Revelation 21-22

Well, good morning Saylorville! That is great singing! Really great words to those songs. I’m Jason, and I’m really glad that you’re here whether you’re here in the room as Curtis said or watching online this morning. We’re glad to have you here. We are in Revelation chapter 21, our final two weeks of the series called “Unveiling of Jesus Christ.”

Speaking of the apocalypse, I had my 45-year-old health screening last week. If you’re in your mid 40s, you know the one that I’m talking about, and if you don’t you are definitely looking forward to it. It’s a little invasive. I’ll just let you know that. But I’m 46, so I avoided it for a full year, so that’s good news. There I was laying on my back. My first real medical procedure since I had my tonsils out when I was like four years old. I was staring at the ceiling and, I kid you not, I was thinking two very specific things: One, “Lord, please help me not say anything crazy while I’m coming out of the anesthesia.” Right? I literally prayed, “Please, Lord, don’t let me ruin my testimony by saying something dumb.” (audience laughing) You’ve seen the videos, right? They’re hilarious… unless you’re the one on the video. But the next thought that I had is something that I’ve actually pondered more and more, the older I’ve gotten, and we just sang about it really. As I was drifting off into that medically-induced nap, I prayed, “Jesus, I’d be okay if you came back right now. If you’re on the fence about the time, now would be a good time, Jesus!”

You ever pray for Jesus to come back? Yeah, you do… mostly when you’re in trouble. A woman after the first service said, “I have jury duty tomorrow, and I have been praying hard!” (audience laughing) The longer I’m alive though, the more I look around, and I think I’m really, really looking forward to heaven. I can’t wait! And maybe you feel the same way this morning, maybe you sense too that there’s something better out there than this earthly life. Maybe it’s your health. Maybe you’re dealing with a diagnosis you never wanted to receive. Maybe you have a chronic pain ailment. You wake up some mornings, and it’s all you can do just to get out of bed. Maybe you’ve got family members that are hurting, or broken, or sick or discouraged. My own family lost a relative this week after a year-long health battle. It’s sad! We’ve got friends right here at Saylorville that are going through heartbreaking circumstances, unimaginable pain, incredible sorrow, and maybe that’s you here this morning. And so you long for something new, perhaps, a rescue, a refresh, some healing, a chance to live without sin, without sadness, without sickness, without suffering.

And I wanna tell you this morning that what your heart is longing for isn’t something that can be satisfied by anything or anyone here on this earth. You may look for it. You might try to find it here on earth, but you won’t ever be completely whole until you are back where you were made to be. What you might not realize is that this longing that we all feel at one level or another, this groaning, almost agonizing, that longing is for heaven, to be back in the presence of God who once walked with humans and will one day live among us again for all eternity.

And if that’s you, if you feel that longing for heaven, then you’re not alone. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8 that the entire universe, all of creation, along with you and me humans, we all groan together while we wait for the final stage of our redemption when we’re glorified for all of eternity. Those of you who are CS Lewis fans might already be thinking about his famous line in Mere Christianity. Here it is.

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation (Lewis says) is that I was made for another world.” (Lewis points to those deep groanings that Paul’s talking about, the longings that nothing on earth seems to satisfy. And Lewis says…)

“It’s a sign that you were made to live eternally with the One who can only and always completely satisfy.” C.S. Lewis

And here’s the point, we long for heaven because we were made for heaven. We long, we groan, we agonize to go back home because we were made for home.

But you know there’s a lot of misinformation about heaven out there, isn’t there? Everything from books, to movies, to podcasts, even cartoons. I think we get most of our theology about heaven from cartoons for some reason. We all speculated about what heaven will be like, but the truth is out there. Or rather, I should say, the truth is in here, in the Bible.

