Is This All There Is?

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

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Well, good morning, awakening.

How are we doing?

Good, good, good.

Great to be with you.

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Thrilled to have you today.

Hey, uh, we're in a series called Still Wondering.

Would you say that with me?

Let's try that one more time.

I know we're just coming back.

You had great conversations.

Uh Still Wondering, say that.

Come on.

There we go.

Uh, and today where we're headed is I I think one of the biggest questions that we are asking, not just as a church that you brought, but just as a society, as a people.

Uh and so before we begin, I'm just gonna uh pray to invite uh Jesus to speak to us.

Uh Jesus, thanks for this moment.

Thanks for um your grace that you meet us and that you do want to speak to us.

And we invite you in this space, in this moment, God, would you um would you meet with us?

May we have ears to hear, hearts to respond.

And Jesus, I just asked that you would get me out of the way.

Anything that's not of you, just would get out of the way, that I'd be able to proclaim and speak what you have for us to uh hear clearly.

And so we welcome you here in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said amen.

Um I remember my very first uh funeral service, actually.

Uh when I was a little boy, my dad uh pastored a small rural town.

It was a one-stop sign town that eventually grew to become a one-stop light town.

Agriculture, ranching, uh hard work, everybody knew everyone.

And uh probably about five years old, and a little girl in our community had passed from cancer.

And I remember going to the funeral and with my parents, my dad officiating it, um, hearing the adults whisper and talk, um, trying to figure out why they lived under some large power lines, I guess, and they're like, maybe that's the reason why.

Not long after that, um, a young man in the community died in a tragic farming accident, killed by a tractor.

In those days, death wasn't common, but it wasn't hidden.

As I look back, I think early on, I had to sit with death more than most.

By the time I graduated high school, I had attended more funerals than most people probably attended in their lifetime.

In our culture today, we ignore death, we do our best to delay death, and we certainly try to cover up death.

We don't talk about heaven anymore.

You notice that?

We don't talk about eternity.

The church, we don't talk about the return of Jesus anymore.

What we talk about, we well, we talk about the latest fitness trend.

Count steps, optimize sleep, cold plunge, monitor glucose, swallow supplements, red light therapy, longevity science.

And it's interesting, today the aim and the goal isn't just to delay death, it is to defeat it.

In fact, some of the brightest minds of our day are trying to live forever.

You're probably familiar with Brian Johnson.

His uh motto is don't die.

His goal is to achieve immorality not immorality, immortality.

Maybe that too, I don't know.

By 2039, he's building an entire movement around this one obsession, don't die.

In fact, in an article to the MIT, he says he's starting his own new religion.

Ray Kurtzwell, uh AI visionary at Google Futurist, believes technology will one day reconstruct consciousness, bringing back the dead digitally.

His goal is to bring back his father who passed away when he was 22.

Sam Altman of OpenAI reportedly joined the waitlist for a company exploring brain preservation in hopes that one day his consciousness can be digitally uploaded.

The only catch with this procedure is it's a hundred percent fatal.

But while some are trying to defeat death with technology, millions of people are captivated by near death experiences.

What lies beyond?

TikTok, Instagram, podcasts have exploded with near-death experience stories.

And for all of humanity's brilliance, we're still helpless before death.

And the question that this generation's wrestling with, I think so well, is like, what good is a prolonged life if it's an empty life?

Our advancements have made life more comfortable, yet not more meaningful.

We're more connected, yet more lonely, more medicated, but more anxious and depressed, more entertained yet deeply restless.

And beneath all our progress, the ancient question still haunts us.

Is this all there is?

What happens when I die?

Why do I ache for forever?

Why is there this aching, this longing for forever?

Long before Silicon Valley, God spoke.

In Ecclesiastes 3 11, he says this: He has made everything beautiful in his time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart.

God has set eternity in your heart.

You were made for more than just now.

You were made for forever.

Your soul longs for permanence.

You ache for something lasting, a love that never ends, a joy that doesn't fade, beauty that doesn't decay, life untouched by death.

That's why when someone dies, something deep in you rises up and says, This isn't how it's supposed to be.

There's an anger, there's a hurt.

Because we were made for forever.

When cancer ravages the body, when dementia steals memory, when miscarriage still future, when a young life's cut short, we stand at the graveside and just go, why?

Doss Willard says it this way: you are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe.

You are more than a body, more than biology, more than neurons firing.

You are a soul made by God, for God, made for eternity.

C.S.

Lewis captures this ache, this longing so well.

He writes, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we 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.

