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Dr. Ed Young: Every three seconds, someone dies.
Every second, three people die.
Every minute, 180 people die.
Every hour, 11,000 people die.
Every day, 250,000 people leave this earth.
The mortality rate is a hundred percent,
a hundred percent.
And therefore when we cease to function as a living person
in this world, the atheist, the agnostics says, "I don't know."
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we go back to dust and nothingness.
We cease to exist.
We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in that book knows that
when life leaves this body, we go to heaven or we go to hell.
Understanding that God never sends anybody to hell,
it is a choice we make on this earth that decides our destiny.
How many of you have ever got on the Internet
and looked at real estate on the Internet?
Would you lift your hand, you just looked at real estate.
A lot of people, good, good, good.
It's called real estate.
They are real but sometimes we can be confused about
what we see and what we don't see.
Like the two blonds were on the coast and they look out over
there and they look at the moon and one blond says to the other,
"Are we closer to the moon or to Florida?"
And the other blond says, "Can you see Florida?"
So, we can be confused about what is real and what is not
real but we know one thing in our study,
we will see that heaven is?
audience: Real.
Dr. Young: Now, people have trouble believing that
because it is out of this world but it's real.
Heaven exists. Let me show you how real it is.
Will everybody clap your hands?
Then that chair, just feel that chair,
will you feel a little bit?
All right, take a deep breath.
Oh, that's real, isn't it?
You know, the chair, the noise, the clap.
Heaven is just that real and we'll talk about realty.
In a sense, most of us think realty has to do with material.
If it's real, it has to be material but we know
after we think about it, that's not true.
Real is material and heaven will be material
but also real is spiritual.
Can you see love?
Can you see friendship?
Love, friendship, these are intangible so in heaven
we discover there will be that which is material and that
which is immaterial, that which we can measure objectively
and that which we cannot measure subjectively.
And when I think about heaven, you know the verse
that comes to my mind and the chapter is John 14.
Most of us are familiar with John 14,
chapter number 14, verse 1 says,
"Do not let your heart be troubled."
Now, let's get the context of Jesus speaking these words.
He's in the upper room.
It's only hours before his arrest and his crucifixion.
This is the victory address in which he's instructing those
eleven apostles one last time and he's trying to teach them
and let them understand that he's about to leave.
Now, a lot of people take this passage and they say,
"Let not your heart be troubled," and they say,
"But if you're a Christian, you should never have any troubles."
You can cut on television, hear that 24/7.
"Well, if you're Christian and you're serving the Lord and you
have enough faith, you're not really have any trouble.
You'll just wash away troubles.
You'll be healthy, and wealthy, and wise,
and free from any concern."
And they take this verse
and use it as one of the texts that they'll use.
Or Romans 8:20 thing, "All things work together for good
to those who love God.
Therefore let not your heart be troubled."
We as Christians should not have trouble
but we know from personal experience that is a lie.
It is simply phony.
It is not true, why?
One reason there is evil in the world.
Anybody want to debate about that a while?
And we could show evil in some religious groups.
We could show evil in some people who are just mentally
confused, some people who are addicted.
There is evil in the world so there is trouble in the world.
But we don't have to look at a global perspective,
we can look at our lives.
And there's trouble in individual lives.
There's trouble in relationships.
There's trouble in families,
there's trouble in our vocations,
there's trouble with our health.
All around us, we see they're troubled but this Scripture
says, "Let not your heart be troubled,"
but we are surrounded by troubles.
We have troubles.
Every walks this earth has troubles.
Jesus did.
In the preceding chapter, John 13,
it says Jesus was troubled.
Well, how in the world can Jesus be troubled?
You read in the context there it's because one of his close
associates, he followed with, he loved,
he believed in, he discipled, he had trained.
This associate was selling him out.
By the way, nobody can really hurt you,
really hurt you deeply unless you love them,
been with them, shared your life with them,
they shared your life.
That's somebody who can really hurt you.
Other people can scar you but you can back away
but somebody that's really walked inside of life with you,
that's the people who can hurt you.
This is what Judas did.
Jesus was troubled because of Judas.
Jesus was troubled because of the braggadocious idea of Peter.
Jesus said in the 13th chapter of John,
"I'm going away. I'm not gonna be with you."
And Peter says, "Where you going?"
And Jesus says, "You can't go with me."
And Peter says, "I'll go with you.
I'll lay down my life for you."
Big talk, isn't it?
Jesus looked at the bombastic Pete and said,
"Let me tell ya something, before the rooster crows
in the morning, you'll deny you even know me."
