Heaven on Earth | Sunday Message

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast. Hey, let's all grab our Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 21. By the way, we're almost at the end of our series in Revelation.

And the title of my message is Heaven on Earth. You know, ever since I was a little boy, I was really into all things Disney. I loved Disney movies. I loved watching those shows on television, like the Mickey Mouse Club. And of course, the TV show, The Wonderful World of Disney, later changed to The Wonderful World of Color, because color television was coming into its own.

Yes, I am old enough to remember only black and white TV. So one day, Walt himself announced that he was opening up a new place for everyone to visit called Disneyland. And he kept his promise in a 1955, when I was two years old, Disneyland opened. And I remember the excitement I had when I went there for the first time. I was so into Disney, I saw every film they put out, especially the animated films, I decided at an early age that I wanted to be an artist.

Maybe an animator, maybe a cartoonist or a graphic designer of some kind. Now, one of the reasons that I was so excited about Disneyland is it was to me as a little kid, almost like Heaven on Earth. It was an escape from the kind of awful life I was living in my childhood.

You know, my mother was married and divorced seven times and she was a raging alcoholic. So Disneyland was this fun place that I would go to and enjoy so much. One day, my mother brought home an actual Disney animator, and I didn't believe him and I made him prove it. So he took out a pencil and he drew a flawless Mickey Mouse on a piece of paper. And then this man said to me, you take this pencil and put it under your pillow and go to bed now. And when you wake up in the morning, you'll be able to draw like me.

I believed him. Sad thing is I was 18. No, not really, I was much younger. I went to bed, put the pencil under my pillow, fell asleep, woke up the next morning, grabbed the pencil, went to a piece of paper. No, I could not draw a Mickey Mouse.

I just think this guy wanted to spend time with my mom. But you know, Disney himself, Walt Disney, had a vision. And when he was a little boy, he used to love to go to a place called Electric Park, and there was a carousel there, and he began to plot out in his mind an amusement park that he would build one day. He was trying to, I think in his own mind, bring a little heaven on earth. I read a book a while ago on the life of Disney, and the author Pat Williams said this, and I quote, I know that Walt felt a longing for heaven.

He had that longing when he was a boy in Kansas City, peering to the fence at Electric Park, wanting what he could not have because he didn't have a dime in his pocket. I believe it was that longing for heaven that drove Walt to build a perfect place where children could ride merry-go-rounds and always catch the brass ring. A place where yesterday and tomorrow are always within walking distance, a place where anyone can be perfectly happy, if only for a day. And Walt's mind, writes Pat Williams, heaven is a beautiful park, all shiny and clean, filled with wonderful things to see and do, with a castle rising over it all, and a train that goes around it, end quote.

Beautifully written. I think Walt Disney, like all of us, had eternity in his heart. The Bible tells us that God puts us inside of each of us, where we long for something more, long for a place we've never been to before. And I believe that longing is actually for heaven itself. We're homesick for heaven.

And things happen in life that seem so wrong and so unfair. Tragedy may strike, and life on earth often disappoints, but I think you begin to realize that when you put your faith in Christ, is you were made for another world. And that's exactly what we're looking at here in Revelation 21.

We're looking at another world that is our future, and it's even better than Disneyland. We're looking at the moment when heaven comes to earth. Now, try to understand how hard this is for John. Here's John the Apostle, banished to the island of Patmos for his faithful preaching of the gospel, and Jesus comes to him and gives to John what we call the Revelation. The unveiling is what the word Revelation means, and John is effectively catapulted into the future in sort of a spiritual time machine.

As I've said before, I don't think it was a DeLorean, but he saw things that were yet to come. He saw the afterlife, he saw the final judgment, he even peered into hell itself, and he's trying to write all of this down. You know, it's worth noting that John spent 18 chapters describing the great tribulation period, but only one chapter for the 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ, and less than two chapters on heaven.

That's not because heaven is not important, that is because heaven is beyond words. John was seeing colors and sounds and sights that he simply could not explain, things that are indescribable. In fact, the Apostle Paul died and went to heaven, and he wrote about it in 2 Corinthians 12, and he said, I was caught up to paradise, and I heard inexpressible things, and I'm not even allowed to tell. Inexpressible things are what he saw, so John spends more time in Revelation 21 describing what will not be happening in the eternal.

