's in a serious conversation with someone. And then I look who she's talking to. Actually, someone is praying over her. The person praying over her is my favorite prayer warrior in the world. My wife Robin and Robin is praying for God to do a mighty thing. And then when we're done, Robin looks at me and says, we gotta keep praying for this thing. We've got to do this because the world needs revival. So if anybody is willing to join us, we'll be here Friday night. If anybody is willing to pray for revival, how about we do it right now? We got a, uh, we got a, we got a microphone down there. Alright, Dale, would you pray for us, Our Father in heaven? You are our Father. Amen. Would you give us a better, truer glimpse of what and who the our is in this world, Lord, so that we can align our hearts and bow our hearts together before you and ask you Lord, to revive us, to ignite us, to excite us with your love, Lord, so that we can go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in your name, Lord, teaching them your ways, teaching them your love. Lord, would you put a fire in our hearts for the Big C Church? Would you put a fire in our hearts for you? Lord, you are the author and finisher of our faith. And we adore you. We worship you. We bow before you. Thank you for this opportunity to link arms with all our brothers and sisters around this world. Praise your name. We will do this together in Jesus' name and for the kingdom. Amen. Amen. Amen. Every world religion talks about the afterlife. Nirvana, moksha, shangrila, Valhalla, paradise, heaven. Now they're all different concepts and you get there in different ways, but everybody speaks about the afterlife. I'm going to talk to you today, no surprise, from the Christian perspective, right? I mean, that's what we're gonna look at. I say this because there are people who may be coming from other worldviews, and you're gonna, this is gonna stir some things up and you're gonna have questions. Come talk to us afterwards. We've been doing this all weekend long. Let's figure out how we keep taking steps together. I'm gonna make some truth claims that are connected to the Christian faith. I think we can show you that other religions also make truth claims. I don't think they're all roads leading up to the same mountain. I don't even think they're on the same mountain. We can talk about that. We've done, uh, entire weekend teaches on that. We, we go over this in our class explorations, which is coming up. These are all important things to talk about. I just want you to know, I think we can do this together humbly and and respectfully. But I hope that what we can do today is to just touch on some things that don't normally come up about the afterlife. We've done entire series on this, entire weekends on certain things. I wanna save some time so that we can just talk about what y'all want to talk about with this. But let's go on ahead and say that everything is going to be informed by this book. I said it last week. We believe that the Bible is corroborated by evidence outside of the Bible that shows that this book is like no other. We believe this book points to someone who is like no other by his life, his death and his resurrection. Jesus is the unique, he's the unique figure of all history. So let's now look at what happens when we die. Hebrews chapter nine says that every one of us is gonna die. In fact, it says that we are, we're, we're destined to die. Man and woman are destined to die. And then we face judgment. That's a cheery way to start things off, don't you think? No. What does it say here? There's a couple of things that we should notice. First of all, you get one shot at this. If the Bible is right, you get one shot. There are, there are no do-overs. There are no mulligans. There are no if at first you don't succeed. Try, try again. Reincarnation plans. There is nothing in scripture. For some of you growing up in certain traditions, there's nothing in scripture that speaks to purgatory. There is no such thing as a spiritual timeout where you can learn your lesson or someone can pray you out of it. It's not there. You get one shot at this life, which means this whole thing is gonna matter today. Which means as we go through this and you kind of are building the case for why I gotta get outta here. The you, you, you'll, you'll want to stay. 