The Gospel & Death

This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org.

We've come to bow down before you.

We come to ask you to clarify all that feels fuzzy, all that's unclear, all that's not certain.

We ask you to kind of just kind of break all that and clarify it, God.

We're going to open up the Bible.

And that's what the Bible does.

It clarifies things for us.

And so, Lord, as we think about the gospel in death today, as morbid as that can sound, it's actually very liberating.

So we want to be liberated, winsome, free people today as a result of the good news of the gospel.

And so make that happen.

We're not here to get a religious whipping.

We're not here to double our determination or increase our effort.

We're here to enjoy that which you freely provided.

The Bible says that you freely provide everything for our enjoyment.

So we want to get busy enjoying it, God.

We want to enjoy everything you've given us.

And then when our time comes, we don't want to look back with regret.

Let us take from the gospel today everything necessary to live lives that are gospel fluent.

That people look at us and they see something different.

Not better than, not more religious than, just kind of other than.

There's something otherworldly about us.

And so, God, that's a great fertile environment for the gospel to spring forth.

We pray that.

We desire that.

Let us experience that because of the truth we're going to hear today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And in the next 17 minutes, I'll summarize the entire book of Revelation.

Oh, you've read it too.

Anyway, uh, if you're our guest today, we are in a series we have uh called The Gospel and, where we're looking at our core value of the gospel.

We have four core values, and when we say core values, that sounds like what is that?

These are kind of the grid through which, it's the filter through which things are run around here.

Our four core values, the things that we as a church really care about and are passionate about, are gospel, community, mission, and blessing.

And so we're taking the month of June and we're just looking at the gospel, looking at different things through the lens of the gospel.

We looked at the gospel in parenting, the gospel in money, the gospel in time.

Last week we looked at the gospel in homosexuality, uh, and today we'll look at the gospel in death.

And one of my friends is like, the gospel and death?

I mean, you couldn't come up with a better topic.

Let me just say this there's nothing that you could you could you could think about or learn about more that will change the way you live than the topic of death.

And not in a morbid sense.

You say, What do you mean?

Uh probably one of the greatest thinkers that we've ever had in the church uh is a man named Jonathan Edwards.

Uh he lived back in the 1700s.

He was a pastor of in Massachusetts, but he also was just an incredible mind.

Uh he went to Princeton when he was 15.

Uh and he later went back and was the president of uh of Princeton.

Uh but anyway, uh Edwards was famous for what's called resolutions.

He started writing these things down when he was 19.

And just think about that.

19 years old, writing things, but a lot of his resolutions, and all of them would begin with, resolved.

Uh, but a lot of his resolutions, he thought a lot about his death.

Uh like and let me just read four or five of them to you.

They come up on the screen.

Uh here's one of them.

Resolve to think much on all occasions of my own dying and the common circumstances which attend to death.

Here's another one.

Resolve that I will live so as I wished I had done when I come to die.

In other words, I don't want to be on my deathbed and and telling my friends and family I'm sorry for the way I lived.

Here's another one.

Resolve that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.

Now that's a hard phrase to understand, but basically he says, I don't want to get to old age, like 50, and and feel.

What's funny?

Uh but if you're not in on the joke, I turned 50 yesterday, and then these people have been sending me messages, oh well, well, over the hill, whatever.

I'll show you over the hill.

Anyway, basically, he says, I don't want to get to old age and just be some cranky old man and not like who I am.

Here's another one.

Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge what had been best and most prudent when I come into the future world.

Resolved to live with all my might while I do live.

This is a man that uh uh would every day would almost every day would get on a horse and ride out into the country.

And he also said that your thoughts are commensurate with the size of the room in which you have them.

You know, like say that's slower.

He said, Your thoughts are commensurate, your in other words, your thoughts are about as big as the room in which you have them.

So, which is why every day he would go for a horse ride out in the country for two or three hours by himself, and he would write down thoughts that God would give him and he'd pin them to his jacket.

