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Final message in the series is the last message in our perfume and cologne series: "Obsession and Euphoria."
The basis of the series has been kind of simple. It's the idea that if we have a creator that is love personified, if we have a creator that is altogether good, altogether righteous, altogether tender—I mean, he gave us taste buds. How considerate is that, right? I mean, it could have just all been bland, but we have this creator that is so good, so wonderful. It just makes sense that he would want his own to be happy, but not just happy, but euphorically, ecstatically happy.
We believe that that was always his intention. The scripture kind of reveals that and then really points toward it toward the end. So what we've done is we've come down to conclusions. We've kind of circled around. We've looked at the reasons that this stirs in us, why it is we're always looking to be as happy as we can, to be euphorically happy when we can, to the point that we're often very susceptible to temptation by little imperfect temporary fragments of euphoric experience.
But nevertheless, we found that ultimately we were made by Christ for Christ, and until we are in a union of trust and love with him, the deepest longings for love in our hearts and our souls can't be met. We were created for a certain someone. Euphoric, happy existence is dependent upon you and I connecting to the creator of our souls and our hearts.
We next found last week that we're created to live in a certain somewhere. There's a certain home for us. You haven't seen your home. You don't live in your home right now. You live in a place that's just kind of a tidying you over until you see your real home. When you are home, that certain someone, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be there, and that's what makes that place home. We haven't seen it. It'll be specifically designed for our heart's desires and so forth, but it'll be a place—a place where Christ is present and his love, his righteousness, fills and exists in the heart of everyone present, both angels and humans.
Today we come to the third part of this. There are three components to having an eternally euphoric existence. And so to kind of ease into this one today, I want to read you a verse from the book of Ecclesiastes. It says, "What is the word? Beautiful in its own time he has planted what? Eternity in the human heart."
We intuitively, instinctively know we were made for eternity. We sense that we were meant for a much better, higher existence. Shouldn't be this hard. It also says that he made everything beautiful in its own time. Now, this is an interesting thing. That means if God made everything beautiful, you and I must have the capacity to recognize beauty.
And you think about it. When you compare any other animal on the planet to we humans, we can recognize beauty on multiple levels. You know, we can see beauty, for example, in nouns: persons. We see some persons are beautiful, handsome; places—you know, you go to Yosemite, places like that; and things, experiences, events. We can see beauty in virtuous character, in kindness, in generosity, in heroism. Lots of ways we can recognize beauty.
So God has equipped us to recognize beauty. And let me go further. I think that all of us, to some measure, pursue personal beauty. Let me just ask you a question. Is anybody here, when you got up this morning, you said before you go out, "I'm going to get in front of the mirror, and I want to look as horrific as I possibly can"? No. I mean, you know, we do what we can do to make ourselves.
I mean, really, it's harder and harder to make yourselves presentable. For me, anyway. I'm not you. You're wonderful, beautiful, handsome. But we try. We try to put forth the best version of ourselves. It's kind of—we sense that we were maybe destined for some kind of beauty, beauty of character, and physical beauty and attractiveness as well.
But that's kind of a wait-and-see sort of a thing in the present condition we're in right now. Now, let me give you something to think about. When you compare yourself, or I compare myself to just the animal world, there's a lot that makes me desire some of the stuff they have. I mean, who would not want to? Who would not want to be able to run 88 miles an hour at a burst? That's what a cheetah can do. We are so inferior to a cheetah. We cannot do it.
Who would not want to be able to see like a hawk? I would like to see like a hawk. Who wouldn't want to be able to hear like a bat or have the strength of a gorilla? A gorilla can probably take the strength of, they say, 10 to 20 men. An African elephant is supposed to be the strongest animal of all. It has 4,000 different muscles and is tremendously powerful.
The weakest animal is us. All these other animals have much strength. No, that's not true. There is one animal weaker than us—the jellyfish. The jellyfish has got a secret, a little secret going on. I'm going to share a little something with you about a jellyfish. Did you know? Don't subscribe. They emptied my bank account. No. It's safe.
But how cool is that? It's kind of this little hint that immortality is a potential reality. That's a little creepy for me. That's like the Benjamin Button of the sea. That movie was creepy. Who wants to be the wife and turn back to the mother? It was just a weird movie. How many of you know the movie Benjamin Button? You're looking at me like you don't know what I'm talking about.
