resurrection

The Cross in the Old Testament - He Will Not See Corruption

Introduction:

Isaiah 53:10 - Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

The Cross in Psalm 16:

  1. What is the prophecy of the messiah's suffering?

    Psalm 16:8-11 - I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

  2. How did Jesus fulfill this prophecy on the cross?

    "Holy One"

    Luke 23:46 - Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

    Hebrews 12:2 - who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross...

  3. What does this prophecy mean for us?

What NO Resurrection of Jesus Means to Me: (1 Corinthians 15)

  1. NO RESURRECTION = No Reason for Faith . (1 Cor 15:14-15)
  2. NO RESURRECTION = No Forgiveness of sin. (1 Cor 15:16-17)
  3. NO RESURRECTION = No Reunion with those who died before Us. (1 Cor 15:18)
  4. NO RESURRECTION = No Hope . (1 Cor 15:19)

    Romans 10:9-10 - if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:40-00:45

    Let's bow our heads as we are about to approach the word of God together.

    00:45-00:50

    This is a very serious thing to our Lord and it should be a very serious thing to us.

    00:50-00:52

    So let's just pause.

    00:53-01:00

    And I'm going to ask if you would please pray for me to be faithful, to accurately communicate the word of God.

    01:00-01:06

    And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive the word from God.

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    Let's pray.

    01:16-01:17

    Father, this is your Word.

    01:23-01:30

    And we ask that, Father, that we would open our hearts up to your Word.

    01:32-01:37

    And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what we think or what our opinion is.

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    What matters is what you think and what you have declared eternally to be the truth.

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    So Father, let your truth saturate our hearts and lives today.

    01:53-01:58

    We pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, amen.

    02:00-02:33

    years ago, my wife Erin and I were gifted pirate tickets. But this wasn't just tickets to the pirate game. This included getting onto a bus to ride to the pirate game. So we got a babysitter, and I don't know about you, but I love a ball game. You go to the most beautiful park in America, take it in, right? And I just, I was so to be at the pirate game with my wife.

    02:35-02:36

    Been to the pirate game?

    02:37-02:40

    The on-field performance isn't always great, but this is our year.

    02:41-02:42

    This is our year.

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    I was so excited, you know?

    02:47-02:52

    Take me out to the ball, get peanuts and Cracker Jacks, all that.

    02:53-02:58

    Well, we get on this bus and the bus makes a stop on the way.

    03:00-03:04

    And a bunch of people that were on the bus went to the bar.

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    And I thought, oh, that's why they do the bus thing.

    03:09-03:10

    OK.

    03:10-03:11

    I'm a little slow.

    03:11-03:12

    OK, I get it now.

    03:13-03:15

    But Aaron and I aren't exactly bar people.

    03:16-03:19

    So we ended up going and getting sandwiches.

    03:19-03:20

    There was a get-go or something there.

    03:20-03:21

    We went and got sandwiches.

    03:22-03:28

    And when I got off the bus, the guy that was kind of running the thing was like, all right, bus is pulling out of 540.

    03:29-03:31

    So as I was walking off the bus, I turned to the guy.

    03:31-03:32

    I said, 540, right?

    03:33-03:34

    He goes, 540.

    03:34-03:35

    I'm like, all right.

    03:35-03:36

    So Aaron and I, we went and got our sandwiches.

    03:38-03:40

    And I'm like, we don't want to miss the bus.

    03:40-03:40

    Let's get back early.

    03:40-03:42

    530, we went back.

    03:45-03:47

    And I'm like, sweetheart, where's the bus?

    03:50-03:50

    Watch is working.

    03:51-03:52

    It's 5-- you know what?

    03:53-03:55

    Aaron's like, well, maybe they parked it somewhere else.

    03:56-03:58

    They didn't park it anywhere else.

    04:00-04:01

    They left us.

    04:01-04:09

    I found out later what happened is they all got on the bus, and somebody was like, is everybody here?

    04:10-04:12

    And somebody was like, yep.

    04:14-04:17

    And they left, and Aaron and I, in fact, were not there.

    04:18-04:20

    So we're sitting on the curb.

    04:22-04:23

    Now what?

    04:23-04:32

    And long story short, we ended up getting this ride back to Butler, where we were living at the time, from this super nice lady.

    04:33-04:35

    Riding shotgun was her super drunk husband.

    04:36-04:46

    And I remember sitting in the back seat of this crazy ride home going, this isn't at all what I had planned for today.

    04:48-04:53

    Did you ever have that happen to you, where just like, The bottom falls out and nothing went as planned.

    04:54-04:58

    Well, I got some good news for you because that never happens to God.

    05:00-05:06

    Everything always happens exactly as God plans it.

    05:06-05:10

    And that's what we've been talking about all month, the cross in the Old Testament.

    05:12-05:17

    And what we've seen is the cross has always been the plan.

    05:18-05:29

    The crucifixion of Jesus wasn't some idea that God had one day or circumstances got out of control and Christ was crucified and God's like, well, let me see if I can figure out a way to use this.

    05:30-05:31

    It was always part of the plan.

    05:33-05:36

    And this month we've seen God's plan.

    05:36-05:43

    That in Genesis three, the Messiah will defeat the devil through his suffering.

    05:44-05:48

    Exodus 12, the Messiah will save us from death by his suffering.

    05:49-05:56

    Leviticus 16, he will take away guilt, fulfilling the role of the scapegoat through his suffering.

    05:58-06:07

    Last week we saw Isaiah 53 says that he will make many righteous, which is another result of his suffering.

    06:08-06:16

    A couple of days ago, Pastor Taylor on Good Friday taught us in Psalm 22 that the Messiah would be mocked and tortured.

    06:17-06:20

    So you see the cross of Jesus Christ was always the plan.

    06:22-06:24

    Even going back to the Old Testament.

    06:26-06:33

    And right now you might be thinking, well, Pastor Jeff, I understand what you're saying, but I don't know if you checked your calendar, but today's resurrection day.

    06:35-06:36

    So what about that?

    06:37-06:40

    Is resurrection in the Old Testament?

    06:41-06:43

    What about the empty tomb?

    06:43-06:45

    Is there any kind of plan or prophecy about that?

    06:46-06:47

    I'm so glad you asked.

    06:47-06:48

    So grab your outline.

    06:49-06:52

    Here it is, the cross in Psalm 16.

    06:55-07:00

    Number one, what is the prophecy of the Messiah's suffering?

    07:00-07:08

    Well, here's the prophecy that his suffering would lead to death and result in resurrection.

    07:09-07:10

    That's the prophecy.

    07:11-07:13

    Psalm 16 is prophetic.

    07:14-07:16

    The word is prophetic.

    07:18-07:26

    And it's actually the Holy Spirit giving us the very words of the coming Messiah.

    07:26-07:29

    I just wanna look at three verses here, four verses.

    07:30-07:32

    Through 11, however many verses that is.

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    It says, "I have set the Lord always before me." Again, this is the Messiah speaking, prophetic scripture here.

    07:40-07:44

    "I've set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand.

    07:44-07:46

    I shall not be shaken.

    07:48-07:52

    Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.

    07:54-07:57

    My flesh also dwells secure.

    08:00-08:04

    For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol.

    08:05-08:09

    That's a word that was used to describe the grave, the realm of the dead.

    08:11-08:28

    He says, "Or let your Holy One seek corruption." That is a very fancy way of saying, "You're not going to let your Holy One's body rot." That's a much nicer way of saying that.

    08:29-08:31

    Verse 11, "You make known to me the path of life.

    08:31-08:33

    In your presence, there is fullness of joy.

    08:34-08:42

    At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Again, this is a first person quote from the Messiah.

    08:43-08:44

    I'm gonna show you some things in here.

    08:44-08:47

    It talks about him being the Holy One.

    08:47-08:48

    Did you see that?

    08:48-08:50

    That's a term for the Messiah.

    08:51-08:55

    And in this, it's saying a lot, but I just want you to see three things.

    08:56-09:02

    What we see in this quote, first of all, is trust in the Lord, right?

    09:03-09:06

    He says, "I shall not be shaken." That's trust.

    09:07-09:08

    It doesn't matter what happens to me.

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    I'm trusting God.

    09:11-09:13

    So we see trust.

    09:14-09:16

    We see joy, right?

    09:17-09:28

    He says, "Therefore," verse nine, "my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices." Verse 11, "In your presence there is fullness of joy." So we see trust and we see joy.

    09:31-09:32

    And we see resurrection.

    09:32-09:33

    Look at verse 10 again.

    09:34-09:35

    Here it is.

    09:36-09:45

    "For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol." Meaning, I'm not going to die and go to the realm of the dead, and you're like, I'm done with them.

    09:45-09:46

    He says, you're not gonna do that to me.

    09:47-09:55

    He says, to get even more specific, "Or let your Holy One seek corruption." The Messiah says, I am not going to rot in the grave.

    09:58-10:06

    So in other words, the Messiah here is saying in Psalm 16, Even to my death, God, I trust you and my joy is in you.

    10:06-10:08

    And I know that I will not stay dead.

    10:09-10:11

    I know that I will resurrect.

    10:13-10:14

    That's the prophecy.

    10:18-10:22

    So question two is how did Jesus fulfill this prophecy on the cross?

    10:23-10:26

    And we would say today and after the cross.

    10:29-10:36

    Well, we saw in Psalm 16, the Messiah was referred to as the Holy One.

    10:37-10:42

    And realize that that was a term used in the Old Testament to describe the Messiah.

    10:43-10:49

    And that was a term that was used on Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

    10:49-10:50

    Did you know that?

    10:50-10:57

    The disciples called him the Holy One in John chapter six, verse 69.

    10:57-11:03

    And actually demons knew that Jesus was the Holy One, the Messiah.

    11:03-11:05

    You see that in Mark 1 24.

    11:07-11:09

    But the Jesus fulfill this prophecy.

    11:10-11:12

    Well, we said there's three things, right?

    11:12-11:13

    Trust, joy and resurrection.

    11:13-11:14

    What about trust?

    11:16-11:18

    Trust even in the face of death.

    11:18-11:30

    Well, Luke 23 46 says this, then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit "And having said this, he breathed his last." That's trust.

    11:31-11:39

    By the way, that came after he said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That Taylor preached on a couple of days ago.

    11:40-11:50

    Even after feeling the separation from the father because of bearing our sin, even after that, Jesus Christ said, "I still trust you.

    11:50-11:54

    "I still trust you with everything in me.

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    "I'm committing my spirit to you." So we see trust.

    12:00-12:01

    Do we see joy?

    12:02-12:18

    Well, Hebrews 12, two says, "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." Yeah, there was joy in knowing what this would accomplish, glorifying God, purchasing redemption for people.

    12:18-12:20

    So yeah, we see trust, we see joy.

    12:20-12:23

    What about resurrection?

    12:23-12:26

    Did Jesus fulfill that?

    12:27-12:38

    Well, Jesus Christ fulfilling this prophecy in Psalm 16 is mentioned two times in the New Testament.

    12:39-12:43

    One is in Acts chapter two, and the other one is in Acts chapter 13.

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    So let's look at Acts chapter two, if you'll turn there.

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    Acts chapter two, we're gonna pick up in verse 22.

    12:54-13:04

    This is Peter preaching at Pentecost after Jesus had ascended and after the Holy Spirit had come to indwell God's people.

    13:06-13:09

    Look at what Peter says here, we'll pick up in verse 22.

    13:11-13:13

    Men of Israel, hear these words.

    13:14-13:35

    Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

    13:37-13:44

    God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

    13:45-13:52

    For David says concerning him, "I saw the Lord always before me, "for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

    13:53-13:55

    "Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.

    13:56-14:07

    "My flesh also will dwell in hope, "for you will not abandon my soul to Hades," same as Sheol, "or let your Holy One see corruption.

    14:08-14:10

    "You have made known to me the paths of life.

    14:12-14:15

    "You will make me full of gladness with your presence." Does that sound familiar?

    14:16-14:18

    Peter was quoting Psalm 16.

    14:20-14:21

    He goes on, verse 29.

    14:22-14:32

    "Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

    14:33-14:46

    Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.

    14:47-14:51

    That he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his fleshy corruption.

    14:52-14:57

    This Jesus, God raised up and we are all witnesses.