Every kind of separation now is a thing of the past, there's no political separation, there's no national separation, there's no racial separation, there's no spiritual separation, everything is coming together at this moment. Heaven is mentioned 532 times in the Bible, and more than 10% of those mentions are right here in the book of Revelation. John speaks about heaven 55 times, so let's see what he has to say. Revelation 21, I'm gonna read verses one through six. I'm reading from the New King James Version. John writes, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and 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, and God himself will be with them and be their God. I love this verse, verse four of Revelation 21.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eye. There'll be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new, and he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. Then he said to me, It is done, 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.

We'll stop there. Aren't those beautiful words? I love how it begins. Behold, I make all things new. God loves new things.

He wants to make new people, so all things are 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 suicide. No rape.

No missing children. No drug problems. No heart attacks. No cancer. No Alzheimer's.

No famine or disaster. God is making all things new. Isn't that great to know? You know, we love new stuff. Think about when the newest phone comes out. The new iPhone. The new Android phone. People will stand in line to get theirs so they can walk out. I've got mine before anybody else got it.

There may not even be that many changes in the new model over the old model, but we love to have the newest and the latest version of whatever. Same thing for your favorite show. You like to binge watch on Netflix or on television. Oh, the new season is out.

I can hardly wait to watch it. Hey, how about that new car smell? There's nothing like it. I have a friend that just got a new car and I was driving around in it. It smelled great, and so I left a burrito in it just to kind of break it in.

He'll find out in about a month or so. But anyway, what we see here is things are new, and I think that marketers have discovered that if you put the words new and improved on something, it may sell a little bit better. Now, the fact is, the only thing that's new and improved may be the packaging, but in this case, everything is new. God loves new, too.

He's bringing everything together. And by the way, this is already a done deal. You say, what do you mean it's a done deal?

This doesn't happen yet. Well, in the eternal realm, in a sense, it has. It's completed. Verse six says, God said, it is done, and that phrase carries the idea of absolute finality with it. Literally, these things have become done.

It's done and it's secure. You see, when God speaks of the future, He speaks with certainty because He lives in the future, but He understands the past. And of course, He's in the present. It's the eternal realm. Ecclesiastes says, whatever has happened in the past is present now.

Whatever is going to happen in the future has already happened in the past. So our response to that verse is, uh, what? Well, this is simply describing something we don't fully comprehend. It's the eternal realm.

So my point is simply this. When God says something is going to happen, you can take it to the bank. Okay, so here we are in the final chapters of the book of Revelation.

Let's pick up where we last left off. The next event on the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church. Then the antichrist emerges. The great tribulation period begins two sections of three and a half years. At the end of the tribulation period, we have the battle of Armageddon, then the second coming of Jesus Christ.

So let's bring it into the moment. What happens to a Christian when they die? Right now, answer. They go to heaven. The moment you take your last breath on earth, you take your first breath in heaven. You close your eyes on earth.

You open them in heaven. But there is a generation that will not see death. They will not be placed into a casket and put underground. These people will be caught up in a moment to meet the Lord in the air. That's described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and also in 1 Corinthians 15 where it says it will happen in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye when the last trumpet is blown and the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies and then we who are living will be transformed and we will never die. We'll be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. So when the rapture happens, then what? We go to heaven. And somewhere after the rapture and before the second coming is what we call the judgment seat of Christ. Not to be confused with the great white throne judgment which we dealt with last time.

That's for non-believers only. But this judgment seat of Christ, remember, is sort of like an awards ceremony. Awards are given for faithful service to the Lord. Crowns are distributed and so forth. And then sometime after that is the wedding supper of the lamb. The believers are waiting in heaven for the tribulation period to run its course and then we return with Christ in the second coming.

Okay, then what happens? Then Christ establishes his kingdom. Finally the answer to the prayer of the church for 2,000 years happens when we pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now God's kingdom has come to planet earth and this is a time where righteousness fills our planet. After the thousand years are completed, there's a brief rebellion.

Satan is cast into the lake of fire and then the great white throne judgment. Now it's time for the grand finale or as the French would say, the pièce de résistance. I'm not sure I pronounced that right. Pièce de résistance. That's French for snails with garlic.