'cause this, this, the stakes are high, okay? But I think it also implies something else. You will survive your death. That's weird. What does that mean? Well, if you die and then you fit, you're still you. Let's go back to the beginning. In Genesis, you were created in the image of God. This means a lot. It means that your life has intrinsic worth. It means that you have the capacity to, to discern right and wrong. It means that you have a longing for justice. You are unsettled until, until justice is served in a matter. This is who we are. We have the capacity to worship. We have the capacity to think about things that, that the meaning of life and, and, and things like that. You don't see your pets staring off into the distance going, well, I wonder what my purpose is. You don't see that we humans have that capacity and we have this innate ability to connect with God enough. Uh, Psalm , it's a psalm of confession that David wrote. He says, in one place, create in me a pure heart. Oh God, renew a steadfast spirit within me. He's not talking about physical structures inside of him. He is saying, there is a part of me that senses God, that you are there. And I'm even sensing that we're not right with each other. You see, the Bible clearly teaches that you are more than your physical body. Lemme say that again. You are more than your physical body. The invisible immaterial you. That is you. One theologian says this is what makes you a conscious living, being that's you, and that you survives the traumatic event we call death. Now, if that's not true and there is no God, then when you die, that's it. You cease to exist. But if there is a God and this is true, then what happens? The Bible says, you and I will face, uh, a moment of reckoning. We, we, we will face a moment where we have to give an account for our life. And by the way, I think this makes sense. If there is no justice at the end of the story, then let's just say it this way. If there's no justice at the end of the story, then you get to do whatever you want. Now, I mean, as long as you don't get caught, just do whatever you want. That's not meaning. That's not, that doesn't give life hope. We all long for bad things to be addressed. We want wrongs to be right. And there will be a moment when this accounting, this reckoning takes place. God is the most loving, the most powerful, the most joyful, the most generous, most brilliant, most dynamic, most magnificent being in all the universe. And he created all of this, we said last week, out of love. Not because he was lonely, not because he needed anything. He created you because he loves and because he wants you to enjoy life with him, life with each other, and life in this universe that he cooked up. But almost from the beginning, collectively and individually, we have walked away from that love. I mean, we've run away from that love. And because of that rebellion, all of the evil and the ugliness of the world, I mean, that's it. That's it. I mean, it just explains all of this. We have just, we've chosen to go away from God and it's just, it's just, it's resulted in everything we see. Wait, it gets worse. I'm a part of the problem. Amen. Yeah. I don't mean me. You're going, yeah. I'm glad he's admitting it out loud. Oh, who finally, no, I'm talking about us. Can we, can we agree? No, I'm a part of the problem. Romans three says that God doesn't grade on a curve. It's pass fail. And we all fail. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. Now, we can talk about where and how and all of this, but we have all fallen short Wait. It gets even worse than that. I can't make things right with God. I can get to a place where I'm willing to admit I've made a mess of things. God, but I can't work my way back to him. You see, that's the lie of religion. That somehow I can climb my way back to God. The good news is that God loves us so much that he said he's on Jesus on a rescue mission. This is what we just celebrated at communion. There is a God who died for us. That transcendent, mysterious moment on the cross where Jesus makes a way for us to spend eternity with him. Okay, I need you to hear me now. This is it. This is the moment. This is the defining moment of life. What did you do with Jesus? This is what separates Christianity from all other world religions. Every world religion you study. And believe me, I've studied a bunch of them. It comes back to you working your way into it. I can fix things on my own. It's the eightfold noble path of Buddhism. It's the five pillars of Islam. I mean, we could just go through it. Christianity says, you can't do this. Jesus says, I've done it for you. Will you trust that on that day of judgment, I'll stand for you and with you, Matthew , Jesus gives us a haunting story. He says, there will come a day when the son of man comes in his glory and all of the angels with him. He will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Okay? This is the moment of truth. I mean, this isn't the only place in scripture we see this. But the son of man either says, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world, or depart from me. And I want you to notice the relational aspect of this. He says one of two things. He either says, come into this experience that was created for you 'cause you're a child of the king. Or depart from my presence. What Jesus is describing here is heaven or hell. And it's at this point that people are going, ah, this is what I hate about Christianity. I I don't, I don't wanna talk about this. In fact, right now, you're forming defenses in your brain. You're going, wait, there's a reason I we, I should just take out my phone and see what I'm doing on Wednesday. 