For those of you who didn't get an outline, there's still maybe a few on the back table there if you need one. In the early months of 2010, we spent a number of weeks studying through the scriptures on the subject of hell. We were in between chapters 3 and 4 in our study of 1 John at that time, working through his relentless tests of saving faith. And I stopped, I paused there because I wanted to make sure you understood what was at stake in the event that any of you were failing those tests of saving faith. And so let me remind you of that sober reality again this morning as we begin on this new subject. Hell forever, people, is at stake for those who die in their sins without a Savior. Hell is at stake. There is no nicer way for me to say that, whether we're comfortable with the subject or not. The Bible clearly, and even repeatedly, teaches that there is a literal place called Hell where all unbelievers go immediately after death to be consciously and eternally punished away from the presence of Christ. And so we stop there between chapters 3 and 4 in our study of 1 John to study down through the various descriptions of that place that are given in scripture so as to get a clear picture in our minds of just how horrible it is. It's a place, hell is a place, the Bible says, of eternal torment and destruction. It's a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Word of God is very clear on the fact that hell is the eternal destination for all unbelievers, for all of those who fail John's tests of saving faith and then die in that state of lostness. And then let me also remind you of this, as we have just come out of our study of John's epistles, the specific kind of unbeliever that John zeroes in on all through his first epistle is the unbeliever who doesn't know he or she is an unbeliever. That's what John is getting at there. One of the main purposes of 1 John is to expose the lostness of self-deceived, professing believers who are in fact not true believers at all. You see, lots and lots of people, I say this often because it's a tragic reality, lots and lots of people profess Jesus with their lips today They even go to church on Sunday, but the truth of the matter is, they've never really been saved. They've never truly been changed on the inside by the power of the gospel. Oh, they go through all of the outward motions of Christianity, and yet there is no inward reality of spiritual life in their hearts. And what is the problem, you say? Well, the problem, I believe, is this. The gospel these people have responded to, the gospel they have heard and responded to is a false gospel. It's very common today to hear a false gospel, probably one of the many watered down versions of the gospel that are so popular in churches today. These people are still lost. No matter what the preacher told them when they raised their hand or walked the aisle or whatever it is that he had them do, they're still lost because, listen, They're still lost because there's never been any genuine repentance. There's never been any genuine turning from their sins. There's never been any denying of themselves or losing of their lives for Christ's sake. You see, none of that was in the gospel they heard, which means that what they heard and responded to was a false gospel. And people, please hear me. To hear and respond to a false gospel does nothing more than make one a false Christian, a self-deceived false Christian. And so I beg you this morning, as we begin now on this new subject, we're not talking about hell. We're going to talk about the flip side of hell now. We're going to talk about heaven. But I need to remind you of this. Please search your heart. I beg you this morning to search your heart on this most important matter of salvation. You see, the bottom line is this. It's either real or it's not. It's either real or it's not, and if it's not, I have to tell you that talking about Jesus and going to church and going through whatever other kind of outward motions you're going through is not going to help you one bit. When you die, and you will die, at a point in time that you are unaware of, you are going to find yourself as lost and as much in hell as the unbeliever, listen now, as the unbeliever who never went to church at all. and knew he was going there. If you weren't here when we studied down through that awful subject of hell, those studies are available on our website and I would encourage you to work through them. As I know that I said several times during that study, avoiding hell is not the highest motivation there could ever be for coming to Christ, but listen, it certainly is a valid one. Avoiding hell is a valid reason for coming to Christ. And one, in fact, that Jesus used himself evangelistically on many different occasions while he was here, very often warning people about the dangers of hell. I know I said to you many times during that study on hell that it is true. Jesus said more about hell in the gospels than he ever said about heaven. Jesus was constantly warning people about the dangers of hell. Let me just remind you of one of those warnings that I know we talked about many times before. Jesus said, if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, Matthew 18, 8, Jesus said, if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. In verse nine of that same chapter, he said the very same thing about your eye. Pluck it out if necessary. pluck it out and throw it from you. And what is Jesus advocating here? Mutilation? No, that's not what he's advocating here at all. He's stressing a very serious point. He's saying that you need to take whatever drastic measures are necessary to avoid this horrible, horrible place the Bible calls hell. Well, enough of that. We've been there. We've been down that road. We're going in a different direction today. And let me say now to you, praise me to God. There is another available destination for those who depart from this life. Aren't you thankful for that this morning? I am. There is another available destination for those who depart from this life. You see, this same Jesus who so passionately and repeatedly warned people about the dangers of hell also said to his troubled disciples one time, as recorded in John chapter 14, I go to prepare a place for you. Well, that's what we're going to learn about now. That place that Jesus has gone to prepare for you and for me. As you can see by the title there in your sermon notes, I want to spend the next number of weeks, exactly how many? I'm not sure. It's kind of a moving target as we go along, but I want to spend the next number of weeks showing you what the Bible says about heaven. Having studied the awful subject of hell, we have that behind us, we want to now move on and study the glorious subject of heaven. As awful as hell is, heaven is glorious and wonderful and beautiful and we're going to see that. Let me say to you that I've been working on this study for well over a year now and so for me to say to you this morning as we begin that I'm excited about this study would be quite a bit of an understatement. I probably could better put it like this. I'm nothing less than thrilled