Skip to content Episode 38 | What will Heaven be like? Oct 11 · 57 min ...more
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Cascade Hills Church exists to help people from all walks of life experience a genuine relationship with God through Christ and become fully devoted followers
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In this video 0:00 The Urgency of Sharing the Gospel4:18 A Vision of the New Jerusalem14:36 The Beauty and Security of Heaven23:18 Inside the City and the Culture of Worship38:00 Seeing Jesus Face to Face
The Urgency of Sharing the Gospel 0:00 This is a critical time for the US and the world. They're fighting a war here, and they're losing.0:42 We are continuing our series in in the end times. And guess what? Next week is the last week. It's crazy to think we've went through this whole thing. And what we've learned is all about the person of Jesus from the 1st0:53 verse. Remember when we 1st started, next week you will see it ends the very last verse with the... About the person of Jesus Christ. And that's kind of been the synopsis this entire time. If we if we said this, the book1:04 of Revelation is all about the person of Jesus Christ. It's a revelation, 1 revelation of what he's gonna do in the end times. And what he will do in the future is the world as we know it comes to an end. I don't wanna1:15 scare you, but I wanna tell you and prepare you that that is coming very, very soon. The rapture of the church, when God removes the follower of Jesus, the followers1:27 of Jesus out of this earth and then pours his wrath on an unrepentant world, that is the next thing on the prophetic calendar, and it's coming quickly. And the reason that I tell you that so bluntly1:39 is we need to do our job. Here is the overall application. For us, the believer, is to share the gospel with urgency like never before. And can I just pause right here and tell you, you've been doing1:51 that? I wanna just give you, like, a round of applause because you've been doing that for 2 years. We've seen more baptisms. For 2 years, we've seen more people come to God than we've ever seen in the history of the2:02 church, and it's because of you. I mean, what what an honor it is to lead such people that you don't just hear this, you go out and do it. Everywhere I go, you know, sometimes I'll invite people, and2:14 and they have already been invited, like, 2 or 3 times. Many times, I'll go and invite them to say, wait. Let me let me guess. Cascade Hills. And I'm like, man, I love that. I love that our people y'all getting after. So2:24 that's gotta be stepped up with urgency. When we go out today, guys, and we go to the restaurants, and we go into the marketplace, share the gospel. That's your job. You may have, you know, a job that pays you, and2:36 you you pay the bills that... You may2:37 be a nurse, a teacher, or whatever. But I wanna tell you,2:40 your calling your calling is to share Jesus Christ with those who do not know him. That's your calling. Your platform to your calling is your job. I had someone the other day, dear friend of mine, he owns a bunch of2:52 movie theaters. He came to me. He showed me a popcorn bucket and a popcorn bag. And on that was my video, a QR code, how to know God, how to get to heaven. And he said, that's gonna get into the hands of3:03 400000 people this year. Now that's a guy who understands, hey, this is my calling. Billy Graham once said it this way. He said, the church that 1 day3:15 figures out that ministry in the marketplace is is where the world will be changed is where the beginning of the world will be changed. He said, the gospel will get out when it's not just3:27 confined inside of the walls of the church, but when people start taking to their jobs and they understand, oh, God's put me here to reach people. I'm so glad that you get that. Now, if you're an unbeliever and you're3:37 here today, I wanna tell you, come to Christ before it's too late. Like I said earlier, the rapture of the church is coming soon. Keep your eyes on Israel.3:44 When3:44 we see what's happening to Israel, I'm telling you, everything is already, that that needs to be done has already been done. We're not waiting on anything. We are simply waiting on the Lord Jesus to step out of his3:55 throne and come get us. And I I don't know about you, but I'm excited about that. I'm excited about that. And today, you're gonna love this message because last week, we talked about the new heaven and the new earth that4:06 God's gonna create. Now if you're new to church, there was a guy named John, 1 of Jesus' best friends, saw him die and hung out with him after he, rose from the dead. And John was pulled up into heaven andA Vision of the New Jerusalem 4:18 given a vision and told to write these things down by God himself of what the end times will look like so that we would know. So John is writing down what he sees and hears, and last week, we talked about a new heaven4:28 and a new earth that we will spend eternity in. Now today, he digs even deeper. So this is a fun message. Today, we're gonna talk about what will heaven be like. What will heaven be like? Have you ever wondered what4:38 heaven will be