Building a Family of Faith that Lasts Forever - Heaven Part 10

Man, I want to welcome if you guys are new or newer, this

again, I want to make make you guys feel welcome again.

Thank you so much for choosing to worship with us here at real

life at this gathering, Kentucky Trail, man, can we show their

new people that everybody's doing?

Just show them some love. Can we do that one more time?

All right, Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Hey, you guys can stand up. I want you guys to do this.

Take 30 seconds and greet somebody around you, will you?

All right, you guys can go ahead and be seated.

Hey, as you're sitting down, you're getting ready to sit on

the awesome connection card that's on your seat, man.

This is for everybody in the house today.

If you call Real Life Home, we love it when you fill this out,

let us know what's going on in your life, man.

Maybe God showed up in a rack this way this week and you got a

prayer request. It just got answered and so

you've got a praise you want to write down.

Or man, maybe you're going through something right now and

you've got a, a prayer request you'd like to write down.

Our team leaders love to read through these and pray and get

connected with you. So if you call Real Life Home,

highly, highly encourage you to fill this out.

Again, if you're new or newer with us, I'm going to make this

promise. We're not going to ask anything

from you today except one small thing.

We would love for you to introduce yourself to us.

And the best and easiest way to do that is to fill out the top

of that communication card. And all we want that for is we

want to have a way that we can reach out to you, connect with

you this week, let you know a little bit more about real life

and just send you some information.

We're not going to do anything weird.

We want to show your door or anything like that.

But more importantly, we want you to the God loves you and

that we love you. So man, thank you so much for

being here. And we do all of this in real

life because that we say we are a church on a mission, Is that

right? Real life, There we go, man.

Our mission is this. It's very, very simple.

It's to see people far from God discover their real life and

their purpose in Jesus. And all that means is this is

that you were created for a reason.

You were created for a purpose, then you were created by the

Creator in his image. And so too many of us, we walk

through life, we get beat down, we get destroyed, we get thrown

away by the world and we don't know what to do.

And our mission of your real life is to get connected people

back to their source, back to their creator, back to Jesus.

Man, the blessing every week is that we see people commit their

lives to Jesus and it radically changes their today, their

tomorrow, and really their forever.

And so man, we are so excited about that.

Which leads me to my next small announcement.

Small announcement before we get Pastor Sean up here is we are

doing something we love to do here in real life.

We are having baptism on April the 5th.

Man, if you've never been a part of real life baptism, you've

missed out. It's not this, this solemn

distant thing that somebody up there in the backs getting wet.

Man, we set up a pool here. Man, we talk about the power of

the gospel and man, it's a celebration just to see people's

stories, read and see them follow and be obedient to

Christ. So if you've never been

baptized, maybe you got saved and you followed Jesus since the

last time we done baptism, or you're ready to go public and

this is for you. We'd encourage you to check out

the QR code, click that or come on the website and we'll have

somebody reach out to you. You're not going to be left in

the dark. We're going to walk you through

every step. So we can't wait to celebrate

with the baptism with you guys on April 5th.

Then you guys are here on a great day for the last several

weeks, we going through an awesome series called Heaven and

heaven is, is a is it's a, it's a subject that so many people

don't know anything about. Even in churches, we don't talk

about it very much. And so, you know, a lot of

people don't have an idea of what it is.

And it's been so cool just to have Pastor Sean lead us through

the word of God and just give us some clarification on what we're

looking forward to how that changes are today.

It realizes our value of what we live for and how we how we move

through this world. So today you're in for a treat.

So I want you guys to put your hands together for Pastor Sean

as we continue our message series called Heaven.

I love you guys man. So so this is I like it.

So we got 2023 kids, 2024 kids dedicated today.

All day. You know, you think of a church

like always reaching the youngest generation possible.

Like, you know, a lot of churches, there's like a,

there's a always a generational gap or an age gap and the gospel

going in, I don't know if it gets much younger than the

children and babies. Amen.

But to reach them for Christ is just absolutely amazing.

So before we jump in, and I do recognize the time by the way,

so I'm only going to preach 2 or 3 hours to keep it short.

I'm just kidding. They kind of, I will be short,

but want to do something really important coming up in life for

our church. We're doing something brand new

called community nights with our life groups and they don't

launch this week, but next week. So starting March 15th on Sunday

are different life groups. All throughout the week.

They're going to open up. They're going to push pause on

their normal routine books and the things they're doing in the

studies and all that. And there's going to do

community nights, just hangout nights, places for you guys to

get jumping in. If you haven't been a group yet

or if you have a spouse in the group, bring your spouse with

you, your kids and really just hang out and get to know know

each other for God's glory. Amen.

It's really easy just to kind of sit there and it's like, this is

like the best kept secret of some great dudes and there's no

bait and switch. OK, so we're not selling

anything. There's no promo video about

church. There's really no agenda.

