There’s a Better World Coming - II

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Check out Virtue, our website for Christian women. Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. No more terminal diseases. No more funerals. No more suffering.

No more separations. No more famines or disaster. God is making all things new. This is the day, the day when life begins. Sometimes planet Earth seems like a neglected fixer-upper. The paint is chipping, the driveway is cracked, and the roof leaks.

It could be fixed, but it's going to take some major effort. In fact, as Pastor Greg Laurie explains today on A New Beginning, God is going to bring Heaven down to Earth to make it happen. Like an experienced contractor driving his mobile workshop right to the worksite, God is bringing paradise right to our backyard. And Pastor Greg today describes the transformation. This is the day, the day when life begins.

Let me pick up where I left off last time. We talked about the Antichrist, you remember, who inaugurates the Great Tribulation Period. We talked about the fact that COVID-19 is a stage setting, if you will, of the end time scenario known as the Great Tribulation Period. The Bible says there will be an increase of plagues. The Bible also tells us that the state will be under the control and rule of the Antichrist, and the world will have the final conflict there in the Battle of Armageddon. The Bible tells us in the last days there would be violence in our streets.

Now, are we not seeing that right now in America? It's foreshadowing what is yet to come. It's going to get worse in the Great Tribulation Period, but we have not started that period yet. That is inaugurated with the emergence of Antichrist. But next event on the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church that comes from the root word harpazo, when Christ will catch up all true believers to heaven. The rapture is when he comes as a thief in the night on the heels of the rapture, and really not until after the rapture we have the emergence of the coming world leader known as Antichrist, the beast, the son of perdition, all titles for him in the Bible. He comes off initially as a man of peace at the halfway point of the Great Tribulation Period after he has rebuilt the temple for the Jewish people. He commits what Christ calls the abomination of desolation. He effectively desecrates the temple, and the final part of the tribulation is when he imposes his mark on people, establishes martial law, no one can buy or sell without the mark of the beast, and everything culminates in the battles of Armageddon. And then Christ comes back and establishes the millennium, the millennium.

It means 1,000. What is that gonna be like? Well, let's talk about that. Revelation 21, I'd like to read verses one to six with you. It says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle, or the dwelling place of God, is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be their God.

Wow. Have you ever heard the expression, oh, it was just like heaven on earth. Maybe it was a beautiful sunset you saw in Hawaii. Maybe it was being out in nature, in the forest somewhere, looking at the stars at night.

Maybe it was the best restaurant you ever went to, and you had the best meal you've ever eaten, and you said, oh, how can I describe it? It was like heaven on earth. Well, one day it is gonna be literally heaven on earth. Heaven and earth are going to merge together, and so just think about how great this is all going to be. Now, at this moment, two thirds of the earth's surface is covered with water.

The remaining one third has large areas that are rendered worthless because of mountains and deserts. There's only a small portion of the earth's surface that is inhabitable, but when God establishes his kingdom, all of those barriers that separate us now will be gone. The barriers that separate nations will be gone. The barriers that separate areas where people live will be gone.

There'll be no divisions at all, and I might add, there'll be no racial divisions either. When we get to heaven, the Bible tells us in Revelation 7, there's a great multitude which no man can number from every nation, from all the tribes and the languages standing before the throne, people clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And so everyone's gonna be there from every nation, from every race. This is gonna be a glorious day, and we will be reunited with loved ones who have preceded us to heaven.

Do you have someone that you love that is in heaven right now, maybe a mom or a dad, maybe a grandparent, it could be a spouse, it could even be a child, and you miss them so deeply, just know this, they're not just a part of your past, they will also be a part of your future. And you will be able to personally meet the great heroes of the Bible, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, they're all there, Eve, Sarah, Ruth, and Mary, David, Noah, Jonah, Peter, James, and John. And then more contemporary Christian heroes like William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln, C.H. Spurgeon, D.L.