    15:00-15:07

    Now you can hear that prophecy and you could be like the Jews that Peter was speaking to in that day.

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    People still say this today.

    15:09-15:16

    Oh, you're taking an Old Testament prophecy about David and you're just kind of foisting that on Jesus.

    15:16-15:23

    I mean, David was talking about some kind of suffering he was going through and we're like, let's see if we can make this fit Jesus.

    15:28-15:35

    Well, Peter's response, he already knew that that's what they were gonna think because we see Peter's response right here.

    15:36-15:38

    He says, this is not about David.

    15:39-15:39

    Check the graves.

    15:41-15:42

    Go check the tombs.

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    David's in his.

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    Jesus Christ is not in his.

    15:48-15:50

    So we know that this can't be about David.

    15:52-15:55

    Peter was saying Jesus was raised up.

    15:55-15:56

    It happened.

    15:57-15:59

    Peter says, verse 32, he goes, we're all witnesses.

    15:59-16:00

    We were all there.

    16:01-16:04

    This was the big news event of Jerusalem, right?

    16:04-16:09

    Passover, we have the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

    16:09-16:11

    Give us Barabbas instead.

    16:11-16:13

    You were all there, we all saw this.

    16:14-16:17

    The events were pretty fresh when Peter preached this sermon.

    16:20-16:27

    Now you can go on and read this, but no one challenged Peter in any of the claims that he was making.

    16:28-16:33

    Now, they didn't see the resurrection, nobody did actually.

    16:34-16:36

    They didn't even see the risen Christ.

    16:37-16:42

    Only certain select believers were allowed to see him.

    16:43-16:51

    But something that they all knew was that Jesus Christ's body was not in his tomb.

    16:54-17:00

    So, number three, what does this prophecy mean for us?

    17:04-17:05

    What does this mean for us?

    17:07-17:23

    Well, just very simply this, if Jesus stayed dead, if Jesus was and is rotting in his grave, that means he did not fulfill Psalm 16.

    17:26-17:28

    And we don't really have much to celebrate today.

    17:30-17:37

    And you know, that's the line of thought that the apostle Paul takes us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

    17:38-17:44

    He tells us what it means for us if Jesus didn't resurrect.

    17:46-17:47

    So let's walk down this path.

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    On your outline, write some things down here.

    17:50-17:52

    This is what no resurrection of Jesus means to me.

    17:55-17:56

    Like, what does this prophecy mean?

    17:56-17:59

    Well, let's talk about what no resurrection of Jesus means to me.

    18:00-18:04

    Letter A, first of all, no resurrection means no reason for faith.

    18:06-18:10

    We're gonna have the verses on the screen here, but look at verses 14 and 15.

    18:10-18:16

    It says, "And if Christ has not been raised, "then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

    18:17-18:31

    "We are even found to be misrepresenting God "because we testified about God that he raised Christ, "whom he did not raise if it is true "that the dead are not raised." So no resurrection means no reason for faith.

    18:32-18:33

    Here's what this means, my friends.

    18:33-18:35

    You are wasting your time.

    18:37-18:38

    You're wasting your time praying.

    18:39-18:42

    You're wasting your time reading the Bible.

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    You're wasting your time listening to a sermon.

    18:46-18:48

    I'm wasting my time preaching a sermon.

    18:51-19:02

    And whether you're sitting here in this moment or you're streaming this moment or you're listening to it later, it's all just a complete waste of time.

    19:05-19:15

    All the Christian books, all the seminars, all the conferences, you are a sucker because you wasted a lot of money on that trash.

    19:17-19:20

    And somebody would say, "Well, hang on, Pastor Jeff.

    19:21-19:27

    Even if Jesus didn't raise from the dead, we'd still have all of those wonderful teachings of his.

    19:29-19:33

    And my response would be, if Jesus didn't raise from the dead, the wonderful teachings are from who?

    19:34-19:34

    Some martyr?

    19:36-19:40

    Who lied by the way, because he said he was gonna resurrect and he didn't, but you think his teaching's awesome?

    19:42-19:43

    That's one way to live your life, I guess.

    19:45-19:53

    But the Old Testament says, and Jesus clearly proclaimed that he would die and He would raise from the dead.

    19:54-19:58

    So if He didn't, why do we have faith at all?

    20:02-20:06

    Secondly, Paul says no resurrection means no forgiveness of sin.

    20:08-20:14

    Verses 16 and 17 says, "For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

    20:15-20:21

    And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." And look at this, you are still in your sins.

    20:22-20:27

    That means this, if Jesus Christ hasn't risen from the dead that means his sacrifice was not successful.

    20:31-20:33

    And we still stand condemned.

    20:34-20:39

    And that means someday you're going to have to give an account to God for all the wrong that you have done.

    20:41-20:46

    You're gonna have to stand before Holy God and justify your wickedness.

    20:48-20:55

    And without the resurrection, you'd have no confidence in standing before God because you're guilty of sin.

    20:57-21:06

    You'd have no confidence standing before God if Jesus didn't resurrect, because that means he's not the promised Messiah who it was said would resurrect.

    21:08-21:10

    So no resurrection means no forgiveness of sin.

    21:13-21:21

    Letter C, no resurrection means no reunion with those who died before us.

    21:23-21:33

    First Corinthians 15, 18 says, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

    21:34-21:35

    You know what that means?

    21:39-21:45

    That means those people that you've known who trusted Christ and they died.

    21:46-21:48

    Guess what? They're gone forever.

    21:49-21:50

    You're never going to see him again.

    21:52-21:53

    Like, what about grandma?

    21:55-21:55

    Grandma's history.

    21:57-21:59

    Like, what about my parents?

    21:59-22:00

    Sorry.

    22:01-22:05

    Like, you know, I lost my spouse who who trusted Christ.

    22:05-22:07

    And what about my spouse?

    22:08-22:09

    You're never going to see them again.

    22:09-22:09

    It's over.

    22:10-22:14

    Like what I had a good friend who was a believer who died.

    22:14-22:15

    What what about my friend?

    22:16-22:18

    Well, I hope you hold on to those memories because that's all you got.

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    They're gone and it's all over.

    22:25-22:27

    If there's no resurrection.

    22:31-22:35

    Letter D. You're like, man, this isn't the sermon I thought I was going to get.

    22:36-22:38

    Letter D, no resurrection means no hope.

    22:39-22:39

    Oh, it gets worse.

    22:40-22:42

    No resurrection means no hope.

    22:43-23:05

    1 Corinthians 15, 19 says, "If in Christ we have no hope." I'm sorry, "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." Paul's saying even our present lives are changed if Jesus didn't resurrect and therefore we won't resurrect.

    23:06-23:13

    Paul says that we are miserable, pathetic people.

    23:15-23:15

    You're pathetic.

    23:16-23:18

    The word is pathetic.

    23:19-23:20

    That's what you are.

    23:21-23:22

    Think about how pathetic you are.

    23:23-23:25

    You got dressed up.

    23:27-23:27

    You come in here.

    23:28-23:30

    We make this makeshift choir.

    23:30-23:33

    We're singing songs about a dead guy.

    23:33-23:34

    You're pathetic.

    23:35-23:39

    You got this book that you're carrying around, pathetic.

    23:40-23:46

    You're gonna give money to advance this circus, really?

    23:46-23:47

    You're pathetic.

    23:49-23:50

    What are you doing?

    23:50-23:51

    What are you doing here?

    23:52-23:53

    You could have slept in.

    23:54-23:57

    You could be eating Cinnacrunch bagels at Pantera Bread.

    23:57-23:58

    What are you doing?

    23:59-24:00

    You're pathetic.

    24:03-24:05

    What is all this for?

    24:05-24:11

    Why are we leasing this space? What's all this stuff up here for? Why? Why?

    24:12-24:32

    Why are we wasting all this money and time? You're pathetic. If there's no resurrection. But as Paul walks us down the path of these dark implications, Verse 20 makes all the difference.

    24:33-25:01

    Verse 20 says, "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." Christ did rise from the dead, and because the resurrection of Christ is an actual historical event, you know what you can do is you can confidently state the opposites of everything on your outlines.

    25:01-25:01

    Here's what I want you to do.

    25:02-25:08

    Grab a pencil or a pen and just go through your outline here and cross out all of the nos.

    25:09-25:10

    Cross them all out.

    25:10-25:12

    Go ahead, take a minute, cross them out.

    25:12-25:13

    Shouldn't take you a minute.

    25:16-25:17

    Cross out all the nos.

    25:24-25:29

    Because this is the reality of life.

    25:30-25:32

    Because Jesus Christ did.

    25:33-25:38

    Raised from the dead, here's reality, resurrection means reason for faith.

    25:38-25:42

    I have reason to believe you can think I'm an idiot for coming here.

    25:42-25:44

    You can think I'm an idiot for praying.

    25:44-25:45

    You can you can think what you want.

    25:45-25:46

    It's America.

    25:47-25:47

    You know, bless you.

    25:48-25:51

    Listen, my faith is in the one who rose from the dead.

    25:52-25:53

    That's who my faith is.

    25:53-25:55

    and my faith is in the one who defeated death.

    25:56-25:57

    That's who my faith is in.

    25:58-26:00

    So I have reason for faith.

    26:00-26:06

    And by the way, for those of you that would mock my beliefs, what are you believing in?

    26:06-26:09

    What are you hanging your hope on?

    26:10-26:11

    What are you trusting?

    26:11-26:13

    I'm trusting a risen savior.

    26:13-26:14

    What about you?

    26:14-26:16

    You got something better than that?

    26:16-26:18

    You got something that even compares to that?

    26:18-26:19

    No, you do not.

    26:20-26:24

    I have reason for faith because Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

    26:25-26:25

    I have that.

    26:26-26:28

    Oh, also resurrection means forgiveness of sin.

    26:29-26:31

    I realize what a piece of trash I am.

    26:32-26:34

    I'm a sinner by nature.

    26:35-26:42

    But because Jesus Christ rose from the dead and because I believe in his promise, he has promised me forgiveness of sin.

    26:43-27:19

    He has promised me that there is no condemnation, that I can stand before God, pronounce not guilty with the righteousness of God himself on my account, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I have forgiveness of sin. That's what the resurrection means. Resurrection means reunion with those who died before us. You know, I have I've had a lot of wonderful people, family, church, church members, dear friends who who have known the Lord and have died and there is going to be the most glorious reunion in heaven. I can't wait.

    27:19-28:32

    Someday I'm gonna be in heaven. I don't know when that's gonna be, but when I get there, yes, I want to be with my Savior first. Yes, absolutely. But then there is a list of people that I'm going to track down. And I'm going to have all of eternity to have the most glorious reunion with these people. Never to be separated again. There's going to be this awesome reunion. Are you looking forward to that? The resurrection of Christ means there's a reunion with those who died before us and resurrection means hope. I have hope. Whether this is my last day on earth or I live another 20 years, I don't know. But I have a hope. I have a living hope because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Do you have that hope today? If you know Christ, then you have that hope. But I just want to spend a couple of moments and address those of you here who don't know Christ. And I want you to Let's go back to Acts chapter 2 for a minute.

    28:35-28:43

    Because Peter goes on to say that Jesus' death and resurrection resulted in exaltation.

    28:44-28:45

    Look at v. 36.

    28:46-29:05

    It says, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Do you see that?

    29:05-29:08

    Peter says, "You gotta know this for certain.

    29:08-29:10

    Take this to the bank, my friends.

    29:11-29:22

    God has made Jesus both, both, both Lord and Christ." In other words, Jesus is King and Savior.

    29:22-30:00

    Savior. And if you're going to receive Jesus for who He is, you have to receive both. Understand, this isn't a buffet where you just go through the line and you only pick out the things that you like and the things that you don't like, like the beat eggs or whatever, the things you don't like, you leave those there, but you only take the things that you like.

    30:01-30:08

    That's not an option because he is both Lord and Christ.

    30:08-30:10

    He is both King and Savior.

    30:13-30:18

    Let's see, when we talk about Savior, Hey, hey, that's popular, right?

    30:19-30:19

    That's popular.

    30:20-30:22

    That's needed, right?

    30:23-30:27

    People are like, oh, I like the idea that Jesus died for my sins.

    30:27-30:30

    I like the idea that someday I'm going to go to heaven.

    30:30-30:31

    I love that idea.

