It has indeed been a joy to be with you and of course to be with the calls and sharing
this happy event with them.
And I rejoice that the weather cooperated so that we were able to get here and not be
snowed in somewhere.
However, we still have to get home.
Thank you.
I wondered what it was you did around here.
I enjoy hearing you sing.
There's some churches today that don't know how to sing.
They've lost the fervor of it or the joy of it.
And I kind of enjoy singing off the wall.
We do that at home in the church that we attend when we're home.
And it's very biblical.
Daniel started it, of course, with the handwriting on the wall.
I think many of the praise choruses express our hearts.
And I'm glad that you have a balance of the praise choruses as well as the great hymns.
And thank you for singing to us about heaven.
I appreciated that so very much.
I want to read you a quotation from C.S. Lewis.
And I don't know if you agree with it or not.
I'm not going to start a new denomination over it or divide this church.
But here's what C.S. Lewis had to say.
If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present
world were precisely those who thought most of the next.
It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have
become so ineffective in this world.
I agree with it.
See, the problem with us as Christians is we think of heaven as a destination.
Now, it is a destination.
If you're not a Christian, that's not your destination.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you can be sure that the road leads home.
But heaven is much more than a destination.
If heaven in your life is only a destination, then you talk about it only when there is
a death or a tragedy.
Very few Christians ever sit down at Sunday dinner or morning coffee break and talk about
heaven.
We talk about heaven when Aunt Gertrude is dying or when someone's been killed in an
auto accident.
Then we say, wasn't it wonderful that they were saved and they went to heaven?
But don't talk to a full, red-blooded, healthy, young Christian boy about heaven because heaven
is the place he's going to go after.
He has all the fun he can have down here.
But our Lord didn't have that attitude at all.
Now, here's the whole point of my message in one sentence.
To Jesus, heaven was not simply a destination, it was a motivation.
And Jesus wants heaven to be a motivation in my life.
I'm either motivated by the present world in which I'm living, in which case I'm worldly.
Or I'm motivated by the world to which I'm going, in which case my life will be a life
of heaven on earth.
D.L. Moody used to complain about Christians who were so heavenly-minded, they were no
earthly good.
And there's some truth to that.
You can have such a faraway, ethereal, mystical experience of heaven that you don't do anything
down here.
That's what we're talking about.
Did you know that four times in the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the same three words?
Where I am.
He's talking about heaven.
And in each of these instances, heaven is a motivation for something.
In other words, if I really know I'm going to heaven, it's got to show up in my life.
We witness to unsafe people.
We say, look, if you were to die tonight, what reason could you give to God for letting
you into His heaven?
And suppose that unsafe person turned to me and said, hold on there, friend, hold on.
You say you're going to heaven?
Well, yeah.
Do you live like it?
Oh, I never thought of that.
And so let's turn to the Gospel of John and find out what kind of people we will be if
we really know we're going to heaven and live like it.
Let's start with John chapter 7.
Now one of the key verses for John chapter 7 is verse 43, so there arose a division in
the multitude because of Him.
Remember Jesus said, I am the door and a door is a divider.
And our Lord has always been the cause of division.
He's the cause of division in this world.
There are those who accept Him and those who reject Him.
He's the cause of division in the home.
A man's foes shall be those of his own household.
He's even the cause of division in the church.
There are those who are in the church who want to live for Him and there are those who
don't want to live for Him.
There was a division.
Now what were they saying?
Well, verse 7, Jesus said the world cannot hate you, but it hates me.
So there are those who hated Jesus.
Verse 12, some said He's a good man.
Those who were saying no, on the contrary, He leads the multitude astray.
So here's a division.
Today we have this.
He's a deceiver.
No, no, He's a good man.
Verse 20, you have a demon.
There are those who believe that about Jesus.
Verse 26, the rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they?
There are those who believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Verse 31, when the Christ shall come, He will not perform more signs than those which this
man has, will He?
Verse 40, this certainly is the prophet.
Verse 41, this is the Christ.
Now, you know what you have here?
A pluralistic society.
Same thing we have today.
People say to me, now look, it's fine for you to write books and preach and do all these
things, but you know, my neighbor belongs to a different religion and they are the best
people and surely God wouldn't keep them out of heaven.
Notice what Jesus says now in verse 33.
For a little while longer I am with you and then I go to Him who sent me.
You shall seek me and shall not find me and where I am, you cannot come.
