Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: It's so good to have you all here. It's so good to have you here. I want to say something about the women, because the women are not going to be outdone by the men. Let me tell you. This Saturday, the gals are getting together here at church for a luncheon. All the information is online and you can sign up with it back if you haven't signed up online. Right Ker? Keri is making her-- Well, people are making soup. If you want to bring part of the menu, call Kerry or Nicki and you can bring some soup as a soup and salad, lunch. It will be fun. They are calling it the holiday recovery lunch. We are not going to do anything. We are just going to visit and have fun. Yeah.
Then also our night Bible study on zoom started last week. It was great. So feel free to jump in this week and even if you can only make it every once in a while, every week stands on its own as we are discussing the words of Jesus. The women of hope have a Facebook page. And every week Mary posts the verses that we are all reading together that week, then we just come together and discuss them. It's a meaningful, beautiful time together.
Another thing is I got kind of sick this week, not with COVID or anything just with some pain issues, abdominal pain issues. And so I was in the doctor a few times and had some tests and everything's good, but you know what, I just really felt your prayers.
Brian: Thank you, Lord.
Jacque: We sent out a prayer request and I did. I'm so much better. And so we can still go away on our little vacation
Brian: And while we are gone, Pastor Robert and Pastor Jeff are going to be speaking. We have a dear friend, longtime friend of ours, who's a great worship leader, Justin McGarvey. Justin was part of our worship team for many years and now he has been leading worship in, in other churches. He has got this window of opportunity that he is free and he is going to come back and lead worship here for the next three Sundays. So we need you to come and support him and all of you online just send all sorts of nice texts to him and so forth about how great a job he is doing. We are going to be watching online ourselves. So we'll be with you next week, only I'll be wearing shorts and maybe a shirt. I'm not sure. We'll be joining you by watching you in livestream, looking forward to it. Pastor Robert is going to complete his third part of his message that he started in December.
Jacque: God, the timing of God. I'm so excited to hear that.
Brian: Yep. Yep. And Pastor Jeff, of course, always has wonderful insights to just the goodness of God and will be back the second Sunday in February. Pastor Jeff is actually going to speak that Sunday. We'll be here; we'll lead worship that Sunday. I've always had a protocol that when we fly back into town late on a Saturday, I always have somebody else speak on a Sunday just in case the plane doesn't arrive.
Jacque: That could happen now.
Brian: We might not even get out of town. Who knows with the way air travel is nowadays.
Jacque: God will help us.
Brian: We are looking forward to it and we are going to just be refreshed and hear from the Lord. God always speaks to us while we are gone. And it's really a wonderful time together.
Jacque: A wonderful time. Also, Pastor Robert and Tequaris will be serving communion at the close of the service and prayer.
Brian: If you are a visitor and you don't have a gift yet, we invite you to have communion with Pastor Robert. He will escort you to the gift room.
Jacque: There you go.
Brian: We will get you a gift after the service. We are so thankful you are here. Thank you all of you who are watching by livestream and all the cards and letters and communications that you give to us. We really appreciate it.
Last week, I talked about just this whole important thing about just the fact that this is a temporary sign here on the earth and yet it's interesting-- the message I want to bring today I've entitled it "We were made to last forever." So isn't it kind of interesting that we have a temporary assignment here and yet we were made by God to last forever?
There is a concept that America, and may be worldwide manufacturing, but I certainly know that American manufacturing has implemented throughout most of our history in America. It's a term called planned obsolescence. Have you ever heard of that, planned obsolescence? In other words, something is made not to last forever because they want you to come back and buy another one. So you buy a refrigerator or a stove or something like this.
I remember when my father-in-law passed away and my mother-in-law was moving out of her house and Ted, Jackie's dad, had built his house that Jackie grew up in, I think, in 1952 or somewhere in that part. Right. He had a freezer in the basement that I think he built to house around because we couldn't get that freezer out of the house. And yet it was still chugging away and operating. Well, obviously, Westinghouse who made that freezer decided this is not good. We need people to buy freezers more than once every 50 or 60 years.
