Knowing God's Plan

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. Let's read this, Revelation chapter 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Today we get to talk about a little heaven on earth, and I think that's one of the things that we love about our mothers so much. In most circumstances, our mothers are the ones who have shown us, in many ways, grace. Because they love kids that no one else can love. Or at least at times, no one else can love. Have you ever noticed that? Yeah, and so they are showing us grace, and they bring a little heaven to earth. Well, today we're going to be talking about what it really means, this whole idea of heaven, and all of that. Last week we had the tough topic, in a sense, because we were dealing with what happens after this life. And so, last week, after we talked about hell. And it's a topic that I would like to avoid myself. And you might go, oh my goodness, I wonder what that message was like. Well, you can look it up on the app and see it. But Jesus talks about hell more than anybody else in all the Bible, so it's kind of hard for me to get away from that. And it shows us where my heart is in that whole matter. But what's even more important, we found out from that, that God is such a good God. The one who spoke about hell the most is the one who experienced hell for you. Jesus Christ, upon that cross, went through hell so that you never have to. That's the amazing thing about that topic. And so when he warns us, when he talks about that, he is also trying to explain to us how he has paid the price for that. That it's not intended for you, that it's something that you do not have to experience. And the first week we started out, we said that you can be 100% sure of what God has in store for you after this life. And I think that's really important, that you can be sure what God has in store for you after this life. There's not a question mark, but an exclamation point. That because of God's grace in Jesus Christ, you have been saved and you can be with the Lord forever. So this week we get the wonderful topic of heaven itself. And we're looking at this Bible passage in Revelation to start with. Now Revelation itself, the book of Revelation, that's not Revelations, by the way, but Revelation. A lot of people look at it as one of the scariest books in the Bible. The pictures in it, the things that are going on, the symbolism. It's a time, you know, secret codes, timelines. You're misunderstanding the whole book from that beginning, by the way. The letter of Revelation is a letter. And it was written specifically to seven different churches that actually existed at that time in the first century. So the book was not written first to you in the 21st century in America to tell you what was going on today. It was written for the first century church, for these towns of Smyrna and Pergamon and Ephesus and Thyatira and Laodicea. These seven different churches to explain to them what was going on and how they can have confidence living in this world and at that time. And so it's really a book that says to them, these are the struggles you're going through. Paints some big pictures of what those are. Government's going to act like a beast at time, like a wild beast that wants to devour you. But don't worry. Jesus Christ has overcome. The lamb has overcome the beast. Government acts like a wild beast. The culture will be as seductive as a woman of ill repute. But don't worry. Don't give in to that. The propaganda will sound so good. But believe this, this whole culture, this whole world, every other kingdom is going to fall. Babylon has fallen. The one king who is a lamb who was slain. He's the one who stays on the throne. He will reign forever. And that's the kingdom that you are a part of. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. That's the message of the book. And here we understand that Jesus Christ is that lamb. So the best way I thought we can think of all of this is to actually go through...