God and Man Forever

What do you expect will happen when you die? It's a question almost every human has had to ask at some point. And I want to ask a little more precise question because most of us gathered here are Christians. What do you expect heaven to be like? What do you think you'll be doing forever? This is important. We believe in Jesus so that we'll have eternal life. What will we be doing for eternity? How do you picture it? What are you looking forward to? Maybe you're sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, wearing something that looks like a diaper. That's a prominent picture of what heaven might be like? Or maybe it's a concert where everybody's singing loudly and maybe a little swaying. as everyone joins in the chorus praise to the Lamb. Oftentimes I think we picture heaven as our favorite thing here. One long eternal video game, one long sport, just leisure sitting at the beach hearing the waves crash as we lounge and enjoy the bright light. Maybe it's one big art gallery that goes on forever and ever. Maybe it's looking in the mirror forever. i remember when uh... dale earnhardt died dale earnhardt arguably the greatest racer in racing history with all due respect to the king he died tragically at daytona the greatest racing event uh... for nascar and i remember listening to the radio and and the announcer who was talking about dale earnhardt passing away he said well now we know there are racetracks in heaven Dale wouldn't be happy without a racetrack. I looked at my dad and kind of thought, what did he just say? Well, he said, well, Dale, he's in heaven, so there we go. And if Dale's in heaven, there's going to be racetracks, because Dale could only be happy if he's racing. That's what heaven must be for Dale. Now, we can kind of snicker that. That's silly, but it's very logical. You see, you start with the premise, God has to give me everything I want. Dale wants racetracks. God gives Dale racetracks. We do the same thing. God is supposed to give me everything I want. I want A. Therefore, God must forever give me A in heaven, and that's what heaven is like. See, scripture tells us the truth. God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. We instead believe the lie. God has to give me everything I want, as if I always want what is good and perfect. See, heaven isn't a place where we receive the best of the things of earth. Heaven and eternity, as Brian prayed, is where we will forever get to behold the greatest thing, the greatest one, God Almighty. We long for things that are so much less glorious than the one who says, I will give you myself forever. So our problem is our hearts, we're always torn to love the things God gives us rather than love the one who gives. This morning we're ending a short mini-series. We began in Genesis 2. We saw that God and man were together. We saw that beautiful design. There was no shame. They were in right fellowship with one another. There was no sin yet. Then the next Message was from Genesis 3. Because of our sin, man was removed from God. Then in Titus 3, God says, I have taken away your sin. I have sent my Son to die for your sin. I have sent my Holy Spirit to wash you of your sin. Today, we're going to see God is with us again. See, Genesis 2, we were with God. That's how we were created. We rejected him. Genesis 3, we're removed from him because of our sin. Titus 3 was looking at what God did to take away the offense. Now, Revelation, we get a new picture. He brings us back. God reunites us with himself. So if you're with us and you don't have a Bible, please take the Bible in front of you. And as we started in the very beginning, we're going to end at the very end. And it's on page 1041 in a Pew Bible. We're in Revelation 21. This is a vision, a picture of what we as Christians are supposed to be longing for. And I want you to see something that's going to go throughout this passage. What you get in heaven is God. God gives us the best thing in eternity, forever, and it is himself. What we get in heaven is to see God face to face, without the blurriness of sin, without a partial vision of God. It's a full vision, a fully enjoyed relationship with God. We're in Revelation chapter 21, and we're gonna go through chapter 22, verse five. Hear the word of the Lord. 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. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I'm making all things new. Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have his heritage, and I'll be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal, hit a great high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates, 12 angels, And on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes, the sons of Israel, were inscribed. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. And on the west, three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations. And on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square its length, the same as its width, And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and its width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits, by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper. the second, sapphire, the third, a gate, the third, emerald, the fifth, onyx, the sixth, chameleon, the seventh, crystallite, the eighth, barrel, the ninth, topaz, the tenth, chrysoprase, the eleventh, jacenth, the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street to the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. And I saw no temple in the city, For its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city had no need of sun or moon or to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its light is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is attestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Then the angel showed me the river, 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. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit in each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you did not leave us when we rejected you. You gave a word of promise that you would save us. You have been about the work because you're the Alpha and Omega. You have begun a work. You have begun the promise of salvation. You have completed that salvation. And now we're going to meditate upon this vision that tells us what we have to look forward to. We thank you, God, that we have you to look forward to, to see you who are truly glorious. to know you who are truly lovely, to be embraced by you who is true love. Father, help us, Lord, to see this picture and to long for it and to live patiently waiting for this glorious reality to be ours. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we look at the passage, I want to break it down into four sections. I want us to see the four main parts here. And something that's interesting about this, I mean, it's a vision, it's a revelation, and John sees and John hears. These things are being revealed. And so there's four main parts that I want us to look at. First, God is with us. That's 21, one to four. God is with us. This is the grand declaration that we're going to see over and over and over again. God is with us. The next three points are actually three questions. Who is with God? That's five to eight. Who is with God? Three, where are we with God? That's nine to 21. That's that description with all the jewels and the walls and the gates. Where are we with God? Nine to 21. And then what is life like with God? Chapter 21, 22 through 22, five. What is life like with God? And this is where we really should ask. What are we looking forward to? What has God set before us that we're longing for? What we must see overall is that we are looking forward to knowing God more intimately and personally. Let's look at verses one to four. God is with us. There's a grand declaration to this entire section. Verse 1 is the grand declaration. There's a new heaven and a new earth. The former, the first heaven and earth, it passed away. The sea is no more. There's something new God is bringing about. We corrupted the first heaven and earth. We were put in charge of it. We were ambassadors and we rejected God and therefore we corrupted His creation. Now, something here is interesting in that it says what's not there, there is no sea. There's no ocean. Why is that? God created the waters and the earth, and so the water itself is not evil, it's not bad, but why is there no sea? It's an important question to ask. Well, the sea, it represents a lot for this culture. It's a metaphor. You know, waters are not bad, but what the sea represents is. Most of the other creation accounts from the ancient Near Eastern world, evil comes out of the sea. Because the sea is a place where chaos is seen. The ocean is scary. The sea is a place that is the source of evil. The sea is chaotic. The sea represents danger. So when most folks looked at the sea, it was scary, it was danger, it was evil, and what this is declaring, there is no more fear, there is no more chaos, there's no more separation from other peoples. We're all together, all is good, there's order. Verse two. Then I saw So he's seen the new heaven, new earth. There's no sea. The former has passed away. Now he sees a holy city. New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Again, we'll see this again. What we're looking for is something that comes from God. It is a gift from him. Jerusalem comes down from him and he picks up the imagery of marriage. Genesis 2 was the first marriage. God gave to Adam, Eve, and they were united in marriage. God has designed marriage to be this universal good for man because one man loves one woman. And it's one of the most intimate, personal loves that we know. It's one of the most close relationships we should know. And God has given us this to show us He loves us. The church is like the bride. God, Jesus Christ specifically, is like the bridegroom. He adorns her. He makes her beautiful. He loves her. The church, New Jerusalem, is beloved and made beautiful. She will receive true love forever. Then let's look at verse three. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. The dwelling place of God is with man. The word dwelling place, same word for tabernacle. So if you're an Israelite, throughout the wilderness, after they were delivered from Egypt, they had a tabernacle. It was the tent where the people got to meet with God. Then they built a temple. That was the place where the people got to meet with God. The tabernacle, the temple, this is the dwelling place of God for Israel because it's where He came to meet with man. Genesis 2, that garden, that was the original tabernacle. Remember, God came. to meet with man and man hid because of his sin. God removed him from his dwelling place because man had sinned. And then God has been at work saying, I'm going to come back. I wanna meet with you, I wanna be with you. This is a special