Jacque: Once in a lifetime.
Brian: It's not a once in a lifetime thing. We want it like once every three or four or five years type of thing. But when God made us, he didn't have planned obsolescence in mind. The title of my message, again, like I said, is 'we were made to last forever." The word "made" in this title of the sermon implies a maker, a designer. I learned a very interesting concept many, many years ago. That concept was that design necessitates, having a designer order doesn't happen just out of chaos. Order only happens by somebody taking disorder and putting order to it.
That's called design. Design always necessitates a designer. I really struggle with time plus chance, time plus chance plus matter equals what we have in our universe today. There is way too much design in our universe. There is way too much order in our universe today for it not to have come about by a designer, a creator. When God created us, his intentions were to make something that would reflect his image. That's why he said I’ve made man in my own image. But that image has many different aspects to it, one of which is his immortality. God is immortal.
One of the differences between God and us of course, is that God didn't have a beginning. That's a very, very difficult concept for any of us to truly understand because everything in our lives has a beginning, except of course for God. But God created us with the intention of not having any ending, no obsolescence in mind. That never ending part really reflects an aspect of his immortality. I would like to begin by reading a verse and ecclesiastic that's found in the third chapter, verse 11 from the New Living Translation.
Jacque: Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
Brian: How many know that you can have something when it's not used in the right time it won't be beautiful? And so there is more to God's will than just what? there is also the wind of God's will. And that's very important. God says he has made everything beautiful for its own time.
Jacque: He has planted eternity in the human heart.
Brian: What God has done is he has also planted this desire, this issue, as it were, this longing in our hearts. He has planted this concept called eternity in our hearts, this desire to live forever. He has planted it in our hearts.
Jacque: But even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.
Brian: Even though we have God's word, even though we have God's spirit, his presence and even though we have revelation from God, he doesn't choose to reveal to us everything about his plans. And so we still cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. But we do know that he has planted eternity in our heart and life. This life is not all that there is. This is like the dress rehearsal before the main performance. Or as I've said on many occasions, this is like the introduction to the book, a book called the never ending story of your life. The never ending story of your life. We will spend much, much, much more time on the other side of death than this side. We'll spend much more time on that side in eternity than we will here on the earth.
We were made to last forever. God's intention was that we would live forever. That's why the scripture says, here, that he has planted eternity in our hearts. We have this inborn instinct that longs for immortality or eternity. It was just maybe a couple of centuries ago that people quit looking for the fountain of youth. There were whole expeditions sent from other nations to find this fountain of youth, wherever it might be. There were rumors throughout the ancient world that there was this fountain that if you could drink from it, you would live forever. Well, there is a fountain of youth. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. God has made us in his image. A part of that image is to really have this desire to live for eternity. God will never die. God is never going to cease to exist. And neither, actually, shall we ever cease to exist. Once life has been created by God that life doesn't ever end.
We all know people who have died. We had a memorial service here just yesterday. We had a memorial service just a few weeks ago for our dear friend Lonnie. And we have had way too many memorial services, as far as I'm concerned, this whole past year. This whole process of dying here on earth is something that we are faced with all the time. It seems in the last couple of years with COVID, it feels like we are faced with it even more and more than we would want to admit. We all know people who have died, yet, no matter how long they've lived, when it happens, it somehow feels a bit unfair.
My mom lived to be almost 99, and when she died, I felt robbed. I felt robbed. And I had my mom for almost 99 years. I've been pondering, why would I feel that? Why would anybody feel that whose parents lived to be almost 99 years old? It's because God has wired our brains and our souls with this desire to live forever and to stay in that forever place. The day that our heart stops beating will be the end of our time on earth. We know that intellectually. I'm not sure all of us have really embraced that emotionally, but we've embraced it, obviously, intellectually, but the day our heart stops beating is not the end of us. It's not the end of us. I would like to read 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 1.