So, immortality of something weak. So, what if immortality was the destiny for each and every human, no matter how weak we presently are? What if we were meant to be something far different, very different than we are now? And what if we can instantaneously change who we are? I mean, suppose right now we could just pray a prayer. In fact, some of you, you probably believe this, that if we name it and claim it in the name of Jesus, we can name it and claim it right now that I'm going to instantaneously, before your watching eyes, I am going to instantly become exactly like Jesus.
How many believe that if I name it and claim it and pray that prayer, I'll instantly, before your eyes, become exactly like Jesus? Please don't raise your hand. And for you that wanted to, your theology needs correcting, okay? No. God-ordained process.
You and I know that almost any developmental progress that we've ever made, it took effort. It was a slow process. For example, you go from being a baby to trying to walk. Well, you fall down an awful lot. And then it takes time yet before you can stay stable and run and so forth. So development usually is incremental. It's usually slow. It's usually hard. Any good trait that we've developed, if we think about it, it's usually come hard. It's come by effort. It's come by patience, perseverance, and it's a process.
Instantaneous change in a positive way, we don't see much of that. Now, we're experiential creatures. The biggest experiences we have, you know, we're going to be—what we have is probably birth and death. And in between, we have thousands and thousands of other experiences. It'd be a fascinating thing to just get in a room and all of us write down, what are the five most significant experiences we've had in our life? It would just be wonderful to hear the way certain experiences have molded us, shaped us, caused us to be who we are. Sometimes not good, sometimes good. Nevertheless, we are experiential creatures.
But what I want to talk to you today about is the most significant thing that you will ever have, and every one of us is going to have this experience. Much more significant than even your birth, even your death, everything in between—this experience. And it is instantaneous. We're going to talk about something that brings dramatic, dramatic beautification, dramatic change to who and what you and I are.
And it all happens in an instant, and it will require zero effort at all. It's one of the most phenomenal things. It's the third key to this euphoric existence. I need to be united with the someone, the lover, the creator of my soul, the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to be somewhere—his home, his kingdom to come—and I need something. I need a specific experience. You need a specific experience before we can live this euphoric existence.
And that's what we're going to talk about today. So could it be, could it be a singular something, an experience is what we're going to talk about today that we will all have one way or another?
Okay, what might this something or this experience be? The Apostle Paul, writing to followers of Christ who lived in Philippi, says something in the letter that he wrote to them in chapter three. Now I want to start by saying this. If you are new to the Bible, and you know, I say something like, if I could just go to that passage, I say Philippians 3, this is a letter. This is a letter that a man named the Apostle Paul, a servant of Christ, he went and he planted a church in the city of Philippi. And then after he left, he sent them letters to coach them, to direct them, help them to grow and so forth.
But he's writing to individuals that have made a choice to put their trust in Christ and to become his followers. The Bible says that is how one becomes a Christian. The Bible says that is how one becomes a child of God. The Bible says that is how one receives forgiveness of our sins, and we really need that. And God's free gift of everlasting life or immortality, which we're going to talk about today.
So I want to just pause there. If you've never made that decision in a world where everybody's following somebody, usually it's ourselves we follow. Have you made a decision to put your trust in the creator of the universe and the one who loves you, loves me so much that he went to the cross to demonstrate his love for us and who offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life in his kingdom and a euphoric existence that we were created for?
But it's all based on my decision, your decision, your willingness, my willingness to authentically put our trust in Christ and become his follower. And the evidence of having real trust, real faith in Christ will be my willingness to follow him. In other words, what do you mean follow him? He's not alive now, Randy. How do you follow Jesus? Well, we go to his word and we learn his will and his ways and his principles and his promises. And when he says to do something, because we trust him, we start learning it. We start doing it. And when he says stop doing something, because we trust him, we stop doing it. Trust always, faith always demonstrates itself by works, by action.
So once again, this is written to those that have made a decision to put their trust in Christ and are his followers. They have received forgiveness of sins. They have eternal life as a free gift. And I hope, I hope that includes everybody in this room. And if not, perhaps before you leave here today, you will make that decision to put your trust in Christ and become his follower.