No, that's escargot. No, pièce de résistance is the final dish, the main dish and here now heaven and earth are coming together. They're merging and becoming one. The last marking of time is Revelation 20. After the millennial reign of Christ, we enter into sort of an eternal timelessness.

Everything is now forever. Have you ever gone on a vacation and lost track of time? You know, when I go on vacation, which isn't very often, I'm actually a very bad vacationer. I don't rest well. I'm always thinking of things and coming up with new ideas and I'm my own worst enemy sometimes with that. But it takes me about seven days to unwind where I stop being aware of what day it is.

And you get on a vacation or you take a break and what day is it again? In eternity, this is a beautiful thing where we're just now on God's time schedule. And we're seeing things the way God sees things. You know, God is not bound by our watches or our schedules or schedules as they say in the UK. No, God lives on His own time zone and has His own schedule. In fact, Psalm 90 verse 4 says, For God a thousand years are as yesterday, they're like a few hours. Sometimes for us it seems like God is late. Like, come on, Lord, why haven't You done this yet?

Why haven't You come back? I think many people felt the Lord was late in sending the Messiah. But in Galatians we read, When the time was just right, God sent forth the Son, born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those that are under the law. But note, when the time was just right, everything was aligned perfectly. The Roman kingdom had pretty much taken control of most of the world.

They had established a common language, which was Greek. They had the Roman road system that opened the planet up for the first time ever. When everything was ripe, when everything was just ready, that's when the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. And when everything is right on God's schedule, Christ will come again. Listen, He's right on schedule, and everything is going according to plan. 2 Peter 3, 9 says, The Lord isn't slow about His promise to return, as some people think. He's being patient for your sake, because He doesn't want anyone to perish, so He's giving more time for everyone to repent. I want you to notice one of the first things that happens here. In verse 1 is, there's no more ocean, no more sea.

All the servers are like, whoa, dude, what's up? Hey, what God gives you in the place of the ocean will be so much better, you won't miss it. At present, two-thirds of the Earth's surface is covered with water. Thus, only a small percentage of the planet Earth is inhabitable, and God's gonna remove these barriers that separate us right now. Think about this, all people who have trusted Christ will come together.

Have you ever gotten together for a family reunion and seen members of your family you haven't seen for so long, and you wish it could go on forever, or gathered with old friends that maybe you haven't seen for a while, and you're having such a good time? Imagine this, Heaven is a great reunion where everyone will be reunited in one time at one place. All those who have died in faith over the centuries, all of us together. Eve will be there, Sarah will be there, so will Ruth, David, Noah, Jonah, Peter, James, and John. I think Abraham Lincoln will be there, C.H. Spurgeon, oh look, it's Dr. Martin Luther King over there.

Oh look, it's D.O. Moody, it's Billy Graham, C.S. Lewis will be there. Just think of the people that will be gathered together, what conversations we'll have. What times we'll have together. And for many of us, best of all, we'll be reunited with loved ones that have preceded us to Heaven.

This is gonna be a wonderful time. Now God breaks the silence with something He wants us all to hear. Look at verse three. He heard a loud voice from Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. You know, throughout history, God has effectively been shrouded from humanity. Sure, He picked certain individuals to reveal Himself to, like Moses, where the Bible says, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to a friend.

But in the Old Testament, you would go into the tabernacle, which means tent, later into the temple, and you would have to go through the high priest, who would enter into the Holy of Holies and sacrifice an animal for the sins of the people. But God was not approachable. But that's all changed in Christ. Now God can be approached. God can be called upon. But now, when Heaven and Earth become one, you have open access to the presence of God. You want to say something to the Lord?

Say it to Him face to face. You have a question for Him? Ask Him whatever you want to ask.

No appointment required. How wonderful would that be? You know, I think if I could live at any time in history, I would surely pick the time when Jesus walked this earth. What would it have been like to be one of the disciples of Jesus?

And ask Him whatever was on your heart or mind and just spend time with Him. Well, you'll have that moment in eternity when Heaven and Earth become one. And also we see in this new earth, we're going to have a new city. Look at verse 2. John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Notice that word, prepared. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, you may be also.

