Heaven, Hell, & Fairy Tales
Introduction:
I want to preach a topic today that I feel needs to be preached. We have developed heavenly minded people who do not bear the hearts of heavenly people.
Let me explain.
It is as if Hell is non existent. We fail to preach on it. We fail to explain it. We fail to warn people that the Kingdom of God is at hand and we don’t have time to be on the fence line when it comes to ur salvation and faithfulness to God.
I want you to understand today..
Hell is not a myth and Heaven is not a fairytale.
Both are eternal destinations that are entered into by the choice of the individual.
The road to one is rough and rocky. The road to the other is paved and smooth with easy access.
I want to preach tonight on something simple…
Heaven, Hell, and Fairytales.
- Hell
The factual truth about Hell is:
Hell was not intentionally designed nor intended for humanity.
Matthew 25:41 says: “Then He will also say to those on the left hand,‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels
Hell was not intended for humanity because since the fall of man in the garden Gods redemptive plan has been set in place.
A person does not go to Hell because God sends them there. They go to Hell because their decisions, choices, and rebellious lifestyles lead them there.
Many think of Hell as this fairy tale place where they can party it up with friends and family that didn’t make it to Heaven..but do not be deceived. Hell is no party nor fairy tale.
If someone who is residing in Hell at this moment could speak to you today, they would warn you that the flames never die and the torment never stops.
If you treat Hell as a myth or joke then someday it may be your reality.
Hell is not a party, Hell is a place of eternal torment.
Jesus said in Luke 13:28 that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac. And Jacob and all of the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves thrusts out.
Brother Ryan, I am going to heaven because I am a good person. You are deceiving yourself.
Good people don’t make it to Heaven, saved people do.
Hell is crowded and daily being bombarded with good people who failed to make a decision concerning Christ and eternity.
Hell is a place of darkness where the only light is the reflection of flames. It’s a place where screams never silence and the only sound is the sound of regret.
Hell is full of wishful thinking. I wish I had accepted Jesus. I wish I had obeyed. I wish I had lived according to the scripture.
Wishes will not get you out once you put yourself there.
The Bible says when the rich man was in Hell, he begged for just a drop of water to cool his tongue and was tormented because he saw the beggar being comforted in Abraham’s bosom.
He could see in, but the beggar couldn’t see out.
This rich man could have bought anything he had ever dreamed of. But he made this world his heaven and in return he lost his soul.
What does it profit a man to gain the world yet lose his soul?
What makes Hell even worse is knowing that one decision could have changed your eternal destination.
Living for Jesus and maintaining a Holy Lifestyle may not ever win you a popularity contests but it will get you through the gates of Heaven!
Hell was not created for You. It was not intended for you. If you go there, it is by your choice and against the will of God.
2nd Peter 3:9 says The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but it is long suffering toward us, not willing that any man should perish, but all should come to repentance.
It is not the will of God that anyone should go to Hell. To day that is to devalue and diminish what Jesus did on the cross.
It is the will of God that all should come to repentance.
- Heaven
Jesus speaks of Heaven in John chapter 14. He says “in my father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you, but I go to to prepare a place for you and if I go I will come again and receive you until myself that where I am, there you may be also.”
It has been debated whether he is speaking of literal mansions or room connected to the father’s mansion. I can assure you of something. When we get there, the mansions will be the last thing we are worried about.
I’m not going to heaven because I want a mansion. I am going to heaven because when I was dead in my sin, the son of God robed himself in the flesh and paid the ultimate sacrifice for my sin making heaven possible.
A million years won’t be enough to thank him for what he accomplished on Calvary.
We can sing songs of how beautiful heaven must be and just what it means to me but scripture says
“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”
No songwriter can tell it into words what heaven is going to be like, but it will be worth every trouble and trial that we ever had to walk through down here.
I read Revelation 21-9-22 earlier to give us some insight.
The very thing that we value you the most is the thing God paves his streets with.
There’lol be no more night. The Glory of God is going to light the entire city and his glory will never cease. He will continually shine.
There will be no more dark days with dark troubles and dark trials. We will understand it all better by and by.
Revelation 21:4 says “God will wipe all of the tears from our 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.”
Death will literally die when we take our first step into the land of living.
I know this is hard to understand, comprehend, or fathom, but there will not be any sickness in heaven. Cancer, heart trouble, diabetes…all of it will be left outside the gate.
There will not be a hospital in heaven. No funeral homes will be in heaven. No cemeteries.
Everything that brought us pain here will not be present there.
There will not be an orphanage in heaven. There will not be a crippled leg. There will not be a blinded eye.
Every imperfection will be perfected in the moment of a twinkling of an eye.
Come on somebody..if that sounds like a place you want to go, give Jesus a shout of praise!
- The Bridge
The original purpose of a bridge was to providing passage over the obstacle, something that is otherwise difficult or impossible to cross.
1st Timothy 2:5 says For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus
Since the fall of man in the garden Gods redemptive plan was set in place. There had to be a bridge between here and eternity to bring us back to him.
The smoke from the Old Testament altar would appease his wrath but it was not enough to bridge the gap.
He knew that on our own, we would never be able to make it. There had to be a cross. There had to be an ultimate sacrifice.
John saw the bridge manifested in the flesh and he let it be known when he said behold the lamb, who takes away the sin of the world.
The sacrifice he paid was not just for the appeasement. It was for our atonement.
Engineers do not design bridges with the intent of forcing people to walk across them. They build bridges to give people the opportunity to go to a land that they otherwise could not go to because of the separation between them.
Jesus is the bridge who affords us the opportunity to inherit a kingdom that would not be possible had it not been for him!
You will not be forced to follow him, but you will bow one day and confess that he is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings!
Conclusion:
Im finished!
The deadliest bridge collapse in U.S. history is the Silver Bridge collapse in West Virginia on December 15, 1967, which killed 46 people when the bridge connecting Point Pleasant, WV, and Gallipolis, OH, plunged into the Ohio River during rush hour.
People were crossing over and the bridge collapsed.
Listen to me…this bridge, can handle the weight.
He had never crumbled under the weight of sin. He has never cracked under pressure. This bridge is going to be accessible as long as the window of opportunity is open.
The toll has already been paid. You can cross over tonight