All right, let me go on with this passage. So Paul's writing to these followers of Christ in Philippi. He says, "But we are citizens of heaven," a real place, a real destination. We talked about that last week, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. He's already there. The lover of our soul is there. Our home is there. And we are eagerly waiting for him to do what? Return. Jesus promised that he would return as our savior.
Then it gets kind of cool. He will take our weak mortal bodies—remember, next to the jellyfish, we're the weakest creature on the planet. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like who? Like his own. Remember when he died, he rose again from the grave. He could appear and disappear. He could eat fish with his disciples, but he could also just ascend into heaven. Gravity didn't have any hold on him.
So whatever this body is going to be, it's going to be like his, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. So this something that you need, that I need, that you on some level want, that I on some level want, that we always sense there's this better version of ourselves, there's this better existence. We are waiting for it. We cannot cause it. But Jesus promises that when he returns, we will experience it.
And the experience is the literal physical transformation of our bodies, as well as our minds and our souls. We'll develop this a little bit more as we go, but I just want to kind of set in motion here or get settled in your heart and mind what we're talking about here: an instantaneous, dramatic, eternal change. You will not be, I will not be the same kind of creature that I am now. Yes, we will still be human, recognizably, but we will be so different that were we to see what we will be like then, we would be tempted to fall on our faces in worship because we would feel like we're seeing a divine being—so different.
Let's look at it a little bit more, get a little more information at this event. The Apostle Paul, once again, he says, "And I have the same hope in God." He was telling some individuals that were asking him about his relationship with Christ, "I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have that there will be a—what is the word?—a resurrection of both the righteous and what?"
Now, if you're counting, that's two resurrections, Paul says. Paul says there's going to be a resurrection; those that are dead are going to be brought back to life just like Jesus came back to life. Jesus promised this, of the righteous—those that have put their trust in Christ and become his followers—and then the wicked, those that say, "All things considered, I'm going to be my own man, my own woman. I'm going to do my own thing. You know, thanks, Jesus, but no thanks." And they are the wicked.
Anybody that would reject—how do you explain it? How could anybody say they are a good person and reject the most perfect model of goodness? "I'm going to do my own thing." To reject Christ is automatically to condemn ourselves and reveal the real nature of our hearts. Anyway, two resurrections: the righteous and the unrighteous.
Let me go on. Now, the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, some 500 years before Jesus, gives us a timing element, and I'm going to talk a little bit more about this. When does this happen? When does this transformation of the physical bodies of the followers of Jesus happen? The book of Daniel says, "There shall be a time of what? Trouble such as never has been since there was a nation until that time."
So Daniel, some 500 years before Jesus, he's looking down through the tunnel of time. The Spirit of God has enabled him. The Bible is, by the way, singular compared to every other religious writing on the planet in that about one-third of it is predictive prophecy, and it's very specific. It names people. It names nations. It names events. It gives chronology. It gives sequences, and we are living to see many of these fulfilled. I'm going to elaborate on that just a little bit in a minute.
But anyway, it says there's going to be a time of trouble such as never been since there was a nation until that time, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and—what does it say?—everlasting contempt. If you're counting, that's one, two resurrections: resurrection of the righteous, the resurrection of the unrighteous, just like Paul had said earlier.
Now, Daniel, though, puts it in a time frame. He says that this resurrection is going to take place after, right after, a time of unprecedented trouble in human history. Jesus talks about that much, much more. The book of Revelation talks about it much, much more. Some of the Old Testament prophets talk about it much, much more. But this gives us a time frame to this thing.
Let me take you all the way to the last book of the Bible, Revelation. It's not the last chapter, but the last book. And it's talking about this same event. It says, "They came to life and reigned with Christ, how long? A thousand years." The rest of the dead—remember, two resurrections: one resurrection of the righteous, one resurrection of the unrighteous. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.
"This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who shall share in—what is it called?—the first resurrection." And I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, but probably the truth is some of you have never heard of this before, ever. Maybe you've heard that there's going to be a resurrection. Maybe you had some idea, but you have never seen before that there is going to be two resurrections: one of just the righteous, those that have put their trust in God and are followers of Jesus, and those that have refused that, and that these two resurrections are going to be separated by a thousand years.
