0:00 All right. If you guys remember two months ago, I shared about hell, particularly war, how bad war is, and how even worse hell is. And so, in the two months since, I haven't spent a ton 0:18 of time focusing on that. Um, you know, like I take it seriously. I want to every word of this Bible I want to take seriously in the in the warnings. You know, we looked at things about just how um you know, not to fear 0:33 man, but to fear God. You know, man can kill your body. It's true, but God can can kill your body and send your uh soul into hell. And so, you know, we take these things very seriously, or we should. We should take them very 0:50 seriously. But I don't think we're God intends us to always be thinking about these things. And I'll I'll I'll tell you why as we look at some of these scriptures. And you know, I find it's better um to focus on things of heaven. 1:05 Like most of the time I want to focus on things of God and I want to look at some scriptures to support that. Well, why why would you say shouldn't it be half and half? I don't think so. I think most of our time we should be focusing on on 1:18 heaven and not hell. We look at hell because we want to take God's warning seriously, but then we go, "Okay, I see your warning." and we lift our eyes back up to him. So to recap that same message, we concluded with Philippians 1:32 4:8 and we looked at this verse because this verse tells us, you know, nine things that we should be focused on like what what should be going on in our mind at any given time. What are the things that we should be thinking about at any 1:47 given time? And this verse gives us, you know, nine different things that says, "Hey, these are things that you should be thinking of." And it says something very important. And again, I highlighted it last time and I'll highlight it 2:00 again. It says, "Dwell on these things." Right? This is where your mind should dwell. Um, when I worked for the real estate commission, I learned uh the way that that the way they value property in the US is that the land has a value. The 2:19 dirt, right? That has a value. And then there's a second part called the improvements. And this is what you do to the land. You know, you might put up a fence, you might put up a shed, you might put in a swimming pool. And all 2:32 that can add value, too. But there's one structure on there called a dwelling. And a dwelling, and I'm again focusing on this word dwell, is where the people live. Right? They don't live in the shed. You may have a huge barn that's much bigger 2:50 than the dwelling, but the animals live in the barn. The people live in the dwelling. And so when it tells me to dwell here, it's saying here's where you need to live, right? This is where your home is. Now, you come out of your home to go to 3:07 work, but then you come back to your home and you focus on things that are that are true and honorable and right and pure, right? That's where we live. That's where we dwell. And that should be our mindset. And then we look at another verse, 3:24 Colossians 3. If you don't know this, please turn to them um because I want you to know them. it. If you if you already know the verse and you know the reference, that's fine. I'll put it up here on the screen. We're going to get 3:35 to some verses that I prefer you to turn into your Bible, but these aren't them. This is just I want to set the stage. Here's a verse in Colossians chapter 3. Couple verses. It says, "Therefore, you have been raised up with Christ. 3:47 Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. And so this tells us again, hey, where 4:07 you should dwell, where your mind should be most of the time is thinking of things above. And so it says, set it there. And I like I like brother Zach's illustration of a a rubber band, right, that attaches somewhere. If I attach it to the ceiling 4:26 and I pull it down, as soon as I let go, it goes back to the ceiling. If I attach it to the ground and I pull it up, as soon as I let go, it goes back to the ground. And it's something like this. Most of my Christian life, I'm 4:44 being honest and transparent, my rubber band was attached to the ground. Oh, but it's Sunday morning. I need to pull it up, right? We're going to go to the meeting and I'm going to we're going to talk about God and we're going to sing to 4:59 God. Um, so I need to pull my rubber band up because it needs to be up. But as soon as that meeting is over, I let go of the rubber band and it goes back down to the earth, right? Oh, it's 1:00. We need to get some uh we need to get something. The 5:17 football game is going to start, right? Sunday. Sunday football in the US, right? That's where my mind goes to. And there are other times that, you know, like whenever I I get some free time, where does your mind go to? Where 5:31 is it set or where is it attached? Is it attached to the ground or is it attached to the ceiling? Is it attached to things of earth or is it attached to things of heaven? And I'll tell you, whatever you're thinking, be honest. 