Good morning. Well, so good to see you again behind the pulpit, or behind the podium. Wow, so what do you know this morning? Seems like not a whole lot, huh? Wow. As April 15th is approaching, I'm reminded of Franklin, no his name is not Franklin, Benjamin Franklin. who said, you know the story, there are only two things you can absolutely count on, presumably in the United States of America. What are those? Yeah, I don't, you know, I'm not an IRS man, so I don't know a whole lot about tax bill, except I pay it. But about death, the mortality rate in America is 100%. Do you know that? Am I getting too profound? Now, there are two major views about death and life after death. First, the naturalistic, scientific view that says there is nothing after death. This life is all there is. There is a well-known medical doctor by the name of Raymond Moody, who wrote this unprecedented bestseller that he entitled, Life After Death. He interviewed hundreds of people. Based on his interview, he concluded in this book, he analyzed the common experiences of all those people that once died, not seemingly died, totally died, and for whatever reason they came back to life again. All of them said that death is not the end of everything. There was life after death. That leads to the second view about death and life after death. The Christian view of death and beyond. About which Paul unravels in 2 Corinthians 5, 1-10. Now, in this text, Paul lays out three important points about Christian's death. Number one, the reality of heaven. Number two, the deed to heaven. And number three, the implications of heaven. Let's try to investigate what Paul says first from number one, the reality of heaven. If you brought your Bible with you, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'm going to read verse 1. Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Paul was a tent maker by trade. He knew everything about tents. We may not work as tent makers, but if you like camping, we may know a little bit about tents. A tent is a weak, temporary structure without much beauty. Our current physical life is like living in a tent, weak, temporary, without eternal value. But in this text that we just read, the apostle Paul says that if you are a true Christian, when this tent is destroyed, meaning when you die, When this tent is being destroyed, the real you, whether you call it the soul or the spirit, the real you are immediately ushered into heaven and you receive a glorious, perfect, eternal resurrection body. Amen! Amen! Paul says, a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Now, look at this tense of the verb. Very important. He says, you have a building. Present tense. He did not say, you will have a building at a certain nebulous time in the future somewhere. either heaven or somewhere in the air or down under the whatever. He didn't say that. The immediate exchange of the two bodies, the old physical body is gone and we receive immediately glorious resurrection body. There is no homeless interlude between these two different bodies against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages in the name of the Limbo State. What is the Limbo State? Which the Bible does not know of. The resurrection body is perfectly suited to the glorious environment of heaven. Wow! Which means I'm going to have much more hair as I used to. Both front and back, you know. Now, I heard about a farmer who lived way back in the boondocks of Oklahoma. Now this man, for the first time, came to the city with the family and checked into a hotel. They were amazed at the beauty and the cleanliness of the hotel. Man, ultra clean carpet. Amazing smell. And they were so mesmerized at the beauty of the hotel, and they were looking around, especially the farmer and the boy, a teenage boy, and they were so... they just lost themselves, and they missed out the fact that mom was missing. Now, as they were looking around, they saw this strange feature at the wall. It was a wall, for sure, but there were a set of two doors made of aluminum, and there was a little button to the right side of it, and they wondered what that was. Hmm, what is that? Right at the moment, they saw a pleasantly plump woman, seemingly in her 50s, come to that door and push the button. All of a sudden, the wall opens up. And then there was a room behind the wall. This woman walks in, turns around, pushes the button. On the inside, the door closed up. And then they hear this strange sound. And then they see these unlit numbers above the door frame coming on. Two. And then they hear the sound, ding. They're going, son, what's going on? A couple of minutes later, they hear another sound, boo. And then this time, the numbers are counting down to two. One, and then they hear, ding, the door slides open, and they're going, voila, there is a skinny, young, beautiful woman standing right there. And they're going, son, what is going on here? As this woman stepped out of the elevator and walked away, they saw the hotel's bellboy pushing a wheelchair in which really old, old grandma, quite big but looking so feeble, sitting in there. Both of them walked into this small room and the bellboy shut the door. And then they hear the same sound. A minute or two later, they hear another sound. When the two doors opened up, now this man goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there is a modern-looking, young, sharp, beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes and there is a young man with sturdy body in his sharp black suit escorting her. The man goes, son, go get your mother! Fast! Go get your mother! The Apostle Paul says, now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands. Death is exciting for believers. The reality of heaven. Now the second point is this. The deed to heaven. The deed to heaven. Let's go to verse 5. Paul says, now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. He says the Spirit of God is the deed to heaven. The Spirit of God who is living in us is the guarantee that we are children of God and when we die we will go to heaven. You know, most married men, well, most married men, no, every married man will still, I think, it doesn't matter how long it was, how long ago it was, will remember the day that you extended marriage proposal to your spouse. Seems like eons ago, right? You know, somehow we figured out the size of a finger, bought an engagement ring, took it out, and at a certain strategic point, you know, you made a proposal, right? Everybody's face looks like, what are you talking about, huh? I still remember when I proposed to Kay, I went to see her. I bought a little ring. Well, if there is a single young man, college kids, you've got to listen to me carefully. You've got to practice it well. So I knelt before her, looked up, held her by the hand, and I said, Well, I looked her eyeball to eyeball and I said, honey, I love you. Would you marry me? Do you know why K married me except I'm tall and handsome and intelligent? This is a secret. The only reason why he, she married me except I'm tall, handsome and intelligent is because I asked her. If I didn't ask her, she would have not married me. Power of invitation. Now, Jesus is extending that invitation to you today. Would you say yes to my invitation and open your heart? I'll come into your heart and you and I will dine together. I'm gonna give you that opportunity to respond to the call of Jesus towards the end of my message today. Would you prepare your heart for that? So as soon as Kay said, yes, I will marry you, I got my ring out and I put it on her finger. What does that signify? It was the title deed, so to speak, for both Kay and myself that we were going to be faithful to our covenant And we will keep our promises. Amen. When we open our hearts to Jesus Christ and invite Him in, the Bible says that He will come into our heart and the Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts ever since we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts will be the title deed for us that after we die, God will take us home in heaven because we are heirs of God's kingdom. Everybody will admit that Billy Graham is one of the greatest evangelists of our time. There are many things that shaped his heart to become an evangelist. I'm going to tell you one of those stories that really shaped and touched him and shaped his thoughts. When he was a child, one of his grandmas passed away, so his dad purposely took Billy to the grandma's bedroom to have him say goodbye to his grandma. When he got there, there were all the cousins in that place. And they were watching grandma slowly die. And she was dying, roughly breathing. All of a sudden, grandma sprang out of her bed, raised up her hand, had a big smile on her face, and she shouted, Do you hear the sound of the trumpet? Do you hear the sound of the music? My Jesus is coming with a host of angels to bring me home with himself. My children, I am leaving now. Goodbye. See you in heaven later." And then he dropped dead. Amen. Exactly 10 days later, April 1st, I am going to Nepal. A land that has slightly less than 30 million people with 330 million gods that they serve. Literally, in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, in every nook and cranny of the street, you see temples here, temples there, thousands of temples. What is the difference between Christianity and other religions? In other religions, the believers go to their temples to worship their gods, but in Christianity, the Bible says, we are the temple of God. The Holy Spirit of God dwells in us. That makes all the difference. When we go to temple, those time of worship could be only one hour, 30 minutes, whenever we are at the temple to worship our God. But when the Holy Spirit dwells in us, then our worship extends 24-7. There is no difference between sacred and secular. All that we do becomes sacred. Our homes are sacred as well as our churches. Our business is sacred as well as our churches. Our kitchens are sacred, our schools are sacred, our factories are sacred. It's not just the offering that we give to the Lord that's sacred, but it is even text that we give to the government because the Holy Spirit lives in us and that's why we do not cheat. I'm pretty sure ILS likes my message this morning. The Holy Spirit living in us makes all the difference. Which leads us to the third point of my message. The implications of heaven. Because of the assurance of heaven, because of the reality of heaven, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we can live a courageous life. you and I will probably agree that the greatest threat to life and well-being is death. Not just physical death, but social and emotional alienation as well. In other words, death means total bankruptcy of life, which is often accompanied with pain and suffering. The fear of pain, the fear of suffering and death has always kept us from doing the right thing and living the right kind of life. Against that backdrop, Paul says in verse 6, therefore we are always confident. Verse 8, he says, we are confident. What does he mean by therefore? Because of the reality of heaven. Because of the Holy Spirit indwelling us. Therefore, we are confident. I like the ESV translation. The translator put it this way. So, we are always of good courage. Yes, we are always of good courage. Can you imagine the leaders of the Jews that had plotted to kill Jesus? Now they are threatening Lazarus and say, shut up! Do not talk about that nonsense that Jesus resuscitated you from the dead! That's nonsense! That's a lie! If you say that thing one more time to people, we are going to kill you! What do you think Lazarus might have said? Wow, you kill me? Please kill me because the best thing that can happen to a believer is to die and go to heaven. However, he may have said, I have the worst story for you. I know I know the man who swallowed up the power of death through his own life, death, and resurrection, and I have totally, entirely trusted my life to him. confident living. In the summer of 2003, I served in Moscow. My mission at the time was to provide chaplaincy training to a group of Russian military officers. During that time, I met this Russian Navy colonel by the name of Dr. Noskov. He told me his story. He said, I grew up hating Americans because we were taught that America was going to attack our country. So when he was a young man, he joined Russia and joined the Soviet Union's He became a captain of the Naval Academy and he was constantly promoted because he was a great soldier. At the height of his career, he served as the commander of a warship in the famed Baltic fleet. It was during that time that he accepted Christ. through a witness of a missionary. And one of those days, he said, the Russian strategic defense headquarters contacted me, and they told me, Colonel Noskov, you are the next person in line to be promoted as general next year. You are the number one to be promoted as an admiral next year. This is what you have to do. Go to the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church. Build meaningful relationships with them because they're very influential upon the government of Russia. But to their aghast, Colonel Noskov said, I'm not going to do that. They were shocked. They're saying, what are you talking about? He said, up until I became a Christian, I thought that the Russian Orthodox Church was the Christian church. I'm born again Christian now, Christ lives in me and my perspective has changed and I believe that the Russian Orthodox Church is no more than a political organization and I don't care about building a relationship with them so that I will be promoted as an admiral. The Russian military leaders were shocked. Make a long story short, because of that, this man lost his opportunity to be promoted as a general. Worse yet, he became an enemy of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church leaders constantly laid pressure upon the political leaders and told them to let him go from the military service, let him out, just fire him. But the government knew that he was a brilliant military strategist, so they assigned him a professorship at the Naval Academy of that land. However, the church constantly hassled the academy president to fire Colonel Noskov. In defense of this colonel, The academy president contacted the president, Boris Yelchin, and asked him to give the colonel his own home in the general's quarter, although he was not a general, because he was the most respected, best professor at the academy. When Colonel Noskov took me to his apartment, high-rise apartment, I saw two tanks guarding the complex. We walked into the elevator, went all the way to the top floor, when the elevator doors Slid open we walked straight into his living room. It was a penthouse He took me to the side of the house on the balcony. We looked out. He showed me His neighborhoods and he said dr. Chung. Do you see that the foraged area there? You see the house in there that is Boris Yeltsin's house the house right next to it Do you see that there is Putin's house? We walked back in, and we sat in the sofa. He picked up a photo book and showed me a photo of his son, who was in the uniform of the Russian army. He was a captain in the Russian army, and this is what he said. He said, Dr. Chung, in my time, Because of my commitment to Jesus Christ, I lost the opportunity to become a general in our country. But when it's my son's time, I will have turned this country around so that my son will be promoted as a general, all because of his commitment to Jesus Christ. implications of heaven, we live a courageous life. Second, we live a life with accountability. Look at what Paul says. Verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. If there is no God, no final judgment, no heaven, no hell, then ethics become obsolete. Maybe that's why, maybe that's why our morality has gone down in the United States of America because we stopped teaching our kids that the Bible is the inspired Word of God which provides the absolute standards for life and faith. Sadly, Schools are teaching our kids there is no God. The Bible teaches that death came into this world because of sin. And everybody has sinned without exception. The Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Bible also says, for the wages of sin is death. In use of sin and death, Satan destroys our lives not only on this earth, but also in eternity. Sin determines the quality of our lives on this earth, but the effect of sin doesn't stop there. Sin determines whether we go to heaven or hell after we die. Are you ready for the final judgment? Because God is a holy and a just God. He cannot condone sin. He cannot tolerate sin. But the good news of the Bible is this. God is a loving God. God is a compassionate God. Because He is a loving God, He wants to redeem the sinners and give them a new life rather than pour out His wrath upon the sinners and shove them off into hell. I'm sure. Up in the heavenlies there was a divine council meeting sometime where the father and the son and the holy spirit got together They were there with all the angels all the host of angels in the meeting. Jesus said Father send me to the world I will save Those people that you love so much, over whom your heart is totally shattered and broken because they constantly sin, live in sin, and die in sin. Jesus, though he was a son of God and God himself, he came to this world in a human body. But unlike the other sinners, he perfectly obeyed God's will and he perfectly fulfills God's desires for his life, but he had no sin. When finally God's time was ripe, God pulled out His hand over Jesus, or God let Him, surrendered Him to the sinners. So the mere mortals, the sinners, crucified Him on the cross. The Son of God crucified under two pieces of crude timber. All the sinners were looking on, all the ignorant people were looking on, hurling at Him all the curses and all the evil things. The Son of God, God Himself bore our sins on His body and the shame thereof on His body as He was hung on the cross. He cried out to God and said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Before he breathed his last, he said, it is finished. It is finished. The plan of God's salvation for human beings is fulfilled through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His body was carried and taken buried in a tomb, but three days later, on the third day, early in the morning, the power of God came to that tomb, came to the body of Jesus Christ, and God raised him up from the dead, took him to heaven. He's sitting at the right hand of God, and he's reigning over the universe as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. All major religions of the world all acknowledge sin is the most awful predicament of man. They teach that you have to pay for your own sin with good deeds. That's why in the nation of Nepal where I'm going 10 days later, Hinduism teaches that man has to be rebirthed millions of times in the process of incarnation or reincarnation of rebirth. They pay for the sins that they committed in the previous life. Not even the current life, but in the previous life while in the world they know what sin they committed in their previous life. But the teaching says, unless you completely pay for it, you're not going to be born into a human form. You're going to be born into a different animal, different insect, whatever. So you have to live well to completely pay for it. It's going to be an eternal burden. It's going to be impossibility that man is redeemed. But the teachings of Christianity is totally different. In the teachings of Christianity, there is no such thing as karma, meaning the sins of your previous life that's destroying your current life and ruining your current life. The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Christianity, Jesus Christ paid for it for us on the cross. There is nothing we can do. There is nothing we need to do except come to Christ with humility and accept His forgiveness and His grace. The Bible says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It's not done by your work, but it's done by Jesus Christ. Some of you may be asking at this time, David, I want to come to that Christ. I want to become a Christian. How do I become a Christian? Excellent question. This is what the Bible says. The Bible says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. All that you have to do is simple. Open your heart to Jesus. Acknowledge that you are a sinner. You lived apart from God. You did not live the life of fulfilling God's will. But you want to turn around from that lifestyle. Open your heart. Invite Jesus into your heart. Will you do that this morning? If you're willing, I will lead you. I will help you. And I'll lead in your prayer so that you will accept Christ into your heart. As soon as you pray that prayer and invite Jesus come into your heart, Jesus will fulfill the promise that he enters your heart, forgive your sins, make you an heir of God's inheritance, including heaven. And you will begin to live a courageous and accountable life. And after you die, immediately after you die and your physical, current physical body is destroyed, God will usher you into heaven and he will give you with a glorious resurrection. Are you ready to pray with me? Let's close our eyes, bow our heads. This is the most solemn moment of this morning. I know there are some people that have never really accepted Christ in their hearts. Now is the time for you to be serious about the gospel, about the offer of salvation that's coming from Jesus. Jesus died for you. I know some are asking, David, I'm willing now, I'm ready. Would you pray for me and pray with me? If that is your prayer, would you show me your decision just by nodding your head wherever you are? Yes. Just reverently express your decision by nodding your head. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Now I'm gonna lead you in prayer. Instead of me praying for you, I'm gonna pray my prayer sentence by sentence. I'm gonna ask all of us, not just those that nodded their heads, to express their decisions for Christ, but all of us will pray out loud, repeating after me, so they will support those people that nodded their heads to accept Christ. Jesus I come to you I Acknowledge that I'm a sinner I've been busy living my own life But this morning I open my heart to you And I invite Jesus to come into my heart Would you fulfill your promise that Come into my heart. Save me. Redeem me. Give me a very clear purpose for living. Give me a courageous life. And give me a life with accountability. Thank you for answering my prayer. I am a saved man by faith. I commit my life to you. Use me for your kingdom, and take me to heaven when I die. Father, I thank you for the decisions that were made, Lord. Casually pray that prayer Lord. We meant it in the sight of God And I thank you that you have fulfilled the promise and you have entered into the hearts of those people that faithfully pray this prayer God I pray that you will grab hold of them in your mighty hand and fulfill your promise shape their thoughts shape their hearts shape their spirits and Use them for your kingdom for your glory. I whenever it is, when they breathe their last. There's nothing to be afraid. There's nothing to worry about. The angel is ready to come to take them home in heaven. I entrust all of those people of God to you. Glorify yourself in use of their lives. In Jesus' mighty name, I pray. Amen.