It's literally come hang out, see the love of God in US and

see the love of God through us. And so just a great opportunity

to bring your neighbors, your friends, maybe someone's close

to you, far from God. We talk about being all in full

time ministry. What a great opportunity to

bring somebody who may not come on a Sunday morning to church,

right, but would show up into a life group.

And so I encourage you guys, if you're not plugged in, or maybe

you are, man, let's make this really big.

There's going to be food, barbecues, all sorts of RAM

stuff throughout the week starting March 15th.

So you guys decide about that community night.

So let's make it happen. I'm excited.

It's the first time doing it, so we'll see.

We'd love to bring it back if it goes really well.

So we're diving in. Message really dedicated to

parents that want to raise their kids for Jesus.

And maybe you're like a first generation type of parent, like

you didn't grow up in church or didn't grow up the family of

faith and you're like, man, or, or you've just or kind of lost

like man, what do I do to raise my kids?

Like what's really the goal? What's the finish line?

What's what's this look like? Maybe you're an adult that like

a lot of people gave their 20s to the devil.

Come on somebody and you're coming back on the rails and

trying to follow Jesus. What's that look like?

And really the goal is is if you want your family legacy and the

story to be different for Jesus. And so it's not just like here's

parents, the kids. It really is for all of us

today. So we're going to dive in.

Really the the idea is building a family of faith and it true

lasts forever. You're going to see that today.

The greatest thing really is this.

It's not success for your kids. All that that's that's that's

fun. It's not comfort, It's not

stuff. It's your kids would know and

follow Jesus and be prepared for heaven.

How how many I know that that's actually good for us as well.

Amen. It's not just like, well, I'm

going to teach my kids this. We're actually going to teach

ourselves first. Like grab the oxygen mask and

put it on and then help your kids.

And so let the grace of God and the mercy of God just change

your soul first. You know, talk about our kids.

We put a lot into our kids. We teach them how to put

together 2000 piece Lego sets. Amen.

The ones that are from China or Japan, they're much more

difficult, smaller than the color.

I'm colorblind, it's fun, right? And we teach our kids sports,

which we love playing sports, you guys, big sports guys,

right? We love teaching them sports.

We love all these things, you know, teaching our kids how to

be successful, how to have good morals, but ultimately we are

preparing our kids for eternity, Amen.

Give them Jesus and understanding what God wants

them to do and living for heaven.

You can see this with Moses in this back in Deuteronomy chapter

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

6. Remember, it's still the last

three days of his life. He wrote the whole book of

Deuteronomy. He says this hero is the Lord

our God, the Lord is 1. He says love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your

strength. These what, what's it say these

commands, these commandments they're they're this is the

greatest commandment when Jesus in the New Testament, the rich

and really ask him, well, really what, what should I follow?

What's truly what should I do and he says, well, I want you to

love the Lord God, Lord heart, soul and mind strength and love

your neighbor yourself. These are two greatest commands.

And so Jesus is actually quoting this verse as the greatest

commandment ever again is that we love the Lord Amen with

everything and that's not for our kids.

It's for us and our kids. But he says this about the next

generation. He says put it on your hearts.

Verse 7, impress them on your children.

Somebody say impress, impress like I have this image of like

sticking something. It's like wax.

You're going to put an impression, right?

And we like to impress people like with what we have.

But what we're really trying to do is impress on our kids the

word of God. Like you're shaping and molding

your children into the image of Christ and he's going to tell us

how to do, which is amazing. I love when they give some

practicals, right? He's just talk about them being

the Scripture. When you sit at home, when you

walk along the road, when you lay down and when you get up.

I think he checked all the boxes.

Amen. So no matter what you do, I want

you to talk about scripture. How many guys wait in the car

line with your kids at all? Car liners?

Come on, dude, isn't it such a blessing and a curse?

Amen, right. It's like it's all the things,

right, But it's for me, it's a great between we we talk about

Jesus every morning. I let them play through the

songs and after like, hey, let's keep it like this, you know, and

then we do some hangman because I can't spell.

They can't spell. So no one ever wins.

It's amazing, right? Like it it, it's just all the

fun, but I get a chance to encourage them.

So I try to maximize the car line, but use it for Jesus.

I'll just tell you what our just our day looked like yesterday,

like all the things for Jesus, right.

So we had our stuff in the morning the way I show it at

home and my buddy, where's Toby at?

He's just he's hiding somewhere. He drained his.

Where's Toby at? You got to find him.

He's not going to say anything. There he is.

He actually rose his hand. The first guy he went like this.

If I could disappear. Oh, give it up for Toby, by the

way, because he was shy, but he's not.

He says he's shy, but I don't know.

Last week, I think week for last.

Toby's like, hey, you want some of these cards?

I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about Toby.

And he says, Hey, dude, I'll sell this to you.