    30:33-30:35

    What about this idea that he's king?

    30:37-30:39

    Yeah, that's kind of a beat egg idea.

    30:41-30:43

    That's not as popular, is it?

    30:45-30:50

    That's not as popular because I don't want somebody telling me what to do.

    30:52-30:55

    I don't want somebody telling me how I should live my life.

    30:55-30:56

    It's my life.

    31:00-31:08

    Can't I just have Jesus as my Savior and not have Him as my King?

    31:11-31:16

    He didn't give you that option because Jesus Christ is not compartmentalized.

    31:17-31:22

    He is both Lord and Christ.

    31:23-31:34

    And this king showed the ultimate proof that he is the king of kings and his victory over the grave.

    31:38-31:46

    The text goes on, you can read this later, but the text goes on to say that the people that Peter was preaching to these Jews, it says they were they were cut to the heart.

    31:50-31:59

    Because they knew, as Peter, he did not back off at all and throwing it in their faces like you're responsible for the death of Jesus, Peter, you'll read the text.

    32:00-32:02

    Peter did not shy away from that.

    32:04-32:06

    Like the Christ showed up and you killed him.

    32:07-32:09

    It says they were cut to the heart.

    32:10-32:36

    And their response was, "What should we do? What do we do?" And listen, my friends, if you don't know Jesus Christ, you absolutely need to get to that place where you recognize He's the Savior and King.

    32:40-32:45

    And I wasn't physically there, but it was my sin that He suffered for.

    32:46-32:46

    What should I do?

    32:48-32:49

    You need to get to that place.

    32:50-33:02

    You know, this week, as I was reading and studying, I came across a word used to describe Jesus that I don't think I ever heard before, but I can't get it out of my head.

    33:02-33:04

    I can't stop thinking about it.

    33:05-33:10

    I heard somebody this week describe Jesus Christ as inevitable.

    33:15-33:22

    They said, "Jesus is inevitable." Like, what does that mean?

    33:23-33:32

    Well, let's imagine for a second that you're going to a job interview.

    33:34-33:44

    And this is like the most important job interview of your life. This is like, this is going to be my career. This is going to be the thing. You're heading to this job interview.

    33:47-34:01

    This could be the most important day of the rest of my life. I'm heading to this job interview and you're driving there and you're thinking about the interview and you're not paying attention and you rear end a guy.

    34:03-34:04

    Great.

    34:05-34:07

    You get out of the car, he gets out of his car.

    34:08-34:16

    But you're so fussed up about this job interview that you kind of take it out on the guy and you start yelling at him.

    34:17-34:19

    And then you start screaming at him.

    34:20-34:22

    And then you start cussing him out.

    34:23-34:24

    Because you're so flustered.

    34:24-34:26

    You don't need this right now.

    34:26-34:30

    And why were you stopped at the red light?

    34:30-34:34

    And you're just like so angry.

    34:38-34:40

    And you're out of your gourd.

    34:40-34:42

    You lay hands on the guy.

    34:43-34:45

    You start like hitting him and kicking him.

    34:46-34:51

    And you're just so disgusted because this was so important and now you're gonna be late.

    34:51-34:59

    And so you just verbally destroy the guy and then physically attack the guy.

    35:01-35:04

    Then you get back in your car, which is still drivable.

    35:05-35:06

    Like I gotta get cleaned up.

    35:08-35:23

    So you race back home and you get cleaned up and then you race to the job interview And the receptionist says, "All right, he will see you now." And you walk into the office and the boss is the man that you attacked.

    35:29-35:33

    Jesus Christ is Lord, whether you recognize that yet or not.

    35:35-35:43

    But someday you will, because Jesus is the inevitable man.

    35:43-35:47

    man and you can't avoid him.

    35:53-36:07

    You're going to stand before him someday and you're going to know him as your judge or as your savior.

    36:10-36:13

    And you know, you can make that choice today.

    36:15-36:33

    Paul tells us in Romans 10, verses 9 and 10, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

    36:33-36:37

    For with the heart, one believes and is justified.

    36:37-36:41

    with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.

    36:42-36:45

    Thank you to bow your heads as our worship team makes their way back to the front.

    36:46-36:48

    Would you to bow your heads and close your eyes?

    36:58-37:01

    If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

    37:04-37:11

    Let me ask you today, who sitting here or who watching this stream?

    37:12-37:18

    Or who listening to this podcast later, who hearing these words?

    37:22-37:27

    Would confess that Jesus is Lord.

    37:29-37:38

    Can you physically respond to that by raising your hand if you would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord?

    37:38-37:40

    Raise your hand if you would confess that.

    37:46-37:56

    He goes on to say, "Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead." Who here today believes?

    38:00-38:43

    that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Who believes that? If you do, I want you to physically acknowledge that belief by raising your hand. Who believes that our Savior has resurrected from the dead. If this is your first time, if today is the first time that you have confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, if today is the first time that you have believed in your heart, truly believed that God raised him from the dead, the Bible says that you will be saved.

    38:44-38:57

    And if this is your first time doing this, making this confession, believing, I want you to come and see me or Pastor Taylor at guest reception after service.

    39:00-39:03

    But this is the most important decision you will ever make.

    39:07-39:14

    receiving Jesus Christ as both Savior and King.

    39:16-39:23

    Father in heaven, the resurrection of Jesus Christ means everything.

    39:24-39:26

    It means everything.

    39:30-39:36

    It's not some peripheral doctrine that we could agree to disagree on.

    39:36-39:39

    It's absolutely the core of everything that we believe.

    39:41-39:42

    That Jesus is the Christ.

    39:43-39:46

    He is the one that you did not abandon to Sheol.

    39:47-40:01

    He is the one that did not see corruption because he rose from his grave, as was prophesied in your word, as he clearly announced in his ministry, as he demonstrated through the empty tomb.

    40:02-40:04

    Father, we believe that Jesus is the Christ.

    40:05-40:20

    We believe that He is the Son of the living God, and we believe that He resurrected from the dead so that we can have life, so that we can have our own resurrection.

    40:23-40:52

    Father, for those here who know you, we thank you and just ask that it's not a message we've become so familiar with that it becomes stale, But Father, for those here today who might be confessing, professing for the first time, Father, I pray that your Spirit is at work in their hearts, that they pursue you with every cell in their body.

    40:54-41:00

    To your glory and honor, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Psalm 16:8-11, Acts 2:22-32, Acts 13:34-41, 1 Corinthians 15:14-20

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. How do we know Psalm 16:8-11 is about the Messiah (Jesus), and not David? How do we know this is specifically about the resurrection of the Messiah?

  3. In 1 Corinthians 15:14, Paul says if Jesus didn’t resurrect, our faith is in vain. Why is the resurrection of Jesus the most crucial doctrine of faith?

  4. 1 Corinthians 15:16-17 says if Jesus did not resurrect, we are still in our sins. If Jesus died for our sins, why did He HAVE TO resurrect? Why can’t we just believe He died for our sins, without believing He rose from the dead?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

All Things New

Introduction:

Three Things You'll Never Do In Heaven: (Revelation 22:1-5):

  1. Face Death . (Rev 22:1-2)

    John 4:14 - ...whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

    Proverbs 3:18 - She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.

    Proverbs 11:30 - The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.

    Proverbs 13:12 - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

  1. Find Sorrow . (Rev 22:3)
  2. Feel Alone . (Rev 22:4-5)

    1 Corinthians 16:22 - If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:54-00:54

    Amen.

    00:55-01:01

    This is the last message, but certainly not least message in our series called Foundations.

    01:02-01:05

    And this has been a Theology 101 series.

    01:07-01:09

    And we have talked about creation.

    01:09-01:12

    In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

    01:12-01:20

    And then we saw the covenant of marriage instituted as God created Eve for Adam.

    01:22-01:24

    And then we saw how sin entered the world.

    01:24-01:29

    And on Good Friday, if you were here with us, we talked about the curse.

    01:30-01:34

    A curse is a pronouncement of destruction on someone.

    01:36-01:36

    Right?

    01:36-01:44

    And we saw that God put a curse, not just on man and woman and the serpent, but on the ground itself.

    01:47-02:00

    And then last week, our story in Genesis ended where we ended the story in Genesis last week was Adam and Eve were covered by animal skins by God.

    02:00-02:09

    God actually performed the first sacrifice, killing an animal to provide a permanent covering for Adam and Eve.

    02:09-02:18

    And then he booted them from the Garden of Eden, posted an armed guard, specifically he did not want them eating from the tree of life.

    02:21-02:23

    And that's where we left off last time.

    02:26-02:28

    And we can't stop there.

    02:29-02:31

    That's why we're having one more message.

    02:31-02:35

    We can't say, "That can't be where the story ends!

    02:35-02:41

    Adam and Eve thrown out of paradise!" Well that's not the end of the story.

    02:43-02:50

    Because we talked about how Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead to restore the relationship with God and life in us.

    02:53-02:55

    And what I want to tell you today is the story doesn't end there.

    02:59-03:05

    Ultimately, Jesus Christ is going to restore all things.

    03:06-03:08

    You're like, "So where does the story end?" The story doesn't end.

    03:09-03:13

    Ultimately, Jesus Christ is going to remove the curse.

    03:13-03:20

    And that includes sin and death, and all of the things that go with the curse, it's ultimately going to be removed.

    03:20-03:27

    And I want you to turn to your Bibles with me to Revelation 22, all the way near the back of your Bible.

    03:27-03:31

    And if you don't have a Bible, you're welcome to have the one in the seat back in front of you.

    03:32-03:37

    If that font's too small, in that shelf in the back, there's the largest print that we could buy.

    03:38-03:40

    And you can consider that a gift from the church.

    03:40-03:43

    but we want to make sure everybody has a copy of God's Word.

    03:44-03:45

    But open up to Revelation 22.

    03:48-03:50

    Turn louder, I can't hear your Bibles.

    03:53-03:58

    You're like, "We were already bookmarked before we came in, Pastor Jeff." Sure you were.

    03:58-04:00

    Come on, let me hear those pages rustling. Come on.

    04:02-04:08

    Oh, that's like waves at the beach to me.

    04:14-04:14

    Revelation.

    04:15-04:15

    Quick on-ramp here.

    04:15-04:16

    We're in Revelation 22.

    04:16-04:20

    We're at the end of God's Word, but certainly not the end of the story.

    04:20-04:22

    But just to kind of give you an on-ramp in Revelation.

    04:23-04:31

    The book of Revelation is about the last seven years of life on earth, known as the Tribulation, which includes God's judgment on sinners.

    04:32-04:36

    It talks about the rise and the fall of the Antichrist and of Babylon.

    04:36-04:38

    Talks about the return of Jesus Christ.

    04:39-04:42

    It talks about the millennium reign.

    04:43-04:45

    Jesus Christ is going to reign on the earth for a thousand years.

    04:46-04:51

    Revelation 20 tells us we see a last revolt by Satan, which is quickly squashed.

    04:52-05:00

    Revelation talks about the great white throne judgment for everyone who hasn't received the forgiveness that God's offered in Christ.

    05:00-05:07

    they're going to stand before God someday and have to give an account and ultimately be cast into judgment.

    05:08-05:13

    And then Revelation tells us that this heaven and this earth will be vaporized, destroyed.

    05:14-05:26

    And then when we get to Revelation 21, there's a creation of the new heaven and the new earth and the city, New Jerusalem revealed.

    05:27-05:34

    Now, there's so much confusion about heaven.

    05:37-05:50

    And even in the church, a lot of times, if you were just grabbed to just grab somebody here randomly and say, "Hey, describe heaven for me." You might get a weird answer.

    05:53-05:56

    There's just so much misunderstanding about heaven.

    05:56-05:57

    And look, I'm not judging.

    05:58-05:59

    I'm not criticizing because I've been there.

    06:01-06:09

    And much, if I can confess to you, much of my understanding of heaven came from the music that I listened to growing up.

    06:10-06:15

    And if you get your theology of heaven from the music you listen to, you're gonna be all kind of messed up.

    06:15-06:16

    Do you know what I mean?

    06:17-06:19

    For example, like, how do you get to heaven?

    06:19-06:19

    How do you get to heaven?

    06:20-06:24

    Well, according to Led Zeppelin, it's a stairway to heaven.