like? Like, are we just gonna be pushing around clouds up there, or are we gonna be just in white rows? You know, what what what what's it gonna be like? Or maybe perhaps you got a loved 1 that is... That4:48 you've lost, and you wonder, I wonder what they're doing? Or I wonder what the... With the plate, where are they at? What does it look like? Today, we're gonna actually touch on a lot of that. And if you're an4:57 unbeliever, maybe this will answer a lot of questions that you perhaps have on the afterlife. Okay? And so here's John now getting a deeper view. This angel brings him up and now he's gonna get an exterior view. He's5:08 gonna get an interior view of heaven. Watch this. Revelation 21 9. Now if you're new to church, it's the last book in your Bible all the way on the right. I don't wanna leave you out, but we got them on the screens. He5:20 says this, then 1 of the 7 angels who had the 7 bowls filled with the 7 last plagues came to me. Now I just wanna pause there. That's where I would have brought out the rubber sheets. You know what I5:31 mean? Only 4 people laugh. You had to have rubber sheets when you were younger too? Me too. Don't you hate being a bed wetter? You know, I mean, I had too much information, but dang, it was just, you know, couldn't spend5:42 the night with nobody or nothing. Y'all are like, that's just too much. But you're 9 305:47 for you.5:47 That's alright. You know? Why didn't he ever spend a night at my house? Because I was a bed wetter. But y'all, I got victory over this last year.6:00 I'm kidding. The reason I say this is, you remember a couple weeks ago, the the the 7 angels of the plagues? This... I mean, they were dumping these things on the earth, and it was violent. And now this angel comes up6:12 to John. If I'm John, I'm trembling. I'm like, okay. What did I do wrong? But he comes over and he says, and he talked with me, saying, come. I'm gonna show you the6:23 bride, the lamb's wife. The bride is who? The bride's you and I. That's you and I, baby. That's us. We're here. Who's the lamb? Jesus. That's right. He said, I'm gonna show you6:35 where you are. Is that not incredible? I'm I'm about to show you where you're gonna be. Now here's what he says. And he carried me away in the spirit to a high great mountain. So he gave my aerial6:47 view and he showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven, having God's glory. I hope I hope John ain't scared of heights because he just got sucked way up there like a drone. I mean, he's getting6:59 a drone view of this whole city. And this is the capital city for all the nations in the world. And isn't that cool? Because Jerusalem, little bitty Jerusalem has been attacked. They've been in war. They've always been7:11 despised. But now this new Jerusalem is gonna be the capital of the entire world. And it says here in verse 11, having the glory of God. Do you know that everywhere God is, his glory is?7:23 Everywhere God is, his glory is. Remember when Moses met God on Mount Sinai? He came down looking different. Why? Because he experienced the glory of God. His face was glowing so much. Remember, he had to put a veil over7:34 his face. His face was literally glowing. Remember when the Israelites walked through the wilderness and they came to the promised land? God guided them by what was called the glory cloud because his glory was in there.7:46 Remember when Jesus came to Earth and the gospel says, and we beheld his glory. When you look into that, it means that we... People gazed at him after his teaching. People gazed at him after his miracles and thought,7:58 who is this? What what kind of man is this? Wherever God is, his glory is. Blessings of God is there. The stories of life8:10 changes are there. The miracles are there. That's why we know the glory of God has hovered of this place for so many years. I don't wanna do anything that would keep God's glory from hovering over this place. Have you8:21 ever met a follower of Jesus that... Man, they just walk with Jesus and there's something about them just infectious. They just have the glory of God on their their life. I can't help but think about miss Janice8:33 DeBaez. She's probably here today. Oh, I see her beautiful face, but I'm not gonna draw attention to her. But you get around, miss Janice has won more people to the Lord than I will ever lead in this in this8:45 public pulpit. 1 on 1. I mean, you talk about... She was at the Fresh Market the other day. I'm checking out, and I was telling her some... Somebody about it. She said, I know miss Janice. She stands right over here at8:55 the bakery, spot. She's smart. See, she's wise. She knows everybody gonna go to the bakery side. Right? I am. And she said she'll lead people to Christ over there. She'll lead people to Christ when she's walking9:07 out. I... That's the 1 that I joke about that I saw her at a bar in Newnan 1 time. And I go up at the bar in Newnan 1 time, and I thought, it's gotta be a hard day. I said, Carrie, that looks like Janice the bike. She9:17 said, that is Janice. I said, Janice is sitting at the bar. I said, it had to be a hard day because she drove 45 minutes up here to get her a drink. I said, miss