Like cool. And so he's been he's got these,

but for sale. Amen.

Just a little thing. But so I had these cards.

I didn't really know what they did, but I'm like, we'll do it.

It's for the kids, you know, And so I went home.

So Saturday I said, dude, let's let's do this cards.

And so I opened up and it's got Bible memory verses, like

finished the verse of the word. But I was really intrigued.

Has like named the Bible character.

I'm like, Oh, this could be good, you know, so I had 20

questions on the cards. And so it, it was just like, I

know I shouldn't want to say simple stuff, but it was, it was

stuff that like normal stories. So it was like who, who is in

the lion's den, right. And my kids were like, oh, oh,

and they're freaking out. I'm like, all right, you got to

know this one, you know? And they finally, they finally

came up with it, man. Daniel in the lion's den.

And then Levi, I think Levi came up with it.

And he goes, yeah, God shut them off the lions, you know, he was

so excited about it. And then we got the three in the

fiery furnace. And my kids came up with the the

best they came up with was Radshot meet, meet Meshach and

something else. And these are not their real

names, right? Like if you know their names,

right? But Radshot, I was like, this is

great. Radshot, you know, like, OK,

like you're so close. You're so pretty, right?

But we get a chance to teach them, right?

So we can tell the story. And I get to go through the

scripture and I'm like, you know, what's really cool is

that's actually not their that's their slave names.

They actually have their Hebrew names in the Bible, which is

just really cool. Think about like we've always

known the story right as just these slave guys.

I mean, and so we're going through all these different

scripture and my, my daughter, she's just a, she's too smart

for own good. It's it's like, Lord help her

follow you because she man. So she gets the Bible out from

my wife's Bible. It's this archaeological Bible,

you know, it's just like 10 feet tall.

And she opens it up and she's like, oh, I know what some of

the Scriptures are. We're talking about Rahab and,

you know, who is the spy that, you know, protected or the late

protected spies. So I was like, hey, let's go

find it. And so she's looking through the

verses. She's trying to find it.

And of course, like half of that or more is just notes.

So she's down the notes. I'm like, they don't the verses,

you know, and she's trying to find it, But it's just amazing

to teach her through Scripture. Then she became a teacher to us.

So she's like, oh, can you guys name all the Bible, the books in

the Bible? I'm like, yeah.

And so I made it to the minor profits.

I'm sorry. I have to repent.

It was bad. Amen.

I mean, like, where is Joel and an Obadiah and name?

I know names to 2 after Jonah. Somebody helped me out.

And then I got Micah in here somewhere.

Like all this is like, you know what I'm talking about.

Can anybody name all these my profits in order?

You're a sick person, Holly. You're a sick person.

Oh, that's a good point. So you memorized as a kid and

it's stuck with you. Look, you see that probably came

up to refinish this message for me, right?

But we got to the New Testament. I felt a lot more confident,

although I did miss James. I don't know how that happened.

And then Emory gave me 3 out of five.

And I was like, really irritated because I'm like, dude, first

she started me at a. It was.

Yeah, three out of five. Yeah, I was like 3 out of 5.

Is that 60%? Is that what that is?

I was like, I got 60%. I missed one book.

You are a harsh person, you know what I'm saying?

So anyway, but it was like an hour of just teaching the Bible

and there's so many random things, but it was just really

good and the kids knew a lot more.

We got Jonah and they they're all the you just you get them

going, right? But that that's the grace of

God. Amen.

And it wasn't very complicated. We just brought up Jesus.

And then so throughout the woman passes out.

Who who wants I'll buy this Toby, I'll buy this, OK, who

wants these cards? By the way, anybody wants to

that card. Alright, we go third row ready.

Can you catch? OK, you can't.

And who can catch you? Ready, Joe.

Joe, you ready? All right.

Let's see what you got. Oh, man.

I'm sorry, buddy. So it will end up down the road

here. Yeah.

I'll send me the bill for the stitches.

It's OK. I'm sorry, buddy.

Anyway, Yeah. And then at night.

So we the kids, we always like to read like Bible stories and

they have action Bibles and I like it when they tell me the

story and all these things. But lately we're doing case for

Christ for kids. So don't do the real one for

kids, but doing the case for Christ for kids and she's dying

to read it to the two older kids.

And I just do. I can't believe I you know what

I mean? I'm a little younger, but just,

you know, I got nerd alert. So I got the systematic theology

for kids. That's pastoral.

Come on, somebody, right? But what I'm trying to do is

like the world is going to tell them and disciple them and pull

against them and tell them this is all fake and all made-up and

all the things. And I'm trying to help them have

a foundation of not just the scripture, but actually the

problems that people have a scripture and to let you think

about it so you can stand on the word of God.

Amen. And so I'm just lading it and

like it's a million ways of doing it, right?

The Bible app for kids. Anybody use that with their

kids? Dude, that thing is like gold

for those kids. That's why I was kind of like

irritated, like not known, like Daniel quicker because I'm like,

dude, you've watched this Bible app story no less than 10

million times and you still don't like that's why we got

repeated off and Amen and for ourselves as well.

But put the Bible in your home. And so Deuteronomy, it says this

in chapter 6, verse 8, it says this about the Scripture.

Same next verse. OK, like do all the time talk

about Scripture, everything you do.

Verse 8, tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your

foreheads, write them on the door frames of your homes and

your gates and on your gates. Now this is interesting.

So the Pharisees took this verse and they actually put a scroll

inside of the box and I don't know the exact name.

Was that a Mazu ZA? It was what they called that

little box. And then they had another one on

their forehead and they tied it around and they just walk around

having the scrolls on. That'd be pretty cool look,

wouldn't it? Yeah.

I mean, I I don't get it, like so legalistic, like I don't need

to follow God, but I have it on my wrist.

It's like, this makes no sense, you know?

I mean, it's like having a tattoo but not being obedient.

It don't make no sense. Like, like, let's follow Jesus.

Amen. But what this is really saying

is when you tie them onto your hands, what he's saying is let

the actions and the works of your hands, the deeds, the

things you do, the things you touch, the things you put in

your your mission towards the things you're building, do them

for God. Like make your hands obedient to

Jesus. Amen.

I mean, imagine like just having Scripture on your hands or just

your hands or the actual hands of Jesus.

But that's what he's asking us to do.

Would God touch that? Would God use that?

And had to teach my youngest son Levi, that when you drop kick

your brother, that's not how you use your feet for Jesus.

Because we went to the dentist. It was painful, you know, like

but these are what teach people. I like it.

I got that going there. So 2 bind them on your

foreheads. So what's that mean These the

word of God is protecting your mind.

Like put it in your mind, meditate on let it change your

worldview, your attitude, like let it shape your soul like

think about the word of God, right?

Like we renewing our mind day by day.

You take captive every thought and make it a beat to Christ by

your mind. Psalm one says we meditate on

the word of God day and night. Psalm mighty we hide the word of

heart that won't sin against God like you, you shape the mind,

Amen. And you think about Scripture

like you, you actually become what you think about.

Like if you're anxious and obsessive and you're thinking

about all the things in the world, guess what?

You're becoming more and more like that.

And you put scripture on your mind.

The way to battle, like most of these things of anxiety and fear

and doubt, insecurity is you change your mind.

You set your mind on other things.

And we teach that to our kids. And we, we put scripture in

there. We, we bring it back.

Like I'll tell Levi like he'll get doing something like he's

all big. And like, do you think God can

do it better? He's like, Oh yeah, gobble,

crush it, you know, and like I'm an Ant and but he has this big

view of God right now. Amen.

And I want I don't want him to lose that.

I don't want to lose the ability like to see how big and powerful

like to believe the stories are true.

You guys sing about them crossing the Red Sea.

Did it happen really? I mean like by faith, like the

God that can do that, he can do me.

So I've just been living by this.

Just be very be strong and very courageous type of faith, like

preach with authority, stand in the gap, don't roll over, speak

up, stand up, don't shut up. Like that's the kind of faith

we're giving our kids. Amen.

That's what we teach them. But put in your mind like bind

them to your forehead. Write them a door frames of your

homes. How many guys have scripture

hanging in your home? Show of hands some of y'all

right? Like yeah, let me guess right?

As for me in my house, come on, somebody we will serve the Lord

like we got it right there, right?

Joshua 17, is that right? 91719, Help me out. 09's

courageous. See, you know, that's my man

right there. So he's got 17 sitting right

there and, and everybody's got this and that.

That's amazing. And you should have scripture in

your home, like it says right on the doorposts, like before you

even get in the home. My home's on the faith of God.

It's on the rock of Jesus. Like there's a different culture

here. Hey, guess what, you come to my

house, you play by my rules. Amen.

This is my castle and I am the king of my home.

Amen. Like I'm leading it for Jesus.

But it's not just on the wall. It's in our hearts.

Like, fill your house with scripture.

So ask questions. This is amazing thing our kids

program does. I don't have it up here.

A little piece of paper that comes home and your kids, you

pick them up and it's got questions of what they talked

about. Use them.

Hey, Levi, what'd you learn about?

I don't remember. OK.

What about this Oh yeah, they'll tell you this crazy story what

happened, right. There's actually memory verses

on the on those each week. I sometimes I challenge my kids.

I'll be like, hey, we're not going to eat dinner until you

recite a verse can be awful hungry tonight, you know, and

then they'll do Genesis 11 and John 316 and they kind of got

some others, but I'm like, give me something new, brother.

So then we get the Bible out and they got pick a new verse and

they got to memorize it. And of course they want to do

like, you know, Jesus wept or rejoice always.

