The Real Heaven - A New Home For The New You, Part 1

Jesus promised us that he was going to prepare a place for us.

Those who are his followers have that guarantee. Did you ever wonder what it's going to look like? Well, today we're going to take a tour of that place, a specific concrete picture of exactly what heaven is really going to be like.

It just might blow your mind. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Druey, and the mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Thanks for joining us as we near the end of our series, The Real Heaven. For these last two programs, Chip's going to talk more specifically about what we're going to experience in heaven, like what we'll do or who we'll see there. And to help you get the absolute most out of this important program, let me encourage you to use Chip's message notes while you listen. Now, you can download them under the Broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap Fill In Notes. Well, let's get started, shall we? Here's Chip with his message, A New Home for the New You.

Perhaps one of the most classic movies of all time, Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz, and there's a scene that I bet when I start it, you can join with me. There's chaos everywhere. Dorothy is going to get to go someplace special. And she's clicking her heels and repeating, there's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. Remember that?

And then, you know, all the stuff happens with the limited technical graphics they had those days. But yeah, I got to tell you, Dorothy's right. There is no place like home. I mean, there's no place like your home. Home is where you belong. Home is where you thrive. Home is where you can just totally be yourself.

Your home is designed with your personality and your taste, the kind of furniture, the kind of drapes, the people you love the most. And that old hymn writer was really, really correct who said, this world is not our home. And that raises a very interesting question. In fact, a series of questions. If this world is not our home and if heaven is our home, what's it really going to be like?

How do you prepare for it? And so open your notes, if you will. Let's talk about some of the questions we've started to ask and answer.

And we're going to really dive deep into these today. Question number one is, will heaven be an actual place? I mean, you hear people talk about, well, maybe it's a state of mind or you kind of float around. Second question is, what will we look like in heaven? Like if you die when you're 10, we'd be like a 10-year-old forever. Or like if you die when you're 97, it might be like, well, that's a pretty nice place. But you know, Saint Thomas Aquinas actually believed that everyone will be 33 years old because that's when Jesus died.

He may be right. I don't know. Third question is, will heaven be boring? I mean, it's a long time. Or if it's not boring, like what will we do for all eternity?

I mean, forever, ever. Will their animals be in heaven? Some of you are really concerned about your dogs and your cats and a couple of horses. I've had people say, look, I've got a couple questions. I've got to talk to you about this. And you know what?

You actually might be surprised. I'm not sure about your particular dog or cat, but pretty rest assured, animals are going to be where we are. Where will you live in heaven?

I mean, like is it mansions, condos, apartments, huts? And then finally, who gets to go to heaven and why? And so what I want to let you know is this is a really big topic and we've only spent a short amount of time. The two books I would recommend, I hope that this is sort of whet your appetite. Randy Alcorn, probably the most exhaustive book on heaven. He read 140 books in preparation for writing this. And every question you've ever thought about heaven and probably 25 more, at least I thought, hmm, never thought of that. Really good resource. And there's times where he kind of makes conjectures, but at least he tells you.

He says, I don't know this for sure, but. And then on the exegetical kind of if you really wanted to dig into a couple of the core passages, the glory of heaven by John MacArthur, also good resource. Here's what you need to understand about heaven. It's the abode of God. So at the heart of everything about heaven, it's where God is. The second thing you need to understand is that God made us for himself. He loves us.

He wants to be with us. And just like there are different environments for different species, if you will. Some only can thrive in the desert.

Some can only thrive in a rain forest. God made mankind and he made us to thrive in a place called the earth. And so what you see is when you really study heaven and what the scripture says carefully is there's like three eras of mankind in relationship to God. And they all have something to do with the earth.

I put a little chart. Notice your notes. There's the first earth or Eden, the garden, the very first perfect world or environment. It says God visits man. Heaven is above.

But the pre-incarnate Christ, I believe, came and walked in the cool of the day and talked with our original parents. It was a perfect environment. There were trees and fruit and animals and there was beauty and it was breathtaking. There was absolutely no sin.

No one had made any mistakes. There was complete vulnerability, transparency and love between God and mankind and people for one another. That's the first two chapters of the Bible. Chapter three begins with what's called the fall or we rebel. There's a coup against God.

We want our own way and it's been passed on. So chapter three all the way to Revelation 20, sin enters in and because of sin, death. And then it not only impacts the human being, but it impacts the creation. Romans eight says the whole creation groans, longing to be restored.

