When We All Get to Heaven

When I was a child, we sang this song in church called “When We All Get to Heaven.” My Grandma used to belt it out by memory. One of the lines said, “What a glorious place it will be.” I believe that with all of my heart. Heaven is going to be beyond comprehension. What is going to make it so incredible is that Jesus will be there. He is there right now, preparing a place for us. Are you ready? Are you excited?

‭‭HEBREWS‬ ‭9:24

“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

A week ago was the celebration of Ascension Day. Churches remember when Jesus stood with the disciples and then was taken up into Heaven. You can read about it in Acts 1. When Jesus ascended, He didn’t go to a place made with hands but to Heaven itself. He is in the presence of His Father and now appears for us when Satan makes his accusations. He is our advocate. What a glorious realization to understand that the world’s best lawyer is on our side.

Sowing Seeds for Shouts of Joy

Difficult times produce a deep work in your soul. In the darkest moments, you may feel like you will never emerge from the struggle, but today’s passage will give you hope. Those tears you are shedding are sowing seeds for shouts of joy. Don’t lose hope if your outlook looks bleak. God has a way of breaking through the darkness.

‭‭PSALMS‬ ‭126:5

Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

All of us have had those times where we shed enough tears that could water a plant. The hurt and pain that produced those tears were deep and left lasting scars. The Psalmist lays this out beautifully in this Psalm by comparing shedding tears to sowing seeds of Joy. At the beginning of the Psalm, he is celebrating the joy that the Lord has brought, and at the end, he remembers the sorrow the nation of Israel went through before.

God Promises to Protect His People

There is a reason that Jerusalem is a place of controversy; it is central to God’s plans for eternity. It will be where Jesus sets up His millennial reign, and it is what heaven will be called after the destruction of the earth and God ushers in a new world. The controversy goes beyond the United Nations’ decision to establish Israel as a nation in 1948. No matter what comes in the ways of weapons or rockets, God promises to protect His People.

PSALMS‬ ‭125:2

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”
‭‭
Jerusalem is around 1300 feet above sea level. You ascend these mountains when you travel to them, and they surround the city. It gave Israel a natural advantage when enemies came because they had to climb those mountains when they attacked. The Psalmist uses this picture to show that God surrounds his people. There is no reason to fear anything that comes their way because God has them covered. When the Jews looked at the mountain range, they would be reminded of His love and protection.

The Anointing of the Holy Spirit

Every believer needs to aware of the spiritual scams out there. Ministers and businessmen will prey upon the innocent and naive. They will take a smidgen of scripture and twist it to make it serve their purposes so they can extract your money from your wallet. You need to understand that only God chooses who to work through, and it is those He puts the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

‭‭ACTS‬ ‭19:11-12‬

“God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out.”

Paul had a special anointing. Part of it came from being called as an apostle, and part of it came out of necessity. His ministry to the Gentiles was expanding, and he couldn’t be everywhere at once. People would take handkerchiefs that he had touched, and when the ailing person would touch them, the sicknesses and diseases would leave. God used it as a way for people to be healed and as a testimony to the power of God. Word would spread, and it would make people interested in the Gospel.

Falling Away from Your Faith

I am going to address a passage today that sparks a lot of debate, falling away from your faith. The writer of Hebrews addresses this issue in chapter six, and he doesn’t paint a pretty picture. If you have experienced life with Jesus and then turned away, there is no turning back.

‭‭HEBREWS‬ ‭6:4-6

“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

This is one of the most controversial passages in all of the Bible. Are the people talked about in this passage actually saved? That is where the divided line has separated scholars for centuries. If these people aren’t saved, they have experienced some wonderful spiritual experiences that some Christians haven’t. If they are saved and then fall away, it is impossible for them to come back. I’m not here to settle the argument for you, but much of the language in this passage points to the person experiencing salvation. “Tasted the heavenly gift” and “partakers of the Holy Spirit” are used in other parts of the New Testament to describe believers.

Should Churches Pay Pastors?

Should the church pay pastors? There are a lot of people who don’t think so. They use Jesus and Paul as models of people who didn’t take money for their ministry. While I understand what they are saying, I disagree. Jesus was supported by wealthy and women, and Judas was the one who held the money box. Paul didn’t receive money from the church in the city he was working but did from previous churches he planted. Such is the case in the verse we look at today.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭18:5‬

“But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.”

Paul was a tentmaker by trade. He was skilled in working with black leather that produced these canopies desired by the Roman Army. He learned this skill from his father in Taurus. When he left Athens, he went to Corinth and immediately went to the agora, or marketplace, and plied his trade. When Timothy and Silas joined him, he left Tentmaking to focus solely on teaching the Word of God. Some have used this text to show that pastors should be bi-vocational (working a secular job while pastoring). It supports the opposite. Paul received support from churches in Macedonia like the Philippian church and devoted his time to building the church in Corinth.

Praise the Power of the Lord

Humility isn’t found in too many places of power. So much energy is expended on leaders extolling their greatness and downplaying their weaknesses. Very few, if any, world leaders recognize the sovereign power of the Almighty Lord. King David was a sharp contrast to today’s governors. He exalted the Lord and always remembered where his power came from. You would do well to praise the power of the Lord.

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭21:13

“Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; We will sing and praise Your power.”

Psalm 21 is King David extolling the virtues of God leading a king. He spends the whole chapter praising God for the strength that God gives leaders and the benefits that come from that. When a king puts his trust in the Lord, he won’t be moved, and his enemies will be defeated. David lived by this, and God fulfilled all of it during his reign. He was the only king who abided by it entirely. The rest of the kings in Israel, save a few, either struggled to honor God or outright rejected Him.

Leap of Faith

I went bungee jumping once. Jumping would be a generous description. I got to to the top of the tower, looked down, and more or less leaned over and let gravity do the rest. There was no spring in my legs or lift off from my feet. As I barreled down to my certain death, I thought, “Why did I do this?” After several bounces, I finally rested in the airbag underneath me. It took a leap of faith to do it. When Jesus called his disciples to follow Him, it took another kind of leap of faith.

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:19

“And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

These words changed these men’s lives. They were fishermen by trade, a demanding profession that often meant being up all night. Some nights were successful, but many weren’t. Now a rabbi comes and tells them to leave their nets because he will make them fisher of men. He was asking them to take a leap of faith from something they grew up doing to the unknown. Following Jesus is always a leap into the unknown, but they did it without hesitation and, in the process, was part of changing the world.

You Can’t Claim Ignorance

There are a lot of people that claim ignorance when confronted with something they have done. They think their reply, “I don’t know,” will get them off the hook. Paul could sense that when he was speaking to the intellectuals in Athens. You can’t claim ignorance about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That time is done.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭17:30-31

“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

When Paul stood on Mars Hill in Athens addressing the philosophers, he told them the time of ignorance is done. They no longer could claim that they didn’t know about Jesus because he had preached the Gospel to them, and their only recourse was to repent of their sins. Paul also put a sense of urgency in his message because he tells them one day, the Man appointed by God will judge the world, and they will have to answer for their lives if they have rejected the Gospel. That Man has earned that position by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead.

Examine the Scriptures

Were you a good student in school? Did you get good grades and enjoy the classroom experience? Not everyone can say that, but you can be a good student of the Bible when you examine the scriptures. We see a group of people today who heard Paul preach and were eager to explore what God’s Word had to say.

‭‭Acts‬ ‭17:11

“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

Paul got ran out of Thessalonica for preaching the Gospel and headed to a smaller village called Berea. When he got to the synagogue there, he preached the Gospel, and instead of getting upset and arguing, they received the Word and then went and examined the scriptures for themselves. They didn’t let other people tell them what to believe but were eager to see if what Paul told them was true. Many came back the next Sabbath and believed in Jesus, while some refused. Everyone was noble-minded about it, which means they were non-combative and listened with an open mind.