Jesus was troubled.
He was troubled because he was facing the shame of the cross.
He was troubled because he knew the Father
would turn his back on him.
He was troubled because he knew he would take upon himself
all the trash of your life, and my life,
and the trash of the world.
Jesus was troubled but in the midst of the trouble,
he was concerned about his apostles,
isn't that something?
He was preparing them.
He said, "Let not your heart be troubled."
And then he gave them three reasons
why they should not let trouble take over their lives.
Not that they would not have problems,
and challenges, and pain, and suffering,
and difficulties, but he gave three reasons how you handle it,
how you find victory in it.
And look what he says, "Let not your heart be troubled,"
number one, "Believe in God, believe also in me."
When trouble comes to you, when trouble comes to me,
the first thing we have to do is to trust God
and trust Jesus Christ.
It's trust.
Can God be trusted?
He created this world.
Can Jesus be trusted as you look at his life and his words?
He not only taught these principles,
he lived them out.
So, Jesus is saying, trouble comes,
don't let trouble get over you,
and control you, and ruin your life.
He said, "Put your trust in me as you put your trust
in Almighty God."
That's where we begin when troubles come.
We trust, we believe, put our full weight down upon him.
And what's the next thing Jesus says when trouble comes?
He said, "In My Father's house are many dwelling places;
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you."
He's saying, "Look, when trouble comes,
the worst thing that can happen is your life
can be taken from you.
You can leave this earth."
But he said, "That shouldn't be an overwhelming trouble
because," he said, "I have gone ahead of you.
I have paved the way for you.
And I have prepared a place just for you."
And that will be our home.
Anybody thinks they're at home on this earth,
you are fooling yourself.
It's just like here a fish in an aquarium and they're swimming
around and they look contented.
I don't know, none of them have ever seemed like
they were upset at me.
But don't you know instinctively those fish say,
"Surely, there's something more than
this little rectangle bowl of water here."
See, they were meant to be in the ocean.
We're like that, folks.
You see, we're made in the image of God,
therefore, all of us breathe something in the air
of the Garden of Eden.
I mean, this world isn't big enough to contain us.
We'll never be totally fulfilled,
totally satisfied, totally on top of things,
totally happy in this world.
It's not gonna happen because we're made for something more
and bigger than this world.
And Jesus says, "I've gone ahead of you.
Whatever happens in this life, you go to the next life,
I have prepared a place for you."
Let me tell ya something, if you ever come visit us in our home,
my wife Jo Beth, she'll have everything prepared for you
and she'll see that what she doesn't do, I'll do.
We have in our kitchen a little chalkboard and she writes,
"Welcome," and puts your name on it.
That's pretty personal, isn't it?
And she'll find out what kind of coffee you like.
She'll find out do you drink diet Coke.
I say surely, not, oh.
And she'll try to prepare meals and set the whole environment
from the bed, if you're spending the night,
to all the little bitty extra things.
My wife is just Phi Beta Kappa in doing all the little things
that prepare someone to help them feel totally at home.
Jesus is saying, God has done that for all of his sons
and all of his daughters, that's evident.
He's prepared a place for you.
We're pilgrims. We're passing through.
We'll never be totally at home here,
but when we all get to heaven, we'll be completely at home
there in a way that we can't even imagine in this life.
The Bible says, "Eye has not seen,
ear has not heard, neither has he entered the heart of man."
What God has, what's the word?
prepared for those of us who love him,
those of us in relation with him.
So, don't let trouble overwhelm you.
Don't let trouble overwhelm me because we trust God,
we trust Christ, and we know Jesus has gone ahead of us
and prepared a place for us and when we get there,
your initials will be there and for the first time
you'll be totally at home.
The best day of my life will be the last day I live on this
earth but the last day I live on this earth will not,
by a long shot, be the best day of my life.
That's true of you, that's true of me.
This is something of a little vision we're going to get
of heaven in our study in these weeks.
Also he says something else, the next thing he says,
he said, "I not only will go and prepare a place for you."
He said, "I will go and prepare a place for you," verse 3,
"and I will come again and receive you to myself
that where I am, there you may be also
and you know the way where I'm going."
He said, "Not only do you have to put your trust in me,
not only have I prepared a place uniquely for you," but he says,
"I am going to come and get you when life leaves this body
or the curtain of history comes down,
I'm gonna come and get you.
I'm gonna take you to that place uniquely prepared for you
and more that, I'm gonna stay with you and be there with you."
