Speaker 1: 0:00

Now, today, we are going to talk about hell. Dun dun dun, okay. Okay, before you're like where am I, what did I sign up for? And I also want to preference. When I talk about hell, I'm not talking about one long, boring work meeting, because to me that sounds like hell. That sounds like it to me. Okay. But I want to throw a couple things out so you can be relaxed in your heart and your head.

Speaker 1: 0:32

When we talk about hell, we're not going to talk about whatever you're doing. If you're doing bad, you're going to burn for all eternity. No, that's not what we're going to talk about. And no, we're not going to try to scare people into heaven, because that method honestly doesn't work. And the reason for that, the reason why we're not doing those things? Because, according to the Bible, it's the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance. It's God's kindness that leads to true and authentic life change. And so the truth is this. And secondly, scripture tells us this in John 1. It says Check this out. Full of grace and truth, full of grace and truth, and grace always comes before truth. The truth is you can be so right, you can also be very wrong, and so grace always comes first, so we want to preference that. So today we will be talking about a challenging topic that I believe will actually be extremely hopeful at the end of it, as we talk about this mysterious place called hell.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Now, I remember the first time being really confronted with the idea of the concept of hell. Now, I grew up in a Christian household, so I always kind of knew about heaven and hell. For me, my take on heaven and hell was kind of more so based on the Looney Tunes that you go up the escalator to heaven and you go down the escalator to hell. But I remember, when I was around nine or ten or so, my family, my parents and my two older brothers we went to this church that was doing a Halloween service. They were doing this Halloween outreach type service and they had all these gift bags and candy and treats, and towards the end of it, though, they had this little movie that you could watch. Okay, they had this little movie you can watch, and so we went to the movie room in the church, and the movie was about this rebellious teenager who was smoking and drinking, disrespecting her parents, probably listening to too much rap music and doing the stinky leg all the time and as the movie went, she went out to a party against her parents' request and on her way to the party she dies in a car accident.

Speaker 1: 2:50

And then the rest of the movie is about her being in hell. And the way they described hell in this movie was it was like this place that was hot, and there was this villain that looked like he belonged to the Power Rangers, but he was in this movie. It was a low-budget movie and I got to be honest a low-budget hell is a scary kind of hell. And so she's in there, she's tormented and I remember thinking as like a nine-year-old kid, like oh my gosh, this is so scary, I'd never want to be in this place, this is so scary. And she had chains and stuff all wrapped around her. And then how the movie ends eventually she wakes up in the hospital and she gives her wife to Jesus. Happy ending for the movie. Then at the end of it, the pastor walks up and he says to the crowd he says If you would die tonight, do you know where you will spend eternity? And me, as a 9-year-old, I was like I don't know where I'm going for eternity, but I don't want to go to that place. All I knew is I was scared and I just wanted some more candy. That's all I knew.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Now, maybe for you, you had a similar experience like that. Maybe you went to a VBS or you were walking on the street and you heard a street preacher telling people they need to turn or they're going to burn, things like that. You probably had some kind of experience with hell, or someone tried to introduce the concept of hell to you at some point, and often, though often fear is the motive that is used to get people to follow Jesus. It's fear and here you go, Not a reverent fear of the Lord, now, that's different. That's different to have a reverent fear of the Lord to submit to his wisdom, but a fear to kind of scare, tactic you into heaven. What is interesting is this we never see Jesus do that in any of the four Gospels, and we don't even see the apostles in the early church use that as a method of conversion. We never see it. And so my personal opinion again, this is my personal opinion we never see it. And so my personal opinion again, this is my personal opinion.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Because of some of these teaching methods, it has caused people to view hell as a make-believe place, as a place that some mean fire and brimstone preachers use, but not a real reality. And because the messages are often laced with so much harshness and hate, it makes people who aren't Jesus followers. It makes people ask the question if your God is such a God of love, well why does he send people to hell? It's caused a lot of confusion. It caused a lot of confusion in people. Now here's the big idea for our series, and the truth is this is what you believe about eternity determines how you live today. What you believe about eternity determines how you live today.

