NEVER A BORING DAY
I Corinthians 2.9
S: Heaven
C: Heaven will not be boring!
Th: Heaven Can’t Wait
Pr: ENJOYMENT WILL BE THE TASK OF EVERY DAY IN HEAVEN.
?: What? What will we be doing?
KW: Pursuits
TS: We will find in our study of Scripture four pursuits that will bring enjoyment to our life in heaven.
Type: Propositional, Topical
The ____ pursuit we will have in heaven is…
I. HOME
II. WORK
III. WORSHIP
IV. PLEASURE
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Be heavenly-minded so you can be earthly-good.
• Don’t miss out on what will be the best thing that could ever happen to you.
Version: ESV
RMBC 17 June 07 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Play (H)
I was once again fictionally playing golf with Tim Eliason…
And as usual, I muffed the tee shot and it sliced into the woods. Then I hit the ball into a few trees. I then proceeded to hit across the fairway into another woods. Finally, after banging away several more times, I proceeded to hit into a sand trap in front of the green.
All the while, Tim was patiently watching me make a mess of the first hole. He, of course, hit the ball down the middle, and then right onto the green.
We were both looking at my ball in the sand, and so I asked Tim, "What club should I use now?"
"I don’t know," Tim said. "What game are you playing?"
Well, again that didn’t happen with Tim.
It was fiction, but that scenario has been one of mine over and over again.
But it causes me to ask this question…
What do you consider fun?
I have a love-hate relationship with golf.
I love the atmosphere.
I hate the way I play.
But, most of the time, I still have fun.
TRANSITION:
We want to answer the question this morning…
1. What is heaven like?
Will it be fun?
Or will it be like it is in the movies, where everything is white, you look like you are living inside a carton of cotton balls, and everyone is strumming harps?
ILL Heaven (S)
That kind of thinking reminds us of Mark Twain’s famous story of Miss Watson, a rather stodgy old fuddy-duddy who is the guardian for Huck in Huckleberry Finn.
She began to tell Huck Finn about heaven, and Huck later mused: “She said. . . she was going to live so as to go to the good place. I made up my mind I shouldn’t try for it. But I never said so, because it would only make trouble and wouldn’t do no good. Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn’t think much of it. But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and, she said, not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me to be together.”
You will recall, from last week’s message, that Mark Twain said, “I’ll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.”
But such a statement badly misjudges the awfulness of hell and the awesomeness of heaven.
And it is why we are doing this series this month called, “Heaven Can’t Wait.”
The good news about heaven is too good to ignore.
And the misconceptions need to be corrected.
For…
2. If someone believes that heaven is boring, then their thinking about God is wrong (I Corinthians 2.9).
Note what Paul says in I Corinthians…
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”…
God is preparing a better place for us and it is better than anything we will ever experience here on earth
A person who wants to go to hell to be with his buddies badly misjudges both heaven and hell.
If you somehow come to the conclusion that heaven is boring, it is heretical nonsense.
You see, “Everything good, enjoyable, refreshing, fascinating, and interesting is derived from God.” (Alcorn)
In hell, friendship and good times don’t exist.
No, it is a place of torment, isolation, monotony and deadly boredom.
Somewhere along the line, though, we begin to believe the lie that sin is what is fun and being good is what is boring.
ILL Sin (S)
Randy Alcorn has written in his book Heaven:
“Sin doesn’t make life interesting; it makes life empty. Sin doesn’t create adventure; it blunts it. Sin doesn’t expand life; it shrinks it. Sin’s emptiness inevitably leads to boredom.”
In heaven, there will be no emptiness, only fullness.
In fact…
3. IN HEAVEN, ENJOYMENT WILL BE THE TASK OF EVERY DAY.
There’s nothing in heaven but joy.
You see, this will truly be the place to be.
But what will we be doing?
Well…
4. We will find in our study of Scripture four pursuits that will bring enjoyment to our life in heaven.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first pursuit we will have in heaven is HOME.
We have a place in which we are going to live, and it will be home.
1. Home is being prepared for us (John 14.2).
Jesus describes this when He says…
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Language cannot adequately express what is coming, but we do know this.
It is going to be great!
Do you remember that old sitcom Gomer Pyle?
