Because in that book when you sing. I'm using love. You repeat.
You don't repeat amazing love after every, verse you repeat, that verse again.
Which kind of ruined me when I went to other churches, cause then it's like, hey, you guys are singing it right, or you aren't saying it's the brethren way and come the font is also different in that and I love it in that red book.
I've never enjoyed singing that in any other place. I'm trying to get my watch. Up here so I can not go over too much.
Anyway, I'll try not to go over too much anyway. So personal public service announcements. It's great to be back here.
It really is. It's wonderful to be back here and be able to share the word with you.
And I'm just praying that the Lord will bless all of us with his word. And on that note I want you to remember something in either 7 years from now.
Now it's a little bit less or 10 years from now will be the 2,000 year anniversary of our Lord.
Oh, sending to heaven and sitting on the throne. Now that's got to be a great celebration.
That warrants at least ice cream, right?
But keep that in mind, you know, because the thing is, is that one of the things that sorted distinguishes us and ought to distinguish everyone.
Is the expecting coming over Lord. And you and everybody believes that the Lord's coming, everybody believes Lord's coming back.
But when I was here. And I, I thought of this coming down this street, North Avenue or Gorman's auto repair.
Casey used to be in this assembly. What a guy to be around. I came in. I thought it was just normal, always to be frothy at the mouth.
About the Lord coming back and it was not just Casey but it was Tim Gary who worked for Casey and it was Tim Dillon who worked for Casey and there was this expectancy of the Lord coming back all the time.
It was kind of cool. And now, of course, Christianity we become so rational and so thoughtful.
It's like. We should be excited. I don't know. He's coming back in that date, but I think it'd be a great day to celebrate and to keep in mind that he's coming back.
Now, In terms of the Bible. Bill, my uncle's friend, who was a missionary in Bucha and, also in Bogota, right?
He mentioned to me that he reads the one year Bible. Well.
You know, if you would like to I think I use this as a discipleship tool. I have 3 of them here.
That you can use. You received without pain, give without pay. So if you would like, this one's ESV and I have an I have 2 ESVs and I have an NIB.
And, there's also a link. In this Bible to a commentary. Called the reading notes that is written to the daily readings of the one year Bible And I'll probably refer to the Bible a little bit in my message.
Now this is the English one that I read. Yours doesn't have to look like this and you can't have it.
Okay. But this is the one that I really started with.
One year Bible and I've learned bookbinding through having this Bible and I read it every morning so I can SA little bit of Deutsch.
The Nordic? So anyway, you know, but it's it's a lifetime of sitting at the Lord's feet.
That's really what it is. Communing with the Lord. That's what's important.
So those I think are really the end of my public service announcements here. You know, we're going to be talking about something really important today and The slant of this message is really discipleship.
This could be a very Hey, evangelistic message, but until you can get an evangelistic message, you need the evangelists and that would be you folks.
And so what I'm gonna do is I'm just starting out here and. Using this text to talk about something very important for all of us.
It's well, let's pray first. Heavily father, I just prayed that you would, bless your word.
My words but your word and I pray that you would open all hearts. Including mine to receive this information that you've put in here and it's just so precious and it's something that we read and something that we've found and maybe something we've forgotten, but it's just so good that you tell us a few important things, 10,000 different ways to allow that to saturate and become alive in
our hearts. So I pray. That you would do that now in Jesus name. Amen.
Everybody fears something. Now, if you've had little kids, you realize that they're very new to the world, right?
And so there are a lot of things that scare them, things that probably shouldn't scare them and there is no more unrewarding experience than holding the child in your arms that is acting like a squirrel on Red Bull.
And they're turning and they're trying, they're fearful. Like beyond their imagination, trying to stay away from something and you're trying to speak to them and say, you don't have to be afraid of that.
But they are. And we have all been afraid of something like that in our lives and as we've gotten older, we've gotten over it somehow.
What is so rewarding about that is to have that same experience with a little child. The a puppy or they're afraid of a kitten or they're afraid of something and you bring them up to that.