Speaker 1: 5:37

I've got some interesting statistics here, statistics about what people believe about heaven and hell. 74% of Americans believe in heaven. That's pretty good. That's a large number, but only 4 in 10 believe that those who do not know Jesus will spend eternity in a place called hell. So who's going to hell? Who's going to hell? Well, if you ask the general public, only one half of 1% would say that they are likely going to hell. In other words, most people, if they do believe in hell, believe it's for really, really, really, really bad people like obviously murder rapists, cowboys, fans, people like that go to hell, but not your everyday people Certainly I'm not going to hell, but not your everyday people. Certainly I'm not going to hell, but that would just be for a few people, and then we would all probably agree yeah, those people, yeah, they deserve that. They deserve that. Okay. So what I want to do, what I want us to do today, I want to show us that hell is a very real reality for the future, but it's also a present day problem. So I'm going to teach some theology today. I hope that's okay. I'm going to teach some theology today First. First the future, first the future.

Speaker 1: 6:53

Okay, honestly, here's the truth. If I were the devil, I would try to get people to believe there is no such thing as hell. Like, check this out, this is run with me for a second, you know, or at least, at the very least, that is not something they need to take seriously. Maybe convince you that most people wouldn't end up there anyways, that there's a universal kind of love to that and everyone's just going to go to heaven. There's no real urgency. And if you could buy into that lie, you will likely live however you want, you'll justify your actions, ignore your sins, reject Jesus and you'll stop living in the fear of God, that deep reverence that shapes the way you walk, and that's what you kind of do.

Speaker 1: 7:32

But if you're already a Jesus follower and this is what I really want to say if you're already a Jesus follower, I will work hard to downplay hell in your mind. I would want you to think that it's just not that important that way. That way you would just live for yourself. You would live for yourself. You would idolize comfort as the main thing that God wants for you and you wouldn't have an urgency or a care to share the love of Christ to people. You would avoid sacrifice.

Speaker 1: 8:04

If I was the devil, if I can get you to believe hell is not real people you would avoid sacrifice. If I was the devil, if I can get you to believe hell is not real, you'll probably avoid sacrifice. You would definitely avoid persecution. I'm not going to put myself out there too much. I don't want too many people to know about me following Jesus. And you want to find yourself necessarily sharing the good news with people. You want to share the gospel with people. Spiritually speaking, you will settle into a life of ease. In fact, this is how a lot of us are living today. We've been kind of trapped into believing that there's no consequences, no eternal reality at stake.

Speaker 1: 8:42

Now, here you go. I'm going to be honest with this, though. Scripture does not give us a lot of detail about heaven and hell. It just doesn't, and I think there's some reasons for that. But Jesus tells a story that some scholars believe is a parable. Others believe it actually happened. I lean more towards it probably actually happened, because Jesus' parables his stories that he told. He never used anyone's name. In this story we see that he uses a person's name, so it's probably a real story, and this story gives us a glimpse of what hell could possibly be like. Check this out Luke 16. Jesus tells this story.

Speaker 1: 9:15

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple Come on, and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. Now, when Jesus said this, the audience would have understood probably different than what we understand, the way they would have heard. This is Jesus essentially saying in the Greek that this bro was Taylor Swift. Rich, he was rich, rich. Okay, that's what he's saying, because when he said this guy was dressed in purple. Number one, that implied royalty. Two, have anything in purple meant that you would have to have your clothing infused with a very, very rare, expensive dye and that color alone meant you were rich. And then when he said linen, one commentary says that if you sold anything in linen it could support someone's food for the whole year. So this guy was bawling. He's bawling out. All right, this is what we get. This is how Jesus describes this guy. He's crazy rich.

Speaker 1: 10:10

It continues. It says what was he hoping to eat? This is actually kind of weird and funny at the same time. This is actually kind of weird and funny at the same time. If you were rich in that culture, after you were done eating your food, after you were done eating your food, you would grab a loaf of bread and you would clean your hands with a loaf of bread if you were wealthy. And what would happen is the crumbs from the bread that you're cleaning your hands with would fall on the plate and fall on the ground, and then your servants would give that to the dogs, would give that to the house dogs. Lazarus is saying hey, if I can just have some of your crumbs from your hands, that would be a blessing to me. So we see the contrast between the two people, don't we? Where the rich man, he has self-sufficiency. He thinks he's understanding, he has it all made out for him. He's a made man. Here's Lazarus, in need for something more. The story continues.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Jesus, the master storyteller, says this. He said the time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him into Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried in Hades, which, from what we understand that, could be an in-between of hell. There's some debate on what that means, but nonetheless, where he was in torment, he was in pain, and he looked up and saw Abraham, far away, with Lazarus by his side. And so now we got this rich man in Hades. There's some kind of chasm there, there's this gap, and far away, on the other side, you got something this rich man in Hades. There's some kind of chasm there, there's this gap, and far away, on the other side, you've got something much more pleasant than Hades. You've got Abraham's side, and that's where we see the poor man, that's where we see Lazarus.