about this study and what God has taught me about heaven. And so far, over the past years, I've began to look at this subject and study this subject. My hope and my prayer has been that I would be able to share at least some of those things with you in a way that would be clear, in a way that would be understandable, and in a way that the Spirit of God could use to produce a deep longing in your hearts. for heaven, a longing that you would then carry with you all day, every day, for the rest of your earthly lives. A longing for heaven that would change the way you think, that would change the way you live right now. Do you know that's one of the primary reasons why we have so much information about heaven in the Word of God? The reason God wants us to know about where we're going is because He wants us to change the way we live now. And I'm trusting and praying that God will accomplish that in me, and that He would accomplish that in you. I have to tell you also that charting the course for a study like this one on this subject of heaven, I found to be quite a daunting task. To say the least, there's so much that needs to be said. There's so many questions that need to be answered. And then so many other ones that don't really get answers in the scriptures. We'll have to deal with that. As I began to read and study and take some notes, I remember being very overwhelmed. by the task of making sense out of it all. Where do I begin? How do I approach this thing? How in the world am I ever going to get my arms around a subject as huge as this one, much less than explain it in a sensible way to someone else? A year plus later, I have to report to you that I'm still overwhelmed by this subject of heaven. But I did finally land on an avenue of approach. I do have a plan at this point, at least in general terms, of how we're going to get from here to there. And I will reveal that plan to you as we go along. As I said, it is still somewhat of a moving target. But I do have, I want you to know that I do have a plan. I do have at least a rough idea how we're going to get where we need to go. And then there's one other challenge that we'll have to face that I want to mention to you right up front as we study through this subject of heaven together. And not only is heaven an overwhelming subject to study, it's also one, and here's the danger, here's what we've got to watch out for, it's also one that's going to present us with a very strong temptation to go beyond what is written on every term. You know, I've read a number of books on heaven over the past year, and there are at least a couple of those books that I had to stop reading for that very reason. I stopped reading them and put them aside. As the title to this sermon series is worded, What I want to share with you is what? What the Bible says about heaven. And here now is the truth of that matter that we need to face right up front as we begin this study. Here's the truth of that matter. The Bible does tell us much about the subject of heaven. There are vast amounts of information about this glorious place that have been revealed for us in the Word of God. And I trust that there will be many things about heaven that you were not aware are there in the Word of God for us to understand. But, having said that, with all of the information that is there, there is still not nearly as much as we would like there to be. As I said a minute ago, there are many questions about heaven that we would like answers to that just plain aren't given answers in the word of God. And then there are other questions about heaven that get only partial answers. We don't like that. And we want all of our questions answered and we want all of our questions answered fully. But the bottom line is that the Bible just doesn't do that for us. God hasn't given us in his word everything there is to know about heaven. or any other subject for that matter, right? The Bible doesn't contain everything there is to know, but you know what I can tell you for sure? I can tell you for sure that He's given us in His Word everything we need to know about Heaven and every other subject as well. And for now, we need to be content with that. We need to be content with what has been revealed. You see, we just don't know for sure exactly how this, that, or the other thing is going to be in heaven. As we study this subject together, there will be times, there will probably be many times when that is the only answer we have. We just don't know for sure. That's the only answer we're going to have, and we need to be content with that. But here's what I found in several of the books on this subject of heaven that I have read. What I found is that several of those authors weren't content with that. And you know what they did, don't you? The answers they wanted weren't given in the scriptures, or perhaps when the answers that were given in scriptures weren't as complete as they wanted them to be, they would just go ahead and fill in the blanks on their own with nothing more than mere speculation. They made up their own answers. In all fairness to them, I have to tell you that some of that stuff was reasonable speculation based on what we do know, and let me also say this, I don't think that it's wrong for us to use our imaginations a little bit, to wonder about various things like that, and even speculate a little bit, but the caution is this, we do need to be careful with that, and in my opinion, Some of these authors just got too far carried away with the speculation. Some of them got so far out there with the speculations that you couldn't even see the truth of Scripture anymore. And so please understand that the temptation to speculate beyond what is written is going to be very strong for us on this particular subject. And that's not hard to understand. Why is it? It's because we want so desperately to know about it. It's a subject that we want to know everything there is to know about. But God, the simple truth of the matter is that God hasn't revealed all of that to us. And so we must be careful as we study. And I'm talking to me too. I need to be careful as I preach to keep this study under the strict guidelines of what we're calling it. We want to know what the Bible says about heaven. We want to know what God has revealed to us. about this particular place, Deuteronomy 29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things that have been revealed belong to us. The things that have been revealed in scripture, those are fair game. Those are for us. And so that's what we want to know. We want to know what God has revealed to us about this place called heaven. And then if we do speculate at all, if we do use our imaginations to move beyond what is written and talk a little bit about some possibilities, we just need to make sure that we call it what it is. That is speculation. And so we need to be careful. And I wanted to give you that reminder up front as we study. Now, perhaps you remember, when we were studying the subject of hell, that I quoted several times from a man by the name of Erwin Lutzer. Erwin Lutzer is the pastor of the, at least he was, I'm not sure if he currently is