The ache of your soul is not accidental, it's homesickness.

The longing for the world you are made for, your true home, has been placed there by God Himself.

Jesus actually had a lot to say about that home.

The one who faced death head on, defeated the grave, opened the door to a whole new humanity.

Jesus, by the way, didn't have just a near-death experience.

He had a full death experience, defeated the grave, walked out, and then told us how we can experience life to the full through him.

And so what we want to do is what I want to do in our time is look at what Jesus teaches about heaven.

What does he tell us about that ache, that longing, and our future?

And so we're gonna take time and look at what Jesus teach us about heaven.

The first thing we notice that Jesus teaches us about heaven is this Eternal life begins now.

Not one day, someday.

Listen to what Jesus says, John 17, 3.

Now this is, help me out, this is, this go again.

This is eternal life.

Not this will be eternal life.

This is eternal life after you leave this life.

This present tense is eternal life.

That they know you.

Who?

The one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Eternal life is not merely about where you go when you die.

It's the very life of God breaking forth into your life now.

It's the eternal kind of life now.

It begins here because heaven is life with God, period.

The home you long for is life with God.

And the whole Bible tells this one unfolding story from Genesis to Revelation.

Genesis begins in the garden in Eden, where God walked with humanity in the cool of the day.

There was no brokenness, no pain, no heartache, no shame, no hiding.

You gotta be fully known and fully loved just as you are with God in perfection.

And the brokenness and decay of our world unraveled in our own self-defiant will of our way and not yours.

And then Revelation returns to the picture that God makes his dwelling place among his people once again.

The good news is you don't have to wait for eternal life.

Eternal life begins by knowing God.

Heaven is breaking forth in every heart that knows God.

Like heaven doesn't begin later, it begins now.

It begins with knowing God.

Because that's who your heart was made for.

What does Jesus teach about heaven?

Well, first, eternal life begins now.

Secondly, heaven is your true home.

The home you long for is life with God.

Now, heaven is your true home.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, knowing that within hours he would be arrested, mocked, beaten, crucified, Jesus looked at his disciples who were struggling.

And he gave them these words.

Think about that.

Jesus is staring death in the face, and what's on his heart is comforting his disciples.

And he tells them, You believe in God, believe also in me.

My father's house has many rooms.

If that were not so, I would have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am.

Jesus here is using just incredible rich marriage language.

In the ancient Judaism, the groom would go and prepare a place to bring the bride home.

And often what would happen is the groom would go to his parents' land and build maybe even a house or a room off the side of the house to once he was finished with it, he would go with joy, expectation, bring his bride home.

And Jesus saying, I want you to know something.

As I face death, as you want to know what's the hope.

One, I'm going, I'm preparing a place for you.

And I'm returning, and I'm going to bring you home.

You want to know what I'm about?

That Jesus says, heaven is a real place.

I'm preparing it, I'm coming back, and I'm bringing you home.

Now, Jesus says heaven is a real place, but the problem is most of us have this picture of heaven that looks nothing like heaven.

There used to be this old phrase, we don't say it anymore, but it used to be like everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

People say it back in the old days, right?

Now I don't think anybody even wants to go to heaven.

Just nobody wants to die.

We want to figure out how to create some, you know, utopic world here, make our lives a little bit comfortable.

And part of it is we have such a broken picture.

Somebody, somewhere along the way, you thought heaven was like harps and clouds and this kind of like spirited existence.

And I remember one time a Sunday school teacher told me as a kid, like, you know, Ryan, heaven's like 24-7 worship service.

And she thought she was really motivating me towards heaven.

As like a 10-year-old, that's not what I wanted to hear.

I'm like, really?

Because heaven didn't sound awesome.

You know what heaven sounds like?

Boring.

Oh boy, 24-7.

Thank you very much.

The good news, that's not the biblical picture of heaven.

The biblical picture of heaven is first, heaven is embodied life.

Embodied life.

Philippians 3.20 says, but our citizenship, our true home, is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Heaven is real, embodied, live.

The Christian hope is not escaping your body, but God redeeming and restoring your body.

Your body is transformed and made new.

You remain fully human, actually, finely and fully alive.

It's not a disembodied existence, not floating spiritual existence.

It's not somehow clouds and harps and naked babies.

I don't know where that came from either.

You do not become an angel when you die.

In fact, you become like Christ.

He is the first fruits of the resurrection, and his resurrected body is a picture of what our resurrected body will be like.

He ate and he drank with his disciples.

He walked with them, he talked with them, they touched him, they knew and recognized each other.

Just take a moment, would you?