And those that are in the first resurrection, those that are in the second resurrection—the ones that Paul was writing to in Philippians, whose bodies are going to be transformed like in the Jesus body—they're part of the first resurrection. I'm going to tell you, you want to be in the first resurrection. If you read the rest of Revelation 20 and Revelation 21, you will know you want to be in the first resurrection. You do not want to be in the second resurrection, which is the resurrection of the unjust, the unrighteous, those that are condemned. It takes place a thousand years later before a great white throne judgment. You don't want to be in that one.
And anybody that puts their trust in Christ and becomes his follower is assured they're not in that judgment. But we have a time frame to this. Now, Jesus—I'm going to fill in a little bit here—Jesus talked about this very specifically about the time. And in Matthew chapter 24, verse 15, I don't have the verses here, but you can look them up on your own. He said that there's going to be an event, a triggering event, that we will know—we who are alive will know—that this time of trouble, this unprecedented time of trouble just prior to this transformational resurrection, that there will be an event in Jerusalem.
And the event will take place at the temple in Jerusalem. How many know there is no temple in Jerusalem now? Can I just see your hands? Okay, there is no temple in Jerusalem now. But they have the plans to build the temple. You will live to see, in my name, that temple being built.
And Jesus said there's going to take an event. And Daniel talked about the same event in Daniel chapter 12. Something's going to happen on that new temple mount called the abomination of desolation. And it triggers this period of time, sometimes called the great tribulation. It's the last three and a half years before Jesus returns, before that first resurrection of the righteous takes place.
Now, I'll give you a little interesting thing. The Bible predicted way back in Deuteronomy, when Israel was first a nation, that they would walk away from God, that they would be scattered all over the world. But in the last days, they would be regathered to their land. Let me give you a little history. In 70 AD, a Roman general named Titus came and surrounded Jerusalem. He destroyed Jerusalem, crucified about 100,000 Jews, tore down the temple stone by stone, burned it up. And Israel ceased to be a nation in 70 AD.
But the Bible kept predicting they would be born again as a nation. They would come back to their land. They would inhabit their land in the last days. In 1948, 1,878 years later. For 1,878 years, people could laugh at the Bible's predictions about Israel being a nation because they didn't exist as a nation for 1,878 years. But in 1948, after Hitler tried to eliminate every Jew on the planet, they became a nation again, just like the Bible predicted.
In the 1967 war, the Bible predicted that they would regain Jerusalem as their capital. They did in that war. So I say that to say this: that we are seeing these prophecies being fulfilled before our very eyes. The Bible is altogether different in the specificity of prophecies and the detail of these prophecies. It just shows that it's a credible book unlike any other religious writing on the planet.
Now, let me go to this. I'm not sure. Is somebody—any help over there? It sounds like we've got a child in duress or something.
Okay. Why would this something be necessary?
Okay, the something is this experience. So why would it be necessary for you and I to be dramatically, physiologically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually changed, transformed? In the book of 1 Corinthians 15, it's talking about this same event. It says, "What am I saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our—what I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the kingdom of God. These—what kind of bodies? Dying bodies cannot inherit what will do what? Last forever."
You're wearing out. I'm wearing out. You know, we get parts replaced occasionally because they are wearing out. This body is not going to last. It's so interesting. How many of you are familiar with the concept of transhumanism? I know the word trans confused you. Transhumanism has nothing to do with dressing up in odd costumes.
Transhumanism is a group of intellectuals, scientists, and so forth that believe that through technology, we can add technology to our bodies and literally become immortal. We can learn to live forever with the added, you know, pieces of technology. We can kind of fuse with computers and download our minds into computers and so forth and so on.
So the transhumanist agenda is immortality, but without God. It's immortality without the body. It's immortality without the abolition of sin and evil, which is problematic because just like that immortal jellyfish—the immortal jellyfish, remember the Benjamin Button jellyfish? It can technically live forever unless something kills it.
So the problem is, as long as evil is existent, immortality is not going to happen because we'll just destroy everything and ourselves ultimately. So this passage says these dying bodies of ours cannot inherit that which will last forever. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret: we will not all—what is the word?—how many of you say, "I refuse. I want to die"? Can I just see the hands? You want to be amongst the dying? Is there anybody here that would like to die today? I'm just messing with you. No, you and I are geared to live as long as possible.