5:49 God loves honesty. I just confess to you like much of my life was focused on sports. Soon as I got some free time, sports, I need to go check the website, see what the score was. I missed some games because I had other stuff going 6:01 on. But now that my mind is free, I I deflect to that or money. Much of my life was money. Soon as I get free time, I need to go check the stock market. I got some investments. soon as I get some free time, I got to figure out how I can make 6:16 more money or or learn something, you know, financial u way of doing things that'll make me more money. I wouldn't have said that, but that was the truth. It would the rubber band would immediately go to the ground. And if you want to know like some 6:31 indicators, I would I would tell you this, like this is what I'm learning. When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thing you think of? honestly cuz that'll give you an indication of where that rubber band is attached. Or 6:45 when you go to bed at night, what's the last thing you want to think about? What goes through your mind at the end of the day? Because that's a good indication of of where that rubber man is attached. Or when you get some free time, you get 7:00 a spare moment. You get a moment for yourself, a moment to yourself. You know, the day has been very busy, bunch of things pulling you in different directions. Okay, you got some free time. Where does your mind go? And this is something the Lord has been 7:12 very merciful to me in transforming my mind. You know, I present my body to him as a living sacrifice, but it's that's not enough. The world has conformed my mind so much. I thought so much of my ways that the Lord is changing that. And it's 7:29 like he's he's helping me do that. Now, there are times I'm not saying I'm perfect in this because I'm still being transformed. One of my brothers mentioned transformation this morning. My mind is changing. So now I'm starting to see 7:42 there are times that it now starts to deflect upwards. Hey, I got a moment. Let me talk to my let me talk to my father in heaven. Lord, it's been busy. I haven't really got to talk to you much. But now I got a free moment. So the rubber band's going 7:56 to go back up. I had to bring it down because I had some work to do. There are things going on. I had to do that work. But now that it's now that I get a break, it goes up. Does the illustration make sense? Give me a nod if it makes sense. Okay. 8:12 Thank you. All right. So, what I want to do this morning is focus on things above. I want to give you some glimpses or some pictures that have helped me. It's not comprehensive. I can't tell you everything about heaven. I can't tell 8:26 you everything about where God is dwelling right now. I' I've never been there. I go to this the Bible and I get I seek for revelation. Lord, you're in heaven. I'm on this earth right now. Uh, show me you. You know, when you tell me 8:42 I'm supposed to set my mind there, help me to do that by showing me where I'm setting my mind. What am I supposed to think about? What are those things that are that you consider to be true and right and honorable and pure. You teach 8:57 me these things and you show me these things, not just in a not just black and white ink on a page. Lord, I want to see them. and I want to live there. I want to dwell there. So, I'm going to give you three this morning. And and when I give 9:11 you the reference, I didn't put anything else in the slide other than the reference. So, please turn there and read it in your Bible and seek for so that you can see uh what I've gotten only a glimpse of. So, the first place I want to go is to 9:27 Revelation. So, turn to Revelation chapter 4. As a kid, I grew up in a denomination that had uh I mean just I don't know if they they intended it like this, but the reality was Revelation was like a scary 9:46 scary scary book. It was terrifying. It was understood like you get into Revelation, you know, there's some fear coming. You better be scared. And so, you know, that's what it was. or it was a very confusing book and I felt 10:03 inadequate to figure it all out like what is that? What are those wheels or what are like what's going on? I don't understand. And it felt like pivotal in the denomination I was in. It was it was critical that you understand it. 10:17 Otherwise, you're going to be deceived because you're not going to understand that this is the mark of the beast and that this is the uh antichrist and you're going to if you're not if you don't understand it, you're going to 10:27 miss it. And that was scary and it would create fear. And so this first picture of heaven I got from reading uh Zack Punan's book, The Final Triumph. And I want to never lose this. So when we're thinking about setting our mind on 10:42 things above, this is one picture I don't want to lose. So I'm going to read the I'm going to read these eight verses in chapter 4 to you. I'm going to go slow because I want you to see them. Chapter 4 verse one. It says, "After these things," and I 11:01 have to stop. I want to stop real quick. Just those three words. After these things, after what things? Well, after chapter 2 and chapter 3, after these things, after chapter 2 and chapter 3 comes chapter 4. Well, what 11:17 happened in chapter 2 and chapter 3? Oh, wait. There were seven churches that got letters. And five of those seven churches were rebuked and told that they needed to repent. And so this is feels very timely for me 11:33 now. Okay, Lord, I'm listening. I'm encouraged. After these things, after I've se I've received some correction from you, from you. After I received correction from you, it says, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. In other 11:51 words, after being corrected, we take a look into heaven and what do we see? It said, "And the verse first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking to me said, okay, three more words. 