And they're able to touch it, you know, you put one little hand out and you. And you can just see the relief on their face.
And now for the next hour, you're trying to keep them away from strangling the little puppy.
No, you can't hold it like that, honey. It needs to breathe, you know. But to see that fear melt away.
That is such a neat thing. Now, We all have fear. Believe it or not, right now because you you still have the old person in you.
And if you, I should back up on this a little bit. If we don't know the Lord.
Fear is sort of built into us and if it's not it really needs to be that there are things to be afraid of.
Fear is a good thing. The thing is, fear holds us back. And you can imagine if you don't know.
The Lord and you're just looking at this wild world out there. There's a lot of things to really be wary of and and fearful of.
I mean, irrationally fearful of. Some of those things would keep you away from God. We're gonna be talking about that.
But my concern for this message is there are things even as believers that hold us back. That we're afraid of.
Maybe we've been listening to the wrong station or maybe we're not close enough to the Lord.
You know, because built into discipleship, believe it or not, is this thing where Jesus says, unless you take up your cross every day you cannot be my disciple.
You know what the cross is? You're taking up your death. No, I know that people talk about the crosses while these are hard experiences in your life like when your mommy do eat peas or when your boss told you to do that.
You gotta bear that cross in Jerusalem. If you saw a person bearing across it only ever meant one thing.
They were going to their death.
And. The song, as a lead in for the song mentioned the idea of placing our lives on the altar.
Well, you've got to get past chapter 11 in Romans to understand why it's worth.
Placing your life on the altar and being willing to die today. And you look at Castle Paul, what did Past, in, First Corinthians, 15.
He says, brethren. I die every day. He did that every day. He got together with the Lord and he realized It's a zip you'd been raised from the dead every day.
I'm gonna lay my life down. Now how can you do that if you're afraid? So that's what we're gonna be talking about.
There's a verse in Luke 11. You can look there. It is Luke, 11.
Chapter 8 obviously chapter 11 verse 21 Now, what's interesting about this versus this. Is that The people have seen Jesus now do it.
Do a miracle. And they are saying the people are saying, he does it because he's.
In dwelt by, Now the reason that that's significant is because about a year earlier. The Pharisees had come up with exactly that thing.
You, I mean, what are you going to do with somebody like Jesus who's always doing miracles?
You've got to explain it away, even if it's irrational. I don't know if you guys look at the news, don't.
But there is so much irrationality. In the media now about what you can do, what you can't do, which you can't say, which you can't say.
And the thing is, it was alive and active back then. How do you explain away Jesus? Well, here's how the Paris he said.
He's doing it by Basil but in the scribes, they were even a step further.
They said he's possessed by Basil. Well, that was a year and a half earlier. Now, within 6 months of Jesus death, he heals a demon possessed man in the people are saying it.
Now, just for your information, I'm not going to go into this. If you go, this is only in Luke, by the way.
This version of it because it's happening at a later date. If you page in your Bible, a few pages more, what you're going to find or maybe a page more, you're gonna find Jesus issuing woes.
On the Pharisees and the scribes, Jesus comes a little bit unhinged. Why?
Because they had put those thoughts in the heart now of the people.
What was being said by them. Is now being believed by the people in Jesus basically. Fires off on them.
But here's what happens and this is what's different when he says this and you've heard this before but look at verse 21 when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are safe.
Well, we know who the strongman is. I mean, Jesus has already told us it's going to be the devil.
When a strong man fully armed guards his own palaces goods are safe but when one's stronger than he comes attacks him and overcomes him he takes away his armor which he trusted in and divides his his spoil.
Jesus didn't say that. The first time about the armor. And that's what I want to camp on.
When one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, what he does is he takes his armor away from him in which he trusted.
What would that armor be? See, you know, it's one of these things where you kind of read it and I have I.
Read this, you know. A lot. And you read it and goes, oh, armor. And then you read it again, you go, armor.
In which he trusted. What in the world are we talking about here? And that's a good point.
See, because Jesus saves and he saves, obviously, eternally in a particular way. But the way he frees us, the way he disarms the enemy is a way that gives us freedom.