Those are those are awesome. Do them memorize they're still

word of God. They're amazing.

There's stories behind them, right?

But put faith in the conversation, put prayer in your

home, put Scripture in your family.

As I mentioned, Jewish people a day.

This has been 4000 years since this was written.

They still put a mezuzah, that little scroll and a little chest

right by the doorpost of their house, the door frame of the

house. So you walk in through scripture

4000 years. It's insane.

Like they want to follow Jesus and on your gates.

What are the gates? It's the, it's like the gates of

the city, right? Like so when you come into the

city and there's a gates and you walk through like this, openings

in the wall, like that's where the Scripture is as well.

That's a place of business, that's a place of commerce, a

place of conversation. It's outward facing.

It's not a private faith, Amen. One of the biggest things we

face in American Christianity is a private faith.

Like I don't need to go to church.

I don't need relationships. Me and Jesus, we're good.

And I've heard it so many times. It's like, you know that at best

it is is lacking. It's with deficient.

At best, it's sufficient because obviously you got the scripture

right here that says be public of your faith.

Like we live in a podcast Christian culture, which isn't a

great podcast. Amen, Amen.

And you should listen to them. But it doesn't replace

accountability for not just you, but for others.

You know, we love everybody. The people I've been having

church, I love church. But one for those people, right?

Just so messy with these people. But that's how we grow.

Amen. How are you to teach forgiveness

if you don't have to forgive anybody?

How are you supposed to grow in grace if you don't have to show

it? How are you supposed to lead if

you don't have money around you? Like we have to be in community.

The early church, they sold everything they shared

everything they lived. They they lived under 1 communal

like pot of money that they, they prayed together, they

witnessed together. They did all this eight meals

together and community together. They gave together, they

witnessed together, they did everything together.

But in American Christianity, I got a private faith.

Like really? I mean, which means it's not

effectual, right? Like there's no salt and light.

There's no difference being made.

It's just you and Jesus, but you know, you forgot the world that

God died for you forgot that. It's a lot easier to be to

yourself. I get it, isolate, insulate, do

your thing, but that's not the gospel.

So at best it's sufficient. At worst it's self-righteous.

So I, I, I, I mean, like somebody's got private faith.

I'm like, hey, I'll be praying for you.

But that's not how it works. It just doesn't work that way.

And God's asked us to ride on the door, the doorpost on the,

on the gates of our city. That's bold faith.

Amen. That would change your social

media, that'll change how you live a little bit because the

world needs Jesus. And so build, building your

faith like a little deeper. I'll give, I'll give you like,

because I'm watching the clock as well.

Come on somebody, I'm going to keep it there.

I'll give you 2 things. So one, give your children

Jesus. Like don't assume it's going to

happen naturally. Like pray for your kids to come

to faith young age and actually share with them the love of God

and do your best to be just like your Father in heaven because

they're measuring what you do and they're assuming that's who

God is. And so be the love of God, be

the grace of God. And it's hard to believe at

times, but Jesus loves your kids more than even you do.

And he knows how to raise them. He knows how to shape them.

And they're not going to be under your leadership and your

control or whatever your parenting, right?

They're not going to be under your roof for very long and so

you have to Stewart your child as if it's from the Lord because

it is a gift from the Lord. And so you Stewart that you

shepherd that child's heart and one of the best things to do is

just talk about the love of God. Don't give them good morals like

yes, you teach them a lot of like I grew up with that like

good morals for my dad and all these things, but give him Jesus

and Jesus will change them. So first Corinthians 15 three

says this for I received this Paul talking for what I

received. I passed on to you as of what?

First importance, right? Not last importance, not just

along the way. But if I was going to teach you

one thing, this is what Paul says.

He says that Christ died for our sins according to Scripture.

He was buried and raised on 1/3 day according to the Scriptures.

He's going to give the gospel, Amen.

He's going to give Jesus that. This is it.

There's only one thing we could preach on the stage is that

Jesus died for your sin. He was buried and rose again on

the third day by the grace of God, because he loves you.

Amen. Do you get a chance to share

that with your kids? I'm going to queue in my my

buddy here with my key player. We're going to do we're going to

get up early or late. It depends how you look at it,

but I'd love to just with with my kids and then with people I'm

like talking to about the Lord. They're searching for Jesus the

John 316 right, but but change it so it's not just for God's of

the world, but they put their name in it like to to embrace

that God still loves me. I saw the pastor been pastor for

30 years. I said what's the lessons you've

learned as a pastor the grace lessons.

He says one I'm a child of God and two that God loves me.

That's the lessons we never get past Amen and to say for God so

love not talking like my son, my old son Levi for God so love

Levi right. They gave his one and only son

that Levi calls on the Lord shall be saved.

Amen like this. This is the essence of God, that

he chose us not to condemn us, but to save us.