Speaker 1: 11:53

And so he called to him Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. And he continues, he said. Then he answered. Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers, and let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. So he says, please, can you do anything to reach those who are still alive? You know people that I love. I do not want them experiencing what I'm experiencing.

Speaker 1: 12:25

And there's four things we get from this story. Okay, four things that we get from this story kind of what I would call four lessons from the other side. The first one is this the rich man was fully conscious and aware. He was fully conscious and aware. He has a memory of what's going on on earth, what he did, what he didn't do. He's experiencing real physical pain, but perhaps the worst pain I would say that he's experiencing is the pain of regret. He's experiencing the pain of regret. There's probably something in him that knew he should have done different, lived different, gave different, acted different. There's this clear separation from him and God. The second thing is this the rich man's eternal destiny was irrevocably fixed. There was nothing he could do to change where he was. He didn't ask for it, he couldn't reverse it. He couldn't reverse it, he just recognized. This is what it's going to be like for him.

Speaker 1: 13:14

The third thing is this the rich man knew that his suffering was just and fair. Notice, he complains about the pain. He says, man, I'm in agony here, but he doesn't say and this isn't fair. He kind of recognized like man, I kind of got the small decisions I made in my life led me to this point, led me to this. And then the fourth thing that we see is that the rich man begged and pleaded for someone to help his brothers know Jesus. Please, someone get back and tell them about the goodness, the grace and the beauty and the forgiveness that's available to them. He's saying if I knew what I know now, it would change how I live. Heavy, heavy story, right, heavy story.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Jesus illustrates the story of what this possible afterlife could be, this afterlife experience can be. That's the future and here's the truth. Like we see at the end of what the rich man, based on what I believe about eternity, determines how I live today. What we see from the rich man. He believed that man, I'm supposed to get rich or die trying according to 50 Cent, that was funny. He said I'm supposed to do this and I'm taking care of me, it's all about me. But then he discovers at the end wow, there was more to my life than just me. Okay, that's the future, so that's.

Speaker 1: 14:41

I wanted to give some theology to that. Okay, but more importantly than what I want to talk about not necessarily more important, but more so what I want to talk about today. If there is a future reality of hell but who in here would agree? Yeah, that's probably true, that's probably true. But hell man, sometimes hell feels like a present day reality for me.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Sometimes I look out into the world and I see injustice and I see division and I see heartbreak, I see brokenness and I see things and the only way I can describe it is it's not right. There's something in me that looks at the world and says this isn't the way it's supposed to be. Whether you're a Jesus follower or not, here's the truth. Oftentimes, people who aren't Jesus followers are doing the things that God wants them to do. That's controversial, but oftentimes we see people who aren't Jesus followers getting involved in social justice acts, wanting to make a change, because there's in the human heart, there is this thing that can look at the world and say that's not right, that's not right and God has put this in us. And so when the church, there you go.

Speaker 1: 15:44

This is what I was saying, because if the devil can get the church to believe that hell is not that big of a deal and it's not that urgent, well, the church will just get comfortable and the church will just sit back. And while the world is actually campaigning for beautiful things to happen, the church sits back and judges. Can I say that? And so if hell is a present-day reality for a lot of people, for everyday people, what do we do as a church? Because Jesus, jesus, yes, spoke of hell as a future reality, but Jesus more often spoke of hell as a present-day battle. Here you go, let's dive into some more scripture again. Can I read the Bible again? Is that okay? Okay, here we go. Jesus makes it clear that there is an afterlife experience of hell, but he also talks about it being a present-day reality.

Speaker 1: 16:37

And it's funny because even for us, even for us, before I get into the scripture even for us, don't we use familiar expressions to describe our circumstances that involve hell? Don't we say things like this. Don't we look at the world and we say man, man, this looks like hell on earth. Don't we use that? Or don't we say isn't there something going on? And we say, man, this feels like living hell. Or maybe you're angry at someone and there's this feeling and you say, man, you're going to have hell to pay for that. Maybe you look at our upcoming political stuff that's going on and you say, man, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Or maybe you're a Commanders fan and you've said that we're going to win the Super Bowl and everyone said to you that's going to happen when hell freezes over. Because many of us, hell sometimes feels like more of a current reality than a future destination. Here you go Two times.