And so grab your Bible, let’s turn to Revelation chapter 21 as we uncover what I’m calling this morning, “the truth about heaven from God’s Word.” The truth about heaven from God’s Word, and you say, ‘That’s not real creative.’ Well, it’s not. I’m sorry. My points for this message aren’t memorable or snappy little phrases, but I figure for today, especially in this passage, let’s just leave most of the creativity to the actual text of the Bible if that’s okay. Can we do that? So let’s do that. Revelation chapter 21. Picture, imagine, think about what I read starting in verse 1. It’s John’s vision and he says,

Revelation 21:1-8

1 “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.

2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former (the old) things have passed away.”

verse 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.” (for free!)

7” The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” (or daughter)

8 “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars,”(you see yourself in that list somewhere?) “their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Wow! So John, who’s recording this divine revelation in this book gives us our first real glimpse of what he calls “a new heaven and a new earth.“

And heaven — that’s our word for the day. So let’s do a little digging. It actually shows up almost 600 times in our English Bible that word “heaven” or “heavens.” And sometimes it’s referring to the sky right above us, okay? So think birds and clouds and airplanes right here. But the Bible calls what’s beyond our atmosphere, heaven, too. The planets, the Milky Way, the cosmos — think NASA. Both of those are called heaven in the Bible. And then there’s what the Apostle Paul calls “the third heaven” in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And this heaven is somehow beyond our known universe. It’s the place where God rules and reigns. The Psalmist tells us,

Psalm 103:19

“The Lord has established his throne (and here’s our word) in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

This is the realm of heaven that we’re talking about today. All right, this third heaven. And so here’s our first Bible truth for the morning. There’ll be several of them, our first Bible truth… Here it is. Heaven unfolds in three chronological phases. Heaven unfolds in three chronological phases. The first leads to the second. The second leads to the third. Okay, so why does this matter this morning? Why is this a big deal? —Because this truth answers the question, where do Christians go after this life? Now stay with me. The where in that question really depends on when. Okay, this is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Watch this.

2 Corinthians 5:8  “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (Some of your versions say “absent from the body, present with the Lord.”)

So here it is. If you’re a Christ follower here today, right now, the moment you die your spirit goes to be with the Lord in heaven immediately, right away. Your body stays on earth, usually buried, but your spirit goes to heaven right away. So some call this “the immediate heaven.” Immediate happens right away after you die.

But heaven will look a little different when the Rapture happens. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says;

1 Corinthians 15:52

[“…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”]

When the trumpet sounds in the twinkling of an eye, our physical bodies will be resurrected and transformed into spiritual bodies, glorified bodies. So some people call this the intermediate heaven. Intermediate. And some of you look in the mirror and you are like, ‘I cannot wait to have that glorified body!’ And others of you think you already have it! You don’t have it, all right?

Then we hit Revelation chapter 21:1 and John says that he sees “a new heaven and a new earth.” Remember? This is the heaven that starts right after the thousand year kingdom. We learned about that last week, and goes on for eternity, and it’s described in these last two chapters of your Bible, chapter 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation, and sometimes we call this heaven, the eternal heaven. The eternal heaven.

So the heaven that we read about in the Bible actually refers to three different experiences depending on when you’re talking about. Heaven unfolds in stages. The immediate, (that’s right now) the intermediate, (that’s after the Rapture) and then the eternal, the new heaven and the new earth after the thousand year Millennial Kingdom, and I bet some of you have never even thought about it that way. Heaven.

So now John says this eternal heaven will be new. He uses that word “new.” So what’s with the old? What happens to it? Look again at (Revelation 21) verse one. “The first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” We saw that again last week. At the end of the Millennium, this sin-cursed universe will be completely done away with. Destroyed! In fact, Peter tells us          (2 Peter 3:10) that they will be set on fire and will melt away as they burn. You think we are in global warming right now? Just wait! Right?

So, this new heaven and new earth can only appear when the old one has been destroyed, which brings us to our next Bible truth about heaven. Here it is. The new heaven requires total destruction of the old. They will pass away before the new heaven can show up.

