Hope Worth Having

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:22. If you’re struggling and you’ve ran into a wall or a lid in your ability to forgive others, you must be that person who’s on your knees asking God to purify your heart and to help you pray for the blessings and the benefit of others. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we’re excited to be with you today, looking forward to studying the Bible together. Now, we’re back in the book of Philemon, and here is a letter that was written to a man who was a slave owner, and that certainly brings a lot of questions to it. But the main point of this letter is teaching us to forgive. And so this morning I have titled the sermon, Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness. So join me as we study together. I want to talk to you about prevailing prayer and forgiveness in your heart. Prevailing prayer and forgiveness. We come to this text in Philemon. We remember that Onesimus had stolen some money, perhaps property, possessions from Philemon. Onesimus was a slave, and he had taken things away from Philemon and ran away. And so the apostle is writing this letter to Philemon, and he wants to restore Onesimus and Philemon. And of course, Onesimus in his journeys would come across the path of the apostle. And that path that they would meet is in a jail, a prison, if you will. And they have met together, and now Onesimus has received Christ. Because when you encounter the apostle, you know what he’s going to do. He’s going to tell them about Jesus Christ. And that’s exactly what he does. He tells Onesimus about the plan of salvation. Onesimus’ heart is humbled before God, and he receives Christ as his Lord and Savior. And so the apostle is saying, Onesimus, you got to go back and make things right with Philemon. And of course, he’s like, there’s no way the guy’s going to ever receive me back. Well, Philemon was an important man in the church at Colossae, and the church actually met in his home. And so the apostle addresses this letter to him, Philemon, and he wants him to make things right with Onesimus and to have forgiveness for Onesimus. Forgiveness is hard for us as God’s people, because it’s not natural. It’s not what the world would teach us. The world would say, get revenge, burn the bridge, and destroy others who have hurt you, let you down, and disappointed you. But the apostle calls us to a higher level of living. He calls us to take the high road and to choose the path of forgiveness. But in this process of learning to forgive others and to have the motivation, to which we’ve already studied, of why we should forgive others, the apostle puts within our hands a tool that helps us to have a forgiving spirit, and that is prevailing prayer. I want you to pick up with me in verse 22, as the apostle is bringing his short letter to a close. He says to Onesimus, but meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. I want you to underscore that phrase, through your prayers. You read this quickly and you probably assume, what is the significance of this verse in forgiveness and what does it mean that it would impact us to be able to be useful to help us to forgive others? Well, I want to again bring you into context that when the apostle is saying to Onesimus, prepare a guest room for me, he is under the anticipation and the hope that he’ll be released from prison, and that not only will he be released from prison, but Onesimus will be released. And he is saying to Philemon, I want you to prepare a guest room. I want you to prepare because by faith I’m believing that God is going to get me out of this place. I’m coming back to Colossae and I’m coming back to the church and I want to have this opportunity to interact with you and to help put the final explanation point on the restoration of this relationship between Philemon and Onesimus. But the apostle not being presumptive on the will of God, understood that he would take the tool of prayer and he says to Philemon, I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. That is that God would use prayer to not only bring about the release of the apostle to have the purpose of reconnecting with the church and with Philemon and also bringing about the restoration of Philemon and Onesimus, the apostle understood the great value of prayer and he places great emphasis upon the power of prayer. And in this passage he is helping us to understand that we need to embrace prevailing prayer. The one tool that God is giving to you to be able to restore relationships and to be able to have the ability to forgive others who’ve offended you, hurt you, disappointed you and let you down is prayer. I don’t want you to forget that. You may not remember anything else I have to say today and you may be asked at dinner what did the pastor preach on and you may quickly forget, but please don’t forget this. The tool that God has given you and me to be able to forgive others is prevailing prayer. Now let’s understand prayer a little bit because it’s important for us to be reminded of basic truths about prayer and the process of prayer of God answering our prayers is very important because sometimes people say to me well God hasn’t answered my prayer. Well God always answers prayer and that’s a wonderful truth for you to hold on to that God does answer prayer. Now sometimes his answer is very direct and he says yes and he just kind of waiting on us to ask and we miss out on great opportunities and great movements of God because we are not praying as we should. But we also have to remember that sometimes our answer from God is delayed because the timing is not right and so we are seeking God, we’re praying to God, we’re asking God to change something, a circumstance, a problem, perhaps even a person, but God has delayed that answer. Sometimes God’s answers are different. They’re different from what we want. How many times can you remember that your children came to you and wanted something and you knew that if you answered that request well that would make a mess of their life and you know I want you to know that there are times that you and I come to God and we bring our requests to him and God knows that if he were to give us that request it would make a mess of our life. Oh it may make you more wealthy and it may make you more prosperous in the eyes of the world but what would it do for you spiritually? Some of you have been praying for a job promotion. Some of you have been praying for a different job and some of you have been praying for certain things to come together for you financially and God has not answered it the way you want it to be answered. I’ll tell you why. Because God knows that you will no longer depend on him and you will look to money and you will look to your job and the things of this world instead of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. The other thing is that God sometimes doesn’t give you the answer that you want is because he knows that if these things were to come into your life that you would take a step back spiritually. That you would retreat in your passion and your love for God and that God would begin to see a backsliding in your life. And so sometimes the answers God gives us are different than the requests and the answer that we desire. But also I want you to remember that sometimes God denies our requests. Did you know that? I know it’s hard for you to believe because all your life maybe your parents told you yes. Maybe your grandparents continue to tell you yes and yes. But I want to tell you that God sometimes says no. And he does it not to crush you, not to destroy you, but he denies your request because it is not spiritually healthy for you. It’s not something that would draw you closer to God. And so we trust in his wisdom. We trust in his ways which are higher than ours and beyond our own understanding. And we put our faith and trust in God. And we do not trust God and we do not believe God and we do not have faith in God just because he always says yes to our requests. But we trust him because of who he is. He’s holy. He’s righteous. He’s sovereign. He’s almighty. He’s greater. He’s far beyond what you and I could ever comprehend. And we know that God is always going to do what is right for our life. The hope of prayer, when you and I pray, we certainly want a response from heaven. And many times when we are praying, we are looking for resources from heaven. And I think this is what I see in verse 22, is that as the apostle is anticipating by faith that God’s going to open the door for him to get out of this prison, but he recognizes that prayer has to be a part of this. He says, I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted unto you. He is praying that Philemon and the church at Colossae will band together and pray for the apostle. That they will pray not only for his strength and for his stamina and his faith, but they will pray for his release. They will seek God in heaven. You remember that the early church prayed for the apostle Peter. And they prayed and they met together and they prayed. Some people say, well, I can pray by myself. Why should I go to church to pray? Because there’s great power in prayer. Amen? And God has called us not just to pray individually, which we should do, but he’s called us to pray collectively and to pray together as the church family. And there’s nothing wrong with us coming together and praying together. And that’s what the early church did. They prayed together and they prayed that God would release the apostle Peter and God sent an angel and released Peter from jail. And Peter showed up at the church and he was knocking on the door where they had gathered. And a little servant came to the door and said, Hey, it’s the apostle Peter. And they didn’t believe the little girl that it was the apostle Peter. Can God send his angels and resources to you and me to assist us in the challenges of life? Absolutely. And so when we pray, that is our hope that the hand of God will be moved. It is the hope of the apostle here in this text that God will work through the prayers of his people. And when it comes to our ability to be able to learn, to forgive others and to act upon that, it is going to be through our own personal prayer. And it’s also going to be through God using the prayers of his people in our life so that we can get to that moment that we have the resources from heaven, that God’s spirit is so filled us and that we so desire to emulate our heavenly father and to live in step with the spirit that we would choose the path of prayer. So let’s learn more about prayer this morning. First of all, the expression of prevailing prayer, the word of God encourages us to pray and pray much, but not just platitudes. We are called to have heartfelt prayers, prayers that come from our heart to heaven. If we understood the value of prayer, I’m telling you that you and I would take on hell with a water pistol and we would be more motivated than ever. I want you to take your Bible to the book of James. Now the book of James is not too far from Philemon. You go to Hebrews, just get to the end of Hebrews and right there you’re in James. I want you to look at James chapter four and in James chapter four, he is speaking about prayer to us under the inspiration of the spirit of God. In James chapter four, verse two, he says, you lust and you do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. Now James is confronting. James was a, he was a fireball for God. He was a true, strong willed apostle. And you remember that James, he was okay when people were criticizing Jesus to call down fire from heaven. James was also a man of great prayer. He was known in the early church as having camel knees because his knees were so worn out from him praying. He was a dynamic servant for God and he did not have any fear to proclaim the word of God and the truth of God. And he comes right out and he says, it’s because of your lust. It’s because of your desires that you don’t have, meaning you don’t have the right desires. You have desires that are of the world. You are coveting things that are not godly and are not righteous. And he says, you don’t have because you do not ask. And he goes on to say in verse three, you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, meaning that you are asking with the wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. We need to remember that as we are expressing prayer, that we have the right motives from God. And many times we have to ask God to help keep our motives in check, that when we pray, that we don’t just want it for our own pleasure, for our own selfish reasons, but we desire it so that a God would be glorified. That ought to be the ultimate desire of your prayers is that God would be glorified. Your will be done in heaven, Lord, as it is on earth or your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive me, getting it backwards there. But I want you to understand this, that that should be the first motive of your prayer is that for the glory of God. But the second motive of your prayer is whatever is best and good for your life, meaning within the context of God’s will, within the context of God’s will for your life. Now, when you are praying for someone who you desire that God would help you to forgive them, it’s important that you have the right motivation. Amen. Some of you are like, I’m okay to pray like David did in the Psalms. He prayed that his enemies would be destroyed. And he prayed that they would be defeated. And he prayed what is often referred to as prayers from the heart of David as he was sharing his heart. And yes, that’s how we know that God’s word is God’s word, because it shows the strengths and the weaknesses of his servants. And David sometimes wanted his enemies to be destroyed. But we are called to be a people who desire that God works effectively within us and in the other person. So how is it that I’m going to be able to pray in such a way that I can not only be able to forgive, but that I would be able to pray in such a way that my motives would be pure before God. And that is that I have to ask the Lord to help me not to pray for the demise of my enemies or those who’ve hurt me, but that God’s will and God’s work and God’s blessings. You heard the scripture reading, bless those. We want God’s blessings. We want to be able to speak well of others. And so we must pray this way, church. If you’re struggling and you’ve ran into a wall or a lid in your ability to forgive others, you must be that person who’s on your knees asking God to purify your heart and to help you to pray in such a way that you could honestly pray for the blessings and the benefit of others. Now, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4, 16, to let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Now, I know that you’ve always thought of this in relation to your physical needs. And I’m not saying that that’s wrong. But what if you have the need to forgive? What if you have the need to not let bitterness take root in your heart? What if you have the need that you would be able to have the need or the ability to pray for this person who has let you down? Well, the Bible says to come boldly. That means to come with confidence. You and I can come with confidence. Why do we come with confidence? Not because of who we are, not because of our skill sets, not because of somehow we’re more righteous than the person that offended us or hurt our feelings. But we can come boldly because Jesus Christ went to the cross and he died for our sins and he tore the veil that kept us out of the holy of holies. And to be able to come into the throne of God, Jesus tore that veil from top to bottom. He gave his life for our sins and he died on that cross so that we could experience forgiveness. And now we can come into the presence of God and the throne of God and we can come with confidence because of what Christ did, not what I did, but what Christ did. And we can ask the Lord to give us the grace, the mercy, the strength to be able to forgive other people. Are you there? You can come boldly to the throne of grace. You can direct your prayers to heaven and you can be intentional in your prayers and say, God, I need help. You know, it’s okay to be honest with God. Did you know that? I mean, I don’t recommend it the other way. But to be honest with God, and what I’m saying is that you may be struggling in your emotions and your feelings towards someone, and it may be your own spouse and it may be your children. It may be your grandchildren. It may be somebody that you work with or somebody even within this church. You know, you’re at the open door church, right? And you know, we’re a perfect church, right? You know, I’m being sarcastic, right? But all I’m trying to say is this. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. The reason people hop to different churches all the time is because they can’t win this battle. They just run. The reason people get married six, seven, eight times or in one relationship after another is because they can’t overcome this battle. And that is forgiving others. And I’ll tell you why. They can’t forgive. Because they’re trying to do it in their own strength. They’re trying to do it in the flesh rather than in the power of the Spirit, and they’re not using the tool of prayer, coming boldly before the throne of grace, seeking God to help them to be able to forgive others. The second thing I want you to see is the expectancy of prevailing prayer. You see, the Apostle Paul fully expected God to release him from his chains. He believed two things about prayer, and I want you to remember this, is that prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God, and maybe you doubt that. But you remember that Hannah prevailed in prayer in asking God for a son. It was Moses who prevailed in prayer, asking God to not destroy the nation of Israel. It was Esther who prevailed in prayer, seeking God to protect Israel from Haman. It was Jonah, in his own mess, in his own choices and decisions that he had made, found himself in a great fish, and his life was out of sync and out of the will of God. But it was Jonah who learned to pray in this desperate moment that preserved his life. It’s the Apostle Paul who prevailed in prayer, getting Philemon to be able to come to that point where he would forgive Onesimus. And what I’m saying to you is, prayer moves the heart of God. Prayer moves the heart of God. And God has chosen, he doesn’t have to, but he has chosen to work through the prayers of his people. All the great spiritual awakenings, all the great revivals in America, and yes, even in this world, have always been because of a group of people, whether small or large, have gotten together and they have prayed for God’s heart to be moved. But I also want you to know this, that prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Prayer maneuvers the hand of God. Heavenly prayer allows us to move God’s hand in human affairs. There are all kinds of things happening, not just on a world level, on a national level, but things that are happening in your life. And the antidote to your problems is not for you to always come in and micromanage it and fix it. And there are people with different things going on in their life, and the answer is not for you to micromanage those people, but the answer is for you and I to pray, to pray for that person. And I know you want to fix that person. And I would say great advice for your marriage is to quit spending your life trying to fix your spouse and to spend your time praying for your spouse and with your spouse, asking God to work in both of your hearts and asking God to shape both of you in such a way that his hand would move so powerfully in your life that you could honor Christ, that your marriage could be a picture of the love of God that he has for all of humanity. That’s what’s important. The prayers that Paul had asked for the people of God to give on his behalf was that God’s hand would move the Roman government and release him from prison so that he could go get this matter settled at the church at Colossae between Philemon and Onesimus. And so it was important. So when Paul prayed, he expected God’s heart to be moved and his hand to maneuver the circumstances to make things a reality. But I also want you to see the extent of prevailing prayer, the extent. It seems that the Roman government had full control of the apostle’s life and that he was going to soon face death. But as the apostle began to mobilize people to pray, he appealed to a higher authority than the Roman government. Did you know there’s a higher authority than the president of the United States? There’s a higher authority than the governor of Pennsylvania. There is a higher authority than any political person on this planet. And there’s a higher authority than any government on this planet. And that higher authority is the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God’s people say amen? And I want you to remember that there is no government that can tell the church what to do. The head of the church is not a governor. It is not a president. It is not some bureaucrat in the government. But the head of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ. And friends, don’t forget that because all that was tested several years ago. It was all put on the line. And were we going to follow the head of the church and his commands or were we going to follow our fears and the edicts that came from the government? Friends, there’s no more important agenda than the agenda of a prayer warrior who is on their knees seeking God, for God to move in a powerful way. And that’s exactly what the apostle wanted. He wanted Philemon, who was a leader in the church of Colossae, and he wanted him to be a man of prayer. And he knew that if Philemon would start praying for Paul, guess who else he had to pray for? Onesimus. And guess what? If Philemon would pray that Paul would come back, he knew who he was bringing back with him, Onesimus. And that they were going to have to deal with this matter and that they were going to have to move forward in this matter and they were going to have to resolve this matter for the glory of God. And that’s what the apostle understood about prevailing prayer. That even in those hard cases, even in those difficult cases, in those extreme cases, that God can use prayer to change our hearts. And let me say something about that to you. Is this, the key to you understanding about prayer and praying for others is that in prayer, God is not always interested in changing your circumstances and he’s not always interested in changing people in your life as much as he is interested in changing you. No one wakes up and says, I can’t wait to forgive. It’s a emotion that is not there, but forgiveness is a choice that I make. And where and how could I ever make that kind of a choice through the grace of God? And how does that grace get to me? Prevailing prayer is the conduit that God uses to fill your heart and mind with grace, to show grace, and to give forgiveness. And so when we neglect prayer, then we are not going to be able to practice these principles that Jesus has commanded us to, like to forgive one another. And so we hope today’s message has been an encouragement to you and to help you to understand the significance of prayer and forgiveness. I want to encourage you to make sure that you check out our website, HopeWorthHaving.com. I want to also thank you for your support for Hope Worth Having Ministries. Through your contributions, we’re able to stay on the air. And if we’ve been a blessing to you, I hope that you’ll continue to support this ministry and help us in every way that you can. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post Prevailing Prayer and Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Evidence of the Resurrection of Christ (Easter Sunday). He will be reading out of Luke 24:1-12. Remember that Thomas had his doubts, but Jesus appeared to them, and he said to Thomas, look at my nail-scarred hands, feel the wounds in my side, and then you’ll know that it is truly me. And when Thomas did that, he said, my Lord, my God. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. This is Hope Worth Having, and we’re delighted that you’re with us today. And we’re looking forward to what God has for us. And let me just say, Happy Easter. And we certainly are celebrating the resurrection of our Savior. And as part of that, we’re going to be in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, and we’re going to learn about the evidence of the resurrection of Christ. So join me as we study the Bible together. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in Luke chapter 24, in the Gospel of Luke, the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. But in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verses 1 through 12, will be the text of our message this morning. As a believer, the most wonderful thing about Easter is the resurrection of our Savior and Lord. Yes, he has risen, and we stand here today to affirm to each of our hearts that God has raised him from the dead, and the horror of the cross is laid to rest. And Jesus has come forth in glorious triumph. And this is truly a glorious day. And that is the focus of our hearts this morning. This was no ordinary day. And we take time, and we take this moment to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the resurrection of Christ is important. It is the heart of our salvation. You remember that the Scriptures teach us in 1 Corinthians 15, that the resurrection of Christ, that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of the Gospel of Jesus. The good news is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The good news is that he was buried, but three days later, he arose again. He died to take care of our sins and to take care of our past, but he has come forth out of that tomb to take care of our future. The highlight of the Christian faith is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul taught us, And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain. You are yet in your sins. That is, that if Christ had never been risen, then we would still be in our sins. The early church understood the importance of the resurrection, and they demonstrated that by regularly meeting together on Sunday morning to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. We see this throughout the Scriptures again in Acts 20, verse 7. It says, Wouldn’t that be awesome if Pastor Mike spoke to you today until midnight? Buddy, I would be so thrilled, but I know that you couldn’t take it. It’d probably be just me. I don’t even think my family would stay. The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 16, Revelation 1.10 says, The early church started this practice of gathering together on Sunday. Why? Because it was the day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, they gathered on Saturday, which was the Sabbath, the end of the week. It was to commemorate the resting of the believer. It was to be a day of rest. It was to be a day where there would be no work. But now that has all been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And our rest is not physical, but our rest is spiritual in that we find our rest in Jesus Christ and put our faith and trust. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need a day of rest, and it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to take time to retreat and relax and kind of re-energize and renew yourself. We’re all for that, but it doesn’t have to be on a Saturday. It could be any day. But for the believer, we begin the week on Sunday. It is the first day of the week. I know the world calls it the weekend, but for us as believers, it’s the first day of the week. It is the day that we give to God. It is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that’s why we come together. For the believer, because of Christ’s resurrection, death has become a doorway into eternity. Death’s grip is finally conquered. Death is not the end when we meet at the grave to commit the body to the grave. It’s not final. It’s not the finish line. But for the believer, it is just the doorway, the gateway, if you will, into eternal life with Jesus Christ to be with him forever, ever, and ever, and ever. And we’ll never be separated. To be reunited with our loved ones, to once again recognize that Jesus has paved the way for us to have eternal life. We’re no longer stuck in our sinful bodies. We’re no longer stuck in this flesh, but we have been granted a new body that the Bible describes as being immortal, incorruptible. That is, that it will never decay, never fall apart, and it will never experience disease or sin ever. That is something to rejoice. When we come to the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, on this glorious day, Luke begins to describe to us the evidence of the resurrection. That if this resurrection is so profound, and it is so important that the church would gather every Sunday, and think about this, that you are a part of an assembly of believers literally around the world that are gathering on Sunday to worship Jesus Christ and to celebrate his resurrection. Luke begins to describe what the evidence of this resurrection are in that he begins in verse 1 and says of chapter 24, Now on the first day of the week, that is Sunday, very early in the morning they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this that behold the two men stood by them in shining garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words. And then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales or we might call it crazy talk. And they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves. And he departed marveling to himself at what had happened. The first evidence that Luke gives us is the empty tomb. Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb. And the location of this tomb would have been known to not only those who loved him and followed him, but even to those who were not Christians or unbelievers. It was not a secret to where Jesus was buried. But the women went to the tomb and they were coming to finish out the embalming of Jesus. If you jump back to chapter 23 and verse 53, you can see that very quickly. The Bible says, Then he took it down, meaning they took the body of Jesus down from the cross. They wrapped it in linen and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of a rock where no one had ever lain. That day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew near. There were limitations to what they could do in the preparation of the burial of the body of Jesus Christ. And so verse 55 of chapter 23 says, The women who had come with him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices, fragrant oils, and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. So because activity was forbidden, the women would come and they came again on Sunday morning because they wanted to be able to finish up putting the spices and ointments upon the body of Christ because they so treasured who Jesus was and who his body was and what it represented to their hearts and the meaning of his life and the significance of his life to them. As God’s Word presents us with these facts concerning the fact that Jesus was buried and that he rose again, we are presented with something that is very important. And that is that when the women showed up, verse 2 of chapter 24, they found the stone rolled away. They found that it was rolled away from the tomb. Now most likely the women did not even know that the tomb had a large stone in front of it. It would have been impossible for them to even move that stone but not only was it in front of the opening of the tomb but the stone was sealed. We learn from other gospel writers that the Roman soldiers sealed the tomb because they didn’t want anyone to come in and take the body of Jesus Christ. And so the women coming thinking that they’re going to have access but do not have access and they find that the stone in front of the tomb has rolled away. And then they went in in verse 3 and they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. The stone was not rolled away to let the Lord Jesus out but the stone was rolled away by the angels so we could have access to the tomb. To see that our Savior was not there. To give evidence that he is risen, that he is alive. The stone was there, rolled away and then the people could come in. Later Peter would come in and he would find that Jesus’ body was gone. The soldiers that were there were told to guard the body of Christ to make sure that nobody stole it. But now all of a sudden the stone is rolled away, it was sealed and now all of a sudden the body is gone and the women were puzzled about the disappearance of Jesus’ body. But the empty tomb provides evidence for us this morning. The proof that we need of Jesus’ resurrection. Now there are those who say that Jesus did not die that he just simply swooned on the cross but this is refuted because the spear went deep into his side and Joseph and the women witnessed his dead body. Others say that the disciples stole the body of Christ from the tomb but they forget that the Romans sealed it. They sealed the tomb and they were instructed not to let anyone steal the body. And if they did, it would mean death for the Roman soldiers. The only explanation that you and I have this morning about the resurrection of Christ is that the empty tomb explains that Jesus is alive. That he has risen again and that he is not to be found among the dead but he is to be found among the living. And the empty tomb testifies to us this morning that Jesus Christ has risen again. The resurrection, this story, those skeptics who would say it’s just a theory, Mike but it would not have lasted in Jerusalem. For a single hour, if the authorities could have found the body they would have been able to say, here is his body. Somebody stole his body and so there is no resurrection. It would not have lasted for even an hour but my friends, there was no body to be found because our Savior was risen again and he is alive today. The holiness and the love of God was seen on the cross when we saw our Savior suspended between heaven and earth. But forgiveness and grace is seen in the empty tomb. If Christ would not have been raised from the dead he would not have been able to forgive us of our sins. What I want you to recognize this morning is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the affirmation that the Father has accepted his sacrifice for your sins and my sins. And it is through the resurrection that we rejoice in the culmination of the grace and forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. The first evidence that Luke presents to us is the empty tomb. The second is the prophecy of Christ. We come down to verse 5 and the Bible says, Then as they were afraid and they bowed their faces to the earth that is the women. Why are they afraid? Because they saw these two men that least looked like men stood by them in shining garments. We know that they were angels. They were so overwhelmed with their glory and brightness that they began to bow their faces to the earth. And the angels said to the women, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee. And the angels began to share the prophecy of Jesus Christ that Jesus had been teaching his disciples for three and a half years. He had been teaching them verse 7, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. Now we are in quite the quandary here. Jesus Christ is claiming to be God. He is claiming to be Lord. And he is boldly and confidently telling his disciples long before ever his crucifixion and resurrection that he will be crucified and that he will rise again. And all of a sudden in verse 8, the women they remember those words. They remember. Now if Jesus is making these kind of claims, you’ve either got to determine logically this morning that he is a crazy person, a lunatic, that he’s kind of lost it. That he is on this death mission. Or you have to say to yourself, he’s lying. He is intentionally deceiving people. He is leading them astray and that he is a cult and he is a religious leader who is taking people down a path to their own destruction. Or thirdly, you have to say that he is the Lord. Now those three options that have been presented to us by C.S. Lewis who was a great philosopher and theologian and thinker of Christianity and that’s what he teaches us here. The women had forgotten the prophecy of Jesus. They had forgotten that he said he would rise again. The angel said he’s not here but he is risen. Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 40 long before he was crucified long before he resurrected he said for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. God’s word is always true and what he says will always happen. It always comes to pass when Jesus showed up to the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus. The funeral service was already over. He came four days after he had been petitioned to come. Lazarus was already in the tomb but when Jesus showed up he said to the family I am the resurrection and the life and he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and foreshadowing not only our resurrection but also foreshadowing his resurrection and reminding the people that were present as they were mourning and grieving over the loss of Lazarus. Jesus called forth Lazarus out of the tomb telling us that he has power not only of diseases and nature and sickness but he has power over death and to put a final explanation point on the power he has over death Jesus himself rose again in Matthew 16 verse 21 the Bible says from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. I want you to understand that the resurrection of Christ proves that his sacrifice for sin was accepted by God the Father and that everything that Jesus said would happen did happen and he is alive today. Again where are you? Are you in the camp that says Jesus was a crazy man? Are you in the camp that Jesus was lying and deceiving people or are you in the camp? Yes, what he said came true and he is Lord. There is no other explanation for the empty tomb. You can’t say that his body was stolen. You can’t say that Jesus never died he just went through kind of a swooning and a fake death. All you got to do is read about all that he endured on the cross there is no person that could have gone through what Jesus did and it’s not only that he bore the sufferings from mankind but the suffering of all the weight of sin placed upon him, upon our Savior, your sin, my sin placed upon Jesus Christ on that day. It is no wonder that the sun hid its face. It is no wonder that the earth shook for not even creation could watch the Son of God bearing the sins of the world. But yet Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that he spoke of. The third and final evidence that I want to share with you this morning is the witnesses. We look at them in verse 9 through 12 and again we see that the Bible teaches us that they returned from the tomb and they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Meaning the women went and hurried where were the disciples? They were huddling in Jerusalem afraid, fearful couldn’t understand what was going on. That’s what grief does sometimes. We lose perspective. We can’t see the big picture. But these women the Bible says they returned and they told all these things. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna Mary the mother of James and other women with them who told these things to the apostles. What is so phenomenal about what Luke is writing to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God is that in the Roman culture, hear me, women were not allowed to give a witness or a testimony in the court of law. But Luke, he elevates the ladies because he knows that they would be truthful. Where are the men at the foot of the cross? They’re not there. They’ve all scattered and ran away, right? Where are the men that are helping Jesus’ body to be prepared for the final burial? Where are they? It is only the women that are there and it is the women who witness the angels. It is the women who hear the words of the angel and say, why are you looking for Jesus among the dead? He’s not here. He is alive. And so having experienced all that, they run to the disciples the apostles and they share this incredible story and look in verse 11, it says their words seem to them like idle tales, meaning like crazy talk. What these women are saying cannot be true. They disbelieved them. They did not trust in the story of the women and that is why Peter took off and he goes and he runs to the tomb. He wants to see for himself and what does he find? Verse 12, the Bible says he arose and ran to the tomb and stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Now the witnesses are evidence that Jesus truly is risen again. When we think about the witnesses, we certainly have the angels from heaven who witnessed. We have the women at the tomb who witnessed the resurrection of our Savior and we learn in the other gospels that Jesus disappeared to those women. We also have the witness of those who had died and were resurrected during the crucifixion of Christ. In Matthew 27, we learn that while Christ was being crucified, that as the earth shook, that literally the Old Testament saints rose again. That there were those who were looking forward to the Messiah, they resurrected. Can you imagine what it was like to have one of them show up at your door and say, hey, just wanted you to know I resurrected. And I’m sure this story that they had to tell of what it was like to die and the incredible joy and the peace that they had in their heart as they knew that God was with them, guiding them every step. But my friends, they were also testimonies. They were witnesses to the truth that this truly is the Son of God, the centurion. It wasn’t the apostles who stood at the foot of the cross. It wasn’t any great religious leaders that stood at the foot of the cross. It was a Gentile, a centurion who witnessed the endurance of the suffering of Christ on the cross who said, truly this is the Son of God. Because he’d never seen anything like that before. And so there they are, these resurrected bodies testifying that truly this is the Son of God. We also know that the apostles were witnesses because 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that Jesus appeared to the apostles. And we go on to read in 1 Corinthians 15 that more than 500 people were witnesses to Christ. He appeared to over 500 people after his resurrection. It wasn’t like Jesus just disappeared and never showed himself again. But we know that very evening on the resurrection day, according to the gospel of John, that Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples. Remember that Thomas struggled? Remember that he had his doubts? Remember that he wasn’t sure? But Jesus appeared to them and he said to Thomas, look at my nail scarred hands. Feel the wounds in my side and then you’ll know that it is truly me. And when Thomas did that, he said, my Lord, my God. Because only God can rise from the grave. And so we have the witnesses that Jesus again appeared for 40 days after his resurrection. For 40 days, he’s showing himself to people, over 500 people, the apostle Paul said, who gave testimony to the fact that he is alive. And this is incredible. So Christ’s resurrection rests on the evidences of many witnesses. Twelve appearances Jesus made in those days after his resurrection. He appeared to over 500 people in the span of 40 days. That is why Luke would write later in Acts chapter 1 verse 3, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion or his crucifixion by many infallible proofs being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. The foundational truth of Christianity is the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And without it, our faith is in vain. And thus we stand before you this morning to bring to you the very evidence that the scriptures give us about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you say, what does that mean to me, Mike? I want to remind you that the power of the resurrection that raised our Savior has the power to change your life. That’s what it means to you. When you find yourself stuck in sin, stuck in guilt, stuck in a trap of a life that is meaningless and without purpose, you have a Savior who has risen again. And if you will turn to him and you will receive him as your Lord and Savior, he, my friends, will not only wash away your sins, but he’ll give you a life of significance, meaning, and purpose. That is the power of his resurrection. He bursts within you a new beginning, a new start. How many people in this world need a brand new start? Many of us, we find the complications of this world are more than we can even deal with in our own lives. But friends, we have the confidence of this, that just as Jesus changed people in the scriptures, just as he changed and transformed the apostle Paul from a persecutor to a preacher, my friends, he can change your life. He changed a man named Peter who lived in fear, who denied him and wanted nothing to do with him, to a man who stood boldly before millions of people, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, and thousands came to believe in Jesus. He changes people. That’s why the resurrection means so much to you. It’s not just this great theological doctrine that Pastor Mike’s trying to teach you. It’s not just that I’m trying to help you understand the scope of how the evidence is so clear and obvious, but I want you to know it personally. And that on this beautiful day, this glorious day, the resurrection that we celebrate, the resurrection of our Savior, we are blessed and have the opportunity to renew our faith and to restore our love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to once again begin a journey of faith in where we follow Christ and we live a life of purpose and forgiveness and grace in this world that we are called. So I challenge you this morning, consider the evidence of our Savior. And there’s only three areas that you can fall in. He’s either lying or he’s crazy or he is truly the Lord. When you think about the resurrection, it is a very significant event in the history of the church and it’s very foundational to the message of Christ. And the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So what we present to you are evidence and wanting to help the skeptic, the doubter, to be able to understand that we are not asking you to take a blind leap of faith, but to take a step of faith on truth. And then for you as a believer, we’re equipping you to be able to articulate that evidence that God has already given us and helps us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the ends of the earth. We want to continue to encourage you as our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we try to do that. You can check out our website, HopeWorthHaving.com, and there’s a lot of materials, a lot of information, and you can sign up for our daily devotions. You just go to the website, HopeWorthHaving.com, and just click on the pop-up button that says, Sign up for our devotions, and write to your email box every day a devotion to encourage you, challenge you, and strengthen you in your walk with Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post The Evidence of the Resurrection of Christ (Easter Sunday) first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Motives for Forgiveness Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:19-21. That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me so that God could receive you and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church, and we want to welcome you to Hope Worth Having Radio Broadcast. Thank you for tuning in today. As you get your Bible, we want to turn to Philemon chapter one, and we’re going to continue our study on the motives for forgiveness. So let’s get right into our study today. All of us have a debt of sin that could never be repaid by ourselves. There isn’t enough goodness in your life, and there isn’t enough activity in your life that could ever forgive your sins before a holy and righteous God. It is Jesus who stood up for us. It is Jesus who stood in for us. It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross, and we should have endured that suffering, and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place, and he did it. Why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. What kind of love? If people doubt that God loves them, I tell them, get to the cross, because when you get to the cross, you see not only the holiness of God, but you see the love of God that he has and the passion that he would give his very son for you and for me so that our sins could be forgiven. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus took on the debt of sinners, and he paid it full on the cross. Think about that. You see, that’s why I’m a big believer that once God forgives you of your sins, that he has taken care of the full debt. I don’t believe that I can come in and help God with the debt. I don’t believe that I can add and do anything better with the debt. I believe that Christ’s payment for my sin was more than sufficient on the cross, and my motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to pay back Jesus. My motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to forever pay back God for my sins, but my motivation is an expression of gratitude to Jesus and a gratitude to God that my sins have been washed away. And the Bible says that my sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. Psalm 103, verse 12, as far as the east is from the west. Can God’s people say amen? Amen. So we are thankful today that Jesus triumphed over death. He triumphed over sin. He triumphed over Satan, and he reached out to me for salvation. And so my life is not a life of trying to pay back. That debt has been paid by Jesus Christ. Now, this is profound because we must realize how fully we have been freed from our sin. We must realize how much God has done for us to wipe away the guilt and to shake off the shame and to leave behind all the negativity and the sinfulness in our life. And now God has given us a brand new start in Christ. And when you come to grips with that, that you have a debt that could never be paid apart from Jesus Christ, that becomes a motivation in your heart to forgive other people. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, and forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, the motive for forgiving sin is in the heart of God for who he is, and he forgives us not because any of us deserve it or that somehow we earned it, but he forgives us because he loves us. Now, here we are, and we are very much like the story that Jesus told. And he told about a man who was indebted to a king, and this king demanded that he pay his debts. And the man went before the king, pleaded for forgiveness, asked for grace, and asked him that he would forgive him of his debt. And the king generously, kindly, compassionately forgave this man of his debt. And then the man went out, and he began to demand all the people that were indebted to him to pay up. And he was harsh, he was hateful, he was rude, and he refused to forgive anybody’s debt as people could not pay their debt to him. The word got to the king, and the king was furious because this man had received so much but gave so little. This man had received so much forgiveness in that his debt, which was greater than all that people owed him, and he was forgiven of that debt, and his slate was wiped clean. And now he had a new start with the king, but he refused to do it to others. He refused to show forgiveness to others. Hear me, my friends, the king was angry and had this man thrown into prison because he would not show the kindness and the grace that the king had bestowed upon him. I need you to think deeper than your emotions about forgiveness. I need you to understand that when a debt is incurred, that we must remember when we are offended, when we are hurt, when we are disappointed, that we have a responsibility because of what we have received, that for two reasons of what we have received. We have received this forgiveness, and therefore, we have a responsibility to forgive others. And that when we choose to withhold that forgiveness, we are reflecting something that is untrue of our God. When you choose not to forgive, you are shaming the name of Jesus Christ who forgave you so much. You are now letting everybody know in your relationships and in your life that your God is not a forgiving God, and that your God works on the basis of works, and that you must earn your forgiveness with God. When you know in your heart that God has generously paid your debt, he has wiped it away, he has given you a brand new start, but yet what you’re projecting in all of your relationships is if you don’t live a perfect life, then I will have a bitter spirit towards you forever and ever. So our motive for forgiving others, it goes deeper than our feelings. We recognize that we have an unpayable debt. We recognize that people have an unpayable debt to us. There are times that people will hurt you, even in the family of God. There are times within the people of God that we are so deeply offended and hurt. Let me just give you a newsflash. Sometimes the people that are closest to you will hurt you the most. And the reason that they hurt so much and it’s the most is because you trust so much. Your heart is so open to fellow believers, and when that has been mishandled and when that has been hurt, the wound is deep. The psalmist talked about those who had betrayed him, that they even sat and ate bread with him. Those you’ve invited to your homes, those you’ve been to their homes, those you’ve opened your home to and you’ve sat down and you fellowship with them and you have eaten with them, many times can hurt you the deepest because of your trust and because of your love and because of the openness of your heart. But yet you still have this responsibility to recognize that even though they could never repay the debt of the hurt that they have placed upon you, that in comparison to what God has done for you, in comparison to how much God has loved you, who are you to be out there ranting and raving and claiming your unwillingness to forgive anybody? It really strikes at the heart of your theology. It strikes at the heart of what you believe about your relationship with God. Now some of you may have grown up in a relationship where the only way you were appreciated or that you were praised or you were acknowledged or encouraged was based upon performance. It was based upon what you did. But I want you to know that the Bible teaches us in the relationship because of Christ, in our relationship with God because of Christ, we are accepted in the beloved. Even if we’ve made a mess of our life, even if we have made some bad choices in our life, we are accepted in the beloved. And you say, how can that be, my friends? That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me right there on that cross so that God could receive you, he could accept you, and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. My second motivation for forgiving others is to make sure that I understand that it’s benefiting me and it’s benefiting others. Let’s look at verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. The apostle is appealing to Philemon to be forgiving to Onesimus for the purpose of benefiting or blessing not only Paul, certainly Onesimus, but Philemon himself. We taught you at the beginning of this series on forgiveness from the book of Philemon. Onesimus is a word that means to benefit or to be useful. So when the apostle again uses this word here in verse 20, and he says, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord and refresh in my heart. He is saying to him, I want you to live up to your name. I want you to live up to who you are and your character. How did the apostle know his character? Go back to verse 7 of Philemon. Again, there it is. We have great joy, consolation, or encouragement in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother, meaning Philemon, you have been a person who has been useful to the kingdom of God and you have been a benefit to the kingdom of God. You have brought great joy and encouragement to other, to the hearts of the saints. You have been a Christian who refreshes others. Now jump back down to verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Here’s what he’s saying. He’s saying, Onesimus, you’ve been a useful man for God. You have been a benefit and a blessing to so many in the family of God. And he’s saying, Onesimus, let me experience that joy. Let me experience that refreshment just like you have done for others. I need you to be a man who forgives so that you can benefit others. The apostle wants to experience that joy. It would mean so much to the apostle that Philemon would keep the unity at the church. We’ve shared with you before that the church of Colossae was where Philemon worshiped. They met in Philemon’s house and the people knew Philemon. He was a man who was influential in the church. He was a man who brought great joy and he was a man who refreshed. You know what I’m talking about. There are Christians like that, aren’t there? That every time you see them, they’re so filled with joy. They’re so filled with the happiness of the Lord. They are not critical saints. They don’t drain you. They don’t drag you down into negativity, but they fill your heart. And once you’re done talking to them, you feel refreshed. Paul is saying to Philemon, be that guy again, be that guy, Philemon. And you see, church, when we come together as God’s people, we have to remember that choosing to unforgive will only create discord in the family of God and disunity. And this is true in your own family. This is true in all of your relationships. Believers should be motivated to forgive one another by the knowledge that forgiveness brings joy and it brings blessings and it benefits the family of God, the kingdom of Christ, and it benefits not just others here, but it benefits the testimony of God among the community. When you talk to unbelievers, sometimes they’ll say to me, well, I don’t go to church because all they do is fuss and fight. All they do is attack each other. And you know, it’s sad that that would be the testimony of a church family, isn’t it? Like I told you at the outset of this sermon, so many different preferences, personalities, things that we’d like to see done or not done. And it’s no wonder it seems inevitable that the church would collide and have so much conflict. Why didn’t God just make us all alike? Why didn’t God just make a bunch of Mike Sanders? Wouldn’t that be awesome? I’m just teasing. I mean, the Lord knew you can only handle one, amen? But he created us all distinct. You have children or you have people in your family, they’re distinct in their personalities and preferences. It’s okay. God loves creativity and he loves variety. But here’s the key that we have to choose that even when those personalities rub us wrong and those preferences we disagree with, that we have to choose for the sake of others and for the testimony of the Lord, for the benefit of others, we are going to forgive one another. So let’s say a husband and wife who have children decide they’re not going to forgive each other and that marriage can become a wreck and they can end up destroying one another, hating one another, and end up divorcing one another. And they may think, well, it’s only me. It’s only my husband or spouse that was hurt. But the truth is it’s a ripple effect through the family. It touches every life. The wound is deep in the children. The wound is deep in the life of the church. Sometimes I think that because divorce is so common today that we think it’s not a big deal anymore, but it is, it is. And when you get down to that moment where you’re ready to leave your spouse, I guarantee you it’s because you did not choose to forgive. You did not choose to forgive. Now, when we think about its benefit to me, meaning you personally or to others, you must remember that you have a responsibility to resolve the issues within your own heart. You have to resolve the issues. Philemon had to come to grips with his frustration, his anger, and his emotions about this guy taking property that was his. So I wanna lead you through a series of questions that’ll help you because as a pastor, so many times I see it, unresolved issues in the heart, continually to stir up, continually to boil, and drinking that poison, hoping that somebody else dies. It’s only destroying you. How do we resolve this? How do we get to that place in my life that I am full of joy and I am refreshing to others and I am blessing and benefiting the church? How do I get there where I can, Pastor, forgive others? Well, first of all, answer this question, not out loud this morning, okay? But within your heart, am I truly seeking resolution? Now think of this in two angles. Am I seeking resolution with those or the person that I am upset with? And am I seeking resolution within my own heart? Now, confrontation is difficult. Everything in my life that somebody has done to me, said to me, or neglected doesn’t always have to be confronted, or I honestly would be confronting 24-7. And I know that’s how some of you feel, but I wanna take you to a biblical proverb that says love covers a multitude of sins. Don’t misunderstand that passage of Scripture. It doesn’t mean that you and I are to compromise, that we’re to overlook sin. It doesn’t mean that we’re to avoid dealing with sin in our own hearts or in the hearts of others. It’s talking about those little things in life, those little interactions, those things that sometimes nip at us, at our hearts, and then they build up. You see, friends, Terry and I, today is our 34th anniversary. 