Self-preservation is the first instinct. It's usually followed by the second one, which is self-gratification. I want to live as long as I can. I want to have as much fun as I can as long as I can. But let me reveal to you a mystery, a wonderful secret: we will not all die, but we will all—what?—be transformed. Remember I said we're all going to have this experience, a bigger experience than birth, a bigger experience than death. We're all going to be transformed.
It's going to be instantaneous. It isn't going to require any effort. It's not going to require any effort. It's not going to require any effort. It's not going to require any effort. It's not going to require a process. It goes on. It will happen in a—what?—really quick, in the blink of an eye.
When? When the last trumpet is blown. If you want to know when that last trumpet is blown, read Matthew chapter 24, verses 29 through 31 sometime on your own. And you will find Jesus says specifically that after the tribulation of those days, the trump sounds, and Jesus sends his angels to gather his people together. Those that are already in heaven, they get their resurrection bodies. And we who are on earth are instantaneously transformed to meet with them in the air and then return with Jesus.
In a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are—what is the word?—living will also—what?—will receive these resurrection bodies.
In other words, the scripture is crystal clear that when Jesus returns, because that's when this resurrection event takes place, that's when this transformational event takes place. When he intervenes for a second time—nobody expected him really to intervene the first time. The Jews should have, but a lot of them were caught off guard. The rest of the world was completely oblivious to it.
But when he intervenes the second time, most of the world, once again, will be caught off guard. But his people certainly will not be. We will be watching. He's given us multiple signs to show us. I introduced a few of those in the prophecies. Some of the nations in Ezekiel 38 and 39, you see what's happening in the Middle East. Right in Ezekiel 38, you can see a list of nations that the Bible says are going to attack Israel in the last days. You know what the number one nation is listed there? Iran, Persia.
So we see these prophecies coming together, but it's at this last time. And we that are alive, we're going to be watching. We're going to be watching. We're going to be watching. We're going to be watching. We're going to be watching. We're going to be instantaneously transformed, for our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. Our mortal bodies must be transformed into what kind of bodies? Immortal bodies.
These bodies we have now, they won't cut it. They won't cut it in eternity. They won't be able to endure. They're not meant to endure.
So the event that we're talking about, the experience that we're talking about, it is the most dynamic, the most transformational experience ever. Everything that you've ever dreamt of being able to do—you want to run like a cheetah? You'll be able to run like a cheetah. Burst to speed at 88 miles an hour. You want to be as strong as a gorilla? You'll be as strong as a gorilla. I mean, whatever you've dreamt of being and doing that's within the realm of righteousness, you and I will suddenly be able to do.
But there's a lot more. There's a lot more that comes with this. Romans 8 says, "The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom." Freedom from what? Death and decay. We are stuck in a cycle of death and decay. God is going to intervene. It says in Revelation 21, he's literally going to make a new heaven and a new earth. There will evidently be new laws of physics.
And death and decay will be no longer. If we leave something, we know now, you know, if you leave an apple or something outside, it doesn't evolve into something better. It devolves into just mush. Left to itself, things decay and they die. But that cycle is going to be changed.
Romans 8 goes on to say this: "For those whom God foreknew, he also predestined." The predestined here is not the people. It's this: what is predestined is a thing. Predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. You and I were always predestined. In eternity past, God determined that when he made the human species, we were meant to wear the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the moral perfection.
So that's why we're always predestined. We're always driven to be the better version of ourselves. That's why we always want to look our best, be our best, even though we falter and we have limitations in that.
1 John 3 says, "Dear friends, now we are the children of God." That's written to those that have put their trust in Christ and are his followers. "Now we are," present tense, "the children of God. And what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears"—that's the second coming again, after the last trumpet, after the tribulation of those days—"we shall, what is it?—be like him."
It's predestined. God's going to instantaneously finish the work. In this life, we put our trust in Christ. We become his followers. We start learning the will of God from the word of God. Like I said earlier, the Lord says, "Let certain practices and attitudes and ideas and values go." We do it because we trust God. He says, "Learn certain values and practices and processes." We do it because we trust God.
We're in process. We're growing. Some of you that have been followers of Christ—let me just be curious. How many of you have been followers of Christ for 10 years? Can I see your hands? All right. When you first put your trust in Christ compared to where you are now, have you changed? Have you grown? Can I see your hands?