Speaker 1: 17:36

Jesus talks about hell on earth. Here you go. He says this. Jesus says this you have heard that. It was said to the people long ago you shall not murder. And if anyone who murders, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I say I got to say something. Anytime Jesus says but I say you need to lean up and listen up Because he's about to say something important. He says, but I say to you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister raka is answerable to the court. And anyone who says you, fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell. Woo Dang, jesus, that just got a little intense. That got a little intense. We see Jesus taking murder and he's saying you guys, look at murder. But what about the feelings you have in your heart before you get there? What's going on in your heart when you're angry at someone? What's going on in your heart when you refuse forgiveness and choose bitterness? What's happening in the heart when you are mad? He goes to the heart. This is interesting, okay, let's continue.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Jesus says you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery. But I say, oh Lord, what's Jesus about to say now? But I say that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Jesus, jesus, that one's heavy, that one's heavy. Okay, jesus is always doing something. Then Jesus goes for it. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 19:23

Jesus goes for it. He says if your right eye causes you to stumble, gorge it out and throw it away, it is better for you to lose one part of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away, it's better for you to lose one part of your body than your whole body to go into hell. I don't feel very encouraged right now, like I thought I'm supposed to open my Bible and it's supposed to make me just feel all good. I thought when I opened the Bible Jesus was supposed to tell me just how awesome I am, and I got everything down pat. I actually thought it was more about Jesus following me rather than me following Jesus. And Jesus has these things and they're kind of intense guys. These are intense. These are intense things. Here you go, let's break it down a little bit. Let's break this down.

Speaker 1: 20:20

Jesus looked at lust and he put it in the same category as adultery. This time he's talking about gorging out eyeballs and cutting off hands and putting them into hell. He says this prior. He says if anyone says racha Now, racha has two meanings In the Hebrew. It's kind of funny actually.

Speaker 1: 20:38

Racha, what does that sound like to you, racha? That's the sound you make before what you spit a big loogie Ew. In the Hebrew and Jewish culture that's actually what you did when you were angry at someone. When you were done with someone, you would say raka, and you would spit on the ground, step on and say you're dead to me. You're dead to me. So Jesus confronts that. He says I spit on you. In the Arabic on that term, raka means empty, and I can't make this up. It means empty headed. That kind of sounds like saying to someone you're a meanie head buddy. That's what my kids always call each other. You're a meanie. Now, raka, I want you to get this.

Speaker 1: 21:16

Raka was to insult somebody, raka was to devalue people. And Jesus says Jesus, not me. Jesus says and Jesus says Jesus, not me. Jesus says when we devalue people, it's kind of like hell on earth. And just a question I'll ask you guys today Haven't you ever been devalued and it felt like hell? Have you ever seen someone devalued? Have you ever seen someone devalued? Have you ever seen people, groups, excluded? Have you ever seen things happen in this world and it feels like that's not right? That's not right. Here you go, first anger and then secondly, lust. Now why lust? What is lust? Ian Morgan Crone, in his book the Road Back to you about the Enneagram personality types, gives us some good insight to this, because lust is not just sexual. Here you go. In reference to type eight personalities, he says this eight struggle with the passion of lust. But this lust isn't limited to sexuality. It's a lust for intensity, power, control and a life at full throttle. It drives eights to avoid vulnerability and maintain dominance.

Speaker 1: 22:33

Two things, two things Jesus is saying. We experience hell on earth when we devalue people, when we use people for our own gain, for our own wants and desires, manipulate people, see them as numbers on a spreadsheet than a person with a story, when we allow anger and unforgiveness to ruin relationships or dismiss them. That feels like hell. And secondly, he says we experience hell on earth when we try to control people and outcomes. When we try to control people and outcomes and notice how this control I want you to get this Notice how this control. Notice how this power starts from within before it goes out.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Notice the teachings of Jesus that he is far more interested at what's happening in our hearts before we do things. Because, like Jesus says, out of the overflow of the heart our mouth speaks. Out of the overflow, out of what's going on in our hearts, we do. So you can try to change all the things around you, but if you're not changing your heart, you're going to end up doing the thing that you said, that you're never going to do again. You're going to end up finding yourself in a spot saying I told myself I was never going to do this and it feels like hell on earth. This addiction, this fear, this anxiety, this pain. Why do I keep experiencing that? And Jesus will say how is your heart? Now, here you go. I get Bible nerdy a little bit sometimes. Okay, so what is this hell that he's referring to? Is it the afterlife thing? What is he talking about? Is hell a place where the AC is always broken? That sounded like my car last year. Is hell a place where Slipknot performs every night, with a special appearance by Nickelback? Is that it, with some red guy with some horns who poked you? Is that what hell is? No, no, the fire of hell.

