Aiming at Heaven While Living on Earth - Part A

We discover that heaven is more than a destination, that heaven should actually be our motivation, that on the earth it should be in the front of our minds.

We should always keep it in mind. Heaven is where we as Christians are headed, and our eventual home gives many of us great hope for the future. But as Skip shares today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, it's more than just an eventual destination.

It should be our driving force as we live in the here and now. Before we get started, though, we want to tell you about a resource that'll help you relate to Jesus in a special way. Looking deep into the empty tomb by Skip Heitzig consists of five messages, including Rise Up, Easter's Over, Now What?, An Empty Tomb, A Full Life, Jesus Died, But God, and Come Alive. For those who knew Jesus while he walked this earth, the road to discovering and believing that Jesus was resurrected started in disheartening confusion, but it ended in decisive confirmation. And we're excited to send you a special set of resurrection resources by Skip that include five of his finest Easter messages for digital download or CD and a full video titled On the Road by Skip. Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them. With your gift of support of $50 or more, we'll send you a copy of this hope-filled package of five audio messages for download or on CD and the full video On the Road as thanks for your gift to expand Connect with Skip Heitzig to reach more people in major U.S. cities. So request your resource when you give and take a walk with Christ On the Road to Emmaus.

Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Colossians 3 as we kick off today's teaching with Skip. I took my message title today from an atheist who converted.

His name was Clive Staples Lewis, C.S. Lewis, who after his conversion said, aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll get neither. So the message is called aiming at heaven while living on earth. You know, when we grow up in the church, we start thinking about heaven because we're told about it at church and at growing up we wonder what heaven's going to be like, what we're going to do, what it's going to look like, what we're going to look like when we get there. Well, you'll be perhaps glad to know that most Americans believe in heaven. Now get them past what they believe in and ask them to tell you what that's going to be like and they're going to have a lot of different opinions and difficulties, but it is estimated that between 73 and 74 percent of all Americans, at least they say they believe in heaven.

That's according to Pew Research and in that group, 65 percent believe that in heaven they'll be reunited with loved ones, 62 percent say that when they get to heaven they'll be able to meet God, and another 60 to 62 percent believe that in heaven they're going to have perfect perfect and healthy bodies. Heaven is going to be our eventual home. Our, meaning if you are a believer, it will be our eventual home.

It is our ultimate destination. It is in the words of that great theologian James T. Kirk, the final frontier. John described heaven in the book of Revelation chapter 21. 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 God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. That's our eventual destination. But we discovered that heaven is more than a destination. That heaven should actually be our motivation. That on the earth it should be in the front of our minds. We should always keep it in mind. Jesus, did he not say, don't worry about what you're going to eat, or what you're going to drink, or what you're going to wear.

All the gentiles worry about that stuff. You have a father that will see to it that you get all that. But then he said, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

That's the message, same message. Aim at heaven while you're living on the earth. In fact, heaven according to Jesus is a place that we should be should be planning for. He said, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where rust can't destroy nor moth. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Aim at heaven while you're living on earth. How do we do that?

Why should we do that? Well, you know the Bible actually talks about this hope of heaven a lot. In fact, more than most people might think it does. And we've already seen a taste of this as we've gone through the book of Colossians. I just want to remind you of this.

Just go back for a moment. I know we haven't even read our text yet, but go back to chapter one and look at verse three. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. That hope, the ground of the hope which is heaven, is actually one of the mega themes of the New Testament. In the New Testament there are 7,957 verses, if you were to total them all up, 27 books, 7,957 verses comprise the New Testament. Of those verses, a full 5% or 387 verses are counseling us to have the hope of heaven, the hope of heaven, the hope of heaven.

I'll give you a little perspective. There are about 200 verses in the New Testament on love. Love is pretty important, right? Love, 200 verses on love. There's 150 to 160 verses on the subject of hell, mostly spoken by Jesus.

He spoke more about it than anybody else. There's about 30 to 40 verses in the New Testament on the subject of marriage, but there are 387 verses telling us to have the hope of heaven. But how many of us actually think much about heaven? We don't. In fact, when do people think about heaven more than any other time?

Anybody know? Funerals. Exactly right. Funerals.