Jacque: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down that is when we die and leave this earthly body. We will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.
Brian: How many of you have ever gone camping? A few of you, and how many of you camped in a tent? How many would like to live permanently in that tent? Where are all the hands? That's the whole concept. This tent that we currently have, it's called that. This body we have is called a tent. A tent in our culture was never intended to be a permanent dwelling place. Now, unfortunately, in our culture, even in America, we have people that are so impoverished that that's all that they can live in, even up in Minnesota in the wintertime, which is just mind boggling to me that poverty exists in our nation to this level. This is something we all need to figure out how we can help remedy. But the fact of the matter is what makes tenting or what makes camping kind of enjoyable is it's not a permanent thing for you. It's not a permanent thing.
When we are camping, tents are really nice to have, but in our hearts, God has placed a desire for a permanent home. That permanent home is actually heaven. That's our permanent home. Heaven is that house or that permanent home that this verse is talking about. We will have a house in heaven. We will have an eternal body made for us by God himself, not a body made with human hands. Most of you probably didn't know who CS Lewis is. He was a great author. I think he was a really terrific theologian in the 20th century, but also probably one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. And he was quoting the verse, “Thy will be done; thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” He interprets this verse this way.
Lord, we'll do it your way.Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth. All right, Lord. We'll do it your way. That's really a good attitude to have, isn't it? I'll do it your way, Lord, not kind of just begrudgingly because our arms are twisted up behind our back, but I'll do it your way, Lord, because I know you are good. But one of the things that Lewis also said about this verse about doing it God's way is this: defining this verse this way, he defines this as living in light of eternity, that we will do it God's way because that's how we are to live in light of eternity. When we live this way, eternity will affect how we handle our relationships on this earth.
Jacque: The choices we make.
Brian: The choices we make. Eternity will affect the tasks that we give our time to.
Jacque: It affects our values, what we value.
Brian: That's right. Absolutely. It affects our circumstances. Eternity will affect our circumstances. Some people will say, well, I never signed up for this, but God has other things in mind and his economic approach to things. I don't just mean financial when I say economic, but God's economy has so many different parts to it when we are going through different trials and tribulations. But when we think of eternity, it'll also determine how we use our time and even our money. Will it not? Philippians 3:7 says it this way, where Paul had given himself to all sorts of religious things and very legalistic phariseetical religious things. And then he came to know Jesus. After he came to know Jesus, he said this.
Jacque: I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
Brian: When Christ comes into our lives and we have an eternal perspective, all of a sudden the things that we have given ourselves to now become maybe not nearly as important, and things that weren't as important to us in the past now become more and more important because we see them in the light of an eternal perspective. So of course death is not the end of us. It's not the moment we are terminated. That is not part of God's concept at all. But rather when we die, this is our transition. This is our transition to home. This is our transition from the temporary to the permanent.
Jacque: And it happens, absent from the body; present with the Lord.
Brian: You and I had a dear friend that passed away many years ago, Ruth and Harlow Peterson. They were just like, when you thought of a saint, you thought of Ruth. She had got a terminal disease and she was on her last few moments here on earth. We stopped by to visit her and pray with her and sing to her. I don't know that she was very responsive when we were there and then we left. It was just not too long after that, maybe an hour or two, three hours after that, that she just became alert. It was just her and her husband Harlow and she said to her husband, "Who are these men?" Of course, they lived alone. They had no children. And Harlow said, Ruth, "there is nobody here." Yes, there is. Now, you know what you don't want to do? You don't want to argue with a dying person. They sometimes have a lot more insights than we do. He said, Ruth, there is nobody here. She said, “Yes, there are four men standing right over there, all wearing white."
What God does at times is he gives us these small glimpses of what eternity is like. Sometimes we get glimpses from the word of God. Once in a while we get glimpses from somebody like Ruth, who's going from this, got one foot in this world and one foot in the next. But I like what first Corinthians 2:9 says about what awaits us. This is how the apostle Pauls describes it.
