You know I thought hell was going to be the big controversial traffic, so we had our Overtime for that-and actually double Overtime. That went on for about 2½ hours that Sunday night. After looking at all those questions, [I thought] maybe we should have had one for Heaven too. I will say this: Ill try to tackle one of them. It seems like people say, Well, will we still be us? Will we look the same? Will we have the same personality? Will we be recognizable? Will we know one another? The Bible says that we will have a body like Jesus. He is the first fruits of those risen from the dead; so I asked the question of you: Did the Disciples recognize Jesus? Was Jesus still Jesus? Did He still look like Jesus? So youll still look like you, which for some of you might not be good news; but well also be eternal, so our personalities continue. Our relationships continue. I think thats pretty fair to say based on what weve learned through the Resurrection appearances of our Lord. This is not going to be a Q&A on Heaven, but we are going to talk about some good news today. When we started this series, Life After Life, our first three topics were death, judgment and hell. Thats not fun to talk about, but its necessary; so I have a little bit more spring in my step this morning to know I get to talk about Heaven, glorification and what thats like. Were going to learn some things. Weve been doing a kind of hybrid Bible study/message, talking about these theological truths and then trying to bring personal day-to-day application to that theological message. In 1982, my wife and I were married. We decided to go on our honeymoon to Colorado-Estes Park, Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park. I was 21 years old. Prior to that, I had been to the Wisconsin Dells and Dubuque, Iowa; thats it. I really hadnt seen anything, gone anywhere to speak of. To see the mountains was something Id only seen in a book, so I was very excited to witness that firsthand. As we crossed the border into Colorado, it didnt look like anything exciting. After we got a little bit closer to our destination, I saw either this tiny mountain or a really big hill with a stream running down it. It was kind of a muddy, brown stream. I went, Wow! Look at that! I remember getting out of my car and snapping several pictures of this muddy, brown stream running down the side of a hill. I was like, Magnificent! Its incredible! Well, I had to laugh at those pictures later. We got home, and we started looking at pictures that we shot of the Grand Tetons from Trail Ridge Road. Have you ever been on Trail Ridge Road? Its the highest paved road in the world. I didnt get to enjoy a lot of the scenery because if you go off the road there, there is no barrier in some places, and youre dead. Its way up in the air. Brenda would go, Look at that gorge! Look at that valley! Id be like, Ah ha. I wasnt taking my eyes off the road at all. Getting up there, shooting pictures of the Rockies and the waterfalls-when we got home and looked at those magnificent pictures and compared them to the muddy stream on a hill-I was like, Man, that was nothing! I thought that was something because it was beyond what I had seen, but really, that was nothing! Everything we saw paled in comparison to the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I think in a way thats what Heavens going to be like. The best experience weve had down here, the most magnificent thing weve experienced, the grandest presence of God weve felt in our lives pales in comparison to what is to be revealed. In 1 Corinthians 2:9 (page 1129 of pew Bibles), it says, No eye has seen, no ear has heard…what God has in store for those who love Him. Its going to be magnificent! What we have is just a taste. We have human beings; we have Paul using divine words to try to explain this event-this happening-that is very hard to explain or capture since it has not happened to any of us; so he can only use human word pictures, things that we will understand, like a seed dying in the soil and rising up in a new form to try to help us grasp and wrap our arms around this new Heavenly reality we who are in Christ will experience. Id like you to turn to the Book of 1 John 3:2 (page 1208 of pew Bibles). I think that verse really captures the essence of what Im speaking of. John writes and says, Dear friends, now we are the children of God… So were that right now, and thats wonderful. Thats magnificent. He says, …and what we will be has not yet been made known. Theres coming a change. Theres another step. There is a climax. There is a culmination that we are only in the beginning stages of salvation. We have been delivered from the power of sin. When we die at judgment, we will be delivered from the penalty of sin; but theres coming a day when we will be delivered from the very presence of sin. What in the world will that be like? He says it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we shall be like Him. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Isnt that a staggering truth to think that you will one day be like Christ? It doesnt say youll be equal to Christ or youll be a Christ. Youll be like the Lord. Youll have characteristics and attributes of the Lord. Isnt it ironic that in the beginning when man strove to be like God and disobeyed the Lord so he could be like God-that in that time, he fell and the image of God was tarnished in him-that it is only through the submission to the will of God that that image is restored? Taking in your own hands and striving to be like Him meant the fall of man; but when man learns to submit and humble himself before God, man receives what he has strived for all along-to be like his Creator. So John tells us that its a process. We have experienced some of the process of salvation, but we have not experienced it in its totality. The deliverance is complete when we are delivered from the presence of sin and live in the presence of God. That is why it is laughable that anybody would think that they can attain salvation on their own. Its ludicrous because salvation ultimately is this total and complete deliverance of sin and being made into the likeness of God. That's a supernatural event. How in the world can natural people transform themselves supernaturally? So if you truly understand what salvation is, you will give up entirely the notion that you can somehow attain or achieve it on your own efforts. It is a supernatural work of the living God. The passage that speaks to the glorified state-the resurrection state, the state in Heaven-the best-is 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1140); so if youll turn there in your Bibles, thats where were going to park for the rest of our study this morning. The whole chapter deals with resurrection and the importance of the resurrection; how resurrection is foundational to our faith-the Resurrection of Christ; how Christ is the first fruits, so what happened to Christ will one day happen to those who are in Christ. Paul is going to do his best to describe this supernatural Heavenly reality in earthly terms. He uses the illustration of a seed dying in the soil and being raised in a new form. He talks about the different forms of life on earth; how creatures-how humans-differ from fish and birds and so forth; and how the planets differ from the stars and how stars differ from stars. Then he goes on to talk about our Heavenly bodies, and that is the focus of our discussion this morning. So were going to begin in Verse 42 with having that understanding of the context of the backdrop which Paul speaks. Were going to look at these attributes together: 1 Corinthians 15:42, So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable… So hes going to talk in each of these attributes about what we are now and about what we will become. He says, …it is sown or it dies. He is speaking of our death when he says it is sown. We will die perishable human beings. Paul is saying that you and I are not built to last forever. We are built to last a lifetime, however long that is; but we are not built to last forever. We cannot inhabit eternity. In fact, later on in this form-later on in this chapter-Paul will say flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. We must be changed; we must be transformed by the Lord and by His power in order to inhabit eternity. We are right now creatures of time, creatures of earth, and we are temporal beings in this body. This body is temporal, so Paul says were perishable. How many of you have an ache or a pain with you today in some part of your body, something that hurts and you wish would go away? Did you happen to see all the cripples that are all around you here today? I mean some people have things like an earache or a headache or a chronic thing like arthritis; but others of you have more serious conditions. Some of you have been to the doctor for your conditions. Maybe you have an old war injury, an old sports injury or something; but you have aches and pains, and there are signs that your body is deteriorating. You see physical deterioration. As you get older, you see that more readily, dont you? Hair that used to be there a year ago is gone; the color of the hair that used to be there has changed. Wrinkles that were not there before have appeared. Aches and pains that were not there… We see the signs of aging; we feel the signs of corruption that we in fact live in a perishable body. Paul says, Ive got some good news. The next body that you will dwell in is imperishable. It doesnt get old; it doesnt die; it doesnt get sick. I mean I dont know if were all going to walk around with six packs or not. I cant say, ladies, youll never have a bad hair day in Heaven; I dont know. Guys, I cant say if youre going to have a full head of hair; I dont know what all the cosmetic stuff looks like, but I do know that the bodies will be imperishable. I have a lot of good news for you today. I have such good news that some of you might think, Man, I want to go now! But, I invite you just to wait because the Lord might not be through with you yet. You might have people that are counting on you to stick around. Its like the man who got to Heaven with his wife. They were going through the Pearly Gates and ran into St. Peter-true story (congregation laughing). Theyre walking through Heaven, and he comes to his mansion. Peter says, This is where youre going to live, and its just decked out. He says, I cant afford this place. How much does it cost to live in this mansion? Peter says, Dont worry about the price. Its Heaven; its free. He says, Wow! This is magnificent. I never thought Id live in a place [like this]. This is like a palace! Its incredible! They continue on and they came to a banquet hall-this large spread. He said, Wow! Ive never seen such food! It just smells so wonderful, and he tastes it. He says, Oh, its the best cooking Ive ever had. I cant afford this food! How much does this cost? Wheres the menu? He said, Its free. Its Heaven; youre going to eat like this every day-as much as you want; and youll never gain weight! He was like, Wow! Then he came to a golf course, the most magnificent golf course. It was acres and acres of rolling hills and plush grass. He said, How do you get to tee-off on this course? He said, You can play on this course any day you want, as much as you want, as long as you want for free. Its Heaven. Elation turned to anger. He looked to his wife, and he said in disgust, If not for you and your dumb bran muffins, I could have been up in