    06:25-06:31

    I'm like, "Oh, okay, so you go up the stairway, "and apparently when you get there, how do you enter?

    06:31-06:36

    "Well, according to Guns N' Roses, "you have to knock, knock, knock on heaven's door, right?

    06:38-06:39

    "Do you know what I'm talking about?

    06:40-06:43

    "I could sing it for you if you don't know the reference."

    06:46-06:46

    (audience laughing)

    06:50-06:51

    And that's the moment the riot broke out.

    06:52-06:52

    (audience laughing)

    06:58-06:59

    Where is heaven?

    07:00-07:15

    Well, Warrant said, "Heaven isn't too far away." But at the risk of sounding like she was contradicting, and Belinda Carlyle told us that heaven is a place on earth.

    07:18-07:24

    But then Alice in Chains came along and said, "Heaven's beside you." I can do this all day.

    07:26-07:27

    And you're like, oh, I hope he doesn't.

    07:27-07:34

    You know, Eric Clapton made us cry when he sang "Tears in Heaven." But "Heaven" was a pickup line for NXS.

    07:35-07:39

    And they sang "Heaven Sent." That's what I call you ♪

    07:39-07:40

    (imitates guitar riff)

    07:42-07:44

    I promised I wouldn't do that, but it came out.

    07:46-07:56

    One of my all-time favorite bands, Cheap Trick, asked, "Would you like to go to heaven?" And then I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.

    07:56-08:00

    I wouldn't want to go to heaven tonight because Phil Collins said something happened on the way to heaven.

    08:02-08:07

    I don't know what that was, but apparently it wasn't good because Kiss sang that heaven's on fire.

    08:10-08:11

    And I will stop there, I promise.

    08:12-08:15

    But my point is this, there's a point to all this.

    08:15-08:22

    We get all these concepts about heaven from all these other sources And it's no wonder we're confused.

    08:22-08:23

    We're like, what's heaven like?

    08:24-08:26

    I could tell you what Belinda Carlisle said about it.

    08:28-08:32

    And then we get to church and we're like, you received Jesus Christ and you go to heaven.

    08:32-08:34

    And you're like, I'm not even sure what that means.

    08:35-08:35

    Right?

    08:36-08:38

    I'm gonna tell you what that means today, all right?

    08:39-08:40

    So no more excuses.

    08:42-08:45

    No more, this is what I think heaven might be like.

    08:45-08:46

    I'm gonna tell you what the Bible says.

    08:47-08:48

    Revelation 21, we're gonna look at this quickly.

    08:49-08:50

    and then we're gonna land on 22.

    08:50-08:52

    But look at 21, first couple of verses.

    08:53-09:05

    John says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, "for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, "and the sea was no more." All right, we talked about that.

    09:05-09:06

    This heaven and earth is gonna be destroyed.

    09:06-09:08

    He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth.

    09:10-09:12

    Look at verse two, because this is something a lot of people miss.

    09:13-09:22

    He says, "And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

    09:24-09:25

    We'll stop there.

    09:26-09:32

    You see, John sees this capital city of new heaven and new earth.

    09:34-09:36

    And like, what is this city?

    09:37-09:42

    Well, you see, this is the place that Jesus is preparing for you.

    09:42-09:48

    You remember, we went through the gospel of John And Jesus says, "I'm going to prepare a place for you." This is the place that He's making!

    09:49-10:00

    And you're like, "Well, what's it like?" Well, He gives us some description of heaven, but really here's all you need to know.

    10:00-10:04

    It says right here, it's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

    10:10-10:12

    We have a whole bunch of weddings coming up.

    10:13-10:16

    And have you ever seen a bride?

    10:17-10:19

    Like seriously, have you ever seen a bride?

    10:21-10:24

    Every bride, breathtakingly beautiful.

    10:26-10:34

    Because on that day, there is so much time and energy and effort and expense and so much care.

    10:34-10:45

    She puts so much care into the preparation of herself because she wants her husband when he sees her coming down that aisle, Just this is what is prepared for me, right?

    10:45-10:48

    And that's the same analogy that's used here.

    10:48-10:53

    Jesus is putting that much care and attention into preparing this place for you.

    10:54-10:58

    He's not just throwing up a couple of two by fours and some nails and say, "This is good enough.

    10:59-11:04

    "You deserve hell, but here's a shanty for you." No, he's preparing this perfect place.

    11:06-11:12

    And we're not gonna read it, you can read it later, but we see the dimensions of this city.

    11:13-11:17

    Verses 15 through 17 says that it's shaped like a cube.

    11:18-11:20

    Like how big is this city?

    11:20-11:25

    Well, each wall is 1,380 miles long, the Bible says.

    11:26-11:31

    And each of the walls also 72 yards thick.

    11:33-11:37

    I was gonna tell you what that was in feet, but I'm like, these are football fans.

    11:37-11:39

    They know what 72 yards looks like.

    11:40-11:41

    That's how thick the walls are.

    11:42-11:44

    You think that's literal?

    11:44-11:45

    Yeah, these are literal measurements.

    11:45-11:47

    If you look at the text, it's straightforward.

    11:48-11:49

    These are literal measurements.

    11:49-11:50

    Like, well, how big is that?

    11:50-12:03

    Well, if you took this new Jerusalem and just set it on top of the United States, it would go from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and it would go from the Atlantic Ocean to Colorado.

    12:04-12:06

    That's how big this city is.

    12:08-12:10

    That's not really what I want to talk about this morning.

    12:11-12:14

    I want to talk about life inside the city.

    12:14-12:18

    And that's where we get to in chapter 22.

    12:20-12:31

    And with everything that we can wonder about heaven, you know, just was it about a month or six weeks ago, Alex Gianetti preached about heaven.

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    And we have all this information.

    12:34-12:38

    We know so much, like, what the Bible says about heaven.

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    And it seems that for every answer we get, we have three more questions, right?

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    We can wonder a lot what this place is like, but there's one thing that I wanna make absolutely clear today, because this is tied right into this whole series that we've been covering.

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    There's one thing I want you to know today.

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    In heaven, there's no more curse.

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    It's gone.

    13:07-13:24

    The curse that we experience on the earth, everything that we have to go through every second of our lives in this fallen world, the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin, and all of the pain and heartache that comes with that.

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    Everything associated with the curse is forever gone.

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    your outline today with the curse gone, here are three things you'll never do in heaven.

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    See Alex, again, about a month and a half or so ago, he told us some things that we'll do in heaven.

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    I just want to give you the other side of the coin.

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    I want to show you three things that you'll never do in heaven.

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    So number one, write this down, face death.

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    Face death.

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    Look at chapter 22, the first couple of verses.

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    It says, "Then the angel showed me..." This is John speaking.

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    He's receiving this whole preview from this angel.

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    He says, "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city.

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    Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

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    The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

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    Stop there. The first thing we see, something you'll never do in heaven, is face death.

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    First of all, verse 1 talks about water.

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    It talks about the water of life.

    14:57-14:58

    Do you see how it's described?

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    Bright as crystal.

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    What does that mean?

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    That means there's no impurities, there's no pollutants, there's no snake venom.

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    It's absolutely 100% pure, clear.

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    And he makes a clear point to show us the source.

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    Right?

    15:18-15:20

    Where's this river coming from?

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    flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

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    And it's called the water of life, because in this place, there's no more death.

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    This is the expression of life from God, flowing unceasingly.

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    Look at the picture that is being painted here.

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    You know the water flowed from the cursed lamb on the cross, and here the water is flowing from the glorified lamb on his throne.

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    That's the water, but we also saw in verse 2 the tree of life.

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    Does that sound familiar?

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    We talked about that.

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    It was introduced to Genesis chapter two in verse nine.

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    It's this tree that was in the middle of Eden.

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    And again, we saw in the end of Genesis chapter three, that God, very specifically, God drove them out of the garden of Eden because he did not want them eating from that tree.

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    Because God didn't want Adam and Eve to live forever in a fallen state.

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    Right?

    16:42-16:48

    So what we see here with the tree of life is God's story with man comes full circle.

    16:50-16:50

    Right?

    16:52-16:58

    Back in Genesis chapter three, God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden.

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    But here in Revelation 22, we are all brought back into a garden city.

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    And just as in Genesis, the tree of life was taken away from man, now the tree of life is given back.

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    Interesting, it says leaves, the leaves were for healing.

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    Like, wait a minute, why did, I thought there was no sickness in heaven.

    17:31-17:32

    Well, there's not.

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    We're not gonna need healed in the sense of we get a disease or a virus or whatever.

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    There's no sickness in heaven.

    17:41-17:45

    A better translation for this could be health giving.

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    These leaves were health giving, sort of like vitamins.

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    You don't take vitamins to heal an illness, you take vitamins to promote general health.

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    So I do believe we will be eating in heaven, it's very clear here.

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    But it's not going to be for survival.

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    it's going to be for enjoyment.

    18:09-18:14

    So here in Genesis, that's where we were the last few weeks.

    18:14-18:24

    Revelation chapter 22, we have the water of life, and we have the tree of life.

    18:26-18:32

    But you have to see, church, that this is like so much more than a Bob Ross painting, alright?

    18:35-18:42

    The symbolism here that God wants us to experience in His presence is so deep.

    18:42-18:45

    This could be a whole sermon series, we're going to get through this quickly, I promise.

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    Water, biblically, is the picture of satisfaction and salvation.

    18:52-18:54

    That's what water symbolizes.

    18:55-18:59

    We can look at a whole lot of passages, I just want to refer you to one where Jesus summed it up.

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    Jesus and the woman at the well, he said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." That's satisfaction, right? Then he goes on to say, "The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." There's salvation. I could show you so many more passages, but that's the picture that we're seeing. Water is the picture of of satisfaction and salvation.

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    You're like, what about the tree?

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    What's the tree of life a picture of?

    19:35-19:38

    The tree of life is a picture of everything that is good and right.

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    And it is a concept that is used throughout the Bible, especially in Proverbs.

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    And you might be shocked to realize how much, I'm just gonna give you a couple examples.

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    But the tree of life is this picture, every blessing, everything that's right and good.

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    Like for example, Proverbs 3.18, talking about wisdom, says, "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her." Right, Proverbs 11.30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life." Proverbs 13.12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, "but a desire fulfilled is a," tell me church, tree of life, you see that?

    20:19-20:28

    It's a picture, everything that's right, Everything that's good, everything that is of God, it's a picture of that, the tree of life.

    20:31-20:32

    Like, well, wait, wait, wait, okay, Jeff.

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    If we don't need water and food, why are these things there?

    20:38-20:41

    You're telling me we eat just for enjoyment.

    20:41-20:44

    Like, I think it's more than that.

    20:46-20:57

    I think the reason that we see this river and we see this tree of life is I believe this is an eternal testimony that God is our source of life and goodness.

    21:01-21:10

    But listen, get Alex talked about this and I'm just sort of piggybacking off of that and wanted to, there's so much can be said here.

    21:13-21:20

    Listen, in heaven, you will be totally satisfied in every way, every day, all the time.

    21:23-21:29

    And you know there's people, even in the church, there's people that think they have the spiritual gift of criticism, right?

    21:30-21:34

    And I'm constantly reminding people, that's not a spiritual gift, that's not a fruit of the Spirit.

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    It's not in there.

    21:40-21:47

    Even the harshest critic is not going to be walking around heaven going, "Well, you know, it's all right.

    21:47-21:58

    It's all right, but I really think we could spruce the place up a bit with this side or the other.

    22:01-22:05

    You're never going to get over how awesome it is in every way.

    22:08-22:12

    Think of the happiest day that you've had to this point on the earth.

    22:13-22:20

    And every day in heaven is going to be so far beyond that in every way.

    22:21-22:27

    It's not even, not able to compare it to anything, right?

    22:28-22:31

    But with the curse gone, here's something you'll never do.

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    You'll never face death.

    22:33-22:37

    Everything is life, abundant life, joyful life.

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    You'll never face death.

    22:41-22:44

    Three things you'll never do in heaven, number two is a fine sorrow.

    22:46-22:47

    Fine sorrow.

    22:48-22:49

    Look at verse three.

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    We've been talking so much about the curse, right?

    22:56-22:57

    Look at verse three.

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    No longer will there be anything accursed.

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    Just let that soak in for a second.