anymore, but he was the pastor of the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. And I've always appreciated his very clear straightforward approach to the scriptures along with his humble demeanor as a servant of Christ. He's got a large area of influence, but he has rejected that whole superstar pastor thing that has become so common today, and he just has a humble demeanor, and he has great insights into the scripture, and I've always appreciated his insights. And in the course of my study on heaven now, I've read an excellent book that he has written on that subject. It's called One Minute After You Die. by Erwin Lutzer. And I want to launch this study on heaven now by reading for you several paragraphs from the introduction to that book. I think he will get us off on the right start here. Lutzer writes in the introduction to his book called One Minute After You Die this, One minute after you slip behind the parted curtain, you will either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ, or catching your first glimpse of gloom as you have never known it. Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable. Those who find themselves in heaven will be surrounded with friends whom they have known on earth. Friendships once rudely interrupted by death will continue where they left off. And then listen to this. Every description of heaven they have ever heard will pale in the light of reality. All this forever. Let me just interject something here before I read the next paragraph. We're going to learn lots and lots of things about heaven in this study in the weeks ahead, but if Lusser is right, and I think he is, Everything that we're going to learn in the weeks ahead is going to pale into insignificance when we get there. When we see it, when we see our Savior face to face and we see that place where we are going, all of the descriptions that we have even in the Word of God are going to pale into insignificance when we get there. You know, we said the same thing about hell, didn't we? And I think that's true. When we studied hell, we came to the conclusion that that place is even worse. than what the Spirit of God could convey with words to our limited human minds in the same way now. Please understand, folks, that heaven, the reality of heaven, when we get there, is going to be far better than anything we could have ever possibly conceived of in our limited, finite human minds. Well, let me go on. Luther went on to say, he began by talking about those who find themselves in heaven after they slip behind the parted curtain. He went on to say this, others who slip behind that parted curtain, indeed many others, will be shrouded in darkness, a region of deprivation and unending regret. There with their memories and feelings fully intact, images of their life on earth will return to haunt them. They will think back to their friends, family, and relatives. They will brood over opportunities they squandered and intuitively know that their future is both hopeless and unending. For them, death will be far worse than they imagined. He concludes with this. And so, while relatives and friends plan your funeral, deciding on a casket, a burial pot, and who the pallbearers shall be, you will be more alive than you have ever been. You will either see God on his throne, surrounded by angels and redeemed humanity, or you will feel an indescribable weight of guilt and abandonment. There is no destination midway between these two extremes, just gladness or gloom. John taught us that all through his epistles, didn't he? There are no third options. You either are saved and will spend eternity in heaven with Christ or you are lost and you will spend eternity in hell away from Christ. There is no middle ground on that. No destination midway between these two extremes, just gladness or gloom. One more thing I want to share with you, and then we're going to go on. Luther went on to tell this true story about a tombstone in Indiana. I'm told there's a cemetery in Indiana that has an old tombstone with this epitaph. Pause, stranger, when you pass me by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. So prepare for death and follow me. Apparently, an unknown passerby read those words and underneath them scratched this reply. To follow you, I'm not content until I know which way you went. Please be sure you know which way you're going. Today, I urge you from the bottom of my heart. We're going to study the grand and glorious subject of heaven now and in the weeks ahead, If your citizenship is not there right now, my prayer for you is that it will be before we're finished, that you will, before we're finished with this study, and even today, that you will bow your knee to the Lordship of Christ, that you will lose your life in order to find true life, that you will repent of your sins to embrace the Savior by faith. That is the gospel. And if your citizenship is already there in heaven, my prayer for you is that you will develop a mind that is set on that place, that you will develop a longing, and let me even use this word, that you will develop an obsession with heaven, the likes of which you have never known before. And working on that mindset is, in fact, our first order of business. Now, as we go through this study, the subtitles are going to change. The title of this series is What the Bible Says About Heaven. The subtitles will change as we go along, but the first one is, as you probably already noticed, setting our minds on the things above. And so let me say to you now this morning that that's where we have to begin. This is where this whole thing has to begin in our minds. You see, God wants us to think a certain way about heaven. that is quite different from the way we normally do think about it. That is something that is actually commanded in scripture and becomes then our first order of business as we would study the subject of heaven. Now, the specific command that I'm referring to, of course, is the one Paul issues over in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 2, where he said this, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. That's a command. As we begin to think about heaven now, we need to begin by working on our minds a little bit. We need to start learning, we need to start training ourselves to think about heaven in the way that God would have us to think about heaven. God wants our minds in heaven right now, even while we're still here. And by the way, We're not going to get to it today, but before we'll begin next Thursday, before we're done with this first part of our study, we're going to spend some quality time right there in those first four verses of Colossians chapter 3. Powerful verses there that I believe the Spirit of God will use to get our minds where they need to be as a great starting point for this study. Now you might think that having minds set on heaven would be an automatic thing for Christians who are going to spend eternity there. But the truth of the matter is, it's not. And that's why we have the command. Most commands in Scripture, in fact, assume a resistance to obeying them, which sets up the necessity for the