Jacque: No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
Brian: Wouldn't you say that God has really created us in such a way that we can have extremely vivid imaginations? All you have to do is look at Star Wars and all of the creativity of Lucas and some of these guys, just the incredible creativity and the imagination that these people had. The Apostle Paul says this: our eye has not seen nor has our ear heard, nor has any mind even imagined what God has prepared for those people who love him. Even though we can't even imagine, God has given us little snippets, just this little snapshot, that's fleeting of eternity, both in experiences of people that we've no who have died.
I was hearing a nurse speak the other day, who is a hospice nurse. She was talking about how it's very common for people that she has been ministering to and bringing aid to as they are passing for them to have conversations with what she called angels or beings that are coming to escort these people to an eternal place. We need to always remember that this is a temporary assignment here, but how we fulfill this assignment here determines many things about what happens there. I want to read a couple verses from Matthew, where Jesus was talking. The first one is in Matthew 20.
Jacque: The king shall say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.
Brian: Our worlds were created. There are different theories about this. There are many scientists who believe the universe or the world is young, that they are called the young world. There are other Christian scientists who believe that God created millions and millions of years ago. I see the argument on both sides. I really do. For most of my life, I leaned a little bit more to a young-age earth, but at the end of the day, what really doesn't matter as much is when did God create. But the fact that when he created it says that there was a kingdom when he created the universe, whether it was 10,000 years ago or a hundred million or billion years ago. It doesn't matter. When he created this universe and the world, he also created a kingdom for you and I to inherit or to become part of. He goes on to say it this way in verse 21,
Jacque: The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling the small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities.
Brian: So if anybody thinks that heaven is just sitting around playing a harp and having a halo adjustment once in a while, we are mistaken. we are mistaken. There are more responsibilities. The responsibilities that God is going to give us an eternity are connected to how we walk with Jesus here in this life. It's really important. I think for us to embrace that and grasp that because how we live really matters. How we live really matters.
Jacque: Every choice matters.
Brian: Did you know that God's purposes for you are more than an opportunity of a lifetime? They are actually an opportunity beyond your lifetime. The opportunities of this lifetime are actually opportunities beyond this lifetime. I don't know about you, but when I get to heaven, I would feel bro hearted. If God took me to my inheritance room and said, this is actually what I had planned for you, but you just screwed up too bad. That maybe does not sound very heaven-like, but I do believe that God has purposes for us beyond our lifetime according to this verse. He said you are faithful in handling some small things on earth. Now, I'm going to give you all of this to be faithful with.
There are those who want to avoid the topic of death or dying. It's interesting. Obviously, we are exposed to it on a fairly regular basis. Well, partly because we are ministers, pastors, and we are often at the bedside of people who are about to die or working with family members after someone has passed. And so the whole death arena, if we want to call it that, we are not foreign to it. I'm not uncomfortable talking about it, but many people are very uncomfortable when the subject is brought up to talk about it.
I want us to look at a verse. We don't read this verse too often. It's not one of the verses that we put up on signs in our church for people to read on a weekly basis. We find it in ecclesiastes chapter 7 verses 2 through 4. I think these verses are quite poignant.
Jacque: Well, they are from the wisdom books.
Brian: That's right.
Jacque: Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties.
Brian: Wow. Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. Hey, I'm going to a funeral today. Nobody wants to do that. Right? We plan parties. We plan what you are going to do in the Super Bowl. We plan parties way in advance. But the scripture says it's actually better to spend our time at memorial services or funerals than at parties. Why? Because--
Jacque: After all, everyone dies. So the living should take this to heart.
Brian: So the living really need to take this to heart. Intellectually, we all know historically that we all die. We know that, but emotionally in our hearts, we really don't want to embrace that.
Jacque: We try to avoid it.
Brian: We avoid the topic.
Jacque: We don't want to talk about it.
Brian: We actually avoid even making decisions that would be easier for our family who is left behind when we die. We avoid all that stuff. Let's go on.
Jacque: Sorrow is better than laughter.
Brian: Wow! Sorrow is better than laughter. How many of you are seeking sorrow today? None of us actually seek out after sorrow do we? We actually seek after joy. We seek after contentment, we seek after happy things. That's what we really give our life to. But the writer of the book of wisdom says sorrow is better than laughter.
Jacque: For sadness has a refining influence on us.
Brian: Sadness actually has this refining influence on us. You know what it does? Sadness sometimes reminds us of the most important things in life more than happiness does. Sadness, and I'm not wanting to live in a place of sorrow, because Jesus carried our sorrows, and he wants us to have unspeakable joy. And yet at the same time, there is a growth that happens in our lives when we are willing to embrace the sadness from loss and not avoid it. there is a growth that takes place in valuing more and more the things that God values.
Jacque: Maybe a good word there would be solemness.
Brian: Solemness, that's good. That's right. So he goes on to say this.
Jacque: Sorrow better than laughter for sadness has a refining influence on this. A wise person thinks a lot about death while a fool thinks only about having a good time. Can I say something? A lot of people say to me, oh, I sure wouldn't like your job. You have so much sadness and you have so many funerals. They've said that to me through the years. I just always say I think it has been a good thing for me to be constantly faced with my own mortality. It has been a good thing for me to keep bringing me back to what's really important.
Brian: It's helped us value, I believe, the things that God values.
Jacque: When things come up, if I can remember, what's really important is measured against eternity. It doesn't matter.
Brian: The fact of the matter is according to the scriptures, only someone who is foolish and unwise will go through life unprepared for what we all know will eventually happen. We actually need to think more about eternity than less. We need to think about that realm, that life, not less.
Jacque: I was thinking Bri, I saw this drawn out one time and there was a tiniest little pin prick over here with a line that never stops. This tiny little pin prick is the amount of time that we live on this earth.
Brian: That's right. We need to think more about eternity, not less. It's interesting that almost everyone wants to go to heaven. How many want to go to heaven? You want to go to heaven? Nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to experience the thing that's the only way you can get there. The writer of Hebrews at the very end of the book of Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrew really says that really very in a classic way. He says it this way.
Jacque: For this world is not our permanent home. We are looking forward to a home yet to come. I have an old gospel song going through my mind.
Brian: What is that?
Jacque: This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. I'll stop.
Brian: Okay. What key is that? I might go play for you.
Jacque: The angels beckoning-- Okay. Don't give me any space. From heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore.
Brian: That's right. This world is not our home, but it's the only thing we've ever known. It's the only thing we've ever experienced, and because of that, we hang on tightly. We hang on tightly. We hang on tightly to our earthly possessions and sometimes so much so that it feels to other people that we love things more than we love people. God's plan for us is that we will love people and use things, not love things and use people. Having a perspective of eternity will help solidify all of this.
I want to read a longer passage of scripture and then we'll be done here this morning. It's found in second Corinthians chapter five verses 1 through 10. We read verse 1, but I want to read this whole package deal here. Paul is really talking about our bodies dying, permanent home, temporary home, tents, et cetera, et cetera in this whole portion of scripture.
Jacque: Before we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, that is when we die and leave this earthly body. We will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies. And we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.
Brian: Do any of you get tired? Do any of you get weary? I do, not so much weary of what is happening. You just get fatigued. You can just get tired. There are things that you want to do and there isn't the strength to do it. There are times where I think, man, I wish I was the bionic man where God says I have the technology to do this, but we get weary. We go weary in our present bodies and we long to put on our heavenly bodies, like new clothing. Let's go on.
Jacque: For we will put on heavenly bodies. We will not be spirits without bodies.
Brian: We are not just floating around wanting someplace to land.
Jacque: While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us; rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this and as a guarantee, he has given us his holy spirit.
Brian: One of the things we need to understand are real eyes, I guess, and be aware of is when we have this sense of holy spirit, because God gives us holy spirit. One of the things he wants us to learn from this is that this is like an earnest payment or it's a revelation to the fact that there is a heavenly body that he is going to give to us.
Jacque: We are always confident even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies, we are not at home with the Lord, for we live by believing and not by seeing. I want to read that again. For we live by believing and not by seeing.
Brian: That's how we are to live.
Jacque: Then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in the body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.
Brian: One thing will never change: whether we are here or whether we are there, our purpose is to please and honor God.
Jacque: For we must all before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
Brian: I really do believe that it should be the business of every day to prepare for our final day. It really should be the business of every day to prepare for our final day. What I mean by that is much more than simply saying the sinner's prayer. I think what I'm really talking about is I don't want to make it to heaven by the skin of my teeth. I'm going to read a portion of a book that CS Lewis wrote called The Last Battle before we finish here, but I'd like to read one more scripture. It's found in first John 2 verse 17. If we can really get this into our hearts, this will help us understand eternity in a better perspective.
Jacque: And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave, but anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
Brian: Seeing as we were made to last forever, I would just ask us this one question. Seeings were made to last forever, what's the one thing we should actually stop doing right now that we are doing? Give you an assignment. Just think about that. Seeing as we are made to live forever, what's the one thing we should stop doing that we are doing right now? But another question is this: what's the one thing I actually should start doing today, seeing as we were made by God to live forever?
Jacque: I think also to say that anyone who doesn't please God will live forever too.
Brian: I don't know that they'll live forever. They'll be alive forever.
Jacque: That's what I'm saying. But we are all eternal beings.
Brian: That's right.
Jacque: And our choices make the difference.
Brian: Let me have your Kindle there. I want to read this. This is from the last battle. they are on this journey. They've gone through all of these scenarios. Peter is part of this if you are familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia. This book ends by saying this: a long valley opened up ahead and great snow mountains, not much near stood up against the sky and further up and further in cried Juul and instantly they were carried off again further up and further in. They were now out of Narnia. Now they were up into the western wild, which neither Tyrion, nor Peter, nor the Eagle had ever seen before. But the Lord Digory and the lady Polly had. "Do you remember; do you remember," they said. And said it in steady voices without panting though the whole party was now running faster than an arrow flies.
They were heading, in essence, towards heaven. That's where they were heading. They were heading there faster than the arrow flies. There is a scripture in Isaiah that often I will use at memorial services. It talks about how God whistles and people come running from the four corners of the earth. When God whistles, they come. They said, is it then true as the stories tell that you two journeyed here on the very day that the world was made and Digory said yes. It seems to me as if it was only yesterday. And on a flying horse, asked Tyrion, is that part true? And Digory said certainly, but now the dogs barked faster, faster, faster. So they ran faster and they ran faster till it was more like flying than running.
And even the Eagle overhead was going no faster than they were. Then they went through winding valley after winding valley and up to steep sides of hills and faster than ever, down the other side, following the river and sometimes crossing it and skimming across mountain lakes as if they were living speedboats till at last, at the far end of one long lake, which looked as blue as turquoise, they saw a smooth green hill. The sides were as steep as the sides of a pyramid and round the very top of it ran a green wall. But above the wall rolls the branches of trees whose leaves looked like silver and their fruit looked like gold.
Further up and further in roared the unicorn. And no one held back, they charged straight to the foot of the hill and then found themselves running up almost as water from a broken wave runs up a rock out at the point of some bay. And though the slope was nearly as steep as the roof of a house and the grass was smooth as a bowling green, nobody slipped. Only when they had reached the very top did they slow up. That was because they found themselves facing great golden gates. And for a moment, none of them was bold enough to try to see if the gates would open. They all just as they had felt about the fruit that they had eaten, dare we do this? Is it right? Can it really be meant for us?
But while they were standing, a great horn sounded wonderfully loud and sweet. It blew from somewhere inside that walled garden and the gates swung open. Tyrion stood holding his breath and wondering who would come out. And what came was the last thing that he had expected: a little sleek, bright eyed talking mouse with a red feather stuck in a circulate on its head. If you've read the books, you know that little mouse to be Reepicheep. and it's left paw, resting on his long sword and the most bowed, the most beautiful bow and said in its shrill voice, welcome. Welcome, in the lion's name. Come further up and come further in.
This is what awaits us coming further up and further in. This is what God has prepared for those who love them. Authors like CS Lewis have done a far better job of trying to describe heaven than what we could probably ever do. And with all of his creativity and with all of his intellectual prowess with the language, the English language, he pales in comparison to truly describe what awaits us, what awaits us. We were meant to live forever, but not here. We were meant to live forever, just not here. There is a home, not a tent. There is a home that awaits us, you and me. And I dare say, you will never ever in your whole existence hear more comforting words than those words that Jesus wants to say to us all: well done, good and faithful, a servant; enter. Enter into the joy of the Lord.
It gives God great joy. It gives Jesus great joy to prepare for us a home that goes above and beyond what we could ever ask, imagine or think. And so let us open up our hearts to receive this wonderful eternal gift that God has prepared for all of us since the very moment he created the universe. Pastor Jeff, would you come and pray?
Jeff: Thank you, Pastor Brian. That was awesome. We've got a couple great words spoken to us this morning. We just heard the word welcome, which is something we have to look forward to. But we also heard I miss you, which is something that's right now. I just thank you, Pastor Robert, for sharing that, being obedient, because that definitely spoke to my heart. You may have never met Jesus, but he knows you. Sitting here this morning, watching on live stream, or maybe even watching this sometime in the future, you may have never given your heart to Jesus, but he knows you and his word to you as I miss you.
Or most of us here, and many of you who are watching have probably known Jesus for a long time, but as Robert said, there is just a lot of stuff that gets on our plate and we get busy and we just ignore him, get too busy for him. And he misses us. The best response to this message and the best response to that message is to say okay, I hear you. I want to come back. I'll just lay down-- all this stuff piles on, you get frustrated, you get angry, you get worried, you get busy and the next thing you know, you are out of communion with Jesus. you are just not talking to him. you are not hearing him talk to you. That's what we need most when it's the hardest.
Whether you've ever met Jesus or whether you've known him for a hundred years, let's just respond to the message that Robert brought this morning, and let's just say, Lord, I'm coming back. The end of it is that someday, we are going to hear the welcome. That will be even better. But right now I need you, Jesus. Just say it. I need you, Jesus.
Brian: I need you, Lord.
Jeff: Thank you for reminding me that you love me, and that when busy, you miss me. Yes. And sometimes I don't know it, but when I'm busy, I miss you. So I just repent. I turn away from my frustration and my anger and my busyness and open my heart to you. Fill me again, Holy Spirit. Wash me. Wash me and film me. I love you.
When you first wake up in the morning, before you lay your head on the pillow, at 6:45 every night on Zoom, right before a big meeting, before you eat dinner or any other meal, you can always take a moment and just commune with your father. It takes so little on our part to make the connection that means everything to our lives and our wellbeing. Let's do it. I don't know why, but we just get this, I'm just too busy. Sorry, Lord. I can't talk to you now.
We want to take some time to pray for miracles. I love to pray for miracles because I love to see him happen. Don't you? We've been praying for Marvin. He is going to have surgery in a couple weeks. He is going to have his appendix removed, but the doctors were concerned that it might be something more. He had a biopsy, and got his letter back this week and everything is fine. Thank you, Jesus. Isn't that good? Thank you Lord. He wasn't worried, but I think some of us were, that's why we prayed so hard. Isn't it good to pray and have Jesus answer your prayers?