Now, this New Heaven and New Earth, they won’t just be new chronologically, like the most recent. They will actually be better! The Greek word translated “new” all throughout this passage in Revelation 21 verses 1 and 5, and following is the word “kainos,” and it means “completely transformed into something fresh, something better, something brand new.” And so here’s our next truth. The new heaven will be a fresh design. It’ll be a fresh design, an even better version of the heaven that we have right now.

So, how is it better? Well, a couple things. First, this new heaven won’t ever need to be replaced or destroyed like the first one. This heaven will last forever for all eternity. This heaven and all who live there won’t ever die.

Now, try to understand how eternity works. It’s impossible, right? And if you think you get it, try explaining it to a child. It’s impossible to get our human minds around things like this. We just can’t get our brains situated. But that’s one of the things that makes God, God. He can do things, He can create things, He can master things, that we can’t even begin to understand things like heaven lasting forever. God gets that even though you don’t.

Here’s another reason the new heaven will be better than the first. Drop down to verse five.

[Revelation 21:5, “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”]

And Jesus, King Jesus, who’s on the throne, he says this about this brand new heaven. He says, “Behold, (in this new heaven) I am making…” (What’s the word?) all things new.” ALL things new.” This is sort of a summary statement of the whole chapter, really. All things new. How many things? ALL things. Everything! There Is not one thing that won’t be new!

Last week I had new glasses on. Some of you noticed. A couple of you even said, “Hey nice new glasses!” I wrote your names down on my list of favorite people. Thank you. I have other lists for the rest of you. Listen, you wanna know something you’ll never hear in heaven? ‘Hey, are those new glasses?’ That’ll be a dumb thing to say in heaven. Why? — Because everything is brand-spanking new every single day in the new heaven! It’s all new — For the rest of eternity! The old will pass away. God will make it all new. And I cannot wait! I’m so tired of things breaking! Nothing will break in heaven!

John adds this little phrase at the end of verse one that sort of seems out of place. And here’s the next thing you probably don’t know about the new heaven, but we read it right here in the bible, so it’s true. Watch this.

[Revelation 21:1b] “…and the sea was no more.”

Now I know God put that in there for a reason, and I don’t want to question God’s wisdom, but if I’m creating a brand new place from scratch where I’ll be living with some of my favorite people for all eternity, I’m going to make sure that there’s a beach. Okay, there’s going to be sand there. There’s going to be an ocean there. There’s going to be a beach — Because one of our favorite, one of our families most favorite places in the world, is the ocean. I grew up in Cape Town and there’s always been something about the waves, and the sand, and the ocean, sunsets that fill me up. I love being in the water and on the water. Meredith and I honeymooned at the beach in Florida, and we love every second we get to spend with our toes in the sand. And so friends, when I read that God designed a place for me to live for all of eternity and it doesn’t have an ocean? — I’ve got to check my heart, okay, — seriously! And now for some reason, some of you hate the beach… And God still loves you. I don’t know how this works, but He does. Again, he’s God.

But look, this is in our bible. And So like it or not, here’s our next truth. The new heaven won’t have any oceans. Someone said earlier, maybe God’s more of a lake person. I don’t know. (audience laughs) Actually, I don’t know exactly why God wouldn’t include the sea in this perfect place that he’s creating for us. I don’t know. I don’t wanna speculate and we won’t go down that rabbit hole. So I’ll just throw this out and then we’ll move out.

Maybe… maybe… maybe there’s no sea because in this brand new, better version of heaven and earth, life won’t depend on water anymore. It’s gonna have a different kind of ecosystem altogether. See right now, almost three quarters of our planet’s surface is covered by ocean water. We depend on that water to evaporate, to form clouds, to create rain, to water the earth, and then to do the whole cycle again, right? Remember third grade science? Our oceans regulate temperatures and they provide oxygen. They give us food. We wouldn’t survive two days on this planet if the oceans dried up. But watch this, in heaven, we won’t need water to survive. So maybe John is just giving us a little reminder that we won’t need to rely on things of this earth when we’re living in the new heaven. Maybe. Let’s keep going.

