Building a Family of Faith that Lasts Forever - Heaven Part 10

0:00 Man, I want to welcome if you guys are new or newer, this again, I want to make make you guys feel welcome again. Thank you so much for choosing to worship with us here at real life at this gathering, Kentucky Trail, man, can we show their new people that everybody's doing? Just show them some love. Can we do that one more time? All right, Awesome, awesome, awesome. Hey, you guys can stand up. I want you guys to do this. Take 30 seconds and greet somebody around you, will you?

1:01 All right, you guys can go ahead and be seated. Hey, as you're sitting down, you're getting ready to sit on the awesome connection card that's on your seat, man. This is for everybody in the house today. If you call Real Life Home, we love it when you fill this out, let us know what's going on in your life, man. Maybe God showed up in a rack this way this week and you got a prayer request. It just got answered and so you've got a praise you want to write down. Or man, maybe you're going through something right now and you've got a, a prayer request you'd like to write down. Our team leaders love to read through these and pray and get connected with you. So if you call Real Life Home, highly, highly encourage you to fill this out. Again, if you're new or newer with us, I'm going to make this promise. We're not going to ask anything from you today except one small thing. We would love for you to introduce yourself to us. And the best and easiest way to do that is to fill out the top of that communication card. And all we want that for is we want to have a way that we can reach out to you, connect with you this week, let you know a little bit more about real life and just send you some information.

1:52 We're not going to do anything weird. We want to show your door or anything like that. But more importantly, we want you to the God loves you and that we love you. So man, thank you so much for being here. And we do all of this in real life because that we say we are a church on a mission, Is that right? Real life, There we go, man. Our mission is this. It's very, very simple. It's to see people far from God discover their real life and their purpose in Jesus. And all that means is this is that you were created for a reason. You were created for a purpose, then you were created by the Creator in his image. And so too many of us, we walk through life, we get beat down, we get destroyed, we get thrown away by the world and we don't know what to do. And our mission of your real life is to get connected people back to their source, back to their creator, back to Jesus.

2:35 Man, the blessing every week is that we see people commit their lives to Jesus and it radically changes their today, their tomorrow, and really their forever. And so man, we are so excited about that. Which leads me to my next small announcement. Small announcement before we get Pastor Sean up here is we are doing something we love to do here in real life. We are having baptism on April the 5th. Man, if you've never been a part of real life baptism, you've missed out. It's not this, this solemn distant thing that somebody up there in the backs getting wet. Man, we set up a pool here. Man, we talk about the power of the gospel and man, it's a celebration just to see people's stories, read and see them follow and be obedient to Christ. So if you've never been baptized, maybe you got saved and you followed Jesus since the last time we done baptism, or you're ready to go public and this is for you. We'd encourage you to check out the QR code, click that or come on the website and we'll have somebody reach out to you. You're not going to be left in the dark. We're going to walk you through every step. So we can't wait to celebrate with the baptism with you guys on April 5th.

3:35 Then you guys are here on a great day for the last several weeks, we going through an awesome series called Heaven and heaven is, is a is it's a, it's a subject that so many people don't know anything about. Even in churches, we don't talk about it very much. And so, you know, a lot of people don't have an idea of what it is. And it's been so cool just to have Pastor Sean lead us through the word of God and just give us some clarification on what we're looking forward to how that changes are today. It realizes our value of what we live for and how we how we move through this world. So today you're in for a treat. So I want you guys to put your hands together for Pastor Sean as we continue our message series called Heaven. I love you guys man. So so this is I like it.

4:17 So we got 2023 kids, 2024 kids dedicated today. All day. You know, you think of a church like always reaching the youngest generation possible. Like, you know, a lot of churches, there's like a, there's a always a generational gap or an age gap and the gospel going in, I don't know if it gets much younger than the children and babies. Amen. But to reach them for Christ is just absolutely amazing. So before we jump in, and I do recognize the time by the way, so I'm only going to preach 2 or 3 hours to keep it short. I'm just kidding. They kind of, I will be short, but want to do something really important coming up in life for our church. We're doing something brand new called community nights with our life groups and they don't launch this week, but next week. So starting March 15th on Sunday are different life groups. All throughout the week.

5:10 They're going to open up. They're going to push pause on their normal routine books and the things they're doing in the studies and all that. And there's going to do community nights, just hangout nights, places for you guys to get jumping in. If you haven't been a group yet or if you have a spouse in the group, bring your spouse with you, your kids and really just hang out and get to know know each other for God's glory. Amen. It's really easy just to kind of sit there and it's like, this is like the best kept secret of some great dudes and there's no bait and switch. OK, so we're not selling anything. There's no promo video about church. There's really no agenda. It's literally come hang out, see the love of God in US and see the love of God through us. And so just a great opportunity to bring your neighbors, your friends, maybe someone's close to you, far from God. We talk about being all in full time ministry. What a great opportunity to bring somebody who may not come on a Sunday morning to church, right, but would show up into a life group.

