I am so glad you're here today. I cannot even tell you. I've been praying that you would get up all morning. I woke up very early this morning and was praying that the Lord would wake you up and get you here. And I'm glad that he answered that prayer and you're here. Let's go ahead and address the whole daylight savings time thing one time. All right. Let's just give you one helpful little piece of cheerleading. OK, you are not tired because it's daylight savings time. You're tired because of self-pity. If this were the first day of your vacation and you'd gotten up at 4 in the morning to drive to California, you'd be fine. If this were the first day of deer season and you got up at 4.30 to go get in a tree and freeze yourself to death to cunt deer, you'd be fine. Okay? But somebody else made you change your clock and get you up early and you're mad about it. You're not sleepy. You're mad. OK, well, take that up with Jesus. Tell him it wasn't your decision. He'll say most things warrant and you're going to get over it. All right. But let's wake up. All right. Because what I've got for you today is a big deal and I want you to receive it like a big deal. This is our last sermon on the book of Revelation is our 21st sermon. If you learn nothing about the book of Revelation, you should learn this. Seven is the number of completion. Right. It's perfect. Three is the number of the superlative. It's God's number. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The Holy Spirit, God, the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit live in the eternal three. So if you've done three sevens or 21 sermons, you are done. That's when you stop. And we're going to finish. With this glorious chapter, it is the consummation of the entire Bible, and that is not in any way an exaggeration. And I hope you get it. I hope you feel it while you read it. I want you to feel it to the very depths of your being that this text is the biggest deal in the history of the world. It really is. It's the purpose of world history. It's the consummation. It is the consummation. It's what we're here for. And I want you to feel it. So to encourage you to feel it, I'm going to invite all of you to stand as we read God's holy word from Revelation 21, 1 through 8. And before we do, I'm just going to point out a couple of things to you, okay? The very first thing we're told in the Bible is that God created the heavens and the earth, but there was darkness. and water was over the face of the earth. It was darkness and sea, which represented chaos. And God created man and woman to live with him in perfect relationship, and they were cast out because of their sin, and they were forbidden to come back into that garden. And from that time on, we've been living separate and alienated from God. Beginning of creation, there was darkness, and there was sea. And ever since the fall of man, there's been separation and alienation. Now hear the word of the Lord. 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. And he will wipe every tear away 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. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This is the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. Please have a seat. I had the pleasure of living in the Mississippi Delta for seven years. The Mississippi Delta is the flatland is where all the plantations were and still are. It's one of the most idiosyncratic and southern places in the history in the United States left. It is it's it's what it has always been. And nobody really moves, there's not a lot of transition going on. That's why it is what it's always been. And you get to meet some wonderful characters there. And one of those characters is a man named Frank Wood. Frank Wood was, I can tell you Frank Wood stories for a while, but I won't. But I'll tell you one. Frank had to have open heart surgery in the early 1970s. Nowadays, open heart surgery is no big deal. They just install a zipper, unzip you, look in there, fix whatever needs fixing, zip you back up and send you home, right? But back then, very frightening deal. And the surgeon walked in, and the night before the surgery, and he sat down, he stood over Mr. Frank's bed, and he said, this is what we're gonna do, and kinda explain the surgery, and what tomorrow is gonna be like. And he said, Mr. Frank, you know, this is a very big deal. And we're gonna do our absolute best tomorrow to send you home. And he started to walk out, and Frank Wood said, son, I need you to sit down. And Frank began to explain to him how his life was hid in Jesus Christ. And he said, Sir, son, God, everybody's son. The son. I want you to do a good job tomorrow. But there is nothing you could possibly do to prevent me from going home. Going home. That's what this scripture text is about. That we have a home that we have been created for. That we have been created to live forever in. That is the fulfillment of our purpose. It is the fulfillment of our destiny. We have a home and we are not there yet. And we will not be there yet until Jesus Christ makes all things new, brings about our physical resurrection. We're not talking about the place you go to when you die. That's called the intermediate state. We've talked about that a few times in Revelation. Our souls will go and be with Jesus. Our bodies will stay in the grave. We're talking about when God comes and he makes all the creation new. And he raises our bodies back up and our souls are reunited to them. Then and only then will we be home. One of my wife's favorite movies, Wally and Wally, all the humans have been in these enormous spaceships and they've just been