You religious people who said, well, He's a good man.
There are religions that will say Jesus is a good man, a prophet.
You religious people who say He has a demon.
You people who say He's a deceiver.
I want you to know something.
I'm going to heaven, but you're not going with me for the simple reason that you haven't
believed in me.
Now this continues over to chapter 8, verse 21.
I go away and you shall seek me and shall die in your sin.
Where I am going, you cannot come.
Verse 24.
I said therefore to you that you shall die in your sins, for unless you believe that
I am He, you shall die in your sin.
What kind of people will we be if we know we're going to heaven?
We'll be a witnessing people.
That's what Jesus was.
He said, I'm going to heaven, but you're not going with me.
And you're not going with me for the simple reason you haven't believed in me.
And because you haven't believed in me, you'll die in your sins.
Now you friends should know this.
Your pastors told you, your Sunday school teachers have told you, but you should know
this.
There is a movement in the evangelical church in America today that says, we do not think
that Acts 412 is really true.
There is none other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved.
There are other ways to get to heaven.
You say, now wait a minute, evangelicals wouldn't say that.
Well they'd tell you they were evangelicals.
I have two books in my library, one of which I've read, the other one I'm trying to work
up the courage to read, that says it is possible, these are written by Christian theologians,
it is possible that God will accept those who have not trusted Jesus if they did the
best they could.
Now hear me.
Let's suppose that by some marvelous, marvelous work of providence, some laboratory came up
with a cure for AIDS.
The only cure for AIDS.
And kept it to themselves.
Didn't announce it, didn't manufacture it, didn't distribute it, didn't give it to anybody,
they just, they've got it.
They say, we've got the only cure to AIDS.
But you can't have it.
You'd say, well that would be absolute murder.
We do it.
Jesus says, unless you believe that I am He, you're going to die in your sins.
And it's far worse than dying from AIDS because you'll be dead forever in a lake of fire.
Eternal death, it's terrible.
And so we keep it to ourselves.
Oh, we're going to heaven.
Hallelujah, we're going to go to heaven.
Good.
But what about that one, and that one, and that one, and that one that's not going to
heaven?
Jesus said, where I am, you cannot come.
Therefore I'm telling you, you better believe in me.
If you really believe you're going to heaven, if we really believe we're going to heaven,
we will be a witnessing people.
I am writing my autobiography.
I'm asking my friends how much they'll pay me not to be in it.
I think I'm going to make more money not writing it than writing it.
Somebody asked me one day, do you have any regrets?
I do.
Not many, but I have a few.
One of them is I have missed many opportunities to share Jesus.
I'm sorry.
Sometimes in my private prayer time I just have to be quiet before God because I can't
argue, I can't excuse myself.
All I can say is I'm sorry because I could have shared the Lord.
I didn't do it.
But I'm going to heaven.
And I really don't care whether you go with me or not.
Oh no, no.
We'll be a witnessing people.
Now turn to John chapter 12.
Heaven is a motivation, not just a destination.
Verse 20.
Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast.
Now here are Gentiles who were adopting Jewish religion because they were fed up with the
Gentile religion.
If you've ever studied Greek religion you'll understand they were wise.
There was a God, there were more gods than there were people in Athens.
You read those Greek myths, they're foolish.
So here were a group of Greek people who said, look, this is a bunch of garbage.
We're going to go over to Jerusalem and we're going to see what those folks are doing.
So now we have to have an ecumenical thing going on.
These therefore came to Philip who was from the state of Galilee and they began to ask
him saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus.
I like that.
Here are Gentiles fed up with the Gentile religion so they come to the Jewish religion
and the Jewish religion leads them to Jesus.
Philip came and told Andrew.
Andrew and Philip came and they told Jesus.
And Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains by itself alone.
But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He who loves his life loses it.
And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
If anyone serves me, let him follow me and where I am, there shall my servant also be.
If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Now my soul has become troubled.
And what shall I say?
Father save me from this hour.
But for this purpose I came to this hour.
Father, glorify thy name.
There came therefore a voice out of heaven.
I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
If we really believe we're going to heaven, we'll be a witnessing people.
And Jesus said we'll be a sacrificing people.
He's comparing us to seeds.
Now get this.
Why would Jesus compare his people to seeds?
He compares us to many things in the Bible.
Peas of a vine, sheep, soldiers, children in the family, stones in the temple.
Now he compares us to seed.
Why are we like seed?
Just look at a Christian near you.
Why is that person like a seed?
Well a seed is something very small and very insignificant, but it has enough power in
it to wreck your driveway.
A lot of power in a seed.
We've made I think 15 or 16 trips to Great Britain and I have yet to see the one place
I'd like to see someday.
It doesn't rankle me, but I'd like to see it.
Here in Great Britain there is a tomb where the person interred in that tomb asked him
to put a very heavy slab of stone so that he or she would not be taken in the resurrection.
That's crazy isn't it?
There is no such stone made that God cannot whoop.
But interestingly enough while they were interring this person a seed got in and a tree began
to grow.
And out from this tomb cracking the rock came this tree.
God didn't even wait for the resurrection to open the tomb.
Now a seed is insignificant, but it's full of life and power.
Christians are insignificant.
We're a minority.
We're a remnant.
The world looks at us like we're a bunch of kooks.
Here we are like seeds.
Some seeds you plant them, you water them, the roots go down, the shoots come up and
then the fruit.
We're like that.
Jesus says I want you to be like a seed.
Now let's suppose we interview a seed.
We're doing 60 minutes or 20-20 or something and tonight we have a seed we're going to
talk to.
Good evening.
Hello.
How do you feel about being a seed?
Well it's no fun when they plant you.
I mean you go down in that deep dark damp earth and you die.
Well how do you feel about that?
Oh it doesn't bother me.
I live for the future.
You plant me and you put me down there and I die, but out from my death comes life and
beauty and fruitfulness.
I live for the future.
Oh.
Jesus says if we really believe we're going to heaven, if we're living for the future,
we'll be like the seed and we'll die.
Now our Lord says I've got to make a choice.
Either save my life or give my life.
We live in a crazy world.
We really do.
You know one of the biggest problems today counselors face with people, psychiatrists
and counselors and psychologists, you know what it is?
Loneliness.
There's a million people in the world and folks are lonely.
Because loneliness is not a matter of geography, it's a matter of the heart.
Jesus says you want to be alone?
Protect yourself.
Guard yourself.
Don't let them plant you.
No farmer keeps the seed just to look at it.
The seed is only good if planted.
The seed lives for the future.
You and I are seed.
You want to be lonely?
Protect yourself.
Guard yourself.
Live for yourself.
Our Lord says only two ways to pray.
Father save me.
Father glorify your name.
Only two ways to pray.
I don't know what you're going through tonight.
I don't know what you're facing this week, but you've got these two prayers.
If you want to save your life, you'll say Father save me.
I don't want to be buried.
I don't want to die to myself.
I want to live my life.
And Jesus says wait a minute, wait a minute.
You're going to heaven.
A seed lives for the future.
If we are a people who know we're going to heaven, we will be a sacrificing people.
Oh, I'd love to talk to you about that for about 30 minutes with reference to foreign
missions.
When I began my ministry 40 years ago, we'd bring a missionary to our church and the missionary
would share the burden.
And within six months, that missionary raised enough support to go to the mission field.
You know what it takes today?
Two years.
We have more money.
We have more resources.
I'm praying every day for a list of people.
I serve on a mission board.
A list of people who are ready to go.
Our board just received visas for Nepal.
Now that's a miracle.
We have got visas for Nepal.
Now we need doctors and nurses to go over there and help to build a hospital.
We're waiting for somebody to say, Lord, glorify your name.
Plant me.
If you believe you're going to heaven, we will be a witnessing people and a sacrificing
people.
John 14 is a third characteristic of those who are motivated by heaven.
We are a confident people.
Verse 1, chapter 14.
Let not your heart be troubled.
Now our Lord's talking to his disciples.
Do you mean Christians have troubled hearts?
Sure.
You get next to somebody long enough, you'll find out they're worrying about something.
Everybody's got some burden.
Of course, we Christians don't worry.
We're concerned.
Why would the disciples' hearts be troubled?
I can give you three good reasons.
One, Jesus was going to leave them.
That broke their hearts.
Two, Peter was going to fail them.
Peter was the strong leader of the disciple group.
Jesus had said to Peter, you're going to deny me.
Has God ever failed you?
They thought Jesus was failing them.
Has another Christian ever failed you?
Peter failed them.
Then he said one of you is a traitor.
How would you respond if one of the pastoral staff, Kate, got into the pulpit next Sunday
morning and said, I want to talk to the church family.
There is right now in this room a traitor who's been stealing money from the church
and working behind our backs to discredit this church and tear it down.