Brenda put a prayer request through for her granddaughter. They were concerned for her. She had just come through COVID. I just talked to her this morning and she is doing much better. It's just good to pray, because we can trust our father. One of my favorite speakers who's not Robert and not Pastor Brian, but from someplace else, he always says, you know, I don't understand why when we pray for people, sometimes they don't get healed. But the one thing I understand is that a lot more people get healed when we pray for them than if we don't at.
So we want to pray for some people. Marvin has got surgery in two weeks. We've got to ask God to bless that surgery. Pat is actually having surgery this week, so we need to pray that God will really put his hand on those doctors and be with him through that. We want to pray for Nadine. Remember how the Lord really carried Nadine through surgery? God really touched her heart in a beautiful way, but she had a pet scan and there are still a few spots that the doctors are concerned about. And so we need to keep praying for her body to be cancer free and for her baby to be born healthy. We are going to pray for Nadine this morning. We are going to keep praying for her because I believe Jesus wants to do a miracle for her all the way.
We can keep praying for Butch and thanking God for what he is doing in your life. Butch, we are so happy that Jesus is carrying you through. We've got many other friends that we can pray for. We don't want to skip over anybody who is watching the livestream or anybody here who needs Jesus to do a miracle for you. I think what I'd like to do is just ask you if there is something you really need Jesus to meet you in, whether it's a health issue or some other issue, just put your hand up briefly. Erica needs a miracle too because she has some foot issues and she is wearing a boot. In fact Sean and Butch, why don't you guys go lay hands and Erica. We want to pray for a miracle for her.
Thank you, Jesus. If you had your hand up, we are just going to trust the Lord did meet you. You can just lift it up to Jesus and, and he is going to see it. We are going to believe God together for him to meet our needs because that's what he does best. If you are at home watching, same for you. Just put your hand up. Just put your hand up. we are just reaching out to the one we trust the most. Jesus, we trust you the most. A lot of things we don't understand, but the one thing we do is that you love us. We understand that. We understand that you are powerful and that you are good, that you are able, and as you said to the leper, I am willing. You are willing. We just asked Jesus that you would release your power right now into our bodies, into our lives.
We thank you for covering Pat's surgery and Marvin's for doing a miracle for Erica and Nadine and her baby. Thank you for meeting every single one of us right where we are at. And those of us that have reached our arms up to you, Lord, I just release your favor, your blessing and your salvation in whatever way we need. It's so good to be able to trust you, Lord. It's so good to be able to pray for one another Lord, because our confidence is in your goodness. We receive all that you have for us now in Jesus name. Amen.
Brian: The name of Jesus is powerful. Chains are broken when it's spoken. Today, we declare the name of Jesus over these needs. We declare the name of Jesus over marriages that need to be healed. We declare the name of Jesus over bodies that need to be restored. We declare the name of Jesus over minds that have been tormented that need peace. We declare the name of Jesus, the name above every other name. We thank you that Lord today we can call upon your name. For your name is just as effective, just as powerful, and just as strong as it was when you walked this dusty earth. Thank you. We declare your name, Jesus. We thank you that your name has conquered death. Your name has given us eternal life. We thank you that your name and it's in your name that we have forever home.
We thank you that in your name, those of us who have broken hearts because friends and family have passed. We thank you that your name brings comfort and peace. We thank you that your name strengthens the feeble legs when we don't think we can go on any further. It's your name, Lord, that's above every other name. And so we declare your name today over this church. We declare your name today over our lives. We declare your name, Lord over our futures. We declare it, Father, your name, the name of Jesus over every obstacle that would be in the way of your purposes coming into our lives. And we thank you that we can go further up and further in. We bless your holy name. Let's lift our hands together. Shall we?
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. This we pray the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit on man. God bless you. It's great to have you here today. Thank you to all who are watching by livestream. Thanks for being part of our spiritual community here. Pastor Robert will be serving as well. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 1-16-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.