Speaker 1: 24:35

In the Greek it can be translated like this the fire of Gehenna. The fire of Gehenna. The term is derived from a place outside ancient Jerusalem, known in the Bible as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. Gehenna was I can't make this up Gehenna was the city dump. It was the city dump, and at the city dump at Gehenna, it was a place where the broken and the misfits would stay and look for food. Often in Gehenna there were stray dogs and the dogs would fight over food and they would make the sound of the gnashing of teeth. And because it was a city dump, the way they got rid of the items in the dump was through fire, and this fire was unquenchable. And this fire burned. This fire continued to burn, burned, this fire continued to burn.

Speaker 1: 25:35

In the Synoptic Gospels, jesus uses the word Gehenna 11 times to describe the opposite to the life of the kingdom of God. It is a place where both soul and body could be destroyed in unquenchable fire. And so, when Jesus talked about hell, he often talked about hell as a place on earth. He often talked about hell as a present day reality. And again, if we're being honest friends, when do we agree that that is true? Right now, right now.

Speaker 1: 26:10

You may not know this right now. There are more slaves in our world today than any time in history. Did you know that they're happening right now? Right now, while we're in our cozy auditorium, there's people suffering Right now. Right now, this upcoming generation struggles more with anxiety than ever before, and they have access to so much information. The anxiety rates are through the roof Right now. We live in a divided political season where you can't say something or people will cancel you, cut you off. There's this division that happens, which I am thankful that we are a church that is diverse, because I believe this is what heaven will look like Diverse people from different backgrounds, different walks of life coming together to worship Jesus.

Speaker 1: 27:05

So we see this, we see this in Jesus and when Jesus talked about hell yes, it is a future place. Yes, but hell is a present day reality. I think the best way to describe it is this is that often hell feels like it can be on earth, from our personal struggles and hurts to ongoing injustice, john Mark Comer says in his book Living the Lies. He says, contrary to popular artistic images, the devil is not in hell, he's here on earth. If Jesus' anthem is on earth as it is in heaven, the devil's is on earth as it is in hell. So if hell is a future reality, but also is a future reality but also a present day problem, and as jesus, and as jesus said, hell is something.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Hell is something that we can do and receive when we devalue people and when we're devalued, and, as jesus said, it is something that is within us lust in our hearts and our identities, what? What are we to do as everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers? What are we to do? Because what we believe about eternity determines how we live today. What are we to do? I got four quick values on how we can usher in the kingdom of God in this present age where hell is running rampant. I know that sounds intense, but come on, can we be honest today? Here you go Four values. The first one is this we got to love God. Love God, surrender, control and trust Him.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Self-sufficiency, as CS Lewis illustrates in his masterwork the Great Divorce, is an illusion, a way to try to convince ourselves that we can do life on our own terms, relying on our own strength and wisdom. But this self-sufficiency keeps us trapped in a cycle of control, cutting us off from the peace and the life that God offers True life. A life that ushers in the kingdom of God starts with surrender and I know that's not a sexy word today. I know people don't like using that word Surrender. Surrender to who? Surrender? And I know that's not a sexy word today. I know people don't like using that word Surrender. Surrender to who? Surrender to God? Should I trust him? Yes, because he hasn't failed and he won't start with you.

Speaker 1: 29:21

So I surrender, I surrender, and maybe for you, you don't even know this, jesus I'm talking about, what's your first step? Your first step is to confess, to repent and believe that Jesus went to a cross for you and three days later he rose from that grave, meaning that you can get back up again too. But, as a Jesus follower, how do we live this out? Is this like a one time? Okay, god, I surrender. I surrender, but God, I still got problems. I surrender, but God, these things are still happening.

Speaker 1: 29:47

Surrender is a daily, ongoing communication with God. 1 Thessalonians puts it like this to us it says Surrender means I'm going to God daily, hourly, sometime, every single minute. God, I'm in surrender to you, I'm going after you, I'm pursuing you. No-transcript surrender. Second thing is this we love people, we value others the way that Jesus does. The second way we bring in the kingdom of God to earth is by loving people, not just with words and deeds, but by valuing them, by going after them, by choosing to love deeply. And I don't have this in my notes, but it's like the Holy Spirit's here. It's like the Holy Spirit wants me to say this Three years ago because this isn't about how awesome I am, because I'm not Trust me, I'm not that awesome but three years ago, aaron and I were confronted with the opportunity to adopt the kid.