And so you just switch like it's, it's personal choice.

It's a personal love. And so give them Jesus.

Don't be afraid to, to pray through that and to, to lead

them through that and to to share that.

And people get weird out, like, I don't know how to lead them to

Christ. You just talk about Jesus doing

the cross. I mean, I, my kids, I think many

of them have come to faith just by being in the church culture

and us talking to them. And then before you know it,

like they're like, oh, yeah, of course Jesus, that's like, you

ever made a personal decision? Of course I believe in Jesus.

Like, OK, and we walk through like what that looks like and

and what decision they made and that crisis in them.

And we have amazing kids broken, by the way.

Amen. If you bring your kids as kids,

bro, I'm telling you like they're they're being shaped.

I sat down yesterday. I was asking questions.

I'm like, how did you know that? Like we've never talked about

that, but you knew about they're talk about angels and all sorts

of stuff and it's just amazing. But give them a vision heaven,

this last thing to leave with. Give them a vision heaven.

Teach them to the world is not the end.

Teaching is passing through teaching how hard it gets.

It all works out in the end to give a big vision to heaven that

you have a family of faith. It actually lasts forever that

we will all be in heaven together.

It's not some of this thing. We die and then we like have

soul rest and we just disembodied spirits and all this

kind of jazz. It's like absent the body

present of the Lord, Amen. It's continual, like there's no

gap in time. And so like we're citizens of

heaven and our hope isn't here and we have struggles.

We're going to have all these issues, but heaven, like give

them a big picture. We got to the point.

It's been fun with my kids because we've been doing this

series in heaven and it's fun talking to all you guys by

heaven. But you know, it's really fun to

talk to is my kids because there's eat it up.

We talk about animals in heaven. Last week we talked about, you

know, the the donkey and Balaam and all these other things, but

you're going to see these animals like you have camels in

heaven you find in Isaiah 65. OK, so you have animals in

heaven. So I was like, you know what God

recreates or reconstitutes these animals.

I say, you know, what's really cool is like, I think God's

going to bring back the dinosaurs.

We went there. Amen.

My kids eyes are like what? I'm like, dude, our last name is

Petrie. We were named after the

dinosaurs. Brother, come on, somebody land

for a time, right? Like tear it down.

So we're talking about like somebody looking like crazy

right now. He's a crazy pastor.

It's like, study your Bible. You'll find out I'm not crazy,

right? When you get to heaven, there's

dinosaurs. I'm glad I told you get you a

pet T Rex. He's friendly.

I promise you can pet him. You know, like the kids this

light up like just wow. And but why would I take that

faith from them? Like why would I make God small

at any level? That's amazing that we get to

see what handiwork of God in heaven have eternity in mind and

unite together. And you see this in John 14.

Like don't let your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also me.

My Father's house are many rooms.

If we're not. So I would have told you that

I'm going to a place where I'm going there to prepare a place

for you. If I go for a place for you,

I'll come back to you and take you with me that you may also be

where I am. That Jesus is building a home in

the new heaven right now, Amen. What do you think the homes are

made of? Mysticism.

It's real stuff. He's a son of a Carpenter on

earth, Amen. I bet Jesus builds some pretty

sweet houses. By the way, there's some pretty

sweet places and I bet there's gonna be a dining room and a

place where we sleep. I still think we have the same

pattern in heaven. I think we sleep in heaven.

Like, I think all this is not so different.

Somebody asked me earlier, you think we cough in heaven?

Like, why would there not be coffee in heaven?

Amen. Like you have all these plants,

you have all these animals. Like what?

He's just going to change everything on us.

I mean, it's crazy. Jesus came back when he's

resurrected and he ate food with the disciples.

Upper room on the side of a lake.

He tells us the whole stay on the door and knock you if you

open the door, I'll dine with you.

I'll come in with you and dine with you and you with me.

Revelation chapter 3 like you think God just gave up on dining

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

and food all of a sudden I told this lady she want to be a

barista. I said I don't know there'll be

coffee, but I don't know if you're going to be a barista

anyway, you know might be sweeping the floor.

I don't know but I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. I don't know but this is really

cool. I'll wrap it.

That's got to get there. But Hebrews 13 three this is

cool 13 two says do not forget to show hospitality strangers

for a doing. Some people have shown

hospitality to who angels unbeknownst to them or without

knowing it. Now think about it on this earth

right now there are angels that have protected us and watch over

us and if you're like me and Toby, we had this conversation

this last week like we seem to mess it up and then God always

comes through Amen. Like we make a mistake and by

God's grace he fixes it and we're just joking.

It's like, man, Toby, I bet your angels like this, like Toby

again, like Sean again, like we do sometimes we do the dumbest

stuff and then our Angel probably has to fix it.

So I'm thinking like, OK, we go to heaven, hear me out.