And so tornadoes and tsunamis and earthquakes, all the kind of things that were never a part of the perfect environment with the fall of man and sin entering impacts not only us and our relationships with God, each other, but the creation. In this window of time, there's the intermediate state as theologians call it or heaven where God abode is right now. And what we know is during the season, God rescued mankind. The second person of the Godhead, Jesus, came to earth, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, demonstrated what the father is like, and then he died upon a cross to pay for or cover sin, to break the curse, rose from the dead the third day, and then for a period of about 40 days before 500 very eyewitnesses in a resurrected body told them what the future would be like and he was their hope.

For whosoever would believe would trust in the free gift. So you have a first earth, you have a fallen earth, and then you actually have a future earth or a new earth and a new heaven. Revelation chapter 21 and 22. It's what we're going to look at is we're going to actually learn that heaven is going to come down on a new earth that God creates so that God can be with us and we will thrive yet again like that first earth. So with that as the backdrop, I want to talk about what it's actually going to be like when heaven will be on earth. And that's not a misprint in your notes where it says, what will heaven be like on the new earth?

Circle that real big word heaven. I didn't purposely write, what will life be like on the new earth? Because we will learn what life's going to be like, but what you're going to learn is the new Jerusalem, heaven, new heaven is actually going to come down on a new earth and we're going to see what this new earth is like and what our experience will be. To answer that question, what will heaven be like on the new earth, there's three what I'll call truth statements from scripture.

Truth statement number one is it will be a lot like the new me, circle new if you will. And what I mean by that is that something happens to you before you make it to this new earth in the future and the earth will be a lot like the new you. A resurrected body is what you're going to experience. When you die, the very end of time, there will be a full resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked and followers of Christ will have a resurrected body. Open your Bibles if you will to 1 Corinthians 15. I just want you to look at a couple verses here. 1 Corinthians 15 and the apostle Paul is talking about the resurrection.

And the issue comes up, is it true? And if so, what's it going to be like? And if it is true and it is so, then what kind of bodies will we have? And so you pick it up in verse 35 and he's giving a defense of the resurrection. He says, but someone may ask, how are the dead raised?

And here's the question, with what kind of body will they come? And then he goes into this explanation where he looks at nature and he goes, look, when seeds go in the ground, something that comes out of the ground isn't like the seed. So you, in other words, our physical bodies die and his argument will be just like in nature, you'll have a different kind of body.

The word Adam in Hebrew is Adam for ground. The first Adam, our forefather, had a physical body and then the last Adam is Christ and he came and he brought eternal life. And so what he's going to, his whole argument about the resurrection is going to be the first Adam will die and we all had a physical body. Christ, when we're united with him, when we're resurrected, we will have a resurrection body that's just like Christ.

So you remember when he walked on the earth after his resurrection, he had a meal, he ate fish, he drank, he said the next time we're going to drink this is we're going to do it in the kingdom. He had some capabilities that were quite different in terms of he was in this place, then he was in this place, but it was real, it was physical, it was concrete, he wasn't floating around, he wasn't a ghost, he wasn't a spirit, here's all I want you to get. What this new place on this future earth is going to be like is just as your body will be transformed and resurrected into something new, but not completely foreign or different, you will look like you. Jesus in his resurrected body could be recognized. He actually, actually to this day, in heaven at the right hand of the father, you can see where his hands are, you can see where he's been pierced.

So it's not like so different that it's weird, it's familiar but it's new. Now that's exactly what's going to happen, the Bible says that just as that happens to our physical bodies, the same thing happens, the earth will be restored. The earth will be restored. Sometimes when you think this thought of a new heaven or new earth, if you're like me at least, it sounds kind of foreign because it's not been taught much in the church. In fact, one of the things about Randy Alcorn's book, he read 140 books and he said, we've gone like 100 years and not talked a lot about certain parts of what the Bible's really clear about.

We've sort of got this idea that people float around and they sing with angels and they play harps all the time. And he said really the Bible all the way back 700 years before the time of Christ, a prophet named Isaiah prophesied in advance that God in the final day would make a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah 65, 17, follow along as I read, he says, for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. So 700 years before Jesus is even born, there's this prediction that the very end of time this will occur. Well then the question during Jesus' time, he dies, he's resurrected and the disciples are out preaching and teaching of this heaven and this hope and it's a very difficult world and they begin to say, well, when's he going to come? And Peter says, he's not slow.

