Tell Me About Your Heaven Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Tell Me About Your Heaven Part 2. He will be in John John 14: 1-6.

Many are building their hopes in politics, many are building their hopes in their career, many are building their hopes in education, many are building their hopes in the things of this world. I’m telling you my friends when you get to the top of the ladder you’ll find that your ladder is leaning on the wrong building.

Put your hope in Jesus. You’re listening to Hope Worth Having Radio Program and this is Pastor Mike Sanders welcoming you to this program as we are studying the Word of God and we’re delighted to be in the Gospel of John and we’re studying John chapter 14 verse 1 through 6.

We began this study last week and we’ve entitled our sermon Tell Me About Heaven part 2 and we want you to learn more about heaven. You know sometimes we don’t know a lot about heaven. We have in our thoughts ideas of what heaven might be.

We’ve sang about them but we really have to look to the Word of God to understand what the Bible teaches us and what’s so amazing is that Jesus has talked about heaven and he has taught us in his Word the truth about heaven.

So I want you to join me in John chapter 14 verse 1 through 6 and let’s begin our study again. This place, this dwelling place that God has made for us is very remarkable. It is remarkable because it is uniquely built.

Jesus being the master carpenter has built a place for you to dwell and to live. Hebrews teaches us in Hebrews 11 10 that Abraham looked for a city who had foundations whose builder and maker is God.

You may live in a home where the builder made some mistakes and you may live in a home where it’s lived so long that it’s beginning to show its age and walls are cracking and basements are leaking and there’s all kind of issues with the roof.

We have this beautiful 52 acre campus and we have all these buildings on it and every one of them’s got an issue except for the new fellowship hall, amen. Yes that’s right. But they leak. I remember when I first came to the Open Door Church 14 years ago and I was preaching and as I was preaching the roof was leaking and it was just dripping right down on top of my head and I thought wow what a wonderful place I’ve come to.

It was so ironic because I had just finished a 1 .5 million dollar brand -new auditorium in Connersville, Indiana and we had roof leak problems as well. In heaven every dwelling place that God builds for us.

will be perfect. It’ll be perfect. I know some of you ladies like to watch those shows where they’re always fixing things up. It’s really the detriment to my life. I’m very happy, and I’m just like, why can’t we just be satisfied?

Why do we need fresh paint? And why do we need a new door? And why do we need this and that? In heaven, nothing needs to be renovated. Isn’t that great, guys? Jesus builds it. It’s remarkable. Jesus said in Luke 23 43, assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

When the thief on the cross acknowledged his sinfulness and cried out to God for forgiveness, Jesus immediately, while being suspended between heaven and earth, told the thief on the cross, not thinking about himself.

Jesus thought about this poor sinner who was seeking salvation and forgiveness, and he said, I tell you, assuredly, today you will be with me in paradise. What is heaven like? It’s like paradise, friends.

The psalmist said that in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. I heard the story of a little girl. She was taking an evening walk with her father. She was just looking up into the stars, and she exclaimed to her, father, oh, daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be like?

And friends, when you look out across the heavens, and you see the beauty of the mountains, and you see the majesty of God, creation and you are overwhelmed by the glory of His creation. Remember that heaven is even better.

Heaven is a remarkable place because it is uniquely built, it is eternally built. It is eternally built. 1 John 2 17 says the world passes away in the lust thereof. Everything that is here is going to pass away.

Man likes to brag about its buildings and they will say this is one of the wonders of the world. But I tell you everything on this earth will eventually burn up and be destroyed. Everything will pass away and God will create a new heaven and He will create a new earth that will be even more majestic than what you and I are seeing today.

What God builds for us to live with Him forever will be eternal. It will never fade away. Again, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 1, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, referring to our bodies, were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house that is not made with heavens, that is eternal in the heavens.

So the body that we live in now is a limited body. It is a corrupt body. It is a mortal body. We know that all too well. I know the young people think that they will be healthy all their life. They think they will never encounter and they say to me, Mike, why are you slowing down?

And I tell them, I may not be able to go as long as I used to could go, but when I go, I’ll give a hundred percent, amen. But the thing is that our body does get old and our knees hurt and our elbows hurt and our shoulders hurt and if it’s not one thing, it’s another, right?

And if your mind isn’t going, your body’s going. And we work tirelessly to try to keep our bodies in shape and we’re looking for everything to put on our face so that it does not wrinkle. We’re trying to hide every flaw that we can, and I’m not against any of that.