You can even close your eyes if you want.

Imagine the best version of you.

Fully healed, fully whole, fully alive.

Untouched by sin, sorrow, sickness, or death.

Heaven is embodied life.

Heaven is not less human, it is more fully human than you've ever known.

Secondly, heaven is a renewed earth.

Revelations 21, 1 through 2 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

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

What does the Bible picture when it pictures heaven?

A perfect environment, a river of life flowing clear and pure, the tree of life bearing fruit in abundance, beauty untouched by decay, animals in harmony, peace everywhere, meaningful work.

Yes, you will work in heaven, but it will be meaningful and energize you rather than exhaust you.

Creativity fully unleashed, tables filled with laughter and feasting, deep friendships, no loneliness, no fear, no tears, no graveyards, and at the center of it all, life with God.

You will create, build, learn, and explore, feast, laugh, work, worship, reign with Christ, love deeply and live fully.

When my kids were little, the way I tried to explain heaven to them is heaven is the very best earth has to offer and way, way better.

That's heaven.

Heaven is the very best that earth has to offer and way, way better.

Think about it.

Beauty untouched by decay, relationships untouched by betrayal, work untouched by frustration, creativity untouched by insecurity, adventure untouched by danger, joy untouched by sorrow, laughter untouched by loss, worship untouched by distraction.

I like how J.R.R.

Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, he wasn't necessarily describing heaven, but he was describing heaven.

He wrote, Everything sad is going to come untrue.

Every wonderful thing you love in this life is a whisper of the world to come.

Every beautiful sunset, every mill around the table with people you love, every mountain view, every ocean breeze, every song that moves your soul, every moment of all is but a whisper of the world to come.

Heaven is embodied life, heaven is renewed earth, and heaven is the home your heart aches for.

Continuing on in Revelation, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be their God, and he will wipe away every tear from their eye.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things have passed away.

When we look around at the world, our heart aches for a better world, doesn't it?

You just look around at the brokenness, the hurt, the pain.

And your heart just aches for a better world.

A world with no more cancer, no more violence, no more betrayal, no more loneliness, no more fear, no more hiding, no more shame, no more tears, no more death.

Because there's something deep inside every single one of us that looks at the world as it is and knows this isn't how it was meant to be.

What does Jesus teach us about heaven?

Eternal life begins now.

Heaven is our true home.

And then he gives us this warning.

Is so overwarming that love can be rejected.

I want you to jot down Matthew chapter 25, Matthew chapter 13, Matthew chapter 8, among other places.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention Matthew 13 · chapter mention Matthew 8 · chapter mention

Jesus talked more about hell than any other biblical author.

Out of love and warning.

Jesus talked about heaven as a real place, and he talked about hell as a real place.

The apostle Paul, picking up on the words of Jesus, writes this: He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They will be punished with an everlasting destruction, shut out from the presence of the Lord.

Heaven is simply life with God.

Hell is simply separation from God.

See, if God is the source of all goodness, then the separation from God is the separation from everything good.

It's the absence of relationship and joy and beauty, delight, peace, love, truth, and meaning.

When Jesus spoke of how he painted vivid pictures to warn us, it's a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

One of his most sober warnings is Matthew 7.

In verse 22, he says, Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

We were really religious.

We didn't miss a Sunday at awakening.

We showed up to set up.

I even gave some money.

Then I'll tell them plainly, I never knew you.

Heaven is fundamentally relationship with God, knowing God.

And he says, you can do a lot of activity and not know your savior.

There are some here where you have been in Christian kind of circles, like, oh, I just grew up Christian.

I'm just in that thing.

Like there are no like grandkids in God's family.

There's only firstborns.

It's like you have to say yes to him for yourself.

It's not just being an environment.

It's not just kind of like, oh, I just do this thing and I'm a pretty good person.

No, it's like, do you know Jesus?

And if you don't know Jesus, that's heaven.

And not knowing him, that's hell.

J.I.

Packard talks about hell this way.

He says, Scripture sees hell as self-chosen.

Hell appears as God's gesture of respect for human choice.

All receive what they actually choose, either to be with God forever, worshiping him, or without God forever, worshiping themselves.

Love cannot be forced, and God honors human freedom.

Lewis again would say the doors of hell are locked on the inside.

What does Jesus teach us about heaven?

Eternal life begins right now.

Heaven breaking forth when we allow God to come into our life and bring new life.

Heaven is our true home.

Love can be rejected.

Jesus is the way home.

This is why Jesus came.

This is the whole point.