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    There's no sin, there's no death, and there's no sorrow.

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    He doesn't expound on this a lot here because he just did, and I want you to just look back to chapter 21 and verse 4 because he just explained this, and that's why he doesn't I'm not going to really do a deep dive here, but what does it mean?

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    That we'll never find sorrow. What does it mean that there's no curse?

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    Look at verse 4, it kind of sums it up here in chapter 21, verse 4.

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    It says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

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    Nor shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more for the former things have passed away." There's no depression.

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    There's no discouragement.

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    There's no pain.

    24:20-24:20

    There's no cancer.

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    There's no diabetes.

    24:26-24:27

    There's no autism.

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    There's no organ failure.

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    You won't see handicapped parking spaces because there's no wheelchairs.

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    There are no mental health problems.

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    of the things that ravaged us and beat us down and hurt us never again.

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    You will never experience another second of pain for all of your existence.

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    is described with the greatest word in the world.

    25:16-25:21

    And I can't get this close to my favorite verse in the Bible and not share it with you, alright?

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    But it's the very next verse here in Revelation 21.

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    It says, "He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' I said, "Write this down.

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    "For these words are trustworthy and true." See, it's described with the greatest word ever.

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    You're like, "What's heaven like?" I guess the elevator talk version of this, I could give you one word, it's new.

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    New, it's the greatest word, new.

    26:03-26:04

    Isn't that awesome?

    26:04-26:07

    New, nothing's better than new, right?

    26:07-26:09

    Because we love new stuff, don't we?

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    We love new stuff.

    26:12-26:13

    There's nothing like getting something new, right?

    26:14-26:16

    New shoes, right?

    26:19-26:25

    I heard somebody say the worst part about being an adult is when you get new shoes, people don't ask you, can you run really fast in them?

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    I do kind of miss that.

    26:28-26:30

    But new shoes, we love new shoes, don't we?

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    How about a new car?

    26:37-26:39

    A new phone, a new computer.

    26:40-26:42

    A new fishing rod, Stephen.

    26:44-26:45

    All right, a new house.

    26:47-26:48

    George, how about a new puppy?

    26:50-26:56

    Maybe this isn't the right day to ask that, but there's nothing like getting something new.

    26:58-27:03

    And heaven is described as everything's new.

    27:07-27:08

    Get back to chapter 22.

    27:10-27:12

    Look at the rest, pick up where we left off in verse 3.

    27:14-27:16

    You see, no longer will there be anything accursed.

    27:17-27:29

    Look, it says, "But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him." His servants will worship Him.

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    There is no higher privilege than that.

    27:32-27:34

    You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. No higher privilege than what?

    27:35-27:38

    Serving Him or worshipping Him?" The answer is yes, all of the above.

    27:42-27:58

    But I want you to see here that heaven is not just rest and singing, despite what you may have seen in a far side cartoon where the guy's just sitting on the cloud with his harp.

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    That is a terrible depiction of heaven.

    28:03-28:09

    And it's shocking to me, but over the years, I've had people say to me, can you tell me more about heaven?

    28:09-28:11

    Because honestly, it sounds kind of boring to me.

    28:11-28:13

    And I'm like, boring?

    28:15-28:15

    Boring?

    28:16-28:16

    What?

    28:17-28:20

    Well, that's what happens when you get your ideas of heaven from pop culture.

    28:21-28:24

    And these stupid cartoons, boring.

    28:24-28:27

    You think that's what God has for you, boring.

    28:31-28:34

    Even in verse three right here, I see productivity.

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    We're still called servants.

    28:36-28:37

    Do you see that?

    28:37-28:38

    We're still called servants.

    28:38-28:41

    You're like, well, how are we going to serve?

    28:41-28:41

    I don't know.

    28:42-28:43

    We'll find out together, right?

    28:47-28:58

    But I'm hoping, and I can't say this for sure, but I'm hoping in heaven that we will get new talents and new abilities, because I am so gonna be out of a job in heaven.

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    I'm just gonna be walking around like, hey, can I tell you about Jesus?

    29:03-29:06

    And they're like, yeah, we know that's why we're here.

    29:07-29:09

    Like, all right, well, if you change your mind, I'll just be.

    29:11-29:13

    Like, dude, we get it.

    29:13-29:14

    We get it.

    29:14-29:15

    He's right there.

    29:16-29:17

    We know Jesus, right?

    29:17-29:24

    And so I'm hoping, I'm hoping so much when I get to heaven, I can play the drums.

    29:29-29:35

    Even if I can just be like the gong player in the heavenly band, something, please.

    29:36-29:37

    I don't know.

    29:38-29:42

    But see, being called servants means that there's productivity.

    29:43-29:44

    There's stuff happening.

    29:44-29:46

    But here's the thing that's really exciting to me about that.

    29:48-29:52

    With the curse gone, you know what else is gone?

    29:54-29:54

    Entropy.

    29:55-29:59

    You know, second law of thermodynamics, Everything is moving from order to disorder.

    29:59-30:01

    Everything's decaying, wearing out.

    30:01-30:03

    That is a law, right?

    30:04-30:05

    We see that all around us.

    30:05-30:07

    In heaven with the curse gone, there's no entropy.

    30:08-30:14

    So, every project completed is going to last for eternity.

    30:15-30:17

    It's not gonna wear out.

    30:18-30:19

    It's not gonna rust away.

    30:20-30:22

    Everything built will last.

    30:24-30:28

    Try to wrap your brain around the ramifications of that, because I sure can't.

    30:33-30:34

    But listen, church.

    30:37-30:39

    Someday sorrow will be gone.

    30:41-30:45

    So my encouragement to you is to soak it up here.

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    Soak up as much sorrow as you can here.

    30:50-30:54

    your worst day, just be like, "Ahh, sorrow!

    30:55-30:58

    I'm not going to miss you, but I'm going to have you while I'm here.

    30:58-31:02

    Soak it up!" Because someday it's going to be behind you forever.

    31:05-31:07

    Something you'll never do in heaven is find sorrow.

    31:07-31:12

    And finally, three things you'll never do in heaven.

    31:13-31:16

    Number three is feel alone. Feel alone.

    31:20-31:21

    Look at verse 4.

    31:24-31:32

    It says, "They will see His face." Again, that could be one of those statements when we read the Bible, we just kind of skim past that.

    31:33-31:35

    You can't rush past a statement like that.

    31:36-31:39

    Do you realize biblically how huge that statement is?

    31:39-31:41

    "They will see His face." Do you know what that means?

    31:42-31:46

    Even Moses, who was like tight with God.

    31:46-31:52

    Do you remember back in Exodus 33, verses 20 and 23?

    31:52-31:56

    You can look that up later, not now, but Moses was restricted in seeing God.

    31:56-31:57

    And listen to what God said.

    31:57-32:05

    He said, "Man shall not see me and live." He says, "But Moses, you can see my back." That was all Moses got.

    32:06-32:08

    And even the high priest.

    32:08-32:18

    I mean, he was restricted to being in God's personal presence, His Shekinah glory, Hebrews 9.7, just one day a year for the sacrifice.

    32:19-32:20

    Leviticus 16, Day of Atonement.

    32:22-32:24

    Even the high priest was so restricted.

    32:27-32:39

    Right here, your Bible says, "But we will see His face." The lamb is always accessible.

    32:40-32:43

    He goes on to say, and his name will be on their foreheads.

    32:44-32:46

    Like, what does that look like?

    32:46-32:47

    Is that some kind of a seal?

    32:48-32:49

    Is that some kind of a tattoo?

    32:50-32:55

    Is it like a plate hanging from the crown and the name is on the plate?

    32:55-32:57

    I don't know, we'll find out together.

    33:00-33:05

    But whatever, however that looks, here's the point, there's never going to be a doubt who we belong to.

    33:07-33:10

    Because His name is going to be on us.

    33:13-33:15

    And the last verse, look at verse 5.

    33:17-33:19

    It says, "A night will be no more.

    33:21-33:24

    They will need no light of lamp or sun.

    33:27-33:29

    For the Lord God will be their light.

    33:31-33:32

    And they will reign forever and ever.

    33:34-33:37

    no darkness, no night.

    33:42-33:44

    We will walk in the light of the Lord.

    33:47-33:53

    You know, in the very beginning, like the beginning, in the beginning, there was light apart from sun, remember?

    33:54-33:56

    Light was created before the sun.

    33:58-34:05

    And apparently, speaking of going full circle, God's gonna bring us back to.

    34:06-34:07

    There's not gonna be a son.

    34:08-34:09

    He will be our light.

    34:12-34:14

    It says, we will, look at this last phrase.

    34:14-34:17

    It says, reign forever and ever.

    34:20-34:21

    Let me ask you this.

    34:23-34:25

    Do you ever get tired of the leadership that we're under right now?

    34:27-34:28

    Anyone?

    34:29-34:30

    Anyone at all?

    34:31-34:39

    Anyone get frustrated with the leadership that we have in our state, in our country?

    34:39-34:40

    Anyone?

    34:41-34:45

    Okay, I was gonna say, wow, wow, just me, awesome.

    34:46-34:56

    Look, I'm not making a political statement, I'm not endorsing a political party, but I'm just saying I am really sick of some of the antics of the leadership.

    35:00-35:04

    Well, you think you can do better?

    35:05-35:07

    Because you'll get a chance to, right here it says that.

    35:07-35:10

    We will reign with Jesus Christ.

    35:13-35:24

    In, now this is going to be something that we really need to stretch our imaginations here, but imagine this, we will reign with Him in a holy and sinless kingdom.

    35:29-35:38

    There will be no corruption or ballot stuffing or quid pro quo or any of this other stuff. None of that.

    35:39-35:41

    A perfect righteous kingdom.

    35:44-35:48

    We will reign with Him forever and ever.

    35:48-35:51

    Never end. It'll never end.

    35:54-35:59

    You know, sometimes God seems distant, doesn't he?

    36:01-36:07

    I mean, he's not, but doesn't it sometimes feel that way?

    36:09-36:11

    Don't we sometimes feel alone?

    36:14-36:15

    I know I do.

    36:19-36:24

    We go through trials, we're hurting, and we need comforted.

    36:26-36:35

    We feel betrayed, we're disappointed, we're let down, we're exhausted, and we feel like, where are you God?

    36:38-36:39

    You ever felt that?

    36:40-36:41

    I sure do sometimes.

    36:42-36:44

    God, you see what's happening here.

    36:44-36:45

    Where are you?

    36:46-36:59

    Any moment you wanna step in, please, And here's what we're seeing in heaven.

    37:00-37:02

    Never again will God seem distant.

    37:05-37:07

    Never again will we feel alone.

    37:08-37:11

    We will see His face. He's right there.

    37:14-37:15

    And we will reign with Him.

    37:16-37:24

    So, we've been talking a lot about the curse.

    37:26-37:34

    Especially on Good Friday, we saw from Galatians that Jesus became a curse for us on the cross.

    37:36-37:42

    And when you believe in Jesus Christ, you are no longer cursed.

    37:42-37:54

    Even though, for now, we still live in fallen bodies, we still live in a cursed world, but things will not always be as they are now.

    37:55-38:04

    Because this is what's waiting for God's people.

    38:04-38:08

    This is what Jesus is preparing for us right now.

    38:10-38:11

    There's no death.

    38:14-38:15

    There's no sorrow.

    38:17-38:27

    There's no feeling alone, as you are forever walking in the light of God.

    38:29-38:49

    You know, I was thinking about these concepts this week, you know, no death, no sorrow, no feeling alone, living forever in the light of God, And then it hit me suddenly that, you know, the Bible describes hell as the complete antithesis of all of these things, right?

    38:49-38:52

    Like we said, in heaven there's no death. Do you know what hell is?

    38:53-38:54

    Hell is eternally dying.

    38:57-39:00

    We see here that there's no sorrow in heaven.

    39:00-39:02

    Do you know how hell is described in the Bible?

    39:02-39:05

    A place of weeping. A place of eternal sorrow.

    39:10-39:16

    Here we see that we walk forever in the light of God, and hell is described as what?

    39:17-39:18

    Outer darkness.

    39:21-39:28

    And I think I would be doing us a disservice without giving an invite at this point.

    39:29-39:36

    Look, we can read all about heaven, and get all excited about what's in store.