You look around and say, who is it?
So their hearts were troubled.
The Lord was failing them.
Their leader was failing them.
And some hidden traitor was failing them.
No wonder they were troubled.
What do you do when you have a troubled heart?
Well, sometimes we dial a friend or push a button, a friend, and say, well, I've got
to talk to you.
Pray with me, would you?
My heart really hurts.
That's good.
Nothing wrong with that.
Or maybe you open your Bible.
Our Lord has remedy for that right here.
In my father's house are many dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have told you.
For 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 to myself
that where I am, there it is, there you may be also.
You see, when you know you're going to heaven, we're not only a witnessing people.
Hey, come along and go with us.
And a sacrificing people, Father, glorify your name, plant me where you want me.
But we are a confident people.
Now hear me.
If you know you're going to heaven, no matter what may happen along the way, it doesn't
make that much difference because you know where you're going.
Years ago, James M. Gray, who was president of Moody Bible Institute and wrote a number
of fine songs that are now forgotten, wrote a beautiful song called The Road Leads Home.
I'm going to compile a book someday of hymns.
I'm going to call it, Hymns You Used to Love.
Hymns You Hate, number eight.
And I'm going to put in it James M. Gray's song.
The chorus goes like this.
The road leads home, sweet, sweet home.
Oh, who could mind the journey when the road leads home?
Isn't that great?
So the next time your heart is troubled and you say, oh God, what are you doing?
He failed me.
She failed me.
You're failing me.
I'm failing myself.
Oh God.
Please, just stop and say, hold it, hold it.
Instead of looking within and being depressed and looking around and being distressed, look
ahead and be blessed.
We're going to heaven.
Now, for some of you, earth is so heavenly, you're not too anxious to go.
If Jesus came back tonight, it would interrupt your plans.
And I feel sorry for you because something else may interrupt your plans.
We're going to heaven.
He's making a home for us.
When our Lord was here on earth, He said, I'm the good shepherd.
But He wasn't a shepherd.
He was a carpenter.
His trade was that of a carpenter.
He made things.
I almost flunked wood shop in high school.
If it hadn't been for my two brothers who were greatly appreciated by the instructor,
I would never, I'd still be there.
At the end of the semester, when everybody had made bookends and bookcases and lovely
little stools, you know what I had to show for all my work?
A pile of sawdust.
Really?
But my Lord is a carpenter.
He can build things.
And He's up in heaven building a home.
And every time He sees me worry and fret and toss and turn, He says, wait a minute, don't
you believe you're going to heaven?
Well, yeah.
Well, look, I'm preparing a home for you.
That's right.
Now, would you stop worrying?
Let not your heart be troubled.
I'm coming.
I'll take you home.
If you know you're going to heaven, we're a confident people.
I don't think that my worrying glorifies God a whole lot.
Said the robin to the sparrow, I should really like to know why those anxious human beings
rush around and worry so.
Said the sparrow to the robin, I do think that it must be that they have no heavenly
father such as cares for you and me.
What are you worrying about tonight?
When you know you're going to heaven, it makes us a confident people.
Now, John 17 verse 24, my Lord is praying God, the son talking to God, the father.
And he prays about you and me, Father, I desire that they also whom thou has given me be with
me where I am in order that they may behold my glory which thou has given me for thou
didst love me before the foundation of the world.
Did you know that every time a Christian dies and that Christian goes to heaven, it's an
answer to that prayer.
Now, we must look at this theme of glory, verse 22, and the glory which thou has given
me I have given to them.
Pause.
Did you know that this preacher standing here already has the glory?
We say you don't look like it.
You should see what I'm looking at.
If you're saved tonight, you've got the glory.
The glory dwelt in the tabernacle and then it departed.
Ichabod, the glory is departed.
The glory dwelt in the temple, it departed.
The glory dwelt in Jesus Christ, he departed, went back to heaven.
The glory came down in the person of the Holy Spirit and now the glory dwells in us.
And that glory is the down payment, the assurance, the ticket that we're going to be in heaven.
Now, why did he give us this glory?
And the glory which thou has given me I have given to them that they may be one, just as
we are one.
Oh, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one.
Spiritual persons yet one, not a mechanical uniformity, not a mechanical oneness, but
a spiritual unity.
Our Lord is not saying here, Father, make them one great big denomination.
No, no.
We're all different.
Some people like to go to a church where it's more sedate, more formal.
