LIFE EVERLASTING (PT 1)

[1]WELCOME: Good morning Church! So glad to get to worship with you this morning. If you’re new with us or just now joining us online, my name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone. [2]If you haven’t already, I’d like to encourage you to go to auburncstone.info and click on the digital connection card and let us know you’re joining us. Let us know you’re here and how we can be praying for you. If you’re new with us, we’ll send you a gift to say thanks for being part of our time together. If this is home, please fill this out every week as well.

SERIES: Today was supposed to be the final sermon in our series called THE CREED: WHAT WE BELIEVE. And we’re going to be discussing what it means to believe in…[3]LIFE EVERLASTING. But I found myself realizing just how much of what I have believed about what life will be like when Jesus comes back wasn’t helpful. It didn’t make my heart sing. And the life that God has prepared for us should light our imaginations on fire. It should make our hearts want to explode with anticipation. So I decided I was going to do Life Everlasting Part one this week, and then Life Everlasting Part 2 next week. And seriously, I can’t wait to preach both of these sermons to you! So thank you for being here. Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to pray, and then we’re going to say the creed together and then we’ll jump into our time of teaching.

God, in your presence there is satisfaction for every longing we have ever experienced. Help us today to realize that our deepest desire is to be with you. Give us hearts that won’t be satisfied with anything less than eternity with you. I pray that you would reveal yourself to those who do not know you, that they would hear your voice and be saved through your son Jesus. Spirit speak through your word and through me. In Jesus name we pray, amen. [4-12][Say Creed]

(TEACH) HEAVEN IS ABOUT BEING WITH GOD

HEAVEN: If you’ll open your bibles up to [Revelation chapter 21] or go to auburncstone.info you can follow along there. Revelation is the very last book in our bible and chapter 21-22 are the last two chapters of our bible. I’m going to read [13-15][verses 1-4] first and then we’ll read the rest of the chapter next week. I want to give you guys a definition of what heaven is. HEAVEN IS GOD’S SPACE. The place where God’s presence is most fully experienced. [17]IF YOU HEAR NOTHING ELSE TODAY, I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT HEAVEN IS NOT PRIMARILY ABOUT GOING SOMEWHERE, BUT ABOUT BEING WITH SOMEONE! Life everlasting is not about escaping this world, or even getting to some destination, it is first and foremost about being FULLY AND FINALLY IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR ALL THE REST OF ETERNITY. The verses we just read said, “look God’s home is now among his people. He’s coming to live with us! As I have asked others what excites them most about everlasting life, I have heard a number of responses. None of them are bad. Some of the answers I have heard are about the new bodies we talked about last week. I’m looking forward to not living in pain any longer. I’m looking forward to not having cancer.  Some other answers have been about seeing loved ones again that have died. I have to say that initially that has been one of my biggest desires once this life is over. I desperately want to see my dad again, my grandparents, my adopted grandparents. And the bible does promise that those things, Praise God! But the entire story of the bible is about[18]

·  GOD’S PLAN FOR HUMANITY TO FINALLY & FULLY BE IN HIS PRESENCE FOREVER. Because even if we get all those other things, if God’s not there, it’s not heaven. The prize we are all looking forward to is God. He’s our inheritance, our great reward, the goal towards which we’re running. [19]The satisfaction we’re longing for is in knowing and being known by our Creator. The very reason we look forward to seeing loved ones again is because of the way having a relationship with them affected us. And Because we can see them it’s easier to think about being reunited with them. But because we’ve never seen God, it’s harder to think about the joy of finally seeing him face to face. So, let’s start with the relationships we know here. [20]

o The people we love being around the most are the ones who know us the best and still like us and love us and want to be around us. They’re the people who have stuck with us through our hardest times. They’re the ones who picked us up when we failed. They’re the ones who stuck with us when we were jerks. They’re the ones who invested their lives in us and walked with us to help us become who we are. They’re the ones who know our insecurities and are able to both speak words of kindness when we need them and speak words of truth when we’re being punks. [21]Those are the people that give us glimpses into what God is like. Loyal, Kind, Compassionate. [22]On the other hand, as wonderful and necessary as these earthly relationships are, they still fall short. Sometimes they’re not available when you need them. Sometimes they hurt you and disappoint you. Sometimes they say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Even under the best of circumstances there can be a deep longing to connect and be understood that just isn’t there and can leave a profound sense of loneliness. We long for the kind of relationship that won’t let us down or disappoint us. [23]Then there are relationships that have wounded us deeply and made it hard for us to believe we’re loved, valuable, or safe. And every relationship that we have ever experienced either gives us a tiny sip of the true, real, powerful, life-giving relationship we’re thirsty for, or it makes us wonder if that kind of relationship is impossible. [24]

§ It’s the relationship that we were cut off from in the Garden of Eden. And deep down in our soul, there is the thirst for that original connection. A memory of what it was like to be able to walk with God, talk to him, hear his voice, see him face to face. Can you imagine it? Let me see if I can help you. Close your eyes.

§ WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE LIKE TO SEE YOUR GOD FACE TO FACE? (pause) Is he smiling? Is he motioning to you? WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE LIKE TO FEEL HIS TOUCH? Will he place his hand on your head ? Is he hugging you? Is he wiping away your tears?  WHAT DO YOU THINK HE’LL SAY TO YOU? (pause) Hello friend. I’m proud of you. I like you. You turned out exactly how I wanted. You’re safe now. You can trust me. This is gonna be fun! I’m glad you’re here. You did well! Let’s just sit together for a while. I moved heaven and earth for you. I love you so much! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY TO HIM? You can open your eyes now.

§ C.S. Lewis calls this experiencing glory. God looking at us, being pleased with us, accepting us, speaking praise love and comfort over us, and welcoming us into the life and eternity he wants to share with us. He says this [25-26][Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honor beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.] [27] We long to be known by God. And we long to know God face to face. For the door of eternity to be opened and see him before us and to be with him. We hear the story of the Garden of Eden and think, I wish I could have walked with God. We hear about Moses talking to God like a friend, and we wish we could have done that. We hear about the disciples and spending 3 whole years with God in flesh. Laughing with, being taught, working side by side, and knowing they are loved, and we wish that could have been us. And we are promised that it will be…

§ I love the way that the lyric from the old Hymn “It is well” puts what we’re feeling right now. [28]LORD HASTE THE DAY WHEN OUR FAITH BE MADE SIGHT: Paul said in [29-31][2 Cor. 5:4-7] We’re promised there will come a day when we will actually see the God we have placed our faith in for so long. And that is heaven. Heaven is where Gods presence can be fully experienced. And we long for that. But we don’t deserve it. [32]

·  I DON’T DESERVE TO EVEN BE CALLED YOUR SON. This last week I was doing my morning bible reading with Levi. And we’re snuggled into my comfy chair together and I’ve got my arm around him. And we’re going through a book about giving your life to Jesus and we started to read the story that Jesus told that we typically call the prodigal child. It’s about a son who basically tells his dead he wishes he could live like his dad was dead already so he can start spending his inheritance. The Father could have killed him for that kind of disrespect. Instead he blesses him financially and gives him freedom to make his own choices. The young man goes off and blows everything. Parties it up. Indulges in every kind of physical pleasure there is. And ends up broke, alone, and just about to starve. And he thinks to himself I’ll go back to him and maybe he’ll take me back as a servant. And as he gets close to home, his dad comes running out and embraced him, and kissed him. You know the only male I kiss on the cheek? My son! His dad has already shown that he’s taking him back. And the son says [33]“‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ [Lk. 15:21] And as I read that I started to cry. That’s me! I don’t deserve to have the father run towards me, to embrace me and give me a fatherly kiss! Not after the way I have lived! Not after I regularly act like he’s dead to me and I can live my life however I want to. And then I look over at my son, and think, he’ll never quit being my son. I’ll love him no matter what. He’ll always be my son. And when we repent, we come back to the father, he’s waiting with open arms. He runs towards us. That’s the God we’re longing to be with in heaven.

o The God who loves us more than we’ve ever been loved. Has given up everything to save us from our sins. The God who is gracious and compassionate and abounding in love. One of my favorite worship songs is reckless love and the bridge makes me want to sing out loud until I’m horse. [34]“There’s no shadow you won’t light up, mountain you won’t climb up, coming after me. There’s no wall you won’t kick down, lie you won’t tear down coming after me.” That is the God, the Father, the Creator we will see face to face one day.

o I asked someone this week what they thought of when they heard the phrase Everlasting life, and they didn’t even hesitate. They said, I get to be with Jesus! And I said, why are you looking forward to that so much? And again, he immediately said, because I could never deserve it. My prayer is that today you have caught a tiny glimpse of what Paul calls [35-36]“how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is” [Eph. 3:18] and that it will make you long to be with him. And that Heaven will not be about getting someplace, but about being with someone! In God’s presence fully and finally for all of eternity. [37]

(APP) LONGING FOR THE FATHER

This morning if you’re just checking out this Christianity thing, or you just stumbled onto our service online, I want you to know that you’re not here by accident. In every human heart, this is an intense longing to be reconnected with our creator and our heavenly father. And we search for ways to satisfy that ache in our hearts. Yet no human relationship can ever live up to what we’re longing for. No spouse, no significant other, no child, no parent. And the God of the universe has gone to ridiculous lengths to make it possible for you to be with him. And he’s calling you to come back. To repent. To stop looking for joy away from him and his love. And he sent Jesus to forgive you and to make it possible to join him in heaven. If you are wanting to know more about what it means to surrender your life and come back home we’d love to connect with you. [38][text “cstonefollowjesus” to 94000 or come up and talk to me after service.]

If you’ve turned back to God and have given your life to Jesus, my hope is that you can finally put your finger on that ache. We are grateful that Jesus has saved us. We are grateful for his Holy Spirit within us. But we also know as U2 Put it, “we still haven’t found what we’re looking for” because we desperately want to see our Creator. And we can pray “Lord Haste The Day when our faith becomes sight!” When we will actually see his face shine upon us and experience the smile and the delight of God.