    39:39-39:53

    But if you haven't personally received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you haven't bowed your knee to Him on your face, crying out, saying, "Please, "forgive me for all of my sins.

    39:53-39:56

    "I know that you died on the cross to take my sins away.

    39:56-40:00

    "I believe that you rose from the dead "so that I might have eternal life.

    40:00-40:07

    "I want to receive you." Listen, if you haven't done that, biblically you are still under the curse.

    40:08-40:10

    And hell is what is waiting for you.

    40:14-40:31

    Still under the curse. That's why 1 Corinthians 16.22 says this, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." Our Lord come.

    40:35-40:45

    Heaven or hell, one of these destinations awaits you after you take your final breath.

    40:49-40:55

    Today can be the day that you cry out to Jesus for your place in heaven.

    40:56-40:58

    I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.

    41:03-41:08

    We don't want to get excited about a place that we'll never see.

    41:10-41:18

    You know, some people think, "Well, I'm going to start going to church, and I'm going to try to be a good person, and I'm going to do this..." and none of those things will get you to heaven.

    41:20-41:26

    Because the fact remains that we're all sinners by nature, and we've sinned in the face of a holy God.

    41:31-41:36

    And that's the point of God's Word, is He remedied this.

    41:37-41:45

    Just like He made skins for Adam and Eve to make a permanent covering when they couldn't do that.

    41:48-41:54

    God made a permanent covering for us, and not even just covering our sin, He took our sin away in Jesus Christ.

    41:58-42:05

    And if you have never received Him, let today be the day.

    42:11-42:17

    Again, you just have to pray something like this, "God, I realize I have been far from You.

    42:18-42:22

    And God, I haven't really cared much about You, I haven't been living for You.

    42:23-42:28

    I've been kind of living for myself and in my sin.

    42:31-42:33

    God, I realize that I am a sinner.

    42:38-42:41

    And I see, Father, that You sent Jesus Christ to die for me.

    42:43-42:45

    That's why Jesus was on the cross.

    42:45-42:47

    He didn't die for His own sin because He didn't commit any.

    42:49-43:20

    for my sin. You would send your Son to die for me. I believe that you did that to take away my sin and I believe that He rose from the dead, proving that He's God and giving us the hope of eternal life, that that empty tomb is our receipt. He is alive and promised I will be too.

    43:24-43:32

    If you've prayed that today, or something like that, I want you to come and see me in guest reception after service.

    43:35-43:50

    I want you to go to the other corner of the room where the big prayer sign is, and maybe you need to take that step, maybe you'd like somebody to pray with you, Any of us would be happy to do that.

    43:53-43:58

    I can't possibly tell you how awesome heaven is going to be.

    43:58-44:15

    We just get almost a quick one second peek behind the curtain in God's Word because it's going to be so much greater and more glorious, I think, than we can ever describe with human words.

    44:17-44:21

    And you can enjoy that place too, thanks to Jesus Christ.

    44:27-44:28

    So come and see me.

    44:32-44:43

    And if you have prayed this, if you have received Jesus Christ, He calls you to make your profession of faith public through baptism.

    44:45-44:48

    And we're going to give you an opportunity for that next week.

    44:51-44:57

    That it's your opportunity to stand before God and before man and say, "I belong to Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed to admit that.

    44:58-45:01

    He died for me. He lives in me.

    45:01-45:12

    And I'm telling the world, come and see me, so we can celebrate with what Jesus Christ is doing in your life." Father, we thank You.

    45:16-45:18

    We thank You for this peak behind the curtain.

    45:22-45:40

    And I just ask, Father, for a place so glorious that we would be consumed with knowing the God who is preparing this place, who died so we could go to this place.

    45:40-45:56

    Father, let our lives be about serving You and worshiping You and loving You now in preparation for when we will do all of these things before You face to face.

    45:58-46:03

    Through the glorious name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 22:1-5

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. Share a misconception you used to have about heaven.

  3. Which “curse reversal” are you most looking forward to?

  4. If we don’t need water or food to survive in heaven, why is there water and food (the river of the water of life and the tree of life)

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Covered by the Blood

Introduction:

The Gospel in the Garden: Three Foundations of Faith (Genesis 3:20-24):

  1. Believe God's Promise . (Gen 3:20)
  2. Receive God's Provision . (Gen 3:21)
  3. Trust God's Path . (Gen 3:22-24)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:54-00:58

    Open your Bibles with me please to Genesis chapter 3.

    01:00-01:06

    I want you to imagine with me please that you have a teenage son.

    01:06-01:07

    Now some of you do.

    01:08-01:11

    And some of you, your children are too young.

    01:11-01:12

    Some of you maybe don't have children.

    01:13-01:14

    Some of you aren't ready to have children yet.

    01:14-01:16

    But you can pretend with me today, can't you?

    01:17-01:17

    Can you pretend?

    01:19-01:21

    Alright, four of you can. How about the rest of you?

    01:22-01:22

    Can you humor me?

    01:24-01:25

    Okay, so you have this teenage son.

    01:25-01:35

    I want you to imagine this teenage son goes to a party, and at this party, there is a classmate of his that just hates your son for whatever reason.

    01:35-01:37

    He just, he hates your son.

    01:39-01:49

    And he, this other boy lies in ambush, and when your son shows up, this other boy jumps out and viciously sneak attack.

    01:49-01:50

    He murders your son.

    01:52-01:52

    Okay?

    01:54-02:05

    Now if you track that murderous boy down and you kill him, that's called vengeance.

    02:08-02:43

    Or if you track that murderous boy down and you cooperate with the police and you make sure that he goes to trial and he's punished for what he did to your son, that's called justice. Or, we're pretending, let's say it goes to trial, and somehow you're able to convince the judge and the jury to let him go, out the door. No punishment. That's called Oh, mercy.

    02:45-03:17

    But, at the trial, let's say somehow you convince the judge to allow you to take that boy who murdered your son, you convince that judge to allow you to take that boy home, and you raise him as if he were your son, and you love him, and you encourage him, And you do everything for Him as if He was your own flesh and blood.

    03:19-03:20

    That's called grace.

    03:22-03:25

    I love that little illustration because it helps me understand some terms.

    03:25-03:26

    I'm going to be honest with you.

    03:27-03:31

    Usually when I think about it, I identify with the parent.

    03:32-03:34

    Because I have teenage boys.

    03:34-03:36

    One of them is turning 16 today.

    03:39-03:43

    The truth be told, church, in that illustration, we're not the parent.

    03:46-03:49

    We're the kid that murdered the son in that illustration.

    03:52-03:57

    Because of our sin, in a real sense, we are responsible for Jesus' death.

    04:00-04:02

    He went to the cross not for His sin.

    04:03-04:04

    He went to the cross for our sin.

    04:07-04:08

    And the Father adopted us.

    04:10-04:13

    Because of Jesus Christ, church, this is why we celebrate today.

    04:13-04:15

    Not just today, we celebrate this every week, don't we?

    04:16-04:28

    But through Jesus Christ, not only can we be forgiven of our sin, that's mercy, we can be adopted as children of God.

    04:28-04:37

    John 1:12 says, "For those who received Him, for those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

    04:39-04:43

    Our church has been going through this series the past few weeks called Foundations.

    04:43-04:47

    It's a Theology 101 series because this stuff is important.

    04:48-04:49

    We started with creation, right?

    04:49-04:53

    Nothing else really matters if we don't believe the first verse of God's Word.

    04:54-05:03

    We talked about creation and we talked about how God created the perfect relationship, and woman, husband and wife.

    05:04-05:05

    And then we talked about sin.

    05:06-05:10

    And a couple of days ago we talked about the consequences of sin.

    05:11-05:12

    We talked about the curse.

    05:13-05:20

    And while Jesus Christ was on the cross, the Bible says He literally became a curse for us.

    05:21-05:31

    And the amazing thing about all of these foundational things to me, of all the truths that we've looked at over the past few weeks, This could be the most amazing thing.

    05:32-05:41

    As soon as man falls, as soon as man sins, God immediately goes to work to redeem him.

    05:43-05:49

    We know the whole story because of the side of history in which we live, right?

    05:49-05:52

    We live on the other side of the cross.

    05:53-05:55

    We live on the other side of the empty tomb.

    05:55-05:56

    We know the whole story.

    05:56-06:06

    In fact, our church just finished a series in the Gospel of John called "Knowing Jesus." And we know the story.

    06:06-06:10

    We know that Jesus Christ died on that cross for our sins.

    06:11-06:14

    We know that He rose from the dead to give us eternal life.

    06:14-06:20

    And we know right now, Jesus Christ is ruling in the lives of those who receive Him.

    06:21-06:34

    And everything we celebrate about Jesus, everything that God has given us in Jesus, we actually find the foundation for those things in the Garden of Eden.

    06:35-06:38

    Because we're going to be completely honest here, as we are every week.

    06:40-06:55

    But yes, Jesus died, Jesus rose from the dead, but honestly, those truths mean nothing to you without biblical faith.

    06:57-07:02

    And I'm talking today about real biblical faith.

    07:03-07:09

    You see, on Friday I talked about how Good Friday Service sort of carries this heaviness of sorrow, and that's natural!

    07:09-07:24

    An innocent man was betrayed and falsely accused and horribly executed, and we talked about how the cross is so much deeper than sympathy for a man who died for a cause.

    07:24-07:26

    It's so much deeper than that.

    07:27-07:28

    And I would say the same thing today.

    07:29-07:35

    Because this type of service naturally carries with it another type of emotion, doesn't it?

    07:36-07:41

    Because we all come to church and it's morning and it's bright, and we're going to see a bunch of new people here.

    07:43-07:45

    And we all have new shirts on.

    07:47-07:49

    I got this one at Gabe's.

    07:49-07:50

    $11.99.

    07:54-07:55

    Don't I look so handsome in it?

    07:58-07:59

    But you see what I'm saying.

    07:59-08:02

    This carries a whole different atmosphere, doesn't it?

    08:02-08:04

    Friday had the sorrow, and it should!

    08:04-08:07

    And there's excitement this morning, and there should be!

    08:10-08:27

    But you can't just reduce this another feeling of sentimentality. There has to be real biblical faith or this doesn't mean anything to you. Like, "Yay, Jesus!" No! This is so much more than that.

    08:30-08:32

    And that's what I want to talk about today.

    08:33-08:47

    Alright? What is faith? Do you have it? Because if I pulled the room right now, I I guarantee you, 100% of you would say, "Yes, I believe." Every one of you.

    08:48-08:58

    And if we were able to reach out and poll every single person that watches this stream, "Do you believe?" Every single one would say, "Yeah, I believe." But what does that even mean to believe?

    08:59-09:02

    Because biblically, it might not mean what you think it means.

    09:03-09:07

    So in your outline today, the Gospel in the Garden, Three Foundations of Faith.

    09:08-09:13

    Everything that faith means we find right here in this account, right off the bat.

    09:14-09:15

    What does it mean to believe?

    09:15-09:16

    What is the gospel?

    09:17-09:18

    What is faith?

    09:18-09:20

    Here it is, number one, write this down.

    09:20-09:22

    Faith is believing God's promise.

    09:23-09:24

    Believe God's promise.

    09:25-09:33

    Now as we talk about faith, the most simple definition of faith, like if you're like, "Just make it as easy as possible," it's this.

    09:34-09:35

    Faith is believing God's Word.

    09:36-09:36

    That's what faith is.

    09:38-09:39

    God said it, I believe it.

    09:41-09:53

    And Adam and his wife, we've seen through this story, they believed God until the serpent came along, Satan in the form of a serpent, he got them to believe the lie.

    09:55-10:01

    Satan convinced Eve and Adam was with her, "Hey, hey, hey, God's holding out on you.

    10:01-10:02

    Did you know that?

    10:03-10:44

    God's holding out on you." They stopped believing God started believing the lie. They experienced perfection. They experienced God's perfect grace and provision and love and presence and they stopped trusting Him. And now as we saw on Friday, they're cursed. They're dying. Look at verse 20, after God pronounces the curse, ending with, by the way, death. Look at the last line of verse 19. He says, "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Adam, you're going to die. Your life is going to be painful and temporary.

    10:45-10:50

    Look at the response to that. You can't miss this. This isn't an accident.