And his wife, I believe her name was Sarah, he she she would hear him coming riding back to the house, and she would say, uh later, she said, I knew my job had been with the Lord when I could hear the paper flapping in the breeze.

And he would come back, and it was like his coat would be covered with sticky notes, and his wife would take it off, but they were pinned to him, and his wife would take it off and unpin them and lay them out for him so he could cut and then write sermons from that.

And and my daughter, who's at youth camp with our students today in Colorado, that's a tough gig.

Um said, Dad, what's your sermon about?

And I told her, I said, we'll start with the resolutions, John Edwards, and she's like, Wow.

And I said, Yeah, he was 19 when he started writing these things down.

Uh and she's like, Wow, I never had a thought like that.

I said, Well, he didn't have things like the internet and TV to be distracted with, he was really impoverished.

Uh but but but here's why I want to talk about this.

Uh, not just for from that I'm just trying to let you see the fruit of thinking about your death is more music and sound.

But here's the main reason.

This is Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14 and 15.

Hebrews 2:14

It says, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, Jesus, likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

I, as your pastor, who stinking love you people, want to talk to you today about the gospel and death, because I don't want you to be a slave to fear when it comes to death.

Told my wife yesterday, here's what I want you to say at my feudal.

I want you to get up, look in the casket, and go, Well, the shell's still here, but the nut is gone.

That's all I want you to say.

And I want my pelt Paul Bears to carry me out singing, still crazy after all these years.

That's how my funeral is going to be.

I don't want it to happen anytime soon, but it might, so I'm not gonna be some phony religious suck-up, weasley, just just goofy kind of.

Can you say suck up in church?

Okay.

You know how I'm talking about the people just like, hey, brother, why do I want to punch you in the neck when you talk?

That ain't good.

That ain't good.

It's just not good.

And so I don't want to waste my life just being some phony, and you shouldn't waste your life being a phony either.

And the best way to not do that is to think about your death.

Now, if you're 16, you're like, dude, I'm 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

No, you're not.

You you you get ahead of all of us old people if you would do what we're gonna talk about today.

Uh Revelation chapter 20, verse 11.

Revelation 20:11

Here's what the Bible says.

I just want to read this little section here.

This is a picture.

Now we're kind of we're kind of looking, and John's telling us what he sees in heaven, because he says, Then I saw.

This is he's just this is descriptive language.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it from his presence, earth and sky, fled away, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

You say, Well, what whoa, wow, that's kind of depressing.

Doesn't have to be.

Four things that the gospel tells us about death.

And the first one is simply this is that death is a reckoning.

Death is a is a reckoning.

We all have this deep sense of justice that, hey, the person that opened the car door in the parking lot and dinged my door and just drove off, they didn't leave a note or anything.

There's gonna be a reckoning.

The person that cheated you in business and never paid you back, they didn't get away with that.

There's gonna be a reckoning.

You know, some people, well, it's karma or it's the law of Mother Nature.

No, no, no, no.

It's the justice of God, okay?

What he describes here is kind of like a courtroom scene.

He says, Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

And in verse 12, he says, And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.

If you've ever been in court, uh I've been in court before, and everyone's kind of confident when they're in court until the bailiff walks in and says, All rise.

All rise means the judges coming in, man or woman, Democrat, Republican, whatever.

They got their robe on.

They sit down and they say, You may be seated.

Here's what goes through everyone's mind when you're in court when the bailiff says, All rise, you stand up like somebody with more authority than me, more power than me, and someone that has the capacity to inflict consequence upon me has entered into the room.

And so I talk differently to them, which is why my wife is infatuated with the show Judge Judy.

If you watch Judge Judy, she will get in your world in a heartbeat, okay?

You don't talk.

I love when those 20-something-year-old pumpky guys are like, well, ma'am, and she's like, I want to be a judge in my next life.

So I can wear a robe and tell people to shut up.

And you get a wooden hammer, you get to beat on the desk and shake it at people.

See, I saw her the other day, she beat on it and she goes, This is my courtroom.