And you exactly right. Funerals. And you might be shocked to hear what people think about heaven when they say things at funerals. Of course, funerals is not the place to correct somebody's theology in their grief, but I am amazed at what people think heaven's going to be like all the way from playing golf in the fairways of heaven to knitting their favorite sweaters in heaven or whatever it might be.

Yet we should be thinking about it because our names are written there. Our Savior is there right now. Our Savior is going to come from there. He's going to take us there. Fellow believers are there right now. There's a lot about heaven that should get us excited. Back to C.S.

Lewis. I began with a quote. He said this, if you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next world. The apostles themselves who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this world. And then right after that he said, aim at heaven and you'll get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and you will get neither. Well, how do we do that? Well, that takes us now to our text, Colossians chapter 3. We're going to look at the first four verses, and in these four verses I'm going to give you three categories of truth, three truth categories that will help you and I aim at heaven.

Think of them as lights in the harbor that align for you so you can sail your ship directly through. Let's begin in verse 1 of Colossians 3. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.

It's exactly the opposite of what the world tells us. The world says think about the here and now, what's going on around you now. Don't think about heaven. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Now, I want to begin with spiritual reality.

Everything in this little paragraph that we just read is predicated upon four spiritual realities, and the realities are this. You have died. You were raised. You are hidden, and you will be glorified.

You will be glorified. Everything in this text, every commandment given here—and there are two of them that are given and then another time reinforced—but those four spiritual realities, you have died, you were raised, you are hidden, you will be glorified. Now, this is figurative language.

It's metaphor. You haven't actually died. I can tell because here you are alive, seated, but in one sense, in a figurative sense, in a reality, you have died and you have been raised. So let's look at these four, and I'm not going to begin in verse one. I'm going to begin not with the resurrection. I'm going to begin with death because you have to die before you can get raised.

So look at verse three. For you died. There it is. You died. Now, you're thinking, well, I didn't even know I was sick, let alone I died. Yes, it says, for you died.

So here's the deal. Jesus Christ didn't just die for you. That's substitution. We died with Him. That's identification.

All of this is the language of identification. You died and were raised positionally. So notice these phrases throughout the paragraph we just read in verse one, with Christ. Also verse one, where Christ is. Verse three, your life is hidden with Christ. And then verse four, when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

All of these are phrases of identification. So when it says you died, what does that mean? It means you died to the old way of life. It gets a little confusing because in the previous chapter, Paul says, as unbelievers, you were dead and Christ made you alive. And now he says, now that you're alive, you're dead. But now you're dead to the old way of life, the old manner of doing things. Second Corinthians chapter 5, 17, we all know that one. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, brand new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things become new. Another one is in Galatians chapter 6 verse 14.

God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. I'm dead to that. I'm dead to that old way of life. You know, when there is a conversion in a Jewish family, I've personally observed this. Oftentimes it is so upsetting if it's, let's say, a teenager or somebody who's in college, a son or a daughter converts to Christianity, believes in Yeshua as the Savior.

It is so upsetting in a Jewish family that oftentimes the father will say something like, my son, who's converted, my son is dead to me. It doesn't mean he's literally dead. It just means I am reckoning him as dead, separated, cut off from the family, kicked out of the home.

And so Paul uses that language in Romans when he says, likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to Christ. So you have died. That's a spiritual reality. Died, dead to the things of this world, your past life, your old manner of life. Second reality, you were raised.

That's verse one. If then you were raised with Christ. And by the way, the word if is not a good translation. This is not a hypothetical. It should be translated, since then you were raised with Christ because of the fact, not hypothetically but factually, since then you were raised with Christ.

So here's the deal. When you came to the Lord, when you believed in him at the moment of your salvation, you entered into his death and resurrection. And that's the meaning of water baptism, by the way. That's why we baptize people, not by effusion, sprinkling them. We actually put them all the way under the water because that speaks of death, burial, and resurrection.

So we take them, we hold them down, we bring them back up. I remember my baptism when that happened. I was standing in front of a group of people. Effectively, I was saying the old Skip is dead.

The new Skip is about to come alive. It was a statement of faith. My old life was over. And a new life begins. With new life comes new power. With new life comes new power, power over the old way of life, power over the habits that held me down.

That's available. With new life comes new power. With new life comes new power. Jesus conquered death by resurrection.

Likewise, we can conquer death by resurrection. Galatians 2 20, I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, that's good news, but that does not mean you don't struggle with the old manner of life. Amen?

Right? We all struggle with it. Everybody who is a thinking, rational, honest person who's a believer, who's walked with the Lord for any length of time will say, I believe that, but I still struggle. Like the guy who wrote in his diary, Dear God, you're really going to be proud of me. I haven't gossiped, lusted, or lost my temper today.

I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, I'm going to get out of bed. And from then on, I'm going to need a lot of help.

Right? We can all relate to that. When it gets to real life, we struggle. We're always going to battle the flesh because you never get rid of the flesh until the moment of your death or the rapture of the church when there is a subtraction of the old nature. That's why Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

It doesn't mean we're ever going to be sinless, but don't you think, and doesn't it make sense, that the more you go and grow in Christ, though you will never be sinless, you should sin less, less and less and less, and serve Him and honor Him and glorify Him more and more and more. Now, Paul said in Romans 6, too, how shall we who are dead to sin live any longer in it? So, here's the spiritual reality. I am both dead and alive. Remember the old Western posters, wanted dead or alive.

God would hang this poster over your life, wanted dead and alive. Dead to the old way of life, alive to the new way of life. Dead to the old manner of thinking, old habits that confined you, alive to righteousness. Wanted dead and alive.

The trouble with too many Christians is they live between Good Friday and Easter. There's been a death, but we're just sort of waiting for the fullness of resurrection. New life. You have died.

You were raised. The third reality is you are hidden. Look at verse 3. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

I just want you to get this. When God looks at you, He looks at you through the lens of His Son, Jesus Christ. He sees you clothed in His righteousness.

He sees you, in effect, perfect and permanently His. Your life is tucked in, wrapped up in Jesus Christ. You're hidden in Christ.

Now, this speaks of a couple things. You know, because our life is hidden, you might say we're concealed from the world. The world looks at you, and they don't see this reality. The world looks at you, and they don't know you're a new creation.

You're just walking down the street or driving in your car or working at wherever you work. They just see another person. They don't know you're a citizen of heaven, but you are. They don't get it, but it's the truth.

It's a reality. You are hidden with Christ in God. The word in verse 3 hidden in the Greek tense indicates something that happened in the past.

So it's a past tense event, but it has ongoing effects. So a better, fuller translation would be our life has been hidden and continues to be hidden. And I think what this really speaks of is our security as believers, that God has the power to keep us.

We have died. We've been raised, and He's going to keep us secure all the way to the end. In fact, one translation even says God is keeping your new life safe with Christ. This speaks of security.

He'll get you all the way through. So if you ever worry, I don't know. I thought I was saved yesterday, but today I'm not so sure.

You're hidden with Christ in God. You know, we live in a world that is worried about safety and security. I heard about a woman. She's so upset about the rising crime rate in our country and in our city that she got a concealed carry permit. So she decided to carry a gun, and she did. And she was in a store one night, and she got out of the store to go to her car in a dark parking lot.

And when she came to the parking lot and came to her car, she found it occupied by four men. So she yelled at them, get out. They didn't budge.

Get out. They didn't move. She pulled out the gun, pointed it at them, said, get out. Doors opened. They all ran away. Then she noticed her car. Three parking spots away.

Same make, same model, same color. She made a mistake. God never makes a mistake. God always protects the right one. You happen to be the right one.

You're the right one. John 10, Jesus said, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. How many of you understand that Jesus Christ has a very strong grip, and He's not depending on you to hold on to Him? Come on, hold on to Jesus. Hold on. Any parent or grandparent walking a kid across the street does not depend on the grip of that child.

Any smart parent or grandparent holds that child, and no one will snatch you out of His hand. That's Skip Heitzig's message from the series Always Only Jesus. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep teachings like this one today going out around the world, connecting you and others to God's Word. Well, it's final to remember that God is our Father in heaven. It reminds us that we have a sovereign and personal God who works in our lives.

We love sharing these biblical messages because we love connecting you with your heavenly Father. But we need your help to keep these teachings coming to you and to others around the world. You can help do that by giving a gift today.

Here's how. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. Join us again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig continues his message aiming at heaven while living on earth. So what Paul is saying is it should not only cross your mind, it should be one of the things that dominate your thinking. That our feet might be on earth, but our minds should be in heaven. Changing truth in ever-changing times.