Moody, C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther King, the list just goes on and on, you'll be able to hang out with these people, spend time with them. And of course, you'll be with the Lord himself, and that is the most important thing of the afterlife is being with Jesus in this closeness to him, you will have open access to the throne of God. Revelation 21, three, we read these words, I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, behold the tabernacle or dwelling place of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God will be with them and he will be their God. Imagine this for a moment, you can approach him at any time, open access to the very presence of God, no appointment needed, years ago, we booked the entire park of Disneyland for a Christian event, it was really a lot of fun I have to say. On every stage in the park, we had a Christian band with an evangelist, I actually stood over on Tom Sawyer's Island and preached the gospel, it was kind of a surreal moment standing there looking at the Matterhorn in the distance and with like 15,000 people on the other side watching and listening. I told them how to come to Christ and many did and we did all of our counseling in the Golden Horseshoe Theater not far from Tom Sawyer's Island but before we opened this event up for the public, they had all the public leave and they were getting the park cleaned up for our special event. And I was able to get in early and have the whole place to myself, this is like a kid's dream come true, just walking around in Disneyland, not fighting crowds, looking at everything, I could get on this ride, I could try this other thing, it was so amazing. Just imagine you're in heaven with open access to God, no barriers, nothing restricting you, it's the ultimate E ticket, if you know what that means, it means you're old because kids a long time ago before you bought season passes for Disneyland, we bought little ticket books.

There was a ticket called the E ticket and that got you on the really fast rides and that day like the Matterhorn and others and so it's the ultimate E ticket ride, ultimate access to God himself. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Our life is like a movie and we're the star.

Evangelist Greg Laurie. We have questions about this movie we're in. Is it a love story? Is this movie a tragedy?

What is the meaning of my life? An online event is coming that can change your life. We can all use A Rush of Hope. A Rush of Hope, the world's first online cinematic harvest crusade. On your favorite social media platform, Labor Day weekend, September 4th through September 7th. Invite a friend to tune in for a message of hope from evangelist Greg Laurie and exclusive performances by Jeremy Camp, Mercy Me, and For King and Country. A Rush of Hope coming to a screen near you Labor Day weekend.

Details at Harvest.org. You've joined us for Pastor Greg's series, End Times, living like Jesus will return at any moment. He continues now considering what life will be like in the afterlife. One more passage I want to read. Revelation 21 four, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There'll be no more pain for the former things that passed away. He that sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. So write these words down. He said, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

I love what it says in verse five. God speaking, behold, I make all things new. Effectively, it's out with the old, in with the new. No more terminal diseases. No more hospitals.

No more wheelchairs. No more funerals. No more suffering. No more separations. No more accidents.

No more courts or prisons. No more divorces or breakdowns or breakups. No more suicide. No more rape. No more missing children. No more drug problems. No more heart attacks or strokes or Alzheimer's or cancer.

No more famines or disaster. God is making all things new. And the way he states this is as though it were in the past tense. Notice it says in verse six, and he said to me, it is done.

Wait, what do you mean it's done? I'm reading a book that's telling me about the future. Remember, Revelation is like being put into a spiritual time machine and being catapulted into the future if you're standing in the sandals of John the Apostle on the island of Patmos.

He was seeing his future, which in some cases is our present, and in other cases is still our future. He's taking it all in, but God speaks of it as though it's already done. He says it is done. It is finished. There's a finality there.

Literally, they have become done. That text is in a perfect, indicative tense to say this is a secure thing. God is saying you can take this to the bank. Again, as I reminded you before, God lives in the eternal realm. So he can see the past with accuracy, and he can see the future with the same accuracy. Here's kind of a mind-blowing little verse.

Ecclesiastes 3.15, it says whatever has happened in the past is present now, and whatever is going to happen in the future has already happened in the past. You're like, what? Well, that's God's perspective. It's all the same to him. So when he says something is going to happen, you can know it's going to happen. You say, well, Greg, this is all great.

Okay. Heaven and earth are going to become one. We'll get to hang out with all kinds of dangerous creatures, and we'll have peace.

Here's how it should affect you. You should be thinking about the afterlife. The only way to live the best life in this life is to always be aware of the nearness of the afterlife, you see?

As C.S. Lewis once put it, loose paraphrase, those who think most of the next world do the most in this one. So I want you to think heaven. You say, well, Greg, I've never been to heaven. Well, you've just had a glimpse of heaven from scripture.

Remember, revelation means unveiling. The Lord has shown you what is in your future. So think about heaven. Think about the afterlife.