12:09 Come up here. Come up here. Do you hear it, brother? Do you hear it, sister? Do you hear the heart of your heavenly father that yeah, I corrected you? Yeah, I disciplined those I love. Now, 12:29 come up here. Come up here with me in heaven where I'm seated. Sit with me and let me give you a different perspective. Let me help you see things from my perspective. Oh, that's beautiful. Are you seeing it? 12:48 It says, "And I must I will show you what must take place after these things." And then John says, "Immediately I was in the spirit." I think brother Mike said that, right? What is the kingdom of heaven? It's not eating and drinking. It's righteousness, 13:02 peace, and joy. In the spirit, in the Holy Spirit. So John said, "I was there and behold a throne standing in heaven." He gets a glimpse of a throne. A throne is a picture of somebody in charge, somebody in power. A king sits on a 13:20 throne. John sees our heavenly father on the throne and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting was like was like a jasper stone and a sardius in and a sardius in appearance. And there was a rainbow 13:39 around the throne. I think even kids can think about this. Oh, I look into heaven and I see a rainbow. What do I know about the rainbow? Let me think. Rainbow, rainbow. Where do I see a rainbow? Oh, Genesis. Oh, I read in history and in my Bible 13:55 that God once upon a time wiped out everybody on earth except for eight. And then it it grieved him. He didn't like to do it. So, he made a promise. I won't do it again. 14:13 I like that. And so you see that here you're tying the one who who who was and is and is to come all together. He's showing all of human history and he's reminding us of a covenant of a promise that he made to us. It says like an emerald in appearance. 14:37 And then I find this very interesting. Verse four says, "Around the throne were 24 thrones." So I'm counting now 25 thrones. So in heaven there's at least 25 thrones. And upon the thrones I saw 24 14:55 elders sitting. So there are 24 elders sitting down clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their head. A lot there, but I want to put that on hold for now. 25 thrones are in heaven at least. There might I think there's 15:13 probably more actually. Go to verse eight. It says, "And the four living creatures, each of one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. And day and night they do not cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God 15:31 Almighty who was and who is and who is to come." That the one of the most important pictures we should have of heaven. So who if our mind is going to be set if our rubber band is going to be attached to the ceiling, one of the clearest things that we need 15:50 to see is that our God is a holy God. And day and night 247 these living creatures are proclaiming his holiness. And when the living creatures, it says, "And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who 16:08 sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever." So as they're doing this, the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever. And they will cast their thrones 16:24 before their crowns before the throne. I I I keep wanting to stop, but I got to keep going. saying, "Worthy are you, oh Lord, and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things." Going back to Genesis, 16:42 and because of your will, they existed and were created. This picture and and again, I I can't even do it justice in just a few minutes. But I want you to put a a bookmark there. I want you to note this that when you're told to set 16:56 your mind on things above, you can go to Revelation 4 and you can meditate on things that you may not have noticed. You probably I don't know how many of you noticed there were 25 thrones mentioned in in that passage. And that 24 of them when praise is going 17:10 on, they get off their thrones and they fall down at the feet of one throne. That there's one in authority that your heavenly father is all powerful. The world may feel like chaos all around you. And it does to me. I'll tell you. 17:25 It feels like everything is it feels like it's more than I can manage. I'm talking in every area of my life. I'm talking about as a husband, as a father, as an elder, as a a worker. It just feels like utter chaos to me. 17:40 So, what do I do? I let the rubber band go back to the top and I look up and I see the one in authority sitting on his throne. Do you need that picture, brother and sister? Is it just me that needs to see that? Now there's some stability. Now I'm 18:00 anchored. Now my mind is set. Okay, Lord. I'm not in control. You are. I'm just your child. You're my father. When the Lord taught the disciples to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven," right? 18:18 Start. He says, "Start there. So that's why we're starting here this morning. When we're thinking about heaven, we want to start by thinking of our father who art in heaven sitting on that throne, loving us, caring for us in 18:32 complete control. And it is my experience in my own personal life and those that I talk to that if you're not anchored here, you will have anxiety. You're going to be worried and bother bothered about many things if you don't 18:47 find the security in your heavenly father and his sovereignty and his love for you and his care for you and knowing that he is in control. So that's the first picture I want you to have. And again, not just that you read it, that you know it. And don't 19:03 settle for, oh yeah, I have that verse memorized. I have that passage. I memorized the whole passage. I know it. I even I memorized it in the Greek. That's not what that's not it. Know it. Say, Lord, give me revelation. 