He's patient because he wants everyone to be there. And then people are arguing and saying, oh, you know, I don't know if he's ever really going to come. And so in the context, Peter says, that's the way they thought in the time of Noah. And there was a flood and there was a destruction. And then Peter explains this is what's going to happen and how it's going to happen before there is a new heaven and a new earth. Follow along 2 Peter 3 verses 9 through 13. He says, the Lord is not slow about his promise of some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

Can you just hear something? That is God's heart. God's heart is that every person in America, every person that has life and breath on the face of the earth would understand there's a free gift available and would repent or have a change of mind and receive that gift. And then he goes on to say, that's why it's slow. But the day of the Lord, that final day will come like a thief. So you don't know when it's going to happen. In which the heavens will pass away. How? With a roar, with the elements that will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up.

And then the application. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? In other words, if you really got it understood that this world and the stuff of this world and some of the agenda of this world is going to be gone, you might think about how you would live differently kind of every day. And then he says, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning.

The elements will melt with intense heat. But according to his promise, we're looking forward, notice again, to new heavens and a new earth. And notice the characteristic where righteousness dwells. One Bible dictionary describes, if you just looked up, you know, Bible dictionary, new heaven, new earth. I mean, that's phrases in Isaiah, it's in Peter, and it's also in Revelation.

And they summarize. The new heaven and new earth is a way to refer to the new creation that will come about at the end of time. The theme of the restoration and the recreation of the world is a central aspect of Christian hope.

So this isn't some little thing. This is a thread that goes from the beginning all the way through. Finally, they say the concept of restoration means something or someone is returned to its original state through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, his birth, his humanity, eventually, and then his resurrection. All things will be restored.

So here's all I want you to get. There's a coming day. There's a new heaven. There's a new earth. It's going to be a lot like the new you. You're going to be a new person resurrected in a resurrection body. And this earth is going to be restored. The second truth statement is that it will be a lot like the first earth.

In other words, if it was perfect, the future earth is going to be a lot like the first earth. Can you let your mind go back and think of what would it be like to live here? I mean, this is heaven.

This is for real. This is where every follower of Christ is going to end up forever and ever and ever. And I don't know about you. I want to sing. I want to worship. I do not want to play the harp. I do not want to float around. I do not want to sip iced tea. And I do not want to be bored. And the Bible doesn't teach any of that.

But what it teaches is what our first parents experienced is in a perfect environment. There's a tree of life. There's rivers. There's fruit. There's food.

There's animals. There's harmony. There's peace. There's beauty that's breathtaking. There's no death.

There's no shame. There's no curse, no sin, no sorrow, no pain, no divorce, no betrayal, no struggle, meaningful work to accomplish. Adam wasn't created and said, okay, you know, I think I'll just, you know, next few thousand years ought to be a lot of fun.

Adam, rule. He had an agenda. Be creative.

Be a co-creator. God has plans for us. Meaningful work to accomplish in intimacy with God. God's creation of man on the earth before there was sin was a real place. It was tangible. It was concrete. He ate. He worked. He talked.

He played. He made love with his wife. He had walks with the God of the universe. He saw beauty. He felt absolutely encompassed and loved. He had no concept of sin. He had this environment before him that was pristine and beautiful, and he was in charge of making and creating and expanding his territory and his reign and rule with the mind and the heart that I would imagine before sin was a lot smarter than all of us and a lot more creative.

See, if you want a little parallel, think about those three categories. First earth, as man was, so was the earth. Innocent, innocent.

Pure, pure. As man is currently fallen, so is the earth. It's fallen. It's messed up. It's polluted. As man will be, so will be the earth.

That's what the Bible teaches. That's the summary. Now I want to get to the fun part. Okay, it's kind of foreign to my ears, right? First probably 15 years I was a Christian, if you said what's heaven like, it would be I'd open to Revelation chapter 4, Revelation chapter 5, think they got a really great band.

They sing a lot, and there's some really big angels with lots of eyes that fly around. And by the way, that's occurring right now, and it's awesome. It's just not all that there is, and we will worship, don't get me wrong. But the idea of a tangible concrete place made specifically for me to satisfy the deepest desires in my heart with relationships that aren't just right, that are perfect, with jobs to do that require the very best of me, where I do exactly what I'm made to do in ways that only I can, that contribute in some sort of relationships, in a culture, in a society where God is among us. Third truth, this future heaven on earth is not simply a lot like the new you, and it's not simply a lot like the first earth. You ready for this?