34 years, amen. Thank you. Now, thank you. You don’t have to give credit to me, but you give credit to my wife. How could she endure and put up with Mike for 34 years? I hear you, because there’s times Mike can’t even put up with Mike. You understand that? That I’m frustrated with myself, but how is it? It’s because love overlooks a multitude of sin, that my failures, my weaknesses, my shortcomings, the things that are wrong with Mike. We’re not talking about big issues. We’re talking about small issues, that we’re not willing to make those issues to be burning the bridge, or I’m done with you, or I’ll never have a conversation with you again. And so that’s the key, is that somebody says something, somebody forgets something, somebody neglects something, you’re hurt, you’re offended. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna seek resolution with that person? Maybe you don’t need to. Maybe it’s something you say, well, I love them. I’m not gonna make a big deal about it. It doesn’t seem to be a big issue. Or are you gonna seek resolution in your own heart? Has that become a brick in your heart, where you’re building this huge wall in your life? You know, I did a wedding back in Indiana many, many years ago, when I was pastoring there. And this couple had come in, and of course, they’re over the top about how much they love each other, and I was trying to teach them how to do conflict resolution in their marriage. And they said, don’t worry about that, pastor. We never fight. And I said, well, once you get married, you’ll fight every day. Amen? Just get married. That’s what solves that. But anyways, they didn’t wanna hear the lesson. They didn’t really care about it. Two years later, they’re on my phone, and the wife is saying, I hate him. I can’t stand him. I can’t believe that I ever married him. And so again, we begin the process of trying to help this couple. But how does that happen in two years? Because there were little things that she never, out of love, forgave, and out of love, moved forward and resolved. But she let them fester in her heart. She let them become a brick in the wall that she was building towards her husband, to where she no longer had any emotions towards him except hate and anger. And that’s what I’m trying to tell you. And that’s what I’m encouraging you to do this morning, is seek resolution, if not with others, definitely with your own heart. Am I observing the golden rule? That’s a second question. You see, I feel like sometimes we hold standards for people that we don’t even hold to ourselves. And we’re all offended about this person and that person when we have this standard that they have to live by, a perfection standard, and you’re not even living up to it yourself. Are you treating people as you would want to be treated? I hope that you would treat other people. If you messed up, how would you like to be treated? Compassion, mercy, and love? Or would you like judgment to come quickly and swiftly upon your life? I hope that you would have the same standard. Maybe you don’t know everything. Maybe you haven’t figured it out. That’s what Jesus meant in Matthew chapter seven. Judge not lest you be judged. He’s not saying we can’t judge. He goes on to teach us how to have discernment and judgment. And that one of the things we need to remember is we don’t know everything. And so let’s not be quick to judge. And let’s not come to conclusions because there may be more to the story than you realize. And are you allowing what you want to receive relating to your relationships with others? Here’s a newsflash. People aren’t perfect. Did you know that? People aren’t perfect. And I know this is a shocker. You’re not perfect. And there’s no perfect church out there. You’ll never find a perfect church. And so we gotta remember this, that we live in a flawed world of imperfect people. And the question is, are we gonna let that ruin us, destroy us, and cause us to become bitter and angry and hateful people for the rest of our life? Or are we gonna continue to navigate this minefield and understand that there’s gonna be people who have shortcomings? But it’s okay because we’re going to extend grace to everybody. We’re gonna extend grace to people’s faults and we’re not gonna live our life angry and hateful. The third point real quickly is my last point that I need to get across to you as far as our motivations. It is our obedience to God. Look at verse 21. Why should I forgive? Well, because you’ve been commanded to. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. You see, we are forgiven to forgive. The Bible says in Matthew 6, 15, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. There’s a lot at stake here. If I choose the path of unforgiveness, I am not only doing that in relation to my relationship with others, but I am bringing that into the relationship that I have with God Almighty. An unforgiving Christian is a proud person who has forgotten how much they have been forgiven by God. Forgiveness is a choice. It is a choice to do what God tells you to do. And you say, well, I’m waiting for that feeling. It never comes. I never have woken up and said, I feel like forgiven today. I feel like that every person that cusses me out, I’m just gonna be forgiving to them. You never feel it, but you choose it in your life. And why do you choose it? Not because of your emotions, you choose it because God told you. The church at its core is meant to be a community united in faith, purpose, and love. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of diverse personalities, preferences, and backgrounds, and achieving true unity can be an uphill battle. But the way that is accomplished is through God’s people being forgiving when they have disagreements. And that’s what the apostle is trying to help Philemon do, is that yes, he’s been disappointed, hurt, let down, but God is calling him to a higher plane of living, and that is to be forgiving. And the motivation for his forgiveness is not that anybody’s worthy, but that Christ forgave him. And so because of what Christ did on the cross is what mobilizes us to show grace and forgiveness to others even when they let us down or hurt us. So this book on Philemon is a very challenging book and one that requires us to reflect, study, and think about a lot. And I hope you’ll do that. And if you’d like to get the message in its entirety, I want you to go to our website, hopeworthhaving.com, hopeworthhaving.com. And there you can go to our archives and just look up the book of Philemon. And as well, you can go to our YouTube channel and you can check out our playlist on Philemon, and you can listen to the full message on forgiveness. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. Thank you. The post The Motives for Forgiveness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:19-21. It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross and we should have endured that suffering and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place and he did it, why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and we are broadcasting the gospel around the world and we are grateful that you are with us in sharing these wonderful truths. Join us as we are in the Book of Philemon today and we are going to study the motives for forgiveness, a very powerful truth. Join me as we study together. Your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Book of Philemon. Several weeks ago, our church began a study in this very small book, often referred to as a letter. And I know it’s sometimes hard to maybe find a certain book in the Bible, and so just to help you out, it’s in the New Testament and it’s right before the Book of Hebrews. If you go to the back of your Bible, kind of just track backwards and you’ll see Philemon right before Hebrews and you’ll be able to follow along with us today. Philemon chapter one and verse 19 through 21. The Bible says, I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. The church at its core is meant to be a community that is united in faith, purpose, and love. Yet amidst diverse preferences and personalities and backgrounds, achieving true unity in the church can feel like an uphill battle. Many times there are divisions, disagreements, and these things are sometimes inevitable, but they can threaten the very fabric of a church family. So how do we navigate the complexities and cultivate a sense of unity within the church family? There is one key word and it is the theme of this book. It is the word forgiveness. I want you to remember that the book of Philemon is about forgiveness and we have been learning about forgiveness, what that is, what it’s not, why is it that some people forgive and others don’t, and why is it so difficult for us to forgive? Well, I wanna talk today about the motives for forgiveness. As the apostle is writing this letter, it is one of the shortest letters or books in the Bible, and the letter is suggesting that the apostle is writing it from being in prison or in chains, and he is trying to help Onesimus to understand his responsibility to be able to seek forgiveness from Philemon. And not only is he appealing to Onesimus to be a person who would own up to his sin, but to be willing to have Philemon come to that moment where he is willing to forgive Onesimus. Onesimus is a slave. In the Roman culture, as we have mentioned to you many times, slavery was pretty much a part of the culture. And I will address the issue of slavery and I will teach on that later, but I want you to just put that aside but understand the context of this letter, that as Onesimus was a slave, he had taken some money and property from Philemon and he ran away. Philemon is upset. He is frustrated. Onesimus, the runaway slave who had stolen money and property, runs into the apostle. Most likely, he got in trouble himself and was thrown into jail right next to the apostle Paul. Why was Paul in prison? Well, it was because he was preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so those who were hearing the apostle were upset that he was teaching the gospel, so they threw him into jail. Wherever the apostle went, it was either a great revival or there was a great riot. And unfortunately, many times, people were upset at the apostle for teaching the truth of Jesus Christ. So Onesimus and the apostle have met together and what does the apostle do? Rather than whining, complaining, and crying about his circumstances under the sovereign hand of God, Onesimus is encountering the apostle who is bold, who is grateful, who is full of joy, and who is ready to share Christ with this individual named Onesimus. And so in the process of sharing Christ with him in perhaps a very difficult circumstance, Onesimus responds to the gospel. He receives Jesus Christ as his savior. He repents of his sin and he turns away from the world and turns towards Christ and becomes a devoted follower. In this process, the apostle is discipling Onesimus and he learns about the fact that Onesimus had stolen property and money from Philemon. And so the apostle is saying, hey, part of the evidence of your repentance, part of the fruit of your true salvation is that you need to make it right with Philemon. And of course, Onesimus is like, there’s no way. He will probably have me killed or I will have to endure so much suffering if I ever went back. So the apostle begins to write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, this letter, this book, if you will, to Philemon. And he begins to make the case to Philemon that he should forgive Onesimus. Onesimus is a believer now. He is a follower of Christ. And what the apostle wants Philemon to do is to forgive Onesimus. In this, we learn some great principles about forgiveness. We learn how you and I, in all of our relationships, need to practice forgiveness. Now, refusing to forgive in your life will only imprison you. And when you choose that you will not forgive, you will be stuck in your past. And unforgiving people are always keeping their pain alive. And therefore, they are, as we have often heard, they are hurting people who are hurting people. And you sometimes wonder, what’s the matter with that person? What is it that makes them such a divisive person, a hateful person, a person who wants to hurt so many other people? What is it that causes them to throw nuclear bombs into our family and our relationships? I guarantee you it is because there are some unaddressed issues in their life, and they are holding on to some things in their heart that they have never got to the point where they have been able to forgive people in their life. Choosing not to forgive is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. But the truth is, within you, you are slowly and surely dying. So as we’ve been learning about forgiveness, we talked about the steps of forgiveness. Today, I wanna talk to you about the motivation for forgiveness. And I want you to follow along with me, take notes, because I know you don’t need it, but you have a friend that needs it, amen? And so make sure you tell your friend. And in the process of telling your friend, you may pick up a few things that will be a blessing to you. But the first reason that we should be a forgiving people is because we have an unpayable debt. Now, I want you to jump back with me to verse 19. And I want you to see the apostle says, I’m writing with my own hand. Now, why would the apostle say that? Many times, because of some of his physical challenges that he had, he had a lot of ailments with his eyes, and he talks about that in Galatians and the book of Colossians a little bit. But he would dictate his letters. And so there were those that would write that. But how passionate is the apostle about this? He is letting Philemon know, I am writing this with my own hand. You can trust what I’m saying, Philemon. I will repay. Not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. The apostle is introducing something that Philemon already understands. And that is that the apostle was saying, I will cover all that Philemon owes you. Onesimus was unable to repay Philemon. He could not pay him back. He did not have the means. He did not have the ability to pay him back. And so when you jump back to verse 18, look at verse 18 again, he says, if he has wronged you or owes you anything, the apostle says, put that on my account. I will repay. I’ll repay you. So he is, the apostle is taking responsibility for the debt that he owes, meaning not that the apostle owes, but what Onesimus owes to Philemon. Why would the apostle use these kind of terminologies? Because that’s what forgiveness is. It is a debt that we owe, meaning this, we offend somebody, we hurt somebody, we disappoint somebody, and we are in a sense indebted to them. And that’s what the Bible teaches us when we learn the Lord’s Prayer. We are taught to ask the Lord to forgive us of our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us, reminding us always that you cannot give what you do not have. If you are not consistently and constantly in prayer with the Lord under the fountain, receiving his forgiveness because of the debt that you owe to God, you will never be in a position to be able to be a forgiving person to others because you cannot give what you do not have. And if your forgiveness tank is low, then you need to get back to the Lord and recognize that you have an unpayable debt, just like Onesimus had an unpayable debt. He could never repay Philemon. So the apostle Paul steps in in a huge way, and he says, charge that to my account. And he says, I want you to know that I will repay you, Philemon. And this is so true in each of our hearts. And I want you to think a little bit deeper about forgiveness, because most of us, the reason that we do not forgive is because it’s based upon our emotions, it’s based upon our feelings. We’ve never engaged the mind in relating to learning how to forgive. We have this emotion, we have this feeling in our heart, and so we throw up the walls, and we begin to let that bitterness take root in our heart and to poison us, destroy us. But here the apostle teaches us that we need to think about this deeper. And we need to understand that when it comes to our relationship with God Almighty, that we are separated from God because of our sin. And we have a sentence upon us because of our sin, and that there isn’t any person who is under the sound of my voice that is worthy of God forgiving them. There is no person on this planet that can say, hey, I am such a great person, it’s no wonder that God would forgive me. Because the Bible teaches us very clearly that our righteousness is as filthy rags. That means simply this, that the best of Mike Sanders and the best of you is nothing more than a filthy rag in the presence of God. Now, you say, there’s no way, I’m so much better. Here’s the thing, you’re trying to compare your righteousness, your goodness, your acts of benevolence to the other acts of benevolence or righteousness. You’re comparing people with people. And you look around and you say, hey, I’m better than that person, and I know where they were, and I know what they do, and I know how they talk, and therefore you begin to pound your chest, and you’re like the man that Jesus talked about who went to the temple, and he was at the altar of God, and he looked up to heaven, and he looked across the altar, and he said, God, I’m glad I’m not like that person over there, and he began to brag about all that he did for God. He tithed, he helped the poor, he was engaged and active in the temple, but there was another guy across the altar who was on his knees, and he was so humbled and humiliated by his sins, he wouldn’t even look up to God. And he was praying for God to forgive him, and here’s what Jesus said, and this is what rocked the world of the Pharisees. He said, the man on his knees was more justified than the man standing bragging about how good he is before God. And what I want you to recognize at the heart of your motivation of forgiving others is the forgiveness that you have received from Jesus Christ. You have a debt, all of us do, I’m not just pointing fingers, all of us have a debt of sin that could never be repaid by ourselves. There isn’t enough goodness in your life, and there isn’t enough activity in your life that could ever forgive your sins before a holy and righteous God. It is Jesus who stood up for us. It is Jesus who stood in for us. It is Jesus who took our place. We should have been on that cross, and we should have endured that suffering, and the wrath of God should have been poured out upon us, but Jesus took our place, and he did it, why? Because he loves you, because he wants to reach you. What kind of love, if people doubt that God loves them, I tell them, get to the cross, because when you get to the cross, you see not only the holiness of God, but you see the love of God that he has, and the passion that he would give his very Son for you and for me, so that our sins could be forgiven. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus took on the debt of sinners, and he paid it full on the cross. Think about that. You see, that’s why I’m a big believer that once God forgives you of your sins, that he has taken care of the full debt. I don’t believe that I can come in and help God with the debt. I don’t believe that I can add and do anything better with the debt. I believe that Christ’s payment for my sin was more than sufficient on the cross. And my motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to pay back Jesus. My motivation for holiness is not that I’m trying to forever pay back God for my sins, but my motivation is an expression of gratitude to Jesus, and a gratitude to God that my sins have been washed away. And the Bible says that my sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more. Psalm 103, verse 12, as far as the east is from the west. Can God’s people say amen? Amen. So we are thankful today that Jesus triumphed over death, he triumphed over sin, he triumphed over Satan, and he reached out to me for salvation. And so my life is not a life of trying to pay back. That debt has been paid by Jesus Christ. Now this is profound because we must realize how fully we have been freed from our sin. We must realize how much God has done for us to wipe away the guilt and to shake off the shame and to leave behind all the negativity and the sinfulness in our life. And now God has given us a brand new start in Christ. And when you come to grips with that, that you have a debt that could never be paid apart from Jesus Christ, that becomes a motivation in your heart to forgive other people. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, and forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now the motive for forgiving sin is in the heart of God for who he is. And he forgives us not because any of us deserve it or that somehow we earned it, but he forgives us because he loves us. Now, here we are. And we are very much like the story that Jesus told. And he told about a man who was indebted to a king and this king demanded that he pay his debts. And the man went before the king, pleaded for forgiveness, asked for grace and asked him that he would forgive him of his debt. And the king generously, kindly, compassionately forgave this man of his debt. And then the man went out and he began to demand all the people that were indebted to him to pay up. And he was harsh, he was hateful, he was rude, and he refused to forgive anybody’s debt as people could not pay their debt to him. The word got to the king and the king was furious because this man had received so much, but gave so little. This man had received so much forgiveness in that his debt, which was greater than all that people owed him. And he was forgiven of that debt and his slate was wiped clean. And now he had a new start with the king, but he refused to do it to others. He refused to show forgiveness to others. Hear me, my friends, the king was angry and had this man thrown into prison because he would not show the kindness and the grace that the king had bestowed upon him. I need you to think deeper than your emotions about forgiveness. I need you to understand that when a debt is incurred, that we must remember when we are offended, when we are hurt, when we are disappointed, that we have a responsibility because of what we have received. That for two reasons of what we have received, we have received this forgiveness and therefore we have a responsibility to forgive others. And that when we choose to withhold that forgiveness, we are reflecting something that is untrue of our God. When you choose not to forgive, you are shaming the name of Jesus Christ who forgave you so much. You are now letting everybody know in your relationships and in your life that your God is not a forgiving God and that your God works on the basis of works and that you must earn your forgiveness with God. When you know in your heart that God has generously paid your debt, he has wiped it away, he has given you a brand new start, but yet what you’re projecting in all of your relationships, if you don’t live a perfect life, then I will have a bitter spirit towards you forever and ever. So our motive for forgiving others, it goes deeper than our feelings. We recognize that we have an unpayable debt. We recognize that people have an unpayable debt to us. There are times that people will hurt you, even in the family of God. There are times within the people of God that we are so deeply offended and hurt. Let me just give you a newsflash. Sometimes the people that are closest to you will hurt you the most. And the reason that they hurt so much and it’s the most is because you trust so much. Your heart is so open to fellow believers. And when that has been mishandled and when that has been hurt, the wound is deep. The psalmist talked about those who had betrayed him, that they even sat and ate bread with him. Those you’ve invited to your homes, those you’ve been to their homes, those you’ve opened your home to and you’ve sat down and you’ve fellowshiped with them and you have eaten with them, many times can hurt you the deepest because of your trust and because of your love and because of the openness of your heart. But yet you still have this responsibility to recognize that even though they could never repay the debt of the hurt that they have placed upon you, that in comparison to what God has done for you, in comparison to how much God has loved you, who are you to be out there ranting and raving and claiming your unwillingness to forgive anybody? It really strikes at the heart of your theology. It strikes at the heart of what you believe about your relationship with God. Now, some of you may have grown up in a relationship where the only way you were appreciated or that you were praised or you were acknowledged or encouraged was based upon performance. It was based upon what you did. But I want you to know that the Bible teaches us in the relationship because of Christ, in our relationship with God, because of Christ, we are accepted in the beloved. Even if we’ve made a mess of our life, even if we have made some bad choices in our life, we are accepted in the beloved. And you say, how can that be, my friends? That’s what Christ did on the cross. He took the pure wrath of God, the punishment of sin for you and for me right there on that cross so that God could receive you, He could accept you, and you would be in the family of God and have a brand new start in Jesus Christ. My second motivation for forgiving others is to make sure that I understand that it’s benefiting me and it’s benefiting others. Let’s look at verse 20. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. The apostle is appealing to Philemon to be forgiving to Onesimus for the purpose of benefiting or blessing not only Paul, certainly Onesimus, but Philemon himself. We taught you at the beginning of this series on forgiveness from the book of Philemon that Onesimus is a word that means to benefit or to be useful. So when the apostle, again, uses this word here in verse 20 and he says, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord and refresh in my heart, he is saying to him, I want you to live up to your name. I want you to live up to who you are and your character. How did the apostle know his character? Go back to verse seven of Philemon. Again, there it is. We have great joy, consolation, or encouragement in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. The apostle Paul makes his appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus and he is calling him to forgive Onesimus and the motive to forgive is not that Onesimus deserves it or that somehow there’ll be a special reward for Philemon, but rather our motivation to forgive others is rooted in that Christ has forgiven us. If we are unworthy of his forgiveness and yet God still forgave us, how much more should we forgive others? For we have offended God more than anyone has ever offended us. Let us cry out to God that he would grant us hearts that are motivated to forgive and that we understand the true reason behind forgiveness and I pray that you’ll be blessed and excited as you are growing in your faith. We encourage you to reach out to us and let us know how God is working in your life. Go to hopeworthhaving.com, hit the contact button, let us know what station you’re listening and let us know how God is working in your life. Let us know that God is doing something special. We are blessed and encouraged by these emails. So I hope you’ll reach out to us. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Motives for Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:8-18. Because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others. And the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family. And therefore I must learn as hard as it is to move forward in my faith and to forgive. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders. This is Hope Worth Having radio program. And I am glad to be able to share with you the word of God this morning. And I pray that God will work effectively in your life. Join us as we look at the book of Philemon. And we’re gonna continue our study in the steps of forgiveness. The book of Philemon is found in the New Testament. And I want you to join me as we study together. Being maybe a prisoner, like the apostle was a prisoner for preaching the gospel, for teaching the word of God. And now the apostle led him to Christ. And the apostle says, I want you to go back and make things right with Philemon. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him, to receive him back in to the fellowship. Now the apostle is not trying to get Philemon to perform the correct action on the outside. But he’s trying to awaken Philemon’s heart to understand what a good relationship is that is rooted in biblical love. Look at verse eight. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him back because of this great love that we’re to have. And he is making the case to him that Philemon, listen, Onesimus is a different person. He’s not that same person who took some of your money, who took some of your property. He’s not that same person. He’s had an encounter in which he has received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. Why is it that the apostle should receive Onesimus first because of repentance? He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. To Paul, Onesimus was a son in the faith. He came to Christ while Paul was a prisoner at Rome. Paul personally led him to Jesus Christ. And therefore he is saying because he has been willing to repent of his sins because he acknowledges them. The key principle for us as we are receiving others back into our life who maybe have hurt us, disappointed us, let us down is that when they take that step of repentance, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, as spouses, as parents, as children, we have this responsibility to recognize that God can change a heart. It’s easy to hold the past over someone, but when someone truly repents, that is repentance is turning away from your sin and turning towards Christ, we have that responsibility. And I know what you’re saying to me, this is very hard for me, pastor, but I want you to put your confidence and your trust in Jesus Christ. Now, the second reason is not only that he should receive him, but because of the transformation. By Lehman, truly was changed. The very fact that he would show up back into the church was proof that Onesimus had changed. Look at verse 11. He says, who was once, meaning Onesimus was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. The word Onesimus means useful. And really the apostle was making a play on words here because this word translated unprofitable and profitable could be useless and useful. Some translations of the Bible use those very words. In essence, what Paul is saying to them is that Onesimus, useful. Useful was formerly useless, but now useful is useful. God had his hand on Onesimus and he had a plan and he was calling him to be in a relationship with God. And once he made things right with God, now Paul says, you’re on this journey of making things right with others that you have hurt. Those you have taken advantage of, those you have let down, you have this responsibility. And Paul’s point to Philemon is that Onesimus has been radically transformed by the grace of God. You and I should never look down upon the transforming power of the grace of God. That we should always make that effort. Look at verse 17. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. The second step of forgiveness is restoration. We come down to verse 15 and he says, perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose. That you might receive him forever. Paul is trying to say, look, God is at work even in our hurts. God is at work even in our disappointments. When people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose. And maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your troubles are not without purpose. Your pain is within the scope of a sovereign God who has a plan. We are reminded of that great passage of scripture in Genesis about Joseph. You know the story so well, how he was betrayed by his own brothers, how he was forgotten in prison, how he was falsely accused and stories and lies were made up about him. He was thrown into prison. He was finally elevated by God because in his heart, he never let it destroy him. And his brothers came because they were in need. And he said to them, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. It’s not that God causes our pain. It’s not that God causes our horrible experiences and our tragedies and abuses that we might experience. But I want you to remember that even in all those circumstances, God can turn it around for his good. He can turn it around for his glory. He can create restoration in our hearts. We’ve been talking a lot these last few weeks about why should I forgive? Because a lot of people aren’t motivated to forgive. And I told you last week, your motivation to forgive begins with the cross. Jesus forgave you. You and I have offended Christ. We have sinned against God for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And because Christ gave his life and put no strings upon it, and he gave his life for us and he went to the cross and bore our sins and he took our punishment. And that if we’ll just simply repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we can have eternal life. Our sins can be washed away and we can experience the genuine forgiveness of God. But let me tell you two other reasons why you should forgive. Number one, to be set free from your past. You see Philemon was a Christian man who had been wronged and God was calling him to put it all behind him, forgive and move forward. The apostle put it like this, forgetting those things which are behind. Some of you are still stuck in your hurts, your griefs, your grudges. You’re still stuck and you can’t seem to move forward in your faith and you can’t seem to get to the next level in your maturity. And I’ll tell you why, because you’re looking back. Wherever you are looking is where you’re going. That’s not only true physically, but it is true spiritually. You say, but pastor, you don’t understand. And here’s my long list. I get it. And we all got our list. And I know that some are worse than others, but here’s my point. What are your options? You wanna continue to deteriorate spiritually? Do you wanna continue to go in a direction that you are not only personally struggling and limiting your spiritual life, but as well as others? You see, you have to make a choice because forgiveness is not a feeling that you float into. It is a choice that you make. Again, the apostle says in verse 14, without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion as it were, but voluntary. And let me tell you something about choosing to forgive. You don’t just choose once and then it’s done. Every time those emotions come back, every time that memory floods your mind, every time that you encounter that person, you have to make a choice by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the word of God, choosing to forgive that person and moving forward in your life. What is the alternative? Bitterness, anger, hate? You see, carrying around unforgiveness is like carrying a sack of cement all day long. If you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are walking around with a weight that God never intended for you to carry. Why should I forgive? I would say also to avoid bitterness. You see, the price of refusing to forgive is high. Unforgiveness produces hatred, bitterness and anger in your heart. The Hebrew writer said this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it, many become defiled. There’s a lot to unpack in this verse, but did you know, he says, make sure no one fails to obtain the grace of God. You wanna put a lid on the grace of God flowing in your life? Be bitter, be angry. He also says that the root of bitterness, you see, bitterness is something that can take root in your mind and your heart. And once it takes root into your heart and mind, it is hard to get it out. It’s like those weeds in your garden, in your lawn, those beautiful dandelions that have been popping up lately. Have you noticed those? I’ve come to say, I like dandelions. I can’t keep up with them, but you gotta go in there and root them out. Notice what he says, many become defiled. You see, it’s not just you. When you’re a bitter person, you’re impacting your children. You’re impacting your family, your grandchildren. You’re impacting your church family. When you become bitter, it’s contagious and it just begins to spread like wildfire and many become defiled all around you. As a matter of fact, some people will start saying, hey, I don’t wanna be around that person because all they do is vomit bitterness every time I talk to them. So it’s something we want to avoid. And the antidote to bitterness is forgiveness. Now let’s talk about restitution, my final point. I told you it’s gonna be short. Verse 17 and 18, these are the steps, not only that the one who is offended has to take, but the one who has done the offending. If then, verse 17, you count me as a partner, the apostle is saying, receive him as you would me, but if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Restitution is taught in the Old Testament, New Testament. If you and I have ever found ourselves offending someone, we have a responsibility to make it right and to create that opportunity of restitution. Sometimes that restitution is something physical, tangible, perhaps even financial. Maybe you destroyed somebody’s property accidentally or purposely, I don’t know, but you have a responsibility to not only apologize for it, but to restore it to do restitution. Paul was offering to step up in a big way. Onesimus, who had a troubled life, found himself in prison again. He had probably been stealing. He had probably been a thief. He had probably done many things that led him to be in prison. But then he encounters the apostle. The apostle shares the gospel with him and disciples him. His life is transformed by the grace of God. And now he’s saying, look, your next level of spiritual maturity is you gotta go back and make things right. And so in this process, knowing that Onesimus maybe did not have much financial means, Paul is saying to Philemon, I’m willing to help him make it right. Put that on my account. It’s a beautiful picture because really the apostle was following the example of Jesus Christ who reconciled sinners to him and to God. And Jesus said, put that on my account. And friends, that’s where we have to remember is that we have been forgiven to forgive. Is there any sin that you and I have committed that was greater against God Almighty? Is there any sin that we can say, hey God, would you forgive me for all my sins? But God says, I’m only gonna forgive you for 90% of them. No, we are called to forgive one another. We are to understand the great example of our Savior. Now, let me just conclude with these thoughts, the danger of unforgiveness. There’s a lot, but I just want to give you two because of time. And the first danger is that if you choose not to forgive, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. The Bible says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. The devil would like to get a foothold in your life. He would like to destroy your life, your family’s life. He would like to break up your family. He would like to see it all crumble. He does not want the community, the church, your family to see the effective work of God’s grace in your heart as well as your family. He wants to blow it up. The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be angry because certainly there are things that we can be angry about because we are people and we are emotional, but we can’t let it lead us to sin. The question is not are you angry, but what are you doing with your anger? Are you channeling it in a godly way, in a positive way, in a biblical way that motivates you? To be a better Christian and a better follower of Christ and a better husband and a better wife and a better child or a better parent, whatever the relationship may be. Are you letting the sun go down? Are you going to bed every night filled with anger and bitterness in your heart, holding onto the past and becoming even more angry as you go through life? Are you building walls, separating yourself? That’s the danger of unforgiveness. Another one is hindering your fellowship with God. That’s the second danger. You see, when my heart is filled with so much junk and stuff, then it limits my fellowship with God. It limits my connection with God. It limits my opportunity to experience the presence of God in my life and the power of God in my life. It puts a lid on my prayer life. That’s why Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we ought to pray, that we ought to pray that God would forgive us of our debts and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us. I mean, you can’t go long and far in life without being hurt and offended and upset, right? When our new members join our church, I always remind them, if you’re expecting to come to a perfect church, you’re at the wrong place. If you’re expecting a perfect pastor, staff, elders, deacons, and those who have served here, then you’re at the wrong place because somewhere down this journey, we will offend you. Some of it is most likely unintentionally, but you’re gonna get upset. You’re gonna get upset. And the question is, how are you going to let that affect your fellowship with God? Now, people say, pastor, it’s just so hard. I get it. It’s a process. It’s steps. It’s a journey. And you keep moving forward. And I think the reason some people have a hard time to forgive, and I want you to hear me because this is so important to your steps to forgiveness, is that they confuse forgiveness with trust. And that is, yes, there are people who are abusive. There are people who have done said things that it’s just hard to forgive. I’m not asking you to trust them again. I would never, if a young lady came to me and said she’s in an abusive relationship, my first goal is to get her out. I wanna protect her. If there’s any children, I wanna protect the children. I would never say go back into that abusive relationship and continue the abuse. I would never say that, but I would wanna counsel them both. And I would want to lead her, no matter what the relationship ends up being, is for her to learn to forgive. But I would say to her, it doesn’t mean you have to trust. And if you could learn that, that because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others. And the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family. And therefore I must learn as hard as it is to move forward in my faith and to forgive. But it’s okay. There’s nothing in the Bible I’ve been looking that says trust is earned and forgiveness is a gift. And we see this over and over again. And I’ll give you a quick example and then we’ll close. Is that if I came to you and I said, hey, I’d like for you to loan me $500. Could you loan me $500? I mean, there’s this great opportunity for me to go golfing in Myrtle Beach. And if I could just get that $500, I’m just 500 short. I know you gotta have more than 500 to go down there. But, and you said, all right, I’ll give the pastor $500. And you said to me, pay me back in a year, Mike. I said, gotcha. A year passes, I haven’t paid you. You’ve been texting me like crazy. You’ve been calling, I don’t answer your calls. You finally sent a certified letter and say, hello, you owe me $500. And I begrudgingly tell you that I can’t do it. I can’t give you the 500. You’re tired of messing with it. So you say, you know what, pastor, I’m just gonna forgive you of that debt. I’m gonna say, thank you so much. Oh, by the way, there’s another trip to Myrtle Beach. And I was just wondering if you’d loan me another 500. You see, you can forgive me for the past, but you don’t have to necessarily trust me for the future. And that would help you because it would help you be spiritually healthy and it would help you to take positive steps. And if I would come down later in our relationship and our friendship, and I would once again, earn that trust that you could trust me again, great. But just because you forgave me, doesn’t mean you have to trust me again and slap over 500 more dollars. So it is true in your emotional life, your spiritual life. And I wanna encourage you to remember that the apostle is not saying to Philemon, put him in charge of all your money again, put him in charge of your household again. He’s just saying, receive him as a brother in Christ and forgive him so he can continue to make things right with others. Just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Would you pray with me? Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. And at the Open Door Church, we always feel like this moment is the most critical and important because it’s our response to the gospel. It’s our response to the word. In these few short moments, while our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, if you’re here this morning and there’s someone you need to forgive, would you make a commitment in your heart to start down that journey of forgiveness? If there’s someone you need to make things right with, you have hurt, you have let down. Maybe things will never be quite the same as it once was, but you failed. And maybe you need to make that call, that email or that text. You need to reach out to them and start that journey of restitution. Would you commit right now in your heart to take those steps? What’s so ironic about forgiveness is you can’t give what you don’t have. And if you’re a person who has never received the forgiveness of Christ, we invite you this morning to acknowledge that you’re a sinner in need of a Savior and to recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. Out of great love, He is offering salvation, eternal life and forgiveness. But you’ve got to have that courage and you’ve got to take that step and say, Lord, I acknowledge it because you can’t change what you won’t acknowledge. And Lord, I ask you to forgive me of my sins. You got to believe that He went to that cross for you. You got to call on Him in your heart for it is with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I pray that this will be the beginning of a new journey for you. And like Onesimus, you would receive the gospel, receive the forgiveness of God, that you would look to the cross and see the incredible love that Jesus has for you and that you would turn your heart towards Him. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for the powerful principles of forgiveness and your word. And we just ask God that you will effectively work within us because we understand Lord that life can be messy and relationships are difficult. But we’re praying for your grace and your forgiveness. And we’re asking Lord that you would grant us the wisdom the courage, the power to come to you and make things right and to go to others. We pray Father that we would be a channel of your forgiveness in our hearts to others. We know it’s hard and we know people have been in some very hard situations, but I pray that you would just wash them with your mercy, uphold them with your loving kindness, that you would embrace them with your grace and that they can move forward for your glory and for their good. And we pray all this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. The gospel can not only change our broken relationship with God, but it changes and heals our broken relationships with one another. That’s the power of the gospel. And that’s what the Apostle Paul’s appeal is as he is inviting us to be able to practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is not something that you feel. You never wake up saying, I feel like forgiving today. But forgiveness is a choice you make based upon the truths and promises of God. And sometimes we take steps and choose what is right, even though we don’t feel it. Some of you are waiting for that feeling. It’s never going to come until you first choose the path and the steps of forgiveness. May God bless you and grant you the gift and the blessing and ability to have a forgiving heart. I want you to know that in order for us to nurture this forgiving heart, we have some daily devotions. And you can sign up for Pastor Mike’s daily devotion to come right to your email box. Go to hopeworthhaving.com and just sign up for the devotions. Click the devotion button and you can sign up for a daily inspirational lesson on how to stay close to Christ and to grow in your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Steps of Forgiveness Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:8-18. Even in our hurts, God is at work. Even in our disappointments, when people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose. And maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that, A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from The Open Door Church, and we’re excited to be able to share God’s Word with you today. And thankful for the opportunity to open the Bible up. Thank you for tuning in. And we’re continuing our study on forgiveness in the book of Philemon, and we’re going to learn about the steps of forgiveness. So join me as we study together. I want you to take your Bible this morning to Philemon. Now, Philemon’s a tough little book in the Bible. It’s tucked in there. It’s hard to find it. It’s in the New Testament. It’s right before the book of Hebrews. If you go to the book of Revelation and kind of just back up, you’ll run into Philemon. Be careful, because if you’re like me, sometimes my pages get stuck, and there I am. I missed over Philemon. Last week, our church family started a new study on forgiveness. The book of Philemon is a book about forgiveness. This morning, I want to talk to you about the steps of forgiveness. I won’t be able to drill down deep, but I want to give you some guidelines that will help us as we’re working towards forgiveness. There are no enduring relationships without forgiveness. There’s no way that you can be a part of an organization, an institution, or even a relationship with your spouse, your church, your family, without forgiveness. If you haven’t noticed, people are flawed. If you haven’t noticed, we sometimes fail each other. Sometimes we’re not all that we should be. And so this idea, this thought, this principle of forgiveness is something that is essential to our spiritual health. When we come to Philemon, we know that it is an overview of a letter that was written to the man named Philemon. He was a slave owner. I told the church that I will address that issue. I won’t be able to today. It would be just too complicated, but I want you at least to understand its context. Onesimus escaped. He ran away. In part of his leaving, he was most likely in charge of finances. He had some responsibility of taking care of the estate and the home and the house. But Onesimus had taken some finances. He had taken some property, and Philemon was very upset with him. And so the apostle Paul writes this letter to Philemon and saying, hey, look, I want you to forgive him. And he lays out for us some steps that help us in our relationships with one another to help us to achieve that beautiful picture of forgiveness, not only in that we have with each other, but with the forgiveness we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ. And the first principle is that he teaches is called reception. I want you to pick up with me in verse 8 and notice that the Scripture says, Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I’m sending him back. You therefore receive him that is my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel, but without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. Again in verse 17 he says, If you then count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. Onesimus had an encounter with the apostle. Most likely somehow he ended up being maybe a prisoner like the apostle was a prisoner for preaching the gospel, for teaching the word of God. And now the apostle led him to Christ. And the apostle says, I want you to go back and make things right with Philemon. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him, to receive him back into the fellowship. Now the apostle is not trying to get Philemon to perform the correct action on the outside, but he’s trying to awaken Philemon’s heart to understand what a good relationship is that is rooted in biblical love. Look at verse 8. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you, what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you. The apostle is asking Philemon to receive him back because of this great love that we’re to have. And he is making the case to him that Philemon, listen, Onesimus is a different person. He’s not that same person who took some of your money, who took some of your property. He’s not that same person. He’s had an encounter in which he has received the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. Why is it that the apostle should receive Onesimus? First, because of repentance. He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. To Paul, Onesimus was a son in the faith. He came to Christ while Paul was a prisoner at Rome. Paul personally led him to Jesus Christ, and therefore he is saying because he has been willing to repent of his sins, because he acknowledges them, the key principle for us as we are receiving others back into our life who maybe have hurt us, disappointed us, let us down, is that when they take that step of repentance, we as brothers and sisters in Christ, as spouses, as parents, as children, we have this responsibility to recognize that God can change a heart. It’s easy to hold the past over someone, but when someone truly repents, that is repentance is turning away from your sin and turning towards Christ, we have that responsibility. And I know what you’re saying to me. This is very hard for me, pastor. But I want you to put your confidence and your trust in Jesus Christ. Now, the second reason is not only that he should receive him, but because of the transformation. Bileamon truly was changed. The very fact that he would show up back into the church was proof that Onesimus had changed. Look at verse 11. He says, who was once, meaning Onesimus was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. The word Onesimus means useful. And really, the apostle is making a play on words here because this word translated unprofitable and profitable could be useless and useful. Some translations of the Bible use those very words. In essence, what Paul is saying to them is that Onesimus, useful, useful was formerly useless, but now useful is useful. God had his hand on Onesimus and he had a plan and he was calling him to be in a relationship with God. And once he made things right with God, now Paul says you’re on this journey of making things right with others that you have hurt, those you have taken advantage of, those you have let down. You have this responsibility. And Paul’s point to Philemon is that Onesimus has been radically transformed by the grace of God. You and I should never look down upon the transforming power of the grace of God, that we should always make that effort. Look at verse 17. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. The second step of forgiveness is restoration. We come down to verse 15 and he says, perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever. Paul is trying to say, look, God is at work even in our hurts. God is at work even in our disappointments. When people have let us down, God is using that for a purpose and maybe that God allowed all this to unfold with Onesimus so that A, Onesimus would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your troubles are not without purpose. Your pain is within the scope of a sovereign God who has a plan. We are reminded of that great passage of Scripture in Genesis about Joseph. You know the story so well, how he was betrayed by his own brothers, how he was forgotten in prison, how he was falsely accused and stories and lies were made up about him. He was thrown into prison. He was finally elevated by God because in his heart, he never let it destroy him. And his brothers came because they were in need. And he said to them, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive. It’s not that God causes our pain. It’s not that God causes our horrible experiences and our tragedies and abuses that we might experience, but I want you to remember that even in all those circumstances, God can turn it around for his good. He can turn it around for his glory. He can create restoration in our hearts. We’ve been talking a lot these last few weeks about why should I forgive? Because a lot of people aren’t motivated to forgive. And I told you last week, your motivation to forgive begins with the cross. Jesus forgave you. You and I have offended Christ. We have sinned against God. For all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. And because Christ gave his life and put no strings upon it, and he gave his life for us, and he went to the cross and bore our sins, and he took our punishment, and that if we’ll just simply repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we can have eternal life. Our sins can be washed away and we can experience the genuine forgiveness of God. But let me tell you two other reasons why you should forgive. Number one, to be set free from your past. You see, Philemon was a Christian man who had been wronged, and God was calling him to put it all behind him, forgive and move forward. The apostle put it like this, forgetting those things which are behind. Some of you are still stuck in your hurts, your griefs, your grudges. You’re still stuck and you can’t seem to move forward in your faith and you can’t seem to get to the next level in your maturity, and I’ll tell you why, because you’re looking back. Wherever you are looking is where you’re going. That’s not only true physically, but it is true spiritually. You say, but pastor, you don’t understand, and here’s my long list. I get it, and we all got our list, and I know that some are worse than others, but here’s my point. What are your options? You wanna continue to deteriorate spiritually? Do you wanna continue to go in a direction that you are not only personally struggling and limiting your spiritual life, but as well as others? You see, you have to make a choice because forgiveness is not a feeling that you float into. It is a choice that you make. Again, the apostle says in verse 14, without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. Let me tell you something about choosing to forgive. You don’t just choose once, and then it’s done. Every time those emotions come back, every time that memory floods your mind, every time that you encounter that person, you have to make a choice by the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the word of God, choosing to forgive that person and moving forward in your life. What is the alternative? Bitterness, anger, hate? You see, carrying around unforgiveness is like carrying a sack of cement all day long. If you hold unforgiveness in your heart, you are walking around with a weight that God never intended for you to carry. Why should I forgive? I would say also to avoid bitterness. You see, the price of refusing to forgive is high. Unforgiveness produces hatred, bitterness, and anger in your heart. The Hebrew writer said this, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. There’s a lot to unpack in this verse, but did you note he says, make sure no one fails to obtain the grace of God. You wanna put a lid on the grace of God flowing in your life? Be bitter, be angry. He also says that the root of bitterness, you see, bitterness is something that can take root in your mind and your heart. And once it takes root into your heart and mind, it is hard to get it out. It’s like those weeds in your garden, in your lawn, those beautiful dandelions that have been popping up lately. Have you noticed those? I’ve come to say I like dandelions. I can’t keep up with them, but you gotta go in there and root them out. Notice what he says, many become defiled. You see, it’s not just you. When you’re a bitter person, you’re impacting your children. You’re impacting your family, your grandchildren. You’re impacting your church family. When you become bitter, it’s contagious and it just begins to spread like wildfire and many become defiled all around you. As a matter of fact, some people will start saying, hey, I don’t wanna be around that person because all they do is vomit bitterness every time I talk to them. So it’s something we want to avoid and the antidote to bitterness is forgiveness. Now let’s talk about restitution, my final point. I told you it was gonna be short. Verse 17 and 18, these are the steps, not only that the one who is offended has to take, but the one who has done the offending. If then, verse 17, you count me as a partner, the apostle is saying, receive him as you would me, but if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Restitution is taught in the Old Testament, New Testament. If you and I have ever found ourselves offending someone, we have a responsibility to make it right and to create that opportunity of restitution. Sometimes that restitution is something physical, tangible, perhaps even financial. Maybe you destroyed somebody’s property accidentally or purposely, I don’t know, but you have a responsibility to not only apologize for it, but to restore it to do restitution. Paul was offering to step up in a big way. Onesimus, who had a troubled life, found himself in prison again. He had probably been stealing. He had probably been a thief. He had probably done many things that led him to be in prison. But then he encounters the apostle. The apostle shares the gospel with him and disciples him. His life is transformed by the grace of God. And now he’s saying, look, your next level of spiritual maturity is you gotta go back and make things right. And so in this process, knowing that Onesimus maybe did not have much financial means, Paul is saying to Philemon, I’m willing to help him make it right. Put that on my account. It’s a beautiful picture because really the apostle was following the example of Jesus Christ who reconciled sinners to him and to God. And Jesus said, put that on my account. And friends, that’s where we have to remember is that we have been forgiven to forgive. Is there any sin that you and I have committed that was greater against God Almighty? Is there any sin that we can say, hey God, would you forgive me for all my sins? But God says, I’m only gonna forgive you for 90% of them. No, we are called to forgive one another. We are to understand the great example of our Savior. Now, let me just conclude with these thoughts, the danger of unforgiveness. There’s a lot, but I just wanted to give you two because of time. And the first danger is that if you choose not to forgive, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. The Bible says, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. The devil would like to get a foothold in your life. He would like to destroy your life, your family’s life. He would like to break up your family. He would like to see it all crumble. He does not want the community, the church, your family to see the effective work of God’s grace in your heart as well as your family. He wants to blow it up. The Bible doesn’t tell us we can’t be angry because certainly there are things that we can be angry about because we are people and we are emotional, but we can’t let it lead us to sin. The question is not are you angry, but what are you doing with your anger? Are you channeling it in a godly way, in a positive way, in a biblical way that motivates you to be a better Christian and a better follower of Christ and a better husband and a better wife and a better child or a better parent, whatever the relationship may be? Are you letting the sun go down? Are you going to bed every night filled with anger and bitterness in your heart, holding on to the past and becoming even more angry as you go through life? Are you building walls, separating yourself? That’s the danger of unforgiveness. Another one is hindering your fellowship with God. That’s the second danger. You see, when my heart is filled with so much junk and stuff, then it limits my fellowship with God. It limits my connection with God. It limits my opportunity to experience the presence of God in my life and the power of God in my life. It puts a lid on my prayer life. That’s why Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer that we ought to pray, that we ought to pray that God would forgive us of our debts and that we would forgive those who are indebted to us. I mean, you can’t go long and far in life without being hurt and offended and upset, right? When our new members join our church, I always remind them, if you’re expecting to come to a perfect church, you’re at the wrong place. If you’re expecting a perfect pastor, staff, elders, deacons, and those who have served here, then you’re at the wrong place because somewhere down this journey, we will offend you. Some of it is most likely unintentionally, but you’re gonna get upset. You’re gonna get upset, and the question is, how are you going to let that affect your fellowship with God? Now, people say, Pastor, it’s just so hard. I get it. It’s a process. It’s steps. It’s a journey, and you keep moving forward. And I think the reason some people have a hard time to forgive, and I want you to hear me because this is so important to your steps to forgiveness, is that they confuse forgiveness with trust, and that is, yes, there are people who are abusive. There are people who have done said things that it’s just hard to forgive. I’m not asking you to trust them again. I would never, if a young lady came to me and said she’s in an abusive relationship, my first goal is to get her out. I want to protect her. If there’s any children, I want to protect the children. I would never say go back into that abusive relationship and continue the abuse. I would never say that, but I would want to counsel them both, and I would want to lead her, no matter what the relationship ends up being, is for her to learn to forgive, but I would say to her, it doesn’t mean you have to trust, and if you could learn that, that because God has forgiven you, that I must forgive others, and the options and the alternatives of not forgiving are destructive to my own self and my own family, and therefore I must learn, as hard as it is, to move forward in my faith and to forgive, but it’s okay. There’s nothing in the Bible, I’ve been looking, that says trust those. Trust is earned, and forgiveness is a gift, and we see this over and over again, and I’ll give you a quick example, and then we’ll close, is that if I came to you and I said, hey, I’d like for you to loan me $500. Could you loan me $500? I mean, there’s this great opportunity for me to go golfing in Myrtle Beach, and if I could just get that $500. I’m just 500 short. I know you gotta have more than 500 to go down there, but, and you said, all right, I’ll give the pastor $500, and you said to me, pay me back in a year, Mike. I said, gotcha. A year passes, I haven’t paid you. You’ve been texting me like crazy. You’ve been calling. I don’t answer your calls. You finally sent a certified letter and say, hello. You owe me $500, and I begrudgingly tell you that I can’t do it. I can’t give you the 500. You’re tired of messing with it, so you say, you know what, pastor, I’m just gonna forgive you of that debt. I’m gonna say, thank you so much. Oh, by the way, there’s another trip to Myrtle Beach, and I was just wondering if you’d loan me another 500. You see, you can forgive me for the past, but you don’t have to necessarily trust me for the future, and that would help you because it would help you be spiritually healthy, and it would help you to take positive steps, and if I would come down later in our relationship and our friendship, and I would once again earn that trust that you could trust me again, great, but just because you forgave me doesn’t mean you have to trust me again and slap over 500 more dollars. So it is true in your emotional life, your spiritual life. I wanna encourage you to remember that the apostle is not saying to Philemon, put him in charge of all your money again. Put him in charge of your household again. He’s just saying receive him as a brother in Christ and forgive him so he can continue to make things right with others just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Would you pray with me? When we think about the steps of forgiveness, it’s critical for us to recognize forgiveness is a gift. It is not something that we require others to earn from us, and God does not require you to earn his forgiveness, but by faith you receive it, and the grace of God is extended to you. So as you’re on this journey of forgiveness as God is teaching you to be a forgiving person, remember there are many reasons why we shouldn’t forgive, and we don’t deny that some of them are legitimate, but forgiveness is not earned. It is a gift given. As you think about your opportunity to learn more about forgiveness, make sure you check us out on our Facebook page, and in this page we have many opportunities for you to learn about principles of forgiveness. Hope Worth Having is the name of our Facebook page. Go ahead and pull it up and like us, and be a part of following our page as we continue to give you daily inspiration to help you to be faithful in your walk with Jesus Christ. This is Pastor Mike Sanders, reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Steps of Forgiveness Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:1-7. True faith expresses itself in love, and not just in my love for God, but remember that Jesus taught us that the second commandment is like unto it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and we’re excited to share God’s Word with you today all the way from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. This is Hope Worth Having. Thank you for tuning in. We’re continuing our study on the characteristics of a forgiving person. We’re in the book of Philemon. This is the New Testament, a very small letter that the apostle wrote, but a powerful message. So join me as we study together. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. How do I know that my faith is real? You’re going to truly want to love God. You can’t get enough of Jesus, that your love for Him is not only intense, but it is passionate, and you long to please Him. You long to spend time with Him. You understand that God is calling you to love. When you read 1 John, when people come to me and they say, I’m not sure that I’m a believer, I’m not sure that I truly have the assurance of my salvation, I encourage them to take time to read through 1 John. And why would I tell them that? Because 1 John is really summed up like this, in that God is constantly challenging us to love Him and not to love the world. We’re commanded many times to not love the world, not love the things of the world. And you see the direction of your heart is a reflection of your heart. It’s not that you’re perfect. It’s not that you’ve got everything figured out. And it’s not that you even have all the answers. But the question you have to ask yourself, what is the direction of my heart? Is it a heart that loves God? Is it a heart that desires to please God and to serve God? This is the manifestation that you are a true disciple of God. Now, I also want you to see the second characteristic of a forgiving person. It is not only that they have a passion to please the Lord, but they have a passion to be patient with God’s people. I know some of you are saying, check, I got the first one, pastor. But this second one, I’m going to really struggle with. Hey, I want you to know I’m right there. Remember that, you know, I have to go through all this, putting this together. It’s torturous sometimes, putting a sermon together because God is, you know, attacking me. He’s working on Mike. Long before I come before you and have to present these wonderful truths that are in the Word of God, I’ve been wrestling with them. Some people say, what’s wrong with the pastor? Well, it may be that he’s under the heavy weight of conviction of the Word of God. It’s not that I don’t like you. It’s just that God has been working on my own heart. And I got to be ready and I got to be prepared personally to stand before you. But here is this second point that I want to bring to your attention about Philemon, is that he was a person who was patient with God’s people. The apostle brings this to our attention. And I want you to see up on the screen how I asked them to put it up there, because remember the apostle said, I’m hearing of your love. And it wasn’t just his love for God, but it was a love towards all the saints, not just the ones that are nice to him, not just the ones that work with him, not just the ones that cooperate with him, that Philemon is a leader in the church and he had a love. It was well known that he had a love towards all the saints and that the sharing of your faith may become effectively by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Wow. That’s a lot to think about. But let’s break this down. In order for me to be patient with God’s people, I first, just like my relationship with God, I have to have a love for people. True faith expresses itself in love and not just in my love for God, which rightly so. And we are called to love God and this is where it begins. But remember that Jesus taught us that the second commandment is like unto it, that you would love your neighbor as yourself. Now some people like to run around and say, I’m in love with myself. It’s very obvious to us that you love yourself, but that’s not what Jesus was teaching. He was not saying that you should be in love with who you are and how great you are and how wonderful you are and what an amazing person you are. And I know your grandparents have been telling you ever since you came into this world, how wonderful and amazing you are. But friends, Jesus wants us to understand that when we love someone like ourself, that what he is saying that just as we care for ourself, as we make sure that our hair is combed, well at least most of us do, or we make sure that we’re clean or we make sure that we’re clothed, we’re making sure that we’re fed the basics and necessities of life, that the way you love your neighbor is to help care for them. That the way you care for yourself is how you care for others. That you might say to yourself, well, I mean, my neighbor’s doing better than me, Mike. And again, Jesus was asked the question, who is my neighbor? As if we did not know. But Jesus clarified that our neighbor is not the person who in America lives in the next lot next to us, but our neighbor is whoever is in need. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan and how there was this great need and this Good Samaritan was attacked by thieves and robbers and he was left there for dead and that it was the responsibility of us to take care of each other. And so whoever is in need is your neighbor, is the one you are to show love to. And so that’s how we define it and that’s how we understand it. And within the family of God, we are to love one another. And this shows that our faith is real. First John 3.14, remember, all throughout first John, John is bringing up our love and our hate. He’s telling us that we are to love God, hate the world in the sense of its system and the things that are destructive to our life. And he says in first John 3.14, we know that we have passed from death to life, meaning spiritual life. We know we’ve passed from spiritual death to spiritual life because we have what church or who he who does not love his brother abides in death. Now don’t be mad at the pastor because I’m just quoting the Bible, hard to process. And that’s why when we think about being patient with God’s people, we’re called to show that patience by loving them where they’re at. I’ll put it to you like this. My wife says to me sometimes, Mike, I love you, but I don’t always like you. Isn’t it hard to believe somebody wouldn’t like me? I’m just teasing. Pull yourself together, church. But what I want you to know that as we’re being patient with one another, there are times we may not like what they do or say, and we may not like their place in space that they’re at in their life. We may not always agree with them, and we certainly may not always affirm what they’re doing or not doing. But we always have an unconditional love, and we are patient with them. Are you with me, church? I know some of you might be struggling, but I want you to know in order to be patient with God’s people, you have to have this kind of a love for people. And I promise you, as I was stating earlier, I don’t even know if I finished the thought, but yes, we’re all going to offend each other. Yes, we’re all going to disappoint each other. Yes, we’re humans, and we fail each other. It’s part of life. Sometimes my children, when they were little, would say, that’s not fair, and I would just say, welcome to life. Let me give you a hug. Welcome to life. There’s a lot of injustices in this world. And yes, you may come to church, and somebody might say to you, I don’t like your haircut. And you say, no one would ever say that. Yeah, they say it to me often. And I just tell them, look, I’m just trying to hang on with what I got, amen? But what am I going to do? Am I going to have a meltdown? Am I going to cry? Am I going to kick and scream because somebody doesn’t like Pastor Mike’s hair? Hey, I don’t like Pastor Mike’s hair, amen? You know what I’m saying? I didn’t want to come in here and all plugged up on my head with new crops of hair. And you say, what happened to the pastor? It just keeps falling out. I want to tell you a story that’s funny, and it really doesn’t have anything to do with this sermon, but it just popped in my head. But I remember when my daughter was a senior at CVCS, and she was getting ready to head off to Davis College. I announced to my family I was going to shave my head. And my daughter said, Dad, please don’t do it till I get out of town and go to college. So I just remembered that. But anyways, isn’t that funny? So if we’re going to be patient, we got to love. But here’s another one. We got to share. Did you see that in the text there? Did you note what the apostle said in verse 6? Now, this is that very popular Greek word that we often have learned about, koinonia, which means to fellowship. It means to share. It means to partner with. The King James translates this as communicate. You know, that’s what it meant back in the old English. But now it means to share, to partner, to fellowship. And what I’m trying to teach you this morning is that we have to recognize that in the family of God, we’re called to share in this faith, share in this love, share in this common life as believers, this spiritual life, that we are mutual partners in the family of faith, and that we recognize in the family of God, there are people at different spaces. And maturity, and they are at different levels of their faith. Now think about this in your own family. There may have been times that you had a child that was elementary child, and you had another child that was in diapers. There are some of you that you have children that are teenagers, and then, rut-row, you got a new baby coming. And your expectations of the teenager were certainly different than your expectation of the little baby in diapers. And sometimes that could have caused friction in the church because they felt like you’re giving too much attention to the family, and you felt they were giving too much attention, not enough attention to the teenager. These things happen because we’re just trying to do life, and we’re just trying to keep our head above water. Can God’s people say amen? It happens in the church. Some of you, like one lady told me this week, she said, Pastor, I’m independent. She said, I really don’t need you. And she meant it in a positive way. She’s just independent. She’s not going to call me every second. And then I got some members in my church that call all the time. I remember when I first came to the Open Door Church, I won’t tell you the name or anything like that, but this person was calling me every day, talking to me, and it just would never be quiet. And every time I tried to interrupt them, they just talked right over my interruption. And one day they called me, and I was playing a video game with my boys, and we were playing, and I was losing, and this was important, and I had to beat my boys because this was the last threshold of what I had that I could actually beat them in. My very fatherhood and manhood was on the line. And this person called, and I tried to get them to, hey, let’s work on this later, and you know, and all that, and they wouldn’t stop talking. So I just put the phone down, finished the video game, won the game, picked it back up, and they were still going a mile a minute. It was awesome. Now, we got to learn to be patient with people, church. Some members are at different spaces. They have more needs. They’re maybe still working on some things in their life. Others of you, man, you’ve been walking with Jesus forever. You got it. You don’t have to always call the pastor. You don’t always have to have someone help you with this or that. When I first got saved, I feel bad because I was always calling my pastor, and I’d read the Bible, and I’d say, what does that mean? And I’d pick up the phone, and I’d call my pastor. Some of you don’t need that. Some of you do. It’s okay. We’re patient with one another. Sometimes we handle things great, and sometimes we don’t handle things great. But because we love one another and because we’re sharing in the fellowship with one another and because we’re sharing in the partnership and in the belonging to one another, we are patient with one another. Not only does Paul teach us that we should love and share, but we should have knowledge. Look again at the text. He says, by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. These things were true in the life of Philemon. He was a man who had the knowledge of God’s will. He had the knowledge of God’s word. He had the knowledge of God’s truth. We know that Philemon was a leader in the church of Colossae. Certainly, he could probably recall the words of the apostle in Colossians 1-9 when he said, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. God wants us to be maturing. He wants us to grow in the knowledge of who God is and the knowledge of his word and the knowledge of his will. When I first began pastoring, there were things that upset me and bothered me that today I’m like it’s no big deal. How does that happen? You grow, you learn, you experience, you understand, you learn not to make every molehill into a mountain. You learn how to handle things. You understand that sometimes people have different personalities and some people say things one way and other people might say it a different way. But you learn in this knowledge, this knowledge of God’s will, his word, his truth, his way, this knowledge that is imparted unto you as you are maturing in your faith. And so church, I want you to recognize in order for me and you to be patient with each other, you got to have a knowledge of the word of God. You got to have a knowledge of each other. You got to understand. I know how some of you are. I know as soon as I walk up to you, how you’re going to respond. I know how you’re going to handle things. I already know some of you are very excitable that as soon as there is a little ant crawling next to you in your pew, you are going to get very excitable and you’re going to start screaming and yelling, there’s a bug, there’s a bug, somebody get the bug. And I know others of you are just going to reach over and you’re going to step on it with your foot. And nobody’s ever going to know that that poor ant met its demise at the open door church. Everybody is different. They’re different. But we have this knowledge that helps us to be patient, that is effectively working in us as we are maturing and growing in the Lord. So we said, if we’re going to be forgiving people, we have to have the characteristic of making sure that we have a passion for pleasing the Lord and a passion to be patient with God’s people. But thirdly, a passion to provide for God’s people. We come down to verse seven and very quickly we’ll walk through this and we’ll see here some things that are true about Philemon. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. So this is what he’s saying, is that Philemon being a leader in the church, he wanted to minister to the people. They may be at different levels of their maturity. They may be at different places in their walk with God, but he still had a passion to provide for them. Let me give you three things that people need. Three things that people need, and I don’t want you to ever forget this, this is not only true in your home, but it’s true in your relationships at the church. First of all, people need appreciation. They need appreciation. We go back and we see that the Apostle Paul in verse four, he said, I thank my God, mentioning of you always in my prayers. The Apostle Paul was a man who appreciated Philemon, but he also recognized that Philemon was a person who was astute to the needs of the people of God. That you and I are called to develop an attitude of gratitude for every person in this church family. If you wake up every day and you want to identify all of our weaknesses, my friends, the list is long, and let me give you a couple more that you forgot. It’s easy for a spouse to find fault with their other spouse. It’s easy for parents to rag on their children. It’s easy for us to come here as members and find fault with everything in this ministry. It’s true, my friends, I agree with you. Somebody forgot to put toilet paper in the bathroom. Well, that happened to me when I first came to the open door church, a lady came up to me and she was frantic. And she said, Pastor Mike, there is no toilet paper in the church bathroom. What are we going to do? Now, friends, I just got here, honestly. I didn’t even know who ordered the toilet paper. I didn’t know if anybody had been discipled to be designated to be the toilet paper provider. I didn’t know. And I looked at her and I said, what would you do at home? And she said, I would go get toilet paper. And I said, there’s the answer. Go get some toilet paper. You know what I’m saying? But what I’m trying to tell you is, yes, you can find fault with all of us. You’ll find fault with this sermon. I could tell you story after story, but I’m not going to take time to do that. But what I want you to know is this, if you want to provide for God’s people, be the kind of member who appreciates each other, even where we’re weak, even appreciating our differences. I mean, it’s been tough for me, but I’ve tried to appreciate that some of you actually are Pittsburgh Steelers fans and Philadelphia Eagles fans. But I still appreciate you, enjoy every time those teams lose, but I appreciate you. But you know, friends, if we’re going to be effective in this ministry, we got to understand that God wants to use our attitude of gratitude. Remember the Apostle Paul, he’s saying, I’m thanking God. I’m mentioning you in my prayers. I’m always praising God for the things that are true in your life. There are some good things. I know it’s hard to find it, but keep looking. But there are some good things. Everybody needs appreciation. If you want to be used of God, there is one way you can do that, and that is appreciate and affirm everybody. Show gratitude when you come to this place and let people know through notes, text messages, emails, and letters, and even verbally, let them know how much you appreciate what they do, what they’re sacrificing for the church, and just the love that they show and their faithfulness and obedience to God. Find ways to do that. The second thing people need is inspiration. The Apostle Paul’s life was an inspiration. It was no mistake that Paul started out his letter and said that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Usually, the apostle would start his letters out and say that he was an apostle, that he was called of God, that he was always making the case for his apostleship to the church. But here, he starts out this letter to Philemon, I’m a prisoner, meaning that he possibly was under house arrest or some kind of confinement, whatever it might have been, that he was a prisoner. But Paul never saw himself as a prisoner of the government. He saw himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He recognized that he was under the sovereign hand of God and that God was providentially working in his life. And if God had him in prison, if God had him under confinement, if God had him in house arrest, it was all part of the plan and purpose of God. And despite this imprisonment, the apostle was always showing mercy to others. He was showing kindness to others. He was showing good cheer to others. He was always concerned about others, and this is what he wanted to see in Philemon, and this is what God wants you to see in the church. I know some of you are walking through deep waters, and I know some of you have many challenges in your life, but I don’t want you to come here negative, and I don’t want you to come here beaten down on everybody. I want you to come and be inspirational, inspiring us to love God more and to love people more and to continue unto good works for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how we should come. And then we need to be refreshing. I know you had hoped I’d hurry up and get there. This was so true of Philemon. This word refreshed is a military term that described an army at rest from a march. What the church needs are people who are refreshing. There are certain people you and I avoid because they drain us. We see them out in the community, and we hide behind the bush. We jump in between the clothes at the store because we don’t want them to see us because we know what they’re going to do. They’re going to sap us of all energy for God. They’re draining, but there’s some people, as soon as we see them, we’re excited because they’re refreshers. They give us great rest. They’re renewing to us. They energize us for the Lord. We feel so connected to Christ in our conversations with them. The Bible teaches us that Philemon was a brother in Christ who refreshed others. Christian friendships are important in the church. Christian friendships are a gift from God. I want to encourage you to be the kind of friend who doesn’t dump on people, who doesn’t belittle people, who doesn’t always find fault with people, that even if we’re not all we should be, that our desire is to refresh one another when we gather as God’s people. Whether that’s one-on-one or whether that’s in a small group, a class, a Bible study, or whether it’s in a large group, that we are always striving to refresh one another. Why? Because people, whether it’s in the home, the work, or the church, people cannot grow in an environment where only their failures and weaknesses are seen and remembered. Some of you, you’re just too hard on your kids. You’re beating down on them so much they can’t wait to get out. You need to remember to be the kind of parent who is refreshing. Every time you see your brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t point out what they did wrong, but be like the Apostle Paul and point out what they did right. And be the kind of encourager that is refreshing. You say, well, somebody’s got to confront them. Well, first of all, all confrontation should be done privately. And if it reaches to that level, you should do it. And that’s fine, but in a way to restore our brothers, right, and our sisters. But you and I are called to encourage and refresh one another. And when people see you, what comes to their mind? There’s an encourager. There’s someone I want to talk to. There’s someone I want to give a hug to. There’s someone I want to shake their hand. Or do you see that people try to avoid you? Church, for a Christian to be unwilling to forgive is really unthinkable. And if we go on this journey learning about forgiveness through the book of Philemon, we have to ask ourselves the question, do we have the character that forgives others? Do we have the traits that are within us that will help us as we learn by the grace of God to be forgiving? Are these things true in our life? Would you pray with me? You cannot give what you have not received. And if you have not received the forgiveness of Christ, how could you give forgiveness to others? Real forgiveness. And so we encourage you to first be under the fountain of the grace of Jesus Christ and receive his forgiveness in your life. Even as a believer, we have the responsibility to confess our sins to God and to let his forgiveness cleanse us. The Bible says he will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And so we encourage you to first receive and thus you can give forgiveness to others. And so we hope that that’s a part of your message and your characteristics. If you’d like to learn more about forgiveness, check us out at HopeWorthHaving.com. We also have a YouTube channel entitled Hope Worth Having. And there you can see our live programming as well as archives of different sermons. There’s playlists of different topics, different books in the Bible. Take advantage of this YouTube channel for an opportunity to grow in your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1. He will be reading out of Philemon 1:1-7. I don’t want you to think that somehow it’s some deep mystical magical formula that is going to help you to be motivated to be a forgiving person if you Question why you should forgive others. All you got to do is get to the foot of the cross Hello, this is pastor Mike Sanders welcome to hope worth having radio broadcasts We’re looking forward to studying the Bible together. And today we’re starting a new series called the characteristics of a forgiving Person we’re going to be looking into the book of Philemon chapter 1 of course, it’s only one chapter but a series of verses and we are looking forward to Looking at this all-important question relating to our relationships with other people So let’s get our Bible and let’s get to studying right now Want you to take your Bible this morning and I want you to go to the book of Philemon Now, I know you’re saying pastor Mike Philemon. Where is that? Well, let’s start in the New Testament and if you get to the book of Hebrews It’s right before the book of Hebrews if you run into Titus It’s right after Titus and so it’s towards the end of the New Testament You should find Philemon in my Bible. It’s just one page So be careful because every once in a while some of my pages of the Bible get stuck together and you might actually skip over Poor Philemon, but I want you to get there now We are beginning a new series a new study that I want to begin through the book of Philemon now It’s a very short letter and so it won’t take us long but it is a powerful message and there are certainly many things that must be addressed in this book and Today we’re going to talk about the characteristics of a forgiving person the book of Philemon the whole theme is forgiveness that’s the purpose of the letter is the Apostle is addressing Philemon who was a leader in the church and Philemon had a runaway slave named Onesimus Whom Paul had led to Christ while he was in prison as it happens Philemon his owner was a Christian and so most likely the Apostle led Philemon as well to Christ and Onesimus was Paul’s brother in Christ and So now Paul is writing to Philemon and he’s encouraging Philemon to receive Onesimus as an equal brother in Jesus Christ Philemon was not only a leader in the church, but the church actually gathered in his home We’ll read about that the church at Colossae met in his house in the early church many of the churches Gathered in either public places or they met in people’s homes they did not have the right to have ownership or Property and certainly in the infant stages of the church. There was so much happening that thinking about trying to have a building or a place where the church would own and gather Was very difficult But they met in Philemon’s home and we see this throughout the scriptures many believers opened their home for God’s people together and to be able to worship the Lord now Philemon is being instructed and appealed to By the Apostle Paul and the instruction is that he is to forgive Onesimus He is to accept him That he is to understand and receive him as a brother in the Lord’s Family now when we come to this passage This is a very difficult topic of forgiveness and in these few weeks that we’ll be together about this letter this book in the Bible we’re going to address what is forgiveness and How do we forgive what is not forgiveness? Sometimes people struggle. What are some of those obstacles that we have as believers to forgiveness someone once said That there can be no enduring relationships without forgiveness a husband and wife could never have many years of marriage without the willingness of both of them to be Forgiving and it’s the same way in the family of God What you’ll often see in the church is in America This is not true in other lands and other countries, but because there are so many gatherings of believers different places different buildings You go to some cities. There’s almost a church on every corner of That community and so as soon as somebody gets offended or they get hurt or they have a disagreement they run Rather than addressing those issues they run People like to run and they run from one church to the other now we understand that sometimes people might change a church for theological reasons or They may leave a church because of some of the ministries may no longer exist that they were receiving or needed We understand those things but in general We have to be careful that every time we have a disagreement with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we don’t fall into the trap of running to another church and We like to call them church hoppers and church shoppers and they run from church to church Thinking that no one will ever offend them in that new church. I like to tell our new members this It’s really a shocker to them when they take the membership class. I want you to know that somewhere somehow Someway pastor Mike is gonna upset you. How about that now? It’s not intentional I don’t rise up every morning and say how can I hurt their feelings? But what I want you to know that a there’s flesh on these bones. I mean, I’ve been married 30 I’m coming up on 34 years May 19th. And so I know that I’m not perfect But I want you to understand that whether it’s a relationship in the home or relationships in the church, the only way that these Relationships can work is that we have to be forgiving We have to be forgiving. I’ve served here for almost 20 years now and We’re in our 20th year. And how does that happen? I mean some churches have already been through four or five six pastors since I’ve shown up and How does that happen? Well, I would say to you that you are a very forgiving people But before you pound your chest don’t forget I’m a very forgiving pastor So in order for us to have a relationship this long it takes Grace, and it takes forgiveness. It takes God’s good work in each of our hearts So I don’t want you to misunderstand this passage. I don’t want you to somehow say well I’m gonna stay home during this tough lesson on forgiveness but I’ll tell you another topic that I want to address with you and that is what does the Bible teach about slavery and Why doesn’t the Bible? directly condemn slavery as A matter of fact when we read the scriptures we see that those who are slaves and those who are masters are given instructions on How to treat one another That’s sometimes very difficult for Unbelievers much less believers to process in their mind. So you hang in there. We will not address it today but we will be addressing this topic of slavery and how do we address this as Believers because it will be brought up in conversations It will be as you’re out there Witnessing for Christ brought up by many especially the younger generation as they try to understand why? The Bible does not condemn slavery so today I want to talk about the characteristics of a Forgiving person note with me again in verse 1 the Apostle says Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother to Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer to the beloved at FIA Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church in your house Grace to you and peace from God and our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I think my God making mention of you always in my prayers hearing of your love and faith Which you have towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the saints that the sharing of your faith May become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing Which is in you in Christ Jesus? for we have great joy and consolation or comfort in your love Because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed by you Brother, remember that the Apostle is writing this letter So that he can encourage his dear brother in Christ Philemon to forgive Onesimus the Apostle ran into Onesimus not out on the street market or any particular place outside in the community, but he ran into him in prison and Amazingly the Apostle Paul being a great man of faith Was continuing to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ Somewhere in the midst of all that was happening in this prison The Apostle begins to have a spiritual conversation with Onesimus and helps him to understand that he is a sinner in need of a Savior Onesimus responds in humility and honesty before God and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior Now I’m sure that Onesimus was telling the Apostle his story All of the details all of the mistakes and all the things that he had done we learned that Onesimus was a man who was a slave to Philemon and That he was a runaway slave not because somehow he was mistreated But because he had stolen money from Philemon the Apostle begins to disciple Onesimus and begins to train him that he needs to make things right with Philemon and that he needs to once again restore and do restitution to what he had taken from Philemon that is the whole background of This letter and the Apostle begins this letter not with condemnation to Philemon Not even to coming in there with a lot of pressure and a lot of demands upon Philemon But what we really see is that Paul is giving a favorable assessment of Philemon’s character It’s important for us to understand that because as the Apostle was teaching us about the character of Philemon He is also teaching us the kind of character we need Because if we’re to be a forgiving person, there are certain things that need to be true in our life if we’re a person of anger and bitterness and hate if we’re a person that as soon as we Disagree with somebody we torch the bridge and everything is over then we’re not going to have the characteristics of a forgiving person as We’ve already stated to you. There is no lasting relationships without forgiveness You can’t have a lasting relationship with your children without forgiveness and children can’t have a lasting relationship with their parents without forgiveness We understand that whether the Relationship is in the community at the job or in the church or in the home That there are no lasting relationships without forgiveness When we think about this great question of why? Why should I be a forgiving person? We can certainly come up with a lot of things that are true and they are healthy in your life But the bottom line for the believer as to why we should be a forgiving person is because Christ has forgiven us. I Don’t want you to think that somehow it’s some deep mystical magical Formula that is going to help you to be motivated to be a forgiving person if you question why you should forgive others all you got to do is get to the foot of the cross and Realize that you were not worthy. I am NOT worthy of any forgiveness that God might show upon us and When we think about our life and our journey of faith as we are trying to be fully devoted followers of Christ you know, there are many times that all of us have stumbled and We have fumbled and We have made bad choices We have had bad thoughts and our motives have not always been pure and we have stumbled in our effort to live faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ But yet as we have already taken time in this service We have clung to that promise that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to do what church forgive us He not only forgives us, but he cleanses us of all of our unrighteousness that God is effectively and he is constantly working within me shaping me and Sharpening me to reflect the very image of Jesus Christ in this world and There is nothing more that’ll bring out the best of you and the worst of you Than having a relationship with another human being Because we are flawed people We are naturally and I’m throwing myself in there. I’m not picking on you But I want you to know we are naturally selfish We were like the old advertisement of Burger King. We wanted our way right away, man, I Went to the hospital this many years ago to visit one of our members and they were getting ready to have surgery and right there in the waiting room there was a big old sign and said it’s all about you and I want to tell them it’s not But I kept my mouth shut lest I be thrown out of the hospital And make the front page the pastor thrown out because he insists it’s not about you friends I want you to know as hard as it is for us to understand this that it’s not about us. It’s about the Lord Jesus It’s about us glorifying God. It’s about us living our lives for him So as Paul was making this big lift This big ask if you will to Philemon He begins to commend him He begins to encourage him and he teaches us the three characteristics that are needed If any of us are going to be a forgiving people What are the characteristics that we see in Philemon that need to be in us? Number one is that we need to have a passion for pleasing the Lord We need to have a passion for pleasing the Lord Do not think that somehow pastor Mike is brushing over the first few verses because I’m not we’ll come back to them But in relation to what I want to share with you, I want you to look at verse 5 The Bible says that the Apostle says of Philemon I’m hearing of your love and faith Which you have towards the Lord Jesus Philemon was a man of faith. He was a man of love. He was a man who not only had faith But he had this incredible love and so we learned that this is at the outset Should be the desire of every believer who understands that because we have been forgiven by Christ that we must be a Forgiving people but in order for us to forgive We need to have the characteristic of a desire and a passion to please the Lord What is it that