19:18 Give me a reality of this. Show me by faith. Like, show me so I can really believe it. I'm struggling to see it. You can be honest with God. Don't try to be spiritual with God. Try to be honest with God. God, I'm not 19:37 there yet. I heard you. I heard you in the message today, but I want that reality. All right, let's go to our second thing. Turn to John chapter 14. Again, please turn in your Bible. My words are worthless. Let God be true and 19:56 every man a liar. This is the Lord's table. Is Jesus speaking to his disciples? But my heart is that he speaks to you if 20:19 you're his disciple. First three verses of chapter 14. Oh, I didn't move this slide forward. Sorry about that. John 14 1-3. says, "This is Jesus, a high priest who sympathize sympathizes 20:37 with our weakness." And he immediately gets probably what they're they're thinking and what they're going through. And he says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Do you need to hear that word from Jesus, Josh? Don't let your heart be troubled. 20:56 He says, "Believe in God. Trust in God." Remember your remember the first point I put in your heart, Josh. See your father on his throne. I came to reveal the father. I want you to see the father. Don't be troubled. Believe in God and 21:09 believe also in me. Yes, Lord. What? Yes, Jesus. I want to believe in you. I I believe in you. Actually, I want to believe more in you. What are you saying? What are you speaking to me? Listen carefully. I think this is I 21:25 think this is a verse that because of the way it was translated, the impression it gives us, we miss this. I don't want you to miss this. It says, "In my father's house are many dwelling places." If you read the King James, it 21:37 says mansions. I don't like mansions. The reason is because in my modern American mind, you say mansion, I think luxury. I don't believe Jesus is talking about luxury. I don't think he's talking about mansions. I like the word dwelling. I mentioned 21:56 earlier why. Right, Josh? There's going to be a place for you to live. Right now, I want your mind to live thinking about things that are pure and right and honorable and good and things that are excellent. That's what I want you that's where I want your 22:11 mind to be living, but one day I'm gonna prepare a dwelling place for you. And he says something that's so interesting. This is something I would say to a child. He says, "If it were not if it were not so, I would have told you, 22:27 right?" Like, this is something I would say to my young kid. Maybe they're standing at the edge of the pool and and I'm I'm already in the water and I want I'm trying to teach them to swim. I say, "Jump." Like, "I'm going to catch you. 22:42 If I wasn't going to catch you, I'd tell you, I'm not going to catch you. Don't jump. But I'm telling you to jump." And you see the patience of Jesus to to us younger siblings. He's saying, "Listen, I know. I know your apprehension. 22:58 I get it. I know. I know the way this world can make your heart want to be troubled. But what I'm telling you is trust me. If there was if there was some deception coming, I would tell you. But what I'm telling you is not deception. I'm 23:12 telling you the truth. I'm going to prepare a place for you to live." The best illustration that I could come up with is something like this. I'll try to get through it. But if I really meditate on it when I'm not up here speaking in front of you, it 23:29 hits me. It hits the nerve in me. Imagine this. I'm an orphan. My parents died when I was young. I grew up on the streets of New York City. All I've ever known is poverty and crime. And there's this Christian family and 23:43 they're a big family. They got they got 12 kids. And one day I I meet with them and the dad says, "You can live with us. I've already done the paperwork. We're 24:02 going to adopt you. You can come live in our home. There's room. We'll make room for you, Josh. We're going to make some room. You can live with us. Do I care that it's a mansion? You think I care that it's a mansion? 24:21 It's a home. And that brother says, "You can come live with us. We want you here. There's plenty of room. And if there's not, we'll make room. We'll give you some room. We want you to live with us." That's what Jesus is saying. 24:40 That's what he's saying to what? Can you hear it? Or do you just think that heaven is just about luxury and mansions and streets of gold and you're focused on that? What makes heaven heaven? Listen very carefully. What makes heaven heaven is we will get 24:55 to live with Jesus. We'll be in his home. We'll dwell with him. That's it. And if it were if it weren't true, he wouldn't have said it. He didn't have to say it. He didn't have to die on the cross, but he gives us hope. He says, "Listen, 25:14 I need your mind to be fixed on the things above. This is temporary. This is like staying in a motel. I'm preparing a home. I want you to live with me. I want you to do chores with me. I want you to cook with me. I want you I want 25:31 to sit down and and we'll tell stories together. It's a home. Did you have you seen that brother or sister? Have you seen what Jesus is saying? And he says, I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and 25:49 receive you to myself that where I am there may you you may that where I am, there you may be. Also, this is what I would say to one of my kids if I'm going off to the military. I used to be in the military and I'd have 26:03 to go away. I'd have to leave my family and it was hard. But I would tell him things like this. I'm coming back. I'll be back. It's only It's only a few weeks. It's only two weeks. It's only a year. I'll be back in a year. It'll go 26:17 It'll go quick. I think I was talking more to myself. And I wonder if Jesus was maybe reassuring himself as a man. I'm coming back for you guys. I love you. It's hard for me to go away, to go to my father and leave you alone. 