It gives us freedom from fear. It gives us freedom from things that are holding us back. Things that were really We don't want to lose in life or we don't want to have to face.
Jesus takes those things away. He takes the armor away. From the enemy. So that the enemy no longer has an attachment or an effect.
On us. Now the question is, what is that? So, now. Little bit of a Bible thing here, what do you call a sword drill?
Hebrews chapter 2. Verse 14.
What is it that we are so afraid of? That's built into our humanity that is still built into the old man that we still have to struggle with or remind ourselves of because the thing is we're not bound to that anymore.
What kind of fear is that? How can we ourselves daily disarm the enemy? Because Jesus has already done that.
There's no, even talks in the Bible about you don't have to still live as a slave.
I think that's in Romans. I don't know, 7 or something. No, it is a.
Okay, thank you. You're right.
No wonder they made you an elder. Okay, here we are. Verse, verse 14 chapter 2.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood. He himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is a devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
The fear of death subjected us to lifelong slavery. So that would definitely be part that would be that armor.
Gesus offers us life. We know more about life than anybody else on the planet. When Jesus came, he brought life and immortality to light.
In other words, we understand what life is all about. We're not going to die. We're not going to die.
We're never going to die. Jesus said to Martha, he said, he who dies and believes in me.
Shall live again and he who believes in me who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe that?
That's what he said to Martha. Point that you particularly pointing to Martha 2,000 years ago.
You will never die. But you're still afraid of death. Now, what is it about death that frightens us?
Because we don't really, I, you know, it's like finality or something. And so anyway, in going through this, I I kind of put 3 things out that I think are really important.
Things that are built into the word every day that we read it. Things that God definitely wants us to know.
So one of them is fear of losing life. What I mean by that is the experience of living.
The second is losing love. If we die, we will never experience love. The way we think of love.
And if we die, we will stand before God. That's really something to be afraid of. So.
What is it about? Missing life.
Missing experience. I mean, don't we don't we feel bad for for people sometimes when we think that they died young. Oh.
They died young, they never got to experience. Life. Right? There's a fear of that.
Now here's the thing that I want you to understand. You have that fear too. The closer you stand to the Lord, the less you fear that.
But we're always worried about missing out on something as if all of life revolves around this planet.
Now if you were raised in Milwaukee you really have this sphere.
I'm serious. You know why? Because you of all people know In heaven, there is no beer.
That's why we drink it here. And when we're gone from here, all our friends will be drinking all the beer.
That was the number one hit for at least 2 years when I was growing up. I mean, talk about a way to lower your IQ.
Listen to that. However, however, there is some There is a kernel somewhere in that that we are going to miss out.
If we
We're to die because we won't have that particular experience. And obviously, It depends on how we think about.
Life that God is given here. For example,
What is eternal life?
Live forever. Okay, what are you gonna do?
I don't know. It's gonna be fun? I don't know. What's heaven look like?
I have no clue. See, and when we offer that to people. Here's the thing.
Forgiveness. Do I need to be forgiven? I don't know. Yeah, I guess it'd be great to have forgiveness.
Hey, you can live forever. Okay, that sounds great too.
But there's a thing called, I remember reading this one time, the fear of loss is greater than the desire for game.
So we're telling people what they'll gain, they'll gain love, they'll gain forgiveness, they'll gain all of these things, but it's like, I don't know what any of those are, so why should I worry about it?
But what I am worried about missing is I'm worried about missing opportunity for promotion. I'm worried about missing seeing great adventures on earth because see Even in our minds, we have no clue or we don't think about.
What is heaven going to be like? So turn 2. Revelation chapter 21.
You know, I'm just gonna tell you, because I'm not a very smart person, right?
A lot of times in my reading the Bible, it's sort of like driving down the road and I catch something out of my the left corner of my and I look at it and I see it just for like a second.
But I'm, you know, I'm a busy person, so I keep driving on. But it's like, what was that?
And then next time I'm driving down the road, I remember just before I get there, oh yeah, that's right.