So those say, "Yeah, I have." So we're in process. But you would honestly quickly say, "But I'm not yet fully like Christ. I still struggle at times. I still have crazy stuff go through my head, and I'm still tempted by things, and I still fight within myself." How many would say amen to that? Can I see your hands? Yeah, that's normal Christian development.
But this is talking about something different—not a process, not a struggle—instantaneous, no more temptation, no more crazy thoughts, nothing but righteous, godly, good, holy desires. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure.
Notice that. The hope of the transformation that Jesus will bring to us, it impacts us now. We already are pursuing the Christ-like development. We're pursuing to rid our lives of sin because we know what Jesus says. Sin is sand in the interior machinery. It's destruction for our soul. It's not the spice of life; it's the curse, the cancer of life.
So we're already aligned with Jesus. We want to rid our lives of sin if we're real Christians, but we still are in a war sometimes. But when this comes, we're going to be completely purified. It's going to be instantaneous. The work that we are in process cooperating with God, it gets finished. It gets completed.
2 Peter says, "Remember I mentioned in Revelation 21, verse 1 through 5, you can read about it, the new heavens and the new earth. We are looking forward to the new heavens and earth, as he has promised, a world filled with what? God's righteousness."
And this is important. The euphoric eternal existence that God has prepared for his own, both angels and humans that are his own—those that trust him, love him, love him for himself, love righteousness for its own intrinsic worth—that world has to be a world where evil in every form is entirely and completely abolished, non-existent.
Think of the immortal jellyfish. Like I said, the immortal jellyfish, you leave my man alone, he'll just keep on living and living and living. But if you stomp on him or another fish comes and eats him, he dies. Until all evil is abolished, you and I, the rest of the universe, cannot experience the euphoric, that daily, eternal, euphoric existence. No fear, nothing to be insecure about, no concerns because all is good everywhere.
Until there is total righteousness, the righteousness of God filling every heart, we can't have this eternally euphoric existence that we long for.
Now, I want to share some closing ideas with you. It says in 1 Corinthians 13—you hear this read at weddings a lot, but there's a lot more content here—but it says, "Now we see things imperfectly like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with what? Perfect clarity. All that I know now is what? Partial and incomplete, but then I will know—what does it say?—everything, how much?"
Pause for a minute. Let that sink in. It is literally saying that all the knowledge existent in the universe, the truth about God, the truth about life, the truth about everything—you, me, regardless of what condition our brains are in, how much horsepower we have now, the horsepower that is dormant now, it's all going to be released. The lights that are turned off now, they're all going to be turned on, and you will be able to understand the truth of all reality instantly.
You will be more brilliant than the most brilliant human being that's ever lived on this earth because that transformation is going to expand our ability to understand life and all things in the universe exponentially. We will understand everything completely just as God knows me completely. God knows us completely. He knows everything completely. We will instantaneously know.
If you read some of these near-death experiences that people have had, how many are fascinated with those things? Just curious. Yeah, I read up on them. Now, you understand something. When we read those things, we cannot give too much credibility to them. There could be a lot of reasons for them, but some of them are reasonably aligned with scriptural truth, and that's what we always must go by, that they're interesting.
But one of the things that some of those people say is that they suddenly were instantaneously able to understand everything. Now, they said when they came back, that knowledge was erased. They couldn't bring it back with them. They tried, but they couldn't. It's kind of like a dream. You ever have a dream, and in the dream, you're seeing something phenomenally crystal clear? Happens to me in putting messages together. I get the, "Oh, I know exactly what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it," and then I wake up, it's like, "Oh, man, it's gone. It's gone," and I can't pull it back.
Instantaneously understanding all things, but this time, it's not going to fade away. It's going to exist forever and forever and forever.
Now, let's get a little bit more personal as we get ready to close out. See, the truth about you and me is a lot of us have lived our life worried, scared, struggling with feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, inferiority, struggling to feel safe, always wanting somehow to feel like we're connected, wanting desperately to feel wanted, to feel loved, to feel understood, to feel like we connect, to feel like we belong.
But somehow, there's this voice in us, and it's not clear, but it just eats at us, some of us anyway, and it just keeps reminding us we're not enough. We're not attractive enough. We're not smart enough. We're not kind enough. We're not fun enough. We're not interesting enough. We're not generous enough. We're not righteous enough. Some of us as Christians, we're not righteous enough. We're not generous enough. We're not good. We have these thoughts. It just torments us. We're just not enough. We're just not good enough. And it torments us.