You will not take over.

Do you understand me?

It's like, oh, that's what I need.

That's what they're describing here.

You say, What do you mean there'll be a reckoning?

Death is a reckoning.

Now the Bible says so much on this economy of words.

Like, for example, he says in verse 11, then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it.

I saw the throne, and I saw the God, the king, the judge who was seated on it.

And then it says this, from his presence, earth and sky fled away.

What?

He's telling us a lot there.

Basically, what he's telling them, he says, earth and sky fled from his presence, not because it was afraid, but because it was insufficient.

He didn't need it anymore.

Later in Revelation, John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth coming down.

That's why earth and sky flees from his presence because it's insufficient.

Why?

Because Jesus has come.

This whole thing has gone down, just like the Bible said.

And now we're going to settle up the accounts.

Rutro.

Now you're thinking one or two things right now.

You're thinking, Amen.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Or you're thinking, see, uh, what it was.

It was uh, well, you know, it wasn't my idea.

You know, it was uh, you know, uh, you know, uh I didn't know Jaegermeister had that effect on me.

Some of you are like, what are you talking about?

Some of you are like, yeah, yeah, did you know that's flammable?

Anyway.

See, death is a reckoning.

And by the way, you people are like, oh, that's horrible.

Why would God do that?

Hey, it's not like he didn't tell you about it.

Way back in Acts chapter 17, Paul says this, the times of ignorance, he's overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Why?

Because he's fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

It's like when Butch, uh the pirate preacher, one of our elders, preached a couple weeks ago about time.

He says, time from a biblical standpoint is not emptying out, it's filling up.

And God's appointed day.

He tells everybody everywhere, hey, you better repent.

You better get right with God.

Why?

Because I fixed a day when I'm gonna judge the world in righteousness.

And hey, proof of this is that I've raised Jesus from the dead.

What are you telling us that for?

Because the last days, people ask me all the time, do you think we're living in the last days?

You think we're getting closer when Jesus comes?

Let me tell you something.

The last days started when Jesus was raised from the dead.

We've been in the last days ever since then.

So it could happen anytime now.

That's why the Bible says, hey, be ready because it's gonna come like a thief in the night.

So the last days, hey, the resurrection started the clock.

The time started filling up when Jesus got up out of the grave.

Second thing the Bible tells us about death is that death is an equalizer.

Look at verse 12.

He says, And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne.

I saw the dead great and small.

Being great or being small in this world doesn't matter.

See, the great believe this more than the small because they're the ones that go through extraordinary means to delay the inevitable, to figure out a way to come back from the dead.

For example, there's a Brazilian millionaire.

He's just like, I mean, the guy's just got money.

He used to work out, he's 77, married a 41-year-old, and just fathered his second child by that woman.

His wife is younger than his adult children from his first marriage.

And he's obsessed with living forever.

He used to work out three times a day for five hours a day.

Now he's cut back.

Now that he's getting in his 80s, he just works out twice a day for about three and a half to four hours a day.

One of the things he does is because he says, hey, if I eat right and exercise, my body's never gonna give out.

You gotta be rich to be this stupid, okay?

Poor people don't do this.

But the guy works out, one thing he does is he goes in a room, he has a treadmill, turns the lights out, and he runs backwards on the treadmill in the dark.

So he can perfect his balance and his sense of being.

Then there's Larry Ellis.

Yep, I'm not making it up.

I can show you the article.

And I I'm reading this just kind of thinking, you know, Jesus, if I had that much money, I wouldn't be that stupid.

I'm just telling you, I wouldn't run backwards on a treadmill, I would give something to the poor, you know, and yeah, I'm just saying if you want to hook a brother up, I'm right here.

But then, hey, there's Larry Ellison, who's the CEO of Oracle.

He's a big avid sailor.

He gets into the America's Cup and everything.

He started the Ellison Foundation by which he's given millions of dollars of his own money to get people to study the ends of the chromosomes because that's where they believe that longevity happens.