And not only do dine with our friends and our family and our

neighbors, Ultimate Jesus, by the way, Amen.

We dine with Jesus. But think about it.

You actually get to dine with angels that have been watching

the backside of the story and protecting your life and things

with humanity. You can hear the story of our

time on earth from an angel's perspective.

Would that be the craziest thing ever?

Like, thank you so much for watching out for me.

He's like, you don't even know how much I helped you, brother.

You know, you don't even know what I was praying for.

It'd be so amazing to census and be a part of this.

But ultimately, like you bring your family with you to heaven.

I get so excited that like man, no matter what happens on earth,

like my kids, they know Jesus. Like we're spending a turning

together. Amen.

Like we're going to get around that table.

There's going to be some artwork from this earth on the fridge

and we're, we're going to just just dine together and rejoice

together and be a part of a family together for all

eternity. Amen.

There's just something special about that.

I can't wait to meet the God, those who God brings with them.

You'll find 1st Thesalonians 3 or 413.

But we're like raised in Christ from the dead, like all those,

the dead first who raises with them.

We believe in the resurrection Jesus.

We believe they will bring these people back with them.

I just can't wait to dine with like all these Saints stories of

people I've never met before. They're in huts in Africa or

like in underground China or maybe even our own city.

And they're doing some amazing things for God that you used to

haven't seen yet. Or at least people are like

headliners, right, Like Moody and Francis Schaeffer and Corey

Tim Boom and all these guys, right, And just say, man, just a

dime with them. And that don't keep kind of busy

because there's like a billions of people who came in number.

In Revelation Chapter 7, it says, as it looked out there

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

before me was a great multitude that no one could count billions

of people that worship and know Jesus from every nation, tribe,

people and language standing before the throne and before the

lamb and there are white robes and holding palm branches in

their hands. We get a chance to play part of

the story. Amen.

And for I mean, you think, oh, it's going to be really boring.

It's like, dude, how long is it going to take to sit down with a

billion people and have dinner, You know, in the stories of

God's glory that's coming through all these people?

I don't know about you, but we need to kind of up the ante with

our boldness. Amen.

Like private faith needs to go public.

Like you need to help your kids understand Jesus.

And I pray, Lord, take the parts of me that look like me to my

kids and the parts that don't just strip away because there's

parts you feel just be humbled at it, OK?

And God will do great things. So Father, come before you.

God will be awful this time to you.

Help us to be bold, we build our house on faith, the rock of

Jesus remind us of why we're here.

Give us heaven and our mindset that we're not here to produce

comfort or success or stuff, but here to prepare our kids and our

families for Jesus and for heaven.

It's I want to pray for a group of people today that those of

you that say, you know what? I don't know Jesus.

I came in this message was for me.

I'm the person in John 316 For God so loved you, your name the

first time, that that's the Spirit of God.

That makes sense to you. That God went to a cross 2000

years ago and took away your sins and exchanged them for all

of his righteousness so he could know you not just now, but for

eternity. And you get the chance to shape

all of eternity for every conversation you have, even

bring your family with you. And what a blessing.

But for those of you who've never called on Jesus, you've

never believed by faith, you may be just going to church or maybe

your first time come a long time, you never call the Lord.

Today I'm going to give you an opportunity to say yes to Jesus

and get right with God to get forgiveness of your sins, to be

cleansed, to become a child of God, to be given heaven in the

Holy Spirit now to live on earth.

So that's you and you want Jesus.

We talked about this, you want Jesus today.

You've never had a relationship with Jesus.

You want to start today. If that's you, just raise your

hand high and say I need Jesus today.

I'll walk here full of faith for the first time a long time, man

I I I've never called on Christ, but today I want to know Christ

Well, that's you believe your prayer.

The prayer does not save you. It's your belief in Jesus.

They died and rose again from your heart, not just your head.

And so if you need Jesus, just call to God, say Father God,

thanks so much for Jesus. You love me enough to down the

cross, I can sit down in eternity with you because of

your righteousness, because you did for me what I could never do

for myself when I stranded in sin and a million lifetimes.

I can never play it right, but you died across from me and made

it right. So God I worship you.

I surrender my life to you and God I'm going to take this

message to the world. God help me to build my life on

the rock and follow you and I pray this in Jesus name.

The church said Amen. Come on, give God some glory.

Amen. Amen.

Man, what an amazing day. I keep tricking him.

I did it in the first two. I just kind of dance around the

outside there. But man, what an amazing

morning. So cool to see so many families

commit and dedicate their kids to the Lord this morning.

I mean some of you today, maybe for the first time recognize

that you are son or a daughter of the King and your need for a

heavenly Father. And today you prayed that prayer

and you committed your life to Jesus.

If that is you, we are so excited for you as if you take

this journey with Jesus. We would love to help you to

resource you along the so if you could grab that connection card

that is on your seat there, fill out the information there in

that top section and make sure and check the box.

