Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Colossians. We will not be there for the whole evening. I don't know what you do when you take a trip to a new location, one that you've not been to before. Having done a number of the senior trips and missions trips, there were occasions where we were going to places that never been before, and so, My normal habit wasn't necessarily to look online, it was to go to the library and find books on those locations. Our most recent trip for us as a family was to go down to New Orleans. We had never been to New Orleans and never expected to go to New Orleans, never Thought I would, but with Grace being down there for a couple of weeks, we decided, well, Louisiana is not a state we've ever been in before. It probably will be the only time we ever go there. So we might as well figure out some sites to be able to go to. And so went to the library and got two books on New Orleans. And if you've ever used some of these travel guides, what you'll find is that they'll explain a little bit of the culture at the front of it, and then they'll tell you what's the best of, which there's not a whole lot in New Orleans that really Christians are even going to participate in, but they have a whole lot of things like that. They tell you what's the best of food and things to try out when you're there, and they tell you all sorts of different things like that. And as you make a deeper research in the book, most of these books are written by people who actually live in those towns, not somebody who just merely drives in, but they find with these tour books that it's best to have someone who's lived there for a long period of time. And so they will oftentimes tell you where not to go. You say, is that a good idea? There are in every city, places that you don't want to end up at thinking that this will be a good location. And they will tell you how to get around town and where you can park and these type of things. New Orleans, you You can get around by streetcars, though they only go about every 30 minutes, and they were under construction when we were there, so they were actually a couple hours, in some cases, waiting for these things, and so that wasn't really the way to get around, and so we got around by foot. We did find a location where we could take a Segway tour. That is the best way to do the French Quarter, because you drive past everything, and really fast, and you get to see all the sights. Found out that the cemeteries down in New Orleans are all above ground. And you say, why is that? Well, many years ago, when they tried to start burying people in New Orleans, they kept floating to the surface of the ground. Because New Orleans is actually below sea level, as we found out with Hurricane Katrina. But many years ago, they decided, well, we have to build crypts and stick people's bodies in there. It's above ground. And they did this. And so many of the cemeteries you go to is just big old areas that have all these built up little shacks, it looks like, for graves. But as you take tour guides like that, you kind of get excited about some of the things that you're going to see. You know, this sounds interesting. Never tried this food. This might be a good place to go to. And there's other things that you kind of get worked up by, but you get there and you're kind of disappointed. It didn't last to the hype that it had and that type of thing. And for us, one of the things that we went to is the World War II Museum down there. We thought it was gonna be an hour or two to be there and we spent five hours and they kicked us out and closed the door behind us when we got done with it. But that actually lived up to the hype of being one of the best attractions in New Orleans. But you look at tour guides and go through books like that because you wanna make sure you know what's going on beforehand. Thankful when we went on our trip to Israel that we did some reading beforehand and did some of that before we actually showed up there because we would have been overwhelmed by everything that's going on. And so it is for, I would say, a majority of people in this room, you have a destination that you're headed to. It's called heaven. And for us, we ought to have some desire like a traveler would to know where they're going and what they may be doing. We ought to have that kind of interest that we're going there. We're going to heaven and we ought to have some interest in this. And it shouldn't be that we are just kind of careless about this fact that we're going to a place called heaven. Writer back in the 1800s was making comment on this fact. It is a tragedy that Christians at times don't really care where they're headed. He made this comment, he said this, the man who was about to sail for Australia or New Zealand, he was a man who lived in England, as a settler is naturally anxious to know something about his future home. It's climate, it's employments, it's inhabitants, it's ways, it's customs. All these are subjects of deep interest to him. You would be leaving the land of your nativity. You're going to spend the rest of your life in a new hemisphere. It would be strange indeed if you did not desire information about your new home. Now surely, if we hope to dwell forever, in that better country, even a heavenly one, we ought to seek all the knowledge we can get about it. Before we go to our eternal home, we should try to become acquainted with it. That's not a place that takes us completely by surprise, because there are going to be many things that are going to be glorious for us. But we shouldn't be taken by some of the things that are so obvious in the Scriptures. You say, well, why is there so much misunderstanding or so much carelessness about heaven? Initially here, introducing this topic, why is it a subject that seems to be surrounded by mystery