And so as he gets older and can afford better hair pieces, he realizes, hey, which have you seen the cat?

I'm like, hey man, come on, really?

Just shave it all off, okay?

People ask me, why'd you cut all your hair off last year when you're on sabbatical?

Because some was turning gray and some was turning loose.

And my wife said, it's sexy.

And I said, There you go, I'll never have hair again.

Uh but he's got this foundation to study longevity because as he gets older, he realizes, hey, all the king's horses and all the king's men ain't gonna put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

See, Humpty Dumpty knows the reckoning's coming, so if the reckoning's coming, you want to push it out there as far as you can.

But here's the deal instead of wasting all your money on that, why don't you just get right with God?

What's so hard about that?

You got Ted Williams, the splendid splinter, the greatest hitter in the history of baseball, who had his head removed from his body and stored in cryogenic storage, which they froze it.

And then his family fought over it in court because they want to they think they're gonna cure the disease that killed him, and then they're gonna reattach his head to another body.

What?

What?

Are you kidding me?

I'm here's my here's my question for all you rich people to do to do dumb stuff to prolong your life.

Do you want to live in this world forever?

I mean, you weren't created for this world.

This world's under a curse.

That's the thing we seem to forget.

See, see, death is an equalizer, great and small.

All gonna stand there.

And by the way, don't think great and small.

Think you and me, because we're gonna be there.

You're gonna stand, I'm gonna stand there.

Robert Lewis Stevenson, the great poet, said this: we all have an appointment to sit down at a banquet of consequences.

Third thing about death death reveals what's recorded.

Death reveals what is recorded.

What do you mean?

Look at verse 12.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.

Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Death reveals what is recorded.

Let me say this.

Keep in mind here that the Bible uses symbolism in certain situations.

This is one of them where it represents reality.

When it says books, don't think you're gonna get there, and God's gonna have a big ledger.

He's gonna open it up and go, Oh, let me see, Tommy Hammer.

Oh, this is gonna take a while.

All right, here we go.

That's not what it's about.

No.

Books symbolizes God's memory in which nothing is missing.

My wife said to me not long ago, we were in a disagreement.

We don't have fights at our house because I'm a pastor, we have disagreements.

Uh and she said, I wish you didn't have a photographic memory because it would just be so much easier just having a disagreement with you.

And I said, Well, if you would just admit that you're wrong and I'm right, this would all go faster.

Because I do remember exactly what I said and what you said.

But when you sometimes, men, have you discovered when you talk to a woman, there's what she says and then what she felt, and when she retells the story, she includes, well, what I was feeling when I said that two weeks ago.

Yeah, I'm sorry, Your Honor, you cannot enter that as evidence.

What are we doing here?

Well, that's what I was feeling, and I think that's what I said.

You didn't say that.

This is exactly what you said.

Well, I don't know if that's true.

No, that's exactly what's true.

And I even every once in a while say, Who's got the better memory?

Oh, yeah, really?

We're going there?

It's not like I'm a harsh man or anything.

I'm just like, uh, how you felt, that's great.

And you know, let's put how we feel, this hand, spit in this hand, see which one fills up faster.

I don't say that, I just think it.

It's like, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.

That's great.

Tell me how you uh uh okay.

But see, the Bible says here, hey, I mean, I mean, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, death reveals what's recorded.

You don't have to have a good memory.

God has an impeccable memory.

There's a mention of two books here.

There's what some theologians they just they refer to them as the book of deeds and the book of life.

The good book of deeds, by the way, has good and bad.

People are, I love pastoring you because you all ask great questions.

Somebody asked me one time, hey, if I get cremated, I mean, is that how what's a Christian view of that?

What does the Bible teach about that?

Cremation just speeds up the natural process of decay.

You can get embalmed, but your body, it just prolongs the inevitable.

Your body is going to decay.

So being cremated doesn't affect that one bit.

God doesn't need your body in a coffin to give you a glorified body.

He created the world from nothing.

Keep that in mind.

But also, this is one of those things where people say, Hey, is the bad stuff that I've done?

I know the Bible says that I'm forgiven.

There's no condemnation for those in Christ.

Is that going to be remembered when I stand before God?

Oh, absolutely.

Because it infuses the wonder of grace into the whole process.

But also, here's what we don't talk about enough.

The book of Deeds is not going to just include the bad stuff you've done, it's going to include all the good stuff you've done that nobody knows about.

And say, What do you what do you mean?

You know exactly what I mean.

Things that you've done.

That's one of the great things I love about funerals.

Uh, is that people get up during the eulogy and they and they talk about the deceased and they tell things that nobody else knew.

And they're like, oh yeah, well, what you don't know is that this person and they tell things that they did.

And it's just like, yes.

Absolutely.

I did a funeral once.

A guy stood up and he said, None of y'all know this, but uh, I was unemployed for six months, and this man paid my mortgage for six months.

And every time he'd give me the check, he'd say, I believe in you.

This is not gonna last forever.

Keep your head up, keep your chin up, okay?

This isn't alone, this is just me being obedient to what God's told me to do.

People were weeping in the room.

They're like, I had no idea.

Are you kidding me?

The Bible says God's got a record of it.

Why do I tell you that?

Because some of you, you do good things, you do good things, you do good things, then you start looking around and you think, Am I the only one trying to change the world here?

Hello?

I feel like I'm just spitting into a hurricane.

This is like peeing your pants in a dark suit.

It gives you a warm feeling, but nobody notices.

I mean, come on, God, come on, I could do something else with this money, I could do something else with my time.

And I'm just here to stop laughing.

You're in church.

Here's the thing the Bible tells us right here oh, God notices.

He's got it all written down.

Yeah, that's why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10, it says, Hey, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive what is due to him for the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil.

2 Corinthians 5:10

God's gonna punish evil and he's gonna reward good.

The Bible's very clear about that.

So there's the book of deeds.

The second book mentions the book of life.

These are those people who put their trust in Jesus for their forgiveness.

They're not religious fanatics.

They're not a bunch of fundamentalists.

They're not Bible thumpers.

It's just people who trust in what Jesus did on the cross.

It's payment for their sin more than they trust their determination or their religious rituals or their religious preference or whatever.

They just realize I've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

I don't, oh, I wasn't born a Christian.

That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, Marvel not, you must be born again.

Don't kid yourself.

This isn't a natural thing here.

That's why in Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out the 72, and he gives them authority, and he says, Go preach the kingdom.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And they come back and they're all excited.

They go, Oh, Lord, even demons are subject to us in your name.

And Jesus says, Hey, hey, don't lose sight of what matters.

Why does he say that?

Because church people have a tendency to rejoice over all the wrong things.

Somebody this week, I was talking to somebody and they said, Hey, man, y'all are building a new building.

What are you building?

That's the parsonage.

That's going to be my new house.

And the guy said to me, That's awesome.

You deserve that.

And so I punched him in the eye and said, Wake up, Susie.

No, I said, That's our new children's bill.

By the way, there's so many pastors that take advantage of their churches.

And don't think that God ain't gonna lay the wood to those monkeys on judgment day.

The Bible says in James chapter 3, verse 1, hey, let not many of you become teachers or preachers, because as such you will incur the stricter judgment.

James 3:1

Preachers take advantage of their churches, make their churches build them these big, just I don't want to go there.

It makes me angry.

It's righteous anger, but it's anger nonetheless.

You say, Well, I said, hey, and he said, Whoa, that's awesome.

Are you excited about that?

And I said, Well, yeah.

And he goes, Well, you don't look excited.

And I said, I just think that we have a capacity, all of us, not my church, but but Christians have a capacity to rejoice over the wrong things.

Jesus sent out the seven.

I said, I'm excited about that.

Yes, but what really excites me is it's gonna allow us to reach more people in our city.

It's gonna allow us to raise up and and teach children for the generations to come the gospel.

It's gonna allow us to produce disciples who in turn turn around and produce disciples.