It says I committed my life to Jesus and you could drop it in

the giving buckets as they pass here in just a few minutes.

By doing that just allows us to get you a free book in the mail

this week. It's a short but powerful read.

They'll be a blessing to you this week.

Also as you leave the worship center, there is a table with

some red bags inside the free Bible and a few other resources

for you. Please grab one of those as

well. And I want to say welcome and

thank you so much for coming to those of you who are newer with

us this morning. Maybe this is even your first

time here at real life church. Man, thank you so much for

choosing to spend your morning right here with us.

I hope you heard from God, felt encouraged and so welcome this

morning. We truly don't want anything

from you today except for this. And that is just to simply

introduce yourself to us. And you could do that by

grabbing that same card that's on your seat.

Fill out your information there and just check first time here.

You can drop that in the giving buckets or you can also take it

on out to the new here. I'm, as you ask at the worship

center, just to your right, there's a new hair booth.

Somebody would be there. I'd love to introduce themselves

to you as well, get you a free gift.

Just our way of saying thank you so much for spending your

morning right here with us. And we would love to see you

back here next week again at 9:00 and 10:45.

And then I get to share another cool life group story this week.

As I was leaving a life group this week, somebody stopped me

on their way out and they were over the moon to share with me

that that night just then, they had prayed to close out their

life group. First time praying and out loud

in front of anybody and they were so excited and they were

just pumped that they knew it was going to be a good week.

They had the opportunity to pray for their group.

And what's encouraging about that story, man, is that it is

so cool to see the spiritual temperature arise in this

semester of life groups. And that's attributed to a lot

of things. But what's really cool also is

this semester we're offering what we call the way groups.

And these are really intentional groups to grow your faith, man.

Some of you have memorized maybe your first Bible verse, maybe

ever through one of these groups.

You're journaling every day and just diving at God's word.

And so Sean had mentioned we have community nights coming up,

not this week, but next for all of our groups.

If you have not dipped your toe in the water of life groups yet,

maybe you just haven't had the opportunity yet to join a life

group. And what an awesome week to come

out that week and check it out. You can scan that you are code

that's on the screen to see all of our life groups and all the

information on where they meet. You can also check them out out

in the hub and their life groups wall and see what the groups are

there. Man, any of the groups would

love to welcome you in on community tonight.

Hey, you could even beat it. You can join them this week as

well. They would love to see you there

and another really cool story I get to share with you as well as

I mean, this time last year we had 32 recurring donors in our

church. And what that means is that they

these are families or individuals that have committed

really signed in blood and recurring.

They've automated their giving. They're really saying I'm all in

and believe that what God is doing here.

The cool part of that is that this so today or as actually as

of a couple days ago, we now have 51 recurring donors.

So amazing. That's right.

Give it a forgotten man. That's so cool to see even more

people just say yes, like I'm committed.

I'm signing in blood to say that I believe in all that God is

doing here. Something even cooler is this

the same time last year? It's actually over a four week

average, but the same time last year we were about 235 people

coming on a Sunday morning. This time, same 4 weeks fan, we

are at 270 people on average in our gathering.

That's a 15% increase. Go God, so cool.

And I'm a numbers person, so I love the numbers, but it's

really not about the number. It's the numbers that tell a

story of all that God is doing in and through our church.

And so that's why we give here. We give to see more people come

to know Jesus, more people to be saved and sent out, their lives

changed forever. And so I want to invite you and

encourage you to partner with us to do that.

And so there are a lot of ways that you can do that.

You can check out the screen there.

You can scan that QR code to give, it's text to give.

You can head to our website. You can drop cash or check in

the giving buckets. They're going to pass here in

just a couple of minutes. There's also a giving box right

in the back before you exit. You can drop cash or check in

there as well if that is more convenient for you.

And as always, if you or your family find yourself in any kind

of immediate need today, this week, whether it's food or

clothing or shelter, as those buckets pass here in just a

minute, please, please reach in and grab out any loose cash that

you see that's there. We really do want to be a

blessing to you and your family. I mean, the buckets are going to

pass here. And I'm going to invite Logan

Hardy up to the stage. He is going to see us out this

morning. Guys, let's get out of here with

heaven on our hearts and on our minds.

We'll reread that passage in Revelation and in verse 9, John

writes. After this, I looked in there

before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from

every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the

throne and before God. They were wearing white robes

and holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice.

Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the on the throne and

the Lamb. Let me leave you before you get

out of here with this prayer. God help us to build up our

families to follow God forever and ever and ever, and tell

about them to everybody that they meet.

If you need prayer or somebody to talk to, we'll have somebody

down here for you. And otherwise I'll see you guys

all next week. 9 or 10:45 And remember, whoever finds Jesus

covers real life and purpose. See you next week.