26:36 But we know later um we know later in the chapter he doesn't do that, does he? He says, "I'm going to go away, but I'm going to send somebody. I'm going to send a babysitter. I'm going to send somebody to be with you and take care of 26:49 you, and he'll be with you forever." You got to read ahead. You got to study the scriptures a little bit to see where I got that from. But Jesus is saying, "Listen, keep in your mind in the forefront of your mind that I am going to prepare a home for 27:06 you to come and dwell with me." And brothers and sisters, that's a wonderful place to let your mind drift back to. When you wake up in the morning, when you go to bed at night, or at each point in the day, think that Jesus is 27:17 preparing a home and one day I'll get to live with him. That is heaven. So that you one of the things that I I did want to my illustration wasn't mine by the way if you read in ch look at verse 18 look at verse 18 please 27:36 he says I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you it's Jesus's illustration not mine if you've ever met an orphan you know the insec security they have. 27:55 And when we live like orphans, we're very insecure. We're very competitive. We're very possessive. We're very selfish. And Jesus says, "That's not how I've loved you. You're not an orphan. You're my child. You're my brother and sister. You're a 28:13 child and my father rather." Oh, how long do I need to spend on this so that we, me, we see it clearly? It's a wonderful truth. Let's go to our third one. This is the one that 28:32 I saw maybe a couple years ago and it sticks with me. Go to Matthew chapter 19. This is another one of those things that 28:52 I've I read my Bible too fast. Sometimes I fly through the scriptures because I'm a type A personality and I I want to get my Bible in for the day. So, it's almost a becomes a checkbox and I miss crucial things that I believe the 29:09 Lord is trying to tell me about heaven because I go so fast. So the context is it's after the rich young ruler and Peter's saying, "Hey, we left everything. We left everything to follow you." I'll start at verse 28. 29:32 And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that you have that you who have followed me in the generation when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, 29:47 you also shall sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel." Wait a minute. What's going on there? like, okay, I remember I remember we're in Revelation and there was one throne, one glorious 30:05 throne that Jesus is on and then there's like there were like 24 other thrones and now here's 12 thrones. I don't know if those are the 12 thrones uh if that's like 12 of the 24 or if that's 24 plus these 12. Now we're up to 36 thrones. I 30:22 don't know. I don't care. I really don't care because I want to know what does this mean for me? What is the important thing for me? And it's this that thrones speak of justice and that and judgment. And this is my understanding is that 30:41 there's justice in heaven. It's not going to be a bunch of people sitting around on clouds playing harps. That is not heaven. That's the world's picture of heaven. There is going to be the kingdom of heaven is going to have 30:52 justice administered. And yeah, maybe the 12 and I assume it's not Judas. So I assume it's Mias. Maybe they'll sit on 12 thrones. So what does that leave me doing? Well, maybe I'm a worker. Maybe I have some responsibility there. But the point is 31:09 just this. I go back to Matthew 6:33 and it where it says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." Here's the important thing. And his righteousness. But brothers and sisters, I don't know exactly how this is all going to work, 31:24 but these clues are important. I need to know if I'm going to be a citizen of heaven, if I'm going to be uh part of Jesus's household, I need to know the rules. I need to know how things work in the kingdom of heaven. And I need to know 31:41 his righteousness, his justice. And so, I'm I'm learning because of that, whenever I go through a trial here on earth, he's teaching me something of heaven. If you've ever said, "That's not fair." If you've ever gone through a situation 32:01 or a trial where you didn't think it was fair, right? Maybe somebody else got something that you felt you should have had. If you've ever said that, let me suggest something to you. It's possible that the Lord is teaching you something of heaven 32:19 through your injustice here or your perceived injustice here. This is something I'm learning. My eyes, you know, I worked in the the legal field and maybe that's why the Lord put me to that. I didn't plan on doing that when I was young, but the 32:34 Lord made me a parallegal and I started learning about justice in the military and I started learning about justice in the world. And I learned that it's different. There are some things that we've pulled from God's word, but there 32:45 are other things that we've pulled from other places. And so, when we're seeking his righteousness, we're seeking his justice. We're seeking what he thinks is right because he wants to teach us things of heaven. So if something wasn't fair to you, go 33:00 to him. Let your mind go back to heaven and say, "What are you teaching me about heaven while I'm on this earth?" And this this judgment is again, I can't explain it to you, but I see my Lord talking. I see Jesus saying, "Listen, 33:17 your focus, right, needs to be thinking about what's going to happen after this." If he's trying to change your heart or change your mind or or transform the way you think while you're here on earth, it's to prepare prepare you for all 33:31 eternity. And he's teaching you little things. And brothers and sisters, he's teaching every one of you something. And when we come together in fellowship, we often share those things that he's teaching us because he's preparing us for eternity. 