In verse two…

[Revelation 21:2, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.“]

John gives us our first real look at the capital city of the new heaven and he calls it the new Jerusalem, — the Holy City. So here’s our next truth. The new heaven will have a beautiful capital city. And then John takes the second half of chapter 21 and some of chapter 22 to describe what that city will look like. I won’t take time to lay out all those details here this morning, but here’s just a couple highlights. And you can listen, even close your eyes maybe, as I describe this for this Holy City. First of all, this picture is as a bride coming down the aisle toward her groom. You see that?

Revelation 21:2, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned (beautifully dressed) for her husband.“

It’s a great picture!  And if you’re a married guy listening to this, you should immediately be thinking about that image of your wife on your wedding ceremony.

It was June 9th of 2001 for me. I’ll never forget the way that my wife, Meredith, looked when I first saw her step out of that small shelter where she’d been hidden away during the first part of our outdoor wedding. She had her hand around the arms of her father as he walked her down that little hill. Through the handmade wooden arches that we put together just a few days before. She got down to the bottom of that hill. At those arches she paused just for a couple couple seconds and adjusted the train of her dress and then she stepped slowly down the aisle, the bright green grass sort of popping up through the thin white runner all the way up to the makeshift altar where I was waiting for her. She was beautiful that day! In fact, she keeps getting even more beautiful every… single… day!

And John describes this new Jerusalem like a beautiful, glimmering, pure bride on her wedding day! Listen to these phrases;

[Revelation 21:11 – 22:2]

11 “… having the glory of God, its (the city’s) radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—   

13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. (Twelve gates, in total)

[21] … each of the gates made of a single pearl…  (The pearly gates. The cartoons got it right!)

[14]The wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

[16] The city measured, watched this, about 1500 miles! Its length, and width, and height are equal. So the city is a cube, 1500 miles on each side. That would cover about 75% of the continental United States! A little bigger than Ankeny right now.

[17] So the angel also measured its wall about 200 feet thick.

[18] This wall is built of jasper while the city itself was pure gold, clear as glass.

[19] The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.

[21] The street of the city was made of gold as pure as transparent glass.

(Watch this. John says)

[22] there’s no temple in the city. After all, God Himself is there. He fills the whole place.

[23] There’s no need for the sun or the moon since God gives the whole city light at all time, there’s no night!

[24] There’s no darkness. No more daylight savings time! (The 8 o’clock service was crazy about that!)

[25] The city gates will never be shut. Why? Because there’s no need for protection! —since nothing treacherous or impure or sinful will ever enter.

[22:1] And flowing right out of the throne of God

[22:2] down the middle of the golden street a river bordered on each side by the tree of life, full of twelve different kinds of fruit. And with leaves that John says, will heal the nations.

Can you picture it? Can you see this capital city? It’s like a beautiful, radiant, pure bride prepared for her groom… prepared for us! — for Christians! — for the citizens of this new heaven!

And from the throne room of this capital city, John hears King Jesus, Himself, calling out. Look back up at verse three where John writes,

Revelation 21:3, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, (or look) the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.“

You catch that truth? In the new heaven, God… will… live… with… us! God will live with us! Now this is amazing to me! — and if you’re a Christian, this should sound exciting to you too! The dwelling place of God is with man. It’s repeated three times in just that one verse! God with us… God with us… God with us. Here’s what it means. We’ll have full access! — instant access! You know this… This earth is bound by time, and schedules, and Google Calendar, and meetings, and all of that, praise the Lord, goes away in heaven! Hey, you won’t have to book an appointment. God won’t have to squeeze you in, and he’ll never look at you and say, ‘Take a number.’