6:00 And so I encourage you guys, if you're not plugged in, or maybe you are, man, let's make this really big. There's going to be food, barbecues, all sorts of RAM stuff throughout the week starting March 15th. So you guys decide about that community night. So let's make it happen. I'm excited. It's the first time doing it, so we'll see. We'd love to bring it back if it goes really well. So we're diving in. Message really dedicated to parents that want to raise their kids for Jesus. And maybe you're like a first generation type of parent, like you didn't grow up in church or didn't grow up the family of faith and you're like, man, or, or you've just or kind of lost like man, what do I do to raise my kids? Like what's really the goal? What's the finish line? What's what's this look like? Maybe you're an adult that like a lot of people gave their 20s to the devil. Come on somebody and you're coming back on the rails and trying to follow Jesus. What's that look like?

6:45 And really the goal is is if you want your family legacy and the story to be different for Jesus. And so it's not just like here's parents, the kids. It really is for all of us today. So we're going to dive in. Really the the idea is building a family of faith and it true lasts forever. You're going to see that today. The greatest thing really is this. It's not success for your kids. All that that's that's that's fun. It's not comfort, It's not stuff. It's your kids would know and follow Jesus and be prepared for heaven. How how many I know that that's actually good for us as well. Amen. It's not just like, well, I'm going to teach my kids this. We're actually going to teach ourselves first. Like grab the oxygen mask and put it on and then help your kids. And so let the grace of God and the mercy of God just change your soul first. You know, talk about our kids.

7:29 We put a lot into our kids. We teach them how to put together 2000 piece Lego sets. Amen. The ones that are from China or Japan, they're much more difficult, smaller than the color. I'm colorblind, it's fun, right? And we teach our kids sports, which we love playing sports, you guys, big sports guys, right? We love teaching them sports. We love all these things, you know, teaching our kids how to be successful, how to have good morals, but ultimately we are preparing our kids for eternity, Amen. Give them Jesus and understanding what God wants them to do and living for heaven. You can see this with Moses in this back in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Remember, it's still the last three days of his life. He wrote the whole book of Deuteronomy. He says this hero is the Lord our God, the Lord is 1. He says love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. These what, what's it say these commands, these commandments they're they're this is the greatest commandment when Jesus in the New Testament, the rich and really ask him, well, really what, what should I follow?

8:37 What's truly what should I do and he says, well, I want you to love the Lord God, Lord heart, soul and mind strength and love your neighbor yourself. These are two greatest commands. And so Jesus is actually quoting this verse as the greatest commandment ever again is that we love the Lord Amen with everything and that's not for our kids. It's for us and our kids. But he says this about the next generation. He says put it on your hearts. Verse 7, impress them on your children. Somebody say impress, impress like I have this image of like sticking something. It's like wax. You're going to put an impression, right? And we like to impress people like with what we have. But what we're really trying to do is impress on our kids the word of God. Like you're shaping and molding your children into the image of Christ and he's going to tell us how to do, which is amazing. I love when they give some practicals, right? He's just talk about them being the Scripture. When you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lay down and when you get up.

9:36 I think he checked all the boxes. Amen. So no matter what you do, I want you to talk about scripture. How many guys wait in the car line with your kids at all? Car liners? Come on, dude, isn't it such a blessing and a curse? Amen, right. It's like it's all the things, right, But it's for me, it's a great between we we talk about Jesus every morning. I let them play through the songs and after like, hey, let's keep it like this, you know, and then we do some hangman because I can't spell. They can't spell. So no one ever wins. It's amazing, right? Like it it, it's just all the fun, but I get a chance to encourage them. So I try to maximize the car line, but use it for Jesus. I'll just tell you what our just our day looked like yesterday, like all the things for Jesus, right. So we had our stuff in the morning the way I show it at home and my buddy, where's Toby at?

10:19 He's just he's hiding somewhere. He drained his. Where's Toby at? You got to find him. He's not going to say anything. There he is. He actually rose his hand. The first guy he went like this. If I could disappear. Oh, give it up for Toby, by the way, because he was shy, but he's not. He says he's shy, but I don't know. Last week, I think week for last. Toby's like, hey, you want some of these cards? I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about Toby. And he says, Hey, dude, I'll sell this to you. Like cool. And so he's been he's got these, but for sale. Amen. Just a little thing. But so I had these cards. I didn't really know what they did, but I'm like, we'll do it. It's for the kids, you know, And so I went home. So Saturday I said, dude, let's let's do this cards.