They like liturgy, well every church has liturgy, either good or bad, but they like ceremony.
That's fine.
We attended a service at St. Paul's Cathedral a few Sunday afternoons ago, very stately,
different.
Other people like to hang from the chandeliers.
I mean they're happy in the Lord.
I've been in services in churches in Africa where I tell you it was something.
Look nobody has an excuse for staying home from church.
There's one you can fit into.
All our Lord is saying here is look, all of you have the glory and all of you are going
to see the glory.
Now that glory makes you one.
If we believe we're going to heaven we will be a witnessing people and a sacrificing people
and a confident people and a united people.
The curse of the church today is division.
Now I don't mean denominational division.
I really think that if we sat down with the leaders of all of the evangelical denominations
we'd find we agree on the essentials.
We disagree on minor things.
Wasn't it St. Augustine who said in essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, in all
things charity.
I like that.
What our Lord is saying here is this.
Here is a Baptist brother.
He's saved.
He's going to heaven.
Here is an assembly of God brother.
He's going to heaven.
Here is a Presbyterian brother.
He's going to heaven.
Now if they're all going to be in heaven together and walk the golden streets together and see
the glory together, why can't they get along together?
Doesn't mean we have to agree on everything.
When you read John 17 you discover that all Christians share the same life.
And this is life eternal says Jesus.
That they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
You gave me the authority to give them eternal life.
So we share the same life.
He said I've given them your word.
We share the same word.
I've given them your glory.
We share the same glory.
I want you to take them to heaven.
We share the same home.
Early in my ministry when I'd meet a Christian from a different group my first reaction was
where do we disagree?
Then I grew up.
Now when I meet somebody my question is where do we agree?
Now we've got to be careful here.
We've got to be careful here.
There are deceivers in the world.
I know that.
But the next time a fellow Christian bothers you, upsets you, you don't quite agree with
the way they do things.
Just remember you're going to be in heaven together.
You're going to be in heaven together.
Oh yes you say but I'll have a new body then and I won't be the cantankerous old critic
I am now.
Why wait?
You've got the glory and we're heading for glory and Jesus says where I am you're going
to be in heaven.
Oh it's going to be great.
I've been a student of church history for many years.
I've written a number of books on the great preachers and missionaries of the past.
Oh what a bunch of people.
Ever read the life of Amy Carmichael?
Got to read it.
Oh boy she got her way.
Spurgeon, Campbell Morgan.
Campbell Morgan died on my 16th birthday.
And a friend of his told me that he smoked eight cigars a day for 40 years.
You mean he's going to go to heaven?
Yeah.
A fellow said to D.L. Moody, if I smoke will I go to hell?
Moody said no but you'll smell like you've already been there.
You see Christians in different parts of the world have different practices and different
ways of doing things.
When we get to heaven we're going to meet Campbell Morgan and Charles Spurgeon.
John Wesley is going to be there.
I read John Wesley.
I don't totally agree with him but oh I thank God for his ministry.
He's going to be there.
And when we believe we're really going to heaven we become a united people.
And instead of going around with a revolver in our pockets we just reach out our arms
and say hey brother, sister, God bless you.
I don't totally agree with what you're doing but God bless you.
God blesses people I disagree with.
I don't know how he can but he does.
So tomorrow morning when I wake up first thing I've got to say to myself is hey where's
me today?
You may go to heaven.
Now live like it.
You're going to take anybody with you?
Be a witnessing person.
You're going to be selfish today and have your own way?
No, be a sacrificing person like a seed planted.
You're going to worry today?
No, no.
You're going to heaven.
Be confident.
Hey, you're going to heaven.
Reach out your arms and love all of God's people.
Sometimes you're going to be in heaven with them.
Better just get to know them now.
We're going to go to heaven folks by the grace of God.
We don't deserve it but we're going to glory.
Now let's live like it and maybe if we lived like it the world would sit up and take notice
and say hey we kind of like to go along with you and we can tell them about Jesus.
So Father help us to be heavenly minded.
Help us like Abraham to look for that city whose builder and maker is God.
Help us like Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
Help us to be like Paul who loved his appearing.
Help us to be like Stephen who looked up and saw heaven and Jesus and the glory of God.
Oh help us to be focused on heaven Father.
May heaven motivate us.
I pray for anybody here who's not going to heaven that right now they'll trust Jesus
and be born into the family for Jesus sake.
Amen.