He used to say in that southern drawl, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
And that is what our home will be like – a great surprise.
It is custom built for us.
It is prepared for each one of us.
It will be a safe place.
You won’t have to worry about locking the doors every night.
This will be real living.
But there is more…
2. The New Jerusalem will be huge (Revelation 21.16)
The city lies foursquare; its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.
ILL Heaven (H)
There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and he wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.
An angel hears his plea and appears to him, "Sorry, but you can’t take your wealth with you."
The man implores the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules.
The man continues to pray that his wealth could follow him. The angel reappears and informs the man that God has decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathers his largest suitcase and fills it with pure gold bars and places it beside his bed.
Soon afterward the man dies and shows up at the Gates of Heaven to greet St. Peter. Seeing the suitcase Peter says, "Hold on, you can’t bring that in here!"
But the man explains to him that he has permission and asks him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, Peter checks and comes back saying, "You’re right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I’m supposed to check its contents before letting it through."
Peter opens the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaims, "You brought pavement?!!!"
The description of this New Jerusalem is about 1500 square miles.
This one city will be the size of Canada to Mexico, the Atlantic to the Rockies
And then just as high.
In fact, if there are 20 billion people there, each person gets 75 acre cube.
And that is just the New Jerusalem.
Imagine what the rest would be like.
The point is we will be residing in a place much grander and much greater than we could ever imagine.
It will be a joy to live there.
II. The second pursuit we will have in heaven is WORK.
In heaven…
1. There will be nothing tedious to do for the Lord.
Ill Heaven (H)
A man who died found himself, when he became conscious again, sitting at a pool at a luxury resort. On a table beside him was abundant food. Everything necessary had been provided for his comfort and leisure. At mealtimes his food supply was replenished so that he had no need to stir himself from his lounge chair.
After a couple of days, however, the man became bored with his inactivity. At the same time he noticed people working in a field near the resort. Therefore, he decided he would go and join these people in their labors. However, when he started to get up, the attendant restrained him. “There is no need for you to engage in any other activities. Everything is provided for you here,” the man was told.
A couple of days later when the man again was forbidden to do anything but rest while being waited upon, he protested, “This is not what I expected heaven to be like.”
“Sir,” said the attendant, “you are confused. This is not heaven.”
You see, hell is boring.
In heaven, what you will be doing what will be fulfilling.
Each one of us will have purpose.
And we know by some of the descriptions that we will be reigning with Him, judging, possessing authority, administrating and serving.
We will be setting goals, devising plans, and sharing ideas.
At the same time, we will have perfect balance between work and rest.
Shabat (rest) will still exist.
We will not be “busy bees” that never rest.
No, we will stop and keep our priorities.
And here is a great thought…
2. Some work will no longer be needed.
There will be no doctors (we will have healthy bodies).
There will be no dentists (no tooth decay).
There will be no police officers (no crime).
There will be no insurance salesmen and no funeral directors (death is gone).
There will be no toil, no pain, and no corruption.
It will be work that brings enjoyment.
III. The third pursuit we will have in heaven is WORSHIP.
Think for a moment of the best worship experience you have ever had.
For whatever reason, whether it be a song or the spoken word, or a prayer or a moment of silence, God met you.
It was an amazing, intense moment, when God was very real to you.
Let me tell you this, as good as that was, it was only a minute fraction of what is coming.
For…
1. We shall see God as He is (I John 3.2).
John describes this…
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
God is giving us the opportunity to know Him as He is.
There will no longer be the distinction between the visible and invisible.
We will have appropriate heavenly bodies that will appreciate the fullness of God.
Our relationship with God will expand.
And…
2. The thrill of knowing God will grow.
A point I made two weeks ago needs mentioning again here.
We will not be perfect when we get to heaven.
For example, we will not be omniscient.
There will be room to grow as a person.
And there will be an eternity’s worth of knowledge in getting to know God.
You see, God is not boring.
He will always be interesting to us.
So we will pursue worship, and there will be joy in it, as we worship physically, mentally and spiritually.
This will not be a boring strumming of harps.
This will be a time of rejoicing in God’s wondrous salvation.
We will sing Hallelujah and mean it – every time!