I need to look at that. Now look at it for a second. I kind of see it, but then I got to get my eyes back on the road and it's like.
What was that? And then you keep going, this is like reading the Bible. This is why it's a good idea to read through the Bible every year.
This is why it's a good idea to read through Revelation. At least every year. If not more.
Because see the ideas that we have about heaven are not necessarily biblical ideas. So let's go to the Bible.
And figure out what they are. So here's what it says in chapter 21 verse one. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
So the millennial kingdom is passed. Everyone has been resurrected now the second resurrection and they have been judged that is passed now.
Satan has been judged. Death has been judged and thrown into the, the sea of fire.
So. What's left? Heaven, right? That's what's left.
That's what we're talking about here. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city Jerusalem coming down from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a voice from the throne.
Saying and this would be Jesus by the way
Behold the dwelling place of God is with man and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning or crying or pain or anything more for the former things have passed the way.
So we're talking about heaven, right? Can we sort of agree that we're at the end of the book of Revelation and what we're talking about is what we would call.
The eternal estate. Okay. With a new city Jerusalem. And it's come down on Earth.
And now for these, now this is the the fine print here for these people. There will never be any more death and he has wiped away every tier.
Okay, so
Now. In verse 22. It long description of the city very important, right? But in verse 22, I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty in the Lamb and the city has no need of light.
What has no need of life or the sun or a lamp? The city. Okay, anyway.
For the glory of God is its light in the lamp, the lamp. Is the lamb and by its light will nations walk in the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there.
There will be no night there. There will be no night there in that place there will be no night.
And they will bring the glory and honor of the nations. But nothing and clean shall ever enter it nor anyone who does what is the testable for only those whose names are written in the lambs book of life will enter.
Do you see what it's saying here? This is heaven.
By its light. She shall the nations walk, there will be nations. And the kings of the earth.
Will bring the honor and glory of those nations into it and there will be no light there. No night there ever.
So what I'm what I'm saying here is just like if you're just reading the text and you understand that this is The New World that we will live in as very special people.
Now that's what you need to understand. This is being written to all of those who will be saved.
In this period of time. What it's saying is that they're still gonna be nations. They're still gonna be kings.
And there will be nothing detestable that will, unlike the old Jerusalem, in this new Jerusalem, nothing.
That is the testable will ever walk into it. This is going to be a very special place. God's dwelling is now with mankind.
You kind of see what I'm giving it. What we're talking about is a new world.
We're talking about a new world. Possibly with new people. But the saved will have a very special position under God.
That would be us. And he's gonna, I think, make us very busy. Now, Just to Go one step further, you're look at chapter 22.
It talks about the river of the water of life flowing from the throne. Now this is gonna happen in millennial kingdom too, by the way.
But this is not the millennial kingdom. This is the new heaven in the new earth.
It runs through the middle of the street of the city on either side the fruit of the Tree of Life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month.
The leaves of the tree. Were for the healing of the nations.
There will be nations during that time and there will be people in those nations who will require healing. And all they have to do
Is come to the New Jerusalem.
And they will find healing.
Now, that that's as far as I want to go because it would just be more confusing if you haven't read these verses enough.
But the point is this is the description of heaven. Here's what I'm getting at. There is life after this world.
There is service after this world because what What Jesus telling these people here is that in this kingdom, those who belong to him will have his his name and his father's name written on their foreheads and they will worship him and they will see him and there will never be darkness for them.
They will never need the sun or a lamp or a light because God Himself is their light. That means we don't need what do you call those, the, what, the, Navy SEALs have the, glass, night vision goggles.
Will be able to see. The point I'm getting at folks is this. God describes a new world, a new life for us serving other people.
Serving what I think is going to be a a whole new world of individuals who are going to have to come to Jesus by faith and just as the millennial kingdom is sort of a warm-up for that.
The new world is going to be us being busy. Giving our lives serving other people. So that they can come.
To Jesus. And we will be the ones governing and you know it's sort of like to give another example, the millennia in the millennial kingdom it says that the 12 apostles are going to be over Israel.