command. We're commanded in Scripture, for example, to flee from sexual immorality. Why are we commanded to flee from sexual immorality? Well, because that is our tendency. But you can search through the Scriptures and you will not find any commands anywhere that say, avoid jumping off buildings. Avoid jumping off tall buildings. You will not find that command anywhere because we normally don't battle a temptation like that. We have this command in Colossians 3.2 and we need this command because having minds that are set, minds that are focused, minds that are preoccupied with heaven is not just going to be the default setting for Christians. And I think when I say that, I think you already know that as well as I already. know that. That's not an automatic thing for us at all. And in fact, just the opposite is true. You know what we do? We read the scripture that describes us as aliens and strangers here. And while we're reading that, we say, Amen. And we sing that old hymn. This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. And you know, we might even shed a tear as we sing those words. And we might even whisper a prayer of thanks to God for that reality. But then you know what happens next, don't you? As soon as we put the Bible down, or as soon as we put that hymnal down, or as soon as we walk out of this place where we've just heard the Word of God, what do we do? We go right back to our old default human ways of thinking, don't we? Happens to me, and it happens to you. We go right back to our old default human ways of thinking, which are always completely upside down and backwards from the way new spiritual creatures ought to think. What am I saying here? I'm saying this. Default thinking is always here, and never there. Because we live in human bodies here in this earthly place, we just tend to think that way by default. And let me just give you an example. How we think about death is a good example. Death is a reality, folks, that is all around us every day, isn't it? Someday it's going to be you, and that's why I said what I said a little earlier. Someday it's going to be you, and that's why you need to be ready for that now. One source I read said that worldwide, Three people die every second. 180 people die every minute. Approximately 11,000 people die every hour. For a grand total, get this now, a grand total of 250,000 people every day. Somewhere in the world, 250,000 people die every day. You know what that means? Think about what I just said earlier. Here's what it means. It means that 250,000 people every day slip into eternity either into heaven or into hell. Every single day, that's a lot of people. 15 or 20, if those statistics are right, and I have no reason to believe that they aren't, if those statistics are right, 15 or 20 people have died in the time it's taken me to say this, somewhere in this world. Lots and lots of people die every day. If you're like me, there's scarcely a week that goes by when you're not aware. Just think about it. Scarcely a week that goes by when you're not aware of at least someone somewhere within your sphere of acquaintances who has died. Isn't that true? Sometimes it's closer to home, other times it's further out, but there's always generally someone. Lots of people die every day. We are constantly intersecting with death as we live this life. And the question now is this, Christian, what is the default way you think about death? What is the default way you think about death? And I'm not talking now about the death of unbelievers. Death of an unbeliever, I don't even know what to say about the death of an unbeliever, it's awful. Death of an unbeliever is awful, it's tragic, it's gut-wrenching, and there is just no hope for anyone in that kind of a situation. But what is the very first thought, here's my question, what is the very first thought you have with regard to the death of a Christian? Not a second or a third thought now, but the very first thought, the default thought, that's the one I'm after here. Do you think of death first? as that which snatches that Christian from his home or as that which ushers him into his home? And I know that we all eventually get that right. I understand that. But what I'm asking here is how do you think about that as a very first line of thought? Does your default thinking really line up with the line in that hymn, this world is not my home? And does your default thinking really line up with what Paul said about that in 2 Corinthians 5, 8? We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. And I guess what I'm asking you here is this. Where is home in your mind? Where is home in your mind? Is it here or is it there? The Bible says that this is not our home. This place is not our home. Heaven is our home. And I guess what I'm trying to get across to you here is this, you'll never really be able to get your head there. You'll never really be able to get your heart there. You'll never be able to get your thoughts there, as Paul tells us to do in Colossians 3, 2, until the reality of that truth fully sets in. You know how it is with home, even as we think about home in strictly earthly terms. I'm kind of a homebody. I don't like to travel much. And whenever I do get somewhere else, all I want to do is get back home again. That's the way that God would have us to live this life. He wants us to live this life with a longing every day to get home. That's a part of what it means to set your minds on the things above. And so how you answered that question I just asked will maybe help you to know just how much work you need to do in that area. Let me tell you now about another thing that works against the mindset on the things above, in addition to and very much in cooperation with our default human ways of thinking, the world, Satan's world system. The world in which we live and all of its ways fights against the mindset on the things above in every conceivable way, doesn't it? We as believers have new spiritual life. But we live right now, we talked about this so many times, we live right now in yet unredeemed human bodies of flesh here on this earth, here in this world that is presently being ruled by Satan. We share a humanness and we share an earthly existence with the entire world of unbelievers right now. And what that means is this. We see with our eyes what they see with their eyes. We hear with our ears what they hear with their ears. And even worse, We are enticed by and attracted to the same, the very same sinful things that they are enticed by and attracted to. Isn't that the truth? We are. And then to further compound that problem, how about adding this to the mix? All of the things that are spiritual realities for us, for right now, are unseen realities. Aren't they? You see, we can't see our spiritual realities with our eyes, and we can't hear about them with our ears, we can read about them in the Word of God. But, we live, what does the Bible say, how do we live right now? We live by faith and not by sight. We can't see our heavenly home with our physical eyes, but you know what we can see? We sure can't see everything here with our physical eyes, can't we? And so the default tendency for humanness is always going to be to gravitate toward those visible things that the world sets there before us. And you remember this from 1 John chapter 2, don't you? The Apostle John described three things for us there, if you recall, that are in this world that we are to hate. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Having a mindset on the things that are here on earth will always be the default mindset for every human being, whereas having a mindset on the things above. You need to know this up front. That's default. Having a mindset on the things above. If you want to obey Colossians 3.2, you need to know that having a mindset on the things above is always going to be something that will take some effort. When you put a canoe in the river, the current will carry you downstream. If you want to go the other way, guess what? It's going to take some effort. If you want to go the other way, it's going to take some effort. You're going to have to do some vigorous paddling. Let me tell you now about one of the world's downstream currents that you will need to paddle hard against. We could talk about many things here. I'm just trying to throw some things into your mind to begin thinking about this subject. Let me tell you now about one of the world's downstream currents that you'll need to paddle hard against if you're going to have a mind set on the things above. It fits under that category that John defined for us as the lust of the eyes. What I'm talking about is materialism. Materialism is a growing problem in our society today, and therefore it's also a growing problem in the church today among God's people. The world's stuff, the lust of the eyes as John puts it in his first epistle, is always a formidable enemy. to a heavenly mindset among God's people. And going right along with that is this whole instant gratification thing that has become so much the way today. And just think about how that competes and conflicts with a mindset on heaven. You see, we don't want to lay up treasures in heaven for some later point in time, do we? We want the treasures now. We want the treasures that are here on the earth, and we want them right now. Of course, not in every sense, but in a large sense, is in the category of delayed gratification, and that is simply not the world's way, which has tragically also become the way for many in the church today as well. And then to only further compound that problem, we have, we've talked about these guys too, we have the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel preachers out there, and you know what they're saying? They're promising people now, in the name of Christianity, that God wants them rich right now, that God wants them healthy right now, and that God wants them successful right now. And then I'm even going to name one of them for you. There's a man out in the West by the name of Joel Osteen. All of you know who he is. He's the pastor of America's largest church. He recently wrote a book, I think it's been several years ago now, but he wrote a recent book that became a bestseller. You know what that book is called? Your Best Life Now. Your best life now? Really? Your best life now? Here we have the pastor of the largest church in America telling Christians, or I should say, professing Christians, there is a difference, telling professing Christians how to live, and that they ought to live their best life now? One would have to wonder, folks, if he's ever even read the New Testament. That is diametrically opposed to everything the Bible teaches about what it means to be a Christian, and how to live the Christian life. The Apostle Paul calls on us in Colossians 3-2 to what? Read it 40 minutes ago? To set our minds where? Here? No. Set our minds on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. Jesus says in Matthew 16, lose your life now, but Joel Osteen comes along and says, live your best life now. Well, that's exactly what people want to hear. That's exactly why so many thousands of them are there in that converted sports arena. Materialism, instant gratification, and this whole idea of wanting to make this place home has become such a prevailing mindset in the church. You know what I'd have to guess? I would have to guess that there might actually be large numbers of professing Christians today right within the evangelical church. I probably wouldn't admit this verbally, but they're probably there. They would see heaven as an unwelcome interruption in their lives. That's the truth of the matter. I mean, you know, if I'm living my best life right now, why in the world would I ever want heaven to come along and ruin that? These folks do, of course, all want to go to heaven someday when they die. They want that for sure. They want the assurance of that. They want to go to heaven someday when they die and when they're too old. perhaps are too sick to enjoy the world's stuff, but they certainly don't want to go there any time too soon, at least not until after their cruise to the Bahamas. That's the kind of stuff, really. It's funny to think about, but it's not funny at the same time. That's the kind of stuff, that's the kind of thinking that wars against a mindset on the things above, and it's only a right biblical perspective on heaven. that will free you from the lures of this passing present world. You have to get past the temporal things that you can see all around you with your eyes and start focusing on those eternal and better unseen things by faith that are revealed for us in the precious pages of the Word of God. That is our goal in this first part of our study on heaven. Now as we work toward that goal, setting our minds on the things above, as we seek to develop that mindset We're going to look to the scriptures for help, and there is help for us there. I want to show you three scriptures on that, two of them more briefly, and then we're going to spend a little bit more time on the third one, which I think is a key scripture on this issue, and that of course is the one I've mentioned to you before, Colossians 3, 1-4. But before we even go to that list of scriptures, we're going to get a look at a couple of those today. Before we even do that, before we even go to that list of scriptures, I want to give you another very quick list of just three very practical and logical reasons as to why a heavenly mindset ought to be one of your highest priorities. Now, I said it's going to take effort. The default way is earthly thinking. Heavenly thinking is going to take effort. Why should you invest the effort? Why is this a worthy investment of your time and your effort? Well, let me give you three reasons. I'm not going to elaborate on any of these as much as I could, because for the most part I think they're all things you already know. There are things that we have talked about before in other contexts, but nonetheless, good reminders here again this morning in this context. Reason number one, you ought to long for heaven. You ought to focus on heaven. You ought to put forth the effort that's necessary in that because everything here, people, everything here, no matter how good it looks, no matter how