IV. The fourth pursuit we will have in heaven is PLEASURE.
This is an intriguing point, for…
1. God has created within us enjoyment.
Please realize this…
Our desire for pleasure comes from God.
The taste buds we have…
The adrenaline we have been given…
The nerve endings that sense…
Even our sex drives…
All these things that are associated with pleasure, they come from God.
They come out of His sacred imagination and creativity.
This is why we can say that heaven is going to be a good time.
I do not believe that we are to be ashamed of that in anyway.
God has created us in such a way that we desire to do pleasurable things – like party.
We enjoy celebrations.
We enjoy great relationships.
We enjoy eating.
We enjoy playing.
I believe we are going to experience all kinds of things like these in heaven.
There will be singing.
There will be art.
There will be dancing.
There will be drama.
There will be comedy.
There will be hugging, backslapping, and playful wrestling.
There will even be laughing – I think lots of it.
And…
2. We will come to realize that the afterlife is the real life.
Our sin will be gone.
We will grow in our knowledge.
There will be intellectual challenges to wrap our minds around.
There will be adventures that require greatness of spirit.
There will be tasks that need strength of will and character to be done.
And life will be more beautiful and vibrant than we are experiencing in the before-life.
APPLICATION:
So understand this…
1. It is time to be heavenly-minded so we can be earthly-good (Colossians 3.2).
Paul tells us….
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
The verb here used for “set” really means “seek.”
In other words, we are to seek after the eternal, not the temporal.
But if we are honest, we know that we spend a lot of time treasuring the temporary.
ILL Heaven (S)
An American tourist visited the 19th century Polish rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. Astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked, "Rabbi, where is your furniture?"
"Where is yours?" replied the rabbi.
"Mine?" asked the puzzled American. "But I’m a visitor here. I’m only passing through."
"So am I," said Hofetz Chaim.
That is the perspective we ought to have.
Those that are heavenly-minded have changed the world.
They have been earthly-good.
You see, you can be so heavenly-minded that you can be earthly-good.
And if you are not a follower of Jesus today, let me offer this piece of counsel…
2. Don’t miss out on what will be the best thing that could ever happen to you.
Satan wants to keep you blind and uninformed.
He wants you to believe that heaven is for the boring.
But it is not true.
For in every way, there are better things ahead than we leave behind.
However, the time to make the choice is now.
It is not made later.
During this lifetime, we make the choice that decides eternity.
Don’t miss out on the joy that is coming your way.
It is one decision, one commitment away.
ILL Heaven (S) The Last Battle
C. S. Lewis captures the awesomeness of heaven well in his Narnia series, and more specifically The Last Battle. When the children were transported from England into Narnia for the final time, Aslan used a railway accident to do so.
“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are, as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands, dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”
Lewis again narrates...
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.
For Further Study: Psalm 16.11; Isaiah 6.3; Matthew 8.11, 22:4; I Corinthians 13.12; Ephesians 5.19-20; Hebrews 11:13-16; Revelation 13.6, 19:7-9
BENEDICTION:
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral
Butcher, Jim Will Heaven Be Boring?
Cascieri, Gino The Things Which God Hath Prepared for Them that Love Him
Johnson, Ian Seeking Heaven
Lucas, Dean Christ the Link
Malone, Steve Top Ten Reasons Why Heaven Is Going to Be a Blast
Miller, Thomas Heaven Second to None
Raiford, Christopher There’s a Lot to Look Forward To
Smithson, John I’m Getting Homesick
Squires, Kenneth Heaven’s Home Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
White, James Roll of Heaven
Research
Alcorn, Randy. In Light of Eternity: Perspectives on Heaven. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 1999.
________. Heaven. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2004.
Irvin, Maurice R. "No Idleness Above." Alliance Life, October 19, 1994, 10-12.
King, Lauren A. "Life in Heaven: Sometimes It Sounds Boring." Christianity Today, April 8, 1993, 66.
Lewis, C. S. The Last Battle. The Chronicles of Narnia. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1956.
Smith, Scotty, and Michael Card. "Coming Attractions." Discipleship Journal, 2003, 42-48.
Tada, Joni Eareckson. "What’s So Great About Pearly Gates." Discipleship Journal, 1993, 20-25.