That excites me.

That the building, it's rained for two weeks, they ain't got to work out there.

I look out there, I'm like, hello, and then it rains.

And I'm like, great.

So I'm excited, but I'm not as excited as I am about other things.

And my friend said back to me, you give the most complicated answers to simple questions.

That's what happens when you read a lot, okay?

Stop watching TV and there you go.

Have you noticed that most people answer your questions the same way?

That's why I like to ask weird questions to people in public.

I ask people, what's the best thing you've had for breakfast this week?

And they're like, What?

My favorite's a little kid that said, a booger.

Because I said, What's the most interesting thing you've eaten this week?

He went, A booger.

And his mother just turned blood red.

And I said, Well, there's the truth.

But hey, Jesus sends out the 70 in Luke chapter 10, and they come back and they're like, oh, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And Jesus says, Hey, don't rejoice that the demons were subject to you.

Rejoice that your names are written down in heaven.

That's he's he's talking about the book of life.

He references here in Revelation.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

And so here's the question rising up out of the text this morning.

Is your name written in the book of life?

Is your name in heaven?

Or do you hear the subject of death and just kind of think, wow, that's kind of depressing.

Fourth thing that the Bible tells us about death, death leads to life or death?

What do you mean?

Look at verse 14, and we'll be done this morning.

He says this, then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Do you notice how swift that happens?

No appeals process, no going to prison, living off taxpayers' generosity for 30 years, lifting weights, eating three square meals a day, getting tattoos.

No, no.

See, here's the thing, and I'm not making light of uh of prisons.

I just think here's why we got a bankrupt uh system here in America.

Our court system is a court of law.

Remember this.

Our court system is a court of law.

So you can see things on TV and think that person got six months' probation for that because they had a good lawyer who used the law to their advantage.

We have a court of law.

This court, God's court, is a court of justice.

And justice rides a fast horse.

The Bible says that those whose names are not written in the book of life are thrown in the lake of fire.

You know, in the state of Texas, you can commit murder and you get the death penalty.

There's an automatic appeals process.

We automatically turn around and say, maybe we did something wrong.

And God doesn't do that.

And here's why.

Because God never does anything wrong.

He says they were judged according to what they had done.

Any of you in this room unclear on what you've done?

Any of you like, well, I didn't, you know, I, as I was studying for this, one guy was reading, he told about his two-year-old, his wife came in the living room and his two-year-old had wet his pants and was just standing in a little puddle.

And he said, and the mom said, Son, did you wet your pants?

He goes, No, Daddy did.

How does that happen?

But the Bible says when we stand before God, there's going to be no blaming anyone else.

If your name is not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I've had this conversation numerous times, and it goes something like this.

And I'd be talking to somebody, and I'd say, hey, what do you do?

Blah, blah, blah.

And they'll tell what they do.

And then they inevitably go, what do you do?

And they go, Well, I pastor a church in Sugarland, Sugarland suburb of Houston, or sometimes just right here in town at the Dairy Queen up here getting a blizzard.

Hey, do I know you somewhere?

I think I saw you at a funeral.

Aren't you?

Like, don't you work at a church or something?

Yeah, yeah, actually, I don't work.

I pastor a church.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What about you?

Do you go to church anywhere?

Oh, not really into religion.

That's not what I ask you.

And people think, well, I dropped the bomb on him.

Thank you, Gap Band.

No, you didn't.

I'm not really into religion.

Like this week, I'm getting gas up here at Kroger.

And there's a guy right next to me getting gas other side of the gas pump.

And then we were kind of looking at each other, not looking at each other, and the Holy Spirit said, Invite him to church.

And I said, Hey, I said, Do you live around here?

I live right here in the village of Oakland Lake.

I said, You go to church anywhere?

That is an awkward question.

And he said, Well, you know, I'm a Christian, but I don't, I'm not like I don't really go to church, it's not part of my relationship with God.

I almost dropped John Calvin on him out there, but I thought, John Calvin doesn't work at the gas plump at Kroger.