They will be governing, they will be judge judging the 12 tribes of Israel. What that means is if you go into Ezekiel and you see how everything is laid out, that means that they will be governing different tribes in Israel all the way down.
Because it's kind of sectioned off from top to bottom. They will be the governors. David, the resurrected David will be the ruler of Jerusalem.
And of course, Jesus is the ruler of the earth during the millennial kingdom. It looks here like there are going to be nations and it says that we will reign forever, meaning that he is going to put us into positions of responsibility.
Why am I going through this lengthy thing? Because the thing is, is that if we have a fear of missing out on life here.
We're gonna hold back. You know. Lord, if I can't experience that here.
You know, and sometimes we take these little sabbaticals from God. Where we really want.
That that raise or we really want that thing and so we kind of hold ourselves back if you knew. That the minute that you die, you were going to be with the Lord and then life goes on forever and you are going to be a new you without the sinful nature you were going to be able to help other people you weren't going to be dragged down by depression you were going to be dragged down by
self-doubt. Your heart was going to be completely open and now you could experience life as life was always intended to be.
And you are going to be connected to Jesus forever and you're going to be able to do all You're not missing out on life.
You're doing what you wish you could do now. You wish you could be sinless now. You wish you could love people now.
You wish you could give yourself now. You can't. You can't because of the limitation of sin, the limitation of this body because we still haven't.
Gotten to be with him, but that's coming.
There it will be true. You will never wake up depressed. You will never wake up irritated at somebody you love.
And they will never wake up irritated with you. The point being it will be as God always designed it to be and we will be ruling with Christ in the world will be at that point a perfect world.
There will still be people who are gonna have to come to Jerusalem. To be healed. There will still be people who will have to come.
To God through faith.
But we will be working with him. And they will have the advantage that we don't have is real-life people like you.
Being able to walk with a group of guys and say no.
Give me your life to him and believing in him is the most important thing in the world.
And that's what we'll be doing. It will be a real life. You don't miss out anything.
In that sense. By giving everything right now.
So the fear of The fear of missing out on life. When you think of Jesus calling, Jesus himself, what did Jesus miss out on as a 30 year old or as a 33 year old dying?
Never married.
Never got to surf the internet. Never got. I don't know, see the Grand Canyon?
He made it, but I mean. As a man, you never get to see it. You know, it's like, but he gave everything because he knew beyond it was a life.
That was supposed to be life. And what I'm seeing right now is you may have that fear holding you back.
What if I don't make enough money? You've got enough money. What if I don't have this experience?
What if I never go there? What if I never marry? I'm going to really have to draw this to an end.
But you know the point being is that you don't miss those things. What about missing love? I think that's another thing too.
A lot of us. Especially if you're younger. You know, you think about What if I never experienced this?
What? There's something Jesus never experienced. What about missing love? What if?
Love. As we know it on this planet. Is only sort of like a hint or like a shadow a brief image of what love will truly be.
You know, and you know, our world right now, I mean, we have this thing about romantic love, but obviously when you're thinking of physical love, our world is being totally wrecked by it.
I mean, even in the best of marriages. There's there's that sense of physical love, but there's that sense of communion too.
There's that sense of really being. So a soul mate with a person and and even there it's incomplete because there's always those things that irritate you there's always those things where you can't give fully of yourself there's always those things that you're holding back there's always those edges of your personality.
And what if Being in heaven. We really experience for the first time ever full love. Full spiritual connection with a person.
Full enjoyment being in that person's presence without feeling intimidated ourselves in any bad way at all, just like 2 people meeting and being, you know, you've had these experiences, right?
We're like, and you know, you have a relative or you have a friend that you haven't seen in a long time and you get together and you know you got to be able to work in the morning and you're already at 10'clock in the morning and you're just enjoying that other person so much and all the, the parts of you that that you hold back and all the ways that you feel insecure they're all
gone. And there's no awkwardness. You're just talking with that person. And it's like your soul on soul with them.
What if heaven?
Is like that with every person you meet.