33:49 One other point about this, you know, I said that this understanding makes Matthew 6:33 even more critical that what I should be seeking in my life is his kingdom and his righteousness. And he says, "Don't worry about all that 34:03 other stuff, Josh. Your 401k will take care of itself. retirement, healthcare, all that stuff that interestingly Americans worry about, but people that live in other other countries don't. Well, what is that, Lord? What are you 34:16 teaching me? What are you trying to tell me? Not to focus on that. I want you focused on my kingdom, my righteousness exclusively. I want your mind attached there, Lord, to my life. What are you telling me about eternity? And every detail is 34:32 carefully thought out. You didn't get this. this didn't work out the way you're you planned it. You don't know how this is going to turn out. Every detail your heavenly father sitting on his throne is preparing you for a day 34:43 that you're going to live with Jesus in that house right through the trials and stuff you're going through now. I've only experienced a little bit of this at 50 years old. I look back and I go, "Oh, I never saw it that way. I got light on 35:01 it because you let me go through that. It was so hard to go through that. But now I see that you had to change something in me. I had to go through it. There was no other way than that suffering. It changes our perspective. 35:17 In the parable of the talents, Matthew 25, you know it. You're familiar with it, right? We're not going to summarize just yet. Familiar with the parable of talents, right? Each is given something. One talent, two talents, five talents. 35:30 Remember? Do you remember the reward for the person that had two talents and made it two and the person that made it five talents and made it five? Do you remember the reward? Go back and check me carefully, but he 35:46 says, "I'm going to put you in charge." Did you catch that? I don't know what you think of heaven, what you think heaven's going to be, but he rewarded those that were faithful with what they had. He put them in charge. In other 36:00 words, there's going to be work in heaven. Work that's all centered around his righteousness. So my point, brothers and sisters, if we're going to be prepared for that work, then then we have to learn his righteousness now. 36:16 Otherwise, that will feel like a foreign country to us. Do you understand? Some of you are from other countries. You come here for the first time. You remember stories of like, "This is crazy. I don't understand what a McDonald's is. 36:31 Right? What what is this place? Right? When you first came over here, but we don't want to get to heaven and go, what is this? What is this righteousness? What is this justice? Why is he like that? Why is the the king of everything? 36:45 Why is he acting like this? We're given a chance to learn it now. And that's why even in our earthly trials, we can be heavenly minded and we can watch and pay attention to what the Lord is trying to show us and teach us, not 37:01 just for this moment, but for all eternity so that we're prepared for citizenship in heaven. All right, let's recap. All right, we talked about setting our mind on things above. We talked about the rubber band. We started with in a 37:16 place of honesty or we're seeking a place of honesty of where we're attaching. And I hope all of us, you know, from the scriptures want our mind to be attached there. Don't worry about whether it is or not. Mine wasn't for many, many, many 37:33 years. I had so much worldly thinking in my mind, more than I ever knew when I started. And the Lord is transforming it gradually. So do not get discouraged if your first thoughts when you wake up in the morning are not heavenly. Don't get 37:47 discouraged. It takes it took me a long time, right? But determined to set your mind there. Say, Lord, teach me to set my mind there. And then we looked at three pictures of heaven. Three glimpses that tell us things. The first is seeing our 38:03 heavenly father on the throne in all his power and all his majesty and all his knowledge in control. We see him and again not just, you know, go back and read it in Revelation. Go back and read it over and over again until you 38:22 see it in reality, till you're living it, till it's you're walking it by faith. You know your heavenly father's in control. And then we saw the second thing is Jesus's words and he's saying, "Listen, I'm not it's not mansions. 38:37 It's not glamour. It's not luxury. It's not wealth. It's a home. And I'm not going to leave you as an orphan. I want you to live with me. I want you to come live with me. I want you to be part of my family." Isn't that crazy? 