At our dress rehearsal for “What the Angels Heard on High” everyone wanted to go to heaven! Let me explain… they wanted to climb up the ramp and stand up on the scaffolding which we used for our heaven scene. And why wouldn’t they? It looked awesome! (Shout out to Bo Tucker, Debby Graber, Amy Thompson, and Sean Gardiner for a great job!) It was at least 6 feet higher than the stage itself. I haven’t been a kid for many years, but even I thought it was awesome, and had a childlike excitement going up there! So, I had to be the mean guy, and tell everyone to stay off the heaven scene, except of course for the kids who had speaking roles in the heaven scenes. And then of course everyone wished that they had a speaking part so they could go up there.
I’ve got a few analogies I want to share with you. First, Heaven is going to be awesome! If we really knew the glory of being fully in God’s presence all of us would have a child like desire and excitement about it. In Philippians 1:21-24 Paul says, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. I am torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ – which is far better – but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.” Being with Christ is FAR BETTER! (Check out Randy Alcorn’s book, “Heaven” or John Eldredge’s book “All Things New” for more about Heaven)
My second analogy: we can’t simply go to heaven. God isn’t mean; He is holy, and as sinners we can’t be in His presence. Our sin against God keeps us from being with Him in heaven. One of my newest memory verses is Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” Our sin has to be dealt with, and removed from us for us to be with God in heaven. And that comes through saving faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done through His death and resurrection. Only by being cleansed through the blood of Jesus can we experience the glory of His presence in Heaven!
My final analogy: if you want to be in Heaven, someone has to tell you how you can get there. Those kids needed to know that they had to have a speaking part in the play if they wanted to be in the heaven scene. We need to tell others about Heaven and share with them that Jesus made a way for us to be there with Him in glory!
See you Sunday!
Pastor Kyle
Kyle’s Rightnow Media pick of the month
https://app.rightnowmedia.org/en/content/details/835672 Galatians with Michael Defazio