place. It has to be a holy place for me to meet with you. And then Jesus Christ came and said, I have taken on flesh. He tabernacled with us. dwelling place of God was in a man. And that man died on the cross for other sinners, himself not being a sinner. You see, all of God's history has been bringing about a place for us to dwell with Him in this place, this city, like a bride, is where God says, I will once again be with you. This is the desire of God. He created us to be with Him. We refuse Him, and He has been at work to bring us back. Again, in Genesis 3, we lost the most important thing we had, and that was a right relation with God. In Titus 3, we saw that the Father sent His Son to die for us, so that we would be declared innocent. The Holy Spirit washes us, and now we see in Revelation, God finishing that work, He takes away our sins, so that we now are the beautiful bride where He dwells. The reconciliation we have in Revelation is different than that of Titus. See, we live in a world where we can see God, but not fully. It's only partial. We live in a world where we can have a right relationship with God, but it's not fully enjoyed. That relationship that we will enjoy forever does not have partiality to it. It's not partial. It's full. Sin and death do no longer hinder us. Notice this vision has everything to do with God. Look at verse 3 again. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He wants to dwell with us. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Now that declaration, he will be their God and they will be his people, that's a covenant formula that we see throughout the Old Testament. That is what God has been saying to his people forever. You will be my people, I will be your God. This is the gospel. God with his people. His people finally being able to be with God. This is what we must desire. Now he looks to verse four. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." Now, let's go back to verse 1 real quick. Verses 2 to 4, I believe, are commenting on verse 1. There's a new heaven and a new earth. That's that holy city. That's the bride. That's the dwelling place of God. A new heaven, a new earth. That's what he was describing in verses 2 and 3. The former have passed away. That's verse 4. The former things. Tears. Death, mourning, crying, pain. All these things are not what God created us for. He created us for life, for love, for joy, to be with Him. But in our sin, we brought about pain, tears, crying, death. The first four verses here give us an important Picture, God desires to be with us. He desires to take away everything that hinders our enjoyment of him. He desires to take away all the pain that we brought upon ourselves. This is why eternity is so important. We have to have an idea of what we're longing for forever so that we begin to fix our palate to desire it. You should desire to be with God today. You should have a focus to say, I want to grow in my desire to be with God, because that's what He has said is best, that's what forever's going to be like. If you have the idea that you have prayed a prayer, and you got baptized, and that's your ticket to heaven, and you're just gonna do whatever you want now, and then one day you'll enjoy God, friends, I don't think you're gonna get there. It doesn't work like that. You see, God says, you are running straight to hell as fast as you could. I came down. I saved you. I've turned you. Look, you can now have what's truly good for you, what's truly glorious. It's God. We have to have an appetite for God now, knowing and longing that that appetite will be truly satisfied. When Christ returns, when we die, we will see Him face to face. Let's look at verse five, our second section. Eternity is going to be God with man. That's what we're looking for, that's what we're longing for. But verses five to eight actually tell us something a little more precise, and it says, it tells us who is with God, and importantly, who's not. Look at verse five. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I'm making all things new. Now this is very good news. God is about renewal. Anybody can destroy something. I used to work demolition, one of the best jobs I ever had. You get a hammer and a crowbar and you're told, go take out that wall, it is a lot of fun. Cleaning up isn't always. But demolition, anybody can destroy something. We're actually really good at destroying things. To make something new again, to make something whole again, to purify something that's been corrupted, that is the work of God. He is about making things new that have been corrupted. And now He's saying, I'm making all things new. This is what I do. Notice what He says next in verse five. Write this down. The church needs to hear these words. Verse six, what does he say? It's done. At this point in history, it's done. There's an end to the suffering. There's an end to the pain. There's an end to the crying. It's done, he says. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. This is one of the grand declarations. We saw in Revelation chapter one, God has begun a good work and He completes that good work. He is sovereignly able to finish the promises He's given. And the promises He's given is that I will once again dwell with you. I am the Alpha and the Omega. He begins the work of salvation. He ends the work of salvation. He's sovereign to be trusted. Now notice what follows are three different descriptions of people. He said to me, it is done, I'm the Alpha and the Omega, to the beginning and the end. Verse six, the first person, to the thirsty. To those who are thirsty, they will receive the spring of water of life. Look at verse seven, to the one who conquers. And then verse eight is a contrast, for the cowardly and the faithless. Let's look at these in order. First, verse six. to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. This one's interesting. Who's coming to heaven thirsty? Who is he talking about here? I believe he's writing this for the church who's actually alive today. Who's thirsty? You see, if you've tried to live in this world and be satisfied by it, you know it's not satisfying. You're thirsty. If you've pursued everything that you can pursue, you're thirsty. What God is saying here, I am the only one who truly satisfies. I. I alone, when you dwell with me, will satisfy what you have been longing for, because I created you to be with me. I created you to only be satisfied by me. He will satisfy our thirst. If you've longed for God, He satisfies without payment. This gets back to that key issue. What are we longing for? How are we seeking to be satisfied? Is it the things of this world that are gonna pass away? Are we restless? Because we want more of the glory of God. We want to know more of Him and His love. You see, at some level, every Christian should be dissatisfied. You shouldn't be satisfied. Because you know that your sin continues to hinder your love. You know that you need to see the full glory of God and you can't right now because of your sin. But I was just saying, one day all that sin will be washed away. It'll be removed. And you will have eyes to behold the full glory of God. And you'll be satisfied. The next declaration about who is verse seven. And this one is kind of interesting in that the one who conquers, the promise is that they will have a heritage and God will be like to him a father, he will be a son, but who conquers? What does it mean to be a conqueror? And as I wrestle with this, I can only go elsewhere in John because Revelation doesn't give us a clue as to who the conqueror is, but I think you might see a clue in 1 John chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. And that can be found on page 1023 if you're using a pew Bible. 1 John chapter 5, 1 to 5. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes. Same word as conquer. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Overcomers believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to die for their sins, that He rose again. See, we conquer by believing in the victor. We conquer by believing in the victor. We overcome the world and its lies and its corruption by looking to Jesus Christ and believing in Him. If you're not a Christian here today, faith in Jesus and what He has done for you is the only way you overcome your greatest enemy, and that is your sin and God's wrath against it. Faith looks to God and says, I need your grace. Faith looks to Christ and says, I need your death for my sin. I need your life because mine is ruined. Faith looks to Christ and says, you are the Son of God. And we believe in Jesus, the Son of God, we receive that heritage which makes us sons. Now, verse eight is terrifying. Everything up to this point has been what God has done and how good it will be for those who believe and those who are thirsty. But verse eight, we need to consider somberly. A third type of person in its contrast, but for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, All liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is a second death. The contrast here, if you believe, if you're thirsty for God, if you believe and you're thirsty for God, He's gonna satisfy you and He's gonna make you a son. If you reject Him, you remain cowardly. You remain faithless. You remain a liar. You remain an idolater. You remain a murderer. There is a second death. There is a lake burning with fire and sulfur. Is it a literal lake burning with fire and sulfur? Quite frankly, it could be a metaphor for much, much worse. See, what I fear hell is, is that it's whenever our sin no longer has the common grace of God on it, When we as sinners come face-to-face with a holy and righteous God, His wrath, His righteousness will be so consuming, you'll long for a lake of fire. Because it'll burn the soul, it'll conquer us. To actually come face-to-faith with the pure glory of God without His grace would destroy us. We'd become undone. If you're not a Christian this morning, You are called to be afraid here. But it's not a fear that says, oh, I'm gonna keep running from God, I'm gonna hide from God, I'm gonna fear death. No, the fear leads to faith. You cannot satisfy God and his righteous requirements. You cannot escape this judgment unless you believe in Jesus Christ, who came down to live the life you have not lived, unless you believe in Jesus Christ, who came and died for the sins that he did not commit. You see, the wrath of God was satisfied when Jesus Christ was crushed as if a sinner. So that everybody who believes in Jesus, that sin has been paid for. The wrath of God is satisfied so that those who believe in Jesus were now declared righteous. He conquered our sin. He conquered death. We believe in Him, we receive eternal life with God. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, do not leave here without talking to somebody about what that means. Our next question, where are we with God? This is verses nine to 21. Look at verse nine. Come, I will show you. He says, come, I want to show you the bride, the wife, the lamb. And John is carried away, and what we see here is a perfect creation. I want to remind us that Genesis 1 and 2, it was a good creation. It wasn't perfect. It was good until we corrupted it. The reason I can't say that the original creation was perfect is that it was corruptible. We messed it up. It was good. Then it was bad because of us. And what we're looking at now is it's a perfect creation. It's perfect as promised. I believe we can see this with the 12 tribes, the 12 apostles, their names are inscribed on this place. See, that refers back to, I believe, how God has been at work throughout history to bring about the promise that he will once again be with his people perfectly. It's perfectly promised. It's perfectly beautiful. Verse 11, the glory and the radiance of heaven. Having the glory of God is radiance like most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. Verse 19, it's symmetrical. There's precious stones. The designer's supposed to say this is a beautiful place. It's perfect, perfectly beautiful. It's also perfectly safe. Verse 12, the walls are 144 cubits. That's 216 feet high. At the gates, at all 12 gates, there are 12 angels. It's perfectly safe. It's perfectly accessible. In every direction, east, west, south, and north, there are three gates. There's not one gate pointing one direction for one kind of people. No, in every direction, for every kind of people, from every kind of tribe, and every kind of nation, every tongue, there's a gate that says, come. There's perfect presence. You see, there is another cube that's like this, and it was the tabernacle. It was the temple. The temple was designed in the Old Testament to be a cube. The cube reminds us God is with his people. This is where he is. He's a personal God who loves us and seeks to reconcile us. Now I said earlier that this comes down from heaven. We see it again in verse 10. This came down from heaven. A lot of Christians are rightly interested and involved in social justice. It is a calling of the Christian to care for the helpless. But we have to realize our efforts are not going to bring about utopia here. Our efforts are not going to bring about a perfect society that isn't within our power because there's always going to be sin. God's perfect society comes down from heaven. This is actually why we work so hard for social justice. We have the motivation that God is going to bring about a perfect society, and our efforts here are trusting He's going to do it, and we're supposed to try to make this place look as righteous as possible. Knowing it never will be righteous, but we're supposed to be about doing the work He set us to do. So we go about this properly. You're never gonna bring up the great society. God's going to bring it down. But that doesn't mean we do not do the work He's called us to. Fourth and finally, what is life like with God? What is life like with God? If we look to this section, notice what He begins with. I saw no temple. There was no need for a son. We saw earlier there's no sea. What actually stands out about this new creation is what it does not have. It's not like the previous creation. There's no sea, there's no temple, there's no sun. There's no gates. Notice something else we'll see later. There's nothing corrupt. This is an unusual city. Well, again, we've just had a description of what Jerusalem looks like. It looks like a temple, and then God says there is no temple, because this is where God dwells. This is the city where the Lamb, the glorious Lamb, sits in the center, and He brings about the light that this city needs. There's nothing corrupt. Look at verse 27. But nothing unclean will ever enter it. Nor does anyone that is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Friend, we're all corrupt. We cannot enter in in our own merit, our own strength, our own name. We enter in only when we believed in Christ and are given His life. Chapter 22, verse 1. 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. God is a great provider. Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Remember in Genesis 2, we had the tree of life. Genesis 3, it's removed, and here, this mysterious tree, it enters back in. Now we have eternal life. No longer will anything be accursed, for the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it. and his servants will worship him. Verse four, this is a theme in scripture. They will see his face. This is worthy of your meditation for the rest of your life. God says, you'll see my face. Anybody remember what Moses asked for? Let me see your glory. God said, you can't see my face. You can see a partial glory, you can see my backside, but if you behold my face before my Son comes and dies for you and rises again, and before we move away and wash away all your sin, you will die. You can't see my face, Moses. But when Jesus comes, John tells us, no one has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son, he has come to make God known. You see, we actually have access now, because of Christ, to look for the face of God. And we look for the face of God by repenting of our sin and saying, God, let me see more of you. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. This is the most beautiful promise in Scripture, folks. God wants you to see Him. God wants you to know Him. God wants to see you and to be seen by you, and His whole work has been to bring this about, and here, finally, we see Him. Not in a mere dimly because of sin, sin corrupts our vision, but now because sin has been removed, we get to see God forever. I ask you again, before we conclude, what are you longing for in heaven? What are you longing for in heaven? God is a giver of every good and perfect gift. He's declared himself the father who loves the son. He's declared himself the bridegroom who loves the bride. He's about love. I fear our relationship with God is like a young man who is, he loved a young lady. In order to show this young lady that he loved her, he sold everything he had to buy her a precious jewel. And so when this young man went to this woman and said, will you marry me? And gives her this precious, beautiful ring. Instead of saying, I do, she says, thank you. We're in the position of the young lady, because whenever the man gives her the ring, she just thinks this ring is the most beautiful thing in the world. She can't take her eyes off the ring. He thinks it's kind of interesting, but he's happy. Hey, I spent a lot of money on that ring. She likes it. And as they walk away, they're holding hands, and she just keeps staring at the ring. As they continue to go out on dates, leading up to the wedding, he realizes when they're eating, she never looks at him. She's just staring at the ring. She gets to the point where she forgets what he looks like because she never looks at him anymore. All she ever looks at is the beautiful ring he gave her. See, she's fallen in love with a token of love. She's not loving the one who loves her. That's how we treat God. We love the things He gives us. We stare at them. We get fascinated by them. We love them and we never look up and say, God, thank you for loving me. Thank you for all your good gifts. The good news is, in heaven, the one good gift He will always give us is Himself. The one good gift we will always have and we will always know His love is that we will always be seeing Him. Our sinfulness will not cause us to be distracted by the good gifts. We'll always know His love. So what do you do with this vision? If you're not a believer, repent and believe. This vision is a call to you from God to say repent and believe. God wants you to know him. God wants you to love him. God wants you to know his love. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ so you can know him. If you're a believer, we're living for eternity. We have to set our hearts on these things. We have to set our lives according to these things. See, many of us, we battle their paths. Heaven is a way of correcting this battle of the past because many of us, we have past failures, we have past guilt that plagues us. God is saying, learn from your sin, but don't let the guilt plague you and take your assurance away. No, you're forgiven, you're restored. Look up and look forward for the grace of God who restores you. Many of us are battling with the present. To be a little awkward here, some of us are old. You know death is certain around the corner. Most of us, death could be around the corner for any of us. How much are you thinking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? How much are you thinking, how am I living right now, knowing that death is around the corner, knowing that my last days are here, how am I living? How am I longing for what comes next? I encourage you to do something. Plan your funeral. Everyone should actually plan their funeral. Lisa's grandmother, she planned everything but the flower arrangements. It was very helpful for the family. But to start meditating, what do I want my last days to be like? What do I want my funeral to be like? How am I going to meditate upon what really lies before me? Some of us struggle that this life isn't what we thought it'd be. The gifts we thought God should give us have not come, whether that be a spouse, whether it be children, whether it be a job that we like, whether it be a job at all. This life is unsatisfying. It's constantly disappointing. And what I want to tell you, believer, is that you are longing for that life that is not dissatisfying. It satisfies, because you will see God face to face. Finally, many of us have anxiety about the future. What is life going to be like when my parents are gone? What is life going to be like when I enter into this next stage of life after school? What is life going to be like when my parents pass away, when my life starts declining, when I lose my job to security? What are my children going to grow up to be like? There's so much to worry about. But in light of all these things that are real concerns for life, we must always be looking ahead. God is the Alpha. He is the Omega. He is in control. We trust Him, we follow Him, and we know that all things are going to work out for our good and His glory. We must long to see God because He longs to know us and to be with us. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your glory, that we can see it, that we're not left just to have the glorious things that you've given to us, where the glory fades. We thank you, Lord, that you've given us that eternal glory to know that we will see you as you are. We will see you face to face. We will know your love because of Christ. We thank you, Father. May we long for this heaven. May we long for this vision to see You, to know You, to know Your love. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.