I mean, I just think if you need it, do it, make it work, all right? Whatever works, I’m all in. But I want to tell you, there’s coming a day that you’re going to get a new body and that body will be incorruptible.

It’ll be immortal and you’ll never need another knee surgery, knee replacement. You’ll never have to get any new parts in your body. You don’t have to go and get something checked on and fixed on. You are going to have the greatest body ever.

And I know that excites many of us, yes. It’s a body that’ll last forever. It’s a body that is eternal. Heaven is eternal, our bodies are gonna be eternal, and we’re just not gonna have to worry about these things.

D .L. Moody was a great evangelist in the 19th century and he said someday you’ll read in the papers that D .L. Moody is dead. He said don’t you believe it because at that moment I shall be more alive than I am now.

Isn’t that true? Oh my friends you have loved ones in heaven and you refer to them as being dead but my friends I want you to know their body has died but their soul and spirit lives with God forever and they are more alive today than they’ve ever been.

Thank you. And you can rejoice that they are enjoying the wonderful time. We miss them in our heart. Our heart aches and longs to fellowship with them again. But that day is coming, that day is coming when you’ll be reunited and the dead in Christ shall rise and we which remain shall be caught up together to live forevermore with Jesus Christ and our loved ones.

And that’s why I said to you that the hope of heaven helps me to endure the struggles and trials of life. And that’s why each and every one of us needs to take time to study about heaven, to read about heaven, to learn about heaven because heaven is a hope in our heart that infuses strength and joy within us that we might keep our focus on Jesus Christ.

For what God has for us in the future supersedes anything that we might lose on this earth. The third thing that I want you to learn this morning is heaven is a reserved place. Heaven is a reserved place.

Jesus said in verse 3, I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself and where I am there you may be also. And he said whether I go you know and the way you know. Jesus said you know where I’m going and you know how to get there.

You know how to get there because Jesus had been teaching and Jesus had been illustrating and Jesus had been living out how to inherit eternal life and how to make heaven your home. Thomas said to him, Lord we don’t know where you’re going and we don’t know I am the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me.

And I want you to know that heaven is a reserved place. In 1 Peter 1 .4 we’re reminded that this inheritance, that it is incorruptible, it is undefiled, and that it fades not away, but it’s reserved in heaven for you.

It is reserved in heaven for you. You can’t just show up to heaven because you lived in this world, but you must make reservations to go to heaven. You have a responsibility, I have a responsibility, and we are called to make reservations.

So how do we make these reservations? Let me give you some key words. Number one is invitation. There is an invitation to each and every one of us. This invitation is extended to you personally, and it is from Jesus Christ, and He invites us.

into a real relationship with Him. Jesus is not inviting you to religion. He is not inviting you to join the church. He is not inviting you to pick up more rituals and rules in your life, but He is inviting you to turn away from your sin and to turn to Him for eternal life.

Jesus Christ was not saying that there is some special formula that if you do A, B, C, and D, that you will get to heaven. Jesus is not telling us that there is some special ritual that we have to go through or some class we have to take.

Jesus simply said this, and I want you to look at verse 6 again. He said, I am the way. The way is not a process. The way is not a formula. The way is a person. It is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

This invitation is to you. Jesus is not claiming to know the truth, but He is claiming to be the truth. And He is telling you the truth. He is telling me the truth. He is the way. You have to have a relationship with Christ.

That is why the Bible says in Revelation 22, 17, that the spirit and the bride say, come. Let him that hears say, come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.

May I come and receive Christ into my life? Absolutely. Whoever is willing. Unfortunately, not everybody is willing, but if you’re here this morning and you are willing, there is salvation. There is forgiveness for you.

There is a place that is called heaven. There is a place that God wants you to live with Him forever. and if you are thirsty for God, if you are hungry for God, and you are willing take of the water of life, which is Jesus Christ freely this morning.

Conversion. How do I make this reservation? Not only by accepting the invitation, but being truly converted. Oh Jesus said this in Matthew 18 3, barely I say unto you accept you be converted and become as little children you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Here’s the mistake. Many people walk through a process. They walk through a ritual and they think they’re okay with God. They pray a prayer and they think they’re okay with God. And I know this gets touchy, and I know sometimes it’s hard for people to digest this.

But I think Jesus is very clear, unless you are converted, and you become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God. The Spirit of God lives in those who believe in Him. Some people say, I believe.

Well, they just mentally acknowledge that there is a Savior, there is a Jesus. But in their heart, they have never surrendered. And I tell people that you can miss heaven by 18 inches from your head to your heart.

You can have the head knowledge, but not have the heart. It’s important for you to understand that full surrender to Christ is essential that you might know Christ as your Lord and Savior. Jesus told us that we cannot have two loves in our life.

For you will love the one above the other. You cannot love the world and love Christ at the same time. You must make a choice this morning. Which way will you go? Will you go the broad way of the world where many walk and even religious people walk?

Or will you go the narrow way, the way that says, I turn my back on this world and I embrace Christ as my Savior? Do you really know Christ this morning? Have you truly been converted? Has He changed your life?

Has He truly put new desires in your heart? Anticipation. The evidence that you have made reservation is that there is an anticipation. Anticipation The Apostle Paul said for me to live as Christ and to die is what gain Why do Christians why do people look at death so negatively?

When the Bible says that to die is to gain The Bible says to us that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints See for God, it’s a homecoming for God. It’s a celebration for the child of God.

It’s a promotion It’s a graduation as we leave this world My friends if we’re trying to hold on to the world and we want the world more than we want Christ. There’s something wrong with our Relationship with Jesus and we definitely need to make sure those things are right Philippians 3 20 says our citizenship is in heaven and from it.

We await a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes. There is an anticipation. There is a longing. There is a desire. There is a love where we are so desiring to be with Christ that we pray as John the Apostle prayed, come quickly, Lord.

Many are building their hopes in politics. Many are building their hopes in their career. Many are building their hopes in education. Many are building their hopes in the things of this world. I’m telling you, my friends, when you get to the top of the ladder, you’ll find that your ladder is leaning on the wrong building.

Put your hope in Jesus. Put your hope in Jesus Christ. Translation. Translation is an important word. 1st Thessalonians 4 .17 says, We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

There’s a change coming. It’s a change that is going to be radical. It’s coming in this world. Jesus said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. The You and I have been translated from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of Jesus through faith in Christ.

Our ambitions, our focus, our goals are to simply expand the gospel of Jesus Christ to advance the kingdom of God on this earth. It is not a physical kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom. We’re not looking to build a theocracy in the midst of all the different political systems in this world.

We are simply called to be light and salt, and we are to reflect that light and salt while we live on this earth. But my friends, we do not put our hopes and our satisfaction in this world, for we know that only in Christ and His kingdom can one truly be fulfilled.

There’s another translation coming, Philippians 3, 21. The Bible says that Christ will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.

What I want you to know is that, as we already mentioned, your body’s going to change. that all the investment in this body is gonna be for naught because God is going to give you Instantaneously a brand new body.

But what I want you to note in this passage is that it’s like his glorious body So what’s that mean When Jesus resurrected he spent 40 days on this earth For 40 days he trained he discipled he mentored he quipped his apostles He helped them to understand and to connect the dots and to be able to establish the local church That would come upon the filling of the Spirit the day of Pentecost and on that day he would launch The great movement of the church that has lasted for over 2000 years and the redemptive story that began in the Garden of Eden would continue through the life of the church But Jesus walked around in those 40 days in a glorious body Jesus ate I Don’t know everything that Jesus ate,

but he ate fish. I Suspect he probably had a good fried chicken. Amen Will I eat in heaven you will eat so much that your body won’t even notice it You get to heaven you won’t have to run after dinner You won’t have to hit the treadmill you get to heaven.

You don’t have to get up at 5 o ‘clock in the morning and run You know why because you can just eat as drink as much Mountain Dew as you want. Amen Jesus body Walked through walls Jesus was there and gone When we get to heaven believe it or not, I know this is gonna be hard for you to grasp and I I know I shouldn’t just leave you hanging like this, but I want you to know that in heaven, that our bodies are gonna be so designed like His glorious body,

that we will go from the new heaven to the new earth back and forth instantaneously. Some of you have been looking for Star Trek, it’s a -coming. This glorious body, I wanna encourage you to study the life of Christ after His resurrection because everything that you see Jesus doing, you’re gonna be doing.

And Jesus ministered, Jesus served, Jesus ate, Jesus enjoyed fellowship, Jesus lived a normal life. I want you to get this. You are going to live a normal life in heaven as you are living now absent of sin.

There’ll be no sin, there’ll be no sorrow. Will we get together and sing? Absolutely. Even in heaven, people that can’t make the choir are gonna make the choir. Even in heaven, people that can’t play instruments are gonna play.

And so God is gonna use our skill sets. And the Bible tells us that in the millennial kingdom, that there will even be building going on. One time a construction worker asked me, he said, Pastor, will I get to use my skills of building homes in heaven?

And I said, absolutely, God will use you in the millennial kingdom, and you will build many wonderful homes. You say, what am I good at? Whatever you’re good at is what you’re gonna do in heaven. And maybe even what you’re not good at, I often think that perhaps in heaven, if I would just stay faithful on the golf course, that God would put me in charge of all golf courses in heaven, amen?

And though I long for that hole in one, I will one day get it in heaven. And though I long to beat my two sons in golf, I will one day in heaven do it. Don’t you think they ought to let their dad win at least once?

I think so. Church, there’s a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we can see it afar. For the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there in the sweet by and by. We shall meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by.

We shall meet on that beautiful shore. Anne Graham Lotz, who is the daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham and his wife Ruth, was interviewed on CNN. It was December 2001 and she was asked about those who had died during September 11th.

If they were not saved by accepting Christ, the reporters wanted to know would they go to heaven? And here’s what Anne Graham responded with, in my little book, she said, heaven, my father’s house. I tell about people who want visit my father’s home in Western North Carolina.

They drive up the long drive. They come to the gate. They knock on the gate and they say, Billy Graham, let us in. We’ve read your books. We’ve watched you on TV. We’ve written to you and we want to come to your house.

She said her father says, depart from me. I don’t know you. You’re not a member of my family and you’ve not made arrangements to come in. She said, but when I drive up the same driveway and I knock on the gate and I say, Daddy, this is Anne and I’ve come home.

She said the gate is thrown wide open and I go inside because I’m the father’s child. Friends, if you are a child of God, heaven is your home. Let’s pray together. Heaven is a real place, as real as where you’re standing, sitting, or might be even in this moment as you’re listening to this radio program.

Heaven is a real place. I want you to remember that. I want you to hold on to that, and I want you to know that no matter how many liberals try to discredit Jesus Christ, the Bible, and the reality of heaven, that your faith and the Spirit of God witnesses to you that heaven is a real place.

It’s not only a real place in the sense that it’s a place that you’re going to go be one day as a believer, but it’s a real place where your loved ones are that love Jesus Christ. You’re going to be reunited with those children.

You’re going to be reunited with those family members, those friends, that spouse. You’re going to be reunited with your parents, and it’s going to be an amazing, amazing moment. When you not only see Jesus, and you are in His presence, worshiping Him, but would you begin to envision in your own heart what it’s going to mean to make sure that that circle is never unbroken and be reconnected with all of your family.

Heaven is wonderful, because in heaven there is no sin, and in heaven we’re never offended, and the fellowship is so sweet, and all those moments that God gives us here on this earth, where we enjoy the richness of our faith in Jesus Christ, those fleeting moments that we experience here will become constant in heaven, and you will be so overwhelmed with the majesty of God, and just enjoying all the beauty that God has created in heaven,

that you’re going to be very much like the Apostle John who said, even so Lord, come quickly. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to that special day when we’re going to be with Jesus Christ forever to never be separated again, and that is my hope.

My hope is not in this world, but it is in Christ and what He has prepared for me. I want to encourage all of you to be in this world. you to make sure that you check out our website because these sermons are available on the website and you can go over and over and over again.

Now you might be like me every once in a while you need to hear something again so that you can be reminded of these truths. Life gets difficult. We need the strength and the uplifting of God’s Word in our hearts.

So check us out on the website hopeworthhaving .com and take advantage. Send us your prayer requests. Let us know how God is working in your life. On a regular basis I receive letters, I receive emails, and people send messages to us letting us know the importance of Hope Worth Having.

And I want you to know that that means a lot to us and so keep telling us how God is at work in your life and thank you for all that you are doing to pray for this ministry and support this ministry and we are committed to proclaiming Jesus Christ and lifting him up and we know that as he’s lifted up He will draw all men, all kinds of people to Him, from every nationality, from every walk of life,

He will draw all kinds of people to Him. And we rejoice in that wonderful truth. This is Pastor Mike reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.