In John chapter 11, we see this really powerful moment in the life and ministry of Jesus.

John 11 · chapter mention

Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus had died.

Jesus delayed going for several days.

And he's now on his way there.

It's this moment of great grief and mourning.

And Martha comes out to Jesus and says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would still be alive.

If you had shown up a few days earlier, my brother would still be alive.

And then Jesus says this to her.

Before Easter Sunday, he'd done miracles.

He'd even raised a couple people to life.

But he says this bold line to Martha.

I am the resurrection and the life.

You want to know about resurrection.

You want to know about life.

You don't search anywhere farther.

You look at me.

I am life.

The author of life and the only place life is found.

And I am resurrection, and I will bring back to life that which is dead in you and that which is dead around you.

This is who I am.

The one who believes in me.

The one who places the weight of their life, their trust, their hope, their confidence that you are Jesus who you said you are, that you did defeat the grave, that you are resurrected and alive.

You are our life.

The one who believes.

Even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

And then he asked her this question before he raised Lazarus.

Before the miracle ever happened, he asked her this question.

That's the question we must ask.

Wow.

Do you believe this?

Do you believe this?

See, because if you don't believe Jesus is the resurrection and life, then you're going to search for something or someone else to be your life or your resurrection.

That's what we're doing in our culture and society.

We're running and chasing after things to somehow try to give us meaning and immortality.

And Jesus says, I've already arrived.

Do you believe it?

Not are you a spiritual person?

Not are you religious?

Not did you grow up in church?

Not are you a good person?

But do you know Jesus?

Do you have you trusted him?

Have you embraced him as your life and your hope?

I've been thinking about this sermon a lot.

Not that I don't think about other sermons a lot.

But I just was reminded that this moment is the only moment we're guaranteed.

We're not promised tomorrow.

We're not promised in other breath.

Death isn't something that happens to other people.

It happens to all of us one day.

When I was in high school.

Cancer had ravaged his body.

He was one of the most gifted, talented, godly, like young men.

His body laying in the bed in the basement of their house in this room.

He had to become a hospice.

We're around his bed and singing worship.

My brother's leading us in some worship.

As he breathes last, he steps into eternity.

I don't think there is a greater grief than a parent losing a child.

The holy thing.

The realization that life is fragile.

And every single one of us must answer Jesus' question at some point.

Do you believe this?

And my heart as your pastor is I just so long for you to know Jesus.

Not be religious.

But that you would experience life that is truly life in him.

In the old days, we used to ask this question.

We don't ask it anymore.

I don't know why.

I know why.

It makes us uncomfortable.

We don't like to be uncomfortable.

Like Ryan, this whole sermon, except for the heaven part,'s been uncomfortable.

Get it.

And you're crying.

Good grief.

Yeah, but we used to ask this question.

If you were to die today, we don't like to think about that question.

If you were to die today, are you confident that you would be in the presence of Jesus?

Do you have a relationship with him?

And if you don't, or if you're unsure, don't let this moment pass you by.

Today, now is the time to say yes to Jesus.

And maybe you've been in church your whole life and you've never said yes to him.

You've just been in religious stuff.

And today it's personal, it's relational, and he loves you and he wants to give you eternal life starting now, heaven breaking forth in your life.

Would you say yes?

Or maybe you've been a Christian and you already're like, yes, I know.

But I don't live with the hope of heaven in my daily life, and I don't live with the urgency to share Jesus with everybody I know.

I don't live with that kind of passion.

Jesus is returning home, and this world is not all there is.

So stop getting so sucked in with all the crap around our world.

We have the eternal hope of the resurrected king.

Let's start living like it.

Okay.

I guess we should pray.

If in this moment you want to say yes to Jesus, you want eternal life, would you just pray after me?

Jesus, today I put my trust in you.

I believe you are the resurrection and the life.

Would you forgive me and cleanse me and make me new?

Jesus, I invite you into my life to have your way.

I need a savior.

Would you rescue me?

Would you be the leader of my life?

And if you prayed that, would you just mind just raising your hand so I can know?

I'd love to know and be able to pray for you.

Just raise it high.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Awesome.

I just want to encourage you as you pray that tell someone, whether it's at our prayer team or myself or someone with, because we want to walk alongside you in this new eternal life.

Jesus, thank you for all those who stepped into heaven, heaven breaking forth into their life in this moment.

Thank you for your great invitation and your love in our life.

And Father, would you give us a holy urgency, a holy love for the people that we see every day, that they might come to know you and experience hope and purpose and peace and wholeness in you.

In Jesus' name.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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