    10:50-11:08

    This is the very next verse. Verse 20 says, "The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." So Adam, we saw that he got to name the animals And here, Adam got to name his wife.

    11:10-11:19

    So husbands, let me ask you, if it were up to you, what would you name your wife?

    11:21-11:23

    This is a really smart room.

    11:26-11:32

    I want you to notice that nobody shouted out any suggestions, but there's a lot of men shifting and sweating right now.

    11:33-11:34

    Smart. You're smart.

    11:36-11:36

    You're smart.

    11:39-11:40

    Anyways, back to Adam.

    11:40-11:41

    He got to name her.

    11:42-11:44

    And he named her Eve.

    11:45-11:46

    You know what Eve means?

    11:47-11:48

    It means life.

    11:50-11:51

    And that is so significant.

    11:52-11:58

    As God just pronounced death on them, Adam named his wife Life.

    11:59-12:00

    Like, why would he do that?

    12:01-12:07

    Well, first of all, the command to multiply and fill the earth was not voided because of the fall.

    12:08-12:11

    And this, Adam, he believed what God said.

    12:12-12:19

    Back in verse 15, God said that one of Eve's offspring was going to crush the serpent.

    12:20-12:26

    And what you see here is Adam, bless you, believing the Word of God.

    12:27-12:30

    Because remember, at this point in history, no one was born yet.

    12:31-12:38

    So the very fact that Adam names his wife, "wife", demonstrates that Adam believed God.

    12:38-12:42

    In other words, it demonstrates that Adam had faith.

    12:43-12:44

    You know, faith is the same for us.

    12:45-12:56

    Even though, as I said, we live on the other end of the timeline, even though that we are on the other side of the cross and the tomb, faith is the same thing for us.

    12:57-13:12

    And I'd like to remind you, when it comes to faith, whether it's our faith or Adam's faith, everybody who is saved, everybody who is in heaven or ultimately will be in heaven, it's thanks to Jesus Christ, okay?

    13:13-13:18

    We look back on what God accomplished in the past and our faith is based on a past event.

    13:19-13:24

    The person, our faith is on the person, but we're looking at what he did in the past.

    13:24-13:27

    You see in the Old Testament, they were looking ahead.

    13:27-13:35

    Their faith was based on what God would do in Jesus, just as our faith is based on what God has done in Jesus.

    13:35-13:42

    But everybody in heaven is walking around there because of Jesus Christ, glorifying him, all right?

    13:43-13:50

    But appropriating that salvation, our part of that is faith, and that is believing God's promise.

    13:52-13:53

    Like, well, what does it mean to believe?

    13:53-13:55

    Evan, would you bring me a chair up, please, buddy?

    13:56-13:59

    Like, what does it mean to believe?

    13:59-14:01

    Thank you very much.

    14:01-14:02

    You da man.

    14:02-14:05

    And this is where a lot of people miss it.

    14:06-14:07

    What does it mean to believe?

    14:07-14:16

    If you've ever come to me for any type of counseling or talk of any kind, we talk about this, but there's really three levels of belief.

    14:16-14:20

    And the first level is knowing some facts, right?

    14:21-14:29

    Like if I said to you, hey, this chair that Evan brought me will hold an adult that sits down in it.

    14:30-14:32

    Now you have facts, you know something, I told you something.

    14:33-14:34

    That's the first level of belief.

    14:35-14:39

    The second level of belief is agreeing with the facts.

    14:39-14:46

    You know something and the second level is, you know what, yeah, I'll go with that.

    14:46-14:47

    I agree with that.

    14:48-14:49

    That's the second level of belief.

    14:50-14:52

    But see, here's the problem, That's where a lot of people stop.

    14:52-14:56

    And there's so many people sitting in churches that think that that is the requirement.

    14:57-15:00

    That look, I know Jesus died and he rose from the dead.

    15:00-15:02

    You know, I even agree with that.

    15:02-15:02

    I'm not against it.

    15:02-15:05

    I mean, I'm sitting in church, and I mean, I'm not against it.

    15:05-15:08

    But listen, that is not biblical faith.

    15:08-15:10

    You know what biblical faith looks like?

    15:10-15:11

    It's level three.

    15:12-15:13

    It's resting in what I know.

    15:14-15:14

    It's trusting.

    15:16-15:25

    You see, I know that this chair will hold, I agree that this chair will hold me, but it's not really faith until I sit down in a chair and let it hold me.

    15:26-15:33

    In other words, faith biblically isn't really faith until it acts upon what it knows.

    15:34-15:35

    That's faith.

    15:35-15:37

    You have to go all the way like Adam did.

    15:38-15:39

    We know that Adam believed.

    15:40-15:40

    How do we know?

    15:40-15:44

    Because we see right here he acted on God's promise.

    15:45-15:48

    God says he's going to have an offspring, eventually, that's going to crush Satan.

    15:48-15:51

    And Adam's like, "Well, then I'm going to name her Life.

    15:51-16:00

    That's what I'm going to name her because of what is going to happen through our eventual offspring." Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins?

    16:02-16:05

    Do you believe that He rose to give you eternal life?

    16:08-16:10

    Do you believe God's Word?

    16:12-16:16

    It's not enough to just know some facts and nod your head during a sermon.

    16:17-16:21

    Like Adam, you have to go all the way and act on what you know.

    16:22-16:23

    That's what it means to believe.

    16:23-16:33

    And if you say you have faith and it doesn't show up in your life at all, not in your home, not in your workplace, not in your private time, not...

    16:34-16:36

    Jesus Christ doesn't make...

    16:36-16:38

    He doesn't affect any decisions that you make.

    16:38-16:40

    Then you don't have faith biblically.

    16:40-16:43

    Today's the day that can change for you.

    16:43-16:50

    Today's the day that spiritually maybe you can sit in the chair instead of just knowing some facts about a chair, all right?

    16:50-16:51

    Believe God's promise.

    16:51-16:54

    Secondly, second foundation of faith is receive God's provision.

    16:55-16:56

    Receive God's provision.

    16:56-16:57

    Look at verse 21.

    16:57-17:09

    It says, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife "garments of skins and clothed them." Remember we talked about grace in the beginning?

    17:09-17:10

    This is grace.

    17:11-17:12

    God should have killed them.

    17:13-17:13

    And what did He do?

    17:14-17:14

    He covered them.

    17:15-17:16

    That's grace.

    17:16-17:25

    Quick review, back in chapter 2, verse 25, before the fall, it says that they were naked and not ashamed, never had a thought about it.

    17:25-17:31

    But then after they sinned, chapter 3, verse 7, it says they were naked and ashamed.

    17:32-17:33

    And we talked about that.

    17:33-17:39

    There's a certain shame that's tied into sexuality that came as a result of the fall.

    17:39-17:46

    and now the only two people on the planet who had only ever seen each other naked, now all of a sudden they have to cover themselves up.

    17:48-17:52

    This is what we said about that, what we saw from God's Word.

    17:53-18:00

    They made loincloths out of fig leaves, the Bible says.

    18:01-18:15

    And I asked you, "How long do underpants made out of leaves last?" And I also said that man's attempts to cover shame are futile, but sin always makes us want to try.

    18:16-18:25

    And I wanted to remind you of those things, because right here it says that God made them permanent coverings out of animal skins.

    18:26-18:33

    Look at the language used in God's Word, "skins." You know what that means? You know why that's important?

    18:34-18:37

    God didn't use wool. See the difference?

    18:38-18:46

    God didn't grab a sheep and some clippers, say, "I'm going to make you a nice sweater." See, a sheep can donate to wool without dying.

    18:46-18:50

    But an animal can't donate skin and live.

    18:51-18:52

    You see what's happening here?

    18:53-18:54

    Is it connecting?

    18:57-19:01

    God killed an animal to make a covering.

    19:02-19:05

    for Adam and Eve's sin and shame.

    19:07-19:08

    You're seeing a connection?

    19:10-19:12

    But you've got to stop here for a second and think.

    19:13-19:16

    God killing an animal, what do you think that looked like to Adam and Eve?

    19:17-19:20

    Because at this point, they'd never seen anything like that.

    19:21-19:22

    Never.

    19:23-19:27

    Everything was beautiful and harmonious and life and...

    19:27-19:27

    What?

    19:29-19:30

    Could you imagine?

    19:30-19:32

    Could you imagine what that looked like?

    19:33-20:08

    You know, last week, my son Cade came to me, and he said, "Dad, one of the chickens is dead." And I'm thinking, like, you know, "Are you sure?" I'm like, "So what's going on?" He goes, "Well, I went up to feed the chickens, and there's feathers everywhere." I'm like, "Well, feathers everywhere doesn't mean a dead chicken." I'm like, "Maybe not." I said, "So there's feathers everywhere." I said, "Are we sure that it's dead?" He's like, "Well, I, um, I, he, I, I..." He goes, "Dad, I don't see a head anywhere."

    20:09-20:09

    (audience laughing)

    20:11-20:13

    I'm like, "Let me get my shoes."

    20:14-20:14

    (audience laughing)

    20:16-20:21

    So I went up to the chicken coop and the door has this wood frame.

    20:21-20:25

    We have like chicken wire on the frame, right?

    20:26-20:31

    and a piece of the chicken wire came detached from the frame, just like a little flat.

    20:31-20:42

    And long story short, something grabbed the chicken and tried to pull it out that hole, but the chicken was bigger than the hole.

    20:44-20:54

    So what the predator decided to do in that moment was eat what it could right there, which was the head.

    20:56-21:04

    and down into the chicken, kind of hollowed it out mostly, couldn't take the rest and just left it.

    21:05-21:07

    Like I was gonna take this meal to go, but I'm gonna eat it.

    21:09-21:10

    Do you know how grisly that was?

    21:12-21:14

    Do you wanna see a picture of that?

    21:14-21:18

    You wanna see, no, you don't wanna see a picture of that, what's the matter with you?

    21:18-21:19

    I just told you how gross it was.

    21:20-21:21

    It was horrifying.

    21:24-21:37

    And I would have said, okay, before you send the nasty emails, like, "That was inappropriate, Pastor Jeff, that you told that story." You're going to go out and you're going to have like 20 chicken wings for lunch and not think a thing of it.

    21:38-21:43

    And some poor little precious starving raccoon eats one chicken and I'm the monster all of a sudden.

    21:44-21:47

    But you see my point, it was a horrific scene.

    21:48-21:53

    And I was thinking about that, like, What do you think that looked like to Adam and Eve when they saw the first death?

    21:55-21:56

    What just happened?

    21:59-22:03

    I mean, they knew of death, but to actually see it is another story.

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    What you have to understand, church, is this.

    22:06-22:10

    God making for Adam and his wife garments of skins.

    22:10-22:13

    Do you understand that this is more than about clothes?

    22:15-22:20

    What this is is a profound foreshadowing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    22:20-22:43

    And that is this, listen, "Those sinned against God initiated His grace by killing an innocent substitute which provided a permanent covering of their shame, accomplishing what man could not." This, look at your Bible, this was God's idea.

    22:45-22:53

    God chose the animal, and then God killed the animal, and then God covered them with the animal.

    22:54-22:56

    And the cross of Jesus Christ is the same thing.

    22:57-22:58

    It was God's idea.

    23:00-23:02

    God chose the sacrifice again.

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    This time it was His Son.

    23:05-23:07

    And then on the cross, God killed Him.

    23:08-23:09

    Make no mistake.

    23:10-23:14

    God was the one who killed him.

    23:15-23:21

    Isaiah 53 tells you that the Lord crushed him for our sin.

    23:22-23:26

    And you see, Adam and Eve, here's the connection, church.

    23:26-24:03

    Listen, Adam and Eve needed to receive God's provision, because their attempt at covering their sin and shame, leafy britches wouldn't last. Right? And I've never tried it, but if you were to sew underpants out of leaves, yeah, when you get them right off the tree, they're kind of soft and, you know, we can work with this, but what happens to a leaf after a couple of days? It shrivels up, doesn't it? What do you think happens if you You have a pair of britches made out of leaves and you sit down.

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    Dust, right?

    24:09-24:17

    That was the best Adam and Eve could come up with until God made provision that Adam and Eve had to receive.

    24:20-24:21

    God did all the work.

    24:21-24:24

    Their job by faith was to receive what He provided.

    24:25-24:34

    I suppose, hypothetically, Adam and Eve could have taken the skins off and put their leaves back on.

    24:35-24:39

    And so, you know, hypothetically, it didn't happen, but hypothetically, right?

    24:39-24:50

    They could have said, "You know what, God? Appreciate the gesture, but we're going to do it our way." And how foolish that would have been, and how completely ineffective that would have been, right?

    24:53-25:04

    And if that actually is what happened, I know we'd be sitting here today going, "Man, that was awfully dumb of them to reject God's provision and try to do it themselves.

    25:05-25:06

    That was awfully stupid of them.

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    Why would anybody reject God's provision because it was perfect and it was permanent?

    25:11-25:23

    Why would somebody insist on doing things their way?" And as foolish as people might think that notion would be, that still is happening right now.

    25:27-25:34

    There are still people right here that are rejecting God's provision.

    25:35-25:41

    There are still people right here that instead think they can get to heaven their way, like through good works.

    25:42-25:48

    I've done enough good stuff. I've done enough good stuff, Pastor Jeff, and someday when I die, God's gonna look at all the good stuff that I've done.

    25:48-25:52

    You know what your good stuff is? Leafy britches. That's what it is.

    25:53-25:56

    And you're like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff? You see me at church.

    25:56-26:02

    I'm really involved in church. I have pretty good church attendance." And I'm not just like here. I'm like, I actually get involved.

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    And someday when I die, God's gonna see that I was involved at the church.

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    And when it comes to your salvation, do you know what your church attendance and involvement amount to?

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    Tell me.

    26:16-26:17

    Leafy britches.

    26:20-26:21

    Or for some people, it's being a moral person.

    26:23-26:26

    All I know, Jeff, is that really bad people go to hell, but not me.

    26:26-26:32

    Like, I've always tried to do the right thing, Pastor Jeff.

    26:32-26:35

    I've always been kind of a moral person.

    26:35-26:42

    I've never hurt anyone. I'm just, I'm a good person deep down, deep down in my heart, deep down where I'm soft like a woman.

    26:42-26:44

    I've always been a really moral person.

    26:47-26:54

    And some people think they're in here in goodness, which they actually don't have, but they think that that's what's going to get them to heaven.

    26:55-26:59

    Your morality amounts to nothing more than what, church?

    27:01-27:01

    Leafy britches.

    27:03-27:09

    If you're trusting these types of things, any work on your part to save you, it can't do it.

    27:10-27:13

    Like Adam and Eve, listen, here's what you need to do.

    27:13-27:15

    You need to receive the provision that God made for you.

    27:18-27:20

    It's the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

    27:21-27:25

    And finally, the gospel in the garden, three foundations of faith.

    27:26-27:30

    Last and certainly not least, you've got to believe God's Word, you've got to receive God's provision.

    27:31-27:39

    But then, when you do those things, and when the rubber meets the road, you've got to catch this, you've got to trust God's path.

    27:40-27:41

    You've got to trust God's path.

    27:42-27:48

    We already said that back in verse 15, God made the promise of a Savior.

    27:48-27:51

    And then in verse 21, He provided atonement.

    27:51-28:04

    And now, what you're going to see is God acting— don't miss this, because this is kind of a— if you miss this, you're going to say, "What in the world is going on here?" What God is doing is acting to protect Adam and Eve.

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    That's what's happening here. God is protecting them.

    28:07-28:11

    Look at verse 22, because it makes it so clear here. Look at this.

    28:11-28:24

    It says, "Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us, and knowing good and evil.'" All right, we talked about this.

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    God knows good and evil perfectly, but God is incorruptible.

    28:28-28:32

    And now man knows good and evil, but is thoroughly corrupted.

    28:33-28:34

    Right? We talked about this.

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    Look at this. Here's the protection.

    28:39-28:50

    It says, "Now, lest he reach out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..." And then he does something, but hang on a second.

    28:51-28:54

    Yes, man knows good and evil, not the same way God does.

    28:54-28:56

    He's incorruptible. We are corrupted.

    28:56-29:03

    But now, here's the point, Adam and Eve saw death when God killed the animal.

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    And now they would be tempted to avoid that themselves by eating from the tree of life to live forever.

    29:19-29:21

    Why shouldn't they eat off the tree of life?

    29:22-29:23

    Here's why.

    29:24-29:30

    Because if Adam and Eve ate off of the tree of life in the state that they were in, they would have been eternally evil.

    29:31-29:34

    In other words, they would have been stuck in that state forever.

    29:36-29:37

    And do you know what it's called?

    29:39-29:43

    To be forever stuck in a state of corruption.

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    Do you know what that's called?

    29:45-29:45

    That's hell.

    29:47-29:48

    That's hell.

    29:50-29:54

    And you see, God very clearly says, "I don't want that for them.

    29:56-30:11

    I don't want them stuck in this state of fallenness." So, verse 23, "Therefore the Lord God sent them out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which He was taken.

    30:13-30:30

    He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." You're like, "What's going on here?" Here's what's going on.

    30:31-30:35

    God drove them out of Eden to prevent permanent harm.

    30:36-30:44

    Interestingly, where it says in verse 24, "He drove them out." That's a very, very strong word in the Hebrew.

    30:46-31:11

    In other words, it wasn't like, "Sir, ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." This was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants, and "Out! Go! You are not going to be here anymore! Driven out!" And then he posted an armed guard to block the way to the Tree of Life.

    31:13-31:14

    There's no going back there for them.

    31:16-31:27

    And you're like, "Boy, that's bad." And I want us to think about this for a second.

    31:30-31:35

    Adam and Eve were put on a path of suffering.

    31:38-31:53

    And as forceful as God was about this, throwing them out, posting the angel and the sword, as forceful as God was about that, it was for their own good.

    31:57-32:07

    And I want you to see something very clearly, because this is where theology goes so applicational.

    32:07-32:14

    Look at this. God very clearly didn't give them what they wanted.

    32:16-32:23

    He knew if they had access to the tree of life, that that's all they would want.

    32:26-32:38

    God did not give them what they wanted, instead He drove them out to suffer, because that would not only prevent permanent harm, but instead it would bring ultimate blessing.

    32:40-32:44

    And this is a fundamental truth that...

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    This is where we need to hit, church. All of us. All of us.

    32:50-32:53

    Listen, we too find ourselves on paths that we don't want to be on.

    32:55-32:56

    Anybody testify to that?

    32:59-33:00

    Can anybody right now say, "Hey, you know what?

    33:01-33:04

    You know what, Jeff? Yeah, I'm on a path that I don't want to be on right now.

    33:05-33:16

    I'm going through some serious pain and some serious suffering, and I don't like this, and I have prayed about this, and I have tried this, and I'm miserable right now.

    33:18-33:23

    And sometimes we too find God not giving us what we want.

    33:24-33:43

    And I just want to ask, church, is it possible that, like Adam and Eve, In this whole story, is it possible that God knows what is better for us than even we do?

    33:44-33:44

    Is that possible?

    33:46-33:52

    Is it possible that what looks like hardship from God is actually a profound act of love?

    33:54-33:54

    Is that possible?

    33:56-33:57

    I suppose we could ask Jesus.

    33:59-34:01

    Do you know before He was crucified, the Bible says He prayed?

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    He prayed so fervently that He was sweating blood.

    34:07-34:09

    Do you remember what He was praying for?

    34:10-34:19

    "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me." Did the Father give Him what He was praying for?

    34:20-34:20

    He didn't.

    34:21-34:28

    Jesus said, "Nevertheless, not My will, but Your will be done." But you have to see, the cup didn't pass from Jesus.

    34:28-34:34

    And instead, He was driven to suffer on the cross.

    34:35-34:39

    So let me ask you, did any blessing come from that?

    34:40-34:43

    Did any blessing come from what Jesus accomplished on the cross?

    34:45-34:47

    Any blessing at all? Can you think of anything?

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    Well, if you can't think of one, allow me to submit this one.

    34:54-35:11

    That the blessing came three days later, when the Lamb of God triumphantly emerged from the tomb, defeating death and defeating Satan and defeating sin and guaranteeing our resurrection and eternal life for everyone who would receive Him.

    35:14-35:15

    So you know what that tells me?

    35:18-35:37

    When I look at the garden of Eden, and I look at the garden of Gethsemane, I see that sometimes God doesn't give me everything that I pray for, and instead drives me to a place of suffering.

    35:38-35:40

    But in these cases, it was for ultimate blessing.

    35:41-35:45

    Is it possible that it's going to be a blessing for me?

    35:47-35:59

    I have to trust His path, because the path that God leads me on is always ultimately where I need to be, even if it doesn't look like it in the moment.

    36:00-36:11

    So, you know, in a way, we're still kind of with Adam and Eve, out of paradise and suffering.

    36:12-36:23

    But provision was made for our sin, and we have been adopted by God through Jesus Christ.

    36:24-36:26

    And the story doesn't end there.

    36:27-36:35

    Because next Sunday, I'm going to show you even more of God's grace, because there's even more good news.

    36:37-36:38

    We're heading back to paradise.

    36:39-36:40

    Will you pray with me, please?

    36:40-36:43

    Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.

    36:44-36:47

    And we thank You, Father, that we see the foundation of faith.

    36:47-36:55

    Even in the garden, we see belief in Your Word, we see receiving Your provision, we see ultimately it's trusting Your path.

    36:56-37:10

    And Father, right now I pray specifically for those who need to do these things, that there are people, somebody here needs to believe, Not just agreeing, but acting on what Your Word says.

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    And the first part of that is receiving Your provision.

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    There's somebody here right now, Father, that needs to say, "I'm done trying to think that I can earn my way, or be a good enough person, or do enough good works." They need to receive the provision that You've made in Christ.

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    And I pray, Father, that you would open their eyes, and open their heart to receive your provision in Christ.

    37:37-37:41

    And right now, Father, there's a whole lot of us on a path that we really don't want to be on.

    37:41-37:44

    But we see in your Word, Father, it's a key part of faith.

    37:45-37:48

    Adam and Eve went through it, and Jesus Christ Himself went through it.

    37:48-37:55

    Help us to trust you, even when it's hard, even when we don't get all the things that we want.

    37:56-38:04

    Father, teach us what it means to wait on you, and teach us what faith looks like when we trust you with the big picture.

    38:06-38:23

    Father, we are about to stand in worship, and I pray that this is a sweet sound to your ear. As you deserve all praise and glory and honor and power, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Genesis 3:20-24

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. What is a curse? What does it mean that disobedience to God results in a curse from God? What does this have to do with Jesus? See Galatians 3:10-13

  3. What is faith? How did Adam demonstrate faith (Gen 3:20)?

  4. Explain the significance of God clothing Adam and Eve with skins (Gen 3:21).

  5. Why did God drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:22)? How was this actually a blessing for them?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

Because Jesus Was Raised...We Will Be Raised in a New Body.

Introduction:

What happens to me when I die?

Philippians 1:23 - ...my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

2 Corinthians 5:8 - ...we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

John 5:28-29 - Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

When do these resurrections take place?

Daniel 12:2 - And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Acts 24:15 - ...there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

What is the resurrection body like? (1 Cor 15:35-49)

  1. Your body now is like a " Seed" , your resurrected body is like a "plant". (1 Cor 15:36-38)
  2. Your resurrected body will be Similar but Different but Better . (1 Cor 15:39-42a)
  3. Your resurrected body will never have earthly Weaknesses . (1 Cor 15:42b-44)
    1. Perishable vs. Imperishable : Decay
    2. Dishonor vs. Glory : Sin
    3. Weakness vs. Power : Strength
    4. Natural vs. Spiritual : Environmental Suitability
  4. Your resurrected body is just like Jesus' glorified body. (1 Cor 15:45-49)

    Philippians 3:21 - who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body...

In Light of Your Future Makeover: What Do We Do With This Now?

Information

1 Thessalonians 4:13 - But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Consolation

1 Thessalonians 4:18 - Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Purification

1 John 3:2-3 - Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Cor 15:35-49

  1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?

  2. Describe the 4 contrasts between your earthly body and your glorified body from 1 Cor 15:42-44.

  3. What was Jesus’ glorified body able to do that you are excited to think about your glorified body being able to do?

  4. Read 1 John 3:2-3. How does the knowledge of our future glorified bodies motivate us to purify ourselves today?

Breakout
Pray for one another.