I love this. It will be a lot different and infinitely better because we will have a number of things that are new. First we're going to have a new kind of relationship with God. Revelation chapter 21, all the way at the end, and notice it's going to start with, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

Why? For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Notice the little change in this one, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And then I heard in a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them, and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. You have a relationship with God now, you will have a new kind of relationship. You will not talk to a God who is in heaven. You will not talk to a God any longer who the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and you know that it's times where you're walking in the spirit and times where you don't. You will see Him face to face. We learn in chapter 22. First John says, when you see Him face to face, we will become like Him because we will have no sin. He will make a way where you will have intimacy with God. This has been His plan from the beginning. He wants you.

I mean, everyone hates rejection. I got news for you. There is one awesome, eternal, infinite being who created all that there is, and for reasons you don't get and I don't get, He wants you. And He's going to make a way in this perfect earth environment to be with you. You will be His son.

You will be His daughter, and He will be with you. There's not going to be any more of, you know, I really wonder what God's will is, and I got this prompting. I thought maybe I should do this, or should we move over to here?

Should we do that? And I'm not really sure. No distance, no relational or spatial awareness. You know times in your life where you feel like you're over here and God's way over there?

It's gone. You'll have a new kind of relationship with God where there's absolutely nothing between you, no intermediate anything. Face to face, heart to heart, intimacy. You will be so overwhelmed and enveloped with a sense of acceptance and love and clarity and purpose and peace, infinitely multiplied by any smidgen of it on this earth you've experienced. So see it's a new heaven and a new earth, and there's a new kind of relationship with God. Second, there's a new kind of relationship with sin.

You say that's kind of weird. Now you could write in there, you could, don't do it, but you could write in with my past. Because what's going to get removed is what sin did in your life and in mine, what it did in the culture, what it did in people, how evil was birthed, and all the evil of all time by all people. You're going to have a new relationship with sin. Let me read you this new relationship, verse four and five. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

Well, why? For the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I'm making everything new.

And then he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. So what have been the past consequences of sin on this fallen earth that will be gone? You ready for this? Here's your new relationship.

No more abuse ever. No more regrets, no more bad memories, no more betrayal, no divorce. You won't experience failure ever again. You won't be disappointed.

You won't be rejected. You won't shake your head and look at the news and say greed, murder, addictions, accidents. No more prejudice, no more racism, no more poverty, no more injustice, no more sex trade, no more kids getting abused. It'll be gone. And because sin has gone, no more death. You'll never be afraid.

You will never feel ashamed. That's a new kind of relationship with God, but that's a new kind of relationship with sin. It's gone and the evil that went with it. That's what your personal experience as heaven comes down on this new earth is gonna be like. But it's not just a new relationship with God and with sin. There's a new kind of experience of complete, write this word in, satisfaction. Complete satisfaction. Follow along as I read verse six and following.

He said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To him who is thirsty, circle that word in your Bible if you would.

I will give to drink without cost from where? The spring of the water of life. He who overcomes, those who by faith have trusted Christ will inherit all of this and I will be his God and he will be my son. Contrast, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magical arts and the idolaters and the liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

This is the second death. What's thirst? Metaphorically thirst has to do with desire. We thirst for life. We thirst for relationships. God made you a human being and all the psychology and all that we've learned is I can tell you that everybody in this room and everyone who's ever lived has thirsted to be significant. I want to be a somebody. Everyone in this room has thirsted to be secure. I want to feel safe and loved and accepted. Everyone has thirsted for a sense of fulfillment or from my old days in graduate school, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Remember that one?

Remember what the top one is on the little triangle? Self-actualization. Actually what you're going to have is Christ-actualization. But what Maslow saw was no amount of money, no amount of success, no amount of fame, no amount of looks, celebrity, possessions.