Janice, I said, I got to sneak up and just know what miss9:27 Janice is. I said, I got to know. You know? So I sneak over there, and there's miss Janice. There's this long bar. And we hug next, but she said, this is a... This is an awesome place. She's drinking water with lemon.9:38 I'm thinking, okay. Well, she's not drunk. That's good. And she said, this is an awesome place. Brent, they come thirsting for something, and I know the 1 they're thirsting for. She said, I I know the 1 they're really9:50 after. So they're coming with all that. And she was sharing Jesus in a bar, and she said, the great thing is they just keep rotating in and out. And she's right there in the middle. Anytime I'm around miss Janice, you10:00 know what it does? It's infectious. It makes me wanna become more like her. It makes me wanna say, man, I need to be more bold with my faith. It... It's infectious. God... When you when you get around people like that,10:10 you see... And it's because the glory of God is on her life. You know the goal of your life should be to bring God glory? Why should that be the goal of your life? Because that's how heaven will be. Heaven, if you wanna10:21 know what we'll do in heaven, we will be doing everything that brings God glory. Ain't nothing worth it. How many of you ever played, ball, maybe dodgeball, baseball, whatever? When you're in elementary school, you had a10:31 ball hog. Anybody remember that ball hog? Ain't nothing worse than a darn ball hog. You know? I mean, I got skills to play the bills I wanna play, but the ball hog's over there. Right? There's something worse than a ball10:41 hog that's a glory hog. Don't be a glory hog. When somebody in... When somebody, you know, encourages you and says, man, you're just so great. You've done this. Pass the praise to Jesus. If10:53 praise lands and stays on man, it turns to pride. You get that? If praise goes to God, it's called worship, which brings him what? Glory. Exactly. You're with me this morning. Glory11:05 is not meant to stay on us. It's only meant for God. Did you know that everything you have and everything you are is meant to glorify God? I'll prove it to you. Romans 11 36. For everything, not11:17 some of the things, everything comes from him. You ever wonder why you got the car, why you got that job, why you got that personality, why you got that platform? God gave it to you. Every... It's not even ours. It's on11:29 God's loan to us on this little small town, time called Earth. Everything comes from him and exists by his power. Watch this now. Everything you have,11:41 everything you are, why do you have it? Why are you who you are? Because it's intended for his glory. Everything you are. Everything you have, that means we ought to glorify God when we tip our waiter. That11:52 means we ought to glorify God how we speak to our spouse. That means we ought to glorify God when we hold our tongues back when we don't want. You know you know, when you wanna say something, but you don't, that's12:04 glorifying God. You know, because sometimes you just wanna... You don't wanna do that? Is that just me? Sometimes I just... This from people I just... Because I get to thinking, I'm like, well, he told us to turn the12:15 other cheek. But somebody's gotta slap the cheek before they give them an opportunity to turn the other cheek. You ever thought about that? Sometimes you want to, but when you hold your tongue, what are you doing? You're12:26 glorifying God. Everything you have, everything you do, how you treat people is an opportunity to glorify God. Now this new Jerusalem12:38 is so cool. This is fascinating. The holy Jerusalem, here's what it says, is descending out of heaven, having the glory of God. You know how satellites, they hover over the galaxies? Jerusalem,12:50 this new Jerusalem will be hovering over Earth. Is that not cool? Someone said, I don't see how that can happen. We're hovering right now. You know what I mean? I mean, if if God... If we could do satellites and13:01 hover over the gates, I think God can do that. Right? Brought... I mean, this... What's cool about this is it shows us this, that is brought from God and we will have direct access and communication is13:13 open between this new heaven and earth. We'll be able to go back and forth. Is that not cool? Like, I'm not a traveler. I don't travel a lot. But I tell my wife, I said, don't worry about it. Look. We're gonna do it all13:23 for free in the in in the millennial reign. We're just gonna travel there. I said, babe, I'm gonna take you to Hawaii. She said, you are in the millennial reign. I'm gonna take you to Hawaii. I'm also... And sometimes13:33 she gets excited about it. I said, babe, we're gonna go to Yellowstone. Are we really? You doing that for my anniversary? Probably. It might be our 750th anniversary. But in the millennial reign, we're going there, babe.13:45 We're gonna check things out. So you're gonna be able to go to this new Jerusalem, heaven and earth, back and forth. Now John's about to describe the external. Like, what does heaven look like? And this is his 1st13:54 impression now. 1st impressions are big. Okay? They're they're real... I I heard about a