You meet Moses. I would begin stuttering if I met Moses. What if you met Moses and you 2 spiritual people, you just connected?
I mean, you were it's like he's your long lost bro. You know? Brothers from another mother, you know?
It's like you could talk to Moses and what about just picture anybody in the Bible, I think.
That is what it's going to be like. You know, when we talk about marriage, we talk about one flesh.
They're no longer 2, but they are one. But you know, there's another place where it talks about being one.
And that's in John chapters 13 through 17. And especially in chapter 17 where Jesus's father let them be one as we are one.
I and you and me and us and them. So that the world may know. That you have sent me and have loved them just as you have loved me.
It's hard as that is for us to understand, even if God were to take our lives today and you feel like you haven't fully experienced love and you and you have them just let me tell you.
When we get to heaven, it will be absolutely complete. So the devil can yell all he wants. If you don't do that, you're gonna miss out on love.
If you don't do that, you're not going to have this experience. You can always get forgiveness.
Go ahead and do whatever you're gonna do.
What God is telling us. Is it will be fulfilled completely in heaven. And you know, I just because I like this verse, I gotta keep reading that, but We're Paul is talking about love in Ephesians chapter 3 it says for this reason I bought my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named that according to the riches of his glory.
You may be strengthened with power through spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith in order that you now being rooted in Me have strength to comprehend with all the scenes, what is a breath in length and heightened depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge that you may be filled.
All the fullness of God. So the first thing that we get hit with is you're going to miss up on life.
If you if you give your life to missions right now, if you give your life to really being fully devoted to God, getting up at whatever time you got to get up to have your quiet time and really investing in your life, you're gonna miss out on a whole bunch of life.
That is totally not worth it. That is totally a lie.
Because there is another world coming and another life coming where God is going to use every bit of strength and power in gifting that you have and he's going to use it in a mighty way and you were going to be affecting other lives.
There was another world coming.
You're going to miss out on love. If you give yourself to God, he's just gonna clip you off at your knees.
You're never gonna know what this is like. You're never gonna know it. There are some people.
Husbands and wives that are gonna love each other fully for the first time when they meet each other in heaven.
Because our sinful self is just the way it is. Moms and dads. being reunited with their kids in heaven, being able to fully love them and get over the baloney that happened down here.
That is where it's all fulfilled. So don't let Satan call you on that.
And then the last one is just simply the fear of standing before God. What is that going to be like?
You know, and here's the comical part because of where we've gotten. If you ask people What's a good to be like standing before for God?
They're going to go, oh dude, that's really going to be cool. That is going to be so, such a blast, you know, because God's just a big old friendly grandpa.
You know, he'll give you high fives, he'll crack open a beer for you, it'll be great being up there with God.
Boy, is that a lie? I remember talking to my dad one time and you know IS. There is going to come a time when you're going to stand before God.
And he says, I know and you know what it's gonna say. He's gonna say, Gus, you are right!
And I said, no, he's not. He's going to say, Gus, there are the stairs.
That's not what God is like if we don't know him and we got to tell people that.
I was talking to a Muslim friend the other day. Friend. I mean, we know each other, right?
And he's telling me about Islam and I'm I'm telling them about Essa, God, Jesus, right?
And he's saying, Dan, nobody had to take our place. God's gonna forgive everybody.
And I said to him, then why? And he believes this stuff, right? I said, then why did Kane and Abel have to offer a sacrifice.
It was to pay for something. And he stopped right there and I said, what about the Passover?
He believes in the Passover. I said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
I said, we believe that Isa, Jesus is the Passover Lamb and without his blood, without his for the forgiveness that we get from him without him taking our place, we're in trouble.
We're in trouble without him.
No, that obviously replaces somebody who doesn't know Jesus, but what about us? I think that as we go 40 years into the life.
Or we go 50 years into the life. What we have, we build up a residue of really not wanting to see God.
We know we're gonna see him. But you know what we think? We think when we get there, he's going to say,
Could she? I've been waiting to see you. Guys, bring up the library we got on him.