The word prepared is the same Greek word that Paul used in 1 Corinthians 2.9 when he said, I has not seen, nor is ear heard, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him. So Heaven and the new earth are prepared places for prepared people. And we have the new Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem plays a part in our past and our present and in our future. Jerusalem is the nerve center of the world geographically. Jerusalem is the salvation center of the world spiritually. And Jerusalem is the storm center of the world prophetically.

Think about this. Jerusalem is a city of the past. This is the city that was ruled by King David. This is the city where the first and second temple were built. And it was outside the walls of this city of Jerusalem that our Lord was crucified.

And it's also where He rose again from the dead. But Jerusalem is also the city of the present. When the Jewish people returned to their homeland after the horrors of the Holocaust and established themselves as a nation again, the prophetic clock started ticking because nothing like this had ever happened. On May 14, 1948, a prophecy was fulfilled.

Listen to this. No nation has ever been able to maintain its national identity three to five hundred years after being removed from its homeland. That is with the exception of Israel. The Jewish people returned to this place. They knew this was the place the Lord was calling them.

And it's such an amazing thing to think about. And Jerusalem always has been and always will be the capital of Israel. So right now, of course, you're aware of the fact that there's great conflict in the Middle East. And it is once again happening around Jerusalem. Hamas, a terrorist organization backed by Iran, is firing these rockets into the Jewish homeland. And many of those rockets are stopped from a special iron dome, a technology that the United States has given to Israel to protect themselves. And 90 percent of those rockets are stopped, but others get through and there have been fatalities. But why? Why would someone fire rockets indiscriminately into population centers?

Because Iran has never hid the fact that she is an enemy of Israel and she wants Israel wiped off the face of the map. But the Bible tells us in the last days that Jerusalem will play a key role in what is about to happen. Jerusalem is described in the Bible as an intoxicating drink, a heavy stone, and a burden for the world. Zechariah 12 says, God speaking, I'll make Jerusalem and Judah like an intoxicating drink to all who are nearby who send their armies to besiege Jerusalem. I'll make Jerusalem a heavy stone and a burden for the world. But Jerusalem is not just a city of the past, it's a city of the future.

Here, world history as we know it will come to a completion. Not far from Jerusalem, the Battle of Armageddon will take place. And it is at the east gate of the city of Jerusalem, a gate you can see right now on the wall, that the Bible says Messiah will enter through. When Christ comes back again, his foot will touch down on the Mount of Olives. Remember, that's also the place where he ascended. It will split in two and Messiah will walk through the east gate. But now we're talking about the new Jerusalem that will come down from heaven. In this heavenly city, there's no crime, there's no corruption, there's no urban decay.

We're living in a curse-free world and we're busy as we're about our Father's business. Notice Revelation 22, 3 says, His servants will serve Him. I think sometimes people think we just lay around in heaven in clouds and sleep.

And that might be appealing to someone I'm talking to, but I like to be active. I like to do things and we'll be busy doing creative things, things that honor God, things that will bring great joy and fulfillment to us. And now here is one of the great promises of the Bible. Look at Revelation 21, verse 4, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there'll be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, and no more pain, for the former things have passed away. You know, we may think that when we become a Christian, we'll then live a trouble-free life. We'll never suffer, we'll never get sick, our loved ones that are close to us will never die.

Oh no, these things may happen to us. Being a Christian does not mean you will never weep. It may mean you weep more because your heart has been made tender.

In Ezekiel, God says, I'll remove a heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. I mentioned earlier my mom being married in divorce seven times, so I developed these defense mechanisms where I was walled off. I was always moving so I never could establish long-lasting relationships and friendships with people. I was always the new kid in class, according to the whims of where my mom wanted to go next. And in my home, love was not expressed.

I can't remember a single time in my life where my mom simply said, I love you or I'm proud of you. So being a walled-off person, it was hard for me to give love and it was hard for me to accept love. But that's all gonna change for all of us. You know, sometimes we bottle things up deep inside. But here's what we need to do. Instead of bottling things up, we need to open our heart to God and let him put these troubles in his bottle.