11:01 And so I opened up and it's got Bible memory verses, like finished the verse of the word. But I was really intrigued. Has like named the Bible character. I'm like, Oh, this could be good, you know, so I had 20 questions on the cards. And so it, it was just like, I know I shouldn't want to say simple stuff, but it was, it was stuff that like normal stories. So it was like who, who is in the lion's den, right. And my kids were like, oh, oh, and they're freaking out. I'm like, all right, you got to know this one, you know? And they finally, they finally came up with it, man. Daniel in the lion's den. And then Levi, I think Levi came up with it. And he goes, yeah, God shut them off the lions, you know, he was so excited about it. And then we got the three in the fiery furnace. And my kids came up with the the best they came up with was Radshot meet, meet Meshach and something else. And these are not their real names, right? Like if you know their names, right? But Radshot, I was like, this is great. Radshot, you know, like, OK, like you're so close. You're so pretty, right?

11:59 But we get a chance to teach them, right? So we can tell the story. And I get to go through the scripture and I'm like, you know, what's really cool is that's actually not their that's their slave names. They actually have their Hebrew names in the Bible, which is just really cool. Think about like we've always known the story right as just these slave guys. I mean, and so we're going through all these different scripture and my, my daughter, she's just a, she's too smart for own good. It's it's like, Lord help her follow you because she man. So she gets the Bible out from my wife's Bible. It's this archaeological Bible, you know, it's just like 10 feet tall. And she opens it up and she's like, oh, I know what some of the Scriptures are. We're talking about Rahab and, you know, who is the spy that, you know, protected or the late protected spies. So I was like, hey, let's go find it. And so she's looking through the verses. She's trying to find it.

12:42 And of course, like half of that or more is just notes. So she's down the notes. I'm like, they don't the verses, you know, and she's trying to find it, But it's just amazing to teach her through Scripture. Then she became a teacher to us. So she's like, oh, can you guys name all the Bible, the books in the Bible? I'm like, yeah. And so I made it to the minor profits. I'm sorry. I have to repent. It was bad. Amen. I mean, like, where is Joel and an Obadiah and name? I know names to 2 after Jonah. Somebody helped me out. And then I got Micah in here somewhere. Like all this is like, you know what I'm talking about. Can anybody name all these my profits in order? You're a sick person, Holly. You're a sick person.

13:22 Oh, that's a good point. So you memorized as a kid and it's stuck with you. Look, you see that probably came up to refinish this message for me, right? But we got to the New Testament. I felt a lot more confident, although I did miss James. I don't know how that happened. And then Emory gave me 3 out of five. And I was like, really irritated because I'm like, dude, first she started me at a. It was. Yeah, three out of five. Yeah, I was like 3 out of 5. Is that 60%? Is that what that is? I was like, I got 60%. I missed one book. You are a harsh person, you know what I'm saying? So anyway, but it was like an hour of just teaching the Bible and there's so many random things, but it was just really good and the kids knew a lot more. We got Jonah and they they're all the you just you get them going, right? But that that's the grace of God. Amen.

14:03 And it wasn't very complicated. We just brought up Jesus. And then so throughout the woman passes out. Who who wants I'll buy this Toby, I'll buy this, OK, who wants these cards? By the way, anybody wants to that card. Alright, we go third row ready. Can you catch? OK, you can't. And who can catch you? Ready, Joe. Joe, you ready? All right. Let's see what you got. Oh, man. I'm sorry, buddy. So it will end up down the road here. Yeah. I'll send me the bill for the stitches. It's OK. I'm sorry, buddy. Anyway, Yeah. And then at night. So we the kids, we always like to read like Bible stories and they have action Bibles and I like it when they tell me the story and all these things. But lately we're doing case for Christ for kids. So don't do the real one for kids, but doing the case for Christ for kids and she's dying to read it to the two older kids.

14:57 And I just do. I can't believe I you know what I mean? I'm a little younger, but just, you know, I got nerd alert. So I got the systematic theology for kids. That's pastoral. Come on, somebody, right? But what I'm trying to do is like the world is going to tell them and disciple them and pull against them and tell them this is all fake and all made-up and all the things. And I'm trying to help them have a foundation of not just the scripture, but actually the problems that people have a scripture and to let you think about it so you can stand on the word of God. Amen. And so I'm just lading it and like it's a million ways of doing it, right? The Bible app for kids. Anybody use that with their kids? Dude, that thing is like gold for those kids. That's why I was kind of like irritated, like not known, like Daniel quicker because I'm like, dude, you've watched this Bible app story no less than 10 million times and you still don't like that's why we got repeated off and Amen and for ourselves as well.