Here's what Colossians 3 says. You've been raised with Christ, so set your hearts on things above, for Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Set your minds, that phrase means to actively seek or have this inner disposition, or as one translation puts it, and I like this translation, think heaven. What do you spend most of your time thinking about? Listen, you are the air controller of your mind.

You decide what plane lands where and when. You decide what thoughts come in and what thoughts stay out. And the problem is, is if you give the devil an inch, he's gonna take a mile. So guard your minds and think about heavenly things. Think about spiritual things. Think heaven. Yes, our feet must be on earth, but our minds must be in heaven. I mean, do we really believe this? We sit here and we listen to a message like this, and I ask you as I'm closing, do you really believe the Bible is true? Do you really believe that there is an afterlife? Do you really believe there is a heaven waiting for those that believe in Jesus and a hell waiting there for those that reject him?

Do you really believe that these things are accurate? If so, let me ask you a question. When's the last time you told someone about Jesus?

I hope it's recent, because people need to hear this message that we are sharing. Let me conclude with this thought. Jesus says, behold, I make all things new. Are you feeling worn out, beat up, and even old? You know, I remember at the age of 17, this is 20 years ago, okay, 50 years ago, anyway, when I was 17, I remember I felt like I was 70. You say, Greg, why? Well, because of my upbringing. My mother was a raging alcoholic. She had been married and divorced seven times. I had to grow up fast. I had to kind of take care of her. It was like I was more the parent in the relationship than she was.

In trying to take care of her, I got into my own bad choices in life and drinking and drugs. By the time I hit 17, I felt like I was so old and I was so empty and I was so sad and I was burdened with sin and I had a big hole in my heart. And then on my high school campus, I heard about Jesus Christ. I heard that there was a God in heaven who loved me. Now look, I always believed in Jesus. I'd seen all of his movies.

I was a big fan. But I never thought of Jesus as someone that could be known in this life. I just thought of him as a historical figure who was amazing.

It's really too bad how he died. I mean, I love the story of Jesus. I love movies about Jesus. But I always thought someone should rewrite the ending and get rid of that whole crucifixion part and just let him do miracles and give great teachings and ascend to heaven. Well, actually, after I became a believer, I realized that the crucifixion part was the whole point of the story. He was born to die that we might live.

Jesus left heaven and came to the earth on a rescue operation to be born in a manger in Bethlehem, then to live a perfect life and ultimately to die a perfect death on a cross for our sins because we're all separated from God. I remember when I heard that as a kid in high school at 17, I thought, well, I wish I could do this, but I don't think it will work for me. I'm not the religious type, I thought.

Guess what? God is not looking for the religious type. God is looking for the sinner type. And you qualify and I qualify.

We all do. And I heard that promise that God loved me and that Christ would come and live inside of me, that he would forgive me of all of my sin. And I took a little step of faith that day and I prayed a little prayer right there on my high school campus asking Christ to come into my life. And I'll be honest with you, after I prayed that prayer, I felt absolutely nothing. But I want to tell you something, that is the day Jesus came into my life and he satisfied the thirst in my soul that I tried to satisfy with other things and he'll do the same thing for you. Listen to these words of the Lord in Revelation 21. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. And I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

Are you thirsty right now, spiritually? Jesus encountered a woman at a well. She had been married and divorced five times, my mom seven, this lady five. And she was living with some dude at the moment and so she probably thought men would fill the void in her life. And as she sat by a well, Jesus said this, if you drink of this water, you will thirst again, but if you drink of the water that I give, you'll never thirst again. I think he was using that well as a metaphor for her life. She had tried to satisfy her inner thirst with relationships.

Have you done the same? Some try to do it with possessions. Others try to do it with fame.

They want to be insta-famous. Others try to do it with drugs or alcohol. Others try to satisfy that thirst with even religion, trying to be a pious person.

None of those things will work. You need Jesus. Jesus is the answer.

You say, well, what's the question? The question is, what's gonna happen to you in the afterlife? And I'll tell you right now, if you have Christ living inside of you, you don't have to be afraid. A few moments ago, I mentioned there's the hope of heaven for the believer and there's also the reality of hell. Yes, there is a hell, but it wasn't created for people.

