The Hope Of Heaven

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints, and impact our culture. But wow! God says I've got this! God has saved you before you ever woke up and realized that you had sinned and that you have chipped wrecked your life. God is saying, I knew this about you! Come to me now! You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Heaven, when you read about it in the Bible, it's there in black and white to a degree enough for us to get excited. But I have to tell you, and I told you this before, is that I've been victimized by myself for a long time thinking that when I thought about heaven, I never meditated on it enough. I should think about it more because when I do think about it, my first thought is white floor, white walls, white ceiling, white robes, white lights, just sterile. And kind of like this, hello, hi, how are you? Are you welcome? You know you in a nice restaurant, they host us. We have a text, right? Didn't you read about heaven? And there's a lot of freaky looking things up there with weird wings and eyeballs, right? Angels that have one head and four faces on each side of their bottom head. One head with a face and a face and a face and a face. That ought to freak you out. You're not going to walk in there and you're like, oh, it's so cool. You're going to freak when you get there. And the music is incredible. And it's very loud. It's very loud. And it's beautiful. And again, this guy should send me royalties. You know Randy Elkorn's book, Heaven, I have talked about that book all over. It is so good. If you want to get healed of having this white monochromatic heaven, you got to read his book. It's a great theological work on the doctrine of heaven. And the Bible says there's trees in heaven. And here's what we do. Trees. What does that look like? It says trees. Yeah, but you know, it's heaven. So what does it look like? Trees. The Bible says there's rivers. Really? Like what? Like the best river you've ever seen in your life, but better. The Bible talks about animals being in heaven, horses at least. And during the millennial reign of Christ, the Bible says the lion will lay down with the lamb. What could that possibly mean? The lion is going to go give the lamb a little lick and a kiss. It's going to happen. That's the government of God. And for the believer, we get excited about it. We don't talk about heaven enough until you get older. Then you start thinking about it. But young people, you need to think about heaven. It's there. We're going to go there. It's going to be amazing. Heaven, the proof. It's within us. And then also we'd learn that heaven's love is a constant contact for us that the love of heaven is present in the life of the believer. Our friend Timothy Meeney years ago, decades ago, maybe a century or two. I don't know. I don't know. I remember used to sing a song. Heaven's love is way beyond me. And it's a beautiful song. And heaven's love is beyond you. The love of God for you. You think about this right now. And if you're new to the Bible right now, if you've just tuned in or you just walked in here today, you didn't know something. The God of the Bible has gone to great lengths to communicate to you that he loves you. The God of the Bible wants you in heaven. I got on the plane yesterday or evening and getting on the plane to my left. There was a young woman. And I'm going to guess, I don't know, 25-ish. I don't know. I'm bad about this. But she had a black Meeney on. She had black makeup. She was just goth looking, right? And that's all that's fine. It's totally fine. I lived through the 70s. I made it. It's fine. And so here's the thing, though. I was walking. You know how you walk in slow and you walk in the next person in the bag and then you move forward and you're getting to your seat. And I looked in our eyes caught and she looked and she looked at me and there was a moment where I'm looking at her and I'm thinking she's staring. So here's exactly how I think. She's staring. Does she go to first service, second service? No, really. Is she first service, second service, third service? And she's looking and I'm thinking, what service? I don't know. And then she just put her head down and she looked mortified. I got the sense that she recognized me but I don't know her. She doesn't know me. I don't think. And then I looked at her t-shirt and it says, I hate me too. That's exactly what I did in my heart. Not so loud as you just did it in my heart. And there was no opportunity to talk to her but I just said, dear God in heaven, speak to her, convince her, show her your true nature who you really are. The love of heaven is constantly reaching out to every man, woman, boy and girl to contact with us, to make contact with us, to tell us that God loves us, that Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. Why would he do that? Because he loved us and he loves us. So church, we dive into it now. It's this number two is the hope of heaven. It is the hope in verse 24 begins by saying and watch it. Get your highlighter ready. I'll exaggerate it when I get to it for we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly await for it with perseverance. What a huge statement. You do not hope for that which you possess. You've got it. You see it. Whatever it might be. Oh, I've never owned a car before and you get a car. You no longer hope for a car. You drive the car. Hoping doesn't apply. But for the Christian, it's so beyond all that. Because we have the proof of heaven dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit and we have now been conditioned and prepared for eternity, heaven. Even though we haven't seen it, our hope is confirmed because God has made us these promises. This gets very, very important here, church, real quick. The hope of heaven. Listen, heaven's assurance is our hope. Please make note of this. Every time, listen, when someone is dying and they call the church and I or a pastor goes to that home or to that hospital and it's a believer and they want to hear scripture read. I'm telling you right now, just get ready for it. You and I are going to experience this unless Christ comes for us and I hope he does. But listen, every time I go, I better take my Bible when I go, right? Why? Because the believer, lying there as the outward man is perishing, the believer says things like this, pastor, when you read me scriptures. Pastor, tell me about Jesus. Just talk to me. Just tell me from your heart again from the scriptures about Jesus. I have never, once, once ever have someone come and say or have me come and say, Pastor, just tell me what was on the front page of the early times today. It's never happened. No one says, Pastor, how's my stock? How's my stock doing today? How much money did I make today? Nobody on their deathbed asked that question. The believer on their deathbed says, you know, Paul said it in Timothy. Second Timothy, he says, when you come, bring the parchment. Paul was saying before I, before my head is decapitated in Rome, can you bring the scriptures when you come and while I'm in prison, will you read to me? Oh, and bring my, he said, bring my cloak. It's the outer garment. Bring my jacket. I'm freezing down here. When you come, bring it. I left it in Troas. Tell me the truth when I'm dying. Tell me the truth when things hurt. Tell me the truth when you speak about what God has for me in life. God has heaven for the believer. As believers, we don't make it up being a believer. Oh, believer, what do you, what do you believe? We don't make anything up. We're believing in what God has said. And you need to find out right now with what you're believing and does it bring you assurance. Listen, is what you're hanging on to going to walk you through the valley of the shadow of death? Is what you believe in going to comfort you in that hour of decision? In that moment when you come, no wonder. As you're reading scripture to somebody, the Bible says, God says, precious in my sight of the death of my saints. It's amazing thing. But note this, would you, it says, for we were saved, compound past tense. Notice it says, we're saved. For we were saved in this hope, church family, whatever we're going to learn, we're going to learn from the Bible. The Bible makes commentary on the Bible. So get excited about this because you have an assured hope. It's Ephesians 1. Listen to this. Grab all these as you see them happen. Again, I'll try to exaggerate it so that you mark it. Ephesians 1 verse 3, blessed past tense. Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. What does that mean? It means that in heaven is reserved for you everything you need. Forever. Verse 4, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, meaning before the foundation of the world was ever laid, that physical universe was ever created, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Verse 5, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. Can you look at that? Right now, Christian, you are accepted because of the blood of Jesus Christ that guarantees your assurance in heaven. It's the blood of Christ, and this is speaking from God's perspective. Where are you, so to speak, seated in the stadium? What's your vantage point? I can't see because of this. I'm over here and I can't exactly see the whole field. We're up here and everybody's too small. God is right over every moment, every play, so to speak. He sees it all, and before you are ever brought into this world, God had gone before us with his redemption plan. I'm so glad he wrote it down in advance. Why would he do such a thing? We're not making this up as we go along. I'm reading to you something that's 2000 years old and what's 2000 years old is quoting the ancient scriptures. It's absolutely awesome. Verse 7 says, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made, past tense to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will. According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that here it is, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that means God worked in seasons to bring man to a glorious conclusion. That word that in dispensations of fullness of times is one of your favorite verses, Jeremiah 29 11, answers to that. God says, I know the thoughts I think toward you, thoughts of hope and for a future, not of destruction, but to bring your life to a glorious and full completion. That's right out of the Old Testament and reminded us again in verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 1. The fullness of the times he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, that's the body of Christ, the church, church age believers and more, tribulation saints, Old Testament saints, all of us, both which are in heaven and in which are in earth and him and in him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. Boy, that is deep stuff and it's kind of shallow in English, it's deeper in the original languages, but wow, God says, I've got this, God is saying to you, before you ever woke up and realized that you had sinned and that you have shipwrecked your life, God is saying, I knew this about you, come to me now. I knew that you'd flub it up, come to me. See, you and I think I flubbed it up, I cannot come to him. Again, I was away this weekend and I had a chance to speak to a group of people, small group of people they, I found out, are gazillionaires who support Christian ministries all around the world. These people, I'm not going to mention their names, some of them are household items, you have in your house, you have under your sink and then don't care about that stuff anymore, all that stuff they just sell, that stuff was just to make money and it's the money that we take and that's how we build hospitals in Africa. This is what we're doing to build this center in South America. This is how we're reaching the people in these abandoned nations in Africa. They're so impressive. God designed to work and move in our lives in whatever position or station we are in life and all they cared about was not their money but the fact that, hey, God's done this for me, I can't wait to go out and bless other people and you think about that. You guys are an amazing church and I'm not just saying that. Your faith is spoken of all over the world literally. You wonder why I said faith. I didn't say your attendance, I didn't say how beautiful you are, your faith because some of those people came up and they said, we know about your church. We've seen what influence it has for righteousness and for what's good. That's all of you. That's not me. That's you doing the right thing and that honors God. How do you do that? Because you're secure in Christ. You've got this assurance of this hope that you're not hoping for. If you are today saying, I hope I make it to heaven. Friends, I want to introduce you to Jesus Christ today. If you're hoping you're going to make it to heaven, let me just cut to the chase. If you're hoping to make it, you're not going to make it because that's not how you get there. You want to be certain that you're going to make it and that's the hope the Bible speaks about. Not a hope, I hope. It is a hope I know. It's a hope assured and that scripture there in Ephesians backs up Romans beautifully, saved and hope that you can have now. This upsets people every time I bring it up. It's unnecessary. It's wrong that you should be upset by this. Listen carefully. The Bible says, saved. Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus, all of our righteousness put together stinks compared to the righteous deeds of Nicodemus. And Jesus says, you're not making it. You're not going. Nicodemus was befuddled. He said, what you would say, how can this be true? Pastor, are you nuts? I've been a good student, good citizen. Good. You don't get points for that. You're supposed to be. That doesn't get you to heaven. It's amazing if God writes the Bible and just writes in the Bible. All of you be good citizens, vote in every election, mow your lawn, use a deodorant, be nice to people and heaven's going to be fantastic. It's going to smell good too. He didn't say that. The Bible says that we are all lost, selfish, sin-bent, and that God sent the Savior, Jesus Christ, to die in the cross for our sins, and to be risen from the dead for our eternal life. Listen, your salvation is only as secure as Christ is alive. Did you hear that? Your salvation is only as secure as Jesus in heaven. Let me make this very clear. If you're born again, then you're in the family of God. The word here is called saved, and if you're saved, you cannot find me a verse that says you could become unsaved. People want to argue about this. They're wasting my time. You want to argue about it? You go, go and sit in the corner, argue about it with yourself all day long. When God says, you come to me, you repent of your sins, heck homologale. Say the same word about sin that I say about it. Believe in me, and you shall live. You'll have eternal life. This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. 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