'cause I got a lot of stuff going on. Some of you're contemplating looking at the person you came with and saying, you know, we need to go check on the babies. And your babies are and . So I understand, I understand. I'm just gonna ask you to stay with me for just a couple of minutes as we go through this. God hates this concept too. You know, I think I could make the case in scripture that, uh, he's not gonna violate his character, but he's done everything he can so that we could avoid this, this consequence. You see, as much as God loves us, he hates what sin is doing to us, to humanity and to the story. And his, his holiness will not allow him to look away from this. God will not be mocked. There is a day of reckoning, but it's even more than that. If God were to allow even just a touch of, of like, you know, like some of our stuff come along, Greg. It's not that bad. If God were to allow just even some evil, some rebellion, some sin to eek its way into eternity future, it pollutes the whole thing. And heaven is no longer heaven. So we get to this concept of hell, and we've taught entire weekends on that. Those were fun weekends, by the way. But if, if you, if you want that, we can point you back to that. We can give you all sorts of resources on this. I just want to, if we could to just talk for just a second about one thing I, I know I I I mean, Jesus goes out of his way to tell us that this is just a just this is just something that, uh, that we don't, we, we don't, we don't want to experience. He uses imagery like flames and gnashing of teeth and darkness and weeping. And people spend an awful lot of time just going, well, what part of that was literal? And what part of it was, listen, I'm gonna tell you what I, we don't know, but we know it's real. And Jesus is saying, you don't want to, you don't want this. But the big question that people ask is, how can a loving God send people to hell? Right? You've heard that question. You've asked that question. Well, first of all, lemme just say, God is loving and holy, and they exist together, and one doesn't cancel the other out. That's how we get to the cross. He's both loving and holy. But I think the other part, and I'm not trying to be cute with my words here. I'm really not. I just want you to understand that hell is also a choice that is made. You see, I don't think at the end of the end of all time that anyone will say, well, wait a minute. That's not fair. Because what's happening at one level, and there's a mystery. We can talk about this. Well, where were people and how about this, and what about that? But there's a, there's a sense that every person makes a choice to move closer to God or further from God. And he will join you in that journey if you move closer to him. But if you move further from him, there's a consequence. JP Morland is a theologian philosopher, and he says, the essence of hell is the end of a road away from God, love and anything of real value. Now, what I would say is, the way you get to the end of that road is one step at a time. Now, I don't know what your life is. I don't know what anybody's life is on this, but I will tell you, it could sound like this. I don't even think there's a God. Well, you're on that road now. Well, I think there's a God, but I think all of this stuff is too fanatical. Dude, I just, I'm just trying to live my best life. God will understand. You're on that road. Now, I think there's a God, I think this stuff matters, but I'm just gonna be as religious as I can. 'cause I kind of think I can take care of it on my own. You are now on that road. I think there's a God, I think there's something to all of this, but honestly, I, it's embarrassing for me. I'm not gonna do it. But you know what? I know people. I know people. My family's all in on this Jesus business. I've got a I I I've got a, a wife or a or, or a, you know, my kids or the, the guy I'm dating, man, they love Jesus. I don't, but I'm close enough to them that I, I think, you know, I'll get in by association. You're on the road, guys. I just want you to know that when we say we can take care of this on our own, or there is no God or there is a God, but it's not that big of a deal. We are on the road to saying, God, I don't really trust your way. And if you spend , , , years of your life saying, thanks, God, that's a little too intense for me. I'll do it on my own. God will eventually give you what you demanded. CS Lewis puts it like this. There are only two kinds of people, those who say thy will be done to God, or those to whom God in the end says, thy will be done. And like I said, I don't think anybody at the end says, wow, God, that's not fair. I think each of us will take these steps and make these choices either further or closer to God. But there is a day of reckoning. And if somebody chooses to separate from God, he will separate from you. And that means you separate from his love, his joy, his, his, his goodness, his life forever. It's lost. That's it. No wonder Jesus uses stark terms. No wonder the writers of scripture are not afraid to talk about this. I mean, Jesus talked about hell way more than you think he did. I'm not trying to frighten anybody into anything. We're done with this portion of the, of the talk now. Okay? So everybody collectively go, whew, we made it. Okay. I don't want you to miss this. You see, the truth is, as a pastor, as your pastor, I know I will stand before God one day, and he's gonna ask me, did you tell him the truth? I just want you to know the truth. God did. God did what he did on the cross. So this doesn't have to be your reality from Old Testament to New Testament, here's one in one Timothy two. It it God wants everyone to be saved. So I want you to understand what we're talking about here. It's not just saying no to a horrible option. I want you to think of saying yes to a glorious option. This life with Jesus is what's on the table. Everything, everything, uh, hell isn't is what Heaven is like, life and love and reunion and joy and laughter and accomplishment. That's heaven. You get glimpses of this in this world. When you do something you don't, and you don't say it out loud, but you, you accomplished something. And at the end of that day, at the end of that project, you go, whew, we got something done there. That was kind of cool. That's a glimpse of eternity. When you're sitting around the table and you're laughing so hard that somebody goes, seriously, y'all gotta stop. I'm I I I can't take anymore. That's a glimpse of the joy of heaven. I'm telling you, it's all true and it's all possible because of Jesus. But there are questions that we have about this life. So I want to just take some time now, I'm gonna stir some thoughts up and then we're gonna, we're gonna keep this going. But, um, I need to start with this because, um, 'cause there are some questions and, and, uh, sometimes some confusion about this. Lemme just, uh, real quickly. So you know, if we look at a timeline, um, we've talked about the cross. We know that not long after Jesus resurrection, he returned to his Father in heaven. We know that there is a promise that Jesus will return. Are you with me so far? And we sometimes, when we talk about heaven and we talk about what's going to happen in eternity, we spend a lot of time at the end of the story. Now, this is, uh, like you're in, uh, revelation, let's say and . And we talk a lot about the new creation. This is a new restored creation. And we even talk about how we will have these built for eternity, bodies that can enjoy this new creation. I'll just give you a couple of, uh, a couple of references here. So you've got first Corinthians . Uh, let's just use that one for, for instance. It is just, there is a, this is the word resurrection comes up a lot. But you, if you follow Jesus, you'll be resurrected. What? Like, your body will be resurrected and restored. How about healed? How about better than ever? And built somehow to enjoy this physical new creation? It's a cool thing. Paul says, what is raised will be incorruptible. Can you even imagine? But this is sometime in the future. It's at the end of the end of the story after evil has been completely vanquished and quarantined after the final judgment. This happens at the end of the story. We are in this in-between time. You still with me? So the question that people have asked is, well, what happens to my loved ones who, who trust Jesus, who have died now before this thing has happened, right? So it's before this final resurrection. So there's a, I know there's a body. I was there. I stood at the graveside. I I I know where his, her body is. It hasn't been resurrected yet. What's going on? Well, here's what we know. We're just gonna be really open about what we know and what we don't know. The first thing we know is they're with Jesus. Okay? They're with Jesus. I mean, uh, Paul says in second Corinthians five, verse eight, to be absent from the body. So here we are, right? There's the you. That is not the body to be absent from the body, which is still here, is to be present with the Lord. Jesus says himself on the cross in Luke , he says to the thief who believes in him, he says, today, today you'll be in paradise with me. So that's a thing. You'll be in paradise and you'll be with Jesus. Are you gonna have that physical built for eternity body yet? I don't know. No, you're not. You're not. What are you gonna have? I don't know. I don't know. With old two, apologies to every eulogy you've heard. Uh, your Uncle Joe right now is not on the back. Nine of heaven playing golf with Jesus Mother, Teresa and Johnny Cash. Now, that is a foursome I would like to follow. I'm not gonna lie to you, I'll caddy for any of them in the fu. Well, Jesus doesn't need a caddy, but, um, but I think that kind of crazy physical experience that, that, that happens later. So what does that mean? Are they like a blob? And, and like, is everybody absorbed into this energy? No. This is not a new age thing. This is not Eastern religion. You are still, you, you are still conscious. Jesus says to that thief, you will be with me in paradise. Paradise. That's it. Paradise. That word paradise in the Greek is also used in the Greek translation of Genesis to describe the Garden of Eden. What's the Garden of Eden? It's full. It's lush. It's beautiful. You have this intimate connection with God. You are there. It's full of wonder. Ah, see, I don't know what is really truly happening with your loved ones right now, except this. They're in paradise. They're with Jesus. And that's a win. Okay? Now, there's probably more, we can talk about that later, but I want us to get to another question that you're too polite to ask. Uh, and it's, it's essentially this is, is heaven gonna be boring? 'cause every now and then somebody will come up to me and they make sure nobody's around. And they go, I don't even know if I can ask this, but I'm worried that after a while, all right, I just want you to watch these guys. I do not recommend subscribing or following them, but watch these guys. Uh, anyway, they're on a subway. Just watch this. So What's your take? It would be good for a while, but it's forever. You Can do whatever you want there. You can fly. Yeah. But like doing whatever you want forever. You would get so bored. It would be become hell. That's An interesting point. Even if it took like trillions and trillions of years to become hell, you're still there forever after that. Okay. All right. So I, I love the honesty. I think we're a little bit, we're, we're, we're getting a little loose on the curves there. But, uh, the first thing I would say, we won't go into this, is their, their, uh, their perception of the flow of time. We just don't know what time's gonna be like, we, we just don't know. And we start going, oh, you know, all of that time. We don't know what's gonna be experienced there. Okay? That's the first thing. But the big thing, honestly, the big thing I want us to just see is we need a better imagination. It needs to be fueled by the Holy Spirit. It needs to be informed by scripture. But there's more to this than these guys are giving it credit for. Keep watching. I mean, I get what you're saying, but I think you can come up with various ice cream flavors. You can come up with new spots like, oh, I want to vacation the Alps, but also make it Cancun. Yeah. I'm not saying it wouldn't be cool for a while. I'm just saying eventually you're there long enough that you're like, I am officially tired of everything Cool for a while. I need to write that down. He thinks heaven's gonna be cool for a while. Again, we're struggling with time, but we're struggling with imagination. At least the other guy came up with a, like, at least he's gonna work on new ice cream flavors. I mean, I guess, uh, but they both. Now here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to goof on them because, because we make the same mistake. They're acting like the best they could come up with was a vacation. Did you hear that? Well, what if we take the Alps and like combine it with Cancun? That'd be cool for a while. I don't know that I hear us doing much more than that. Sometimes I hear people going, oh, oh, at least we'll be able to rest. Well, I get it, you're tired. But then I hear people about, you know, we'll just, it'll be, we'll just be telling stories. We'll just tell stories. Okay? I'm all about telling stories. But after a while, it starts to feel like you're, that -year-old stuck on grandma's front porch when everybody's just talking about the good old days. You know what I'm saying? It's just, you're, you're, you're stuck there. I mean, I hear people that refer to heaven almost like it's a retirement village. You know, after a few good years down here, we're all just gonna retire to the club for, uh, an eternity of pickleball and shuffleboard. Okay? That's not my definition of heaven. So what are we gonna be doing? Well, the truth is, we don't know, but I'll say this much. God has, uh, has mind blowing, eye popping things for us to do in eternity. You are gonna be fully restored. You're gonna be doing stuff that you did here. Only more, only better God's gonna connect you with other people. 'cause all the petty jealousies are gone. And now you're gonna be teaming up and doing stuff that he wants you to do in a completely restored, uh, uh, universe. Dallas Bullard puts it like this. Uh, he says that, uh, we're not gonna be sitting around looking at each other. We will join in the endlessly ongoing creative work of God. Well, what does that mean? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out theologian. Anthony Homa says this, will there be better Beethoven's? Will we see better Rembrandts? Now, will scientists continue to advance in technological adv achievements? I don't know. Will architects keep building attractive structures like we've never seen in a new civilization? I don't know. Will there be enticing new adventures in space travel? I don't know. I'm rooting for that last one. What I know is we need to stretch our imaginations and understand that God has things for us to do. Boring is the last thing that you can use to apply to heaven. And sometimes you're like, I just, that doesn't sound very, I don't think I agree with that at all. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm just trying to stretch the imagination here. Alright, let, let's let them finish it up and then we'll keep going. You could reset your memory every day, probably. Like, if you're up there long enough, you just go, I need to reset. Start me over. Right? And then you forget everything you've done. Oh, That'd be cool. I would take that. You have to pay extra money for that one. It's heaven. Plus I'm Gonna have heaven with ads. Okay? All right. They really just lost it there. So, uh, but, but there were two thoughts though about it that I, I I couldn't help but notice that idea of hitting reset. It happens, but it's not reset as in God's gonna like, wipe away all your memories. But God does take care of shame. He does take care of regret God. You know, that stuff that you struggle with, that not even the person sitting next to you knows a lot about God will heal you of that. That's a pretty good reset. Is, is that heaven Plus you gotta pay extra for that. Is that heaven with ads? No. It costs way more than you can imagine. It costs God everything. But get this, Jesus says, you're worth it. So let's just catch our breath. I want us to head for home now and give you a chance to, to, uh, to ask some questions. So I want you to just real quickly, would you just turn to the person next to you and say, this is the, this is my, like, my greatest fear about all of this. This is my greatest fear about death. Go ahead. Tell 'em. I know, man. We're going there. But go ahead, just talk to each other real quickly. All right. Barely let you stir that one up. Anybody here? What's your question? What's your greatest fear when it comes to death? Yeah. That The loved ones that you knew on earth aren't That the loved ones that you knew on earth aren't in heaven? Is that, is that right? So what do I do with that? Oh yeah. I'm hearing a big groan on that. And that came through on the, on the sites as well. Um, okay. So maybe another way to I've, I've heard that asked is, am I gonna be able to even enjoy heaven if I know that my loved ones aren't there? Uh, that's a tough question. I have loved ones that won't be there, that aren't there. So I feel it with you. Honest answer is, I don't know. I'll tell you what I do know. First of all, I, I go back to this idea that, that it is a choice. And, uh, it, there's a, there's a resolution there with anyone. If they choose to not be with God, it means they are saying, I don't want to be with God. I don't want to acknowledge him. I don't want to worship him. So there's that. The rest of it, I don't know, at the end of the end of the end of the story, um, is a question asked in, uh, Genesis , will not the judge of all the Earth do what is right? I think you and I will, I don't think I know that you and I will look and go, okay, God, what you're doing is right. What you're doing is fair. And then what do I do with that ache? I don't know. I'll go to, I run to Revelation . There comes a moment when God, when God resets the universe and he wipes away all tears. I don't think that means that he wipes away your memory. I think somehow he, he helps us with this. All I know is that hell doesn't overwhelm heaven. And I'll just say this for us right now 'cause that's a very real ache. But I will say this for right now. If that's an ache that you have right now, then go and make disciples. Go and tell someone about Jesus. Go and invite them next week. Go, because this is what God is calling us to do. If this matters so much that we are aching about it already into the future, then go and tell people that you do know. In fact, here's your assignment on the way home. Some of you need to talk to the person you're like riding home with and go, where are you with Jesus? Like, where are you? 'cause I want you and me in heaven together. Alright, other questions real quickly. We're just gonna keep an eye on this and then we're done. Anybody got anything else? Oh, I hear something. It's a mirage. It's a mirage. Well, again, we're back to faith. If you think it's a mirage, then I don't, you won't be there. Do you believe, because it is impossible to please God without faith. If you are coming into this school, and I think the whole thing's a mirage, then you're on the road, and I mean the road away from him. Engage your brain. Talk to other people. Ask God, show me, reveal to me what's real. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna give you something from the sites here. Uh, 'cause I know they were sending stuff in. Thank you. Uh, I think Ben's sending those these things to me. Uh, will my family be okay without me? It's a really loving question, right? So I die now. I'm worried about my family suffering. You see this happening, and of course it is happening. I will say this. If, if, if you, if you are facing something and you know that you are going to leave your family like, you know, this is coming, the God that you are trusting for your eternity is also the God that you can trust to comfort them. He's that good and he's that big. He's the God of all comfort. Uh, will I see people down on Earth? Grants Trail? That's a great question. Uh, we don't know, know, the Bible doesn't specifically speak to that. There's a couple of places, like some people will read Hebrews that way. I don't think that's the way to read Hebrews . We don't know. I, I would say the, the, the, uh, the vision and the presence of Jesus is so powerful. I don't think we're gonna be spending a lot of time like looking into things, even if we have the capacity to. Um, anybody else got one? Uh, uh, the hub. We just got this from the hub. Seems like we just answered your question. Anybody else got a a question? Yes ma'am. I believe what you said about we have paradise, but the Bible also says that those dead in Christ will be risen. Yes. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. The dead in Christ will be risen. That's the end of the story. That's what we're talking about. That's one Corinthians . They're already in paradise. They are, they are. What's risen is their physical body will be resurrected and rebuilt for eternity. Pardon my dogs. And will your dogs be in heaven? You're asking the wrong guy. 'cause I am biased to say yes. Uh, I love the answer CS Lewis gave, once heaven is complete and perfect and whole in every way, he says this to a little, a little child that was asking, if you need your pet in heaven for things to be complete and whole and perfect, then your pet will be there. Now there's of course a subtext there. You may not need your pet, but I don't know. My honest answer is, I don't know. I'm hoping I'm rooting. I don't know anybody else got one? Yes ma'am. Husband, will you still be married to your husband? No. Uh, Jesus says probably that's not the, that particular structure won't be there. But I think what's more important is will you recognize your husband? Absolutely. Will you all still bring this, this deep, rich relationship into eternity? Absolutely. Now we get into all sorts of other things that the Bible is fairly silent on. But I would say that yeah, you're not gonna walk past each other and go, oh, do we not have we? No, no, no, no, no. Can I give you one more? Uh, uh, somebody asked. Uh, so what about, um, and it's an honest question. What if I sin in heaven? Look, I've had people say, I don't wanna be the one who blows it, right? Let me just give you this much. If you choose to be with Jesus in heaven, there will come a day. We can talk about glorification and sanctification and all that, but I, I agree with those scholars like William Lane. Craig says, if you get to this place, remember two things. One, at the end of the end of the story, all evil, the evil one, it's all been quarantined. That none of that's here. And you've been fully healed. And for first John three says, you see Jesus as he is who? So if you see Jesus as he is, Craig says, imagine filings like iron filings on a table in the presence of the most powerful electromagnet. You couldn't pull away from him. If, I mean, he's just you, you don't wanna pull away from him. I think there's a healing there. I don't think you have to worry about that. I just don't think you have to worry about, I know there's so many more questions we could talk about. I mean, I, I I wish we had time. Come talk to us. How did we even get to this? Because you were willing to talk about death. Our world is not willing to talk about death this way. There's a, there's a, a, a a, I'll just show you one painting. This is a famous painting by Caravaggio. Brilliant, deep, rich colors, shadows. This is a painting of St. Jerome who translated the Bible into Latin. Um, anything you notice on that painting that you're picking up on, like how weird his paperweight is there is anybody else noticing that? What's a skull doing in this? If you look at paintings of a certain era, you will see the placement of skulls all over them. You'll see skulls in architecture. You'll see skull Queen Mary of Scott's had a a, a silver watch in the shape of a skull. How goth of her, right? I mean, it was just like, so what's going on? Here's one for you. Uh, Trappist monks in the th century every day would go outside and dig just a little bit of the grave that they would be buried in one day. Just to remind them it's coming. There's a Latin phrase that was used and still applies to it. It's called Memento Maori. It means, remember, you must die. It's coming now for st century minds. We go, that's creepy. We're we would rather go on the other side and not even talk about death. Right? Brian Johnson, the never die movement. Anyone. It's a documentary on, not on uh, Netflix. You can watch it. This is a multimillionaire who has spent multimillions fighting off death. I'm not talking about, uh, workouts and a little more protein in the occasional cold plunge. Ah, no, I'm talking about way out there stuff. He spends $ million a year pushing off death. $ million a year. He takes a hundred supplements a day. They're available online, by the way. Uh, uh, uh, he, he uh, a Vega nerve stimulation. He wears a helmet to stimulate hair growth. He sees his doctor every day. He takes injections of his son's plasma into his bloodstream. I won't even go into some of the stuff he does. It is a never die movement. There are people now surrounding him. And he laughed in the, in the documentary and said, people say we're a, a, a cult. And he goes, I guess we are. And nobody argued with him. Now listen to me. I'm not taking a swing at, uh, first of all, I know some of us are like, well, I gotta write that down. I want some of those biohacks. Okay, alright. I get it healthy. I get it. Here's the thing, I don't think he's forgotten. Memento Maori. I think it haunts him every day. And what I want you to do is to, to to live your life knowing that you can face that there is a reality of death. You don't have to fear it the way the world fears it. I'll leave you with this. Um, well, revelation , we were talking about it. We might as well read it. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people. And he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Here it is. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there will be no more death who, or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. There is coming a day when God does it, he does it. And that's it. And yes, it does include reunion. I know I kind of goofed on that a minute ago, but it does include Reunion. And I do think we will sit around and join the feast with people like Abraham, the Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, Esther and Ruth and John and David and, uh, Martin Luther and Martin Luther King and Billy Graham and St. Thomas Aquinas and William Wilberforce and Harriet Tubman, and your parents and my friend Russ, my dad and Kim And a whole host of other people that we have seen go into eternity before us. We will reunite. This is the hope of the afterlife for those who love Jesus. But gang, you gotta hear me as you leave here. The greatest thing won't even be that reunion. The greatest thing, if you can stand it, is that be at home with God and you will see his face and there will be no insecurities. And there will be no anxieties. Says there'll be no more question of wait, did I measure up? Because you are with him And that's it. And your heavenly Father will sit you down over time, whatever time is, and connect the dots. I was here. This is what I did. I was there. And it will all begin to make sense because the bright morning will have dawned in the new day. Will have begun. And if you want to know what that is like, then come join the kingdom. Be a part of this. It's your choice. You could make that choice today to turn to Jesus. If you want to talk to somebody, let's do it right now. But for the rest of us, let's live life differently, shall we? It's not Memento moori, it's Memento. It's remember, you must live. Next week we're gonna talk about what happens when, when our prayers don't really make the difference we want them to. Does it matter? If we pray, come back, invite a friend. But if you would stand right now, I wanna leave you with the words I left you with last week. Here they are from Romans . This is all the more urgent for you know how late it is. Time is running out. Wake up for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone. The day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds, like dirty clothes and put on the shining armor of right living because we belong to the day you, children of the dawn, you sons and daughters of the king. Leave here and live with the hope we have talked about today. Amen.