John Calvin said this: no one can take God as their father who does not have the church as their mother.

But I just because there's a lot of churchless Christianity.

Well, I'm into Jesus, but the church, you know, we're not, ah, yeah, yeah, shut up, okay?

Just zip it.

I had a conversation this week with a friend of mine.

It's like, well, we got uh we have these 20-something year, these 20-something-year-old people come to our church and they stay for a while, then they leave, because they go, There's no one here, my age.

I'm gonna go find a church people my age.

I mean, what do I do about that?

You love them enough to say, what you're telling me is that you've been here three years and you've not reached anybody your age.

That's what you're telling me.

You think the church ought to find you a husband or a wife or friends?

If people of the opposite sex, your age, don't find you interesting or appealing, that is the church's fault.

Dang, McClennan, you can't say that.

That's I'm not being hateful.

Because see, here's what happened: the church starts twisting and converting, and pretty soon we're a contortionist.

We're just like, whatever we gotta do to make you happy.

We cease to be the church.

You become a therapeutic self-help shop.

See, the Bible says, hey, here's the deal.

But here's the conversation I have.

I just said to the guy, he's like, Oh, you know, I don't really go.

He kind of laughed.

I said, Hey, no pressure.

I said, I just want you to know you'd be welcome.

And his whole countenance changed.

He smiled and said, Oh man, thanks.

I said, It's right, you just cut through your neighborhood, right here on West Airport, come to light there by church hills, place here on the corner, and I said, We're right there on the left.

And I said, You just you'd be welcome.

Well, what time of your services?

We have three of them.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

And I said, His name's John.

So for me, the guy named John, great guy.

I said, Hey, love to see you.

Filled up the mess of my tank, drove off.

Didn't hand him religious literature, didn't say, if you're coming to the point in your life, you know for sure if you died tonight.

John, while we're pumping gas here at the Kruger, let's talk about your eternal destiny.

Here's the conversation I do have with people.

Like people tell me all the time, and I tell people I did a funeral not long ago, and I just said, we're all gonna have this moment.

We're all gonna be here one day, you need to get ready for that.

And as I'm standing out there at the water fountain at the funeral and get ready to leave, a guy pulls me aside and informs me.

Oh, by the way, preacher, I ain't afraid of dying.

Oh, I see you like the biker guy.

You go, oh, I'm uh, and so I said, uh, okay, but you so you're not afraid of dying?

I ain't afraid of dying at all.

Okay, I ain't into all this religion.

This is men's idea.

Oh, God.

But then the little voice said, Please hold on to the bar.

The ride is about to depart.

And I said, So you're not afraid of death.

Dang straight.

What about the second death?

Whoopsie.

He said, What do you mean second death?

I said, the Bible says that after you die, if your name's not written in the Lamb's book of life, you're gonna die again when they throw you in the lake of fire.

What the hell is that?

That's exactly what it is.

Run it by me again.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I said Revelation chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

Anyone whose name is not found in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire.

There's not an appeals process, there's nothing.

But if your name's in there, the Bible says that Jesus is your advocate, he's your lawyer.

All this stuff is recorded in the book of deeds is done away with.

Why?

Because your name's in the book of life.

So you can be not afraid of death.

You may be in this room today thinking, I ain't afraid of dying.

You don't worry about dying, worry about the second death.

Because that's what the Bible says.

It says it very clearly.

Hey, and death and Hades are thrown to the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And I said, I'm not trying to bow up on you, sir.

I'm just trying to tell you.

I know that sounds big and macho and bravado, but the second death makes cowards of us all.

He said, Well, I'm gonna have to research that.

Google it.

And we shook hands and he said, Thanks.

Now, you may be thinking, okay, okay, I got it.

If anyone's name's not written in the book of life, you're still in the lake of fire.

Check, thanks you.

But what if your name has been written in the book of life?

Then what do you have to look forward to?

Well, I just want to close by reading you some of it.