I don't know what you're talking about. Well, Psalm 56, eight says, you keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears in your bottle if you recorded each one in your book. I have a little bottle in my office that's blue. I bought it in the old city of Jerusalem some years ago in an antiquity shop.

In fact, I remember when I first saw it, I was with my oldest son, Christopher, who went to be with the Lord 13 years ago. And I asked the proprietor, the owner of the shop, well, what is this little blue bottle? And he said, well, that's a Roman tear bottle. I asked, well, what is that? He said, well, back at this time, the Romans believed when they lost a loved one that they should collect their tears in these little bottles.

And that's what they were for. Well, God keeps your tears in a bottle so he can wipe them away one day. Because one day all pain will be gone. All sorrow will end. Everything will be changed. You don't have to wait until heaven for some things to change.

That can happen right here, right now. Because 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things become new. I love the Phillips translation of that same verse which says, if a man is in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether. The past is finished and gone and everything has become fresh and new.

Think about that. Do you need a fresh start? Do you need to begin again? Have you done things you wish you had not done? Said things you wish you had not said? And you say, well, now I guess I just have to face the consequences of all my bad decisions. Well, there may be some truth to you having to face up to what you've done. But I want you to also know that there is a God in heaven who loves you and will forgive you of all of your sin. And not only will he forgive you of your sin, he will forget your sin.

Psalm 103 verse 12 says, God speaking, as far as the east is from the west is as far as I will put your transgressions from me. You see, change happens when you put your faith in Jesus Christ. If you're a real Christian, your focus and your values will change.

Old values, old ideas, plans and desires will be replaced by new things. A new desire to know God and love him. A new desire to study the Bible. A new desire to engage with God's people and worship. A new desire to bring glory to your God. And yes, a new desire to see God himself.

So let me wrap this up. How should all of this affect us? What should we be doing in the light of the fact that we have this great hope of heaven and one day a new earth? Here's how it helps us. Number one, it helps us to keep perspective during times of trial.

It helps us keep perspective during times of trial. Bottom line, life on earth is full of trial, hardship, sadness, disappointment and pain. But according to this and other passages, God is gonna make up for the losses of earth. No pain is wasted by God. Paul says in Romans 8 18, I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. See, here's God's big plan for you.

He wants to make you like Jesus. Romans 8 28, the verse we all know in quote. We know that all things work together for good to those that love God and other called according to his purpose, right?

Love that verse. But then the next verse, verse 29 says, for whom God did foreknow, he also did predestined to be conformed into the image of his own dear son. See, we sometimes take Romans 8 28 and think it means whatever bad thing happens, God's gonna turn it into a good thing. That is not what the verse promises. Again, it says, all things work together for good to those who love God and other called according to his purpose. For whom, let's keep the verse going, God did foreknow, he predestined to be conformed into the image of his own dear son.

See, God's plan for you is to make you more like Jesus, to make you a chip off the old rock, if you will. And that means hardship. That means difficulty as well as joys and happy things happening to you. 2 Corinthians 4 17, Paul says, our present troubles are quite small and won't last forever, yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever. So don't look at the troubles you see right now. Rather, look forward to what you have not seen yet, for the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

So no matter what you're going through right now, get the big picture. God's in control. The word oops is not in his vocabulary. Would that freak you out if God said, oops, what, you dropped a planet, what? God doesn't say, oops, he knows what he's doing, he's making you like Jesus, he's getting you ready for heaven. Number two, believing that we'll go to heaven and heaven will come to earth one day. Well, it should cause us to want to live godly lives.

As I've said before, if in our studies of the book of Revelation it hasn't prompted you or motivated you to want to be more like Jesus and walk more closely with him, then I think we've missed the point, right? I heard a story about two farmers and they went out hunting ducks and one of the farmers had his dog with them who would retrieve the ducks. So they saw a duck fly by, the farmer shot, the duck fell from the sky into the lake and his dog ran out to retrieve the duck and ran across the top of the water, caught the duck, ran back over again on top of the water, came back to the farmer and dropped the duck at the farmer's feet. The farmer looked at him and said, I don't think your dog knows how to swim. Hey, talk about missing the point, the dog walked on the water.