good it seems, is very obviously uncertain, it's very temporary, and it is very much in a state of decay. Is that not the truth? It's always amazing to see people, and especially professing Christian people, living as though this life and this world are going to just keep on going forever. Do you see that every day? I see that every day. I guess we can understand unbelievers living that way, but when professing believers live that way, it is very difficult to understand. They buy stuff. And they build stuff, and they plant their roots way down deep here as though it's all permanent. Listen, it's not. They ought to know it's not. And they get reminders of that every day. All they have to do is pick up the paper. I don't know of a paper anywhere, anywhere, that doesn't have an obituary section, and there's somebody's in there every single day. There are obituaries, or even other pages in the newspaper that tell of earthquakes, and accidents of various kinds, and fires, and hurricanes, and floods, and you name it. We've talked about this before when we were in John's epistles, didn't we? There's no certainty here about anything. Everything is in a state of decay, including you. And yet, you know what happens? They put that newspaper back down every day and they go right on living as if they didn't just read what they just read. They go right on living as if they were going to be here forever along with all of their stuff. Reality check this morning. If you would only let reality sink in, you would begin looking away from all of that fleeting stuff and start looking up for something sure, something steadfast, and something that really will last forever. And you know what that something is? That something, folks, is Heaven. You see, we're going to talk about all of these things in the days ahead, but let me just say for now that in Heaven, do you realize that nothing will ever wear out? Nothing will ever wear out. I'm in the service business. That isn't going to work for me in heaven. Nothing will ever wear out. In heaven, nothing will ever rust out. You know the new car you just bought? Not very long from now, it's going to be somewhere rusted out in a junkyard. In heaven, nothing will ever wear out. Nothing will ever rust out. In heaven, people, there will not be any accidents ever. No accidents. No sickness. And there will never be any death. What you have there, what you lay up there now, what you have there, how you spend eternity there will be without any of those things there in heaven. Everything is permanent. People live as though it is here, but it's not. There it really will be. Everything there is permanent and everything will go on wherever and so I submit to you this morning that heaven is where the longing of your heart needs to be. Let reality sink in. Heaven is where the longing of your heart needs to be. Reason number two goes right along with reason number one. If you're a believer, you ought to long for heaven. You ought to invest whatever effort is necessary in making that work for you, because heaven is where you are going to spend eternity. You know how long eternity is? That's a long, long time. Eternity is forever. As I've already said this morning, our tendency is to think in very earthly terms. You know how we think? Tell you how I know that, because I think this way. We think of 70, 80, or even 90 years as being a long, long time. It's really not, is it? 70, 80, or 90 years. James says in James 4.14 that this life is what? A vapor. Ever watch the steam come out of the tea kettle? About the time you see it, it's gone. This life is a vapor, James says. This life goes by very quickly. And the older you get, I'm realizing more and more every day. the truth of that. This life goes by very, very quickly. As one commentator I read put it, thought this was an interesting way to see it, if you were to somehow able, he said, to stretch a tape measure from here through the other end of eternity, of course you can't do that, it's a hypothetical thing he's putting forth here, but if you were, if you could stretch a tape measure from here all the way to the other end of eternity, this entire lifespan would not even be a visible hairline across the width of that tape. Couldn't even see it. Wouldn't even be a visible hairline. Now, let me say to you, if you really understood that contrast, as an unbeliever, what would you do? What would you do? You would very quickly lose this very brief, invisible line on the tape measure now for real, true life. spiritual life forever, wouldn't you? I think so. And what would you do as a believer if you really understood that contrast? As a believer, now, you would invest this life with the Bema judgment in view. This life is an investment. All of you know who Jonathan Edwards was. He understood that contrast. He knew about how this life was against the backdrop of eternity. And he said this, it becomes us to spend this life as a journey, only as a journey toward heaven to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. And then he posed this question. Why should we labor for or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end? in true happiness? It's a good question, isn't it? And I hope you will think about that question. Let me read it again. Why should we labor for or set our hearts on anything else but that which is our proper end in true happiness? While still in his early 20s, Edwards composed a set of life resolutions, one of which read as follows. Resolved to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can." Is that the way you live your life? That's the way he lived his life. All men seek after happiness. The only difference between them and Edwards is that Edwards sought after that happiness where it can be truly found, in heaven, not here. Anything you seek after here is ultimately going to let you down. I can tell you that for sure. Edwards sought after happiness in heaven. and he lived his life that way. Let me give you a third reason. You've got to long for heaven, you've got to focus on heaven, you've got to invest whatever effort is necessary to set your mind on the things above, to fight against that default way of thinking, to paddle upstream, if you will, however you want to say it. You've got to do that because everything that's precious to you is there. Everything that's precious to you is there. This is another one of these subjects that I could spend a great deal of time on if I wanted to, developing all of these great thoughts, but I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to run them through your minds quickly, give them to you for something to think about here. Many of these thoughts, of course, are ones that will get further developed later on in this study. Why should your focus be on heaven? Well, here's the list. For openers, God your Heavenly Father is there. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9. Our Father who art in Heaven. Christ your Savior and Lord is there. That's another good reason why you ought to long for heaven. Romans 8, 34. Realize this morning now that heaven is that place where you will enjoy for the first time ever and from there on through eternity face-to-face fellowship with your Savior, the one who died for you, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of your brothers and sisters in Christ who have died before you are there. As Luther said, All of those friendships that were interrupted by death will resume there. All of your believing family members who have gone on before you are there. Your name is recorded there, Luke 10.20. Your imperishable and undefiled inheritance is there, 1 Peter 1.4. Your citizenship is there, Philippians 3.20. And according to Matthew 5.12, your eternal reward is there. There's probably more things that could be added to that list. And trust me, they will be as we go through this study. But let me just sum it up by saying this for now. Everything that ought to be the most precious to you, everything that ought to be the most valuable to you, is not here, but there. And I think that's a pretty good reason, don't you? For the longing of your heart to also be there, even while you're still physically living here. Now, for the rest of our time this morning, I want to take you to two scriptures that I think will help us as we seek to set our minds on the things above, and then we're going to save that key one in Colossians 3, 1-4 for next time. So first, if you would please, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And what I want you to see here, we're talking about setting our minds on the things above. What we're going to see here in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 is the example of a godly man who did have his mind set on the things above. And of course, you know who that godly man is. That godly man that I'm talking about is, of course, the Apostle Paul. Now, if you're there in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, I'm going to start reading in verse 1, and I'm going to read down through the entire chapter, all 18 verses. where Paul is explaining to the Corinthians just exactly how life in the ministry has been for him. Certainly, you know that I'm not going to be able to teach this whole chapter right now. That would be impossible. But I'm going to read it all. We'll skip over a lot of stuff, but I'm going to read it all for the sake of context. And what I'm getting at is some verses at the end. I want to read it all so that we can then zero in on and fully appreciate a precious thought at the end of this chapter. Pick up with me now in verse 1. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we receive mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Let's throw a comment in right there. We know about that verse, don't we? Unbelievers can't see. We're frustrated by that many times. When unbelievers can't understand the gospel that we understand and see is so simple, unbelievers can't see the light of the gospel because Satan has blinded their minds. And let me say this also, they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ until what happens? Until you persuade them? No. Until God sovereignly removes those blinders that are over their minds. It's only then that they will see and understand the glorious light of the gospel. Let's go on, verse 5. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. We have this treasure, Paul says, we have this new spiritual life, we have this gospel ministry in earthen vessels, Paul says, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. Just a quick note there, Paul clearly understood the weakness of the outer man as he served Christ and as he preached the gospel. And yet at the same time, he also understood the strength of the inner man, didn't he? And watch now how that understanding worked itself out in what he goes on to say in verses 8 and 9. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. If you've read through the New Testament and you know about the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul, what do you know about him? He had endured it all. This guy had been beaten up, shipwrecked, you name it. Stoned, left for dead, on and on it goes. That's what Paul had suffered for the sake of the gospel. Notice what he says here in verses 8 and 9. They can do whatever they want to do to the outer man, Paul says. But you know what the inner man does? He just keeps right on, like the Energizer Bunny, he just keeps right on going. He is afflicted, he is perplexed sometimes, he's definitely persecuted, and he's even been struck down. But he is never crushed, he is never despairing, he is never forsaken, and he is never destroyed. He keeps right on going, because that's the Spirit's power, working through the inner man. Verse 10 goes on to say, "...always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you, but having the same spirit of faith according to what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. And there, of course, Paul is looking forward to the resurrection of his body. You know what he's saying here in the context of this chapter? He's saying, let me just go ahead and completely spend this body for Christ, Paul says. And even if they completely destroy it, even if they kill it, I know that God will raise it up one day and glorify it. I know that He'll make it fit one day for me to live in for all eternity. For all things are for your sakes, verse 15, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God." And certainly much more could be said about all of those verses, but I read all of those to get here. Focus in with me now, if you would, on the last three verses of this chapter. This is what I was going for when I started reading verse one. In verse one, these are the verses that are going to help you set your minds on the things above. Therefore, we do not lose heart, Paul says in verse 16, But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. Be encouraged by that this morning. Paul says, right while the outer man is going down, down, down, the inner man is what? Going up, up, up. The outer man is getting weaker. The outer man is in the process of decay. Right while the inner man is getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And watch this awesome truth now in verse 17. Look at this. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. That's got to sink in a little bit before you really get that. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Let me say to you this, not very many of us, probably none of us, have ever suffered for Jesus Christ or for the gospel even close to the degree that this guy did, the Apostle Paul. And still, even yet, this Paul, this Apostle Paul who suffered so much could still strike this amazing comparison in verse 17. Do you see what he's saying here, what he's doing here? He's collecting in verse 17. He's collecting everything in his life here that he's just told us about in the earlier parts of this chapter. And in other places in the New Testament, all those horrible things that he's experienced for the sake of the gospel, for the cause of Christ. And he takes all of those things and he's summing them up here in verse 17 and calling them momentary light affliction. You say, well, I've read about this guy's life. I've read about this guy's life. That doesn't, all of that stuff that he went through doesn't sound very much like momentary light affliction to me. And that's only because you're not seeing it. in the same way that Paul was seeing it. You see, Paul was seeing all of that stuff in his life that he had endured against the backdrop of heaven. That's how he was seeing it. He was seeing all of that stuff against the backdrop of heaven, and he even said here that it was producing, all of that stuff was producing something for him in heaven that was so much better than this was bad, that a valid comparison could not even be made. Valid comparison cannot even be made. For momentary light affliction, Paul says, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, not just beyond, but far beyond all comparison. You can't even strike a comparison, Paul says, between this and that. And I know that even while I'm reading this and thinking about what it means by what it says, I know that I'm really clueless in terms of what it really means, and I will be until I get there. All I can tell you now, folks, is this. There is a profound statement being made here about the way that you and I will be compensated in heaven for the ways in which we have suffered for Jesus Christ here. This verse is indicating to us that there is some kind of a divine formula here, some kind of a proportionate connection between those two things and the plan and purpose of God that only heaven will enable us to fully understand. If you want another cross-reference on this same thought, I read it earlier just before we shared together around the Lord's table. Paul said the very same thing again in Romans 8.18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared. Just think about that. Take that home with you. Think about that. The sufferings of this present time. You're going to invest this life, right? This little invisible hairline across the tape measure. You're going to invest this life in eternity. Paul says, let me tell you something, what you're going to get there in return is not even worthy to be compared. There's no comparison that you can strike that will help you understand what I'm talking about, Paul says. The sufferings of this present time are not ready to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Let's go back to second Corinthians four now and get that last verse. Momentary light affliction here is producing an incomparable weight of glory there. Watch this now. While we look, Paul goes on to say in verse 18. While we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. What do we have right here? We have Paul doing exactly what he told us to do over in Colossians 3, 2, right? We have Paul setting his mind on the things above. We have Paul here looking at the things which are not seen, those invisible things. Isn't that what we need to do? Isn't that what we need to learn how to do? Yes. How do you do that, Paul? How do you look at those eternal things which are not seen? How do you see what can't be seen? Well, let me give you a hint. You can't see those things with your physical eyes, but you can see them with the eyes of faith. And what does it mean to do that? Well, to look and see with the eyes of faith simply means this, you take God at his word, believing in his promises and believing what he has revealed there as belonging to you. None of us have ever been to heaven yet. None of us have ever seen heaven yet. We've never seen the glories of heaven with our physical eyes, but here's what we're going to do in the weeks ahead. In the weeks ahead now, we are going to look with the eyes of faith at this glorious place as God has revealed some of those things for us in his word. And we are going to see together what he has revealed there for us to see about that wonderful place. We're going to look together at those things which are not seen. And so there's a great section of scripture for you to think about. Let me show you one more scripture this morning very quickly to help you with that heavenly focus. And that's in Matthew 6, verses 19-21. Matthew 6, verses 19-21, very familiar verses. According to Jesus, one of the key factors involved in setting your minds on the things above has to do with where you do your banking. I guess I could put it that way. One of the key factors involved in setting your minds on the things above has to do with where you do your banking. Look at what Jesus said beginning in verse 19. Three verses that really need no explanation. As you think about your life this week, who you are, where you're going with this life as a Levite, I would encourage you to meditate on these three verses that came from the lips of our Lord Himself. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal." And then Jesus said this, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Simple statement, but I want to tell you folks, that is a profound statement. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The formula here is very simple, isn't it? If you want to do what Paul is going to call us to do in Colossians 3.2, if you really want your heart and your mind, your heart and your mind a lot of times are synonymous in scripture, if you really want your heart and your mind in heaven, Jesus says just do this. Just make sure that you put your treasure there and your heart will follow after. Well, next Lord's Day we're going to spend our time As I said, in Colossians 3, 1-4, it'll probably take us a couple of weeks actually to work through that text. So when you're done meditating on Matthew 6, 19-21, you might want to go over and spend a little bit of time in preparation for next Lord's Day there, looking through and thinking through the text of Colossians 3, verses 1-4. Let me close this morning by reading for you the words of an old and very familiar hymn. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Heaven is the theme of this hymn, and I just think it kind of pulls together many of the things that we have talked about today. Here's what it says. Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace. In the mansions bright and blessed, he'll prepare for us a place. While we walk the pilgrim pathway, clouds will overspread the sky. But when traveling days are over, not a shadow, Not a sigh. Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day. And listen now to this next line. Think about this one. Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay. Honored to the prize before us, soon His beauty will behold. Soon the pearly gates will open. We shall tread the streets of gold. And then the chorus. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. I almost started singing for you, but I wouldn't do that. Let's pray together. Thank you, Father, for the hope of glory. Thank you for the glorious promise of heaven forever in your very presence, Father. We just ask that you would open our minds and you would open our hearts to see and understand in the weeks ahead everything that you have for us to see and understand about that wonderful place called heaven. We love you, Father, praise you and thank you for who you are, for what you've done for us, and for this opportunity to open your word together. We love you in Jesus name.