15:51 But put the Bible in your home. And so Deuteronomy, it says this in chapter 6, verse 8, it says this about the Scripture. Same next verse. OK, like do all the time talk about Scripture, everything you do. Verse 8, tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your homes and your gates and on your gates. Now this is interesting. So the Pharisees took this verse and they actually put a scroll inside of the box and I don't know the exact name. Was that a Mazu ZA? It was what they called that little box. And then they had another one on their forehead and they tied it around and they just walk around having the scrolls on. That'd be pretty cool look, wouldn't it? Yeah. I mean, I I don't get it, like so legalistic, like I don't need to follow God, but I have it on my wrist.

16:35 It's like, this makes no sense, you know? I mean, it's like having a tattoo but not being obedient. It don't make no sense. Like, like, let's follow Jesus. Amen. But what this is really saying is when you tie them onto your hands, what he's saying is let the actions and the works of your hands, the deeds, the things you do, the things you touch, the things you put in your your mission towards the things you're building, do them for God. Like make your hands obedient to Jesus. Amen. I mean, imagine like just having Scripture on your hands or just your hands or the actual hands of Jesus. But that's what he's asking us to do. Would God touch that? Would God use that? And had to teach my youngest son Levi, that when you drop kick your brother, that's not how you use your feet for Jesus.

17:17 Because we went to the dentist. It was painful, you know, like but these are what teach people. I like it. I got that going there. So 2 bind them on your foreheads. So what's that mean These the word of God is protecting your mind. Like put it in your mind, meditate on let it change your worldview, your attitude, like let it shape your soul like think about the word of God, right? Like we renewing our mind day by day. You take captive every thought and make it a beat to Christ by your mind. Psalm one says we meditate on the word of God day and night. Psalm mighty we hide the word of heart that won't sin against God like you, you shape the mind, Amen. And you think about Scripture like you, you actually become what you think about. Like if you're anxious and obsessive and you're thinking about all the things in the world, guess what?

17:59 You're becoming more and more like that. And you put scripture on your mind. The way to battle, like most of these things of anxiety and fear and doubt, insecurity is you change your mind. You set your mind on other things. And we teach that to our kids. And we, we put scripture in there. We, we bring it back. Like I'll tell Levi like he'll get doing something like he's all big. And like, do you think God can do it better? He's like, Oh yeah, gobble, crush it, you know, and like I'm an Ant and but he has this big view of God right now. Amen. And I want I don't want him to lose that. I don't want to lose the ability like to see how big and powerful like to believe the stories are true. You guys sing about them crossing the Red Sea. Did it happen really? I mean like by faith, like the God that can do that, he can do me.

18:41 So I've just been living by this. Just be very be strong and very courageous type of faith, like preach with authority, stand in the gap, don't roll over, speak up, stand up, don't shut up. Like that's the kind of faith we're giving our kids. Amen. That's what we teach them. But put in your mind like bind them to your forehead. Write them a door frames of your homes. How many guys have scripture hanging in your home? Show of hands some of y'all right? Like yeah, let me guess right? As for me in my house, come on, somebody we will serve the Lord like we got it right there, right? Joshua 17, is that right? 91719, Help me out. 09's courageous. See, you know, that's my man right there. So he's got 17 sitting right there and, and everybody's got this and that.

19:25 That's amazing. And you should have scripture in your home, like it says right on the doorposts, like before you even get in the home. My home's on the faith of God. It's on the rock of Jesus. Like there's a different culture here. Hey, guess what, you come to my house, you play by my rules. Amen. This is my castle and I am the king of my home. Amen. Like I'm leading it for Jesus. But it's not just on the wall. It's in our hearts. Like, fill your house with scripture. So ask questions. This is amazing thing our kids program does. I don't have it up here. A little piece of paper that comes home and your kids, you pick them up and it's got questions of what they talked about. Use them. Hey, Levi, what'd you learn about? I don't remember. OK. What about this Oh yeah, they'll tell you this crazy story what happened, right. There's actually memory verses on the on those each week. I sometimes I challenge my kids.

20:13 I'll be like, hey, we're not going to eat dinner until you recite a verse can be awful hungry tonight, you know, and then they'll do Genesis 11 and John 316 and they kind of got some others, but I'm like, give me something new, brother. So then we get the Bible out and they got pick a new verse and they got to memorize it. And of course they want to do like, you know, Jesus wept or rejoice always. Those are those are awesome. Do them memorize they're still word of God. They're amazing. There's stories behind them, right? But put faith in the conversation, put prayer in your home, put Scripture in your family. As I mentioned, Jewish people a day. This has been 4000 years since this was written. They still put a mezuzah, that little scroll and a little chest right by the doorpost of their house, the door frame of the house. So you walk in through scripture 4000 years. It's insane.

20:56 Like they want to follow Jesus and on your gates. What are the gates? It's the, it's like the gates of the city, right? Like so when you come into the city and there's a gates and you walk through like this, openings in the wall, like that's where the Scripture is as well. That's a place of business, that's a place of commerce, a place of conversation. It's outward facing. It's not a private faith, Amen. One of the biggest things we face in American Christianity is a private faith. Like I don't need to go to church. I don't need relationships. Me and Jesus, we're good. And I've heard it so many times. It's like, you know that at best it is is lacking. It's with deficient. At best, it's sufficient because obviously you got the scripture right here that says be public of your faith.

21:41 Like we live in a podcast Christian culture, which isn't a great podcast. Amen, Amen. And you should listen to them. But it doesn't replace accountability for not just you, but for others. You know, we love everybody. The people I've been having church, I love church. But one for those people, right? Just so messy with these people. But that's how we grow. Amen. How are you to teach forgiveness if you don't have to forgive anybody? How are you supposed to grow in grace if you don't have to show it? How are you supposed to lead if you don't have money around you? Like we have to be in community. The early church, they sold everything they shared everything they lived. They they lived under 1 communal like pot of money that they, they prayed together, they witnessed together. They did all this eight meals together and community together. They gave together, they witnessed together, they did everything together.

22:25 But in American Christianity, I got a private faith. Like really? I mean, which means it's not effectual, right? Like there's no salt and light. There's no difference being made. It's just you and Jesus, but you know, you forgot the world that God died for you forgot that. It's a lot easier to be to yourself. I get it, isolate, insulate, do your thing, but that's not the gospel. So at best it's sufficient. At worst it's self-righteous. So I, I, I, I mean, like somebody's got private faith. I'm like, hey, I'll be praying for you. But that's not how it works. It just doesn't work that way. And God's asked us to ride on the door, the doorpost on the, on the gates of our city. That's bold faith. Amen. That would change your social media, that'll change how you live a little bit because the world needs Jesus. And so build, building your faith like a little deeper. I'll give, I'll give you like, because I'm watching the clock as well.

23:16 Come on somebody, I'm going to keep it there. I'll give you 2 things. So one, give your children Jesus. Like don't assume it's going to happen naturally. Like pray for your kids to come to faith young age and actually share with them the love of God and do your best to be just like your Father in heaven because they're measuring what you do and they're assuming that's who God is. And so be the love of God, be the grace of God. And it's hard to believe at times, but Jesus loves your kids more than even you do. And he knows how to raise them. He knows how to shape them. And they're not going to be under your leadership and your control or whatever your parenting, right?

23:57 They're not going to be under your roof for very long and so you have to Stewart your child as if it's from the Lord because it is a gift from the Lord. And so you Stewart that you shepherd that child's heart and one of the best things to do is just talk about the love of God. Don't give them good morals like yes, you teach them a lot of like I grew up with that like good morals for my dad and all these things, but give him Jesus and Jesus will change them. So first Corinthians 15 three says this for I received this Paul talking for what I received. I passed on to you as of what? First importance, right? Not last importance, not just along the way. But if I was going to teach you one thing, this is what Paul says. He says that Christ died for our sins according to Scripture.

24:39 He was buried and raised on 1/3 day according to the Scriptures. He's going to give the gospel, Amen. He's going to give Jesus that. This is it. There's only one thing we could preach on the stage is that Jesus died for your sin. He was buried and rose again on the third day by the grace of God, because he loves you. Amen. Do you get a chance to share that with your kids? I'm going to queue in my my buddy here with my key player. We're going to do we're going to get up early or late. It depends how you look at it, but I'd love to just with with my kids and then with people I'm like talking to about the Lord. They're searching for Jesus the John 316 right, but but change it so it's not just for God's of the world, but they put their name in it like to to embrace that God still loves me. I saw the pastor been pastor for 30 years. I said what's the lessons you've learned as a pastor the grace lessons.

25:29 He says one I'm a child of God and two that God loves me. That's the lessons we never get past Amen and to say for God so love not talking like my son, my old son Levi for God so love Levi right. They gave his one and only son that Levi calls on the Lord shall be saved. Amen like this. This is the essence of God, that he chose us not to condemn us, but to save us. And so you just switch like it's, it's personal choice. It's a personal love. And so give them Jesus. Don't be afraid to, to pray through that and to, to lead them through that and to to share that. And people get weird out, like, I don't know how to lead them to Christ. You just talk about Jesus doing the cross. I mean, I, my kids, I think many of them have come to faith just by being in the church culture and us talking to them. And then before you know it, like they're like, oh, yeah, of course Jesus, that's like, you ever made a personal decision? Of course I believe in Jesus.

26:21 Like, OK, and we walk through like what that looks like and and what decision they made and that crisis in them. And we have amazing kids broken, by the way. Amen. If you bring your kids as kids, bro, I'm telling you like they're they're being shaped. I sat down yesterday. I was asking questions. I'm like, how did you know that? Like we've never talked about that, but you knew about they're talk about angels and all sorts of stuff and it's just amazing. But give them a vision heaven, this last thing to leave with. Give them a vision heaven. Teach them to the world is not the end. Teaching is passing through teaching how hard it gets. It all works out in the end to give a big vision to heaven that you have a family of faith. It actually lasts forever that we will all be in heaven together.

27:02 It's not some of this thing. We die and then we like have soul rest and we just disembodied spirits and all this kind of jazz. It's like absent the body present of the Lord, Amen. It's continual, like there's no gap in time. And so like we're citizens of heaven and our hope isn't here and we have struggles. We're going to have all these issues, but heaven, like give them a big picture. We got to the point. It's been fun with my kids because we've been doing this series in heaven and it's fun talking to all you guys by heaven. But you know, it's really fun to talk to is my kids because there's eat it up. We talk about animals in heaven. Last week we talked about, you know, the the donkey and Balaam and all these other things, but you're going to see these animals like you have camels in heaven you find in Isaiah 65. OK, so you have animals in heaven. So I was like, you know what God recreates or reconstitutes these animals.

27:53 I say, you know, what's really cool is like, I think God's going to bring back the dinosaurs. We went there. Amen. My kids eyes are like what? I'm like, dude, our last name is Petrie. We were named after the dinosaurs. Brother, come on, somebody land for a time, right? Like tear it down. So we're talking about like somebody looking like crazy right now. He's a crazy pastor. It's like, study your Bible. You'll find out I'm not crazy, right? When you get to heaven, there's dinosaurs. I'm glad I told you get you a pet T Rex. He's friendly. I promise you can pet him. You know, like the kids this light up like just wow. And but why would I take that faith from them? Like why would I make God small at any level? That's amazing that we get to see what handiwork of God in heaven have eternity in mind and unite together. And you see this in John 14.

28:43 Like don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also me. My Father's house are many rooms. If we're not. So I would have told you that I'm going to a place where I'm going there to prepare a place for you. If I go for a place for you, I'll come back to you and take you with me that you may also be where I am. That Jesus is building a home in the new heaven right now, Amen. What do you think the homes are made of? Mysticism. It's real stuff. He's a son of a Carpenter on earth, Amen. I bet Jesus builds some pretty sweet houses. By the way, there's some pretty sweet places and I bet there's gonna be a dining room and a place where we sleep. I still think we have the same pattern in heaven. I think we sleep in heaven. Like, I think all this is not so different. Somebody asked me earlier, you think we cough in heaven? Like, why would there not be coffee in heaven?

29:25 Amen. Like you have all these plants, you have all these animals. Like what? He's just going to change everything on us. I mean, it's crazy. Jesus came back when he's resurrected and he ate food with the disciples. Upper room on the side of a lake. He tells us the whole stay on the door and knock you if you open the door, I'll dine with you. I'll come in with you and dine with you and you with me. Revelation chapter 3 like you think God just gave up on dining and food all of a sudden I told this lady she want to be a barista. I said I don't know there'll be coffee, but I don't know if you're going to be a barista anyway, you know might be sweeping the floor. I don't know but I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I don't know but this is really cool. I'll wrap it. That's got to get there. But Hebrews 13 three this is cool 13 two says do not forget to show hospitality strangers for a doing. Some people have shown hospitality to who angels unbeknownst to them or without knowing it. Now think about it on this earth right now there are angels that have protected us and watch over us and if you're like me and Toby, we had this conversation this last week like we seem to mess it up and then God always comes through Amen. Like we make a mistake and by God's grace he fixes it and we're just joking.

30:29 It's like, man, Toby, I bet your angels like this, like Toby again, like Sean again, like we do sometimes we do the dumbest stuff and then our Angel probably has to fix it. So I'm thinking like, OK, we go to heaven, hear me out. And not only do dine with our friends and our family and our neighbors, Ultimate Jesus, by the way, Amen. We dine with Jesus. But think about it. You actually get to dine with angels that have been watching the backside of the story and protecting your life and things with humanity. You can hear the story of our time on earth from an angel's perspective. Would that be the craziest thing ever? Like, thank you so much for watching out for me. He's like, you don't even know how much I helped you, brother.

31:10 You know, you don't even know what I was praying for. It'd be so amazing to census and be a part of this. But ultimately, like you bring your family with you to heaven. I get so excited that like man, no matter what happens on earth, like my kids, they know Jesus. Like we're spending a turning together. Amen. Like we're going to get around that table. There's going to be some artwork from this earth on the fridge and we're, we're going to just just dine together and rejoice together and be a part of a family together for all eternity. Amen. There's just something special about that. I can't wait to meet the God, those who God brings with them. You'll find 1st Thesalonians 3 or 413. But we're like raised in Christ from the dead, like all those, the dead first who raises with them. We believe in the resurrection Jesus. We believe they will bring these people back with them.

31:53 I just can't wait to dine with like all these Saints stories of people I've never met before. They're in huts in Africa or like in underground China or maybe even our own city. And they're doing some amazing things for God that you used to haven't seen yet. Or at least people are like headliners, right, Like Moody and Francis Schaeffer and Corey Tim Boom and all these guys, right, And just say, man, just a dime with them. And that don't keep kind of busy because there's like a billions of people who came in number. In Revelation Chapter 7, it says, as it looked out there before me was a great multitude that no one could count billions of people that worship and know Jesus from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb and there are white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. We get a chance to play part of the story. Amen.

32:39 And for I mean, you think, oh, it's going to be really boring. It's like, dude, how long is it going to take to sit down with a billion people and have dinner, You know, in the stories of God's glory that's coming through all these people? I don't know about you, but we need to kind of up the ante with our boldness. Amen. Like private faith needs to go public. Like you need to help your kids understand Jesus. And I pray, Lord, take the parts of me that look like me to my kids and the parts that don't just strip away because there's parts you feel just be humbled at it, OK? And God will do great things. So Father, come before you. God will be awful this time to you. Help us to be bold, we build our house on faith, the rock of Jesus remind us of why we're here. Give us heaven and our mindset that we're not here to produce comfort or success or stuff, but here to prepare our kids and our families for Jesus and for heaven.

33:29 It's I want to pray for a group of people today that those of you that say, you know what? I don't know Jesus. I came in this message was for me. I'm the person in John 316 For God so loved you, your name the first time, that that's the Spirit of God. That makes sense to you. That God went to a cross 2000 years ago and took away your sins and exchanged them for all of his righteousness so he could know you not just now, but for eternity. And you get the chance to shape all of eternity for every conversation you have, even bring your family with you. And what a blessing. But for those of you who've never called on Jesus, you've never believed by faith, you may be just going to church or maybe your first time come a long time, you never call the Lord.

34:10 Today I'm going to give you an opportunity to say yes to Jesus and get right with God to get forgiveness of your sins, to be cleansed, to become a child of God, to be given heaven in the Holy Spirit now to live on earth. So that's you and you want Jesus. We talked about this, you want Jesus today. You've never had a relationship with Jesus. You want to start today. If that's you, just raise your hand high and say I need Jesus today. I'll walk here full of faith for the first time a long time, man I I I've never called on Christ, but today I want to know Christ Well, that's you believe your prayer. The prayer does not save you. It's your belief in Jesus. They died and rose again from your heart, not just your head. And so if you need Jesus, just call to God, say Father God, thanks so much for Jesus. You love me enough to down the cross, I can sit down in eternity with you because of your righteousness, because you did for me what I could never do for myself when I stranded in sin and a million lifetimes.

35:05 I can never play it right, but you died across from me and made it right. So God I worship you. I surrender my life to you and God I'm going to take this message to the world. God help me to build my life on the rock and follow you and I pray this in Jesus name. The church said Amen. Come on, give God some glory. Amen. Amen. Man, what an amazing day. I keep tricking him. I did it in the first two. I just kind of dance around the outside there. But man, what an amazing morning. So cool to see so many families commit and dedicate their kids to the Lord this morning. I mean some of you today, maybe for the first time recognize that you are son or a daughter of the King and your need for a heavenly Father. And today you prayed that prayer and you committed your life to Jesus.

35:47 If that is you, we are so excited for you as if you take this journey with Jesus. We would love to help you to resource you along the so if you could grab that connection card that is on your seat there, fill out the information there in that top section and make sure and check the box. It says I committed my life to Jesus and you could drop it in the giving buckets as they pass here in just a few minutes. By doing that just allows us to get you a free book in the mail this week. It's a short but powerful read. They'll be a blessing to you this week. Also as you leave the worship center, there is a table with some red bags inside the free Bible and a few other resources for you. Please grab one of those as well. And I want to say welcome and thank you so much for coming to those of you who are newer with us this morning. Maybe this is even your first time here at real life church. Man, thank you so much for choosing to spend your morning right here with us.

36:32 I hope you heard from God, felt encouraged and so welcome this morning. We truly don't want anything from you today except for this. And that is just to simply introduce yourself to us. And you could do that by grabbing that same card that's on your seat. Fill out your information there and just check first time here. You can drop that in the giving buckets or you can also take it on out to the new here. I'm, as you ask at the worship center, just to your right, there's a new hair booth. Somebody would be there. I'd love to introduce themselves to you as well, get you a free gift. Just our way of saying thank you so much for spending your morning right here with us. And we would love to see you back here next week again at 9:00 and 10:45. And then I get to share another cool life group story this week. As I was leaving a life group this week, somebody stopped me on their way out and they were over the moon to share with me that that night just then, they had prayed to close out their life group. First time praying and out loud in front of anybody and they were so excited and they were just pumped that they knew it was going to be a good week.

37:25 They had the opportunity to pray for their group. And what's encouraging about that story, man, is that it is so cool to see the spiritual temperature arise in this semester of life groups. And that's attributed to a lot of things. But what's really cool also is this semester we're offering what we call the way groups. And these are really intentional groups to grow your faith, man. Some of you have memorized maybe your first Bible verse, maybe ever through one of these groups. You're journaling every day and just diving at God's word. And so Sean had mentioned we have community nights coming up, not this week, but next for all of our groups. If you have not dipped your toe in the water of life groups yet, maybe you just haven't had the opportunity yet to join a life group. And what an awesome week to come out that week and check it out. You can scan that you are code that's on the screen to see all of our life groups and all the information on where they meet. You can also check them out out in the hub and their life groups wall and see what the groups are there. Man, any of the groups would love to welcome you in on community tonight.

38:18 Hey, you could even beat it. You can join them this week as well. They would love to see you there and another really cool story I get to share with you as well as I mean, this time last year we had 32 recurring donors in our church. And what that means is that they these are families or individuals that have committed really signed in blood and recurring. They've automated their giving. They're really saying I'm all in and believe that what God is doing here. The cool part of that is that this so today or as actually as of a couple days ago, we now have 51 recurring donors. So amazing. That's right. Give it a forgotten man. That's so cool to see even more people just say yes, like I'm committed. I'm signing in blood to say that I believe in all that God is doing here. Something even cooler is this the same time last year? It's actually over a four week average, but the same time last year we were about 235 people coming on a Sunday morning. This time, same 4 weeks fan, we are at 270 people on average in our gathering.

39:15 That's a 15% increase. Go God, so cool. And I'm a numbers person, so I love the numbers, but it's really not about the number. It's the numbers that tell a story of all that God is doing in and through our church. And so that's why we give here. We give to see more people come to know Jesus, more people to be saved and sent out, their lives changed forever. And so I want to invite you and encourage you to partner with us to do that. And so there are a lot of ways that you can do that. You can check out the screen there. You can scan that QR code to give, it's text to give. You can head to our website. You can drop cash or check in the giving buckets. They're going to pass here in just a couple of minutes. There's also a giving box right in the back before you exit. You can drop cash or check in there as well if that is more convenient for you.

39:57 And as always, if you or your family find yourself in any kind of immediate need today, this week, whether it's food or clothing or shelter, as those buckets pass here in just a minute, please, please reach in and grab out any loose cash that you see that's there. We really do want to be a blessing to you and your family. I mean, the buckets are going to pass here. And I'm going to invite Logan Hardy up to the stage. He is going to see us out this morning. Guys, let's get out of here with heaven on our hearts and on our minds. We'll reread that passage in Revelation and in verse 9, John writes. After this, I looked in there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and before God. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

40:42 And they cried out in a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the on the throne and the Lamb. Let me leave you before you get out of here with this prayer. God help us to build up our families to follow God forever and ever and ever, and tell about them to everybody that they meet. If you need prayer or somebody to talk to, we'll have somebody down here for you. And otherwise I'll see you guys all next week. 9 or 10:45 And remember, whoever finds Jesus covers real life and purpose. See you next week.