I used to have this idea that when we get to heaven, there would be this long line of people waiting to ask God their questions. Maybe you’ve had this too. There’s Jesus sitting on the throne, and there’s this huge long line of people waiting. And they’ve got these burning questions, right? — And God, the Trinity, is ready to answer your question. So he answers your question, and then you walk away, and then God’s like, ‘Next!’ Peter motions to me and he’s like ‘It’s your turn.’ — and, so then I’d go up there standing in front of the throne and I’d ask my one burning question. ‘Cats, God? — Really? I mean… come on!’ And then there’s this long line of people behind me that are like, ‘Yeah, actually I got that same question!’ But that’s not all, come on, oh yeah. Okay… mosquitoes! Anybody like mosquitoes? All right. Somebody’s still gonna go, ‘Oh, mosquitoes!’ (audience laughs) ‘They’re so cute!’

That’s literally the picture that I had of what it’s gonna be like in heaven, everybody lines up to spend time with God. But that’s not the picture here at all, is it? In the new heaven, you and I will have, watch this, instant… equal… and eternal access to the Trinity! You won’t ever have to wait to be with God anymore. He’ll be with you, and he’ll be with you, and he’ll be with you, and you, and he’ll be with me all at the same time in the same way for all eternity! That’s amazing! Look, God’s presence is what makes heaven heaven. Everything else about heaven is great, but without God’s presence, heaven looks a whole lot more like hell. Heaven is only heaven because God is there.

And now, verse four, one of the most comforting verses in the whole Bible. Some of you know this verse well.

Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former (the old) things have passed away.”

Sell your stock in Kleenex. There’s no tissues in heaven. Don’t need ’em! There’s no tears… No crying. Every hurt, every sorrow, every pain, every struggle, every sadness is gone! Gone! —gently wiped away as if by the finger of God, the Father. That’s amazing!

Remember the last time you cried? I’ve cried over loved ones who passed away. Meredith’s father died at 9 a.m. on October 22nd of 2011, just 10 years after he walked her down the aisle at our wedding. I’ll never forget exactly where we were, the color of the carpet, the couch, the wallpaper. I’ll never forget the way we cried when we got the phone call. Like many of you, Meredith and I have loved babies that we never met… Five miscarriages. We cried when our best friends moved away. And we cried again when we were the ones moving away. I’ve cried hard over sin… over your sin, as I’ve prayed for you and talked with you, read scripture with you. And I’ve cried hard over my own sin! I’ve cried to the point of exhaustion over the hurt that I’ve caused my heavenly Father and my earthly family by my own pride and selfishness. I’ve cried… I’ve cried over the souls of people, and some of you folks who still haven’t put your hope in Jesus for your eternity. In fact, almost every Thursday morning, there’s dozens of people who meet in this building at 6 and 8.30 a.m. to pray for people by name who are still far from God. And almost every single Thursday morning, tears fill our eyes as we plead for Jesus to save lost sinners just like He saved us. We’re crying… and you cry too.

In fact some of you are in the middle of one of those tear-filled times right now, aren’t you? You’re hurting, and you’re wondering, and maybe this morning you are just barely hanging on. Friend, this is for you. There will be a day when God will make all things new… all things new… no more death or disease, no more leaving or loss, no more hurt or heartache, forever, and ever and ever. And here’s what you can know this morning. In the new heaven, there will be no more sadness, no more sickness, and no more suffering, forever, and ever, and ever, and for all of eternity, all things new. The old is gone!

And then in verse 6 Jesus, King Jesus, sitting on His throne here in the new heaven, He drops the final mic and He says, ‘It’s over!’ It’s over! He started His mission as the prophesied snake crusher in Genesis. He came as the promised Messiah. He continued in His death and resurrection, and then He went to heaven to prepare a place for those who love Him. Jesus now sits down on the throne in the new heaven, and He says,

[Revelation 21:6] “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

Hebrews 8:1 illustrates this exact moment. It says that Jesus as our High Priest having completed everything that He was to do, He sat down at the right hand of the throne of majesty as an eternal minister in God’s holy heaven. Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, [Revelation 1:8; 22:13] the One who is, the One who was, and the One who is to come, [Revelation 1:8] Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever, [Hebrews 13:8] The way, The truth, The life, [John 14:6] Jesus Christ, THE Savior!