According to Jesus, it was created for the devil and his angels. If you reject God's offer of forgiveness and you end up in the place called hell, you'll have no one to blame in that final day but yourself because the gates of hell are locked from the inside. You will have sent yourself there by your rejection of the offer of God. Would you like to be forgiven of your sin? Would you like to know that you will go to heaven when you die? Would you like to satisfy your inner spiritual thirst? Would you like to have your guilt taken away?

If the answer to those questions is yes, here's what you need to know. Jesus died on the cross for you. He rose again from the dead three days later and he stands now at the door of your life and he knocks and he says if you hear his voice and open the door, he will come in.

You can ask Christ to come into your life and this can be the greatest day of your life because he's only a prayer away. If you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you will go to heaven when you die, I want you to pray a prayer with me right here, right now. You just prayed this prayer after me and this is a prayer of asking Jesus to come into your life. Let's pray. Let's pray these words.

Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my savior and my Lord, as my God and my friend. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie praying an important prayer with those who are making a commitment to the Lord today. And if you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg, we want to help you get started with something we call our New Believer's Growth Packet.

It's free of charge if you've just begun a relationship with Jesus. Ask for the New Believer's Growth Packet when you write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words, Know God. And if you missed any portion of today's study, a message called, There's a Better World Coming, you can hear the whole program again online at harvest.org. Or download an MP3 or even order a CD. Again, go to harvest.org.

Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. And then we want to make available a riveting book about a momentous act of heroism that took place during World War II. The author, John Irwin, writes about his own grandfather. On a routine mission to Koreama, Japan, a bomb erupted in his face on board a B-29 Superfortress. Smoke is now filling the plane. The pilot has lost control. He's now going into a dive toward the Pacific, and it looks curtains for everybody. My grandfather, in that split-second moment, had a choice to make. His buddy's lives were at stake. He knew if he didn't do something, everybody was going to die, including him.

His answer to that call and the choice that he would make would define his life and generations of lives and lead to the fastest presentation of the Congressional Medal of Honor that we know of in our nation's history. It's the gripping story of Henry Red Irwin, captured in the book Beyond Valor by John Irwin and William Doyle. John's a good friend of ours, a film director having directed I Can Only Imagine, Woodlawn, I Still Believe, and many others. And John, what a thrill it must have been to write this book about a story you've known since you were a kid. And it's your first book, right? First book, yeah, yeah, you know.

Yeah, I remember doing Steve McQueen American Icon with Greg, and he was writing the book with Marshall. And that sort of gave me the idea to sort of pair up with a historian and get my granddad's story told in book form. And William Doyle's fantastic and just an amazing author and has written many amazing books. But it's my first book, so I've got a lot to learn.

But I love telling stories. I've read a lot of screenplays, though. I've read John's screenplays. And so he's a writer, he's a communicator, he's a storyteller. And he knows how to get to not just the facts of a story, but the heart of a story.

And it takes you there, where you experience it with him. And so I think that's why him telling this story is more effective than someone who maybe never knew his grandfather personally or was as connected to the story as John is. Bottom line, if Henry Irwin didn't do what he did, there wouldn't be a John and Andy Irwin. But because of his act of heroism, so many lives have been impacted in the years that followed.

So it's personal, but in a good way, because he took the time to go the extra mile and then some, like his own grandfather did, and capture the stories from people that were eyewitnesses. And so you're going to be riveted by this book and inspired by it. And I think in the times in which we're living, we all can use a little inspiration and see good that people can do.

Because we see so many acts of selfishness, it's great to reflect on an amazing act of selflessness. I just love a good story in book form. And I love biographies, and I love it when they can point to higher things. And I think it is a time where we really have to be reminded of the virtues that bind us together as Americans, and make sure that those things are passed down from generation to generation.

And that's the goal, hopefully to entertain. And again, it's a very entertaining war story, but there's so much to learn and so much truth that is biblical in it. And so he has a privilege to write it, and I can't wait for people to read it. And we'll only be mentioning this book a short time longer, so get in touch right away. Write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, Pastor Greg presents his final message in this short series on the end times. It's a study called Things to Do Before the End of the World. Join us next time on A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins.