What's Next? What Is Hell Like? Series

INTRODUCTION

1. Heaven is an Awesome Place! Our study last week was Inspiring and Motivating… I was hoping that thought of Heaven would stay in our hearts… HOPE!

• My desire in this study is to deepen our Hope for Heaven… that we’d understand that Heaven is far better than anything we’ve known, experienced, could imagine, or even loved in this life. This life is good – but Heaven is far better.

• Heaven is an Awesome Place!

• Heaven is a Prepared Place! – Jesus said – I am going to prepare a place for you… Heaven is immense and infinite… Jesus wants us there!

• Heaven is a Promised Place! – that promise is our HOPE – Heaven – Our Promised Eternity…

• Heaven is a Perfect Place! – Perfect in it’s Beauty! Splendor! Glory! In everyway! Heaven is far better than anything we’ve ever experienced in this life – far better than anything you’ve known, understood, loved or could even imagine… Everything bad here will be absent there. Everything good here will be perfect there. NO MORE!!!

• Heaven is a His-Presence Place! – Heaven is Perfect because God is there! We will be with Him and He will be with us!

• Heaven is a Permanent Place! Forever and ever and ever!

2. Heaven is an Awesome Place! Hell is an Awful Place! Hell is far worse than anything we’ve known, or experienced or could even imagine in this life. Some things in this life are Terrible, Tragic, Horrific and Horrible… but Hell is far worse…

• Here’s the bottom-line -- Today, what I want you to know and to feel and to understand -- more than anything… – Hell is an Awful Place!

3. Hell is an Awful Place… No pun, no joke intended but – If I could scare the Hell right out of us – Today would be a good day…

• ????? I didn’t wake up today saying – Woo-Hoo, I get to preach on Hell today… I’ve already spent over 100 hours in the last few weeks – studying, thinking, researching, meditating and praying on What’s Next? after we die… Hell is one of answers to that question… It’s heavy and it’s hard…

• ????? But you know – there is a part of me that wants to! There’s a part of me that has to… Because if I can stop another person from choosing hell, if I can snatch another person from an eternity described as we will see it described today – Woo-Hoo! That’s what I live for! Hell is an Awful Place!

4. Jesus tells about 2 men who lived very different lives, died and who experienced 2 very different places...

• When it comes to What’s Next? I want to listen to Jesus…

• Jesus is the only one who walked this earth who was an eyewitness to the things of Heaven and Hell.

• In Luke 16 - Every single word is significant. Every single word is sobering…

5. Luke 16:19-31 – 19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell,* where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

• Let’s hit Pause and ramp up to this discussion…

• What’s Hell like? Interestingly, the things I shared last week about Heaven, with one exception, I can say the same things about Hell… Heaven is an Awesome Place… Hell is an Awful Place!

Hell is a Prepared Place.

1. But let’s ask the question -- Why does Hell exist? Why would God ever create a place like this? If this is a Prepared Place - Prepared for what? Prepared for whom? The answer may be surprising…

2. Jesus says in Matthew 25:41 -- "Then He will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

3. Hell is the place originally prepared for the Devil and his angels. Hell was never really intended for any person…

• Hell exists as God’s way to deal Righteously with the Rebellion of Devil…

• The Devil rebelled against God and has been seeking destroy all that God loves since that time…

• All that God created; all that God loves - the Devil hates and seeks to destroy…

4. Last week, we spoke of the Present Heaven and the future New Heaven and new Earth… The Place being prepared for those who love and live for Jesus. This Present Heaven is referred to as Heaven and as Paradise and as it is here – Abraham’s side…