38:52 It's true. Jesus wants me to live with him forever. That's crazy. I know me and I think I know him. Why would you want me to live with you in your house? Would you invite me to your Can I live with you? Would you guys want Josh to 39:08 live with you for a month? You'd make it maybe a week. You'd be like, "You need to go back to your or Amber, come get him." Jesus says, "I want to live with you forever." And then finally, last thing, and I want to consider this more 39:21 because I think this is very important. Being heavily minded means we're tuned in to the work around us. Every trial, everything we go through, every job layoff, every heartbreak, every family trial you go through, all of it, 39:35 all of it. The Lord is trying to teach you things of heaven through it. And I think everybody here suffers from those things, struggles with those things, right? Being heavily minded that go is by faith saying, "I can't see what 39:51 you're doing yet, but I know that you're preparing me. I know that you're teaching me things so that one day when I'm with you, I'll understand the way that this kingdom, the way that citizen in this world works." And you're showing me these things now. 40:09 I thank you for that. That's all I have, brothers and sisters. May the Lord help us to be heavenly minded. Thank you brother Josh uh for the 40:30 exhortation to be heavenly minded especially uh as he was taking us through revelations revelation chapter 4 that expression come up here or come up higher see the things from the perspective of heaven 40:48 and Jesus is saying I will show you what must take place after these things. when our perspective changes uh when the point from the point where we see things change our perspective of the things change uh I can share one thing personally back 41:06 in California right in the place where we were there was a nice mountain I used to hike a lot um so whenever I am stressed in the work or any other trials I'm going through so I mean that is my getaway I go and hike and literally ally 41:24 and spiritually in both ways I'm little closer to the heaven and I see my own life as I think about my all the things that are happening in my life I see the scripture meditate on the scripture most of the times I used to do alone and god 41:41 used to help me during that time to see the things that are happening in my own life from a different perspective as I come up it is like a total six miles round trip almost uh I think 2,500 ft high. So from there I see my own home uh 41:58 India it appears even smaller and smaller. The big freeways are coming smaller. The big cars are becoming smaller. Millions of dollars homes become smaller and smaller. The same things I'm striving and I'm working hard to buy a house and everything is 42:13 becoming smaller. My perspective is changing. that used to be that used to help me a lot uh to clear up my mind because my now my point of view has changed from where I see things. I I think as I see here uh I think John had the same 42:29 experience in other time uh we went on a trip we were staying in a small Airbnb place very uh simple place and there was another very expensive hotel and when we were going through the tour we saw wow this is a great hotel and I could not 42:46 afford that but we went on a gondola trip we went to a top of a mountain from there I saw it doesn't look like a big hotel to me everything looks same uh same thing here uh I think when we get to see the things that are happening to 43:00 our lives from the perspective of heaven uh everything changes the things that we worry about the things that we we are getting anxious about everything changes the moment we see things from God's point of view and I it's interesting 43:16 that and as I Joshua was mentioning about all of these uh messages to the churches Uh Jesus spoke to different churches, different things, addressing lot of things and John must be confused. These are all churches. I didn't even know 43:32 that there were problems like this. And Jesus because of his love, he was speaking very strong words. In fact, I want to highlight one word that he says in Revelation 3:19. Revelation 3:19. Those whom I love, I 43:50 reprove and discipline. Therefore, be zealous and repent. And behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and I will dine with him and he with me. Even after all his corrections and all 44:08 of that are rebuked and he's inviting for the fellowship, he is ready to come in. And he's inviting John also to come up here and see the things. And what John saw is I mean I don't have to repeat what uh Josh said. One thing I 44:22 want to just highlight, he saw the holiness of God. He got the perspective in verse 8. And the four living creatures, each of them having six wings are full of eyes around him and within and day and night 44:39 they do not cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty who was and and who is and who is to come." uh even same thing like Isaiah Isaiah had the same experience. He saw the holiness of God and all the things that 44:56 are happening in heaven. How he is praised like that. There's never a repetition like that. Holy, holy, holy. I mean never we hear anything like God is love, love, love or anything like that. When it comes to holiness, the 45:09 emphasis is made so clearly three times. And what happens after that is the 24 elders fall down and cast their thrones and all of that. They see and they praise God. Praise Jesus. Worthy are you our Lord and our God to receive glory, 45:27 honor and power. And when we see that holiness of God, then we see why God is so zealous for the purity of the church is so zealous for each one of us. He takes the sin seriously. Just like a very good doctor takes care of this uh 45:45 in the hospitals how careful they are about everything. They wear gloves. They're making what is that? sanitization so careful because otherwise the infection can spread and the patient can die. Likewise God know God sees the seriousness of sin and when 46:02 he does anything when he speaks to us he knows because the holiness and purity is so important and he knows that whatever is he sees in us is dangerous to us. That's why I I think it's always good to go and see the things from the point of 46:18 uh the scriptures uh because scriptures helps us to see the heaven's perspective. Uh one verse I want to say is from Romans chapter 12. We