This is what the Bible goes on to say in the next chapter, chapter 21, verse 1.

And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things, former things like mourning and crying, and pain shall be no more, and death no more.

The former things have passed away.

And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I'm making all things new.

And he said, Write this down.

For these words are trustworthy and true.

And he said to me, It is done.

I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he'll be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

So if my name is written in the Lamb's book of life, if I'm a Christian, what do I have to look forward to?

You have this to look forward to.

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and he spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb, the church of the redeemed.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

It had great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the name of twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed, and on the on the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, and the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Well, if my name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life, what do I have to look forward to?

You have this to look forward to.

Chapter 22, verse 1.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, brightest crystal, flowing from the throne of God.

Remember, I told you about that crazy church that my parent and my dad took us to on occasion when we were kids, where they would sing from the hymnal and it smelled like your grandma's house in there.

And they would always sing, Shall we gather at the river where bright angel's feet have tried?

And I'm thinking, what are you talking about?

And then they went on to sing a line about with the crystal tide forever flowing from the throne of God.

And I just thought, these people don't have anything better to do.

This is what they're singing about.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God, and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, with a tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month.

The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more.

There will be no light of lamp or lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

That's what you have to look forward to.

Well, my name's already written in there.

What do I have to look forward to?

You have this to look forward to.

And he said to me, These words are trustworthy and true.

And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent me and sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.

And behold, I am coming soon.

Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.

And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

But he said to me, You must not do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.

Worship God.

Don't worship the people that show you things in the Bible.

Worship God.

And he said to me, Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.

Behold, I'm coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay everyone for what he has done.

And the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates.

Outside of the dogs or sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

Then he told me, He says, Hey, what do you have to look forward to?

You have the right to may enter the city by the gates.

A friend of mine called me a couple weeks ago, and we sat down, we met for lunch, and he says, You know, I'm kind of new.

I've been to your church about four times, maybe five times, kind of checking this whole thing out.

He called me about, hey, what translation of the Bible should I get?

And I kind of talked to him.

I said, When I get back in town, let's meet for lunch.

We met for lunch a couple weeks ago.

And I said, Well, did you get about?

Yeah, I bought three different translations.

I said, Great.

So I told him to start reading in the Gospel of John.

Start reading the Bible because the Bible is the revelation of God.

I can tell you things, but the Bible shows you things and tells you things.

He started reading.

We met for lunch.

I said, Hey, you're reading the Bible, tell me what God's stirring up in your guts because of what you're reading.

I said, Where are you?

And he said, Well, I'm kind of at the at the gate.

And I'm like, gate?

There's seven I am statements in the book of John.

One of them is that Jesus says, I am the door that leads to life.

He said, Hey, those who try to climb over the wall and get in, they're thieves and they're robbers.

And my friend, you said gate, but he's talking about the door.

And he said, Hey, I'm not going to try to climb in another way.

I'm just at the door.

And I said, So.

I said, hey, there's no hard sale here.

You're at the door.

You just keep reading.

And one day that door is gonna open up.

And he said, Yeah, I'm at the door.

Ain't gonna climb in any other way.

And by the way, you can't stand before God on this day of reckoning and go, well, I've always knew there was a gate.

I've always believed in God.

That won't get you in.

If you're in this room right now, you think, well, you know, I believed in Jesus my whole life.

Big deal.

The Bible says the demons in hell believe and tremble.

You've got to have that moment where you enter in, where you walk through the door that leads to life.

So my name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

I walked through.

There was a time where I accepted Christ as my Savior.

What I have to look forward to.

This is what you have to look forward to.

The Spirit and the bride say, Come.

Let the one who hears say, Come, and let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

And if anyone takes away the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming soon.

Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus.

That was hard to say when I was twenty.

It's easy to say now that I'm 50.

Come, Lord Jesus.

This world is screwed up.

Come, Lord Jesus.

You're coming soon.

Amen.

Come.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.

Amen.

That's what you have to look forward to.

So the issue for all of us today is your name written down in heaven.