Man, what kind of beautiful comfort and promise
that should be.
By the way, Luke, I mean John chapter 14
is a whole chapter of comfort.
Martin Luther said it's the best chapter of comfort in the Bible.
You read John 14, it's just comfort stacked on comfort,
stacked on comfort, stacked on comfort.
It is a comforting word and this is the very heart
of that comforting word.
He will come and get us.
Breath leaves this body, he will take us to the place that has
been prepared where we'll first time in ever feel totally
at home and he will abide there with us.
What a deal. That is the beginning of heaven.
And then we read Jesus says, "I am--"
And look what happens, amazing thing.
Thomas speaks up.
Now listen, Jesus says, "And you know the way where I am going."
Thomas speaks up, listen what he says,
"Lord, we did not know where you're going.
How do we know the way?"
Jesus says, "You know the way."
Thomas says, "We don't know where you're going.
I know the way."
That happens all the time in the world to me.
Jo Beth's in the hospital they'll say they're gonna give
her an XYZQR test.
I don't know what they're talking about.
You go to the bank and they said,
"Well, we're having an audit and it's a Q2B audit."
We don't know what--every profession
has all of these initials, and numbers, and names,
and we just sit there like, "Oh yes, I know that.
I'm all over that, sure."
And that's what happened here.
All the other apostles Jesus says,
"You know, I'm going away and you know the way."
And they said, "Oh yes, we know the way."
And Thomas, thank God for Thomas.
He stands up and says "Lord, we don't know where you're going.
How in the world can we know the way?"
Doubting Thomas.
He professed his ignorance then he asked a question.
We need to learn how to do that, folks.
Don't be so smug, sophisticated, "Man, I get that.
I know what that's--" No, no, he professed his ignorance.
He said, "I don't know where you're going, Lord."
And if you don't know where you're going,
I don't know the way.
And then Jesus uttered the most exclusive,
narrow statement that you'll ever find.
He said, "I am the way, I am the truth,
and I am the life."
He explained clearly and probably elaborated on this
to the apostles exactly what that was all about.
He said, "I am the way."
How do you get to God, ladies and gentlemen?
How do you get to know God?
How do you have an entree to God?
How do you listen to God? How do you speak to God?
Jesus says, "I'm way you do it and
it comes through reconciliation."
Anybody who is arrogant enough, and I want to say stupid enough,
to think we can just walk up to God and say,
"God, I want to have a little talk with you.
And God, I want to tell you what I think.
And God--" No, no, no, we don't have that entree, folks.
We're unholy, impure, stained, broken,
lost, confused people.
We have to be reconciled.
We have to have a way to get to God and Jesus is the way.
He established the way through reconciliation by dying
on a cross and paid the price for all of your stuff
and all of my stuff, therefore he is the way,
the way, the way.
And it comes because he has reconciled us,
you and me, to Almighty God so we can go right
before our heavenly Father.
He's the way. He said, "I'm the truth."
And the truth is the embellishment.
It is the enlightenment. It is the facts.
People say, "Well, this is true. That is true.
Who can know truth?"
Jesus not only spoke the truth, but he embodied the truth.
He tells us about God.
It's not, "Well, this is what I think.
This is what somebody told me. This is what I believe."
No, no, Jesus tells us the truth about God.
If you really want to know the truth about God,
there is Jesus, make no mistake about it.
He's the way, he is the truth, and truth is enlightenment so we
understand all we need to know about the Almighty.
He's the way and he is the life.
He regenerates us.
We die, we leave this earth, we get that resurrected body
and all of a sudden, we are regenerated.
We have life forever meant for heaven.
See, Jesus said, "The way, the truth, and the life."
Does that sound too narrow, too exclusive?
Truth is always narrow and exclusive by definition.
Something that's true is true.
Jesus said, "I'm the way."
Man, this is the way you get to the Father.
"I'm the truth."
This is the enlightenment of what's really going on with God
in life and what it's all about, and I am the life."
And he gives us that life so we can walk around heaven all day
and have life that's meaning there.
You see, heaven is? audience: Real.
Dr. Young: Heaven is? audience: Real.
Dr. Young: And it really is real.
A young girl was diagnosed with terminal illness
and she realized that when all of her family
and friends were gathered.
And her mother comes and says, "Let me show you what death is,"
and took her out of this room
and put her into another room by herself.
The little girl was crying.
The mother went and got another member of the family,
brought her in the room with the little girl,
and another one, and another one till all of them
were in the room with the little girl.