There’s no doubt He’s the Savior… but is He your Savior? Is He your Savior? You might say, ‘Well, of course He is. I’m here, aren’t I?’  ‘Of course He’s my Savior. I’m listening to this, aren’t I?’ ‘ I mean, doesn’t everyone eventually get into heaven?’

And here’s the last truth that we discover about heaven in this morning’s passage, and for some of you, it’s the only thing you need to hear all day. Here it is. Heaven is exclusive. Heaven’s exclusive. Not everybody gets in. That really bothers some of you. But we’re looking at the Bible to find out the truth about heaven, and here it is right in Revelation 21, starting in verse six. Look at it again.

Revelation 21:6b, “To the thirsty (Jesus says) I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”

It’ll be for free. Remember the story about the Samaritan woman at the well in the Gospels? This woman was drawing water from the well and Jesus said, if you drink from the living water that I’ve come to offer you, you will never be thirsty again. [Matt. 4:12; Mark 1:14; Luke 3:19-20; John 4:1-26] He’s offering her eternal life, salvation in heaven with Him forever! And here’s what He’s saying to you this morning. ‘Only the man or the woman that comes to Me for the free gift of living water, only those will be allowed in My heaven.’ Jesus says. Look at verse seven.

Revelation 21:7 “The one who conquers will have this heritage, (this heritage of heaven) and I will be his God and he will be my son. (or daughter)

See, the conquerors, those are all those who live in this life as faithful Christ followers. Look back to the beginning of the book of Revelation, those seven churches. All of those conquerors, the promises given to the conquerors. They are ultimately fulfilled in this new heaven. But… verse 8;

Revelation 21:8, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion (what they will be given) will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Not everyone gets into heaven. Some of you’ve never placed your faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin. You know God, you know about God I should say, but you don’t know God. You believe sincerely, but you don’t believe in Jesus. You’re relying on yourself, but you’re not relying humbly on Christ. And friend, if that’s you, you will live for eternity. Don’t mistake it, you will live for eternity, but not in heaven… not in the place described in chapter 21. Instead, your eternal destiny is a place of torment and torture, a place created by God for the devil and his demons, a place that burns forever with unrelenting fire and sulfur and this is a place called hell.

Now look, if you’re Christian here today, I can honestly say for you the best is yet to come. No matter what your life looks like here on earth, heaven is better. Paul says whatever you’re going through here on earth, it can’t even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to you in heaven. Heaven will never be less than you can imagine on earth. Try to imagine something amazing. Heaven’s better than that! Christian, your best days are still in front of you. But if you’re not a follower of Christ, If you’ve never obeyed His call to confess your sins and to believe in His sinless life and sacrificial death, if you’ve never trusted in His resurrection from the grave, you are not a Christian. And then I can honestly say to you, friend, your best days are behind you. Not only do you have an eternal hell in your eternal future, but every day you live on this earth without Jesus is another day for you to build up sin and judgment. Watch this in…

Hebrews chapter 10:29. ‘Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God… and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us.’

Don’t wait another minute. God is bringing His mercy to you this morning! You’ve heard the truth. Reach out and take that living water that Jesus is offering you today and experience heaven, the new heaven for all eternity. See, friends, heaven is exclusive… BUT… you’re invited. Will you accept that invitation today?

God, thank you for this look at heaven. I pray that it would motivate us to live lives that are worthy on earth, that we would walk in a manner worthy of what you’ve called us to do, the way you’ve called us to live. And, God, that there are, I know, there are some here and some listening to this online today or later that have not placed their faith and hope in your Son, Jesus Christ, have not repented of their sins and believed in Jesus for their eternal salvation, Lord, that today would be the day, that right now wherever they are, whenever they are, that this would be the moment, that today would be the day of salvation, that they would reach out and grab that free invitation to living water, that they would make a reservation in that place that you are preparing for us. Lord, I pray that we would see you differently because of Your word this morning, and that we would respond. In King Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. Let’s stand and sing.