When this intervention of Jesus happens, when he intervenes the second time, and when we that are alive have this transformation into complete, entire Christ-likeness in an instant, and when the dead are raised, and when the family of God is brought together to rule and reign on planet Earth for 1,000 years until Jesus finally brings in the eternal kingdom with the new heaven and the new earth, we will instantaneously never feel those feelings again.
We will never feel that we lack. We will never feel inadequate. We will never feel worried. We will never feel afraid. We will never wonder if we're loved again. We will feel the love of every citizen of heaven. We will feel their love for us inside, and we will know they feel our love for them. We will never have another insane thought shoot through our head. We will never have another temptation.
And some of us, you fought tooth and nail for decades over some temptations. You will never have that fight again. You will never feel guilt again. You will never feel shame again. That's your destiny. That's what comes when this experience, this transformation, this resurrection transformational occurrence—it's not just some pie in the sky by and by.
This is something that we're meant to factor in now because it will give us strength and courage and optimism and something to look forward to. And when life starts to look kind of bumpy, if we happen to be that generation that sees the return of Christ, we will know that, just like Jesus said, it's kind of like a lady in her last throes of pregnancy. Yeah, there's some pain, but it's about to get better. It's about to give birth to an eternal new day.
There's a new you coming. And if you could see that new you, it would be stunning. I often think about, imagine if an angel and a two-month-old baby could converse telepathically. I mean, and the baby is able to see itself, okay, in kind of a mature frame of mind. So let me show you what I'm doing.
So the baby is communicating with the angel, and the baby is saying, "Look at me. I am disgusting. I'm just a puddle of flesh. I have not one muscle in my entire body. I have no teeth. I have no hair. I can't feed myself. I can't clothe myself. I can't walk. I can't talk. I can't control my bowels. I mean, I'm disgusting. What's the use of me being alive? Nobody would ever be interested or attracted to me. I'm just a waste on the planet."
And the angel says, "Oh, little boy, little girl, you don't know. You don't know what you're going to become. You're going to become strong, and you're going to become smart, and you're going to walk, and you're going to talk, and you're going to live, and you're going to love, and you're going to serve, and you're going to become a person that God works in and God works through. And many people's lives will be blessed that they heard your name, got to know you, connected with you. Oh, little baby, you don't know what you're going to be."
What you will be would be stunning if you could see it right now. Pain's going to be gone, folks. The inadequacy is going to be gone. The guilt's going to be gone. The shame, the fear, the insecurity, the inferiority, it's going to be gone. The lovelessness, the loneliness, it's going to be gone.
And you will be forever invincible, invulnerable, and full of the love and the peace of God and euphoria. Euphoria will fill your soul, and it will fill your soul for all eternity. That's our good God's eternal destiny for those that are his own. And if you've put your trust in Christ, then that is signed, sealed, and delivered as your destiny.
And you need to enjoy that now, particularly in the times when life can be discouraging. Listen to what it says in 1 Corinthians. It says, "God has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."
Your best days—all your best days—they're out in front of you. The best version of you, it's real, it's existent, it will come to pass. And I believe we might just be the privileged generation that will actually be alive when that last trump sounds and when Jesus returns, and we will actually be alive.
And I believe we might just be the privileged generation that will actually escape or cheat death, however you want to put that phrase. So if you're here today, I hope you will leave here today with a sense that your destiny, if you are a Christ follower, is set and secure. You have a good future. It's a euphoric future. It's something that nobody can take away from you if you've united yourself to Christ by putting your faith in him and becoming his follower.
Let's close in prayer.
Father, we thank you that the aches and pains of our lives are not just a matter of faith, but a matter of faith. We thank you in our souls for perfect happiness, a society of perfect righteousness, perfect love, perfect safety, perfect goodness. Thank you that you assure us that is so. Thank you that the struggles we have to develop to become more like you, Lord Jesus, that you'll finish that work, and you'll finish it in an instant.
And we will finally be dramatically like you. We will know as we are known. May that day hasten. We ask this, Lord Jesus, in your name. Amen.
on Feb 09, 2025