What he realized at the heart of the human being is this desire to become all that you ever made to become. And what you're going to have is complete satisfaction for the first time in your life. You won't look at someone else and say I wish I had their gifts or I wish I lived in their mansion or apartment or whatever it's going to be, the condos there in this big city. You'll never feel like oh I wish I could do this or do that. You will have complete satisfaction. Satisfaction with God, with yourself, with others, with the environment. Everything that we hoped if I just made more money, if I just found the right mate, if we finally had a kid, if we get to the second house, you know what if we finally go public, you know what if I finally could overcome the grief and the pain of my mate that walked out of me, you know if my kids just grow up and if I only can get in this school right, thirst, thirst, thirst, thirst, thirst, desire because I want to be significant, secure and fulfilled. It drives us, we're human. And he's going to say come and drink and I'm going to fill you up from the inside out in ways that you have longed for and were made for but in a fallen world it's never going to happen. In fact I love C.S. Lewis, he talks about this issue of thirst, he talks about this idea that you know we've all had plans right, you know if I could ever get in this college and I get in or if I ever get these grades or you know if I could ever find the right person or isn't it amazing the word new for us, boy when I get that new car and then you get it and then it's like 90 days later it's just not new right but if we get a house of our own if I could just be the and I don't care what it is you know if I own so much if I had this if people thought that if I wore that if I right we're human and no matter what it is you know it's like man I've been in the gym for five years to get this way and two surgeries and it's still fading and I still down deep don't love me or feel any more worthy you know that's something that no matter what you do is still missing Lewis says that's built in by God into the human soul and heart to remind you there's something more in fact more than there's just something more there's someplace more no matter what you achieve what you get there's this little window of and then there's a it doesn't quite deliver what you hoped that's going to end in this new heaven that's on earth next part is maybe the most exciting for me talks about a new city and people to enjoy and he made it really clear that this is going to be a perfect environment and in passing he said you know those people that rejected me those people that didn't want the free gift those people who wanted their own throne those people said I'll be in control hey I don't want God telling me what to do those people who said I'll find my fulfillment my what do you say you know what you can have your own way heaven is reserved for these kind of people that want to receive and experience my love and to those people who say no God he says well your will be done and then he says okay there's a city now think of this there's this city that has come down from heaven on the earth and now he's going to describe what your experience is going to be like we pick it up in verse nine one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to me and said come and I will show you the bride the wife of the Lamb speaking of Jesus and he carried me away in the spirit to a high great mountain and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God and then he begins to describe it it's shown with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of very precious jewels and like Jasper and clear as crystal it had a great high wall with 12 gates and with 12 angels at each gate and on the gates were written the names of the 12 tribes of Israel there were three gates on the east and three on the north and three on the south and three on the west and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb Jesus the angel who talked with me had had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city its gates and its walls and so you get this picture of this angel says to John in this vision I want you to tell these people the future because life is really hard in a fallen world and there's a lot of wickedness and a lot of evil and there's going to be all kind of things and people need to have a very clear picture of the future so they can endure and overcome and so first of all he sees it coming down and then he ends up on this really high mountain and then he sees all of this new Jerusalem the city coming down and now this angel is measuring it and you got to get this he measured the city with a gold rod it was 12,000 stadia in length and it's as wide and high as it is long so it's as wide it's a square but it's as high as it is wide and long he measured its walls and it was 144 cubics thick by man's measure which the angel was using and the wall was made of jasper and the city of pure gold as a pure glass and then he says and the foundations of city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone and he goes through 12 specific precious stones of the day some of which we still use it's just this radiant but I don't know about you when I first read this when it said stadia how many people think like how big is a stadia I mean you know what stadia is it's about 1400 miles so this I mean you know first of all you see it coming down this would be like you know Star Trek the future future generation oh something coming down but I mean 1400 miles wide and he's just overwhelmed with its brilliance and then he gets up on this mountain why so we can see all my lands 1400 miles long three specific gates angel angel angel guarding the gates are open they never close and wow on these gates those 12 tribes all those old testament saints and those foundation stones all the way around and the 12 apostles all of god's people old testament new testament and then it's like 1400 miles high I mean how many floors is that I like to go to the 37,000 floor please the angel goes you really don't need an elevator here just because you have a resurrected body like Jesus now by the way I don't know if that's really true if you can but just do you just get like it's an amazing city it's but it's to enjoy I grew up in the suburbs so I didn't know a lot about really big city life and I grew up in the suburbs of a sort of nice city really nice Midwestern city so I thought that was a city it was a good city and then my kids went to school in Chicago I love Chicago Chicago is a great city Chicago as you walk down Michigan Avenue and there's a lake over here and there's a band playing over here and there's a you get a meal