Having Certainty

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. This week and next, ask your questions. Post your questions. There are no dumb, the only dumb question about things like the, what happens after this life, is the one that's not asked. You know? So I'm just going to keep it, I'm embarrassed. Ask any question you have, like, do all dogs go to heaven? And I'll try to get to it, okay? You think that's dangerous territory, don't you? No, I don't think so. I believe in a new creation. That's what God has. And that will include dogs. I'm not so sure about cats, but it does include dogs. It is a serious topic to an extent. And we're going to get to that. Let's pray first, though. Lord God, thank you for the joy of this day. The joy of the resurrection. The joy to be able to ask questions to you, to each other, to be open, to learn, to grow. We pray, Lord God, through this series, they're talking about some real ultimates of life and death and the afterlife and whatever that is, Lord. You know, all the questions that so many people have around us and yet nobody seems to have an answer for. Well, you are the answer, Lord Jesus. We thank you. We know you. We pray not only for here, Lord, at Thrive Today, but across this whole area, Lord, that your one church of all those who trust in you, Lord Jesus, would arise, that you would fill us with your joy and your peace and confidence to live out a life of service and giving and love to those around us. Bless this series too, Lord, and bless us that we might come to a place of hope and joy and confidence in you. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Like I said, I am excited about this series, but you might be going like, uh, really? Do we need to talk about ... I mean, probably a lot of people don't talk much about what happens after this life. You know, it's one of those things that we avoid, you know? Let's not. Let's focus on this life, right? I mean, how many people here would say, I haven't really talked too much about it or asked many questions about this before? Raise your hands. A few. Okay. Good. It's okay. It's okay. And then others might be going like, why are you talking about this? I know. I've gone to funerals. I've gone to the hospital. I just don't like it. I only do that when we have to. Well, here's the point of the why, I think, with this whole series. And that is, if you don't know, if you are uncertain about what happens after this life, how in the world do you know how to live in this life? Do you get it? If you don't know where you're going, how do you know where you are right now in order to get there, in a sense? And there's a lot of people with uncertainty in this life. In fact, there's a lot of people that aren't quite sure what's going to happen. Have you ever seen that movie? It's old. Right? Warren Beatty? I know. Boy, am I aging myself. But that's kind of almost the impression people have. It's like, well, if that's what heaven is, I don't know if I want to go there yet. I like this. We have a hope and we have a certainty and we have so much more hope and certainty than that. And we have something more than some ephemeral, maybe spiritual, immaterial, when I die kind of talk. But what I really noticed in this text is how few people have certainty about anything. They're hoping. They kind of hope so hope, kind of like, maybe I'm hoping something turns out. And this is what's interesting is today. This affects the way people live. Have you ever noticed that if they think they're not quite sure what's going to happen when they die and that the only thing that they're sure of is today. So what do you do then today if this is the only thing you're sure of? You eat your dessert first. Now we do that in different ways, like, oh, consuming as much as we can, enjoying life to the full, vacationing, traveling, you know, whatever way our consumption is. And you know how this harms us, I think it harms us because our lives become kind of shallow because all my life is about is trying to get the most out of it for me. It's a little self-centered. I don't know if you've noticed that. And I'm harming the earth by just consuming everything and not caring about anything else or anyone else at the same time. It's kind of a double whammy of shallow and insignificant. If this in your life is totally, in God's eyes, the best thing he ever did, significant, important, purposeful, he's got it all for you. We just celebrated the resurrection and the good news is this. This is what I want to come down with you for sure. I'm kind of cutting to the chase to the end of the whole thing. I want you to be 100% certain. You can be 100% certain, exactly. Now you can be 100% certain that one out of one people on planet earth will die. Boom, boom, boom, I needed, did you realize, do you get it? Everybody, I mean we do face it, death and taxes are certain, but the one thing I want...