helps us to please the Lord first is faith in the Lord We never are under the assumption that everyone that gathers with us truly has faith in Jesus Christ We never are under the assumption that people have all received Christ and trusted him as their Lord and Savior We recognize that even in the body and the family of God There can be those who have gone through the motions who have taken all the classes and they’ve done Everything that they’ve been asked for but they’ve never truly had faith in Jesus Christ the Apostle continues to hear positive reports about Philemon One of those things that he hears is that this is a man of faith That he is a man who has faith Towards the Lord Jesus Christ and I want you to see that and I want you to know that and when we think about faith I want you to remember not all faith is saving faith Did you hear me not all faith is saving faith you say pastor I believe I Believe well, I am convinced that there are many who miss heaven by 18 inches That is they have a head knowledge of Jesus Christ, but they have never in their heart fully Received Christ as their Lord if I could send out a warning to all parents and grandparents It would be to make sure that you are having healthy discussions with your children and your grandchildren About what is true faith? You don’t get to heaven because your parents are leaders in the church or that they are active in the church or they are Faithful in the church. You don’t get to heaven because of your parents and grandparents faith you get to heaven because you Truly in your own heart have received Christ as your Lord and Savior Saving faith isn’t just a head knowledge about Jesus. We know that the Bible tells us the demons believe also There is a distinction of what is saving faith and Yes, the demons believe and yes, they have this mental Acknowledgement and they recognize that Jesus is the Son of God and they recognize that Jesus was sent from the Father and he came to this earth and died on a cross and that he Resurrected the third day they have all that information But they have never experienced the transformation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Our hearts we are constantly Admonished by the Apostle that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. I Know some Christians they don’t like that and they have even expressed that to me when I preach on it And they tell me that I should not encourage people to examine the faith and I tell them I teach the whole Council of the Lord of God From Genesis to Revelation. I teach it all and I want you to know I’m not trying to create insecurity in your faith I’m not trying to cause you to doubt your faith I’m not trying to somehow Explain away some particular spiritual experience you may have had in your life But I want to make sure that you have a genuine relationship and faith with the Lord Jesus Christ saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life and It is necessary for salvation Saving faith is that I’m willing to turn away from my sin and I’m willing to turn to Christ for my salvation and If you’re just one of those people who said, you know, I got to get this person out of my life They keep talking to me about salvation They keep talking to me about Jesus and I just pray the prayer and I pray it so I can get them out So I can get mom and dad off of my back So that they will leave me alone and I can just say yeah, I prayed that prayer Well friends, I want you to know that’s not saving faith you must humbly come to God and be honest with him and Receive him as your Lord and Savior We see in Philemon that he not only had faith in the Lord, but he had a love towards Jesus Christ Look at the text again, and it says he talks about his love his faith Certainly he had a love towards Jesus Christ This is what I think is the greatest mark of a disciple That if you say you’re a true follower of Christ that it is love That is the supreme mark of discipleship It is not just something that pastor thinks about or has thought up or has dreamed up But it is actually the Word of God For the Bible teaches us that when Jesus was asked what is the greatest or we could put it this way the most important commandment in the Bible If you were to think of it this way You might think what is the bottom line of the Bible? The Bible says a lot and sometimes we can get lost in the weeds and trying to figure out this and that and what should we? Believe what shouldn’t we believe but really here’s the bottom line Matthew Jesus’s response was recorded in Matthew 22 verse 36 through 38 The question was master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart With all your soul with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment How do I know that? My faith is real You’re gonna truly want to love God You can’t get enough of Jesus that your love for him is not only intense But it is passionate and you long to please him you long To spend time with him You understand that God is calling you to love when you read first John when people come to me and they say I’m not sure That I’m a believer. I’m not sure that I I Truly have the assurance of my salvation. I encourage them to take time to read through first John and Why would I tell him that because first John is really summed up like this in That God is constantly challenging us to love him and Not to love the world We are commanded many times to not love the world not love the things of the world and you see the direction of your heart is a Reflection of your heart. It’s not that you’re perfect It’s not that you’ve got everything figured out and it’s not that you even have all the answers But the question you have to ask yourself, what is the direction of my heart? Is it a heart that loves God? Is it at a heart that desires to please God and to serve God? This is the Manifestation that you are a true disciple of God now I Also want you to see the second characteristic of a forgiving person It is not only that they have a passion to please the Lord, but they have a passion to be patient with God’s people I Know some of you saying check I got the first one pastor but this second one I’m gonna really struggle with hey, I want you to know I’m right there Remember that you know, I have to go through all this putting this together. It’s torturous sometimes Putting a sermon together because God is you know attacking me He’s working on Mike Long before I come before you and have to present these wonderful truths that are in the Word of God I’ve been wrestling with them. Some people say what’s wrong with the pastor? Well, it may be that he’s under the heavy weight of conviction of the Word of God It’s not that I don’t like you it’s just that God has been working on my own heart And I got to be ready and I got to be prepared personally to stand before you But here is this second point that I want to bring to your attention about Philemon is that he was a person who was patient With God’s people the Apostle brings this to our attention and I want you to see up on the screen how I asked them to put it up there because Remember the Apostle said I’m hearing of your love and it wasn’t just his love for God But it was a love towards all the Saints not just the ones that are nice to him Not just the ones that work with him not just the ones that cooperate with him that Philemon is a leader in the church and he Had a love it was well known that he had a love towards all the Saints and that the sharing of your faith may become Effectively by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus Wow That’s a lot to think about But let’s break this down in order for me to be patient with God’s people I first just like my relationship with God. I have to have a love For people true faith expresses itself in love There are no long lasting relationships without forgiveness and that is what the Bible is teaching us when we think about the Characteristics of a forgiving person and whether it’s you forgiving someone or someone forgiving you We all stand in need of forgiveness from one another but the greater forgiveness that we need is found in Jesus Christ and we’ll never have a Forgiving heart if we ourselves have not received the forgiveness of Jesus Christ So we encourage you to humble your heart before him today and to receive him as your Lord and Savior And to acknowledge your sinfulness before him and as you repent and believe God will wash away your sins and give you a brand new start and then you’ll have the great opportunity to forgive Others as God has done a great work in your life Now we want to remind you that at hope worth having we have a website you can learn more about forgiveness More about the ministry more teaching of God’s Word. So check us out on hope worth having Dot-com that’s hopeworthhaving.com and learn more about this ministry and how you can grow in your faith This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having The post The Characteristics of a Forgiving Person Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Does God Send People to Hell Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 14:8-10,20:15. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Why would Jesus say that there was two ways? One built their life on the foundation of a rock, and another on the shifting sands of the world. Because you have a choice. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. And we want to welcome you to our Hope Worth Having radio program. Thank you for tuning in today. And we’re going to continue our study on does God send people to hell? So I want you to get your Bible, and I want you to join me in Revelation chapter 14. As we answer this all important question. And that if he is a loving God, how could the doctrine of hell be true? This is an issue that troubles many people. It is so much of a hurdle for many people that they will just reject the doctrine of hell. They’ll just say there’s no way that the love of God is compatible with there being a place of hell for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Some even dismiss Christianity altogether and refuse to believe in Christ. Because they will not believe in a God that sends people to hell. Now some would say that if you believe in a God of love. If God wants all the world to be saved, and if he is not willing that any should perish. And if he gave his own son to die for our sins. How can it be that any would perish? Why wouldn’t everybody just be saved? What kind of love sends people to an eternal lake of fire? The Bible teaches us that God created hell. He originally created hell according to the gospel of Matthew. For Satan and his demonic angels who rebelled against him in heaven. A third of the angels were cast out of hell. But not only will we find that there are demonic angels in hell. But we will find that there are humans. God never intended that you and I, that humans would go to hell. But here we are. The Bible teaches us, Jesus says, there’s only two ways. There is the narrow way. And there is the broad way. The narrow way is those who believe in Christ. Those who follow God. Those who are fully devoted followers of Christ. And then the broad way is those who walk the way of the world. Live selfishly. Do what they want. Death could care less about God or Jesus. What nothing to do with Christ. The broad way would also include those who are religious. They are religious on the outside. But there is no relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart. Jesus said in Matthew 7. He said to those who were listening to him. Depart from me. You that work iniquity. For I never knew you. My friends, you get to heaven by who you know. Not by what you do. Jesus already did all the work on the cross. And you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship may have high moments and low moments. It may have an ebb and flow to it. Not because of Jesus, but because of our hearts. And because sometimes of our struggles. And sometimes because of where we’re at in our faith, in our maturity. But I promise you, my friends. That if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us. That whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall. Be what church? Yeah. And so that’s the most important thing. We’ll get back to that. And I’m jumping ahead of myself. Which I tend to do. My wife says, Mike, stick to the notes. Stick to the notes. So three perspectives on this question. That we have before us. Does God send people to hell? The first thing I want you to see this morning. Is that God’s attribute of love. Is consistent. With hell. We have a harmony of God’s love. And God’s justice. We have a harmony of God’s love. And this place that is called hell. And I think no better verse captures that. Than Romans chapter 5. In verse 8. In which the Bible says. God commended his love towards us. And while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. How much does God love you, my friends? So much. He wants to keep you out of hell. He gave his life for you. He took the punishment. He took the pain. He took. The very wrath of God upon him. So you and I do not have to. And that by faith in Jesus Christ. That is applied to our heart. Now the particulars may vary. From person to person. And society to society. But there is an agreement. Among all society. And most likely all people. That things that are wrong. Or what people do that are wrong. Should be punished. That evil must be judged. I mean. There is a sense of justice in each of our hearts. Right? Because that’s why you stand up. When you read the news. Or you see it on your social media feed. Or you see it on television. That’s why you stand up and say. It’s just not right. Where did that come from? For God has created within us. A conscience. And he has established within us. A moral compass. That the things that are wrong. Somebody’s got to stand up. And somebody’s got to say. That it’s wrong. And then it must be dealt with. We think about drug dealers. Rapists. Murderers. Serial killers. Corrupt politicians. Greedy people. Who get their way. And they push on people. Take advantage of people. And they create injustices. In our hearts. We know that they must be dealt with. And that they must be punished. I appreciate Brother Arnold reading Romans 5. Because it’s such a beautiful text to understand. Where you and I are at. And I want you to understand. That all of us. Are under the wrath of God. And condemnation. Because we are sinners. We are sinners. And I know some of you say. Man Mike. I’m a pretty good guy. I do all these things. And you’ve got your 10 good lists. That you’re doing. And I’m here. And I’m with you. And I’m glad that you’re doing those 10 things. But listen to me. Our righteousness. Doesn’t even come close to the righteousness of God. The prophet Isaiah said. That our righteousness is as filthy rags. And I know you don’t like me to talk about it. But it’s true. That you’ve got to understand. This is not the rag in your kitchen. That you’ve been washing dishes with. For the last 30 days. And I would recommend. That you put it in the laundry. Ladies. You’re killing us. And guys. I know. Not just ladies. Excuse me. I am so out of touch. I apologize. I apologize. But this is the rag. That the lepers would use. To wipe the pus. Off of their skin. Their skins would be filled with boils. They would wipe it off. And you would think. That somebody would come along. And they would give them a new rag. And they would put it in the laundry. And they would clean it up. But no. This is the same rag. That one leper. After another. Was used. To wipe. And they would come. And they would take that same rag. And wipe it again. All over their body. To wipe that pus off. And here’s what the bible says. To us. That our righteousness. The best of Mike Sanders. Is nothing. But a filthy. Leper. Rag. The best of Mike. Wow. I know that’s hard to swallow. In this self-esteem world that we live in. When everybody. Is so proud of themselves. And every once in a while. Somebody will tell me. And I was just talking to somebody. And they were telling me. How good they were. And I said. If you don’t say so yourself. Amen. The bible says. Let another man’s lips praise you. But we often jump in. And I find myself there. You know. I do something. And I say. Honey isn’t that nice. I mow that lawn. Look at that lawn. Isn’t that nice looking out there. And she reminds me. Let another man’s lips praise you. I said I was hoping your lips would. But here we are. We are sinners. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We’re all flawed. We’re not perfect. And this sin must be dealt with. It must be paid for. And the way that it is dealt with. Is through God’s holiness. And Jesus delivered us. And how did he do that? By going to the cross. Being our substitute. Taking our place. Isaiah 53 5 says. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes. We are healed. How is the love of God. And the holiness of God. How are they compatible. And how are they in harmony. Because though we are sinners. And though we deserve to be. In hell. Because of our sin. Out of great love. God has reached out to us. And he has provided a way for us. To experience the forgiveness. Of Jesus Christ. And that he has taken our punishment. On the cross. He has taken our pain. And if we would put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Then my friends. We can experience. The true love of Jesus. If you have ever doubted. Whether God loved you. I want you to look to the cross. If you have ever doubted. Whether God cares about your plight. Look to the cross. Because Jesus. On full display of love. He gave his life. For you and for me. Can God’s people say amen. Oh yeah I love it. Now. God’s provision for salvation. Should ever put to rest. The notion. That God’s love. And wrath. Or holiness. Are incompatible. I want you to understand that. Unlike us. God can do two things at once. Amen. I was taking prayer requests this morning. And some of the people that usually do that. We have a little Facebook thing. Where we keep track of our prayer requests for each other. In our Sunday school class. And Pastor Mike was listening. Hearing. Trying to type on his little phone. Trying to get it in there all by himself. And I told him. I said look you guys have got to slow down. Because I can’t take all this at once. It’s too many things going on. I got to slow down. One thing at a time. Ladies I’m not talking about just manhood. I know you ladies say well we do all kinds of things. At a time. I hear you. But God can love you. And God can still punish sin. Did you know that? It’s true. So the second thing I want you to consider this morning. Is how can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people. To heaven. Now the Bible says. That God loves us. But the Bible. Also declares that God. Is not only God of love. But he is a God who is holy. And someone says. Well Pastor how can a loving God. Send people to hell. Well let me just invert it for you. Because this is the greater question. I want you to consider. How can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people into heaven. That’s the greater question. That’s the most amazing thing. To me. That I’m not worthy of heaven. I’m not worthy of salvation. I am not deserving. I didn’t go to church enough. God would say to me. Hey Mike because you came. 50 times out of the year. Then you get a straight pass into heaven. That’s not how it works. Even if I came 52. And even if I could find a 53rd. And a 54th Sunday. And I came those extra times. And I got bonus points. It still would not be enough to get me into heaven. Because the best of Mike. Is nothing but a lepers rag. And therefore the greater question is. How does a holy God. Allow sinful people. Into heaven. Isaiah. When he was. In a moment of a crisis in his life. When the king. Who he administered to. Personally. And he had become great friends with. King Uzziah. Had passed away. It was devastating. Because it was a tragedy. It was a surprise. It wasn’t something that. He was in failing health. And all of a sudden king Uzziah is gone. And Isaiah is overwhelmed. With grief and sorrow in his heart. He shows up at the temple. In Isaiah chapter 6. And he is prostrate before the Lord. Weeping pleading with God. And just expressing his grief. And sorrow. And the bible teaches us that he saw God. High and lifted up. And around the throne of God. Were seraphims. Angels that were crying out. The scripture says in verse 3 of chapter 6. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth. Is full of his glory. What you and I. Have to learn. It’s easy for us to want to. Put most emphasis on the love of God. But what we really need to do. Is balance our understanding. Of who God is. Yes he is a God of love. But friends we cannot forget. That he is a God who is holy. Think about this. In all of the bible. You’ll never find. The angels circling the throne. Crying out. Love. Love. But every time that we are given this picture. And this scene. Not only in Isaiah. But as well as in. Revelation. We see the angels crying out. Holy. Holy. In the Hebrew language. The repetition is a point of emphasis. It is not only a point of emphasis. But it is a point of priority. What I want you to know. And understand church. Is that the preeminent. Attribute of God. Is holiness. That it is out of his holiness. That all of his other. Attributes flow. That we must first. Know and recognize. That we have a holy God. Who is righteous. Who is just a God. Who is above us. Now think about this. The Hebrew word. For holiness. Has the idea of being a cut. Above. Sometimes. When I speak to the staff. I will always remind them. Leaders need to be a cut above. Leaders need to be a cut above. You say pastor. Why do you dress like. Why don’t you come in here like a slouch. Why don’t you come in here with your pajamas. And why don’t you come in here with your sweats. Now if that is you. You do you. I am not putting you down. But I am the pastor. And I am not going to come in. And I don’t want to offend anybody. And I don’t want to send anybody out. And upset. So I got to be careful what I say. And I know it is a different generation. But it is okay. As a leader. I want to be a cut above. Not better than. But when you think of God. It is not that we think of God. In terms of man. Kind. But we think of God. In terms of how the Bible has revealed him. He is a cut above us. He is a holy God. We cannot retreat from that church. And we cannot back down from that. And we cannot say well. Out of great compassion and love. We want to bring God down to us. Know my friends. I want you to exalt God in your heart. I want you to exalt him in your mind. I want you to revel in his holiness. And his greatness. And as A.W. Tozer said. His transcendency. And I know you are like. What is that? That is that God transcends. And he is above and beyond. All that we could ever imagine. And think. This is how great God is. And so the greater question is. How can a God of holiness. Admit sinful people to heaven. My third and final perspective. That I want you to consider this morning. When we ask the question. Does God send people to hell? My answer to you. Is God sends no one to hell. And that is that. Those who reject God. Choose to go to hell. They choose to go to hell. The notion that God sends people to hell. Might be accurate in this sense. That as we read in. Revelation 14 10. That they were cast into hell. Did you see that? They were cast into the lake of fire. Every once in a while. Somebody will say. I want to go to hell. No you don’t. And when that moment comes. And the smoke of that torment is. Coming up. I promise you. You will have to be cast. But what is it. That would lead to the casting. What is it. That would lead us to this point. It’s not that God sent anyone to hell. Because people send their. Selves to hell. By the choices. That they make. Ralph Powell is a bible scholar. And he said this. If the question is raised. How can a loving God send men. Or people to an everlasting hell. It must be replied. That God does not choose this destiny for men. They freely choose it for themselves. God simply concurs. In their self chosen way. And he reveals. The full consequences. Of their choice. God loves us. And he loves us so much. That he has reached out to us. To offer the opportunity. That we could avoid hell. That we could escape hell. But it is out of this love. That he also gives us. The freedom. To come. To make. Our choice. He is not willing that any should perish. But that all. Should come to repentance. Why would Jesus say. In Matthew chapter 7. Why would he keep saying. That there was two ways. And there were two people. One built their life on the foundation of a rock. And another person built it on the shifting sands. Of the world. Why does he keep offering these two options. Because he is saying. You have a choice. You have a choice. A musician named Marilyn Manson. Said I’m going to say. Hell would probably be more. Comfortable place for me. Because everyone I know would be there. I wouldn’t really. Be allowed to do anything in heaven. That would be any fun. And it’s sad. To read those words. Because. She has made that choice. The bible. Tells us in Jeremiah. That the prophet said. And now because you have done. All these works says the lord. And I spake unto you. Rising early and speaking. But you heard not. And I called you. But you answered not. You remember. The story of the great banquet. In Matthew 22. You remember that the man invited. Everybody to come to this great banquet. And nobody would come. And so he decided to go out. To the highways and to the hedges. He invited his family. He invited his friends. And they said no we’re not coming. So he went. And he invited everybody else in the world. It is a picture of God. Who has invited. All people to come. He is invited. The scripture says in Matthew 22 verse 3. He sent forth his servants to call them. That were bidden to the wedding. And they would not come. And I wonder how many people there are. That still will not come. No matter how many times. The offer is made. And the option is put before them. And the pleading is put before them. And the effort is made. To reach them with the gospel. Of Jesus Christ. That they will not come. To Jesus Christ. So the answer. To the question. Why would a good God send people to hell. Is simply this. He doesn’t. But he will let people go. To the place. That they choose. Hebrews 2. 3 sends out a warning to us. How shall we escape. If we neglect such a great salvation. It was declared at first by the Lord. And it is attested to us. By those who heard. Friends I am here to tell you. How will you escape. I mean you have this great opportunity. But you keep saying no. And how will you escape. The results and the consequences. Of rejecting Jesus Christ. You say but listen. My parents are leaders in the church. My parents are active in the church. I cut my teeth on the pews. Of this church. Surely God would let me in. No my friends. God has no grandchildren. He only has children. And no matter who you are. Just as I always told my kids. As they were growing up. You don’t get to go to heaven. Because you’re the pastors children. You have to make a personal decision. With Jesus Christ. You have to follow Christ. Repent and believe. However you want to term it. The Bible uses many terms. Of what it means. But you must be sincere. You cannot ride. On the coattails of your family. You can’t ride on the coattails. Of the pastor an elder a deacon. Or any other church member. You must come to grips. And parents I want to tell you. And I am startled by this. By how many Christian parents today. Have never had a heart to heart. Conversation with their children. About where they’re going to spend eternity. You talk about being a missionary. And you talk about reaching the world. But why don’t you start in your own home. How many parents. Have a hundred percent assurance. That their child has responded to God. In an affirmative way. How many of you have sat down with them. And you say what do you mean pastor. I’m talking about one on one. Face to face. Not being afraid. To talk about spiritual things. To your children. Because I’m going to tell you. Nothing is more important. Nothing is more important. I mean I know you’ll talk to your kids. And you’ll say do you want to play soccer. Do you want to play baseball. Do you want to do dance classes. Do you want to be a ballerina. And I think all that’s wonderful. And I’m all in. But have you ever asked your children. Have you ever asked them. If you died today. Would you go to heaven. Have you ever asked your child that. Have you ever. There is nobody that has a greater influence. On that child than you mom. And you dad. And if it’s not important to you. I promise you. It’s not important to the kids. And you say well pastor they’re too young. My wife was five years old. When she came to Christ. When her mother sat her down. And talked to her about her faith. Friends. Kids are at different ages and maturity. So I’m all in. And all my kids were at different ages. But if there was anything that was most important to Terry and I. Is that all of our children. Would know Jesus Christ. And let me tell you this. I’m a grandpa now. And the most important thing. Is that all my grandkids. And if the parents won’t. And they do. But if the parents won’t. I will. I always told my kids when they were growing up. If you don’t have a plan I do. If you don’t know what to do with your life. I do. And I would say that to anybody. If you don’t know what to do with your life. And you’re in this limbo area. Friends I got a plan. I got a plan. And I know some of you don’t like that. But I just am so certain. That I know that God has a plan. For every person in this life. I may not know all the details. But I know that God has a plan. And we’re going to get on our knees. And we’re going to seek God. And we’re going to find that plan. And we’re going to be a fully devoted follower of Christ. Listen to me. Every day people choose to live their lives. Apart from God. And I want to tell you out of great love. God allows them. If they want to live apart from him. For all eternity. He will get out of their way. He has done what is necessary. For you to have eternal life. And now the question is. Have we responded? I know this morning that the truth is jabbing at you. And I know it’s uncomfortable. And I know this is one of those days. When you came to church. And you said man the pastor is laying it on us. But the only reason I’m doing it. Is because I believe hell is real. And I don’t want you to go there. And there’s only one other person. Greater than me. That cares more. And that. Is Jesus Christ. So I remind you this morning. In closing. That hell is there. But I also want you to know. The cross is there. And if you would just turn away from sin and self. And turn towards Jesus this morning. Heaven. Can be. Your home. Does God send people to hell? Well the truth is. We send ourselves to hell. God paves the way. For us to have eternal life. And we respond to that. And so I know that some people. Struggle with this question. And they even use it as a reason. Why they don’t believe. But I want you to know. That the most important question is. Not does God send people to hell. But the question is. Are you going to hell? Have you put your faith and trust. In the Lord Jesus Christ. And received him as your savior. And if you haven’t. You need to make that decision today. You need to respond to God. And it all begins by acknowledging. That you’re a sinner in need of a savior. And then believing in your heart. That Jesus died on the cross. For your sins. And rose again the third day. And calling upon him. And reaching out to him. And receiving him as your lord and savior. This is Pastor Mike Sanders. Reminding you that in Christ. There is hope worth having. The post Does God Send People to Hell Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Does God Send People to Hell Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 14:8-10,20:15. If you have ever doubted whether God loved you I want you to look to the cross if you have ever doubted whether God cares about your plight look to the cross Because Jesus on full display of love. He gave his life for you and for me Can God’s people say man? This is hope worth having and this is your host pastor Mike Sanders looking forward to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus Christ today We are gonna be in Revelation chapter 14, and we’re gonna be addressing this question Does God send people to hell so I want you to think about that and I want you to join me as we study this incredible question this morning I Want you to take your Bible this morning and join me in Revelation chapter 14 We’re gonna be covering verse 8 through 10 plus chapter 20 So put your finger there in chapter 14 and make sure that you go ahead and look up chapter 20 and verse 15 Revelation 14 8 through 10 and Revelation 20 through 15. I want to read these verses and then kind of give you a quick overview of Revelation chapter 14 and Dive into this all-important question Does God? Send people to hell Now we have been studying This series about five questions about heaven and five questions about hell Last week we finished our fifth question about heaven and today is our final question about hell Not that there aren’t other questions and not that we would never come back and consider those questions But for our particular series and study that we have been doing for the last few weeks This will be the final question that we will address in this series Revelation chapter 14 verse 8 The Bible says and another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is Fallen that great city Because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if anyone worships the beast and his image and Receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God Which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation He shall be tormented with fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb Now I want you to go to chapter 20 verse 15 the last verse of chapter 20 The Bible says that anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire Revelation chapter 14 is an exciting chapter. It’s an interesting chapter When you study this chapter, you’ll find that verses 1 through 5 describes the fate of the hundred and forty four Thousand that you may have heard of before but perhaps out of context we know the Bible teaches us that after the rapture of the church is the emergence of the Tribulation period which is for seven years within that seven-year period God will raise up a hundred and forty four thousand Jewish evangelists who will crisscross the known world preach the gospel to every person and Every part of the planet there is no person that will not hear about The gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus these men that God has raised up in the tribulation will be divinely sealed and Protected as they carry out their ministry You know that the Antichrist will be in full reign during the tribulation period He will make every effort to stop the hundred and forty four thousand Evangelists he will oppress them. He will oppose them. He will do everything he can to silence them Destroy them and to kill them but because they are sealed and protected by God his Plans meaning the plans of the devil and the Antichrist will be thwarted but as we study revelation 14 we see that eventually the Timing and the lifespan of these hundred and forty four thousand evangelists will come to a completion and Then the Antichrist will be allowed to take their lives in Verses 1 through 5 we see them in heaven We see them in the presence of Jesus Christ We jump down to verse 14 through 20 of chapter 14 and we see the horrific battle of Armageddon That will occur at the end of the tribulation Now when people read the book of Revelation They make the mistake of thinking everything from verse to verse to chapter to chapter is in chronological order But that’s not always true So keep that in mind as you’re studying the book of Revelation and if you’re like me Sometimes I have to have my study helps just to figure out where am I at in the midst of the tribulation? Thank God Realistically, I believe that we’ll be raptured before the tribulation period because we have not been appointed unto wrath and That the tribulation period is about calling the nation of Israel back to him. I hope your ears are open I hope your eyes are wide open I hope you’re hearing and seeing the signs of the times that are all around us one of the things that we know that is going to be a part of the beginning of the tribulation period is that there is going to be a peace agreement signed by the Antichrist for the nation of Israel and Promising them seven years of peace. Now. Why would that even be necessary? It is because all the nations will rise up Against the nation of Israel and they will want Israel to be destroyed The Bible gives a promise in Genesis 12 that if we will bless God’s people his chosen people the nation of Israel the Jewish people that if we will bless them Then he will bless us But we are in the midst of a time period in the nation of America where even our government opposes the nation of Israel You should not be shaken You should not be startled you should know that the signs of the times are upon us and That it won’t be long before Jesus calls the church home and we will be in the presence of God rejoicing enjoying all that he has promised us while the tribulation period is unfolding here on this earth We may not always like what we see we may not always agree with what we see But we need to have our spiritual antennas up and we need to be alert to what is happening so that we can make sure a that our heart is ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and That not only that we are spiritually ready on fire on the front lines Totally committed fully devoted followers of Christ not playing footsie with the world and not trying to keep the other foot inside The church but totally committed to Jesus Christ all in 100% Amen, go ahead but the second reason that our antennas need to be up is because we have a Responsibility to be a voice in the wilderness and we must tell our friends We must tell our family we must tell every person that crosses our path whether they are strangers or people that we know that the signs of the times are among us and we must be ready and We must implore them and plead with them to be spiritually ready for we are not ignorant of the schemes and the tactics of the devil So in verses 14 through 20 this battle of Armageddon that will occur at the end of the tribulation We get a little insight, but we jump back to verse 6 through 13 and it helps us to see the future The future that awaits for two distinct classes of people verses 12 through 13 tell us the future of the faithful servant of God who endures who is obedient who will not quit who keeps going on who gets up every day and is Committed to the cause and the purpose of Jesus Christ But in verses 6 through 11 we learn about the future of lost sinners a Future that the Bible describes as a place called hell the Bible describes this place as being a place where the cup of God’s indignation or It is a place of torment and fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels in the presence of the Lamb We go on and we could read in verse 11 and it talks more about this place where the Bible says in verse 11 that the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever and they have no rest day Or night who worshiped the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name You know that in the tribulation period the Bible teaches us that they will not be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast in Today’s terminology, we might say you can’t run to Walmart unless you have the mark of the beast You won’t be able to have your own business unless you have the mark of the beast. They’ll be buying and selling But it won’t be for those Who do not have the mark of the beast? Who are those who will refuse to receive the mark of the beast during the tribulation period? It is those who will come to Jesus Christ Who will believe in Christ? this is why your testimony now is so essential to your family and to your friends because as you are warning them as you are pleading with them as you are Instructing them about what is to come and the signs of the times that are all around us that even though they may Resist you now and they may mock you or even laugh at you and think I think dad has gone Over and has lost it There’ll be one day that when the rapture takes place and they cannot find you and They are left behind That the Bible says in Daniel 12 verse 2 that they’ll be running to and fro that is that they’ll be running everywhere they can to find the answers and Daniel was reminded by the Angels that the book of Daniel will be opened up and people will begin to understand what they’re going through what they’re Experiencing and they’re gonna say grandma’s, right? We need to give our life to Christ so much better to do it now than later can God’s people say amen So much better now for today is the day of salvation Don’t wait, but friends if you do choose to wait I want you to know that it’s not gonna be an easy road. It’s not gonna be an easy life You say well my life’s not easy now friends. It’ll be Thousands of times worse in the tribulation period because if you become a believer and follow Christ And you refuse to take the mark of the beast that you will fall into the category of Matthew chapter 25 when the Bible tells us That I was hungry and you fed me I Was thirsty and you gave me to drink I Was naked and you clothed me. Who are these people? I was in prison and you visited me Who are these people we think that they are people of today? Certainly applicable certainly something that is scriptural and we are taught in the scriptures But particularly in the context of Matthew 25 He is talking about the tribulation period and he is talking about those who refuse the mark of the beast and this is their plight And they will run to the hills they will have to hide from the Antichrist because his wrath will be upon this nation and he will want to destroy anyone who Believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will be thrown into prison They will not be able to eat or drink and they will not have any clothing and they will not be able to buy or sell Because they do not have the mark of the beast upon them and it’ll be those Who will step up and put their lives on the line to visit them to clothe them to minister to them They are the ones That God will honor and some will become martyrs and when you get to Revelation chapter 6 You see some of these martyrs around the throne and saying Lord, when will our blood be avenged? When will you make right every wrong that is happening in this world? God promises them that he will But it’ll be in his timing and his way and it’ll be in the scope of what he is doing in this nation and friends the Bible teaches us according to what we just read in Revelation that those who receive this mark and those who Refuse to follow Christ and those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ that they will be cast into the lake of fire We shared with you a few weeks ago That we do not believe this lake of fire is a metaphor We do not believe that it’s something that Jesus was speaking in symbolism, but rather it was literal that as Jesus describes The place called hell and as we read the scriptures over and over we are reminded that it is a place of Torment and it is a place forever and ever So we have this question About hell and it is an often-asked question whether God could be a loving God and That if he is a loving God, how could the doctrine of hell be true? This is an issue that troubles many people It is so much of a hurdle for many people that they will just reject the doctrine of hell They’ll just say there’s no way that the love of God is Compatible with there being a place of hell for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ some even dismiss Christianity altogether and refuse to believe in Christ because they will not believe in a God That sends people to hell now some would say that if you believe in a God of love if God wants all the world to be saved and if he is not willing that any should perish and if he gave his own son to die for our sins How can it be that any would perish Why wouldn’t everybody just be saved? what kind of love sends people to an eternal lake of fire the Bible teaches us That God created hell He originally created hell according to the gospel of Matthew for Satan and his demonic angels who rebelled against him in heaven a Third of the angels were cast out of hell But not only will we find that there are demonic angels in hell, but we will find that there are humans God never intended That you and I that humans would go to hell but here we are the Bible teaches us Jesus says there’s only two ways There is the narrow way and There is the broad way the narrow way is those who believe in Christ those who follow God those who are fully devoted followers of Christ and then the broad way is those who Walk the way of the world live selfishly Do what they want could care less about God or Jesus What nothing to do with Christ the broad way would also include those who are religious They are religious on the outside, but there is no relationship with Jesus Christ in their heart Jesus said in Matthew 7 he said To those who were listening to him Depart from me you that work iniquity for I never knew you My friends you get to heaven by who you know Not by what you do Jesus already did all the work on the cross and you must have a relationship with Jesus Christ that relationship may have high Moments and low moments it may have an ebb and flow to it not because of Jesus But because of our hearts and because sometimes of our struggles and sometimes because of where we’re at in our faith in our maturity But I promise you my friends that if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible tells us that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what church Yeah And so that’s the most important thing we’ll get back to that and I’m jumping ahead of myself Which I tend to do My wife says Mike stick to the notes Stick to the notes. So three perspectives on this question that we have before us does God send people to hell The first thing I want you to see this morning is that God’s attribute of love is consistent with hell We have a harmony of God’s love and God’s justice We have a harmony of God’s love and this place that is called hell And I think no better verse captures that than Romans chapter 5 in verse 8 in which the Bible says God Commend us his love towards us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us How much does God love you my friends so much? He wants to keep you out of hell. He gave his life for you He took the punishment. He took the pain He took the very wrath of God upon him So you and I do not have to and that by faith in Jesus Christ that is applied to our heart now the particulars may vary from person to person and society to society But there is an agreement among all society and most likely all people That things that are wrong or what people do that are wrong should be punished That evil must be judged. I Stand up when you read the news or you you see it on your social media feed or you see it on television That’s why you stand up and say it’s just not right Well, where did that come from? For God has created within us a conscience and he has established within us a moral compass That the things that are wrong Somebody’s got to stand up and somebody’s got to say that it’s wrong and then it must be dealt with We think about drug dealers rapists murderers serial killers Corrupt politicians greedy people who get their way and they push on people take advantage of people and they create injustices in Our hearts we know that they must be dealt with and that they must be punished I appreciate Brother Arnold reaching reading Romans 5 because it’s such a beautiful text to understand Where you and I are at? And I want you to understand that all of us are under the wrath of God and Condemnation because we are sinners We are sinners and I know some of you say man Mike. I’m a pretty good guy I’ve do all these things and you got your ten good lists that you’re doing and I’m here and I’m with you and I’m Glad that you’re doing those ten things, but listen to me our righteousness doesn’t even come close to the righteousness of God The prophet Isaiah said that our righteousness is as filthy rags, and I know you don’t like me to talk about it But it’s true that you got to understand This is not the rag in your kitchen that you’ve been washing dishes with for the last 30 days And I would recommend that you put it in the laundry Ladies you’re killing us and guys. I know not not just ladies excuse me. I am so out of touch. I apologize. I apologize But this is the rag that the lepers would use to wipe the pus off of their skin Their skins would be filled with boils They would wipe it off And you would think that somebody would come along and they would give them a new rag and they would put it in the laundry And they would clean it up, but no this is the same rag that you would put in the laundry That one leper after another was used to wipe and they would come and they would take that same rag and wipe it again All over their body to wipe that pus off and here’s what the Bible says to us That our righteousness the best of Mike Sanders is nothing but a filthy leper Rag the best of Mike. I know that’s hard to swallow in this self-esteem world that we live in when everybody is so proud of themselves and Every once in a while somebody will tell me and I was just talking to something they were telling me how good they were And I said if you don’t say so yourself Amen the Bible says let another man’s lips praise you But we often jump in and I find myself there You know, I Do something and I say honey, isn’t that nice? I mow that lawn. Look at that lawn Ain’t that nice looking out there and She reminds me let another man’s lips praise you. I Said I was hoping your lips would But here we are Hmm, we are sinners for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. We’re all flawed We’re not perfect and this sin must be dealt with it must be paid for and the way that it is dealt with is through God’s holiness and Jesus delivered us and how did he do that by going to the cross being our substitute? Taking our place. Isaiah 53 5 says he was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes We are healed. How is the love of God and the holiness of God? How are they? compatible and how are they in harmony because though we are sinners and Though we deserve to be in hell because of our sin out of great love God has reached out to us and he has provided a way for us to Experience the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and that he has taken our punishment on the cross He has taken our pain and if we would put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ Then my friends we can experience the true love of Jesus If you have ever doubted whether God loved you I want you to look to the cross if you have ever doubted whether God cares about your plight look to the cross Because Jesus on full display of love he gave his life for you And for me can God’s people say man. Oh Yeah, I love it now God’s provision for salvation Should ever put to rest the notion That God’s love and wrath or holiness are incompatible I Want you to understand that? Unlike us God can do two things at once. Amen. I Was taking prayer requests this morning and some of the people that usually do that We have a little Facebook thing where we keep track of our prayer requests for each other in our Sunday school class I know pastor Mike was listening hearing Trying to type on his little phone to get it in there all by himself and I told him I said look you guys have got to slow down because I can’t take all this at once It’s too many things going on. I got to slow down one thing at a time Ladies, I’m not talking about just manhood. I Know you ladies say well we do all kinds of things At a time I hear you but God can love you and God can still punish sin. Did you know that it’s true? So the second thing I want you to consider this morning is how can a God of holiness? Admit sinful people to heaven now the Bible says that God loves us But the Bible also declares that God is not only God of love but he is a God who is holy and And Someone says well pastor. How can a loving God send people to hell? Well, let me just invert it for you because this is the greater question I want you to consider how can a God of holiness admit sinful people into heaven? That’s the greater question That’s the most amazing thing to me that I’m not worthy of heaven I’m not worthy of salvation I am NOT deserving. I didn’t go to church enough God would say to me Hey Mike because you came 50 times out of the year then you get a straight pass into heaven. That’s not how it works The question is not does God send people to hell that should not shock us But what shocks us is that God would send anybody to heaven because who is worthy to be in heaven? Who is worthy to stand before a holy God and yet? God makes that possible through Jesus Christ and today if you have never received Christ as your Savior this is your moment and it’s as simple as ABC by Acknowledging your sin that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and that be you believe in your heart that Christ died on the cross for your sin and he rose again for your future and Then that you would call upon him and that you would surrender your life to him Whoever calls on the name the Lord shall be saved how wonderful and beautiful that is my friend Don’t go to hell go to heaven through Jesus Christ and believe in him if you have made that decision today go to our website, let us know and Contact us and let us know of your decision to receive Christ. We want to know God’s good work in your life Maybe you’re rededicating your life to him We encourage you to inform us of that so we can send you some materials that will help you in your journey of faith This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ. There is hope worth having. The post Does God Send People to Hell Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2. He will be reading out of 1 Corinthians 15: 42-53. How is it that when we face death that we can keep going forward? It is because of the blessed hope that God has forgiven us of our sins and that whoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re delighted that you’re with us today. We’re looking forward to sharing God’s word with you and we hope that you’ll be really inspired to live for Christ in the days ahead. Now we’re back in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We’re still addressing that question, what kind of bodies will we possess in heaven? So let’s get right into it today. Now friends, there’s a lot of speculation. What will my resurrected body be like? I’ll be sharing a few of those things here in just a second, but I want you to understand we gotta be careful about being dogmatic. Draw the line where the Bible does, but don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t. I got people running around there saying, hey, we’re gonna be 33 and a half. Well, I’d love to lose 21 years, that’d be wonderful. But there’s nothing in the Bible that says that. The Bible actually says that you’ll be known as you are known. And so that’s quite a quandary, that’s quite a conflict. What the Bible says, look again at this verse, it should be up on the screen, that we will be like him. Now it is not saying that you’ll be the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross or when he was resurrected and ascended into heaven. But what it is saying, in qualitative state of having a glorified body, you will have the very same glorified body as Jesus Christ. So be careful. Again, I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of researching, and everybody’s always saying, hey, we can’t be dogmatic about some of these things. And so some of you have children in heaven, and you wonder about your children. You wonder what will they be like. I believe this. They will be known as they are known. And some of you say, well, will I be able to hold my baby again? I am convinced that you will. Now I’m not going to be dogmatic about it, but I am going to say that I believe that one day in this great reunion, some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known. But here’s the beautiful thing. They will have a glorified body, a body that will not be subject to disease. It will not be subject to all the problems of this world. It will be a body that will be glorious, and it will be just like our Savior. Christ is the model for what will happen for all who are found and believe in Jesus Christ. So we know that the Lord’s glorified body was these things. And again, I encourage you to write this down. If you can’t write as fast as I can talk, I understand, but it is on the church app. All my notes are in there, and they are available to you, and you can follow along on this in the church app. But here’s the point. First of all, I want you to see that the glorious body that Jesus had was a body that was not bound by time or space. It is not bound by time or space. The things that I’m going to say to you about the glorious body of Jesus are backed up by Bible verses. They’re not speculative. They’re not just Mike shooting from the hip. They’re coming right out of the Bible. They’re coming right out of the Word of God. The second thing that we learn about the body of our Savior after his resurrection, that it was a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. That’s right. That even in the Gospels we see that in Jesus’ resurrected body he ate food. He fellowshiped with others. He was recognizable. He was knowable. He interact with living people. And I am convinced, friend, that we will enjoy food. People say, Why does God have us eat? Because he wants us to enjoy food. Now, some have enjoyed food more than others, amen, and maybe some need to push away from the table and need to maybe not eat and enjoy so much. But here’s what I want you to understand, is that when you get to heaven, why, there’ll be no calories. Oh, I’m just kidding. There’ll be the wonderful opportunity that Jesus talked about to his disciples before he was crucified and resurrected. He sat there and participated in the Passover, and he transitioned it from the Old Testament to the new covenant in Christ, and it was known as the Lord’s Supper or communion. And he said, This will be the last time on this earth that we will partake of this together until we meet again in heaven. Friends, you and I are going to gather around the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and we will have a great feast, and we will enjoy. People say, What are we going to eat up there? Well, if you ask Dr. Dino Padrone, we’re having spaghetti, amen. If you ask our brother up in Syracuse, Conroy Lewis, who I just saw the other day, he would say, We’re having chicken up in heaven, Pastor. Friends, I don’t know what we’re going to have up in heaven, but I tell you this, it’ll be some of the best eating you’ve ever had. You say, Could it be better than my mother’s cooking? Oh, yeah, it’s going to be glorious because your mother’s cooking is the reason you have that big belly, okay? I’m teasing you, all right? So it’s a body not bound by time or space. It’s a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. It is a body that can never die. Now, friends, this is the hard thing for us. Our bodies are going to die. As a matter of fact, when we go back to our text, we are reminded that in verse 50 of chapter 15, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you have right now, it’s not fit for heaven. How about that? And the reason it’s not fit for heaven is because it is a mortal body. It is a corruptible body. It is a body that is not designed for eternity. And that’s why you have to lay down this body. All of us are going to have to lay down this body. Now, we put so much emphasis on the body that it’s very difficult for us emotionally to lay down this body. But, friends, one day you are going to come to that moment where you lay down this body. It’s not that it’s the end of you because your soul and spirit lives forever. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? But, friends, one day God’s going to raise your body. He’s going to remake it into an immortal, incorruptible body. Look again at verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be what, church? For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That is what is waiting for us. That’s the body that Jesus had after his resurrection. Number four, I want you to learn that it is a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. It’s a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. Because it is a glorified body, it is a body that brings the utmost glory to God. There is a brilliance to this body. And, again, we provide these scriptures for you. I hope they’re up there on the PowerPoint or in the app, and you can research this, and you can study this, and see if the things that the pastor says is true. And I think you will find them to be. But just in that understanding of the body, this is enough to let me know that I want one of those bodies someday, man. I want that body. Now, the first thing that we learn together is that our resurrected body is gonna be like Jesus’ resurrected body. He is our pattern. He is our model. But, number two, the resurrected body of believers is a literal body. It’s not just a body that is spiritual. People say, well, we believe in the resurrection, pastor, but we don’t believe it’s a physical resurrection. We just believe it’s a spiritual resurrection. I wanna help you with that a little bit. First of all, I remind you, in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 39, again, Jesus said, in his resurrected body, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. If we’ve already concluded that our body is gonna be like Christ’s resurrected body, then Christ’s resurrected body was one in which he not only told him to see it, but he told him to handle it or touch it. He told him that it was a physical body. It was a body of flesh and bones. It was a body that had the flesh, a glorified flesh, and a glorified structure of the bones. It was a literal body, because the spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. All saints will be reconstructed. We go back to verse 50, and again, I’m gonna read a few verses here just to help us out a little bit. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. How beautiful. Now, what does this mean? What does this mean that God is saying that we’re gonna have a literal body? Friends, I want you to understand that he’s helping us, and you go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you go back and he talks about verse 44, that it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. What does this mean, pastor? What does this mean? What does this mean? He’s talking again, and I’ll bring more light to this, but again, he’s not talking about that it’s just gonna be a spirit, but it’s gonna be spiritual in that the Spirit of God is going to raise this body just like the Spirit of God raised our Savior, but it’s a body that is not like the body you have in this sense. It cannot experience death. It cannot experience decay. It cannot experience disease. Some of you say, man, I can’t see as good as I used to. Why would Glenn get up here and say, man, I love these new pew Bibles? I never had anybody say that before. Well, that’s because when he gets up here, he can’t see, and he has to keep getting closer and closer and closer, and some of you are doing that even at your home. You’re getting closer and closer, so we got larger print. Now, why did we get larger print? Because the pastor one day picked up one of these Bibles and said, man, I can’t read it. I can’t see, and I put the edict out there. Order some new pew Bibles and make sure that they’re larger font so we can read because us old people, well, not quite. I still have a year, according to Jerry. I’m 54. He only takes old people that are 55 and up, but he’s gonna make an exception for me. How about that? I can’t see that well, but he told me to drive the bus. We’re gonna have good times. Listen, your body is decaying, and we are experiencing things. People say, why is there disease in this world? Why is there cancer? Why does this thing happen to this person or that person? Friends, I’m just here to tell you, it’s not that they did anything wrong or that they did anything right. Maybe they shouldn’t have drank as much Mountain Dew as maybe the other person didn’t. I don’t know, but all I am saying is this, that these bodies don’t live forever, and they get diseased, and some of you, you woke up this morning, and your ankle hurts, and some of you, your hip hurts, and some of you, your shoulder hurts, and some of you, you’re still trying to find what you lost. You’re still looking for it because you got one of those extra parts, and so you went out there, and you said, give me that, where is that thing at? But anyways, our bodies don’t last forever. That’s what Paul means. All that’s going away. That’s going away. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified body of flesh. It’s a glorified body of flesh. Again, let’s go back to, I wanted to read verse 44. I was kind of getting a little bit ahead of myself, but here’s what I want you to see. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. To have a spiritual body is not to have a body that’s made out of spiritual stuff, but it is a body that God gives to us that is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. The idea behind the word spiritual in the Greek is one of control or one of guidance, not substance. Please understand that. I think Romans 8-11 helps us to see that. Look, Romans 8-11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, remember, who is it that raised Jesus from the dead? The spirit of the Father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, look back at verse 37 of chapter 15. Look back there. Go ahead and join me. Look back at verse 37 and 38, and here, notice what it says. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that it shall be but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain, but God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. So again, the apostle takes time to make analogies, and he’ll use analogies of animals, and he uses analogy of the plant life and seeds, and he’s saying that our body is sown into the ground, just like a seed is sown into the ground. When you plant that seed into the ground, what emerges? Well, we hope, at least those of you that have a green thumb, we hope that a beautiful plant comes forward. I mean, you don’t want a dandelion, do you? You want a beautiful plant, a beautiful tree, something that is meaningful to you? Here’s what the apostle is doing. He is saying this. When God puts us in the ground, we are like a seed, and that what comes forth out of that when God brings the resurrection will be more beautiful than the seed. Your resurrected body will be more beautiful than the seed. This body is a seed that is gonna be sown into the ground. It will decay. Dust to dust, the Bible says. Ashes to ashes. It will decay. But one day, God is gonna take that, and he is going to fashion something more beautiful, something more glorious, something that is immortal, something that is incorruptible, and so these mortal bodies that we have will be changed into immortal ones, and our glorified bodies will shine like the brilliance of 10,000 suns. Some of you missed the eclipse. You forgot about it, but the eclipse, the sun was covered, and the brilliance of the sun was hard to see, but friends, hear me. When your body is glorified and immortal, it’ll have the glory and the shine and the brilliance of 10,000 suns. What a day that will be. Now, the final thing that I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified version of the same body that died and was buried. All believers will wear a glorified body at the resurrection. The old body will become the new body, but it will be your body. You might say, how is this possible? Again, are you putting a lid on God? Are you limiting God and saying that he could never do this? Some people say, Pastor, what about cremation? Is there anything wrong with that in the Bible? No, there’s nothing. The Bible doesn’t really address it. I tell people you can do it the quick way or the slow way. You can put your body in the ground, and it’s going to eventually go back to dust to dust and ashes to ashes, or you can expedite things and go dust to dust, ashes to ashes as quick as you want. Let me tell you something. It doesn’t matter, because it will not hinder God, because he will take that, and he will fashion him a new glorious body for you. He will fashion a body that is beautiful. It’ll be your same body that you had, but it’ll be glorious. That’s why we will be known as we are known, because we will be identifiable. Jesus was identifiable. He was one that they could recognize, and they understood who he was. And so it is for you and I, as we interact with our loved ones in heaven, as we are in our resurrected state, people are going to say, I know that guy. I know that guy. Have you ever been somewhere and said, man, I know that person, but I can’t remember their name? I mean, the other day I was out there somewhere. Who knows where I was, but I was somewhere, and somebody waved, and I thought I knew them, but I didn’t know them, and I waved back, but they weren’t waving to me. They were waving to somebody else. Oh, you talk about embarrassing. You see, the Lord knows how to keep us humble, doesn’t he? And so there I was waving, thinking that I knew them and they knew me. Friends, if I can’t remember your name, I want you to know that you’re my buddy. I just say, hey, buddy, I can’t remember your name. I mean, you’re my buddy now, all right? And so that’s how we roll. But I’m just telling you that you and I are blessed in that God is gonna take our body, and he’s gonna resurrect it. He’s going to renew it. It is described in the Bible as something of a new creation out of an old creation. So again, we go back to verse 51, and I want you to see this, because it’s not like that God is not using your old body. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, and that’s a whole nother sermon. You people say, Pastor, what’s that mean? It’s a whole nother sermon. You got another couple hours? I didn’t think so, but just focus on this. We shall all be chained, okay? So that’s what he’s talking about. Look at verse 53. This current corruptible body, it’s incorruptible. This current mortal body, it becomes immortal. So that’s beautiful, and we think about that. 2 Corinthians 5.1 helps us to grasp this a little bit better. The Bible says, for we know that if our earthly house, which is our current body, this tent is destroyed. How is it destroyed? Just time could destroy it. Just got old. The tires are wore out. It’s just got old. We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That’s what God has for us. That’s what we’re thinking about, and so I tell people, would you be okay to lay down this tent of a body so that you could inherit an eternal house from God that’ll be more glorious, more beautiful, and it’ll be more functional, and it’ll never get tired? Did you know we’re gonna work in heaven? And I know that bums some of you out, because all your life, you’ve been working towards retirement. You’ve been waiting for the day that you could wake up, and every day is Saturday to you, and you’re retired. And one guy said to me, he said, I’m more busy in retirement than I was ever when I was working, Pastor. And that’s true, I understand that. But you’re maybe longing for that day that you don’t have to work, but guess what? When you get to heaven, you’re gonna work, but here’s the difference. You’re never going to be tired. You’re gonna have a job from God. You’re gonna have an assignment from God. It’s gonna be based on your faithfulness and obedience now. It’s gonna be based upon the gifts and talents he’s given you, and it’s gonna be based upon his plan for you. You’re gonna have a job. New heaven, new earth, the Bible says. New heaven, new earth. I’ve been asking God, why don’t you put me in charge of all the golf courses? Because I’m the worst golfer at the open door church. Not one member has ever let me win, not one. They’ve all came in, pounced on me, and destroyed me, and left me flailing in the wind. And not even my own kids would let me win. Their poor old, crepid dad, they’re out there. I said, hey, there was a day when I had to give up basketball. Then it was that day when Austin took that basketball, my oldest son, and we were out in the driveway, and he jumped up, and he dunked it right over my face. And he said to me, dad, I just posterized you. I said, what’s that mean? He said, that’s a picture that we could put on a poster. And I said, I’m done. And I thought, well, I’ll teach him how to play golf. I’ll teach him how to play golf. That’s something I could always beat him at, and that’s something that we could always do, even when dad is old and crepid. But you know what, friends? They destroy me. I mean, I try to get it out there 150, 200 yards. They’re out there knocking it 300 yards. And I’m still back at the tee when they’re up there at the green, ready to putt and say, come on, dad. We gotta hurry up. There’s people waiting behind us. I said, I’m just trying to find my ball. Where did it go? But friends, I want you to know that we are a blessed people because God is gonna take what we have, and he’s gonna give us this new body. And someone might ask the question, how can a Christian have so much confidence in the face of death? Because the Bible says here in verse 55, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades or hell, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. And then the apostle says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now look, he’s saying, don’t quit. Keep going forward. How is it that when we face death and we face the struggles and the problems of this world that we can keep going forward? It is because of the blessed hope, and the blessed hope is not only inclusive that we have our salvation, that God has forgiven us of our sins, and that whoever believes in the name of the Lord shall be saved, the Bible says, but we also have the hope that we’re getting brand new bodies. We’re getting brand new bodies that are going to be glorious and immortal. How else can we have hope and confidence in the face of death? It is because what the Bible says here that death no longer has a sting, and hell no longer has a victory. And how is that, friends? Because we still do funerals, and still people die, and still we deal with the problems of suffering and the sting seems to be so evident in our lives. Let me tell you how it is by illustrating it this way. One time, a bee got into the car of a father and his son, and the son was melting down, freaking out, yelling, and screaming. And the dad said, calm down. He said, Dad, there’s a bee, and I don’t want it to sting me. He turned around, grabbed the bee, took the sting, and let the bee out the window. And he said, Son, the bee no longer has a sting. Jesus Christ went to the cross for your sins and my sins, and he took the sting. He took the poison of death and the curse of sin and the curse of the law and the demand that sin be paid for and punished on the cross. Jesus took it for you, and he took it for me. My friends, there’s coming a day when Jesus will raise our bodies up, and not only will the sting be taken away spiritually, but it’ll be taken away physically, and it’ll all pass away, and you and I will not understand death anymore because we will know no death. And when the Bible describes heaven, that it is a place there is no sorrow, there is no sadness, and there is no more. May it be true in your heart that you have applied the work of Christ to your heart in which he took the sting of death away, and you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior. ♪♪ It’s quite amazing when you think about the resurrected body. We talked about it being eternal, immortal, but incorruptible, a body that does not decay. How wonderful is that? You’re not gonna wake up with arthritis. You’re not gonna wake up with pains. You are going to enjoy the blessedness of a brand-new, immortal, incorruptible body. We hope today that you will continue to go to our website and sign up for our newsletter. HopeWorthHaving.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter, and you can find out what things are going on, what events, activities, and ministries are going on at the Hope Worth Having ministry. So take advantage of that, and we look forward to hearing from you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven. He will be reading out of 1 Corinthians 15: 42-53. Some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known, but here’s the beautiful thing, they will have a glorified body. It’s time for Hope Worth Having radio program. My name is Mike Sanders, senior pastor of the Open Door Church, and we’re excited that you could join us. Today we are going back to a study on heaven, and so the question before us is, what kind of bodies will we possess in heaven? We’re gonna be in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 42 through 53, and what will our bodies be like? That’s a great question, so let’s get into the Word of God and find out. Let’s take our Bibles this morning and let’s go to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 42 through 53 will be our text. As you’re turning there, I remind you that we’ve been in this series of five questions about heaven and five questions about hell, and this is the last question on heaven. We are addressing it today, and that is simply the question, what kind of bodies will we possess when we are in heaven? What kind of bodies will we possess? Now, when we come to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, we are reminded that the purpose of this chapter is the apostle wants to answer questions that the leadership of the church has sent to him about specifically the resurrection. Now, unfortunately, there were some in the church at Corinth who did not even believe in any kind of a resurrection, and then there were those that only believed in a spiritual resurrection but not a bodily resurrection. So it is with those questions and thoughts and understanding that the apostle writes 1st Corinthians chapter 15 under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Now, sometimes when we think about bodily resurrection, it’s hard for us to conceive it. It’s hard for us to fully understand it. We taught you many weeks ago that when our loved ones leave this world and they are promoted to heaven, their soul and spirit goes to be with God. The Bible tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We have the misconception that sometimes the body, soul, and spirit immediately goes to be with God, but that’s not true. Just the soul and spirit. There will be a resurrection. Jesus taught us that he would raise us up in the last day. The apostle Paul said, the dead in Christ shall rise. There is coming a time when the soul and the spirit and the body will be reunited in a resurrection, and then there will be that body, soul, and spirit living with God throughout all of eternity. Yet some are of the persuasion that there will never be a uniting of their soul and their spirit, and that their body will always remain in the ground, and it will never be resurrected. But I want you to know that the teaching of the resurrection of the body of the believer in Jesus Christ is a foundational teaching in Christianity. It is central to the Christian’s blessed hope. We believe without a doubt that not only did Jesus Christ rise from the tomb, that Jesus Christ bodily was resurrected, but we also believe that we, as followers of Christ, will one day experience the same resurrection, which takes me to my first point that I want us to learn as we try to understand what kind of bodies will we possess, and that is that Jesus’ resurrected body is the pattern or the model for our resurrected body. Now, let’s pick up in verse 42, and let’s begin to read together in this passage. The Bible says, So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam, which is referring to Christ, became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward, the spiritual. The first man was on the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. And was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. Verse 49, And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. Now, this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Now, I want you to go back to verse 49 again, and I want you to see this emphasis that the apostle makes as he says to us, and as we have borne the image of the man of dust, which is Adam, and he says, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man, which is Jesus Christ. In essence, what the apostle was teaching us, that our resurrected bodies will reflect the resurrected body of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We jump back to verse 23 of chapter 15. Just back up for me, if you will. As the apostle was teaching about the resurrection, he is teaching the order in which the resurrection will take place, in that there are many different resurrections in the scripture. We’ve taught you that before, and we went through those different resurrections. But here, the apostle reminds us of that order, verse 23, but each one in his own order, Christ, the firstfruits. Afterward, those who are Christ at his coming, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God, the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. Go back to verse 23, that phrase, Christ, the firstfruits. What is he talking about, the firstfruits? The farmers in the Middle East, when they would see the firstfruits of their crop, they would understand, not that it was the first resurrection in order relating to, I ran the race and I was first, but rather the first in quality. He was talking about, this will be the kind of resurrection that you will have. You will have the same resurrection that Christ has had. We know that Jesus was not the first to be resurrected. If we’re students of the Bible, we know that Lazarus himself, in John chapter 11, was resurrected before Jesus Christ. We go back to the Old Testament and we’re reminded that Elijah the prophet laid over a child and that child was resurrected from death. So we’re not talking about first in the sense of, I ran the race and I was first, but we’re talking about the firstfruits, the first kind of resurrection. What’s the distinction between the resurrection of Christ and all resurrections that had preceded the resurrection of Christ? It is simply this, that the resurrection of Christ was a resurrection unto life. And all other resurrections before that were resurrections unto death. Meaning, yes, Lazarus was resurrected, but Lazarus had to die again. But when Christ was resurrected, he was resurrected forever and he is alive forevermore. And what the apostle is saying is that your resurrection is going to be like the resurrection of Christ. And that in this understanding that it is the firstfruits, that is that all resurrections that come after the resurrection of Christ are resurrections unto life. So Jesus’s resurrection, as well as his body that was resurrected, is a pattern for us. And again, verse 49 certainly teaches us that as we have learned. So the body is destined to perish, but the Bible tells us it will be made like the body of our Lord. You say, what do you mean? Well, again, Philippians 3.21, the Bible says, who will transform our lowly body. Let me just stop there. That our body that is limited a body that you now live in that is selfish and sinful, a body that is subject to disease and viruses, a body that is not immortal or incorruptible, but a body as much as you dislike it, it is dying every day. And I know that many of you are doing everything you can to keep your body new and to somehow find the fountain of youth. But friends, time will catch up with you as it has everybody. And so when the apostle says in Philippians 3.21, who will transform our lowly body, we understand that, that it may be conformed to his glorious body that is the body of Jesus according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. When the Bible says he is able to subdue all things to himself, it is talking about the authority of Christ, and it is talking about the power of Christ, meaning that God not only has the authority to raise your body, your lowly body, and to transform it into a new body, he has the power to do that. And you say, I don’t know, Mike, I don’t know if I can embrace that. I don’t know if I can believe that. Are you telling me the God of this universe who created the heavens and the earth, and he from the dust of the earth created Adam and Eve, you’re telling me that he cannot raise our bodies into a new resurrected body? Oh, friends, I’m here to tell you that God is able, and he can do great and mighty things. You and I will one day be changed perfectly. Our loved ones who love Jesus Christ, and their soul and spirit is even now in the presence of God, enjoying all the blessings that come with that, one day they will be changed perfectly. Their bodies will. When this change comes, God will remake us into the image of our glorified savior, Jesus Christ. Hang on to this verse. First John 3, two says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. So much to unpack in just this verse. Don’t have enough time, but let me just give you a few things to remind you. It has not appeared as yet what we will be. Now, friends, there’s a lot of speculation. What will my resurrected body be like? I’ll be sharing a few of those things here in just a second, but I want you to understand, we gotta be careful about being dogmatic. Draw the line where the Bible does, but don’t draw the line where the Bible doesn’t. I got people running around there saying, hey, we’re gonna be 33 and a half. Well, I’d love to lose 21 years, that’d be wonderful, but there’s nothing in the Bible that says that. The Bible actually says that you’ll be known as you are known. And so that’s quite a quandary. That’s quite a conflict. What the Bible says, look again at this verse, it should be up on the screen, that we will be like him. Now, it is not saying that you’ll be the same age as Jesus when he died on the cross, or when he was resurrected and ascended into heaven, but what it is saying in qualitative state of having a glorified body, you will have the very same glorified body as Jesus Christ. So be careful. Again, I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of researching, and everybody’s always saying, hey, we can’t be dogmatic about some of these things. And so some of you have children in heaven, and you wonder about your children. You wonder what will they be like? I believe this, they will be known as they are known. And some of you say, well, will I be able to hold my baby again? I am convinced that you will. Now, I’m not gonna be dogmatic about it, but I am gonna say that I believe that one day in this great reunion, some of you have spouses, some of you have parents, and you have family members that are so dear to you, siblings that have been close friends to you, and you will know them as they are known, but here’s the beautiful thing. They will have a glorified body, a body that will not be subject to disease. It will not be subject to all the problems of this world. It’ll be a body that’ll be glorious, and it’ll be just like our Savior. Christ is the model for what will happen for all who are found and believe in Jesus Christ. So we know that the Lord’s glorified body was these things. And again, I encourage you to write this down. If you can’t write as fast as I can talk, I understand, but it is on the church app. All my notes are in there, and they are available to you, and you can follow along on this in the church app. But here’s the point. First of all, I want you to see that the glorious body that Jesus had was a body that was not bound by time or space. It is not bound by time or space. The things that I’m gonna say to you about the glorious body of Jesus are backed up by Bible verses. They’re not speculative. They’re not just Mike shooting from the hip. They’re coming right out of the Bible. They’re coming right out of the word of God. The second thing that we learn about the body of our Savior after his resurrection, that it was a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. That’s right. That even in the Gospels, we see that in Jesus’s resurrected body, he ate food. He fellowshiped with others. He was recognizable. He was knowable. He interact with living people. And I am convinced, friend, that we will enjoy food. People say, why does God have us eat? Because he wants us to enjoy food. Now, some have enjoyed food more than others, amen? And maybe some need to push away from the table and need to maybe not eat and enjoy so much. But here’s what I want you to understand is that when you get to heaven, why, there’ll be no calories. Oh, I’m just kidding. There’ll be the wonderful opportunity that Jesus talked about to his disciples before he was crucified and resurrected. He sat there and participated in the Passover and he transitioned it from the Old Testament to the New Covenant in Christ. And it was known as the Lord’s Supper or communion. And he said, this will be the last time on this earth that we will partake of this together until we meet again in heaven. Friends, you and I are gonna gather around the great table at the marriage supper of the Lamb and we will have a great feast and we will enjoy. People say, what are we gonna eat up there? Well, if you ask Dr. Dino Padrone, we’re having spaghetti. Amen? If you ask our brother up in Syracuse, Conroy Lewis, who I just saw the other day, he would say, we’re having chicken up in heaven, pastor. Friends, I don’t know what we’re gonna have up in heaven, but I tell you this, it’ll be some of the best eating you’ve ever had. You say, could it be better than my mother’s cooking? Oh yeah, it’s gonna be glorious because your mother’s cooking is the reason you have that big belly. Okay? I’m teasing you. All right, so it’s a body not bound by time or space. It’s a body that can enjoy food and fellowship. It is a body that can never die. Now friends, this is the hard thing for us. Our bodies are going to die. As a matter of fact, when we go back to our text, we are reminded that in verse 50 of chapter 15, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body that you have right now, it’s not fit for heaven. How about that? And the reason it’s not fit for heaven is because it is a mortal body. It is a corruptible body. It is a body that is not designed for eternity. And that’s why you have to lay down this body. All of us are going to have to lay down this body. Now we put so much emphasis on the body that it’s very difficult for us emotionally to lay down this body. But friends, one day you are going to come to that moment where you lay down this body. It’s not that it’s the end of you because your soul and spirit lives forever. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? But friends, one day God’s going to raise your body. He’s going to remake it into an immortal, incorruptible body. Look again at verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible. And we shall be what church? For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. That is what is waiting for us. That’s the body that Jesus had after his resurrection. Number four, I want you to learn that it is a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance. It’s a body that shines with a heavenly brilliance because it is a glorified body. It is a body that brings the utmost glory to God. There is a brilliance to this body. And again, we provide these scriptures for you. I hope they’re up there on the PowerPoint or in the app and you can research this and you can study this and see if the things that the pastor says is true. And I think you will find them to be. But just in that understanding of the body, this is enough to let me know that I want one of those bodies someday, man. I want that body. Now, the first thing that we learn together is that our resurrected body is gonna be like Jesus’s resurrected body. He is our pattern. He is our model. But number two, the resurrected body of believers is a literal body. It’s not just a body that is spiritual. People say, well, we believe in the resurrection, pastor, but we don’t believe it’s a physical resurrection. We just believe it’s a spiritual resurrection. I wanna help you with that a little bit. First of all, I remind you in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, verse 39. Again, Jesus said in his resurrected body, behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see me, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. If we’ve already concluded that our body is gonna be like Christ’s resurrected body, then Christ’s resurrected body was one in which he not only told him to see it, but he told him to handle it or touch it. He told him that it was a physical body. It was a body of flesh and bones. It was a body that had the flesh, a glorified flesh, and a glorified structure of the bones. It was a literal body because the spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. All saints will be reconstructed. We go back to verse 50, and again, I’m gonna read a few verses here just to help us out a little bit. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. How beautiful. Now, what does this mean? What does this mean that God is saying that we’re gonna have a literal body? Friends, I want you to understand that he’s helping us, and you go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and you go back and he talks about verse 44, that it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. What does this mean, pastor? What does this mean? What does this mean? He’s talking again, and I’ll bring more light to this, but again, he’s not talking about that it’s just gonna be a spirit, but it’s gonna be spiritual in that the Spirit of God is going to raise this body just like the Spirit of God raised our Savior, but it’s a body that is not like the body you have in this sense. It cannot experience death. It cannot experience decay. It cannot experience disease. Some of you say, man, I can’t see as good as I used to. Why would Glenn get up here and say, man, I love these new pew Bibles? I never had anybody say that before. Well, that’s because when he gets up here, he can’t see, and he has to keep getting closer and closer and closer, and some of you are doing that even at your home. You’re getting closer and closer, so we got larger print. Now, why did we get larger print? Because the pastor one day picked up one of these Bibles and said, man, I can’t read it. I can’t see, and I put the edict out there. Order some new pew Bibles and make sure that they’re larger font so we can read because us old people. Well, not quite. I still have a year according to Jerry. I’m 54. He only takes old people that are 55 and up, but he’s gonna make an exception for me. How about that? I can’t see that well, but he told me to drive the bus. We’re gonna have good times. Listen, your body is decaying, and we are experiencing things. People say, why is there disease in this world? Why is there cancer? Why does this thing happen to this person or that person? Friends, I’m just here to tell you it’s not that they did anything wrong or that they did anything right. Maybe they shouldn’t have drank as much Mountain Dew as maybe the other person didn’t. I don’t know, but all I am saying is this, that these bodies don’t live forever, and they get diseased. And some of you, you woke up this morning and your ankle hurts, and some of you, your hip hurts, and some of you, your shoulder hurts, and some of you, you’re still trying to find what you lost. You’re still looking for it because you got one of those extra parts, and so you went out there and you said, give me that, where is that thing at? But anyways, our bodies don’t last forever. That’s what Paul means. All that’s going away. That’s going away. The third thing I want you to learn this morning is that the resurrection body is a glorified body of flesh. It’s a glorified body of flesh. Again, let’s go back to, I wanted to read verse 44. I was kind of getting a little bit ahead of myself, but here’s what I want you to see. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. To have a spiritual body is not to have a body that’s made out of spiritual stuff, but it is a body that God gives to us that is controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. The idea behind the word spiritual in the Greek is one of control or one of guidance, not substance. Please understand that. I think Romans 8-11 helps us to see that. Look, Romans 8-11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, remember, who is it that raised Jesus from the dead? The spirit of the father who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Now, look back at verse 37 of chapter 15. Look back there. Go ahead and join me. Look back at verse 37 and 38, and here, notice what it says. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that it shall be, but mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he pleases and to each seed its own body. It’s quite amazing when you think about the resurrected body. We talked about it being eternal, immortal, but incorruptible, a body that does not decay. How wonderful is that? You’re not gonna wake up with arthritis. You’re not gonna wake up with pains. You are going to enjoy the blessedness of a brand new, immortal, incorruptible body. The apostle describes that in 1 Corinthians 15. We encourage you to go even further in our study and go deeper and just contemplate and think about what it means to possess a new body in heaven. It’s gonna be glorious. We hope today that you will continue to go to our website and sign up for our newsletter. HopeWorthHaving.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter and you can find out what things are going on, what events, activities, and ministries are going on at the Hope Worth Having ministry, so take advantage of that. And we look forward to hearing from you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post What Kind of Bodies Will We Possess in Heaven first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 20: 7-10. When God promotes you as a believer, Jesus has the authority to bring you through those beautiful gates and into the presence of God and reunited with your family and your friends. Can God’s people say amen? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. This is the Hope Worth Having radio program. Thank you for tuning in. We’re excited that you could be with us today. And we’re going to continue our topic on hell. And the question is, are the fires of hell literal? We’re in Revelation chapter 20, verse 7 through 10. And let’s open our Bibles and let’s get into study this interesting topic. Those who have refused to believe in Christ even now are in a what we might refer to as a temporary hell. We have taught you about the five different names for hell. The New Testament often refers to this temporary hell as Hades, sometimes even Gehenna. And it is a place in the Old Testament was called Sheol, and it was the abiding of the dead, the place of the dead. And that is a place that they go as believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Can God’s people say amen? And so we are in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ, and we are enjoying all the blessings and rewards that God has for us. But those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. What awaits for them is not only a hell that is separated from God, but a place that the Bible refers to as the Lake of Fire. The Lake of Fire, the eternal destination of the devil and all of his demons and those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Now, the question before us this morning, as we have been learning about hell in the Bible, is are the fires of hell literal? There are many, even within evangelical Christianity, who would say to you that when the Bible refers to hell, it’s all figurative, that it is not literal or it is not even real. Well, I want to share with you, first of all, the argument for a literal fire. Note again that Jesus said in Matthew 25, verse 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. You understand that the devil rose up against Almighty God. You understand, we’ve already taught you that the Scriptures teach us that the devil was filled with pride in heaven and he was cast out and a third of the angels with him. These are his demonic forces that are crisscrossing this world, causing so much chaos in this world. The devil’s desire, Jesus taught us, was to kill and to destroy. Never forget that it is the devil’s desire to destroy your family, to destroy your life, and to destroy your testimony, and to make a mess of this world. I think he’s doing a pretty good job. I hate to say that. I hate to say that. The world is in chaos, the world is in confusion, but it is only setting the table for the Antichrist to come in with all the solutions and all the answers and claim to be the one who can bring peace. But it’s a pseudo, it’s a false, it’s a fake peace. We know that. That’s why I tell you that Jesus taught us this. He taught us what it would be like and what the circumstances and what the environment would be like before his return, which would be at the end of the tribulation. But Jesus describes this day of judgment in Matthew 25, and he describes those who are cast into this lake of fire as an everlasting fire. You remember that we taught you that the Bible describes hell also as Gehenna, and Gehenna was an actual burning place outside of Jerusalem. It was in the valley of Gehenna, and it was adjacent, just south of Jerusalem, and it was a place where we might call it a burn pile. Now, every once in a while, I might drive around our county and different people will be burning trash, and the smoke gets everywhere, and I start hacking and coughing, and they mess me up for at least two weeks, amen? Trying to figure all that out. The church used to have a burn pile, and finally the fire department said, please stop. Please stop burning all that trash. You say, where would all that trash come from? Well, if you have a Christian school of 500 students, there is a lot of trash. Don’t be upset, students, but I’m just saying there’s a lot of wear and tear. There’s a lot of food. There’s a lot of eating. There’s a lot of paper plates. There’s a lot of stuff that has to be thrown away, and it has to be gotten rid of, and sometimes we would burn some of that trash. I want you in your mind to understand that there was a place south of Jerusalem called Gehenna. As Jesus spoke about hell, he would reference this burn pile, this place where it was constantly burning. It was such a massive place of burning. They not only put their trash there. The pagans would put their dead bodies in this burn pile, and it was just constantly burning and burning, and Jesus is referencing to us that he is teaching about hell, that it is a place of fire. It is a place where there is constant burning. Now, one might ask two questions relating to that, which I think are really good questions, and I appreciate that there is thinking going on, amen? It’s good to see people come into the church and not take their thinking cap off and to have some good questions, but we know, first of all, Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness, and yet he describes it as a place where there is an eternal fire. We know that fire gives off light, and so how is this possible that fire could be literal, and yet it be a place of outer darkness? Well, friends, there is some kind of a unique fire that God is going to create that does not give off light. The second question you might have about this being a burning fire is we know that fire consumes. It consumes, and yet Jesus described this place of eternal fire in hell as a place that does not consume. You remember Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom, which was one of the names that was often referred to. The rich man was there in this burning place. Lazarus was Abraham’s bosom, and there the rich man looked up, and he wanted just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue because the fire, the flames that he was in, and so Jesus is helping us to understand that this unique fire is not going to be exactly like the fire that you and I see and that we use for cooking, or we might use to burn trash, or we might use it in some other fashion, but it is a unique fire that is everlasting, and definitely it is punishment, and definitely people can sense it. They can see it. They can feel it, and it has an impact upon them because the Bible is so clear about that, that it’s definitely a place, though, that does not consume. Now again, someone might say, well, our bodies. You know, I taught last week about how one day as believers, that when we die, our soul and spirit is separated from our body, and we go into the presence of heaven, and then one day there’ll be a resurrection. Your body is not immediately in heaven when you get there, but your soul and spirit is with Jesus Christ. Your body comes. Remember at the rapture, the Bible says, the dead in Christ shall rise, and your soul and spirit is reunited with this new body, this glorified body. The Bible describes all this in 1st Corinthians, and it is a glorified body that is resurrected. So your soul and spirit is reunited, and now you’re in heaven with body, soul, and spirit. Now this was put out there, and of course, sometimes I read. I know I shouldn’t, but I read the social media sometimes, what people saying, and people just saying, no, there is no resurrection of the dead. You know, in my mind, I don’t respond, but in my mind, I got to think, does anybody read the Bible anymore? Because the Bible not only teaches us that believers’ bodies will be resurrected, but the Bible teaches us that unbelievers’ bodies will be resurrected. So what is unique in this final stop for unbelievers in this lake of fire is that not only will their soul and spirit be there, but the Bible teaches us in John chapter 5 that the unbelievers’ body will be resurrected, and that they will be cast into the lake of fire, soul, spirit, and body into this lake of fire. Jesus said in Matthew 13, verse 41 and 42, the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now if you believe that the fire is symbolic or that it is something that is metaphorical in describing the punishment of those who reject Jesus Christ, I propose this question to you. Do people use symbols because the reality is less or more than the symbol? I want you to think of like this. If I were to say that my wife is the diamond of my life, I’m not limiting her to a diamond’s value. I’m just saying that she’s even more than a diamond to me. I’m trying to illustrate. So we use symbols, we use metaphors in our life, and if Jesus, if for any reason, if he were to somehow say, I’m gonna use the fire as a metaphor, do you think that he meant that that was just the limitation of that metaphor of the punishment? I think it’s even worse. I think Jesus was wanting us to know and understand that hell is even worse than what can be described in the human language. The teaching of hell is meant to appall us. It is meant to fill us with godly fear. It is designed to shake us. It is designed to persuade us that though heaven will be better than what we could ever dream, hell will be worse than what we could ever imagine. And so I am a strong believer that the fire in hell is literal. Now let’s understand the literal interpretation because I believe it is the most straightforward understanding of the scriptures. There are many times people like to come to the Bible and rather than believing what it says, they want to explain it away. They want to explain away the horror of hell. They want to explain away the punishment of hell because in their mind they cannot conceive. And I’m here to tell you I believe that it’s even worse than what Jesus said. That the human language limited him to how horrible hell is. Now the Bible describes hell as a place of fire. I’ve already read you several verses but here’s another one Luke 16. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. As we mentioned to you already, it is this flame of fire that is tormenting this rich man. It is not consuming him but it is tormenting him. Hell is described as a place of fire and darkness. We see this again in the book of Jude and we see it again in Matthew chapter 8. So my question is simply this, why not take the Bible at face value? Why not let the Bible simply speak for itself? What is the testimony of the Bible? I know that there are people with many letters after their names and before their names and maybe underneath and maybe on top of their names and they’ll come out and tell you. I mean I just read an article by a scholar who claimed that hell, A, was not real and the fires were just metaphorical. But I’m here to tell you that this is what the Bible says. Now you have to make a decision. Revelation 20 verse 15 says whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I read that verse and I believe it and I believe that God meant what he said and that he says what he means. Now I know that Jesus used illustrations and I know that he used symbolism to get his point across. You remember that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 that if your hand offends you, cut it off. He said that if your eye offends you, pluck it out. I do not think that Jesus was saying that you and I need to literally cut our hands off or even pluck out our eyes, but what he is saying is that whatever is causing you to sin, whatever is leading you down the path that you are sinning against God, get it out of your life. Perhaps even a person, get them out of your life. And for some of you, it might be that you need to take that cell phone and you need to cast it as far as the east is from the west. Amen? I didn’t get a lot of amens. Whatever it is, the devil knows our weaknesses. He knows what temptations are most effective upon us and there are times that you and I need to be alert to that. If there are things that are hindering us from following Christ obediently and honoring him in our life, we need to get those out and I think that Jesus was speaking in that way. I think he was explaining in that way. Jesus said, I am a door. He didn’t mean he was a literal door. He was saying, I am the entryway to heaven. I am the way to heaven. Jesus said that he was the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but through him. And so we understand when he describes that symbolism and he uses it often, but when it comes to hell and understanding the context of his teaching, I do not see any effort on Jesus’s part to use the fires as something as being symbolic or metaphorical. The other reason that I believe in a literal fire is not only that I believe what the Bible says and I believe it is the most straightforward in what God is teaching us, is that a figurative interpretation of the fire undermines biblical authority. Again, I’m just pounding you with one verse after another and you have to make this decision. Is the Bible right or the Bible wrong? Is the Bible true or the Bible false? Revelation 21 8, but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. I don’t think there’s any figurative interpretation of this. I think this is literal and I think for me to deny this is to deny the Bible, is to deny what the Word of God says. In effect, we are setting ourselves above Scripture and we are putting ourselves in a position and saying that we have the right to judge Scripture. That we have the right and the authority to decide what the Bible says and I think that’s a huge mistake in our life and it will lead down to a path of us becoming liberal in our thinking and application of the Word of God. Again, the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 33 14, the sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has ceased the godless. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with the everlasting burning? Jude 1 7, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serves as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. So again, Jude says, hey, Sodom and Gomorrah is a example to us. Here’s my question, if you don’t believe in the literal fire, do you believe that God literally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you believe that he destroyed them in the fire? That he judged them for their immorality? It’s important for us to realize that we can’t say, well, in this part of the Bible, it was literal, but this part is not. We have to take the Bible at face value and we have to say this is what the Bible says and that God literally meant that he would punish unbelievers with eternal fire. Now, what I think is the most important part of my message to you this morning, I know it’s a lot to digest and I know there’s many different ways that you might have questions and we’re glad to work on those with you, but we only have so much time and I know you don’t want to stay all day listening to me teach on hell, amen? Here’s what I want to leave you with, how can I avoid hell? I believe hell is real and I believe the fire is real. I believe that the torment, punishment is real and it certainly is a place that we want to avoid. The Bible is very clear on how a person can avoid going hell after death. God promises that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, trusting him alone as their Savior will be saved. That great classic verse, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting what church? Life. The other day I was driving a bus helping a friend out and this little boy, he’s probably second or third grade, but he was a mess and you know when these kids they become a mess they have meltdowns sometimes. Maybe they didn’t get their Count Chocula that morning, I don’t know, but he was causing a lot of problems so I made him sit in the front row, the front seat I should say, and he’s dialoguing with me while I’m driving trying to pick up these kids and he’s talking to me and he’s just telling me he doesn’t understand why he’s got to sit up here and he just doesn’t think that’s fair and I’m just like, buddy, if you don’t obey this is your punishment. And so somehow, of course he calls me Pastor Mike, Pastor Mike, we went to church, my family and I went to church. I said, well that’s good. He said, I learned a Bible verse at church. I said, tell me what it is. He said, I can’t remember where it is but for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Is there not a better verse to teach a young child that they can avoid hell, they can escape hell by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not only good for children but it’s good for every one of us. And that is that we are called to believe on Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ possesses all authority over hell. Revelation 118, Jesus said, I am he that lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death. And here’s what he means, I have the authority. Jesus has the authority to determine who goes to hell and who goes to heaven. Jesus has the authority. And my friends when you come to Jesus Christ in sincerity and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he has the authority to bring you into the presence of God upon your death here. When God promotes you as a believer, Jesus has the authority to bring you through those beautiful gates and into the presence of God and reunited with your family and your friends. Can God’s people say amen? Yes. He has that authority. So what is the purpose? Why does the Bible teach about hell? I think first of all, he teaches us about hell to guide us to turn to God’s grace, to lead us to that moment where we are ready to receive Jesus Christ. Hell is God’s warning and it is a most merciful act that God is giving to us. If you and I were realizing that a bridge was out on a particular road and you saw someone heading down that road, you would say the bridge is out, don’t go there, turn around. That would be the most merciful thing that you could do. If you were to drive by and see a house on fire, you would want to do everything you could to get inside and let those people know that their house is on fire. It is the most merciful thing that you could do. The most merciful thing that God could do is to tell you that there is a place called hell. It is a place of eternal, everlasting fire and it is a place that people go to that deny or reject Jesus Christ. It is out of great mercy that God sent not only his son to provide the way for us to have our sins forgiven, but to provide a way for us to avoid that eternal punishment of hell. People say, well, don’t teach on hell, Mike, you might scare them. Where might we scare them to? Because my question is this, if the fear of God, the terror of the Lord shakes you to the point that you would humble yourself to God and you would repent of your sins and give your life fully to Jesus Christ, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Don’t be afraid to teach on hell to your children, to your grandchildren, to your friends and your neighbors. Don’t be afraid to do that. But always remember what Ezekiel the prophet wrote on behalf of our Lord when he said, say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel? Friends, God is saying to every sinner today that even though we deserve to go to hell, God is declaring that if we would put our trust in Jesus Christ as our savior, that he will deliver us from hell and we can avoid hell and by simply trusting in Christ, we can live in heaven with Jesus Christ forever. So I have this question, are you relying fully upon Jesus Christ for your salvation? So the answer is yes. The fires of hell are literal and it is something that we need to remember. I know that there is a lot of intellectuals and liberals who are going to deny that the fires in hell are literal because they want to soften hell or they don’t even believe in hell. But my friends, we are here to proclaim the truth. We will not bend to the culture or bow down. We will continue to proclaim God’s Word, the full counsel. Not just the positive, but also the negative. Not just heaven, but also hell. And so we have been studying about hell and most importantly, I want to make sure that you do not neglect so great a salvation. That the only way to escape hell and the wrath of God and the punishment of sin is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And I pray that these words and this message and God’s truth will awaken your heart and bring you to full repentance. That God would grant you faith and repentance and that you would believe in your heart that Christ died for your sins, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and is at the right hand of the Father. I want to thank you for standing with our radio program. I want to thank you for your support. I want to thank you for those who send me kind notes and those who help keep us on the air. And we just want you to know we have not forgotten you and we appreciate all that you do. And know this, that we are committed to the Word of God and proclaiming it to the ends of the earth. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 20: 7-10. Satan is destined for defeat and that’s why we as believers, no matter how much opposition we have, we are people of joy and we are people of confidence and we are people of faith because we know the end of the story. Hello and welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. This is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Today, we’re beginning a new series entitled, Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Revelation chapter 20 verse 7 through 10 is our text. We’ve been teaching on heaven and you have to teach on hell because like heaven, hell is real and what does that mean when the Bible describes these fires and how does that apply? So let’s grab our Bible and get into this passage. Get your Bibles out. I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 20 this morning. Revelation chapter 20 and we’re gonna be covering verse 7 through 10 and of course some other assorted verses. Today, we are in the midst of a series. We’re picking back up on that series. If you remember that we were teaching before on five questions about heaven and five questions about hell and today we’re on that fourth question about hell and so we’ve already had four sermons on hell. You have one more to endure and I admire you because most churches could not even endure one sermon on hell, much less four headed to number five. So thank you church. Our goal when we preach on hell is we are not gleeful. We are not happy about hell but we want to send out a message of warning and we also want to make sure as believers that we understand what the Bible teaches us about hell. So we come to Revelation chapter 20 and verse 7 through 10. The And will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the Saints and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beasts and the false prophet are and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Perhaps the most striking image of hell is that it is a place of everlasting fire. The Bible refers to this terminology the lake of fire. It is specifically mentioned in Revelation chapter 19 and of course in our text today and if you go on down further again in verse 14 it is referred to the lake of fire as the second death. Now to understand what we’re reading this morning let me just give you a little bit of context. At the end of a thousand years now you say a thousand years what are you talking about? I’ve shared with you Church that there are what we might refer to as dispensations and that there is now the dispensation of grace. Some people call it the dispensation of the church in which we have this great responsibility to take the good news of Christ to every person on every part of the planet. This is our responsibility to get the good news but the Bible tells us that there is going to be a rapture. That is the believers are going to be one day caught up. Jesus was asked in Matthew chapter 24 what would be the signs of his second coming. Jesus described those signs. You can read about them. We’ve taught on them but I want to tell you that we can already start to see the tea leaves of those signs and if we can already see some of these signs emerging in our communities and cultures and our land how much closer are we to the rapture of the church. We have to be cognizant of the fact that Jesus is coming again but you do not have to be discouraged because the Bible says we’re going to be raptured out of here which leads us into the tribulation period which is going to be for seven years. Now I know that people debate and people question and people sometimes struggle with what I just taught you but I always remind them though you and I may have some differences on timing and particulars about the rapture and the tribulation period I’m telling you my friends you cannot deny that it’s in the Bible. You just can’t but I am of the persuasion that we’re gonna be raptured out of here as believers. There’s gonna be a seven-year tribulation and then we are going to experience the second coming of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ will establish his kingdom on this earth for a thousand years the Bible says that he will rule and he will reign for a thousand years with his saints. That would be you and that would be me that would be all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for a thousand years. One might wonder why? Why would Jesus do it this way? Well there are many prophecies in the Old Testament that are yet to be fulfilled and I want you to remember that in those thousand years Jesus Christ will do just as the prophets said that the Messiah will sit in the seat of Jerusalem the beloved city and he will rule and he will rule with righteousness and he will come as a king that second time the first time he came as a lamb to give his life for for each of us he came to give his life and to pay the penalty of sin on the cross and then he would be resurrected but friends I want to remind you that Jesus is coming and when he comes that second time he will rule with justice and peace as believers sometimes we get so frustrated with the lack of justice in this world we are so upset about what is wrong in this world but I want to remind you that one day Jesus will make every wrong right and we can rejoice in that wonderful truth then the Bible tells us that during that thousand years Satan will be bound he’ll be bound for a thousand years where we picked up in our text in Revelation 20 and verse 7 through 10 we are seeing that after that thousand years Satan will be released and then he’ll be defeated again and he’ll be cast into the lake of fire the Bible says for all of eternity Satan is destined for defeat it is revealed in our text today it is recorded in our text today that Satan will not get the last laugh and that’s why we as believers no matter how much opposition we have how much pushback we have in this world we are people of joy and we are people of confidence and we are people of faith because we know the last end of the story we know how it’s all gonna end in that Jesus Christ has not only won the victory at the cross but he will continue that victorious March in his second coming and then he will eventually cast the devil into the lake of fire and all those who do not believe or reject Jesus Christ will be cast into the lake of fire the Bible teaches us in verses 10 through 15 that Christ will judge all the unbelievers Jesus referred to that in Matthew chapter 25 where the sheep and the goat are separated it is called the great white throne of judgment you and I as believers will not be at the great white throne of judgment because we have already put our trust in Christ and Jesus already took our punishment on the cross he absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf and therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus when we are judged it is about rewards it is about our faithfulness it is about our obedience to God and we are rewarded for all that we have accomplished and been a part of in the kingdom of Christ so we rejoice in that but when you read verse 10 through 15 understand this is about the great white throne judgment and God judging those who have rejected him and rebelled against him sadly the Bible says he’ll be casting them all into the lake of fire after that he will usher in a new heaven and a new earth which you can read about in Revelation 21 and 22 those who have rejected Christ right now those who have refused to believe in Christ even now are in a what we might refer to as a temporary hell we have taught you about the five different names for hell the New Testament often refers to this temporary hell as Hades sometimes even Gehenna and it is a place the Old Testament was called Sheol and it was the abiding of the dead the place of the dead and that is a place that they go as believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord can God’s people say amen and so we are in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ and we are enjoying all the blessings and rewards that God has for us but those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life what awaits for them is not only a hell that is separated from God but a place that the Bible refers to as the lake of fire the lake of fire the eternal destination of the devil and all of his demons and those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior now the question before us this morning as we have been learning about hell in the Bible is are the fires of hell literal there are many even within evangelical Christianity who would say to you that when the Bible refers to hell it’s all figurative that it is not literal or it is not even real well I want to share with you first of all the argument for a literal fire note again that Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 41 then shall he say also unto them on the left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels you understand that the devil rose up against Almighty God you understand we’ve already taught you that the scriptures teach us that the devil was filled with pride in heaven and he was cast out and a third of the angels with him these are his demonic forces that are crisscrossing this world causing so much chaos in this world the devil’s desire Jesus taught us was to kill and to destroy never forget that it is the devil’s desire to destroy your family to destroy your life and to destroy your testimony and to make a mess of this world I think he’s doing a pretty good job I hate to say that I hate to say that the world is in chaos the world is in confusion but it is only setting the table for the Antichrist to come in with all the solutions and all the answers and claim to be the one who can bring peace but it’s a pseudo it’s a false it’s a fake peace we know that that’s why I tell you that Jesus taught us this he taught us what it would be like and what the circumstances and what the environment would be like before his return which would be at the end of the tribulation but Jesus describes this day of judgment in Matthew 25 and he describes those who are cast into this lake of fire as an everlasting fire you remember that we taught you that the Bible describes hell also as Gehenna and Gehenna was an actual burning place outside of Jerusalem it was in the valley of Gehenna and it was adjacent just south of Jerusalem and it was a place where we might call it a burn pile now every once while I might drive around our county and different people will be burning trash and the smoke gets everywhere and I start hacking and coughing and they mess me up for at least two weeks amen trying to figure all that out the church used to have a burn pile and finally the fire department said please stop please stop burning all that trash you say where would all that trash come from well if you have a Christian school of 500 students there is a lot of trash don’t be upset students but I’m just saying there’s a lot of wear and tear there’s a lot of food there’s a lot of eating there’s a lot of paper plates there’s a lot of stuff that has to be thrown away and it has to be gotten rid of and sometimes we would burn some of that trash I want you in your mind to understand that there was a place south of Jerusalem called Gehenna as Jesus spoke about hell he would reference this burn pile this place where it was constantly burning they even it was such a massive place of burning they not only put their trash there the pagans would put their dead bodies in this burn pile and it was just constantly burning and burning and Jesus is referencing to us that he is he is teaching about hell that it is a place of fire it is a place where there is constant burning now one might ask two questions relating to that which I think are really good questions and I appreciate that there is thinking going on amen it’s good to see people come into the church and not take their thinking cap off and to have some good questions but we know first of all Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness and yet he describes it as a place where there is an eternal fire we know that fire gives off light and so how is this possible that fire could be literal and yet it be a place of outer darkness well friends there is some kind of a unique fire that God is going to create that does not give off light the second question you might have about this being a burning fire is we know that fire consumes it consumes and yet Jesus described this place of eternal fire in hell as a place that does not consume you remember Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom which was one of the names that was often referred to the rich man was there in this burning place Lazarus was Abraham’s bosom and there the rich man looked up and he wanted just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue because the fire the flames that he was in and so Jesus is helping us to understand that this unique fire is not going to be exactly like the fire that you and I see and that we use for cooking or we might use to burn trash or we might use it in some other fashion but it is a unique fire that is everlasting and definitely it is punishment and definitely people can sense it they can see it they can feel it and it has an impact upon them because the Bible is so clear about that that it’s definitely a place though that does not consume now again someone might say well our bodies you know I taught last week about how one day as believers that when we die we our soul and spirit is separated from our body and we go into the presence of heaven and then one day there’ll be a resurrection your body is not immediately in heaven when you get there but your soul and spirit is with Jesus Christ your body comes remember at the rapture the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise and your soul and spirit is reunited with this new body this glorified body the Bible describes all this in 1st Corinthians and it is a glorified body that is resurrected so your soul and spirit is reunited and now you’re in heaven with body soul and spirit now this was put out there and of course sometimes I read I know I shouldn’t but I read the social media sometimes what people saying and people just saying no there is no resurrection of the dead you know in my mind I don’t respond but in my mind I got to think does anybody read the Bible anymore because the Bible not only teaches us that believers bodies will be resurrected but the Bible teaches us that unbelievers bodies will be resurrected so what is unique in this final stop for unbelievers in this lake of fire is that not only where their soul and spirit be there but the Bible teaches us in John chapter 5 that the unbelievers body will be resurrected and that they will be cast into the lake of fire soul spirit and body into this lake of fire Jesus said in Matthew 13 verse 41 and 42 the Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now if you believe that the fire is symbolic or that it is something that is metaphorical in describing the punishment of those who reject Jesus Christ I propose this question to you do people use symbols because the reality is less or more than the symbol I want you to think of like this if I were to say that my wife is the diamond of my life I’m not limiting her to a diamonds value I’m just saying that she’s even more than a diamond to me I’m trying to illustrate so we use symbols we use metaphors in our life and if Jesus if for any reason if he were to somehow say I’m gonna use the fire as a metaphor do you think that he meant that that was just the limitation of that metaphor of the punishment I think it’s even worse I think Jesus was wanting us to know and understand that hell is even worse than what can be described in the human language the teaching of hell is meant to appal us it is meant to fill us with godly fear it is designed to shake us it is designed to persuade us that though heaven will be better than what we could ever dream hell will be worse than what we could ever imagine and so I am a strong believer that the fire in hell is literal now let’s understand the literal interpretation because I believe it is the most straightforward understanding of the scriptures there are many times people like to come to the Bible and rather than believing what it says they want to explain it away they want to explain away the horror of hell they want to explain away the punishment of hell because in their mind they cannot conceive and I’m here to tell you I believe that it’s even worse than what Jesus said that the human language limited him to how horrible hell is now the Bible describes hell as a place of fire I’ve already read you several verses but here’s another one Luke 16 then he cried and said father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame as we mentioned to you already it is this flame of fire that is tormenting this rich man it is not consuming him but it is tormenting him hell is described as a place of fire and darkness we see this again in the book of Jude and we see it again in Matthew chapter 8 so my question is simply this why not take the Bible at face value why not let the Bible simply speak for itself what is the testimony of the Bible I know that there are people with many letters after their names and before their names and maybe underneath and maybe on top of their names and they’ll come out and tell you I mean I just read an article by a scholar who claimed that hell a was not real and the fires were just metaphorical but I’m here to tell you that this is what the Bible says now you have to make a decision Revelation 21st 15 says whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake fire I read that verse and I believe it and I believe that God meant what he said and that he says what he means now I know that Jesus used illustrations and I know that he used symbolism to get his point across you remember that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 that if your hand offends you cut it off he said that if your eye offends you pluck it out I do not think that Jesus was saying that you and I need to literally cut our hands off or even pluck out our eyes but what he is saying is that whatever is causing you to sin whatever is leading you down the path that you are sinning against God get it out of your life perhaps even a person get them out of your life and that for some of you it might be that you might need to take that cell phone and you need to cast it as far as the east is from the West amen I didn’t get a lot of amen whatever it is the devil knows our weaknesses he knows what temptations are most effective upon us and there are times that you and I need to be alert to that if there are things that are hindering us from following Christ obediently and honoring him in our life we need to get those out and I think that Jesus was speaking in that way I think he was explaining in that way Jesus said I am a door he didn’t mean he was a literal door he was saying I am the entryway to heaven I am the way to heaven Jesus said that he was the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through him and so we understand when he describes that symbolism and he uses it often but when it comes to hell and understanding the context of his teaching I do not see any effort on Jesus’s part to use the fires as something as being symbolic or metaphorical the other reason that I believe in a literal fire is not only that I believe what the Bible says and I believe it is the most straightforward in what God is teaching us is that a figurative interpretation of the fire undermines biblical authority again I’m just pounding you with one verse after another and you have to make this decision is the Bible right or the Bible wrong is the Bible true or the Bible false revelation 21 8 but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death I don’t think there’s any figurative interpretation of this I think this is literal and I think for me to deny this is to deny the Bible hell was not created for you and me but for the devil and his angels unfortunately many refuse to believe and follow Jesus Christ and so the Bible tells us that if we do not believe in Christ that we will be cast into the everlasting lake of fire and we understand this to be literal we understand this to be as God describes it in the book of Revelation we understand also that there’s a lot of symbolism in the Bible and so we’re not ignorant to that but we know that Jesus described hell as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth I pray today that you will not go to hell but that you would turn your life and fully surrender to Jesus Christ receive him as your Lord and Savior and that you would faithfully follow him we don’t preach on hell to scare people but we do preach on hell to warn people that there is a place that we should shun a place that we should not go to and we should strive to receive Christ as our Savior and go to heaven now I want to encourage you to make sure that you check out our YouTube channel if you go to youtube.com then type in hope worth having you’ll see an assortment of opportunities where we have been teaching the Bible doing some Q&A some interviews and I want you to take advantage of that by checking out our YouTube channel I know you’ll be blessed in doing that this is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelation 21: 1-3. That’s why Jesus says your sorrow will turn into joy. And I am assured of this, that the depth of your sorrow and the loss of your loved one will one day manifest itself in the height of joy that will be unspeakable in your heart. Welcome to Hope Worth Having. My name is Mike Sanders and I’m the host of Hope Worth Having. I also serve as the senior pastor of the Open Door Church and I am delighted that you would join us and tune in today. We are continuing our series on what will we do in heaven. And so we’re in Revelation chapter 21, verse 1 through 3. I want to get right into the message today. And so join me as we begin. Joyful rest. What will we do in heaven? We will enjoy joyful rest. But let me help you understand this joyful rest because it’s really not the rest that you’re thinking about. Revelation 14, 13 says this, that I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. When we study the book of Hebrews, a significant theme is the rest that we find in Jesus Christ. Many of you are familiar with the Old Testament and how God taught the people that they were to take a Sabbath and that they were to once a week rest. And that was on a Saturday. They would rest. There would be no work. There would be no activity. They were just simply to dwell upon God and they were to rest. And for many, many years in our communities, in our American culture, you couldn’t do anything on a Sunday. You would be labeled as the worst Christian in America. I had achieved that label one Sunday. And this was during COVID. And I want you to know, as horrible of a person as I am, that I was on a Sunday outside mowing my lawn. But you got to understand my schedule was heavy and there wasn’t one day during the week. And so it was either going to get up to my nose or we get her mowed. Amen. And my wonderful neighbor, who I’ve been inviting to church and inviting to come, and he’s come a few times and I hope he’s not here this morning, but I do want him to be here. But I’m telling a story on him. But he came flying over to my yard. Pastor Mike, what are you doing? And I said, what? He said, my grandpa said you can never mow your lawn on Sunday. That it’s against the Bible. And I said, well, I appreciate your grandpa, but the Bible does say when the ox is in the ditch, you got to do what you can to get the ox out. And the ox was in the ditch. Now there’s nothing wrong with mowing your lawn on Sunday. If you want to mow it today, go ahead. And when you’re done, come on over to mine and mow mine as well. You might as well be blessed beyond measure. But anyways, what I’m saying is that people embrace this idea of Sabbath and rest, that even it became a part of our culture and our traditions within the church and with the way that we did things. Now we know that the Bible teaches us that Christ is the fulfillment of all the symbols and the shadows, if you will, and the imagery that was in the Old Testament and that Jesus Christ is now our rest. That we find our rest in Christ. He is the one that brings spiritual rest. He is the one that brings true rest in our life. And we rest in Christ for our salvation. We no longer are trying to work ourselves to heaven, but we are resting in the work of Christ on the cross through the resurrection and our faith in Jesus Christ that now brings us to become the people of God. And there’s a lot we can talk about that. But I’m simply just helping make the case that this idea of rest is taught in the Bible. But when we read this text in Revelation 14, verse 13, we should not see the word rest as one of inactivity. But rather here he is talking about that we have the relief from the burden of all the challenges and the afflictions and the sufferings of life. And that’s exactly what the passage means is the believer will rest from their labors. That the believer who has been fighting the good fight of faith, the believer that has been marching forward in Christ, even against opposition, even dealing with the temptations of the flesh and the struggles of society and the problems of life and even the physical challenges that one might have to experience in life as their health deteriorates as they get older. The Bible is teaching us that they can rest from all of that struggle and they can rest from all of those challenges. It does not mean when you go to heaven that you’re going to sit on a cloud, play a harp and just sleep all day. And I know that sounds very enticing to some of you. You would just love to sleep all day. But that’s not what heaven is. Heaven is a place where the Bible describes to us back in our text if we’ll look in verse 4 of Revelation 21 that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying and there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. If we were to invert this verse we would say that life is full of pain and life is full of sorrow and life is full of death and life is full of crying and tears and the Bible is reminding us that the struggle of life the challenges of life and the obstacles of life is one day coming to an end for the believer in Jesus Christ. And we will no longer have to fight the good fight of faith and we will no longer have to push ourselves to keep on keeping on for Jesus Christ and we will no longer have to bear the weight and the burdens of trying to comfort those who are hurting and who have lost loved ones. And we will no longer have to cry ourselves to sleep and we will no longer have to feel the emptiness of grief in our hearts as we miss our loved ones dearly. One day church you will rest from all of that sorrow and you will be in the presence of God enjoying the beautiful presence and majesty of God and you will rest from your labor for God. How beautiful is that? I want us to understand this. Would you take your Bible and go to 2 Thessalonians? Now if you just back up from Revelation you’re gonna bump into 2 Thessalonians not too far but 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 in verse 6 and again I think we’re given a little insight into what God is saying is coming for the believer and even what some of your loved ones have already experienced and are experiencing. In verse 6 of chapter 1 the Bible says, Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. Now let me just stop there. Just a side note. We’re out there living for God and sometimes there’s pushback and sometimes there’s opposition and sometimes people aren’t as cooperative and sometimes people make it difficult and sometimes people are antagonistic because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We were talking about this in Sunday school with the young adults and how we suffer in this world but that God has called us not to fight evil with evil but our response is goodness. Our response is kindness. Our response is that those who trouble us we trust in God because we believe that God will make right all that is wrong in this world. Now we like to get ahead of God, don’t we? I mean perhaps maybe the hardest word for Christians is wait. We don’t like to wait and how I know this is that I observe how some of you are driving out there and how irritated you get but I’m among you. I find myself frustrated. We don’t like to wait but when it comes to those who trouble us and persecute us or even push back on us or make it difficult for us as we’re trying to live for Christ the Bible says God is gonna repay and so we must whether it’s here or later we must trust God that He will repay in His perfect timing. He will deal with all the injustice in this world. We strive to live our life with justice and integrity and character and honor and glory to God but we trust Him. Look at verse 7 and to give you who are troubled what does that word say? Rest. See I love that because it’s a battle living for God. If you think following Jesus Christ means your life is easy you are sadly mistaken and why is it that some start out like shooting stars for Christ and all of a sudden they disappear on us it is because they responded in emotion to God and they were under the impression that somehow their life would be easier and when they found themselves in the midst of trouble and the midst of a trial and in the midst of antagonism they retreated. But the true believer perseveres and the true believer keeps going on and the true believer never gets weary in well-doing because they keep pushing forward for the Lord Jesus Christ and you are given a promise that God will give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. Again, not the rest of I get to grab my pillow and lay down it’s the rest that I don’t have to fight the fight. I don’t have to get up tomorrow and keep pushing for the cause of Jesus Christ. Every day is a new set of problems every day is a new challenge but there is coming for the believer this rest that we’ll experience in heaven it’s the Christian rest it’s not the absence of activity but it is the completion of our spiritual journey it is the end of the struggle with the flesh it is the end of the struggle with the world it is the end of the struggle with the devil. It’s easy to get faint-hearted as you serve God. I mean, you don’t even have to wrestle with the devil you don’t even have to wrestle with your flesh you don’t even have to wrestle with the world Sometimes we end up as believers wrestling with each other, amen. We’re like brothers and sisters in Christ. Whoa, what a thought. We’re like brothers and sisters who are playing with their toys, and that’s my toy, and grandma gave that to me, not to you. And that’s my pew, and that’s my ministry, and that’s my classroom, and we dare not share with anybody else, amen. It’s mine, and we wrestle, and we struggle, and you wonder what happened to the pastor’s hair. He’d been pulling his hair out ever since he became a pastor, because Christians will fuss and fight, and do everything they can, sometimes ignorantly, foolishly, maybe through immaturity. But there’s coming a day there’s not gonna be a burden of fighting the fight. It’s all gonna be gone. This morning you may be wrestling with temptations in your hearts, and you’ve been trying to overcome this temptation, and it has been dragging you down, and you have a good set of days and weeks, and then all of a sudden, bam, the struggle is so real. There’s coming a day we’re never gonna be tempted again, church. We are gonna be in the presence of God. Can God’s people say amen? Well, let’s move on. Number three, we will engage in physical activities with physical bodies. Now, here’s where I want you to understand, again, what I was telling you in my intro, is that when we leave this earth now, before the rapture of the church, our bodies are not with us. Our bodies are not with us. They are not with our loved ones, and so I know we imagine that they might be up there doing certain things relating to their bodies, but they’re not, because our bodies are not with us immediately. Death is the idea of separation. The body is separated from the soul and spirit, and so soul and spirit is promoted into the presence of God. The body is laid in the casket, or it is there in its ashes, and the Bible says dust to dust and ashes to ashes, and there that body is, but the soul and spirit is in the presence of God, but when the resurrection happens and the dead in Christ, 1 Thessalonians 4, you can study it on your own, when that happens, then we are gonna experience brand new bodies, and one day God is gonna give us a new heaven and a new earth, and he will make all things new, including our bodies. How many of you need a new body? Amen. And one day, others of you will join us in needing a new body. We know that through the modern day doctors and scientists that they can give you a new hip. They can give you a new knee and a shoulder, and perhaps one day they’ll give you a new brain through AI. Who knows? But eventually, what I want us to understand that all of these things that are created do not compare to the original model, amen? And they’re not as good. Yes, they are supplements so that we don’t hurt as much, and maybe we can walk a little bit better without so much pain, and they help us, and we’re not against it, and if you need a new hip, go get one. All right? But one day, you’re getting a brand new body, top to bottom, amen? The Bible says in Philippians 3, verse 21, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. So God is gonna make all things new, including our bodies, and we wonder what will that body look like? Now we’re in the range of speculation, and I wanna help you out a little bit because I hear some of you wandering around and speaking dogmatically, like you know what our body’s gonna look like in heaven, like you got it all figured out. But let me tell you something. There’s many speculation. So again, some of you have children in heaven. There is one speculation that the Bible says when we see him, we will be like him. The scripture says that. What does that mean? Does it mean that we will have a body like Jesus when he, in his glorified state, resurrected at the age of 33 and a half, and that our children that are in heaven will have bodies of 33 and a half? Some believe that, but there’s nothing that affirms this. I don’t know of any scholar, any theologian that thinks this dogmatically and conclusively. Others believe that our children would remain in the state that they are and that we will be reunited because we will be known as we are what? Known. And so if you never knew your child as a 33-year-old person, an adult, then you would not know them in heaven, and yet the Bible says we will be known as we are known. All I can say to you this morning is I do not have the exact answer as to the age of your body. The age won’t matter in heaven, but the point being is I do know that we will be like him, and I do know that we will be known as we are known, and what all does that mean in heaven? Well, let’s wait until we get there, amen? And the rest that have already figured out life and you know everything, then we’ll just, we’ll love you in grace, amen? But God gives us a new body, and our loved ones are blessed with new bodies, and all of us who love Jesus Christ are given new bodies, and the question is why would God furnish us with a body and set us on a new earth and give us physical properties if we’re not going to put that body to good use? So God is going to use us. There will be many activities that we will have in our new bodies, and to understand some of the things that we might do in our new bodies, you would certainly study the life of Christ as in his glorified body, as what was his life like after he was resurrected, because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that we will have glorified bodies, and certainly we know that there’ll be eating and drinking in the kingdom of God, and I think that’s important. You say, pastor, why would you bring that up? Well, because it dominates a lot of our life, right? We enjoy eating. Now, the question is what are we gonna eat? Well, it just depends which pastor you ask. If you ask Dr. Dina Padron, you’re having spaghetti. If you ask Pastor Mike, we’re having chicken, and others might say we’re having prime rib, and others might say no, there’s nothing in the Bible that talks about eating meat. The Bible does talk about the tree of life that will bear fruit every month and it’ll be healing to the nations. Now, what does that mean? Are we gonna get sick in heaven? Wouldn’t you like to be able to just go to a tree and eat a nice piece of fruit and then your flu would go away? Wouldn’t you like that? Well, friends, you’re not gonna get sick in heaven, so what does it mean when it says the healing of the nations? It’s the Greek word of the idea of therapeutic, and I think that it’s gonna have a therapeutic effect upon us, and it’s gonna be meaningful, and it’s gonna be beautiful, and it’s gonna be something that is very important to us that as we eat this fruit from the tree of life and it just bears it every month, and we just enjoy it, and it’s just gonna be like, this is awesome. This is great. But the Bible doesn’t talk about any particular meat that I’m aware of. Some people say we’re gonna be vegetarians. If we are gonna be a vegetarian in heaven, I’m gonna need God to do a great work in my mind. Okay, I’m just gonna be honest with you, and I’m just being real with God, and I know maybe some struggle with that, but it’s true because we enjoy. God gave us the ability for something to be enjoyable, and we always know that when we have fellowship with one another, many times there are refreshments, there’s food, and this kind of becomes the center of what we’re doing in our relationship. Jesus said in Luke 22, 30, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. We are definitely gonna be eating and drinking. We’re gonna be learning. We already talked a lot about that. We’re gonna be rejoicing. We’ve talked about that. We’re gonna be serving. We’re gonna talk more a little bit about that. There’s a lot of things that we are gonna be doing in heaven. And that takes me to my fourth point that I wanna share with you this morning is that we will enjoy social interaction with one another or fellowship with one another. One of the things we’ll be doing in heaven is fellowshipping with each other. Now, we will remember our past relationships, and we will continue to recognize one another in the eternal state, and we will not only worship God personally, but we will worship God corporately together with our family, with our friends who love Jesus Christ. It’s gonna be so beautiful. I cannot express to you enough of how much that is going to mean to you and that you’re gonna be with your family. We understand there’s no marriage in heaven, but that does not change the fact that we won’t know each other in heaven and that we won’t fellowship with one another in heaven and that we won’t interact with one another in heaven. And this time, when I say, what’s for dinner, hon, she’s not gonna be mad at me because nobody gets offended in heaven. Isn’t that great? I mean, like, you could really tell what you’re thinking. You know, sometimes we have to filter what we think and don’t say it because if you really say what you’re thinking, you’re gonna be in big trouble, buddy, right? You might really get upset. Somebody might really get upset. And so we have to be careful. But in heaven, the fellowship is gonna be sweet. It is gonna be enjoyable. It is gonna be a blessing. And we’re gonna interact. Jesus Christ was comforting his disciples and he was consoling them about the fact that he would be leaving soon. But Jesus said most assuredly in John 16, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. And what he meant is that one day there’s gonna be a reunion of Jesus and his disciples. There’s gonna be a reunion in our relationships. Remember what I told you? What’s most important in life is relationships, your relationship with God and your relationship with others. And that’ll mean more to you than what your career title is. And maybe what you did and accomplished here on this earth, it’ll mean more to you to be with your family and to be with your friends that love Jesus Christ and to never have to sorrow again that they have been separated from you by death. That’s why Jesus says your sorrow will turn into joy. And I am assured of this, that the depth of your sorrow and the loss of your loved one will one day manifest itself in the heights of joy that will be unspeakable in your heart. Jesus consoles us with the hope of an eternal reunion with our loved ones at the appearing of our Savior. The final thing I wanna share with you in thinking about what will we do is that we will exercise responsibility and service to God. God will give us responsibility in this new earth, in this new heaven. Jesus said in Revelation 7, 15, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. And there’s much to be said and much we could dissect, but here’s what I want you to know. We’ve already taught you a little bit about this, that Jesus said, to whom much is given, much is required. And so we have this responsibility that we’re to be faithful and obedient to God on this earth and that that will translate into the new heaven and the new earth for us. And the things that you are gifted in and the abilities that you have and the skillsets that God has endowed you with will again transfer to your responsibilities in heaven. And so when you think about the things that you enjoy and the things that you’re passionate about and the things that you enjoy doing, friends, you will be able to do those things in the new heaven and the new earth. And the one contractor raised his hand in a Q&A service one time with me and he said, Pastor Mike, I’m a builder. Do we get to build in heaven? And I said, certainly, in Isaiah 65, it teaches us in that millennial kingdom and in that new heaven and new earth that we will be building. Here’s what I want you to understand. Imagine living life for God at its height and doing the things that you enjoy and are gifted in and have abilities for and that you will live that out every day, but there’ll be no sin, there’ll be no sorrow, there’ll be no sadness, there’ll be no suffering. Do not think of yourself or your loved ones just floating around looking for something to do, but know that as the scriptures teach us, there will be much for you to do in heaven and you will serve God day and night and you will be active for the Lord Jesus Christ, but there’s not gonna be pushback, there’s not gonna be a fight, there’s not gonna be temptation, you’re not gonna get weary, you’re gonna say, man, those little kids need to pick it up because they’re slowing down, they can’t even keep up with me, I’m 500 years old. You will have the energy of the Lord and you will live with the Lord forever, you will worship him, you will serve him, you will fellowship with your loved one and let me tell you what your life is going to be like in heaven. Loving God and loving and nothing will stop you or interrupt you, loving God and loving people. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We’re talking about what we’ll do in heaven, but the most important thing is, will you be in heaven? And the only way that you can get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me. So if you have not put your faith in Christ, if you believe God is calling you, then all you have to do is repent and believe in Jesus, that is to turn away from your sin and your selfishness and to turn towards Christ and what he did on the cross for you. The Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I hope that’ll be true in your life. Have you checked out our podcasts? Yes, we put out a regular podcast and you can go to hopeworthhaving.com and you can look at those podcasts, you can listen to different topics and different passages of the Bible and take advantage of that opportunity. I hope you’ll be encouraged through that and it’s something that’ll continue to strengthen your faith. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 21: 1-3. And we rest in Christ for our salvation. We no longer are trying to work ourselves to heaven, but we are resting in the work of Christ on the cross through the resurrection and our faith in Jesus Christ that now brings us to become the people of God. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and this is Hope Worth Having. We are looking forward to sharing the hope that is found in Jesus Christ with you today. And I want to encourage you to get your Bible and let’s go to the book of Revelation. We want to begin our series on what will we do in heaven? You know, believers have different ideas of what it might be like in heaven. Well, we want to turn to the scriptures and get a clear picture of what that means. So join me as we study together. If you have your Bible, I want you to join me in the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible, certainly the last book of the New Testament. We’re going to be in chapter 21 verses one through three. We’ll be looking as well at a sorted number of verses. If you’re visiting today, our church has been going through a series in which I have been teaching on five questions about heaven and five questions about hell. Now, this is a good day to visit because I’m teaching on heaven today. I feel bad for our visiting guests when they show up and the pastor lays into the topic of hell and what the Bible says about it. But we are coming to the end of that series to talk about what will we do in heaven? What will we do in heaven? Life is about relationships. And you got to remember that our relationships are more important than careers. They are more important than money. They’re more important than the tangible material things of this earth. And when you come to the end of your life, there’s really only two things that are going to be meaningful to you. And that is your relationship with God and your relationship with others. Jesus summed it up like this. He was asked, what is the greatest command in the Bible? And Jesus said, it is to love God and to love your neighbor. In essence, to love God and to love people. We are to love God with all of our heart, with all of our strength. We’re to love God with passion and consistency. But we’re also called to love one another. And when we think about everything that is dear to us, even here on this earth, we hope and trust that your relationship with God and your relationship with others is very precious to you in your heart. And one day, those relationships that you have on this earth, I’m certain that you desire that they will be with you in heaven. And that is what is going to be a part of making heaven so wonderful. We long for our glorious future in heaven. And it is the hope of heaven that has sustained the people of God throughout the centuries. As believers, we focus on heaven, not as a reprieve from real life, but to gain strength for real life. We concentrate on heaven because we must remember that this world we live in is not heaven. And it is filled with so much trouble and so much trials. And we see the curse of sin sweeping across this world all around us. But one day, God will lift that curse. And we will reside with him throughout eternity. And we will be in a place that is called heaven. We have been learning a lot about heaven. John the Revelator takes it even farther in chapter 21. And he says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. Now we must understand something about heaven, that I think sometimes even as we teach the Bible and as we are learning and studying the Bible, that we might get confused about heaven. That I want you to understand that upon the departure of a believer from this world, that the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with God. And so often we envision great thoughts of our loved ones, or perhaps even what we might be doing up in heaven. There is the immediate presence of being there in heaven with God that Jesus described in John chapter 14. And Jesus said it is a place that is prepared for us, a place that he has personally put together for us. The King James says it’s a mansion. The better translation might be a dwelling place. Not that the King James translation is inferior, but that simply the word means a dwelling place. But I am certain that it’ll be the greatest dwelling place that supersedes any mansion or great place on this earth. Amen? I saw the other day that somebody’s house in Palm Beach, Florida sold for $150 million. Yes, it was huge. It was massive. But I thought about how our dwelling place in heaven will be superior to anything on this earth. And sometimes as we envision our loved ones in this grand place called heaven, who are rewarded for their faithfulness and obedience to God and their desire to live for the Lord, that we might think that immediately they have a body. But the truth is not to break your heart, but the spirit and soul dwells with God in heaven upon our departure. But the body is not reunited with the soul and spirit until the resurrection of the dead in Christ. And we understand that that will take place after the tribulation period and in the midst of the coming of Christ as he is working miraculously in our lives. And so I want you to know that when we read chapter 21 and all of a sudden John says, I’m taking you further. And he says, I want you to know I saw a new heaven, a heaven, not where your loved ones are right now, but a new heaven and a new earth, not the earth that you’re in right now, a new heaven and a new earth. The Bible says, and the first earth it’s passed away. The first heaven has passed away. And now there is a new heaven and a new earth. And that is what I want us to understand this morning in relating to what will we do in heaven. And it’s essential that we understand the unfolding and the process of bringing that all together. So we don’t have misconceptions about what heaven is or isn’t and what are our loved ones doing in heaven and what will we do when we get to heaven. So let me submit unto you five things, five activities in heaven that we certainly can affirm through the scriptures. Number one, we will revel in God’s presence and worship him supremely. We will revel in God’s presence and worship him supremely. The Bible teaches us that God’s presence is truly the most exciting aspect of life in heaven. Look at verse three of chapter 21. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And so we see that over and over, even in this small verse, that the Bible is reiterating to us the presence of God, that God is dwelling with us, that God is with us, that he is among us. And so I know immediately that you’re saying again, as we talked about a little bit last week, that how is it that God is not with us? Because he is omnipresent. And so here the Bible is saying that God will be with us. And the assumption could be that maybe he was never with us. But that’s not what John the Revelator is teaching us. He is trying to emphasize to us that there will be a greater manifestation of the presence of God in the new heaven. The psalmist said in Psalm 1611, that will show me the path of life. And in thy presence is fullness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures evermore. I cannot express to you enough that being in the constant manifested presence of God and how it is so fulfilling and meaningful and how it is the most joyous experience that a believer could have in their life. There are times and moments in our life that as we are walking in the Spirit or we are working for the Savior and we are faithfully living for God, that the very manifested presence of God comes upon us and we experience that great joy. But it is for a moment. But there is coming a day that sin will not hinder that constant manifested presence of God in our life. It will be continuous in our life and it will bring the utmost fullness, as the scripture says, of joy in our life. And note, he says, that there are pleasures forevermore. When you think of your loved one in heaven, I want you to know that they certainly are not disappointed. And no one ever goes to heaven and says, man, I’m let down and it just doesn’t seem like it was ever what I thought it was. But it’s even beyond what we could ever imagine. And so we understand that God is with us today, but we also understand that in heaven we are experiencing this presence of God and it is leading us to worship him supremely. We will have a greater capacity for experiencing God’s presence in heaven, unlike anything that we experience here on this earth. The last I checked, we are made of flesh and bones. Did you guys check? Are you flesh and bones? You are human. Welcome to humanity. When our children would grow up, sometimes they might complain about something or they would say, that’s not fair. And I would say, welcome to humanity. Welcome to life. Because you live in a flawed world. You live among flawed people. And I know that some of you are wondering, how is it that some of these people got into my family? But there they are. Flawed people. Humans who have weaknesses. Humans who have problems. Humans who are limited. And friends, when it comes to our worship of God, we have gathered this morning to worship the Lord in this worship service. And we have been worshiping him in song. And we worship him as we read the scriptures. And we worship him as we pray. And we worship him even as the word of God is being taught. And we are worshiping him and using our talents and our gifts and our abilities. We are just worshiping the Lord. But friends, whatever the experience here, it’ll be superseded in the constant presence of God. Listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm 27, 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Now for some people, worship is boring. And they don’t like to worship God personally. And they don’t like to worship God corporately. And they want nothing. My friends, you’re going to be a mess in heaven. Because in heaven, one of the supreme things that we are going to do is to worship God. And we are going to enjoy it to its fullest. And it’s just going to be amazing to us. For all of our senses will be alive and well. And we will be able to worship God. And the degree to which we will be able to delight and enjoy God will be beyond anything that we are experiencing today. It is sin. It is our flesh that limits our enjoyment of God. It is this body that we live in that is flawed, that hinders the degree in which we can delight in God. The psalmist said he was longing for the day that he could dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, and to behold the beauty. What he is saying is, I want to just enjoy God. And I just want to delight in God. And I just want to worship God. Because he is so beautiful. He is so majestic. And he is so magnificent. I just want to dwell, and focus, and thank, and worship about God Almighty. But we’re limited now. But one day, that will be taken away. I think the apostle, when trying to illustrate the sign gifts, gave us some insight in understanding that in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, when he said, For now we see through a glass darkly, or partly. We don’t see it fully. We don’t have the full perspective. But then, face to face. What’s it going to be like for you to be face to face with Jesus Christ? What’s it going to mean to us to be in this constant presence, when our clouded minds, and our darkened minds, and our limitations are all removed, and we’re just in this great, beautiful, constant presence of God, worshiping Him, and enjoying Him? What is that going to mean to us? Well, my friends, it’ll be the most fulfilling and meaningful thing in your life. I know that some feel that if they could just get to the top of the ladder, if they could just get that job promotion, if they could just get that house, or if they could just make a little bit more money, that they would be more satisfied. But I’m telling you that there are many people who got to the top of the ladder, and they made the most of money that could be made, and they’re still dissatisfied. Why? Because the vacuum in your heart can only be filled in a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the most significant thing that you and I need is to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and to live our days that we might worship God, enjoy God, and glorify God in all that we do and say. And friends, that is the purpose of mankind, and I want you to know it will not change when you get to heaven, for the redeemed will enjoy life in the presence of God in heaven. The second thing I want you to see is that we will experience joyful rest. What will we do in heaven? We will enjoy joyful rest. But let me help you understand this joyful rest, because it’s really not the rest that you’re thinking about. Revelation 14, 13 says this, that I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. When we study the book of Hebrews, a significant theme is the rest that we find in Jesus Christ. Many of you are familiar with the Old Testament and how God taught the people that they were to take a Sabbath and that they were to once a week rest, and that was on a Saturday. They would rest. There would be no work. There would be no activity. They were just simply to dwell upon God, and they were to rest. And for many, many years in our communities, in our American culture, you couldn’t do anything on a Sunday. You would be labeled as the worst Christian in America. I had achieved that label one Sunday, and this was during COVID, and I want you to know as horrible of a person as I am, that I was on a Sunday outside mowing my lawn. But you got to understand, my schedule was heavy, and there wasn’t one day during the week, and so it was either going to get up to my nose or we get her mowed, amen? And my wonderful neighbor, who I’ve been inviting to church and inviting to come, and he’s come a few times, and I hope he’s not here this morning, but I do want him to be here, but I’m telling a story on him, but he came flying over to my yard, Pastor Mike, what are you doing? And I said, what? He said, my grandpa said you can never mow your lawn on Sunday, that it’s against the Bible. And I said, well, I appreciate your grandpa, but the Bible does say when the ox is in the ditch, you got to do what you can to get the ox out, and the ox was in the ditch. Now, there’s nothing wrong with mowing your lawn on Sunday. If you want to mow it today, go ahead, and when you’re done, come on over to mine and mow mine as well. You might as well be blessed beyond measure. But anyways, what I’m saying is that people embrace this idea of Sabbath and rest that even it became a part of our culture and our traditions within the church and with the way that we did things. Now, we know that the Bible teaches us that Christ is the fulfillment of all the symbols and the shadows, if you will, and the imagery that was in the Old Testament, and that Jesus Christ is now our rest, that we find our rest in Christ. He is the one that brings spiritual rest. He is the one that brings true rest in our life, and we rest in Christ for our salvation. We no longer are trying to work ourselves to heaven, but we are resting in the work of Christ on the cross through the resurrection and our faith in Jesus Christ that now brings us to become the people of God. And there’s a lot we can talk about that, but I’m simply just helping make the case that this idea of rest is taught in the Bible. But when we read this text in Revelation 14 verse 13, we should not see the word rest as one of inactivity, but rather here he is talking about that we have the relief from the burden of all the challenges and the afflictions and the sufferings of life. And that’s exactly what the passage means, is the believer will rest from their labors, that the believer who has been fighting the good fight of faith, the believer that has been marching forward in Christ even against opposition, even dealing with the temptations of the flesh and the struggles of society and the problems of life and even the physical challenges that one might have to experience in life as their health deteriorates as they get older. The Bible is teaching us that they can rest from all of that struggle, and they can rest from all of those challenges. It does not mean when you go to heaven that you’re going to sit on a cloud, play a harp, and just sleep all day. And I know that sounds very enticing to some of you. You would just love to sleep all day, but that’s not what heaven is. Heaven is a place where the Bible describes to us back in our text, if we’ll look in verse 4 of Revelation 21, that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. If we were to invert this verse, we would say that life is full of pain, and life is full of sorrow, and life is full of death, and life is full of crying and tears. And the Bible is reminding us that the struggle of life, the challenges of life, and the obstacles of life is one day coming to an end for the believer in Jesus Christ. And we will no longer have to fight the good fight of faith, and we will no longer have to push ourselves to keep on keeping on for Jesus Christ, and we will no longer have to bear the weight and the burdens of trying to comfort those who are hurting and who have lost loved ones. And we will no longer have to cry ourselves to sleep, and we will no longer have to feel the emptiness of grief in our hearts as we miss our loved ones dearly. One day, church, you will rest from all of that sorrow, and you will be in the presence of God, enjoying the beautiful presence and majesty of God, and you will rest from your labor for God. How beautiful is that? I want us to understand this. Would you take your Bible and go to 2 Thessalonians? Now, if you just back up from Revelation, you’re going to bump into 2 Thessalonians, not too far, but 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 in verse 6. And again, I think we’re given a little insight into what God is saying is coming for the believer, and even what some of your loved ones have already experienced and are experiencing. In verse 6 of chapter 1, the Bible says, Now, let me just stop there. Just a side note. We’re out there living for God, and sometimes there’s pushback, and sometimes there’s opposition, and sometimes people aren’t as cooperative, and sometimes people make it difficult, and sometimes people are antagonistic because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We were talking about this in Sunday school with the young adults and how we suffer in this world, but that God has called us not to fight evil with evil, but our response is goodness. Our response is kindness. Our response is that those who trouble us, we trust in God because we believe that God will make right all that is wrong in this world. Now, we like to get ahead of God, don’t we? I mean, perhaps maybe the hardest word for Christians is wait. We don’t like to wait, and how I know this is that I observe how some of you are driving out there and how irritated you get, but I’m among you. I find myself frustrated. We don’t like to wait, but when it comes to those who trouble us and persecute us or even push back on us or make it difficult for us as we’re trying to live for Christ, the Bible says God is going to repay, and so we must, whether it’s here or later, we must trust God that he will repay in his perfect timing. He will deal with all the injustice in this world. We strive to live our life with justice and integrity and character and honor and glory to God, but we trust him. Look at verse 7, and to give you who are troubled, what does that word say? Rest. See, I love that because it’s a battle living for God. If you think following Jesus Christ means your life is easy, you are sadly mistaken, and why is it that some start out like shooting stars for Christ and all of a sudden they disappear on us? It is because they responded in emotion to God and they were under the impression that somehow their life would be easier, and when they found themselves in the midst of trouble and the midst of a trial and in the midst of antagonism, they retreated. But the true believer perseveres, and the true believer keeps going on, and the true believer never gets weary in well-doing because they keep pushing forward for the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are given a promise that God will give you who are troubled. Rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. Heaven is a real place. It is a place that Jesus has prepared for us, those that love him and follow him and believe in him, and a lot of people have these images that they’re just going to float around on a cloud in heaven, but that’s not the truth. We actually have responsibilities. We will enjoy doing things and connecting with family, friends, and meeting new people. It’s just going to be amazing what heaven’s going to be like, and I want you to remember that it is going to be utopia because it is the absence of sin, and it’s not like it’s going to be totally different than the way it is now. It’s going to be very much like it is, that you and I will have jobs, responsibilities, and things that we’ll do, and we’ll connect with family and friends, but minus sin, and that’s what’s going to be so amazing as we worship Jesus Christ and continue to glorify his name. So make sure that you go to our website because you can get this message in its entirety. It’s been streamed and it’s on the YouTube channel. We encourage you to check that out. There’s a whole archive. Just type in heaven and that’ll come right up for you, but we encourage you to also check out our Facebook page and make sure you like us and enjoy some of the posts that are being put out there, and we’re hoping they’re encouragement to your life. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post What Will We Do in Heaven? Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Who Is He in Yonder Stall? He will be reading out of Matthew 1: 18-25. The Bible declares, I, even I, am the Lord. And besides me, there is no savior. It is only God himself who can save your soul. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders, and I’m delighted to welcome you to Hope Worth Having radio program. And we hope that the message today will bring some insight into your faith and help you to live a faithful life for the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we’re gonna be in Matthew chapter one, and I wanna say Merry Christmas to everyone as we are soon to celebrate the birth of our savior. And so I want us to look in Matthew chapter one and begin to talk about who is he in yonder stall. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the gospel of Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one, verse 18 through 25, and I want us to talk about the Christmas story from the gospel of Matthew, and I want us to think about there’s an old hymn that says, who is he in yonder stall, at whose feet the shepherds fall? It is that question and its answer that is so critical to each of our hearts. It is critical and important to us because it determines our spiritual destination, our answer to the question of understanding who is this babe, who is this Jesus that was sent to us in which we celebrate his birth? If we answer incorrectly, we definitely will miss our Messiah. We can make mistakes about many things in life and still be a true believer and enter into heaven, but we cannot be wrong about who the baby is in the manger. We understand him to be as the scriptures teach us, the God-man, 100% human and 100% divine. Two complete natures combined in one person. I want us to begin to investigate that very truth as we consider who is he in yonder stall. The first thing that I want you to see is the virgin birth reveals the deity of Jesus. Now look at verse 18 in the gospel of Matthew and note again what the scripture says. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother, Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that Mary and Joseph were betrothed. Now we sometimes don’t understand that particular language because we live in a different culture, but in the times of the Middle Eastern culture of when Jesus Christ was born into this world, parents decided who you were gonna marry. But I want you to understand that Joseph and Mary, their marriage was arranged by their parents. And once that had been arranged and established, when the children would become teenagers, they went into a phase that they were betrothed together. And what that meant is that they were kind of like engaged. It was a very serious commitment that was made. And then the final step would be that they would be married together as husband and wife. This scripture says that Mary and Joseph were betrothed. That would usually take about a year in a time span. And the family’s getting ready for this great marriage. But in the midst of that circumstance, the Bible tells us that Mary was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Now this created a great dilemma because there was really only two options as we consider this story about the virgin birth of Jesus is that either Mary was a virgin or she was not. And when we investigate the life of Mary, not only just in what the scriptures teach us, but what history teaches us, there is nothing that would indicate that Mary was ever unfaithful to Joseph. And there was nothing that would ever indicate that if Joseph was the type of man who would not take responsibility or that he would ever try to say, well, it’s not my child. Joseph was just the opposite. He was a man of great integrity. He was a man of great character. And so if Mary had not ever been with Joseph or she had not ever been with any man, then the only option we have to understand is what Matthew declares under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that Mary was a virgin. The angel came to Mary and in the gospel of Luke, the angel declared to Mary that she was great with child. And the Bible tells us that Mary began to question the angel. How could this be? And in Luke chapter one, verse 35, the angel responded and said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. The Son of God. Again, sometimes we read the scriptures and we Americanize it. And we look at it from the context of our own culture. But in the Hebrew language, the reference to Son of God was a idiom. It was kind of a phraseology, if you will, in reference to the substance of Jesus, the very nature. And so when the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God, it is literally saying Jesus has the very nature of God, that he has the very substance of God, that he is the very essence of God. When the angel declared to Mary that she has conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, that she has conceived the Son of God, she understood it in this terms, that God himself was within her and that God himself has come to this earth to bring salvation and redemption and forgiveness to all who believe in Jesus Christ. And that is why she would break out later in the Gospel of Luke with great praise and honor and joy to her heavenly father. The virgin birth reveals the deity of Jesus Christ. But I also want you to see this morning that the angel’s words that were announced reveal Jesus’s deity. We come back to our text in the Gospel of Matthew chapter one as Matthew is unfolding this incredible, amazing story of the birth of Jesus Christ. His purpose is that he would help his readers to see that Jesus truly is the King of kings and he is the Lord of lords. He has already spent in verses one through 17, he has spent the time to help us to see the kingly or the royal, the Davidic heritage that Jesus had. And now he wants us to see that he is Jesus’s God through his birth. And the angels have made an incredible announcement. Look in verse 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s pregnancy truly crushed Joseph. The Bible says that he was a just man. We’ve already declared unto you that he was a man of integrity and character. He was devastated from a human perspective as to what was happening. He was confused and could not truly grasp why it is that Mary would somehow be unfaithful to him. As he’s going through this process, the Bible says that an angel appeared to him and reminded him that what is conceived in Mary is of the Holy Spirit. When you read that in the original language, it means literally it is out of the Holy Spirit. And so implying again, as we have already taught you, that Jesus is the very substance of God himself. And Joseph received this understanding and he began to grasp what was really happening, that a miraculous thing was appearing before them. John put it like this in the Gospel of John 1, verse 14. And the word, which is Christ, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Again, the word became flesh. Jesus has become flesh. Mary has conceived Jesus in her womb through the miracle of the Holy Spirit. And when the Bible says that the word became flesh, it is helping us to grasp that God has now become touchable. He has become approachable. He has become accessible, that God has not left us. He has not abandoned us. He has not forsaken us. He has not left us in our plight of our sinfulness and our selfishness, but rather, he has come to this earth to bring us salvation and redemption and forgiveness. Can God’s people say amen? That’s what Christmas means, church. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what we can’t forget. And we have to make sure that we take this message of good tidings, this message of great joy, this message that a Savior has been born. It is this message that we have to do well in communicating to our children and our grandchildren. We have to communicate it well to our neighbors, our family, our friends, and every person that God puts in our path that they cannot forget that it’s so much more than a present. It’s so much more than a tree. It’s so much more than decorations. It’s so much more than getting together with family and friends. And all those things are wonderful. And we certainly don’t look down upon any of that, but we cannot forget the real reason of the season. And that is we are here to celebrate the coming, the advent of a Savior who has not forgotten us, but he has remembered us and he is bringing salvation. That’s what the angel’s words announced. The third thing that I want you to see this morning is that Jesus’ mission demands his deity. Again, look at verse 21. As we are going through the narrative of this Christmas story and the birth of our Savior, we see again that the angel continues and says to Joseph, and she shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name, what church? Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means God saves. Jesus’ name and his mission reveal that he is truly God, that his deity is true. But what it means to us spiritually is this, that God saves, Jesus saves, and hence Jesus is God. I want you to see that. Now you might ask the question, why must Jesus be God in order to save us? Why is that even necessary? Well, here’s what I want you to understand, that all of us are sinners. The Bible teaches us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There’s not one of us that can stand up and say, hey, I am perfect, or I have never sinned against God. And you say, well, I’m not worried about sinning against God. Well, let me ask you this, have you even sinned against your own conscience? Have you even sinned against your own morality and your own mind that you have designed? Whether the Bible has shaped your thoughts and your standards of what is right and wrong, certainly every person in their conscience understands what is right and wrong. And in normal society, there is a general conclusion of what is right and what is wrong. And so the Bible teaches us we have all sinned and we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. And there’s no one that is perfect. We’re all selfish in some way. And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. A lot of people really don’t understand what death means. Death means separation. When your loved one dies, it is the separation of their soul and spirit from their body. That’s what death means. For the believer, we understand that the wages of sin is death, is that we are separated from God Almighty as an unbeliever. But when we trust in Christ, we are separated to go be with God. We are separated from our body. Now, the Bible teaches us that we’re either going to heaven or we’re going to hell. And I want you to understand that there’s no in between. There’s no, hey, I hope a bunch of people pray for me and light a candle for me and somehow help me to squeeze into heaven. Because you see, friends, that’s not in the Bible. That’s not in the word of God. Those are things that are made up through traditions and thoughts of people who would like to think that somehow there is a different way. But friends, there is only one way. And that one way is through Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches us that there is a punishment for our sin. 2 Thessalonians 1.9 reminds us, for those who do not believe, they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. The worst thing about hell is not just hell in and of itself. Jesus described hell as a place where there is weeping and there is gnashing of teeth. Jesus described it as a place of great sorrow and sadness. Jesus described hell as a place in which we will remember. We’ll remember every opportunity that we had to come to Jesus. Every opportunity to receive Christ and his forgiveness in our life. Every opportunity to believe in him. But friends, once you have been separated from your body, there is no chance for you to reverse course if you have not trusted Christ. And that’s why it’s so important. The birth of Jesus means so much to us because the penalty of sin is eternal. That if our Savior was just a man, he could not eternally pay for our sin. He would just have to continue to be offered up in his physical body and there would be limitations to how much that sin could be paid for and thus our sins would never be paid for. The Hebrew writer put it like this in talking about this same topic. He said, otherwise, referring to Christ, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Understanding the birth of Christ is best always understood in the shadow of the cross. For Jesus came to die. I know sometimes that’s hard for us to wrap our brain around but Jesus Christ came into this world to die on the cross for your sins and for my sins. And because he was not only 100% man and 100% God, he was able to wipe away our sins forever and ever and ever. If you and I are to be saved, we have to have a Savior who can pay for our sins but who can pay for it eternally without taking eternity to do it. And that’s why it was essential that Jesus be born of a virgin and that the spirit of God would conceive within her the very substance and the essence of God in the very nature of God in Jesus Christ. So that as he came into this world, he was 100% God and 100% man. The Bible declares God himself saying, I, even I am the Lord. And besides me, there is no Savior. It is only God himself who can save your soul. It is only Jesus who can forgive you of your sins. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me. You’re not gonna get to heaven by being religious. You’re not gonna get to heaven by being better than the other guy. Some people are under the false understanding that somehow if their good outweighs their bad, they’re gonna be okay with God that he’s got a heavenly scale up there and he’s weighing out our good and our bad. But friends, I want you to know that no matter how much good you and I do, it would never be enough for us to enter into heaven. And the Bible says that our righteousness, meaning the best of Mike Sanders and the best of you is like a filthy rag before God. And he’s not just talking about that filthy rag that is sitting in the kitchen sink that has been sitting there for several months that you wash these wonderful dishes with, but he’s talking about a filthy rag that the lepers used. And they would come to this place where different rags were laid out under the sun and they would take those rags and they would wipe all the pus that was on their body spewing from their wounds. And rather than running it down to the laundromat, they laid it on the rock to dry out and the next leper would come and wipe their body down. And if you had ever thought, hey, somehow maybe my righteousness is pretty incredible and maybe there’s something within me so good that I would be worthy to enter into heaven. This metaphor that God gives us that our righteousness is as filthy rags crushes that very thought and makes us to have to come to the understanding that the best of Mike Sanders falls miserably short of the righteousness of God. Jesus said, unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You and I, because many of us have been taught about the Pharisees, we think in terms of negativity, obviously, because they were very hypocritical and they were very prideful and condescending. But in Jesus’s day, Pharisees were considered the best of the best. They were considered the cream of the crop. They were considered some of the finest people. And so when Jesus made this bold declaration that unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees, you cannot enter into heaven. Again, it was shocking to his hearers, perhaps even as shocking as you might hear. If I were to say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of mother Teresa, or perhaps I might say to you that if your righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of Billy Graham, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You would think, man, Mike, those people did so much for society and they sacrificed so much for the poor and they did so much in telling others. How is it that you could say that? Because even the best of all of us, even the best in the cream of the crop of our own society, that unless our righteousness exceeds their righteousness, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. And that’s why Jesus came. And that’s why we celebrate Christmas. Because Jesus Christ came as the son of God, 100% God, 100% man. He walked on this earth and he lived a sinless life. He obeyed every aspect of the law, different aspects of the law that you and I could never obey. He obeyed it in its minutest detail. He fulfilled it all. And then he offered himself up as a sacrifice for your sins and my sins. He went to the cross to pay the penalty of sin. For the wages of sin is what, church? Death. It is Jesus who died on the cross for you. He took the punishment. I like to put it like this. He took the wrath of God for the sins of mankind so that you and I could take on his righteousness, his grace, his love, his forgiveness, and we could stand before God Almighty and we could be welcomed into our heavenly home, not because of our righteousness and not because of all the good that we have done and not because we’re more religious than the other guy, but because of what Christ did in coming to this earth, living a sinless life and dying on the cross for my sins. And friends, it is that mission, it is that purpose that reminds me that Jesus truly is God. The fourth thing that I want you to see this morning in our text is that Isaiah the prophet predicts Jesus’s deity. Now, when Matthew was writing this gospel under the inspiration of the Spirit, he was writing to a Jewish community and they would be very familiar with the Old Testament. They would be very familiar with the prophets proclaiming the coming of a Messiah. They would understand what is being said and what Matthew wants them to grasp is that Jesus is that fulfillment of what the prophets spoke about. So let’s look in verse 22. So all this was done, what was done? The birth of Jesus. All of the, what has been spoken of relating to the virgin birth, that he was conceived in the womb of Mary through the Holy Spirit. So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, behold, the virgin shall be with a child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. The Bible teaches us something very profound here, that the prophets had already spoken. They had already said this was going to happen. So what Matthew does is take them back to what the prophet Isaiah had said, and more specifically, what had been said in Isaiah chapter seven and verse 14. Now, what were the circumstances in this verse? There were armies that were attacking the kingdom of Judah, and they were led by King Ahaz. And fear had gripped Ahaz as he began to realize that he was under attack. And God instructed the prophet Isaiah to go to the king and to remind him that he had a responsibility to come to God and ask for a sign. But the king in his stubbornness and the king in his pride refused to look to God and to look to God for a sign of hope and help. And so here’s what the scripture says that the prophet said to Ahaz. I’m in Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name. What church? Emmanuel. Emmanuel, meaning God with us. Had the king been smart, he would have looked to God. It would be smart if our politicians would learn to look to God, amen? If they would seek God for a sign, if they would seek God for the help and the hope that is so desperately needed. But sometimes politicians are so full of themselves, they can’t see beyond themselves. And I know that may upset you, but don’t be upset because in the Old Testament, they had the same problem in that they would have political leaders who were full of pride. And yet Ahaz refused to look to God. And so Matthew explained, hey, this sign is really Jesus himself. Isaiah 7, 14 is fulfilled right now in what I’m telling you about the birth of Jesus Christ. We again see the prophet in Isaiah chapter nine and verse six saying, for a child will be born to us. A son will be given to us and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Friends, in all of those titles of the names of Jesus is the answer to every dilemma in your heart. It is the fulfillment of every desire in your life. For Jesus Christ will satisfy all that you ever desired in your heart and in your mind. And though the world is looking for peace and though people are looking for peace within their own families and they are looking for peace in their own hearts, it is only found in this child named Jesus Christ. And I want you to know that this is not only foretelling the birth of Christ, but it is reminding us as we study deeper that one day Jesus is coming back and he is going to destroy all the enemies of God and all the governments that hate God and all the governments that wanna kick God out and he will establish his own physical kingdom on this earth and we as believers will rule and reign with Jesus Christ. It’s gonna be awesome, church. It’s so mind-blowing and beyond what you could even really grasp. The Bible says as a believer that you will be a judge. It’s hard to believe when you think about the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ that he came to die on a cross and we know the world makes Christmas into something that it’s really not about all the material stuff, but for us as believers, it’s a celebration of eternal life and that our sins are paid for on the cross through the resurrection. So I pray that as we head into the new year, into Christmas day, that you and I will be reflecting on the significance of our Savior coming to this earth, Emmanuel, God with us. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having. The post Who Is He in Yonder Stall? first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What is Hell Like?. He will be reading out of Matthew 25: 41-46. I just think I’m doing enough good out there and God’s going to give me that opportunity to go into heaven. But I’m here to tell you that God doesn’t grade on a curve and God doesn’t weigh your good against your bad. Here’s the only thing that matters. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church and we welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio broadcast. We’re delighted that you’ve tuned in and we look forward to sharing God’s Word with you today. We’re going to be in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, and we’re going to talk about what is hell like. Now, some people don’t even believe in hell, but I’m telling you, friends, hell is real. It’s a place that you want to shun and you certainly want to turn your heart towards God and live for Jesus Christ. Let’s get into our study. In the Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, our focus will be verse 41 through 46. We’re in this series on five questions about heaven and five questions about hell. The most prolific teacher of hell in all of scripture was the Lord Jesus himself. Did you know that Jesus talked about hell more than he did heaven? He gave over 70 references to hell in the scriptures. Teaching on hell is really the most compassionate and merciful act that one could do. Warning people of the reality of hell is a very loving, gracious, and kind thing to do. And most importantly, it’s important to warn self-righteous religious people that they are going to end up unintentionally in hell. And this is something that we cannot retreat from. And we think about the scripture reading that we experienced earlier in our service, and I guarantee you there was never a moment in the rich man’s life that he thought he was going to hell. But yet, his life ended up there because he did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And hell is full of people who are unintentionally there. They didn’t plan on it, and they thought they were okay because they were involved in all these rituals, and they were religious, and they partook of whatever the church might require of them or the religion might require of them. Only to find out that it’s not about rituals, but it’s about a relationship, and a relationship with Jesus Christ. We cannot forget the words of our Savior in Matthew 7 in which he said, depart from me because I never knew you. And that’s the key. How do you get to heaven? It’s who you know. But if you’re to get to heaven, you’ve got to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ll talk more about that at the conclusion of our sermon. But I want us to learn in Matthew 25 some key points here this morning. I want you to pick up with me. Jesus again is speaking to a religious crowd, and he is reminding them of what the future judgment is waiting for those who do not believe. In verse 41 of chapter 25, he says, then he will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take me in, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? And then he will answer them saying, assuredly I say to you in as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. What do we need to learn this morning on this great question, what is hell like? Well, the first thing I want you to learn is there is a real place called hell. Jesus spoke of heaven, but he also spoke of hell as a real place. And we see in his teaching throughout the scriptures that he always is referencing in Matthew 23, verse 33, again speaking mainly to those comfortable religious people, Jesus called them serpents, brood of vipers. How can you escape the condemnation of hell? If hell were a myth, Jesus certainly would never have given such a strong warning and a frightening description of hell. If hell was a myth, then Jesus was the most deceived person ever on the planet of the earth. And so I want you to know that Jesus was very clear that there is a real place called hell. He referenced it. He taught that those who believe in Christ spend eternity with him and those who reject Christ and do not know Christ as their savior, they are separated from God in a place called hell. Now, everyone dies. One out of one person dies. That’s the latest stat. But not everyone goes to heaven. Not everyone does. Again, look at verse 46 of chapter 25. He says, these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. There is a contrast here of heaven and hell, eternal life with Christ, everlasting punishment in this place that is called hell. We need to know that it is a real place. The second thing I want you to learn is that hell was made for Satan and his angels. We read in the scriptures in verse 41 that Jesus said, those who do not believe he will tell them to depart from me, you curse it into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. If you’re not familiar and maybe don’t fully understand that God had created Lucifer and Lucifer was the great angelic choir leader of heaven. And Isaiah teaches us that he was a glorious and majestic creation of God, but he became so full of himself and he lifted up his heart against God and he desired to be God. And over and over again, he said, I will, I will, I will. And this pride led to Satan and a third of the angels being kicked out of heaven and cast into hell, a place that was prepared for them. So I want you to know that hell was not originally intended for those who would be born into this world, but it was intended for Satan and his angels. And scripture is clear that hell was not intended for us. But rather for Satan. So God created hell for Satan and his angels or his demons who now crisscross the world, who now lead to so much havoc and chaos in this world. And one might say, why did God do that? Why did God do that? Why didn’t he just overpower and annihilate them? God created you and I, he created angels. He created Satan who was an angel. His name was Lucifer. And he gave them the ability to choose and they could choose. You don’t want somebody to love you because they have to. You don’t want somebody to be a robot. I mean, we’re all getting excited about AI, but listen, AI has no emotions. And what I want you to understand that what God desired out of his creation is that they would give glory to him out of their will, that they would choose to love him, obey him, and follow him, and worship him, and give glory to him. And for those who would reject God and have nothing to do with God, they would be cast into everlasting punishment, a place that is called hell. Jesus prophesied about this day of judgment in which he will separate those who believe and those who do not believe. And he reminds us that if you believe in Christ, you will spend eternity with him. We know that great verse in John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. What a wonderful promise, amen? But what I want you to note is those in this text, particularly verse 41 and 46, that the wicked, the unbeliever, share in the same fate as Satan and his demons, in that they do not believe in Christ. Revelation 20, 10 says, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Now, some might embrace a teaching, well, they just become annihilated. They just dissipate. There’s no more existence. Annihilism is what is often referred to by scholars. But I want you to know the Bible teaches just the opposite, that those who do not believe in Christ will be not only separated from God in a place called hell, but they will suffer everlasting punishment. And as if you did not get it, the Bible says in verse 10 of chapter 20 of Revelation that they’ll be tormented day and night forever and ever. There’ll be no end to the torment. The third thing I want you to learn today is that hell is a place of eternal fire. This always brings up a lot of good questions. The Bible says in verse 41 that it’s everlasting fire. It’s everlasting fire. The fire that you and I understand in this world is certainly a distinct fire. But Jesus in other passages of scripture would describe hell as a place of outer darkness. How is it that fire that gives off light could somehow lead to a place that hell being of outer darkness? What I want you to know is that we may not fully understand the elements of what this fire is, but it is a real fire, and so much so that it would bring torment and suffering and punishment to those who would experience it. And in some way, somehow, and there is scientifically proven that sometimes fire does not always give off light. Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of the 18th century, said this about hell. There is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have a real body. A fire exactly like that which we have on this earth, except this. It will not consume you, though it will torture you. So it’s a unique fire and something that will continue to bring punishment. Revelation 14 11 says this, the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night. I do not say this gleefully, nor do I say this with great joy, but hell is a place of constant torment. Certainly not a place that you want to gather with your friends. It’s certainly not a place that any of you want to go to, or that you want any of your family to go to. If nothing inspires us to share the gospel with our family, surely the understanding of the torment of hell would motivate us to overcome our shyness and our lack of courage and be bold in telling others about Jesus. I want you to learn something else, is that hell is separation from God. I want you to take your Bible this morning, and I want you to go to 2 Thessalonians. Now, different scholars have debated this, but I want you, again, to know that everything that we strive to teach you, we always want to make sure it aligns with the Word of God. That it’s not just the thought process of Mike, or that some kind of a ritual religious system that he is imposing upon you, but rather that we can actually say, this is what the Word of the Lord says to you. For the Word of God has authority, and it has authority over us as believers. So I’ll help you understand some of the confusion, but let’s just read 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and let’s look at verse 8 and 9. And again, the Bible reminds us of this great judgment. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God. Underscore that, because it’s not those who aren’t religious enough, or didn’t go to church enough, but those who do not know God. On those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is the gospel? We know the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection. What is the response to be the gospel that Jesus gives to us? It is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. When Peter stood before the thousands on the day of Pentecost, he implored them and pleaded with them that they would repent and believe in Jesus Christ. That’s what it means to obey the gospel. Verse 9, referring to these who do not know God and do not obey the gospel, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. So what does that mean? Because we understand that God is omnipresent. We understand that God is everywhere at the same time, and we embrace that and believe that, because the Bible does teach that. But is there a contradiction? What I want you to know is that there is what we understand as the general presence of God that is everywhere, but there is also the manifested presence of God. Even the book of Proverbs reminds us that the manifested presence of God is before us, whether we are among the just or the unjust. The sun shines upon the just and the unjust, and the rain comes upon the just and the unjust, and that all that we experience in life, we are experiencing many times the grace of God, and we are experiencing the blessing of God, but the beauty of that sun rising. Some people hadn’t seen the sun rise in quite some time, but you know, you rise and you see the beauty of the sun, and you see the creation, and you see God’s handiwork all around us. Not only do I get to enjoy that as a believer, but unbelievers get to enjoy it, right? That’s the manifested presence that is all around us. We experience his presence. We sense his presence as we are worshiping the Lord in different aspects of our life, whether it’s personally or it’s corporately in the family of God. Maybe we’re out there witnessing, or maybe we’re sharing, caring, and helping others, and we just have a sense of the presence of God in our life. This is what we are talking about. His manifested presence that often appears into our life and begins to bring great strength and comfort and peace in our hearts. It’s not that we can always fully explain it. The Bible says we’re given a peace that passes all understanding. It’s not of the understanding of the world, but there’s just a peace that God puts upon his people, that they are not wrapped up in the anxieties of the world, or perhaps even the worrisome of the problems of certain circumstances in your life. But God has just granted this manifested presence of peace in your hearts, and that’s what I’m talking about in this passage in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 8 and 9. It’s not that they’ll be separated from the omnipresence of God, but they will be separated from the presence of God that manifests itself in his love, his grace, his forgiveness, his peace, his hope. So many different things that we could talk about in relation to the presence of God, and the Bible tells us that he gives those perfect peace whose mind, as the King James says, stays. It means that are focused on him. The reason so many of you are so full of anxiety and trouble in your heart is because you got your eyes on people, and I’m just going to tell you, people are never going to meet all your expectations. You better just adjust that, and you got to know that people will fail you, and it sometimes can be very painful and disappointing to your heart. But let me tell you, get your mind focused on Christ, and he will give you that peace, and he will give you that strength to just keep moving forward for him. That’s what I want you to know. That will not exist in hell. They will not experience the love of God, those who do not believe in Christ. In hell, people will be isolated from God’s manifested presence, and they will be isolated from his goodness, his loving kindness, and all that is pleasant that you and I enjoy in the general creation of this world. Speaking on hell is very difficult for me. It’s very, you know, just kind of rips at my heart, and so in preparing this sermon, I wanted to make sure that you understood some things. That what all we’ve described about what hell is like, I want you to remember that Jesus is our only ticket to heaven. And I want you to understand that because Jesus was very straightforward. He said in John 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus was not pretending. He says what he means, and he means what he says. And so Jesus is the only way, and I want you to be encouraged that the reason Jesus is the only way is because he went to the cross relating to Holy Week and coming into the culmination of the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But do not forget that Jesus Christ endured much anguish, and that he went to the cross on your behalf, my behalf, and that he endured literally, if you can, without misunderstanding what I’m saying to you this morning, Jesus took your hell on the cross. He took the wrath of God. He took the punishment of sin. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There are no perfect people. They’re just not around. I know there’s a lot of people who think they’re perfect, amen? And we know that they circulate into our circles, and they sometimes annoy us and frustrate us, but the bottom line is that we are all sinful, selfish, flawed people. And that would help you as you’re dealing with people, by the way. Just understand we start out with this premise. That would help you in your parenting. The greatest parenting lesson a parent could ever learn is that that little child is a sinner in need of a Savior. But that would cause me to depart from what I want to teach you, and that is that you need to understand that God doesn’t grade on a curve. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people and I said, you know, how do you know you’re going to heaven? And they say to me, well, I just feel like my good is going to outweigh my bad. I just think I’m doing enough good out there, Mike, that it will just on the scale of life will help me, and God’s going to give me that opportunity to go into heaven. But I’m here to tell you that God doesn’t grade on a curve, and God doesn’t weigh your good against your bad. Here’s the only thing that matters. Do you have faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Did you remember the words that Jesus said? Do you remember what we read to you? The Bible says that they did not know God. Jesus said, depart from me because I never knew you. And I know that goes against our American idealism and that we work hard and we pull ourselves up from the bootstraps and we make ourselves something in this world. And I do want you to be a hard worker, and I want you to see dignity in work, and I want you to see great value in all of that. But when it comes to your spiritual life, Jesus already did all the work on the cross. Can God’s people say amen? And that’s why we celebrate. That’s why we’re rejoicing, because we’re not out there trying to earn points with God. We’re not out there trying to merit our salvation. We are coming out of great gratitude, and we are putting our faith in Jesus Christ. So how should we then live? Well, consider these thoughts this morning, and that is, first of all, we need to trust God with our questions. Now, a lot of people have a hard time because they have so many questions about faith, God, and Jesus, and they can’t seem to take that step of faith until all their questions are answered. These are people that overthink everything. You ever met these people? They overthink and they analyze till they paralyze. You know what I mean? And I have to be honest with you, and I know you’re not going to like this, but I’d rather make a bad decision than no decision. Some of you, you haven’t come to Christ because you’ve got 30 more questions, and until those 30 questions, well, we certainly can do our best. Many, many years ago, after the first Iraq war, when I pastored in Indiana, one of the wives came to me and asked, would you meet with my husband? He has a lot of questions about the Bible, and I’ve been praying that he’ll get saved, and I said, I’m glad to. Well, it ended up that we would meet every Monday night at 6 p.m., and I would try to answer his questions, but every time I answered a question, he had 10 more. What I’m trying to say is that we’re never going to get to all the answers. Here’s what I want you to do, that just live by faith, not explanations. Now, I’m not asking you to check out your brain, and I’m not asking you to not try to understand, but I am saying to you, there comes a point you become the dog chasing the tail, and the secret things belong to the Lord, and if there was a good answer for everything, I promise you, long before Mike, it would have been discovered. And so, there are things that we need to just trust God, and that we have faith, and we believe, and even though we may deal with doubt, that doubt does not keep us from having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we study the great book of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, we see that even these great men and women who made the hall of faith still dealt with doubt in their hearts. And I want you to know, doubt does not disqualify you from following Christ. And we think about this great man, John the Baptist, the Bible described him as a very courageous and bold man who stood before thousands and preached to them that they should repent and believe. He witnessed at the baptism of Christ, the Father saying from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He witnessed the falling of the Spirit like a dove upon Christ. He experienced and learned at the very feet of Jesus Christ in all the great miracles and ministries that he conducted. John said, he must increase and I must what? Little did John know what he was saying, so much so that when he stood before the king and called the king out for his adulterous lifestyle, the king had John thrown in prison. John was definitely going from the throngs, the thousands of people to a lonely jail cell. He must decrease. He was so discouraged and so filled with doubt, his disciples trying to keep him encouraged came to visit John and John asked his disciples, and this is all recorded in the gospels, and John asked his disciples, he said, would you go ask Jesus if he’s the one or do we look for another? And I know you’ve been there and I know you’ve questioned and doubted, but that never stripped you of your faith. Do you understand that? And when John’s disciples came to Jesus, Jesus said, go tell them. And he made this long list of all the wonderful things that were happening and people getting saved and the miracles that were happening. And though John did not get to experience all that in that he was decreasing, he was a man of great faith and Jesus gave a great epitaph to his life as being a man of faith. How should we then live? Not only to trust God with our questions, but to tell people the good news about Jesus. You see, before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave a commission to each one of his disciples and that was to go. It was not to sit on the couch and eat Doritos, but it was to go and make disciples of all nations. All that you’re doing in this world, even your career, even your responsibilities and your roles is all about making disciples and you need to gear everything in that direction. Now you can’t go to work and say, hey we’re going to have church today, or you can’t go to work and say we’re going to have Sunday school in the secular world. But what you can do is work with people one-on-one and you can witness for Christ and you can encourage people and you can share God’s word with people. And you know we got these little contraptions, it’s called the cell phone, and you could share and you can use it as a tool of discipleship. But get the good news out church. The third thing I want you to do is how then should we live in light of the fact that hell is real is that you and I need to be winsome people, not combative. Now we see this in 2 Timothy chapter 2. We certainly understand that our goal is to win as many people as we can. And I want to tell you, treating people like trash and calling them names and yelling and screaming at them isn’t going to help. As I tell people and remind people, as I witness for Christ, I just gently lead people one step closer to the cross. Our job is to be a part of the rescue squad. But I want you to be out there winsome and I want you to be the kind of person who’s trying to reach people. And I want you to be the kind of person who’s making the case for Christ everywhere you go in your life with your words and how you live. Some of you are retired and you say, well you know I’m getting bored in my retirement. Well that’s your fault. You know get back out there. There’s a shortage of workers so get back out there. We could use you. The last thing I want to share with you is to remove every obstacle you can that is hindering you from being an effective witness for Christ. Here’s what I mean. In 1 Corinthians 9 the apostle said that he became all things to all men that he might win some. It doesn’t mean that he became a wrestler so he could win wrestlers. He didn’t become a drunkard so he could become a drunkard. But I’ll tell you what he was willing to do. He was willing to sacrifice some things so he could relate and connect and reach people for Christ. Now let me just say this to those of you that are here and you do not know Christ. I want to say this. How do you escape hell? And it is simply this. By believing the saving gospel. Believing in Jesus Christ who died for your sins and trust in him alone for your salvation. What does that mean? It means to turn away from your sin and your selfishness and to embrace Christ as your Lord and your Savior. And what will be the result? God will pour into your heart a renewed spirit and he will grant you a new life and forgiveness and grace in your life. And you will spend eternity forever in heaven. And so we understand that hell is real and we understand that the torment is real and it motivates us as believers. But if you’re an unbeliever today, may the reality of hell motivate you to escape it by believing in Jesus Christ. We’re not gleeful when we preach on hell. We’re not wanting anybody to go to hell. We certainly desire the salvation of all and we are like what the scripture says, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Please make sure that heaven is your home and that you have put your faith in Jesus Christ for your true salvation. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. 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Pastor Mike will be speaking on How Will God Assign Rewards in Heaven? Part 2. He will be reading out of 1st Corinthians 3: 8-15. Some of you will spend hours getting your kids to practice and games and I’m not opposed to any of that But you won’t sit down and pray with them. You won’t put any effort in making sure they are being fed Spiritually because we are more Interested in the temporal than we are the eternal Hello, this is pastor Mike Sanders with hope worth having radio broadcasts coming in to your home your vehicle or wherever you may be listening to us and we want to share the truth of God’s word and we hope that God’s word will Be an encouragement to you will draw you to him and that you will be a faithfully devoted follower of Christ Now today we’re going to be in first corinthians chapter three again We’re continuing our study on how will God assign rewards in heaven? So let’s get right into our study So We are called to build our lives on the rock jesus christ The storms came to both lives in this parable that jesus shared Both of them had troubles and trials and the rains and the winds poured down upon them Just because you’re a christian does not mean you won’t have problems Doesn’t mean you won’t have struggles and you won’t have trials in your life We all have different types of struggles and trials in our life But we all have to endure but the difference is the foundation of your life For the one that built his life upon the shifting sands of the world his house crumbled his life was destroyed He could not handle the weight of the struggles and problems of this world But the one who built his life on the solid rock of jesus christ He was able to endure and his house was strong and he was able to continue on And so it is in my spiritual life That when I build my life on jesus christ That I will be able to continue on for the lord even through the trials jesus said in matthew 7 24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine And doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock Here’s a question What foundation are you building on? Some of you your focus is your career Some of you your focus is maybe a particular person that you think so dearly of And some of you it’s about money and some of you it’s about an experience And some of you are building your life on the things of this world and i’m going to tell you something You live long enough And you’re going to find out none of that holds up It all collapses It all comes tumbling down and that the only thing that lasts and is enduring is the true foundation of jesus christ And you are implored and encouraged today to give your life fully freely to jesus christ to build On the foundation of jesus christ in your life I heard the story That early one morning That there was a fire that broke out in a house on a narrow street The alarm was sounded by a policeman on duty However, flames were leaping high into the air before the fire engines could get to the scene and suddenly a young man Had appeared at an upper window in his pajamas Firefighters quickly placed a ladder against the burning building nevertheless to the consternation of all He refused to come down Shouting out to the firemen that he first had to get dressed The firemen pleaded come as you are come as you are but to no avail this young man would not Climb out the window and get on the ladder and escape They tried to ascend on the stairs from below but were turned back As the wind fanned the flames into furry When the rescuer tried To enter through a window the heat and the smoke forced him away and suddenly the stairs gave way and the roof fell in The man waited too long And he was buried beneath the ruins And how much greater tragedy awaits all those who refuse to flee the wrath that is to come upon this world Because they want to go do this or they want to go do that They want to live their life a little bit or they want to try something else my friends many have rejected god’s provision of Salvation and god’s provision of safety and god’s provision of forgiveness only to find that their life Was ruined and today I want you to remember that the most important thing and the most important message I could give you Is to make sure you built your life on the foundation of jesus christ Now the second thing that I want you to learn this morning is that god will inspect the materials Not only is the foundation going to be inspected, but the materials in which we build In what our work is for god now We jump down to verse 12 and 13 of our text and he says now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold Silver and precious stones wood hay and straw each one’s work will become clear For the day meaning the day of judgment will declare it Because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one’s work of what sort it is each member of god’s family Has an assignment from heaven It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been saved or how little you’ve been saved Friends every one of us has assignment from god And we have a responsibility before god and we have a job to do for the lord. Jesus christ And one day you’re going to stand before god in the presence of god and you’re going to have to give an account for the assignment That he has given you Now you cannot say like maybe some students have said through the years that my dog ate it Or you cannot say well I was not feeling too good and so I was not able to get to it. You and I may have thousands of excuses of why we did not fulfill our assignment But we will stand before god without excuse for he has given to us An opportunity that we might fulfill this assignment But not only is it important that we understand we have an assignment from god But that we understand that god cares about the materials that we use We are called to use materials that are suitable for the purpose and plans of god in this assignment In our two verses that we just read in verse 12 and 13 We learned that the building materials look again in verse 12 gold silver precious stones wood hay Straw you will note that these fall into two categories And that they are listed in descending order of value That the one category at the outset is durable materials that can withstand the test of fire And that the others at the end the wood hay and stubble would be consumed by the fire Now what that tells me first of all is that there are christians that are building their christian life and they are doing their assignment and they are building with Gold and they are building as the text says silver and precious stones But that there are other christians who are using wood hay and straw The bible is telling us that the material We use matters to god Are you with me church? I want you to understand something God has not called us to be haphazard Unintentional he’s not called us to be lazy. He has not called us to just slide by What we are doing is of great value and it will be tested before god almighty one day You’ll stand before god and give a account an account of your work for god And I want you to make sure that you understand that so I wrote down some things that I think will help you that things that I would put into the category of gold silver and precious stones When you are building your christian life when you are doing your work for christ There are some things that you need to remember are gold silver and precious stones And there’s things that are wood hay and straw but here they are write them down First of all, it’s important for you As a builder to begin with the end in mind When we built the fellowship hall we had the drawings we had the end in mind we understood What was the ultimate goal? We went up and did the science lab recently and we had the end in mind We’re getting ready to renovate the gymnasium and get it all out in the kitchen and add on some classrooms and we’re getting ready to Do some more work, but we’ve got the end in mind. We’re working with the architect with the end in Mind, we’re going to do some renovations in the auditorium and we’ve got the end in mind When we started doing the lobby there were a few complainers I had already during covid thrown away all the pacifiers. So I had to go out and find some new ones Just kidding now if you can’t handle pastor mike’s teasing you won’t make it nor survive here Just letting you know But we had an end in mind. We could see the vision we could see what needed to be done Others couldn’t why are you doing that? Why are you doing this? Why would you get rid of this floor that has been here for 50 some years? I mean we could still use it even though it’s popping up from the ground and people are tripping over it It’s falling apart. We could still use this half over here and maybe just replace a couple pieces over there pastor mike. No No We begin with the end in mind And just like you do in a building and just like you do in construction So you do in your spiritual life you begin with the end in mind now I know there’s a few people out there. You’re just kind of guiding sliding through life. I got you But i’m different I got goals I got things I want to achieve and accomplish and we recognize those goals We evaluate those goals and we continue to push ourselves towards these goals spiritual goals in our life And we want to reach them and I know that sometimes people say well We just kind of take it as it comes pastor well friends You’re like charlie brown They took him to target practice We’re bow and arrows and they had the target there right in front of him and he pulled back his arrow on his bow And he let it go And that arrow went everywhere and anywhere and it finally landed somewhere And so charlie brown went and grabbed the target and moved it over to where the arrow was I think that’s how some christians are We have no purpose we have no goals we have no steps we have no plan we have no strategy We’re just kind of shooting it out there and we’ll just kind of move the target and say yeah, we always intended to be here You know i’m saying But no god wants us to have the end in mind. Where do you want to be spiritually? Where do you want to be in your christian life five years from now? What are some things that you would like to accomplish as a believer in the lord jesus christ? I’m not asking you to go out there and have multiple crusades and filled up stadiums. I’m just asking you How about this? Could you have a goal read the bible through in a year? Could you have that kind of goal? Some of you say i’ve been doing that for 10 years 20 years 30 years great. How about this? Could you have a goal That you’re going to study the bible That you’re going to memorize bible verses there’s all kinds of goals We don’t have time to go through them all but what I want you to know the kind of things that last with god Is that when we begin with the end in mind? That we’re not haphazard out there. What is going to stand the test is we understand There needs to be a goal the other area that I think is important is to emphasize the eternal over the temporal To emphasize the eternal over the temporal Now look, he says in verse 14 if anyone’s work which he has built on it endures He will receive a reward Now sometimes there’s flash in the pans. Sometimes they’re shooting stars Sometimes people are more interested in the external. They’re wowed by the razzle dazzle and the fancy But what god cares about is the eternal What god cares about is what is happening spiritually? What is happening in your heart eternally? Have you put your focus there? Have you put your energy there? Have you put your time? Yes, there’s a lot of good things you can be involved in church and we don’t doubt any of those And we do not condemn them that they are not good But the question is are they the best? And what is it that determines the best for the believer in jesus christ it is That we focus on the eternal over the temporal But not only that we are focused on what is eternal Because I want you to know heaven and hell is all that really matters I mean some of you will spend hours getting your kids to practice and games and i’m not opposed to any of that but you won’t sit down and Read the bible to them You won’t pray with them You won’t put any time any effort in making sure they’re in sunday school that they’re in awana that they’re in church that they’re in The youth group that they’re in some kind of a ministry where they are being fed spiritually because we are more interested in the temporal Than we are the eternal and I know That rubs people the wrong way But i’m here to tell you That you aren’t going to be able to stand before god and say, you know god I taught my son how to shoot a basketball Don’t I get any credit? Ain’t gonna matter Because it’s temporal What matters is their eternal? soul Are you with me? Some of you saying I don’t have anybody to talk to about jesus. Why don’t you start with your children? Why don’t you start with your grandchildren? Why don’t you start with people that are right in your circle of influence? Okay, another area is the internal over the external Now here i’m talking about the heart What matters most to god is the heart the bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks I’m telling you that god cares about our heart The bible says that jesus declared to the pharisees that they had all this garb and all this dress and fancy dress that they had But he said that their hearts were far from god You can be religious and be far from god You can be a person who go through the motions of rituals and all that and here’s the thing You don’t even know jesus christ is your savior The internal is more important than the external I want you to understand That quality of your spiritual life is more important than quantity It’s not the length You can’t sit there and brag about how long you’ve been saved in a christian When your life you’re still spiritually immature The apostle said I can’t talk to you as mature people in first corinthians 3 at the beginning He said I have to talk to you as babes in christ And that’s the way I have to do sometimes I say one thing and I know it’ll trigger somebody they’ll have a meltdown they’ll start crying and i’ll have to go find that package of pacifiers Are you with me? But here’s what i’m saying. You ought to grow in the quality of your spiritual life You ought to grow in the quality of your spiritual life because let me tell you something the world’s tough The devil’s not sitting on the sidelines It isn’t going to get any easier I know that some of you all think i’m crazy And I half believe you But I want to tell you one time I was driving a bus and I was telling my sunday school class and this little four-year-old girl came to me She said pastor mike. They’re calling me names back there on the bus And I said, you know what you’re gonna have to get tough Because all your life people are going to call you names You see what i’m saying And and you see we parent the wrong way We think we’re going to right every wrong in this world rather than teaching our children to be strong in their faith And to be strong in their walk with the lord that other people can’t define them or label them That they find their identity in what christ says about them rather than what other people say about them I’m telling you that’s quality over quantity. You might be able to squash something little at the moment But friends when you teach that child To find their identity in jesus christ rather than in the world and what others say you’re going to build a strong believer Guess what? People are going to call you names here. I am. Did you guys know that i’m 54? I know I don’t look at do I? It’s stunning I’m, just teasing again, but I just found out this week. Somebody called me a name I mean I tell people if i’m going to call you a name at least i’ll do it in front of your face. Amen I’m, not going to do it behind your back stab you in the back right You see what i’m saying here i’m 54 and people are still calling me names But i’m not shaking I’m, not breaking I’m, not falling apart having a meltdown crying Do you understand what i’m saying? They’re, never going to stop calling me names When I get to heaven people are going to huddle together and say, well, you know what this is what we thought about mike And it doesn’t matter because all that really matters is your heart And your relationship with jesus christ and it matters where you’re at Spiritually in your life and you need to have a quality christian life and you need to have a life that is committed to the lord Jesus christ Here’s another piece of advice i’d give you is to never cut corners in your christian life Never cut corners how, many times have, we had to deal with this or that we love our forefathers thank god for every one of them But i’m not sure they were always thinking about building with the best material And so we got to come back let me just give you a word of wisdom guys Your wife’s asking you to fix something change something or upgrade something All right, and i’m going to get you in trouble you’re, going to be mad at me because your wife’s going to be quoting Me from here on out Okay, do it right the first time Because when you got to come back and fix it It’s going to cost you more amen People say, well we don’t like this or that and i say let, me tell you if you, don’t do it right now If you, don’t do it right now i’m going to tell you 20 years from now When it falls apart or 10 years from now or five years it’s going to be more expensive It’s going to be more expensive So be smart about that that’s just a little side advice hey i’m helping you ladies all right it’s time to rip out that Paneling put up, some real walls That have insulation amen Don’t be mad at me now let me tell you another thing that i want you to understand And that is that you need to commit to obedience and faithfulness to god Now look at verse 16 and 17. Do you not know? that you Are the temple of god And that the spirit of god dwells in you If anyone defiles the temple of god god will destroy him for the temple of god is holy Which temple you are What he’s trying to teach us is that we need to live lives of purity and obedience and faithfulness to god He’s teaching us that as you’re building your spiritual life Don’t forget that your body is the temple of the spirit of god and he wants you to be faithful and he wants you to Be obedient friends there is nothing more important in your life Than being faithful and obedient to god Can i tell you that friends You need to make a commitment that it doesn’t matter. We’re going to be faithful to god We’re going to be obedient to god for that’s all that matters when I stand before god I want to be a person who’s lived a pure life who is obedient to god who is faithful to god That’s what I want Now there’s so much more that I could tell you about material But I think you can study them on your own the scriptures are filled With the material that we ought to use when we are building our christian life But the third thing and final thing that I want you to note is that god will assign rewards For our work The bible teaches us that god will scrutinize the work and bestow rewards upon us accordingly Go back to verse 8 and note at the end. Each one will receive his own reward according to his own Labor Did you get that? And then we look at verse 13 He says each one’s work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire And the fire will test each one’s work of what sort it is What material did you build with verse 12 gold silver precious stones or wood hay and straw? Did you build that what would be wood? Hay and straw would be like you did it for your selfish reasons Your motives were all about you and your agenda Rather than the cause of christ And look at verse 14 if anyone’s work which he has built on it endures he will receive a what? Yes, you’re going to be rewarded for your faithfulness and obedience to god the fiery tests will expose what truly Last and it’s going to be beautiful I want you to see in verse 15 if anyone’s work is burned He will suffer loss He’s not talking about the loss of your salvation, but he’s talking about the loss of your rewards There will be some in heaven who will receive more rewards than others And you say we can’t do that because we need to have participation trophies That we need to get a medal or a trophy just because we showed up No, that’s not how it works in the kingdom of god god Will award you Based upon your obedience and your faithfulness to him and how you built the materials that you built with Note again, it’s not your salvation, but it is your awards again verse 15, but he himself will be saved Yet it’s so as through fire So it’s not that you’re losing your salvation it’s just that you if you choose to be a slacker you choose that i’m going to be a Sideline critic if you choose to say i’m going to just come sit and soak and do nothing in the church And i’m not going to do anything for my spiritual growth And i’m certainly not going to build on the things that will make me stronger and better christian that I just kind of want to Be a sunday morning christian and coast through my christian life Well friends you’ll get to heaven if you have the right foundation, but you won’t have that many awards If our work has been without quality If our work has been without commitment sacrifice dedication and faithfulness, there’ll be no reward But we are promised That if it is We will be awarded and god Will bless each of us with a reward according to his own labor Now I read the story of a band of musicians Who were in another country and they traveled from town to town presenting music to make a living And they had not been doing very well and times were hard and there was little money for any person to come to hear their music And even though their fee was small, they just could not attract a crowd Attendance had been falling off. And so early one evening the group decided to meet together and talk about their plight One said I see no reason for opening tonight another said it’s starting to snow And to make things worse we are going to have more bad weather And so they were talking back and forth what do we do Another said well Nobody cares Let’s just quit and let’s just call it off And let’s just give back their fees and let’s put this concert off And so they didn’t feel like they could do it, but there was another gentleman He was sitting in the group and they asked him. What do you think and the man appealed? To the group and he said to them That I know you’re discouraged And I am too But we have a responsibility To those who might come And we will go on And moreover we will do our best We will do our best job of which we are capable tonight And it’s not the fault of those who came who are coming That the others do not And that they should not be punished with less than the best that we can give They were encouraged The musicians were heartened and so they decided they would move forward with the show and they never performed better than they ever had And they were excited about what they were able to accomplish and the show ended And this elderly gentleman Called the group back together After the small audience had left And in his hand was a note that someone had handed to him By one of the audience he was sitting in the audience And he said I want to read this note to you. Listen to me my friends He said I want to read a note that was handed to me And here it was. Thank you for a beautiful performance And it was signed simply Your King the greatest reward That we could receive Is well done Signed king jesus Well, it’s amazing to think about what heaven will be like And just thinking about the fact that god has made it possible for us through jesus christ to experience Eternal life with jesus christ and what a glorious Moment, that’ll be when we leave this world enter into that majestic world where we are with our savior and our loved ones Forever heaven’s going to be great But even on top of all that we’ve already shared god is going to reward you and god is going to show His love towards you by rewarding your faithfulness and your diligence for god, maybe you’ve been discouraged Maybe you’ve been thinking about walking away from your responsibilities at your church. Don’t do it Stay faithful to god stay plugged in and continue to serve All the way up to the end and you let the lord determine your time and your seasons And we are just glad that we can be a part of it Now we want to encourage you to go to our website hopeworthhaving.com sign up for our daily Devotions if you go to hopeworthhaving.com sign up for daily devotions They’ll be sent each day to your inbox and you can begin the day with just a little devotion not long But something to keep your mind focused and encouraged as you walk with jesus christ take advantage of that opportunity This is pastor mike sanders reminding you that in christ there is hope worth having The post How Will God Assign Rewards in Heaven? Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How Will God Assign Rewards in Heaven? Part 1. He will be reading out of 1st Corinthians 3: 8-15. He’s not called us to be lazy. He is not called us to just slide by What we are doing is of great value and it will be tested before God Almighty One day you’ll stand before God and give an account of your work for God Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania We welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio broadcast and we are excited to be able to be with you Thank you for tuning in today. We’re going to be in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 We’re learning about how God will assign rewards in heaven Yes, we do not earn our way to heaven But we have rewards waiting for those who faithfully serve him. And so how are those assigned? We’re gonna look at that today. Join me as we study the Bible together This morning I want you to turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 3 We’ll be studying verses 8 through 15 if you’re visiting with us. Thank you for coming today being a part of our service We’re in the middle of a series in which I’ve entitled five questions about heaven and five questions about hell This is a good day to visit because we’re on the question of heaven and we’ve been singing about heaven We’ve been reflecting and meditating about what a day that will be what it means to us In our spiritual journey, but today I want us to think about this question in relation to heaven How will God? assign Rewards in heaven the Bible teaches us that we are going to be awarded for our faithfulness for our obedience to God Well, how will that manifest itself in accordance with the Word of God and I want us to look at that this morning Now one of the largest buildings in the United States is the Willis Tower It was formerly known as the Sears Tower built in 1973 in Chicago, Illinois There are only six other buildings in the world that are taller than the Willis Tower The Willis Tower is a hundred and ten stories high It is 1,000 454 feet high it contains 4.5 million square feet of floor space It took three years to build and at the time it cost over a hundred and fifty million dollars in the Willis Tower There are forty three thousand miles of telephone cable There are two thousand miles of electrical wiring. There are 76,000 tons of steel there’s 16,000 bronze tinted windows and 25,000 miles of plumbing it Contains enough concrete to build an eight-lane highway for five miles The combined weight of the building is two hundred and twenty two thousand five hundred tons There are two thousand two hundred and thirty two steps from the ground floor to the roof The building is so tall that the visibility is 40 to 50 miles on a clear day The Willis Tower is an amazing building However, there is a more Significant building that is being built in our text today in 1st Corinthians The Apostle tells us about that building and he describes our role in its Construction look at verse 8 and 9 of 1st Corinthians chapter 3 the Bible says now he who plants and he who waters are one and Each one will receive his own reward According to his own labor for we are God’s fellow workers and you are God’s field You are God’s Building would you underscore that in your Bible that you are God’s building every believer is a careful builder Every believer is to be a careful believer and we have this responsibility of building our own Christian life and building the cause of Christ and building the church and accordingly how we do Will determine how God Awards us God will reward every believer for their service And he will do it at the final judgment when we stand before Christ He will award each of us according to the job that we have done Now I want us to learn three things out of this text that we’ll be sharing with you this morning Very important wants you to write these down If you aren’t a good writer, then go to the church app and you can follow along But number one is that God will inspect the foundation of our life Now let’s go to verse 10 and 11. We’ve already established that we are God’s building and we are building This great cause of the gospel and the Christian life, but in verse 10 He says according to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise Master builder I have laid the foundation and another builds on it But let each one take heed how he builds on it For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ now any contractor will tell you that the foundation of a building Determines the quality of the building a faulty foundation will doom a building and the building will stand for a long time if the Foundation is solid and the foundation is right now The foundation of any building also determines the size of the building The foundation determines the shape and the strength of the structure when the Apostle makes the analogy Of how that he is one who is a master builder and that he has laid the foundation others build upon it He’s certainly talking about his church planting ministry where he would go out there and pioneer and he would win people to Christ and he would organize them and Mobilize them to be able to effectively serve God He would establish elders and deacons and pastors to oversee and they had the responsibility of building But he gets very Specific with us and he says let each one take heed in Verse 10 let each one take heed how he builds on it you and I have a responsibility To make sure that we are attentive to how things are to be done in Building the house of God the people of God the family of God and our own Christian life It cannot be something that is haphazard. It cannot be careless It cannot be something that we just kind of throw together at the last minute and at the outset of what we are building And our responsibility to it is that we must remember that the foundation is critical to our life and That that foundation will determine the success of our Christian life the foundation will determine the success of any body of believers the foundation will determine the size and the ability of us to Make a difference for the Lord Jesus Christ What does the Bible say look at verse 11 again for no other foundation can anyone lay? Than that which is laid which is who church Jesus Christ Jesus must be the foundation of your life and we must make sure that he is the foundation of this church family and we must make sure that he is the foundation of The purpose of all that we do as we are serving and building for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ The Bible reminds us that Jesus is that foundation now Unfortunately, there have been many who have tried to build a religious life and they have tried to build a life That is based upon maybe rules and rituals and liturgical things that they like to do But none of those things will save your soul only Jesus Christ will save your soul The Bible says Jesus declared that I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes unto the Father but by me and friends the only true foundation that leads to eternal life and the only true foundation that leads to Forgiveness of your sins is the foundation of Jesus Christ at the very foundation of your life Needs to be Jesus and you say, how do I make Jesus the foundation of my life? well, I would start out first by acknowledging that you are a sinner and That you are in need of a Savior now many people again have never come to grips with the reality of their sinfulness They grow up thinking that they’re wonderful. They grow up thinking they’re great and there’s nothing wrong with them But the truth is the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God There is no exception. It doesn’t matter you say but I I grew up in the church pastor And I cut my teeth on the pews and and my family are leaders in the church It does not mean that you are not a sinner in need of a Savior God has no grandchildren he only has children and Each of us must acknowledge that and if I am going to make sure that Christ is the foundation of my life I must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means to repent and believe It means to turn away from my sins and my selfishness and to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of my life as the Lord of my life That is from all that I know and understand at the moment that God has spoken to my heart that I am willing To walk away from my sinful lifestyle and to repent to God Almighty and say Lord Forgive me of my sins and today I receive you as my Savior Jesus told a story in Matthew 7. It’s the story of a man who built his life on the shifting sands of the world in Contrast to the story of another man who built his life on a solid rock And I want you to know that it is a reminder to each of us That we are called to build our lives on the rock Jesus Christ The storms came to both lives in this parable that Jesus shared Both of them had troubles and trials and the rains and the winds poured down upon him just because you’re a Christian does not mean You won’t have problems doesn’t mean you won’t have struggles and you won’t have trials in your life We all have different types of struggles and trials in our life But we all have to endure but the difference is the foundation of your life For the one that built his life upon the shifting sands of the world his house crumbled His life was destroyed. He could not handle the weight of the struggles and problems of this world But the one who built his life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ he was able to endure and his house was strong and he was able to continue on and so it is in my spiritual life that when I build my life on Jesus Christ Then I will be able to continue on for the Lord even through the trials Jesus said in Matthew 7 24 therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and Do with them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house Upon a rock. Here’s a question. What foundation are you building on? Some of you your focus is your career some of you your focus is maybe a particular person that you think so dearly of and Some of you it’s about money and some of you it’s about an experience And some of you are building your life on the things of this world and I’m going to tell you something you live long enough And you’re gonna find out none of that holds up It all collapses It all comes tumbling down and that the only thing that lasts and is enduring is the true foundation of Jesus Christ and You are implored and encouraged today to give your life fully freely to Jesus Christ to build on the foundation Of Jesus Christ in your life. I Heard the story That early one morning that there was a fire that broke out in a house on a narrow street The alarm was sounded by a policeman on duty however flames were leaping high into the air before the fire engines could get to the scene and Suddenly a young man had appeared at an upper window in his pajamas Firefighters quickly placed a ladder against the burning building nevertheless to the consternation of all He refused to come down Shouting out to the firemen that he first had to get dressed The firemen pleaded come as you are come as you are But to no avail this young man would not Climb out the window and get on the ladder and escape They tried to ascend on the stairs from below but were turned back as the wind fanned the flames into furry when the rescuer tried to Enter through a window the heat and the smoke forced him away and suddenly the stairs gave way and the roof fell in The man waited too long and he was buried beneath the ruins and How much greater? Tragedy awaits all those who refuse to flee the wrath that is to come upon this world Because they want to go do this or they want to go do that They want to live their life a little bit or they want to try Something else my friends many have rejected God’s provision of Salvation and God’s provision of safety and God’s provision of forgiveness only to find that their life Was ruined and today I want you to remember that the most important thing in the most important message I could give you Is to make sure you built your life on The foundation of Jesus Christ Now the second thing that I want you to learn this morning is that God will inspect the materials Not only is the foundation going to be inspected, but the materials in which we build in What our work is for God now We jump down to verse 12 and 13 of our text and he says now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold silver and precious stones wood hay and straw Each one’s work will become clear for the day meaning the day of judgment will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each One’s work of what sort it is each member of God’s family Has an assignment from heaven. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been saved or how little you’ve been saved Friends every one of us has assignment from God and we have an responsibility before God and we have a job to do for the Lord Jesus Christ and one day you’re gonna stand before God in the presence of God and you’re gonna have to give an account for the Assignment that he has given you Now you cannot say like maybe some students have said through the years that my dog ate it Or you cannot say well I was not feeling too good And so I was not able to get to it you and I may have thousands of excuses of why we did not fulfill our assignment But we will stand before God without excuse for he has given to us an Opportunity that we might fulfill this assignment But not only is it important that we understand we have an assignment from God, but that we understand that God cares about the materials that we use We are called to use materials that are suitable for the purpose and plans of God in this assignment in our two verses that we just read in verse 12 and 13 We learned that the building materials look again in verse 12 gold silver precious stones wood hay straw you will note that these fall into two categories and That they are listed in descending order of value That the one category at the outset is Durable materials that can withstand the test of fire and that the others at the end the wood hay and stubble Would be consumed by the fire Now what that tells me first of all is that there are Christians that are Building their Christian life and they are doing their assignment and they are building with Gold and they are building as the text says silver and precious stones But that there are other Christians who are using wood hay and straw The Bible is telling us that the material we use matters to God Are you with me church, I want you to understand something God has not called us to be haphazard Unintentional he’s not called us to be lazy. He has not called us to just slide by What we are doing is of great value and it will be tested before God Almighty One day you’ll stand before God and give a account an account of your work for God And I want you to make sure that you understand that so I wrote down some things that I think will help you that things that I would put into the category of Gold silver and precious stones when you are building your Christian life when you are doing your work for Christ there are some things that you need to remember our gold silver and precious stones and There’s things that are wood hay and straw, but here they are write them down First of all, it’s important for you as a builder to begin with the end in mind When we built the Fellowship Hall, we had the drawings we had the end in mind We understood What was the ultimate goal? We went up and did the science lab recently and we had the end in mind We’re getting ready to renovate the gymnasium and get it all out in the kitchen and add on some Classrooms and we’re getting ready to Do some more work, but we’ve got the end in mind. We’re working with the architect with the end in mind We’re gonna do some renovations in the auditorium and we’ve got the end in mind When we started doing the lobby, there were a few complainers. I Had already during kovat thrown away all the pacifiers. So I had to go out and find some new ones Just kidding now if you can’t handle pastor Mike’s teasing you won’t make it nor survive here Just letting you know But we had an end in mind. We could see the vision we could see what needed to be done. Others couldn’t Why are you doing that? Why are you doing this? Why would you get rid of this floor that has been here for 50 some years? I mean we could still use it even though it’s popping up from the ground and people are tripping over it It’s falling apart. We could still use this half over here and maybe just replace a couple pieces over there pastor Mike. No, no we begin with the end in mind and Just like you do in a building and just like you do in construction So you do in your spiritual life you begin with the end in mind now I know there’s a few people out there. You’re just kind of guiding sliding through life. I got you But I’m different. I got goals I Got things I want to achieve and accomplish and we recognize those goals We evaluate those goals and we continue to push ourselves towards these goals spiritual goals in our life and We want to reach them and I know that sometimes people say well We just kind of take it as it comes pastor. Well friends. You’re like Charlie Brown They took him to target practice We’re bow and arrows and they had the target there right in front of him and he pulled back his arrow on his bow and He let it go and that arrow went everywhere and anywhere and it finally landed somewhere And so Charlie Brown went and grabbed the target and moved it over to where the arrow was. I Think that’s how some Christians are We have no purpose. We have no goals. We have no steps. We have no plan. We have no strategy We’re just kind of shooting it out there and we’ll just kind of move the target say Yeah, we always intended to be here You know I’m saying but no God wants us to have the end in mind. Where do you want to be spiritually? Where do you want to be in your Christian life five years from now? What are some things that you would like to accomplish as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? I’m not asking you to go out there and have multiple Crusades and filled up stadiums. I’m just asking you How about this? Could you have a goal read the Bible through in a year? Could you have that kind of goal? Some of you say I’ve been doing that for 10 years 20 years 30 years great How about this? Could you have a goal? That you’re going to study the Bible That you’re going to memorize Bible verses. There’s all kinds of goals We don’t have time to go through them all but what I want you to know the kind of things that last with God is That when we begin with the end in mind That we’re not haphazard out there what is going to stand the test is we understand There needs to be a goal. The other area that I think is important is to emphasize the eternal over the temporal To emphasize the eternal over the temporal Now look he says in verse 14 if anyone’s work which he has built on it endures He will receive a reward Now sometimes there’s flash in the pans sometimes they’re shooting stars Sometimes people are more interested in the external. They’re wowed by the razzle-dazzle and the fancy But what God cares about is the eternal What God cares about is what is happening spiritually? What is happening in your heart? Eternally have you put your focus there? Have you put your energy there? Have you put your time? Yes There’s a lot of good things you can be involved in church And we don’t doubt any of those and we do not condemn them that they are not good but the question is are they the best and What is it that determines the best for the believer in Jesus Christ? It is That we focus on the eternal over the temporal But not only that we are focused on what is eternal Because I want you to know heaven and hell is all that really matters. I mean some of you will spend hours getting your kids to practice and games and I’m not opposed to any of that but you won’t sit down and Read the Bible to them You won’t pray with them You won’t put any time any effort in making sure they’re in Sunday school that they’re in a wanna that they’re in church that they’re In the youth group that they’re in some kind of a ministry where they are being fed spiritually because we are more interested in the temporal Than we are the eternal and I know that rubs people the wrong way But I’m here to tell you that you aren’t going to be able to stand before God and say, you know God I taught my son how to shoot a basketball Don’t I get any credit? Ain’t gonna matter Because it’s temporal What matters is their eternal soul Are you with me? Some of you saying I don’t have anybody to talk to about Jesus. Why don’t you start with your children? Why don’t you start with your grandchildren? Why don’t you start with people that are right in your circle of influence? Okay, the another area is the internal over the external Now here I’m talking about the heart What matters most to God is the heart the Bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks I’m telling you that God cares about our heart The Bible says that Jesus Declared to the Pharisees that they had all this garb and all this dress and fancy dress that they had But he said that their hearts were far From God you can be religious and be far from God You can be a person who go through the motions of rituals and all that and here’s the thing You don’t even know Jesus Christ is your Savior The internal is more Important than the external. I want you to understand That quality of your spiritual life is more important than quantity It’s not the length. You can’t sit there and brag about how long you’ve been saved in a Christian When your life you’re still spiritually immature The Apostle said I can’t talk to you as mature people in 1st Corinthians 3 at the beginning he said I have to talk to you as babes in Christ and That’s the way I have to do sometimes. I Say one thing and I know it’ll trigger somebody they’ll have a meltdown They’ll start crying and I’ll have to go find that package of pacifiers Are you with me? But here’s what I’m saying. You ought to grow in the quality of your spiritual life You ought to grow in the quality of your spiritual life because let me tell you something the world’s tough The devil’s not sitting on the sidelines It isn’t going to get any easier. I know that some of you all think I’m crazy And I half believe you But I want to tell you one time I was driving a bus and I was telling my Sunday school class and this little four-year-old Girl came to me. She said pastor Mike they’re calling me names back there on the bus and I said, you know what? You’re gonna have to get tough Because all your life people are gonna call you names You see I’m saying and And you see we parent the wrong way we think we’re gonna right every wrong in this world rather than teaching our children to be strong in their faith and To be strong in their walk with the Lord that other people can’t define them or label them That they find their identity in what Christ says about them rather than what other people say about them I’m telling you that’s quality over quantity You might be able to squash something little at the moment, but friends when you teach that child To find their identity in Jesus Christ rather than in the world and what others say you’re gonna build a strong believer You Well, the bottom line is this God is going to reward those who are faithful to him now There’s a lot of reasons why we should give up but friends God wants us to power through keep being faithful Keep our eyes on him and he will reward us and our rewards will certainly be a part of us giving glory to God Again and so we’re grateful that God looks at our works. He does not overlook them He does not forget them and though we are not earning merit to be in heaven because that’s already been accomplished on the cross But we are serving to show our gratitude to God for all that. He’s done for us and then through that faithfulness God Rewards to us as we enter into those hurly gates and live with Christ forever Hey, make sure that you are checking out hopeworthhaving.com and you are signing up for our newsletter, we have a newsletter that goes out periodically and you can take advantage of that and we can either send that to your Inbox or we can send it to your mailbox You just pick and let us know but go to hopeworthhaving.com and sign up for our newsletter and take advantage of the great Opportunity there. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. The post How Will God Assign Rewards in Heaven? Part 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.