living on spaceships for generations. And finally, the earth has cleaned itself up enough that it can start producing oxygen again, and it's safe for them to return to the earth. And the captain turns the spaceship real dramatically, and everybody asks him, where are we going? And he says, we're going home for the first time. And that's what the resurrection is. It is us going home for the first time. And what I want, what I dream, what I pray this sermon will be, will be like words from home. It'll be a reminder that home still exists. That it will draw you into it, that it will encourage you towards it. I was listening to This American Life last night, and I found this out. This is amazing to me. Columbia, the nation of Columbia, has so many kidnappings every year that there are radio stations that have all-night programs, right, from like 11 till 6 in the morning when we're having, you know, the guys talking to spaceships and that kind of thing on the radio. They have these all-night programs that are dedicated to victims of kidnapping. And all they do is have family members come in and send messages out on the radio in hopes that their kidnapped family members will hear them. Isn't that crazy? And what's even more interesting is that the kidnappers, the bad guys, want their victims to listen. They want them to hear these messages from home because, you know, this is just a business transaction to them. They want money. And so if you die while you're being kidnapped, it kind of costs them a lot of money. And so they want you healthy. They want you to thrive. And they know that if you hear a message from home, then you won't give up hope. If you hear that your wife and children are remembering you and they're expecting you, then you won't give up hope and you'll stay alive. I want this to be a message from home for you. I want you to know that a better day exists. A better place exists. I want you to know that while you will always struggle with disappointment from whatever you experience on this earth, a better place exists. And we're going home. We are going home. Let's talk about home. Home, first of all, home is where love dwells. Isn't that nice and cheesy? Kind of precious, isn't it? I'll bet your mother or your grandmother, depending on how old you are, has something cross-stitched somewhere in the house that sounds something like this. No matter what, no matter where, it's always home if love is there, right? Something along those lines. Everybody's got that sentiment. But I want you to know that the reality is infinitely more than a precious moment. The overwhelming reality of this text is this weight. We've made it. When you wake up at home, you've made it. The reality of this text is this overwhelming sense that we've made it. Again, remember what the story of the Bible is about, right? Adam and Eve, they were created to live in harmony, in relationship with God the Father, but they sinned. And when they sinned, they went and hid from each other and they hid from God. And God covered for their sin, but He cast them out of the garden. And He put a sword there and said, you're not coming back here. You'll never come back to paradise and stay this way. And from that time on, we have lived in alienation from God. We've lived separated from him. So that when Moses begged to see God, God said, no one can see my glory and live. So when Isaiah walked into the temple and God was seating on the throne, all he saw of God was the hem of his garment. And he heard the worship and he fell down as though dead. And he said, woe is me, I am undone. We cannot dwell with him. And then Jesus in John, chapter 17, prays for us that we will be one as he and the father are one, and we would be able to be in him. He says, even as I, father, are in you and you are in me, let them be in us. And in Revelation 21, we see it happen. Behold. The dwelling place of God is with man and he will dwell with them. And they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. No representation, no temple, no statue, no veil, no arc. We will live in the presence, in the physical presence of God. surrounded by Him. What do you anticipate about heaven? When you think of heaven, do you think of green meadows? Do you think of great golf courses? Do you think of great food? What do you anticipate about heaven? It's an interesting question. It's a great way to get people's kind of spiritual temperatures, asking that question. What do you look forward to? What's it gonna be like? Because everybody has a dream about heaven. They have an imagination of what it's gonna be like. It's in the very core of our being that there has to be a world better than this one. But what an unbeliever will inevitably leave out is this. An unbeliever will never tell you the thing they anticipate is being with God. But if you are in Christ, the thing that overwhelms you, the thing you dream about, is being with God, being with Him, as He's there. And we see that not only just in this text about dwelling with Him, we see that in this idea of seeing His face. Look at verses four and five of chapter 22. They will see His face. and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more, and they will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever." Of being engulfed in the light, and being surrounded by God's presence. When I was a campus minister, we used to have, at Mississippi State, we had great tailgate parties. We had a terrible football team, but great tailgate parties. One year, actually, ESPN always kind of showed a Thursday night game for Mississippi State, and the very first thing ESPN showed from Starkville, Mississippi, was