story of, the 1st impression, that this sailor got of a pirate. It was his dream to it was his dream to see a a real life pirate.14:06 And he, you know, he saw this real life pilot, and he... Y'all, he was impressed. His 1st impression, he was impressed because he looked he looked exactly like what he thought he was gonna look like. I mean, he he had14:15 the peg leg, and so he just asked him. He said, man, I gotta ask, how did you get the peg leg? How'd you lose your leg? He said, I wrestled with a shark, and I lost my leg. And he said, not only am14:27 I getting to, you know, me to power it, I'm even more impressed. I mean, he just got a rest on a shark. And so he said, man, you know what? I'm impressed. He said, I've gotta ask you then, how'd you lose your hand? IThe Beauty and Security of Heaven 14:38 said, you got the whole hook thing. How'd you lose your hand? He said, I fought an entire ship off. I took all their treasure. It made me rich. But right when I was about to throw the last guy overboard, he swung his14:49 sword, and it cut me hand off. And he said, god. This guy is cool. I mean, his 1st impression is just off off the chain. He's like, this is this is built up to everything that I thought it would be to meet a pirate. His15:00 last question, he said, man, I gotta ask you. How'd you lose, your eye? I said, you got that eye patch. He said, a bird flew over. I looked up. It pooped in my eye. And the15:12 sailor said, well, that wasn't that impressive. I mean, the 1st 2 stories were impressive. And this... The power said, it was my 1st day with me hook. Some of you will get that. 1st day with the15:23 hook looks up. You'll get that tomorrow. Okay. 1st impressions... And I thought it was funny. My my 12 year old thought it was hilarious. We won't use that 1 for the next 1. It didn't15:35 go over quite how I thought it would. Okay. It's alright. Here's this here's this 1st impression of Jerusalem. He said her light was like the most precious stone, like a jasper15:47 stone, clear as crystal. You ever seen something just clear as crystal? I believe we got a picture. He's saying this is what it looked like. It's just clear, just beautiful. Said it also had a high wall. So basically,15:58 he's looking up and he's seeing, like, he's seeing these diamonds that are so clear they're almost transparent in the sky. You know, we look up in the sky and we see stars. I was in Nebraska this past week doing some16:09 deer hunting. Look at this look at this view of the sky I got. But you're seeing... Shooting stars. It was it was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it because it... There was... We were in the middle of nowhere. I16:20 mean, I heard banjos. We were in the middle of nowhere. And... But the sky was unbelievable. I'm like, this is unreal. What we are gonna see then is it descending. John's seeing this descending, and16:31 he's saying it's the most beautiful diamond like picture that I've ever seen. That's the new new new Jerusalem. Now verse 12, he starts talking about his walls. Now this is cool because these16:44 walls remind us that we will have the ultimate security and protection, though we have no enemies for all of eternity. Isn't that gonna be nice? We don't have to worry about anybody nuking us16:55 or anything happening because we're in eternity. So... But yet he has these walls. And isn't that wonderful when we talk about security protection? No more pain, no more worry, no more stress, no more cancer, no more17:07 divisions in relationships, no more stress. We're completely protected from all these things. Is that not amazing? Then he says with... It had 12 gates. Now 12 gates show us the17:18 abundance of access that we will have to be able to come back and forth. Verse 12 shows this, the 12 angels at the gates, there are... And names written on them, which are the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. Remember17:30 back in the Old Testament, 12 tribes made up the nation of Israel. Well, now their names are literally written on the gates of heaven. How cool. God is honoring them. 13 and 14 says these gates, he goes on to say they're17:42 east and north and west. And and then he goes on to 14. He says, now the wall of the city had 12 foundations. And on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb, Jesus. Over the gates were the 1217:54 tribes of Israel and over the walls, this is neat to me, is the 12 disciples' names. Now here's what's neat. On the walls of this new Jerusalem, there's the 12 disciples' name. Jesus' closest18:06 followers on Earth. The ones that help spread the gospel. The the reason we have Christianity today. The ones who were martyred. The ones that were crucified upside down. And now he now honors them by putting their names18:17 on the wall. And can you imagine John seeing this going, oh, I'm gonna talk to Peter. Peter was crucified upside down. You know, church history said they crucified his wife in front of him. I miss Peter.18:28 Woah. God is honoring... There's Peter. And he take a little bit... Step further and look at... Woah. There's Matthew. A little bit further, there's me. And18:40 now what he's doing is he's honoring those who