And the mother said, "This is the way it is with death.
You just went first."
She said, "All off us with follow with you afterwards."
That's a partial story but the truth was if the mother was
Jesus Christ, Jesus comes to get us and take us to himself.
And we are the first that's there in our family,
maybe with the twenty-first in our family but one day we'll all
be there together those who die in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Understand, he's the way, the truth, and the life.
It's heaven.
It's the joy and the privilege of heaven.
To say it another way, heaven is exciting, it's exciting.
My mother prayed every night of my life.
She'd have family altar and when I was young
and a teenager, I didn't like it.
But she'd always pray these words,
"When thou art through with us on this earth,
take us to our home which is in heaven."
I didn't like that.
It's about death. I wasn't interested in death.
Don't want to talk about death, don't want to recognize death
when you're young and even for many who are older.
But I understand that now.
She was saying to our home which is in heaven and man,
it is exciting, so exciting to understand that.
Let's say that a friend invited you to a party.
You went to the party, there's a few people there,
hors d'oeuvres, all right.
A little after, talk with one another. It's okay.
You been there an hour or so
and your friend said, "Let's leave."
Said, "No, maybe the party will pick up."
Said, "No, let's go."
So, your friend takes you and takes you home and you open
the door and all of a sudden, you're home,
lights come on, there there's laughter, there is food.
There's people you hadn't seen in a long time.
Your family is there. There's celebration there.
There is music there and all of a sudden,
you realize that you have gone to your own graduation party
and it is really terrific.
It is magnificent.
And you said, "My goodness, I was worried about leaving
that little old one-horse party but look at this celebration,
this banquet that I've come to."
You see, we have the idea, "Well, I'll leave this world.
I may have missed something and boy,
it needs to go on."
Oh no, we go to a party, a banquet,
a place of excitement we can't even imagine in this life.
It's called heaven, heaven.
And I don't want to get us too excited about heaven today
because you'll say, "Pull up a bus
and let's go there right now."
No, no, no, but God tells us all we need to know about heaven
to know that in heaven we'll have resurrected lives.
In heaven, all of our friends will have resurrected lives.
In heaven, there'll be a resurrected new heaven
and new earth.
In heaven, there'll be a resurrected Jesus.
In heaven, there'll be a resurrected culture.
In heaven, there'll be challenges,
and creativity, and joy, and celebration that'll go on and on
that's beyond anything we can picture or imagine
because we see heaven is real.
It's real.
Older Christian man was dying.
He's in the bed.
His son came in, sat on the edge of the bed and said,
"Dad, how do you feel?"
And that Christian man with a little smile on his face said,
"Son, I feel like a young boy on Christmas Eve."
You see, heaven is exciting. Heaven is?
audience: Real.
Dr. Young: Heaven is? audience: Real.
male announcer: What is heaven?
When we think of heaven, we usually think of clouds,
maybe a staircase, a gate,
perhaps a light at the end of a tunnel.
But is heaven a real place?
What will it look like?
What will we do there for eternity?
Throughout God's Word, we're given pieces to the puzzle
of heaven and in the series, "Heaven Is,"
Dr. Young will put those pieces together to give us our best
understanding of what heaven is really like.
Dr. Young: In heaven, there'll be challenges,
and creativity, and joy, and celebration that'll go on and on
that's beyond anything we can picture or imagine
because we see heaven is real.
It's real.
announcer: To get your copy of this amazing series,
"Heaven Is," call the number on your screen or go online
at winningwalk.org.
It's our gift to you for your financial support
of this ministry.
Dr. Young: When I was growing up,
almost without exception every time I left my home,
my mother would say, "Edwin, remember who you are."
And I would turn around and grin,
or smile, or throw my hands back,
keep moving but I knew exactly what she was talking about.
At the party, remember who you are.
As you go out with that date, remember who you are.
As you take that trip and you get away from people
that really don't know you, remember who you are.
Remember what you have learned.
Remember what you have been taught,
what your name means, principles you have seen your dad
and I live out before you.
That's what my parents were saying,
"Edwin, remember who you are."
To this day, I have not forgotten that reminder
and you shouldn't either.
Sometimes I have remembered the reminder but out in the throws
of life, I did not remember who I was in Christ.
We need to always keep that in the frontal part of our minds.
Remember who you are and more importantly,
remember who you belong to.
As a son or a daughter of God in Jesus Christ,
live through him and for him and never forget, you are his.
That's who you are and that's who I am.
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