my tailgate party. I was very proud of that. All my students kind of ringing their cowbells, and there was our grill. That's my claim, that's my 15 seconds. So, and then I wasn't even on it. The reason I wasn't on it is this, during that period, there's about, you know, maybe an acre of grass or a little less than an acre that has about 2000 people on it. And for some reason, I thought it'd be fun to take my kids. And so I'm doing ministry, right? I'm talking to people and trying to meet people's parents. And I've got three of my children running around, one of whom is only like three and a half at most, maybe four. And this girl walks up to me and says, hey, I saw your son about to cross the street and I sent him back. I thought, well, that's half good news. I said, well, where is he? And she goes, I don't know. So he's kind of wandering around for a while, you know, he's trying to play it cool. Don't want to panic. And he was gone. And so I grabbed about seven guys and I said, guys, he is gone. Find him. And the next 15 minutes were the worst 15 minutes of my life thus far. And we're searching and we're searching. And of course, he's just kind of over watching some people play a drinking game actually, but that's okay. He was too young to learn. And then he never even knew he was lost. But when he came back, one of my students brought him back. I just engulfed him in this enormous bear hug. And if you've ever felt lost, and then been greeted with a huge warm hug. What do you think a soldier misses about home? Do you think he misses hot showers and soft beds? Or do you think he misses the hugs of his family? Have you ever felt one of those reunion hugs? I want you to know this. That is lonelier than you will ever feel in the new heavens and the new earth. As good as that hug felt is the worst you will ever feel. Because you will be in the face of God surrounded by him like light. And there'll be no darkness. And you will live there forever and ever. And that presence changes us. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A bride adorned. When you go to a wedding and you hear the, you know, everybody's finally in place and it's kind of awkward because I'm the only one, the preacher's the only one standing facing everybody, everybody else kind of has their back to you. And you know, the bride's mother has finally stood up and the doors open to the back and you see the bride finally, What do you look at? Do you look at her dress? Do you look at her shoes? Look at her face. And you see how this love has transformed her face. That's how a husband adorns his bride, right? But you don't look that way anymore, do you? Do you beam like that every time your husband comes home? Do you beam like that every time you walk in the door? Do you still? Why? Because he wasn't what you were hoping for, was he? Let's just be honest. At that moment, no matter how much of premarital counseling you had gotten, you believed he was going to be perfect. You believed he was going to fill your Christmas stocking with nothing but joy and love and warmth and happiness. And he didn't, did he? He didn't. Why? Because he is not what you were created for. You have not yet seen your true husband. But when you see Him, you will beam with a light that will never fade away. 1 John 3 tells us this, we do not even know what we're gonna be like, but when we see Him, we will be as He is. He will change us. Just seeing Him will change us. We will dwell in His presence. That's why you feel like you're missing something. That's why some of you just so, with such abandon and such, you push yourself so hard, pushing yourself in school or in work, because you feel like you're missing something. That's why some of you go from relationship to relationship, because you feel like you're missing something. You know, Bo laughs at me because I've got about 40 different translations for this one principle, you know. You keep using the same bait, you're going to catch the same fish. You keep going to the same store, you're going to buy the same junk. You're going to keep getting disappointed. You keep working the same formula, you're going to get the same answer. I got a million. You go from guy to guy, from job to job, from class to class, from major to major. Some of you resent your spouse, you resent your children, you resent your job, your life, your city, because you're missing something. I know, you really are missing something, but you're not gonna find it down here. You're missing home, you're missing home. And when you go home, you will be complete. You will be like a bride who for the first time has seen her husband. Home is where love is, and you'll never know true love until you walk there. But you can glimpse from it now. You can get a glimpse now as you hear a message from home. Home is where love is, and secondly, home is safe. Home is safe. Listen to how it's protected. It had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates were twelve angels. And on the gates the name of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed." Throughout the Bible, There's this picture of us as pilgrims. Abraham was told to go and pilgrim through the promised land, but not to live in any one particular place, one permanent place. And then the next picture is the picture of Israel. When they come out of Egypt, they're always journeying. They're on exile. They're journeying through the wilderness. And the New Testament picks that picture up that we're not permanent here. That our home isn't here. And those who try to perfect the earth always fail. It's not permanent. There are no walls here. We're not city builders. Our city is waiting for us. And when we finally get home, there's no moving. We're settled. There's no wanderlust. We're safe. and we're protected by walls and we're protected by our father. We're told he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. In the past couple of weeks, I've heard more and more stories from some of you stories of abuse and people you love have been abused. And you just, when you hear those kinds of stories, you want to hug somebody and say that it's gone. It's over. You're safe. Nobody's ever going to hurt you again. And you remember when you were a child and you have, or even now, you have nightmares. You're so afraid and you're so terrified. And then you wake up and, you know, my wife had a dream this week that one of our children had died. It was terrible. And then she woke up and she went and found him. And he was OK. And the thing that she feared did not exist. And that's what it's gonna be like to wake up on this day in heaven. We'll wake up when there is not, not just, he wipes every tear from our eyes. We wake up and there's no pain. There's no crying. There's no mourning. For the former things have passed away. What does that mean? They don't exist anymore. Well, I can't really honestly tell you that no one's ever gonna hurt you again, can I? Matter of fact, I mean, I can, I'd be alive, and I could say that. No one's ever gonna hurt you, but it wouldn't comfort you. But when we are home, when we are at home, the things you fear do not exist anymore. It's like waking up from a nightmare. They're gone. It's not that the reward in heaven is so great that you'll forget about it, it's that they're gone. They're gone. There's nothing to fear at all. They've passed away. Home is safe and it's protected by walls and by your Father, and it is protected by purity. How can we know it's gonna be eternally safe? Because nothing's gonna come in it that will threaten it. were told its gates would never be shut by day, and there'll be no night there, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does not does what is detestable or false, but only those whose names are written in the book of life." Why is heaven safe? Because nothing that is impure can enter it. How does that make you feel? A little nervous? Now are you worried about whether or not you're gonna get to go there at all? Nothing impure can enter it. It's interesting, listen to how the text begins. If you have your bulletin, what does he say? He says, I don't have the verses on the bulletin, but look in the second paragraph. We're told, the one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. If nothing impure can enter it, then it makes me wonder whether I get to come in and The Apostle Paul deals with that question too, where he tells us in 1 Corinthians 6, that don't be surprised, there will be no fornicators, no homosexuals, no sexually impure, no greedy. No one who's dirty will enter the kingdom of God. And then he says this, and such were some of you, but you have been purified. You have been sanctified. You have been made right in Christ. So what's the comment, what's the relationship there? Instead of saying that this Revelation text tells us the one who conquers, the one who is brave, the one who conquers his sin gets in. What does that mean? What is true bravery look like? I think we get a glimpse of it. When we think of sin, think of your seeing your shame and you want to cover it. When you're ashamed of yourself, what do you wanna do? You wanna hide. And the Bible tells us clearly, he who hides his sin will never prosper. So what does conquest look like in those moments? It looks like confession. You wanna know what bravery is? Bravery is not getting on a motorcycle and being stupid. Bravery is not climbing in a ring and getting your brains beat out. What is bravery? What is conquest? Conquest is looking at your dad and confessing your sin. It's looking at your wife and telling her that you lied to her. It's looking at your husband and telling him that you sinned against him. That's bravery. And that is the bravery that leads to life. That is the bravery that confesses that you are weak and you are thirsty and that you need the waters of life. And when you do that, when we confess our sin, Proverbs tells us we find mercy and forgiveness. And 1 Corinthians tells us we are justified and we are purified. And Revelation tells us we find our names written in the Lamb's book of life. Home is pure because we've been made pure and our sin is finally separated from us. And if you're a believer, that's sweet to you. John Owen has a saying that he doesn't see how anybody can possibly be a Christian if your sin is not your greatest burden. If you feel terrible about your sin, congratulations, that means you're a Christian. It's a good sign. And at home, you won't be a sinner anymore. Home is safe. Home is where love is. And finally, home restores us. The angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and from the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation. This river, again, all these illusions have rich biblical story. The river, we're told, is flowing through the Garden of Eden. The river, we're told, we see it come again in the wilderness, when the Israel is in the wilderness, and they're about to die of thirst. And Moses stands up, and God tells him, I'm going to stand in front of you on this rock, and you're going to take this rod. And whatever Moses has touched with this rod has been cursed. He used it with all the plagues. And he says, I want you to strike the rock when I stand on it. And what's he saying? You're going to curse me. God is going to take