over here and then you walk by and some of the most amazing museums and stuff and people actually live in Chicago it's not like everyone's I mean there's life and culture and food and and then my travels I ended up I've been lots of times to Hong Kong Hong Kong is an amazing city I mean you're over there you know and you can look across that Bay and you see that huge thing and you know it's so safe and wonderful and I'm two three in the morning you can walk out get all kind of food and cultures and people from all around the world and if you've never been to New York if you've never been to New York like at Christmas time go it's just unbelievable think of the joy there is and you meet people and there's new food and you catch a play here and you do something here and you hear some stories this is a city that's 1400 miles wide and long and high of all the saints of all time and 37th floor get off Moses how you been could you could you like tell us I brought one of my buddies would you like kind of give me the Red Sea story one more time I mean what were you really feeling tell me what was going and you know then down to the 10,000th floor Elijah man you were you like scared to death you know all those prophets and the fire came down and Hudson Taylor what was it like no one believed you no one would help you you're away from your family you mean who would know there'd be like 1.4 billion people in China and and you were like the first person that crossed through all that and you translated the Bible and like wow can you for eternity amazing food amazing people I mean if you're an architect you so right and so there's new books to be written and new songs to be sung and new things to explore I mean this is the brilliance and the glory and the majesty it's like take your best experience in any city and then go infinitely beyond triple join us here in studio with his application in just a minute you've been listening to the first part of his message a new home for the new you from his series the real heaven what the Bible actually says have you ever sat down and thought about heaven I mean what it'll really be like to have a new body to reunite with loved ones and be in the very presence of God the fact is many Christians aren't excited enough about heaven which just shows how little we understand what awaits us through this three-part series chip uncovers what God wants us to know about heaven the indescribable beauty the fulfilling relationships and what we're actually going to do there he'll also dispel the myths about heaven and encourage us to actually look forward to eternity let me encourage you to really dig deep into this series the real heaven whether that's through chips book the mp3s or the small group video study for complete details on all of our resources go to Living on the Edge org or call triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 that's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or Living on the Edge org app listeners tap special offers now here's chip with a quick word hey I want to take just a minute to ask you something really important if you've been impacted by this ministry would you please pray about partnering with Living on the Edge in a new way right now nearly everything we do is dependent on contributions from partners like you our ability to reach people through radio online or our app sharing and developing small group resources providing broadcasts that are international and asian the middle east and literally dark places around the globe please pray how you might be able to come alongside and be a partner to Living on the Edge to help us reach people with the truth of God's word thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do if you're already a financial partner thank you with your help Living on the Edge is ministering to more people than ever before and if you're benefiting from chips teaching but haven't yet taken that step now would be a great time to join the team to send a gift or become a monthly partner go to Living on the Edge dot org tap donate on the app or give us a call at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 that's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 your generosity is greatly appreciated well as we wrap up today's program i just have this little thing inside of me that if we could sit down across the table and have a cup of coffee and i would ask one question so hey what do you think i mean do you ever think about heaven like that that's right out of the bible did you ever think if you write songs that you know what there's a lot of songs left in you or if you're an architect that you really do need to design some buildings or if you have the gift of leadership there's going to be actual real people and real organizations and real culture and i mean it really is amazing isn't it it's not some mystical place there is a new heaven there's a new earth and that earth will have all kind of things like like people and culture and music and animals and buildings and cities and relationships god has something very wonderful i mean more infinitely wonderful than you can ever think or imagine and then here's where it gets down to today the choices that you and i make today have a direct correlation to some of the experience that we'll have forever and ever and ever and the reason the bible talks so much about heaven and is so clear about what it's going to be like is that it needs to inform you know how i work today it needs to inform how i love my wife or my husband today or the kind of parent i'm going to be or the kind of single person who says yeah i get what's happening in the world but i'm going to be pure it it's priorities about what i do with my time and what i do with my money and it's not about oughts and shoulds and trying to you know be earning god's favor this is about understanding grace and living the kind of life that grace produces and realizing the goodness of god is infinitely immeasurably beyond what you could ever dream or think but you have a glimpse of it here in these passages so that you can give your life to what matters most so you can receive what god wants to give you the most forever and ever and ever just before we close i want you to know that as a staff we ask the lord to help you take whatever your next faith step is now if there's a way we can help we'd love to do that maybe give us a call at triple eight three three three six zero zero three or connect with us at Living on the Edge dot org and while you're there take a moment and look through our resources on a variety of topics many of them absolutely free well thanks for being with us until next time this is dave drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge you