take your Bible, turn to 2 Kings chapter 25. And if you find your way there, you also notice inside your bulletin there's a outline for the message that'll help you follow along as the Lord, or as we walk through this passage given to us by God in the scripture. 2 Kings 25. You know, almost all of the Old Testament is about the nation of Israel. It begins with a promise, chapter 12 of Genesis, to Abraham. You have a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And then you have the law of Moses providing a really important part of the story. Then the throne of David being established. And then as we've seen in this series, as we come to a conclusion today, there's a divided kingdom that takes place after Solomon. You have the division of the southern kingdom with Rehoboam and the northern kingdom with Jeroboam. And the northern kingdom falls away from God rather quickly, pursues false worship, and gets exiled by Assyria. The southern kingdom has some good kings, some bad kings, but slowly what we see in the book of the Old Testament, really, is that the land, the temple, the throne that had all been given to this nation of Israel by God to demonstrate His blessing to them, little by little they get stripped away from Judah because of their disobedience. Step by step, Judah falls lower and lower. until they are exiled by Babylon. On a personal level, how do we, how do you respond when the physical things of this world slip through your fingers? How do you respond when the best made plans fall away? Well, the temptation for all of us is to fear, it is to worry, it's to wonder whether God is still God, whether He's still Lord, whether He has any power at all to fulfill His Word. What we find in this story is an amazing fact that God commits, or God fulfills his word and his promises to judge the nation of Judah. But we also see in it the seeds of hope for the future. Father, we ask you give us some grace today as we look at your word, some hard things to see, but also some glorious things. So we ask you, Lord, to expose our hearts to your truth, to open us up to you, allow your spirit to work and to convict us of our sin, We're thankful for the gift of salvation through Jesus alone. Give us a time of worship now that will transform our hearts to be more like your Son, Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen. First section begins in 2 Kings 25. It's simply, the old Jerusalem is lost. Look with me in chapter 25. We begin in verse 1, and it describes how the city was destroyed. It says, and it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month of the tenth day of the month. that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it, and they built a siege wall against it all around. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, and by the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land." And the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the king went by way of the plain." Verse 5, "'But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and his army was scattered from him.' So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. And they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him in bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon. Of the sieges of Jerusalem, this is the third that we've seen. The date has been identified by historians as December 26th, 589 BC. And as Babylon comes to Jerusalem, Jerusalem's actually not in a great spot militarily. They are surrounded by apparently some hills around it that provide excellent vantage point. They build forts or mud walls, some people think, some sort of platform up around the city wall to allow them to prevent the people from escaping, but also to provide a higher position for their archers to rain down missiles into the city. They are surrounding the city, and then it says in verse two, this is about a two-year siege. We have gathered from Josephus and also from the book of Jeremiah. This is about a 16 to 18th month period of time where the city is completely cut off from any kind of trade. There's a brook that comes into the city. There's some water available. King Hezekiah made sure that they could have water in the city, but there's no food. And by the 16 months, time is over. There is no food. There's a famine. And finally, the city wall, verse four, is breached. And so the king, with all of his military officers, his bodyguards, run out of the city. They seek to escape, and where they find themselves is in the Jericho Flats, this really flat region. And it presents a problem. There's nowhere to hide, and they're exposed, and the Chaldeans quickly find them, quickly come upon them, and quickly gather him and take him up, way up to Riblah in the north, north of Aram. And on the way, so Babylon was way off in the Tigris and Euphrates River, they would travel to Israel by going, following the river path and then coming to the north, down through Syria and down into Israel. And so on their way back, they stop there at Ribla and they take judgment upon the king. And this is really, it just rips my heart out to read verse seven, one of the most tragic verses in the whole book, and the horror is there. Where he says, they take the king's sons and they butcher the king's sons before his eyes. The word kill there is really the word to butcher. They do some terrible things. And then as they butcher him, they blind him. So the last thing he saw was the death of his children. The holy city, Jerusalem, is completely overrun by pagan Babylonians, and the city has been destroyed. But it gets even worse than that. Here is the route that they took. As you can tell, there's Ribla way off to the north. Here's Jerusalem in the south, and the Dead Sea. Next to the Dead Sea is Jerusalem and Jericho, and then to the north. It gets worse because the temple is defiled. The old city has been destroyed. We see in verse 8, the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, which is the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which is, just pause for a moment, something happens here in the storytelling where they switch the dates. They start telling the story from the perspective of the king of Babylon because his dates now are what matters because he's in charge. It says that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the guard, I'm sorry, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house, all the houses of Jerusalem. That is, all the houses of the great he burned with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around. This man who served the Babylonians as the captain of the guard, Nebuchadnezzar, he burns house of God. And if you like to circle your Bible, notice the repetition of the word house. It's the house of the Lord, it's the King's house, it's all Jerusalem's houses, it's their homes, it's that's what is destroyed there. He burns them with fire and breaks down the walls. Verse 11, Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, carried away captive the rest of the people who remained in the city and the defectors who had deserted the King of Babylon, the rest of the multitude. If you look at Jeremiah chapter 40, we're not going to turn there, but Jeremiah 40, 1 through 6, you find that Jeremiah was actually a special exception to this deportation. He was left behind. Verse 12, the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers. Having deposed this and burned it with fire, they turned to the temple and defile it in verse 13. Notice how they use it for scraps. It says, the bronze pillars which were in the house of the Lord, the carts, and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried their bronze in Babylon. to Babylon. They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the spoons, and the bronze utensils which the priests ministered, the firepans, and the basins. The things of solid gold and solid silver the captain of the guard took away, the two pillars, one sea, the cart Solomon had made for the house of the Lord. The bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. The height of one pillar was 18 cubits. The height of the capital on it was a bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. And the network and the pomegranates all around the capital were a bronze. The second pillar was the same with the network. They took everything of value, everything that had metal on it, and they broke it down. They ground it down. They boiled it down. They ran it down. They made it into its component parts to take away so that they could use it for their own uses. The things that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord that had finally survived all of this time are finally destroyed. Such an impressive picture of these pillars, 18 cubits plus three for a capital on top and a network of them all destroyed, all melted down. Verse 18, they even deal with the leadership of the temple. It says, the captain of the guard took Saraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the second priest, and three doorkeepers. He took them out of the city, an officer who had charged the men of war, five men of the king's close associates who were found in the city, the chief recruiting officer of the army who mustered the people of the land, the 60 men of the people of the land who were found in the city. So Nebuchadnezzar, captain of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. Then the king of Babylon struck them, put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and Judah was carried away captive. taken not only the instruments of the temple, but the people of the temple, the chief priests, the second priests, all the doorkeepers, everyone who was associated with this was brought, and it says, thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land. Think about what the temple represented to the people of God. The temple, from the tabernacle in the wilderness all the way to the Temple of Solomon, it was the representation of God's presence among His people. God's temple that He had them build was to be glorious, it was to be beautiful, but it was holy, it was set apart, and it was amongst the people, and in fact, it represented a very important truth that a holy God cannot be with unholy people. A holy God had a special temple, and the unholy people were constantly having to wash themselves, having to provide sacrifices, they could not approach the holiness of God because He is perfect, and we are imperfect, and in fact, it was unthinkable to them that the very presence of God that was represented there by that tabernacle, that was there between the cherubim at the mercy seat, the presence of God, the glory of God had departed from the city of Jerusalem and from the temple that was defiled. It has taken away the Babylon. The temple of God has been destroyed and the blessings of God have been removed. It was absolutely crushing for the people. And yet there's another thing that happens in that the throne is dissolved. Look at verse 22. Then he made Gedalia the son of Heichem, the son of Shaphan, governor over the people who remained in the land of Judah, who Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had left. A huge change in the structure of the government. To this point, the nation of Judah had been ruled by the son of David, the throne of David. And with the throne dissolved, the new governor has been established as a puppet governor of the king of Babylon. He is outside of the house of David, and he is a governor. He's not even a king. And then in verse 23, it says, all the captains of the armies, they and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedalia the governor. They came to Gedalia at Mizpah Ishmael, the son of Nethaniel, Johan, the son of Kereah, and Sariah, the son of Tanhumeth, the Netophathonite, sorry about that, and the Jasonite, the son of Maccathite, they and their men, and Gedalia took an oath. Notice what happens. He took an oath before them and their men, And he said to them, do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon and it shall be well with you. Here, this informal leadership team of the nation of Israel gathers together to see what this new leader would say. They go to him and they approach him and they tell him a simple message. He says, look, don't be afraid of the Chaldeans. Don't be afraid of the Babylonians. They are our new masters. dwell on land, serve the Babylonians, and everything will be well with you." And this is a promise from the governor there who is being used by the king of Babylon, and yet this message was not well received. Verse 25, it happened in the seventh month that Ishmael, the son of Nethuniah, the son of Elashimah, the royal family, so we notice he's one of David's line, he came with ten men and struck and killed Gedalia, the Jews, as well as the Chaldeans who were there at Mizpah. They find out these men who were men belonged to the royal family, they didn't want this new leadership role, they killed Gedalia, everyone who was with him there at Mizpah, and it says in the people, verse 26, small and great, the captains of the armies arose and went to Egypt and they were afraid of the Chaldeans, they flee, they want to get away and out of the way from the people there in Babylon. Notice next we have not only the governor overthrown, the governor established, we have a deposed king, in Babylon kept as a house guest. It says, it came to pass in the 37th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the 12th month on the 27th day of the month that evil Merodot, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison. He spoke kindly to him. He gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. As for his provisions, there was a regular ration given to him by the king and a portion each day for all the days of his life. Actually, it sounds okay to us, but the humiliation here is profound and great. That the king of Babylon took the great king of Judah and basically made him his own house guest. He took care of him, he deposed him, and now he just lives with no authority, no power, no ability. And what we see in this story is the shrinking sacred space Once they're taken captive to Babylon, the holy place, the temple is destroyed, the throne is demolished. I mean, at the beginning of time, when God created the whole world, we have the Garden of Eden, we have the beauty of the holy, God's presence is all throughout the world, and through time, we see, until we get to this point, that the place of holiness is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking until it is completely gone. This is a tumultuous time for the Jewish people. How do you respond when the physical things of this world slip through your fingers? How do you respond when the best made plans seem to fall away? No doubt they had great fear and worry. They were wondering whether God was still God, whether he's still Lord. Think of the fear and the panic of troubled hearts. Everything they loved, everything connected to their identity as Jews is disappearing all around them. In the New Testament, Jesus speaks to his disciples when they're in a similar situation. He's talking to his disciples. He has told them that he is going to go away. And in John chapter 14, Jesus speaks to them, and when he speaks to them, he gives them this encouragement. Jesus speaking to his disciples several hundred years later, he tells them this. He says, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there 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 to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In these verses, Jesus does a couple things. Number one, he says, your faith needs to be in God. You believe in God, believe also in me. Even when things seem upside down, even when things seem tumultuous, you believe in God, believe in me, he says. And you need to realize God has a purpose for what he's doing. He says, don't you know that if I would have, I would have told you if I would go to prepare a place for you. I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will do that. If I were not so, I would have told you. And he says, you need to think, this is the third point, you need to think about heaven. He says, I'm going to prepare a place for you in my Father's house, our many mansions, our many rooms. And we're gonna see an amazing connection here. We've seen the most depressing and discouraging and just disheartening passage of scripture with 2 Kings 25, with the whole nation being sent into exile. I was reading this passage this past week, wondering what in the world is God gonna have for us today? And I broke this down, and I normally don't give you my process, right? I normally don't talk to this very much, but this was so exciting to me. Because as I'm reading this, I recognized, as I gave in the outline, this tells of the city that is destroyed. It tells of the temple that is demolished. It tells, and defiled, it tells of the throne that is just completely dissolved. And then I thought, I was actually reading a book that had this passage in it, John 14, verses one through six, and I thought to myself, well, old Jerusalem's gone, we need to think about the new Jerusalem. We need to think what God, and would you believe it, as I read and looked at this passage in Revelation 21, I literally gave out a whoop of excitement. And I don't think anybody heard me, but I did. I was so excited. Because would you believe it, what we see with the old Jerusalem conquered and destroyed, when God promises a new Jerusalem in the book of Revelation, this is tremendous. That just as the old Jerusalem was destroyed, and the city, the temple, the throne, So the Bible describes a new Jerusalem will be established, city, temple, and throne. I want you to follow this. This is tremendous. We see not only old Jerusalem gone, But we have something to look forward to. When you are facing loss, when you're facing despair like they did, look to the New Jerusalem. The book of Revelation, turn there with me if you would, the last book in your Bible, the book of Revelation, starting in chapter 21. We'll see the last two chapters here as the apostle John writes in his vision here of the last days of judgment on the earth, Revelation 20. It describes a thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth where He takes the throne of David. And the scholars differ on what exactly follows, whether it's a description of this millennial reign or whether this is a description of that time beyond the millennial reign. I tend to side with the second argument there. I'm going to bypass this argument for the time being and just say, just bear with me here and imagine this is describing the eternal state, which I think is very, very most likely what's going on here. And in the eternal state, God does away with the creation we have currently, and He makes a new creation. I want you to notice in Revelation 21, notice the new city revealed. Its source is given to us there right from the beginning. He says, I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and there was no more sea. With the new heaven and the new earth, God is recreating. But this new earth is different in that the old earth has sea and this new earth will not. Genesis 1, 1 to 2 describes the creation of the world where the Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the waters. And if you look at the word sea throughout the Bible, what you'll find is that normally it's associated with chaos and disruption and not with that which is good. Rivers are good, sea is bad. Because you never know if you go out in the sea, you might get tossed in a storm. And yet here in the Scripture it tells us that in heaven this symbol of chaos and destruction is gone. There is no more seed. This new creation has no chaos in it at all. It's all that which comes from God and it's perfect. Look at verse 2. coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." What a vision he sees! There is the city revealed, coming out of the heaven, prepared as a bride prepares herself, ready to be received, decked out, if you will. for her husband. And notice its beauty. He talks in verse 9, go all the way down to verse 9 of chapter 21. He describes her beauty like this, then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked to me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife, the Lamb speaking of Christ, here reveals the beauty in verse 10, he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like the most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." What a beautiful picture. Look at the structure in verse 12. She had a great high wall with 12 gates, and the 12 angels at the gates, and the names written on them, which the names of the 12 gates of the children of Israel. Three gates to the east, three to the north, three gates to the south, and three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city, as we move from the gates to the wall, had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked with me had gold reed to measure the city, its gates and its walls, and the city is laid out in a square, its length, its great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs, its length and breadth and height were equal. He measured its wall, 140 cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of an angel. The construction of its wall was of jasper, the city of pure gold like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third caldoni, the fourth emerald, and the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh crystallite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth christophrase, and the eleventh jacenth, and the twelfth amethyst. The 12 gates were 12 pearls, each individual gate was one pearl, and the street was pure gold as transparent glass, the cities revealed in its beauty. And while old Jerusalem was destroyed and demolished, the new Jerusalem is beautiful, a vision of an actual city created by God, and we're told more about this beautiful city. Not only has it been revealed, notice that the temple is now unnecessary. He says as much in verse 3, if you go back to verse 3, He says, And I heard a loud voice of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." The tabernacle of God is now with men. And notice the whole point of temple was that God and man could not properly dwell with one another because sin had divided and separated us. In the garden, man walked with God, but when sin entered the picture, man and God are divided. and man cannot have fellowship with God, but through Jesus Christ, we come to him through his son, and we can have this fellowship with God once again. Now, the sins of Judah had defiled the land to such a degree that God sent Babylon to expel them from the land, but now something has changed. In the new Jerusalem, we have a perfect people, a holy people, made holy by the blood of the Lamb. There's no more need for a temple. There's no more need for a tabernacle. The dwelling place of God is with men. There will be no more tears, no more curse, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more crying. The former things are gone. Go to verse 22. We see the Lord and the Lamb. I saw no temple, he says, verse 22. I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need for the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the Lord illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day. There shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. There shall by no means enter in anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." God is now the temple of the Lamb, is the temple, the place where worship happens. No need for sun or moon, no need for these things because God is the illuminating power. His glory illuminates. And we see also that it fulfills the purpose of the house of God. All the people shall walk in its light. All the kings of the earth will pay homage. Verse 25, notice this. He tells us that it is eternal, that the gates are never shut. And the nations of the earth, the kings of the nations will bring their tribute. It's a perfectly holy place. Verse 27, only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life, those who've been cleansed by the blood of Christ, those who've come in faith and receive redemption are allowed entry in. And just as we come to this point, we notice that the loss of old Jerusalem, the city and the temple and the throne, so here we see the city and the temple, there's just one thing left, and that is the throne, which is eternal. We see God showing us in Revelation 21 verse 5, so we've seen once again the throne of salvation and judgment. And he who sat on the throne, there it is, said, behold, I make all things new. And he said, write these words are faithful and true. The great and the perfect king is on his throne and he's making all things new. Praise God. We live in a nation, we live in a country, we live in a world of people with imperfect leadership. One day we look forward to the day when the Lord Jesus Christ will rule and reign perfectly and we can rejoice that we have a perfect king and the king speaks. Look at verse six. King said, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God. He should be my son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable murderers, sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." He is the one who sits on the eternal throne and he brings salvation to anyone who will come and judgment to anyone who rejects. It does not matter if these sins are in your past. If you come to Christ through the blood, these sins are erased, they are paid for, and you are welcomed into the kingdom. Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You are forgiven. But if you reject the gift of Christ, if you reject the gift that has been given, you will pay for your own sin. You are an unbelieving person. You are going to face the penalty that you deserve. It is a throne of salvation and of judgment. But we also see that it is indeed an eternal throne. If you skip now to the next chapter, Revelation 22, we continue reading. So it went city, temple, throne, and then it expanded it out. City, temple, throne. One more time. So we go to this third part again on the throne. Look at chapter 22 verses one through five. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal proceeding where? From the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations and there shall be no more curse. but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him, they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads, they shall be no night there, no lamp, nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. This throne has a river of water, representing the presence of God flowing. There's no sea, but there's a river, and this river comes from the throne of God, and this curse of sin is gone. The curse that came in the Garden of Eden when mankind sinned against God is done away with and it is removed. And it says that the throne of God and the Lamb shall be there and the servants shall serve him on his throne and they shall see his face. His name will be on their foreheads and there is no night and it will be forever and ever. There is an eternal reign. They shall reign forever and ever. A throne never deposed by an enemy king. an eternal throne, a throne occupied by the King of kings and Lord of lords, the One who is and who was, who is to come, the Almighty. That's who will sit on the throne, praise God. And in this world we live in today, we will have tribulation, no doubt about it. We have loss But we have good news that this sin-cursed world will pass away. It is going to pass away, it will be gone, and it will give way to a new heaven and a new earth that God will make, that Jesus Christ has promised. And you think it's bad now. Wait until the end comes and God makes all things new. Praise God. When you are facing fear, realize it's not the end of the story. The end of the story has not come in. You come to the end of 2 Kings and it feels like the end of the story, but it's not the end of the story. God is doing more. God is doing so much more. In fact, we find with the nation of Israel that just 70 years later God returns them to the land where they rebuild the temple. They rebuild the temple, they reinstitute their rules and their laws, and they seek to please the Lord. There's a group of people in the post-exilic Jerusalem who seek to please God. And would you know it, 400 years later, in that same region of the world, was born a child in a manger. And that child is Jesus Christ, the righteous one. and he lived a perfect life. He died on the cross, he was buried, he rose again, and he's coming again and he will establish the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, which is descending out of the heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. What a glorious thing we have to look forward to. Yes, the world is bad now. Yes, things are terrible. Yes, everything falls to pieces. Yes, you can't ever get anything fixed that won't last forever. Yes, obviously our relationships struggle and our families crumble and people have problems with one another, and there are issues, and there's sin, and there's trouble, but guess what? We have so much to look forward to. We have so much to look forward to. Never lose sight of heaven. Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. Think about heaven. 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. If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, There you may be also. Do you know this lamb? Do you know this Christ Jesus? Is he your savior? Do you know him personally? Has he taken your sins on the cross? Do you have this hope of heaven? Do you have this hope? I beg of you today, if you don't, you can today know for sure that you have eternal life through Jesus Christ by the shed blood of the one who died on the cross for your sins. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And that can be you. Would you bow with me in prayer, Father, we thank you for the story of the new Jerusalem. We know that old things are passed away, old things are become new, and through you, great things are going to happen. And Lord, when things are bad, when things slip through our fingers and we don't know if our plans are working, we can look to you with rejoicing, knowing that heaven is coming, and you're gonna do great things. We thank you for the picture of the city. the temple and the throne, the new city, the new temple, and the new throne. Father, help us now, Lord, as we come before you, that we would be humbled to learn to trust you and love you through our times when things are difficult, when we don't understand what's happening around us, when we face amazing loss, that we would think of heaven and rejoice at what you're bringing. And Lord, if there are people here today who don't know you yet as Savior, I pray that today would be the start of something for their hearts, learn to trust you and learn to love you and learn to recognize their need for putting their faith and trust, not anything they can do or their accomplishments, but instead in what has been done for them on their behalf on the cross. Everything that needs to be done has already been accomplished. It was done by Christ. We need to believe in you and receive that gift and accept it freely. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for its power as we think about how we can process, how we can think about you, Lord, how we can lean on you in our times of fear. I pray that we would do that this week, that we would lean on You and trust You. How can we fear when You're close? You always are watching over us. We thank You, Lord, for Your good, good promises. Be with us as we go our way. In Jesus' name, amen.