his own curse. And when Moses strikes the rock, A river of life flows out of the rock, cracks open, and the water pours out. And all of Israel drinks from this fresh water, and they find life. And then we're told thousands of years later, Jesus stands up and says, if anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. And out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. And the Apostle Paul tells us that that rock that the Israelites drank from was Christ. And now the picture is in heaven. And that rock is flowing from the Lamb of God. That water is flowing from the Lamb of God. And as we drink from it, you can feel life coming back to you. Isn't that a glorious feeling when you're outside and you're just hot and you're dry and your mouth is dry and you begin to drink and it's as if your body just absorbs it and gets bigger. You can feel it going down. You can feel life coming back into you. It's life. And that's the picture of this, of being in heaven. And this life coming into us, it restores us. It brings us life. What kind of life does it bring us? Real briefly, it brings us physical healing. 1 Corinthians 15 says this, what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel. Perhaps a weed or some other grain. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. What's he saying? He's saying, I don't know what your body is going to be like at the resurrection. It's going to be connected to the one you have now. But as but glorious. It's as different as a seed is from a flower. They're connected, right? Somehow this seed became this flower. I don't know. They're connected, but one is infinitely more glorious. And that's what the resurrection is going to be like. When you see this thing up here that's slowly deteriorating. And, you know, it's funny, like if I have to dress up, if I want to look good, what do I have to do? I have to cover every inch of me. Right? If I can get, you know, I've got like that much showing. That's what it takes for me to look good. Humor me here, I think this looks good. It's the best I could do. But I'll be raised up in glory. You'll be healed. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun to be healed and perfect and complete, it's going to be fun to see people who are sick. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun to see Laura Marino turn cartwheels. It's going to be fun. Our bodies are gonna be glorious. Secondly, there's emotional healing. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Some of us long for this day when everything that is bad about us becomes untrue. Some of you long for the day when never again will you be the little boy whose dad yelled at him too much. Some of you long for the day when you will never again be the child, the grownup child who was touched like you should not have been touched. Some of you long for the day when you're no longer the person who was betrayed by someone they loved. And I want you to know that day's coming. Earlier in Revelation, we're told that the Lamb of God would wipe every tear from their eyes. But even there, there's a hint that they're still crying. And at the resurrection, on the day when God makes all things new, and everything bad comes untrue, we're told there's no more crying. There's no more mourning. You're never again that person. I'm never again this person. I'm the child of God and I'm healed. And finally, home restores us with relational healing. I love this picture from Isaiah 65. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, says the Lord. When I first read that, I used to think, well, that's not going to be very fun, you know, National Geographic won't have anything to do. You know, why would we ever turn to the Discovery Channel if we don't get to see a lion eating an antelope? That's the only reason to go. You know, shark week's gone. But obviously, there's more going on here, right? You know that. We're being told that the most natural of enemies, those who have hated each other the longest, will live at peace. Will live at peace. Won't that be nice? When you can go to bed and there's nobody that you hate. When you can go out in public and there's not a single person that you're afraid you might run into, because you really don't want to see them ever again. Won't that be nice? When you can hug your worst enemy and tell them how much you love them. Won't that be nice? In heaven, there is healing, it restores us and we're made complete. And finally, I want you to know that that day starts now. That day starts now, that living water, that river that restores us physically and emotionally and relationally, it is flowing right now. And Jesus has invited us to come and drink from it right now. It'll be more physical then, but it won't be more real. It will not be more real. And you don't just have to live with your impurity and you don't have to live with your shame. You can overcome it. And you can know forgiveness. And you can know it now. And I would invite you to start drinking of that river now. I'll be honest with you. Sometimes I pray and I pray honestly. I do that. I highly recommend it. If you've never tried to pray honestly, it's a big deal. And I'll say to the Lord, sometimes I read things like this, Lord, I don't know what that means. I don't know what it means to come to you and drink, but whatever it means, I wanna do it. So you work it out. I think he likes prayers like that. I would encourage you to pray them. I'd encourage you to come up and talk with me or with Bo or with one of our elders today and just ask us to pray with you. Cause you're ready to start drinking from that fountain today. Please pray with me now.