are constantly uh called to be uh called to do this. uh Romans 12:2, 46:36 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is and that which is good, acceptable, and perfect." We need to be transformed. We heard that word again 46:52 and again today. Transformation. The transformation comes only by running of our mind through the word of God by looking at things from heaven's perspective by seeing the holiness of God by hating sin and by loving righteousness. Even if there is a uh 47:09 discipline and rebuke and whatever, I think our response could be like what the psalmist said in Psalms 141. Um Psalms 141, it says five, verse 5, let the righteous smite me in kindness 47:27 and reprove me. It is oil upon the head. Do not let my head refuse it. For still my prayer is again it's uh uh yeah the first part of the verse let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me and when we go through 47:42 afflictions and trials again as we are reminded again God is doing something God is maybe delivering our attachments to this world when he recently God took me some great experiences I mean painful experiences God worked in my heart to 47:59 let go of a lot of things even the positions you know one of the conditions of the disciples is I must love God more than all my possessions. God gives sometimes and takes away everything and uh we can Lord if it is the right thing for you to do I 48:14 mean for my spiritual good so be it. So God takes us through takes us through a lot of things so that we can only be setting our mind and our affection on things about where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. uh we need 48:30 to be constantly renewing our mind because it's very easy to get attached to the world to see the things of the world and try to judge the things of the world from our earthly mindset and then we can go wrong once our minds are set 48:42 on heaven once we are renewed by the word of God once we see things from God's perspective lot of things make sense only thing then we would say the only thing that is serious in our life is sin everything else our financial 48:56 loss or loss of health loss of relationships Everything is okay Lord. Only thing serious is sin because you're holy God and I want to be holy and um only you must get all the glory in my life. I just want to leave one final 49:10 verse. Um how zealous he is for us for each of the believers and the church. Um we see that in the heart of Paul in uh 2 Corinthians 11 verse two onwards. I just want to read couple of verses here. 2 49:28 Corinthians 11:2 onwards. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that as a serpent 49:48 deceived you by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. He says, "I'm very afraid your minds are now led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. From being heavenly minded, from 50:08 seeing things from heaven's perspective, by from taking sin seriously and to led astray to take care of the things of this world, we could be easily deceived by the enemy. Because as a serpent deceived Eve, he's warning us. I'm 50:24 afraid as a serpent deceived Eve, your minds will be led astray. Let's take this word seriously. Um because God is jealous. He wants to present us a pure virgin as a individually and also as a church pure bride to Jesus Christ. May 50:43 the Lord help us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the word you have given to us and the calling to come up higher. uh Lord to see things from heaven's perspective. The exhortation we receive to set our 50:59 mind and our affection and things above. Father help us to renew our mind uh through the word of God through the truth in the scriptures so that we are no longer earthly minded but heavenly minded so that we no longer are deceived 51:13 by the serpent just as a serpent deceived Eve. We don't want to be led astray, but we want to preserve our purity and simplicity of our devotion to you. Lord, help us to have the same response as the psalmist said, "Let the 51:26 righteous might me even when you reprove, uh, correct and rebuke us. Help us to see your heart out of love so that we can respond like that. Lord, let the righteous might me. Help us, Lord, to constantly purify ourselves just as you 51:42 are pure. judge ourselves just Lord by looking unto you and comparing ourselves with you Lord. We want to be like you. This is our goal Lord because this is your your you have predestined each one of us to be conformed to the image of 51:57 your son. Please help us continue to fill us with your holy spirit Lord. Help us to lay down our will and the cross. Help us to seek to do your will Lord even as you take us through narrow path even as you take us through afflictions, 52:10 pains, sufferings and many things Lord uh but help us to see the work you are doing in our lives. The work you have began the work you continue to do Lord Jesus. Let let our eyes be always fixed on you Lord Jesus. You are the same 52:27 yesterday, today and forever. Uh Lord, looking onto Jesus, we want to continue this journey of faith. Please build your church, Lord. All authority in heaven and earth are given unto you. Help us to make disciples, Lord. Disciples who love 52:42 you, who take every word in the scripture seriously, Lord. Lord, may our church be like that, Father. Help us to tremble at your word and humble ourselves. Lord, as you speak to us, Lord, help us to respond and bear much 52:56 fruit for you. Thank you, Father, for your love for this church and for each one of us. For the way you speak to us in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Okay, that's the end of our formal meeting. We're going to break