or carelessness? And I would bring up this one very fact, that the devil really doesn't want you interested in going there. You say, how do you know that? Well, think about this. The devil is the father of lies. And his favorite lie is about heaven. Mark this down just in your thinking and read this sometime. But in Revelation chapter 13 and verse six, it talks about the beast who's empowered by Satan himself. And he makes these statements. He opened his mouth in blasphemy to God, and to blaspheme his name, and to blaspheme his tabernacle, and we're talking about the place where God dwells, and them that dwell in heaven. See, even at the end in the book of Revelation, what Satan is trying to do is to make heaven seem insignificant, unimportant, and even lie about what it's like. because he really doesn't want people having as a goal or a destination in life to go there. And you say, well, how does Satan go about this right now where he is an individual who lies and blasphemes and tries to get us to not believe what's going on in heaven? I would say in our generation, there are a number of people that claim to believe in heaven, According to a poll back in the early or mid-2000s, it said about 80% of Americans believe in heaven. That's an increase of about 10% from previous years. 80% of those questions said that they also believe they will be admitted to heaven when they die. So 80% of the population claims that they, here in America, that they believe there's a heaven, and they think and question that they will be there. In other words, a very large majority of people believe in heaven, and almost everyone who believes in heaven expects to go there in the afterlife, but there's a stunning irony. While interest in heaven is rapidly rising belief in God is steadily declining at a massive rate. You say, well, what is the devil doing in an attempt to really make people not want to go to heaven? Well, he's got individuals that are going about and giving a rather sad impression or their thoughts on what they think heaven will be like from their own perspective. Sadly, there was an individual by the name of Samuel Clemens, we would know him better as Mark Twain, that if you read any of his writings, you realize that he was a man who didn't like God, didn't like heaven, and didn't care about angels or anything else. In fact, that was part of his comedy act that he would use to travel around the country and make fun of things like God and heaven. In one of his more famous stories he has in the adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you have a character there that's by the name of Miss Watson, who's the Christian spinster in town, who is not happy with Huck having so much fun. And so according to Huck, she went on and on and on and told me all about the good place. She said, all a body would have to do there is to go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and ever, so I didn't think much of it. I then asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said, not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that because I wanted him and me to be together. I mean, that is some people's concept of heaven. that all we will do is when we walk in the gate that we will receive a harp and there'll be some misty clouds that are around and we'll be playing that harp forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. There was a man by the name of Lloyd George who was the Prime Minister of England during World War I that voiced his opinion about what he thought heaven was going to be like, and he just simply said this, it seems to me that it's gonna be one church service after another church service after another church service, and after having been in the Church of England for all those years with the different things that went on with their liturgy and everything else, he wasn't saying that as a compliment. He wasn't looking forward to heaven. There are some people who try to imagine what heaven is going to be like. When I came to the conclusion that I was going to do the study on heaven, I was at the library and one of the books in the new titles on the shelf was Beyond. And the title, Being Beyond, was just simply describing this, how humankind thinks about heaven. And that's the title of the book. And I thought, well, here's a good read for me to figure out what people are believing in heaven. And I could only go about 40 to 50 pages into it. But the assumption of this woman who works for a Catholic university was that everything that in the universe, or excuse me, the human life, seems to indicate that people believe in heaven, some way, shape, or form. It just seems to be part of the DNA, that there's some great beyond, as some would call it, or nirvana, or other things like that, that they call it that. But her statement was this about heaven. Indeed, the history of belief in heaven and then she puts in quotes or in parentheses, or hell or transcendence, is the history of our imaginings. About it, we are authors of an ongoing story whose conclusion, if it has one, lies beyond our horizon. So basically what she says is, well, this idea of heaven is something that we've come up with our imagination, and so we've got to gather everybody's imaginations together and perhaps we'll get a defining picture of what heaven was. After I went through the 40 pages there in the first part, I thought, well, maybe the last chapter gives me some conclusions. You know, she sums it up and goes, well, here's what heaven's like. You get to the end and it's just a series of, well, you know, there's this and that and perhaps this is what some people, and you get done and you're like, heaven's a place of confusion. Nothing's really settled and no one knows what's going on. Back in the early 2000s, there was something that started that one blogger has entitled this, heaven tourism. There's a series of books that were written. I'll give you some of the titles because perhaps you've seen them in your local Christian bookstore. There's a book called Heaven is for Real. It's got a little boy on the cover. This is a boy who supposedly died twice and went to heaven. I believe his name is Colton if I remember correctly. But in the whole process of having these surgeries and nearly dying, it's a few months later that his dad is making some comments and talking about certain things and his son goes by and goes, oh, I saw that. And he starts claiming that he saw different things in heaven. So dad starts asking him questions and goes on and you have all these fanciful things. And some of them may be accurate in the sense that perhaps in a Bible story in a Sunday school, this young man heard something and saw a picture on a flannel graph on it. But he gets to some fanciful interpretations that the Holy Spirit, he's blue. And dad is like, wow, this is fantastic. The Holy Spirit is blue. My four-year-old son is telling me this. And so the whole book is the descriptions of a four-year-old of things that he claimed that he saw while he was in surgery. But when you test it against Scripture, most of the ideas are rather fanciful. He had another book that, and I will say this, it's not that this is something that people have rejected. This is something that they've accepted. And they have obviously, if a book is successful, then you have to make a movie about it. So they've done this. There's another book that was about a young man, the boy who came back from heaven. Tyndale Publishing House, a fairly well-known publishing house, printed this. It was about a young man who, well, He, during a time of crisis as far as health, claimed that he went to heaven. Well, the problem was is it was a story that his father made up. He's questioning his son about certain things that he may have seen while he was sedated and these type of things. And dad began to piece together a story. And after a while, it came out that the son, Alex, and the mother, Beth, both came out and just simply said, this is a complete hoax. It really didn't happen, but this book sold almost five million copies. Tyndale had to pull this off the shelf and they finally made a declaration, we're not doing any more books on heavenly tourism. And you have other individuals, a pastor that describes 90 minutes in heaven. He had an accident and for 90 minutes he enjoyed the glories of heaven and then got called back. And you have other individuals that have, in one case, somebody said, well, he mistook the guideposts and ended up going the wrong direction. Because this individual wrote a book that was 23 minutes in hell. But as one has described it, this thing sold better than if he had described a journey, say, to Detroit. And he even saw his book hit the bestseller list for several weeks. See, there was a time early in the 2000s and even now that people are flocking to books like this. This is not a book that's written that no one reads. These are books that, as I said, are selling by 5 million, 6 million copies, 7 million copies. That people are just eating this up, that you have these people who are describing heaven. But the problem with this is that in their heavenly tourism, much of what they're saying has nothing to do with Scripture. It's imagination. We should take this warning from Charles Spurgeon. 100 years ago, here's what he said. It's a little heaven below to imagine sweet things, but never think that imagination can picture heaven. When it's most sublime, when it's the freest from the dust of the earth, when it is carried up by the greatest knowledge and kept steady by the most extreme caution, imagination cannot picture heaven. As the scripture says, it hath not entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Imagination is good, but not to picture to us heaven. Your imaginary heaven will find by and by to be all a mistake. And though you may have piled up fine castles, you will find them to be castles in the air, and they will vanish like thin clouds before the gale, for imagination cannot make a heaven I hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. So this has been going on for generations where people have been coming up with fanciful accounts of what it's like to go to heaven, but there's an earnest desire in every human being that there is something beyond. And they wanna know what it's like. Now, there is nothing wrong with a study of things above and looking towards heaven. You go, how do you know that? Well, we had you turn to a passage, and it's in Colossians 3. Colossians 3 simply says this. If ye then be risen with Christ. So you go, well, who are individuals that are risen with Christ? Well, these would be individuals that are unified in his death, burial, and resurrection. You go, who is he talking to? He's talking to Christians. And the statement isn't really an if statement, it's this, since ye then be risen with Christ. So if you're a Christian, Here's what you ought to do. Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Kind of going, okay, so that sounds like I'm supposed to look at this. Now, understand that word seek is not just a kind of passing quest, something that catches your fancy but you really don't pay attention to. The word seek is the idea to set your heart on. It describes the activities of a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, a woman searching for a lost coin, a merchant searching for a fine pearl. That term is used in those situations to describe that. And you say, those are all situations where the search wouldn't be just passing, it would be in, what, earnest, a passion for it. is a single-minded, diligent, active investigation. So we can understand Paul's admission. Colossians 3.1, it follows, diligently, actively, single-mindedly pursue the things above, and a word, heaven. And it is an ongoing process because that word, seek, is in the continual tense, which means this is something you come back to time and time again, that you look into. that you think about what's there, and it's not just things that are there that are important, it's a person that's there that is important, but you're supposed to keep on seeking heaven. Since you're spending the next lifetime living in heaven, why not spend this lifetime seeking heaven so you can eagerly anticipate and prepare for it? So we're told here that it's fine for us to seek those things above. Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth, because the things on earth are what? Temporal. They're passing. They're fleeting, as we talked about this morning when it came to the book of Ecclesiastes. Now, when you think about what we are supposed to be looking at, we are considering the fact of heaven. It's a place where God is at. And I just want you to put these references in mind before we actually look at one aspect of heaven. Psalm 16, verse 11, I quoted this this morning just to give us an understanding of what heaven is like. It's just simply quoted this way. Thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. To get to heaven, And be there is not a place of just drab drudgery over and over again, the same kind of things happening, and you're bored with it. Know what that scripture passage says, it's full of joy. You can't contain the delight that will be there when you're in heaven. It's not just merely that you're going to be playing a harp. There is going to be a whole new heaven and earth for you to explore. You'll have the opportunities to be in that new Jerusalem, that heavenly city, unlike any city today. I mean, think about this, in real life, where do people go to today when they travel? They go to places where they can see creation, Or there's people who are on the other side, they go to big cities because there's lots of things there to do. Well, think about this, that's what heaven has. Besides the fact that you're in the presence of a glorious God that you can enjoy and see Him face to face and see His glories displayed and to hear wisdom from His mouth, it's not that heaven is a place that you go and say, I don't know what's going to happen. But after a million years, I'm going to be bored. 1 Peter 1 talks about that the fact of where you're going, the glory doesn't fade away. The shine doesn't come off of it. You don't get bored with it. Paul's statement in Philippians 1 tells us that heaven is not a boring place. For me to live is Christ and to die is? Gain, it's not loss, it's a gain. It's something that, yes, it's talking there about Christ, but you get to enjoy everything about being with him. It's a gain, not a loss, because most people talk about death as being a complete loss. Apostle Paul makes this statement in 2 Corinthians 5, verses six through eight. Says this, therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. You know, right now our home, our dwelling place is here in this life. For we walk by faith, not by sight. But then Paul makes a statement. We are confident, I say, and willing, desiring rather, to be absent from the body and to be present. And that word present is that word to be at home with the Lord. Paul goes, I'm living this life, and yes, there's many things to do, but really, I'd rather desire to be at home with God. And so that's the Apostle Paul's statement. For us to make a study even on the scriptures, it is good for us to look towards heaven and see what it's like. But I think for tonight, we are going to just simply ask ourselves this question, And actually a second question is this, is there vacancy and how do I get there? Is there vacancy in heaven and how do I get there? And I want us to turn to a passage that is familiar to many, John chapter 14. I don't know what your trips were like when you were a kid before cell phones and computers, I can remember back in the 80s that we would take trips and we would go to certain locations, but we would always know that we would need a hotel when we got there. But it wasn't like now where you just kind of type in the computer, reserve things, there's an app for that. Back then, you actually, in most cases, had to drive to the location. And when you drove up, you hoped that the sign didn't say no vacancy. Because then what would happen is this, is because you were targeting this place and you had the address written down, you're going, and we were going here, but you get there and you have to go inside and go, I know you have no vacancy, you're sure you don't have any rooms here. Okay, is there another place we can go to in town? I can remember two or three vacations where this was the regular thing. We'd end up at the hotel and we'd get there and realize, nope, there's no vacancy there. So let's go back to the previous town that we passed the exit for and see if they've got a hotel. And then you'd ask them, well, is there any place to stay anywhere around here? And you would spend much time wondering if you would ever be able to rest your head anywhere. And so it is when it comes to heaven, this ought to be the first question as a traveler on the way to heaven, is there vacancy? And you say, is there an answer for this? Well, there is. Because in John chapter 14, the Lord is telling his disciples that he's leaving. What he's doing, he's actually going back to heaven. He's going to glory where he had been for many, many, many eternal years before and had entered into time to come to die on the cross and go back. But he hasn't died yet at this point. But it's obvious to disciples something's going on and they're beginning to understand he's going away, but they don't quite understand exactly where he's going. And so that frustrates them and troubles them. And so in verse one, you see this, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And then this statement. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. As you read this passage and you read that statement, suddenly people's eyes kind of light up. And if you open your hymnal, you'll find that most songs about heaven have a word that's in here that they always talk about. And it's the word mansion. See, what a lot of people have in their mind when it comes to heaven is that when they get to heaven, They're going to get to heaven and be, well, introduced to Christ and God, and then they're going to be taken to their street. And they're gonna come to this house, and it's going to have their abbreviated name etched in the iron rod gate, and it's going to be opened up, probably not iron rod, probably gold, but they're gonna come in, and there's gonna be this great curving driveway. fountain out front, shooting water into the air, well-manicured grounds, and all of this. You've got this house that's got two or three stories, and it's got columns on the front of it, and all of this. And they'll go, that's my mansion. I'm sorry to tell you, that's not what this passage means. I mean, just think about how the passage starts off. In my father's house. Okay, so we're talking about a house. That's the illustration start point. In my father's house are many, and you ought to mark this down, rooms. You say, how in the world did we get the word mansion in our translation? Well, it's because in translating from the Greek to the Latin, they came up into the term maison or mansion. And so when they translated it into English, they translated it as mansion rather than going back and looking exactly at the Greek. And the Greek is just simply this, there is a room. In my father's house are many rooms. And you think, okay, that kind of fits the illustration where, okay, we're going to somebody's house, and when we get there, perhaps you're doing this on vacation, and when you get there, you're expecting there to be space, rooms, places for you to be at. And what Jesus is saying here is this, is that I'm going to prepare space for you. There's room for you in heaven. Don't worry about it. There is vacancy for you. In fact, I'm going to prepare a place for you and get that place, my Father's house, ready to welcome you, for you to be there. And when I'm finally done and ready for you to come there, I will come and receive you unto myself, that where I am, which is in my Father's place, There's space for you also. It's not just exclusively for me. It's not just exclusively for an elite group of people. No, this is a person that Christ is saying to these individuals that they have a place, a room, much like you would expect if you were, well, going to your family's house, you would hope this is the case, that they would have room for you. So it is that you are a child of God, you're going to a place where God's not going, we don't want you here. But think about it as a home. It's with open arms. The father and the older brother is going, we want you here. We've got space. So for a believer, think about this. It's not that you are going to get to heaven and you aren't going to make it because it's overbooked. It's too full. But that then begs the question, How do I know that I'm going to make it there? Okay, there's vacancy, but how am I going to make it there? And that's the second question, and it's the one we're just gonna simply close with here tonight. How do I get to heaven? It used to be when you took trips, most cars had this big old thing in it called an atlas. and you'd pull it out and you'd open it up and you'd say, well, I'm supposed to take these highways. The problem was is when you actually got close to your destination, the map wasn't small enough, a grid for you to be able to find the locations. And so oftentimes you would spend time going up and down roads because you didn't know that that was a divided highway and you can't get over that place there and you can't do that. And so you would be frustrated and it would take you hours to get to some locations and then you had to get out of the car and actually use the phone you hope the person other person answered their phone to give you directions because you're saying well I'm here and here but I don't have the map where do I need to go in order to get there Now we live in a generation that you just type it into your phone or perhaps you just have a dedicated GPS that's in your car or on the dashboard and you type it in and it tells you whether you're supposed to turn right and left and how far you have to go before you make that right and left turn and all of these different things. So when you get to heaven, what's the simple road or the way that we have to go? And I'm thankful that it's really simple. It's not a set of complicated directions, hundreds of directions that you have to follow in order to be able to get to heaven. Because when Christ goes on, he says in verse four, whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. You know how to get where you're supposed to be going. I'm going to prepare this place, and there's vacancy, and you know how to get there. And Thomas, who's the one that is called doubting at times, I call him devoted. The one who loves the Lord, is willing to die with the Lord when he goes to Judea and is probably going to be killed. And he says, well, let's go and die with him. He's devoted to Christ. He's upset that the Lord's going away, so he's now trying to figure this out. So he asks in verse five, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? How do we know that we're going to be able to go where you're going? And it is in that response, in verse number six, one of the most famous statements in Scripture, that Jesus responds and says unto him, I am the way. I am the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You think, okay, well, how am I going to get to heaven? There is no other way. And you think about what Acts says, there's no other name given amongst men whereby ye must be saved. That Jesus is the only way to heaven. Now that sounds exclusive. Does it not? How am I going to get to heaven? Well, I am the way. And no one gets to the Father but by me. You know, there are hundreds of roads that you can take, but you can't get to the destination unless you take the one road that will get you there. So it is when it comes to heaven, there is only one road to heaven, and that is through Jesus Christ. There are people with all sorts of ideas. Well, how can we arrive in heaven? And it comes in varied forms of how they have, in their own imaginings, considered how God might accept them and how they might get to where God is at. And they think it's through effort, and they think it's through being kind to others, and they think it's through perhaps a great sacrifice, or maybe that God will just let me wander up to the gates, which is kind of like When you read the story of Pilgrim's Progress, there's that individual at the end of the story who thinks that he's just gonna walk up to the gates and that God's gonna go, okay, I accept you into my city. He has no scroll, that individual has no scroll that indicates the fact that he's met the Savior at the cross. And he's cast out into outer darkness. There's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. See, no one gets into heaven by pure accident or by their own design or by their own path and by their own method. No, the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. Saint Peter's not going to weigh yourself or weigh different things on the wall and give credit to you where you think credit is deserving and that he might let you in. No, the only way into heaven is through Jesus Christ. And so for us this evening and starting on this, and this is not necessarily talking about what's going on in heaven and those type of things, because we will hit those things as we go further along, you can tell people there's vacancies in heaven. There's spaces available. There's a place there that could be prepared for you. But the only way to get there is not by your own effort and not by your own design and not by anything else. It's through Jesus Christ. His cross is the bridge, is the path to get individuals to heaven. And if a person goes any other way, well, they're going to find, like it says in the scripture in Matthew, that broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. But you go, where's the narrow gate? Well, the narrow gate is through Jesus Christ, because many people are ignoring the fact that Christ is the only way to heaven. It's a straight way, it's a narrow, compressed way to get into heaven, and few there are that find it, sadly. And so for us as we kind of go into a study thinking about this, I don't know what the heart condition of individuals in this room are tonight, but you're not going to be in heaven. And all this talk about heaven is not going to do you any good. unless you've come to Jesus Christ, accepted His sacrifice, and said in your own heart and mind, this is the only thing, the only way to heaven, the only way to fellowship with the Father, is through Jesus Christ. I accept Him that He is the right way, the only path. And cast yourself upon Him. And then, when you get to heaven, there's room for you. I can remember as a child, And it's sad, but I can remember as a child having put my faith in Jesus Christ at the age of five, but I can remember some nights staying awake and wondering, is there a spot for me in heaven? Am I going to be able to make it there? You know, if the Lord was suddenly to come back in the middle of the night, would I not make it into heaven and not be there? You know, it would have done me good to look at this passage in John 14 and be reminded, listen, I've put my faith in Jesus Christ. I'm not trusting anything else to rescue me, to save me, but I've put my faith in Him. And what Jesus has promised here is that there is room for me, and that he's preparing a place for me, that when he does come again, he'll take me with him, he'll receive me unto himself, and I will find an eternal home in heaven. There's vacancy for you. Hopefully you'll be there to enjoy it because you've walked the path. of Jesus Christ right on into glory. What a glorious day that will be. Lord, we thank you. Thank you for the scripture. At least it gives us the solid comfort that we can make it to heaven and that when we get there, you'll be waiting for us and that there will be a place for us in the Father's house. what that is like specifically. And all of those, we're not told any specific details. But Lord, we look forward to seeing You, Your Son, all the glories fully displayed. We won't be looking through a glass darkly then. And as we, in the weeks ahead, talk about some of the things that are in heaven and some of the things that aren't in heaven, may it bring us a desire all the more not to hold onto the things of this life, but to look forward to the things to come. So give us a vision of things of heaven as it is in the scripture that we would set our affection on things above, not on things in the earth. May we find our greatest joy in being with you forever and delighting in that. You created human beings to fellowship with you originally in the garden, and that's where we're going to find real joy is enjoying your presence in a place that you've created that's perfect and that one day we will live like that, and so may we look forward to that, not holding to this world that is sin-cursed and full of problems, but look forward to being in your house. So we thank you for Christ, who's made heaven possible, and in his name we pray, amen.