spread the gospel. I believe God honors those who spread the gospel. I believe he blesses those who are blessing to others. That's why when you begin to spread the18:52 gospel, I believe God opens up doors of blessing in your life. I really do. When you go after... It's it's impossible to go after the heart of God and him not give you the desires of your heart. You do know that. Right?19:02 Like, it's impossible to go after the the desires of God and him not give you desires of your heart because what happens when you're in the will of God, his desire is your desire. I'm not saying that when you got desires19:14 of his heart, he's gonna give you a Mercedes. I'm saying when you really get in the will of God and you got a desire of his heart, which is lost souls, he he gives you desire of your heart, the hidden desires in your19:24 heart, and it will be aligned with his will. Your desires end up being God's desires and you end up pursuing the same things. And so these walls now, what they represent, why would he put the19:35 disciples there? The disciples stand for 1 word, truth. The disciples represent the only way to enter into this new Jerusalem, into heaven, is the truth. Remember Jesus once said this, he says,19:47 I am the way and I am the truth. And so it's gonna be a reminder that the only way to get into heaven is by the truth of the gospel. No 1 comes to the father except by me. Now,19:59 John sees something next in verse 15. It says, and he who talked to me, this angel had a gold reed that measured the city. So now he's about to say, I'm gonna show you how big this is. He measured the gates, the walls.20:09 It laid out as a square. So it's interesting. It's not a globe. It's a square. Its length is as great as its, width. He goes on to talk about how long it was, how wide it was,20:21 and how high it was. And then he noticed what he says. He says they're all equal. Verse 17, then he said he measured the walls. And he goes on to talking about that they were 144 cubits according to the measure of20:33 man. Now, here's how big that is. How big that is is when you talk about, the length of this, some theologians believe it's as big as the size of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico,20:45 then the Colorado and all the way back to the Atlantic Ocean. That's huge. And that's just the city. Here's what tells me heaven is gonna have plenty of room.20:57 I mean,20:58 we ain't gonna be all crowded up on 1 cloud. We're gonna have plenty of room. That's what we ought to tell as many people as possible. What you notice there, it says it's all equal. It's a cube shape. It's a shape of a21:09 cube, which makes total sense being a perfect cube because the holy of holies in the tabernacle, when you look in scripture, they were perfect cube shapes. The temple itself was a21:21 perfect cube. In God's eternal city, there's nothing out of balance. There's nothing out of order. It's a perfect cube. The walls itself are 72, feet thick, though we need21:33 no protection. Isn't that cool? Just amazing. Plenty of room and, for us in heaven. So we should share the gospel as much as we can because he's coming back soon. Now there's a world that thinks they got21:45 plenty of time. There's a world that thinks, oh, I'll just come to God what I want. They don't know what you know. This is why I've been saying share it with urgency. They have no clue. And just like... You ever played a21:54 board game with 1 of those hourglasses and you turn it over in the sand and stick? They don't know that we're on the last few grains. That's why every week, I was telling you, share the gospel with urgency. They don't22:04 know, and we don't want them left behind. Now here's the big question. Big question is this. Are you ready for the return of Christ if he were to come today? And if there's a blip of doubt in your heart, I would say get22:16 right with Christ today. Did you know you're not here by accident? You're not watching by accident. You're not here because a friend invited you or you just drove by the big church or wanted to come in and check things22:25 out. You're here because God loves you and God wants to spend all of eternity with you. And perhaps you don't know how much time you have left on this earth or perhaps he's being gracious because22:37 his return is so close and he's saying, I've been pursuing you. I want you to come to Christ. The biggest question you'll ever answer is that, are you ready for the return of Christ if he were to come today? Now John's22:48 gonna do something. Remember, he's he's looked at the external. Now he's about to go to the inside of the city. We're about to get a view of the inside of the city, this capital. Have you ever walked into a house and22:58 your jaw just dropped when you walked in there? You ever you ever done that? I walked to a friend of mine's house. He's an athlete. And, I walked in his house, and I was trying to play it cool. K. I walked in there, and23:09 I was blown away because he's like, oh, yeah. There's the pool. I was like, nice pool. It was a water park. It was not a pool. I was like, I pay, like, admission for me and my kids to play on stuff like that. The wallsShow more