Not a true story, but we often miss the point. This should motivate us to live a godly life because again, scripture says, He that has this hope purifies himself even as he is pure. And then Paul tells us in Colossians, since you've been raised with Christ, set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, this phrase, set your minds, means think heaven. So I know I'm going to heaven, think heavenly thoughts.

Our feet must be on earth, but our minds and our hearts should be in heaven. And third and lastly, if I really believe this and I wonder, do you really believe what we've read in this message and others? Do you really believe the Bible is true? Do you really believe that there is both a heaven and a hell? Do you really believe that we're going to enter into the afterlife?

If you do, and I'm sure almost all of you do, some of you don't probably. But if you believe this, shouldn't that motivate you to want to take some people with you to heaven? You've probably noticed that at the end of a message that I give here at Harvest at Home or in our church services or in our radio program or our TV program, I always invite people to Christ. You might say, why do you do that? Why do I do that? Because I want to take as many people to heaven with me as I possibly can.

And that includes some of you watching right now. I want you to go to heaven. I want you to know Jesus Christ. I want to help you understand what you need to do to believe in Jesus Christ. So let me close with this appeal to you. Someone that's watching who does not have this confidence that they'll go to heaven when they die.

Someone who is not sure if Jesus is living inside of them. Here's what you need to do. Everything can change for you right now and God can make all things new.

You say, oh, Greg, it's too late for me. I can't change. I've tried to change myself and it hasn't worked. You can't, you can't change anything.

It's just the way it is. No, God can make all things new. God can change your story. I don't know how old you are.

I don't know where you are in your life. But whatever it is, God can change it, especially the ending. But you must come to him and say, God, I know I'm a sinner. I know I've broken your commandments.

I know I fall short of your glory. But I also know that you sent Jesus Christ, your son, to die on the cross for my sin and pay the price for every wrong I've ever done. And then he rose again from the dead and I want Jesus to come into my life. I love what Revelation 21 says.

He said to me, it is done. I'm the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

Deep down inside, you're thirsty spiritually. There was a woman who would go to a well every day at around 12 noon and draw water. She didn't have many friends. She had been married and divorced five times.

She was living with some dude at present. And who was waiting for her at the well that she frequented? It was Jesus himself. She braced herself for a confrontation, ready for an argument.

She was even somewhat flippant and sarcastic when she began to speak to him. And I love what Jesus said. He said, if you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. But if you drink of the water I give, you will never thirst again.

He was using the well that she drew water from as a metaphor for life. You could write it over so many things in life. If you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. The well of materialism, if you will.

If that's where you're going for answers, you're always going to want more. You could write it over relationships even. If you drink of this water, you'll thirst again.

You could write it over accomplishments or success or fame. If you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. You could even write it over the well of religion, if you will.

Religion and rituals and other things. If you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. But if you come to Jesus and believe in him, he'll satisfy your deepest spiritual thirst.

Let me go back to what I said in the beginning. We all long for a place we've never been to before. I talked about going to Disneyland as a child and how excited I was to be in the Magic Kingdom. The happiest place on earth.

Well, this is something that is deep down inside of all of us. And an amusement park is not going to satisfy that. Especially when you look at the price, you pay to get in. I think when you're a kid, the happiest moment of going to Disneyland is when you walk in. But when you're an adult, the happiest moment is when you're leaving, right? And then having to figure out how you're going to pay for all of that.

But that's just an idea to start with. We're longing for something more, we're longing for heaven, and we're longing for God. Nothing this world offers will satisfy you apart from a relationship with God. You can ask Him to come and live inside of you and forgive you of all of your sin right here, right now. In a moment I'm going to pray a simple prayer that I would love to lead you in. A prayer that if you pray it with me is where you are simply saying to the Lord, Come into my life. Satisfy my spiritual thirst.

Make all things new for me. I want to go to heaven one day. I want to be ready for your return. If you would like to do that, I'll give you an opportunity right now as we pray. Let's all pray together. Father, I thank you that your word is true. I thank you for the folks that are watching right now, and I pray that your Holy Spirit will speak to their hearts and help them to see their need for Jesus, and help them to come to you and believe right now. Now listen, if you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to go to heaven when you die, why don't you just pray this simple prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. Just say, Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, but I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from that sin now, and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's k-n-o-w-g-o-d.org.