I mean, I've mucked up. I've done stupid stuff. I really have.
And we all know about the judgment seat of Christ, right? But here's the deal. By the time we get to the judgment seat, we've already been resurrected.
That means that we have God's heart in mind. Living within us and you know what we will just humbly Say to him, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, I believe that. I'm sorry I lived that way. I'm sorry I wasted 10 or 15 years of my life and it's gone.
As far as the east is from the West, he forgives our sins. He loves us. He is going to have a party up there.
He is gonna welcome us like no other he is gonna he loves us and that's the thing that Satan dogs us with You've mucked up.
You mucked up that marriage. You mucked up that kid. You mucked up.
I don't know what you did. As my uncle would say, we're all dipsticks.
Right? But the thing is he loves dipsticks. And he's gonna forgive us and he's gonna show us, but he's gonna love us and he's gonna
That's the other, that's the other part of Ephesians, that in the coming ages he may show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
We should joy in being able to see him. He forgives and he forgives and he forgives and he forgives and he loves overabundantly.
It will be a grand day. And I would just say if you're mucking up right now.
If you are dipstick? Stop it right now. Start reading the Bible do something start serving in the church start doing something start praying for your neighbors do whatever but do something.
You know, you don't have to be like that forever and you don't have to be afraid about seeing God.
And I think that these 3 fears, right? We're going to waste our lives. We're gonna lose something, right?
If we give it all to him. And we're going to lose love. We're not going to really know what love is and, what a bunch of baloney.
It's going to be wonderful. And then. To meet him is going to be the thing that we should always want to have been doing.
If we could meet him right now. Don't take any shortcuts, by the way.
He's got you here for a reason. Got enough suicide. You read about that newspaper. But you know.
It's gonna be wonderful. And the thing is, we need to tell. Other people. We need to remember that every morning.
I don't know about you, but I do this every morning because of the way I'm built.
I don't know if you've seen this movie, Momento. But it's a, it's a dumb movie in a way.
But the thing is, this guy, he has this severe short-term memory and so he basically makes his body note cards.
So that he can remember every day starting out. This is who I am. This is what has happened to me.
No, I'm not telling you to start. Writing ink on your own, but that's what you need to do every morning.
Wake up and remember how loved you are. Wake up every morning remembering that you have not only come into a life with Jesus Christ but you are heading into a life.
Where you will actually serve him. And know him with an open, we can't even describe it.
That you are going to know love with Every person that you meet, the intimacy, the soul on soul connection.
The loss of your I have feelings of inferiority, the loss of your angers, the loss of your resentments.
It is going to be fellowship and love like only God could. Give us. And then. We're gonna see him and we're gonna live with him forever.
That's what you need to remember and that's what we need to share with other people. This life is leading to something.
We don't want them to miss out on a God doesn't want them to miss out on it.
If there was that one sheep that was lost.
He would tell us go look for it. Because I really want that person saved. You've got neighbors, you've got people at work, you've got relatives never give up.
This is what got us called us to and it is glorious. That's why it's a great reason to read the book.
Revelation at least once a year. Let's pray. Heavenly father.
You were calling us to something beyond us. And the devil is there telling us these are just cheap tricks.
These are just trinkets. These aren't things that really matter. Go for all the gusto here because this is the only place that life really exists and what a why is that?
Our Lord Jesus Christ is exalted right now and he will reign over a new earth. A new world and we will reign with him, we'll serve with them.
And it'll be something way beyond our imaginations if this place here looks at in the least attractive.
That is going to be beyond our wildest imaginations. And so I think you that you've called us to life to eternal life.
Help us to live in that right now. Help us not to be afraid. How does not to be afraid of death?
It's sort of like what Martin Luther said like goods and kindred go this mortal life also the body they may kill Got's truth, the bite is still.
His kingdom is forever. You've called us to that. You've called us the greatness.
Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that greatness is simply knowing him forever and ever. We thank you for that and we thank you for your word.
And we thank you for the life that we have now following him. In this harvest field in Jesus name.
Amen.