Speaker 1: 31:02

We had zero plans to ever adopt, zero. We had our little girl, we had our little boy, we had our perfect roller coaster family because we love theme parks but then we were confronted with this baby that needed a home. And, guys, I'm going to tell you this, the only reason why I said yes to that was because this little boy, this little boy, has value, because Jesus went to a cross for him. And what Is it going to inconvenience my perfect little life to bring in another human? Yeah, yeah, heck, yeah. We just sold all of our son's baby clothes and now we had a new one coming in. But, guys, I got to tell you something I got again. This isn't in my notes I'm going to. I got to move away from my notes for a second Because I got to tell you, guys, something when we love people, when we do things that put us out of our comfort zone, when we go after the things of God, it's always going to involve us inconveniencing our lives for somebody else.

Speaker 1: 32:12

It's always going to require us to do something. I got to get out of my comfort zone and do something that really matters, because sin is always directed. Sin is always connected towards people. We always sin by hurting people, lying about people, doing something to people, lusting after people, but love, but love. The way of the kingdom is directed towards how we treat people and if we can be kingdom, people like Jesus is. I'm going to look at the least of these and lift them up.

Speaker 1: 32:46

Jesus said to us when I was in prison, you loved me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. And we'll look at him and say Jesus, when did we ever see you like that? And Jesus said when you loved people. Come on, am I preaching right now? Here you go when we love people. I'm over with my time, but that's okay. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 33:04

Third thing I just wanted to get these last two values out. Third thing we choose simplicity and excellence and we walk the narrow path. Hell, hell, man, is a large, distracted road. Large is the road that leads to destruction, jesus says, but narrow is the path, not narrow-minded, but narrow, focused on Jesus Because large man, there's a lot of ways to get in trouble. There's a lot of ways to do some hellish things, but I'm going to be focused on Jesus. I'm going to choose simplicity and I'm going to choose excellence. And what does that mean? Does that mean simplicity, doing less? Yes, it does. Yes, it actually does.

Speaker 1: 33:45

We have bought into the lie that we have to overproduce, that we have to be high performers, and while we're high performers, our families are struggling. While we're performing so high, our spouses don't even know that we love them. While we're performing so high, our spouses don't even know that we love them. And while we're performing so high, we're walking over the person in need and friends. I'm going to focus on Jesus. I'm going to ask Jesus what do you want from me? And heaven invades.

Speaker 1: 34:16

And the fourth thing, the fourth way that we see heaven on earth, is we choose joy. We choose joy. We choose it even when we don't feel like it. We choose it because we know heaven wins and heaven is on the other side of our present day pain. Joy isn't about pretending everything is perfect. It's about reflecting on the hope we have in the kingdom of God. Joy is an act of defiance in the face of hardship. It's saying I know life is hard, but my God is still good even in this, when we choose joy. When we choose joy, we're pointed to a greater reality. We are declaring that the kingdom of God is unshakable and that, no matter what happens, our hope is secure in Christ.

Speaker 1: 35:08

So, friends, heavy message, heavy, heavy but hopeful, hopeful, because the good news is this Jesus said our Savior. He said take heart. He said take heart because I have overcome the world and since he has overcome the world, with him and through him and for him, all things are possible. Pray with me. Church, God, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you that you are here and now.

Speaker 1: 36:10

Hell, yes, is a reality For some of us. It's been our current reality, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, man, there's just been heaviness. I feel like the Holy Spirit is saying he wants to take that heavy burden off of you, that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. So we say, jesus, just as you say, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Say your will, lord, we surrender. I really feel like, as we were saying that part man surrender Some people here. Man, there's some areas in your life that you know you need to surrender to the Lord. You say come Holy Spirit, he meets you there. Maybe in here you're like Jacob. There does sound like hope in Jesus, but I don't know him, I don't have a personal relationship with him. Or maybe you did at one point, but you kind of walked away.

Speaker 1: 37:40

If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life or trust him again, I just want to pray for you. I just want to count to three and on three you're going to shoot your hand up in the air. I'm not going to call you out or have you come up front, nothing like that. I just want to see who I'm praying for, with every eye closed, every head bowed. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life or trust Him again, on three, just toss your hand up in the air. One, two, three. Bless you. Bless you. Bless you Now. You say this prayer with me. You can say it out loud or say it in your heart. You say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new Today. I trust you with my life Today. I follow you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.