What’s heaven like? I Cor. 2. Heaven is like nothing you’ve ever seen! "Eye has not seen and ear has not heard all that God prepared for
those who love Him." You take the
best day you’ve had on this earth, the greatest thing that’s happened to you on
this earth, and multiply it by a million times… and you still aren’t even
close to what it’s going to be like.
But what am I going to be
like up there? The Bible says I’m going
to have a body, but it’s going to be a perfect one. I don’t know how old or young it’s going to
be but it will be however old or young God wants it to be. The Bible uses a word to describe our
lifestyle in heaven — glory. It’s going
to be glorious, everything about it.
What will we do in
Heaven? Heaven is a place of real
significance. Worship, reign — we are
all kings and queens with significance and importance and responsibility for
eternity. We work — it’s not a boring
place, we work. We celebrate. The party
is in heaven for all of eternity. We
fellowship. We have relationships with
God and with other people. We rest in
heaven. And somehow we rest and work with significance at the same time,
eternally.
What decides —
separation or celebration? Do I have to
wait until the end of time worrying about whether I’ll be in heaven or hell? No. After I die I’m going to enjoy eternal
celebration with God. It’s not a matter
of how good you are. It’s not dependent
on how good or bad we are. It’s because
of a choice I’ve made about God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
What can I do before I die
abut what will happen after I die?
You can face death with
confidence. The look from the upside reveals hope to
us. It shows us we can hope. But it’s my choice that creates that hope in
my life. It’s the most important choice
I’ll ever make and it’s not decided later. I don’t decide it when I get there. You can decide now, today and make a difference.
struggled with this in his own life, "In
our hearts we felt the sentence of death. This happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises
the dead." Paul said, I felt the sorrow of this. As we said earlier, it makes you wise to
think about death.
prepare you to die.
Christ.
2. Invest in
eternity.
live together with Him. 2 Tim.1:10
"Jesus has destroyed death, and brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel." Solomon said somewhere in
Ecclesiastes that nobody can cheat death. Everybody is going to have to face it. Jesus Christ didn’t cheat death; He beat it. He faced in head on, fair and square and He
came out the victor. No contest. And He wants to give to you and I that same
resurrection victory in our lives so we can face death with confidence. Trust in Jesus Christ.
Secondly, invest in
eternity. Do you not feel hope in what
is going to happen after you die? Maybe
it’s because how you are investing your life. Eccl. 11:7-8 Solomon said, "It is a wonderful thing to be
alive. If a person lives to be very old
let him rejoice in everyday of life, but let him also remember that eternity is
far longer and that everything down here is futile in comparison." Life with perspective. Enjoy every day of your life but have a
perspective of eternity that realizes that it’s far longer and it’s what is
ultimately important. You’re not ready to live until you’re ready to die. Solomon is saying that the attitude you have
about death strongly affects the attitude you have about life. If you have a perspective on death that says
I’ve got a hope for eternity, then you can live everyday of your life with
enjoyment.
Don’t wait to live. Don’t wait to die. Live with joy. In order to do that, you’ve got to be able to
look forward to joy.