this place ten years ago! You want to get there now. Well, Im cautioning you to hold off. Let God decide when you go, but I do have some more good news. Look at the next verse. He says, …it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory… Now the word glory is the word doxa, and it has to do with splendor and majesty. Its always used in the context of worshipping God. Is Paul saying here that you and I are one day going to turn into creatures that one would worship? That we will receive glory like God has glory? I dont think so. In fact, I know so. This passage, this phrase, really speaks to our purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God. Its to bring glory to God. In fact, you can find out really what these words signify by looking at the perishable or the earthly description of our condition now. The first word is our condition now; the second word in the phrase is what we will become. So we are now perishable; we will one day be imperishable. He says our body is sown in dishonor. It will be raised in glory. In other words, now we sow dishonor. We live for ourselves. In this eternal state, we will live for the glory of God. Sow and in dishonor… How many of you today or this week have said, done or thought something that dishonors God? Let me see your hands. Boy, this is one hurting group of people today. All of us. You could be as sincere as you wanted to be, and you could say, I will never, ever sin against God again. For the rest of my life, I will only live for the glory of God. Every thought, every word, every deed is going to only be for the glory of God. I will not sin from this moment forward. The only way, the only way that that pledge will come true is if you are hit by a Mack truck as soon as you walk out the door in the parking lot. Because you are a fallen people; we are a fallen people. We struggle with our flesh; we struggle with temptation; we struggle with our weaknesses. We are not perfect, and we do not always live for the glory of God. We sometimes live for the glory of God, but we cannot sustain that day after day, year after year into forever, always and forever living for the glory of God. Paul says we have sown bodies that dishonor the Lord and live for self, but one day we will live for the glory of God. That is our glory; our glory will be that we are living for the glory of God. We will have the power to do that. Right now we might have the desire to do that, but we dont have the ability to do that. Thats what the next passage or phrase speaks to. It says, …it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power… Does this mean youre going to become some sort of cosmic superhero? God is going to endow you with power? Youre going to have big old muscles, fly around and be powerful. No. The power speaks to our ability. We will now have not only the desire to always live for God, but in that glorified state, we will have the ability to always live for God. The power and the ability; see, both are essential. If you have the ability but not the power, youre impotent. If you have the power but not the ability, then all you have is that desire. Combine the two-heres my purpose and I have the ability to live out that purpose-and that is a powerful combination. Ill use an illustration from what happened in the news this week. When President Obama was Senator Obama, he said in his campaign, I want to close Guantanamo Bay. Now were not going to debate this morning whether you think that should stay open or be closed. Were just going to say as point of illustration, if you were to say, I think we should close Guantanamo Bay, does that close Guantanamo Bay? Why not? Because you are just a citizen. You dont have that kind of power. You can have an opinion, but because you say, I want Guantanamo Bay closed, nobody is going to jump. The Pentagon isnt going to start scurrying to get that job done because you dont have that power. Neither did Barack Obama when he made that pledge. He was a senator, and as senator, he had a desire to close it; but he didnt have the authority to close it. His words speaking, I want to close Guantanamo Bay when Im President were simply a desire. They did not have the power and authority behind them. Now when he took the oath of office, and as soon as he said, So help me, God, and the chief justice said, Congratulations, Mr. President, at that moment, the Constitution transfers the power and authority to carry out that directive. So now when he held his press conference the next day or two and he said, Im going to close Guantanamo Bay, its closing. Do you see the difference? Its having a desire vs. having the ability. Paul says, One day we will have the desire to glorify God, but we will also have the power to do that. Can you imagine a state in which you always want to do the thing that pleases God-which you always want to do the right thing? Can you imagine that state-of-being in which you always love your brother? You always get along with one another; there is no more need to say Im sorry. There is no more need to forgive one another because were not going to wrong each other. You always live for the glory of God; you always live to serve one another; you always have the right motive. Can you and I imagine such a state? Because one day we will live in that state-live to fulfill our purpose and have the ability to do so. Raised in glory-sown in weakness and raised in power. He goes on to say [Verse 44], …it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. I believe thats an all-encompassing term for what he has already described. The spiritual body-the spiritual existence-has the ability to live eternally. It has the ability to live for the glory of God eternally because it is made of the stuff of Heaven, not the stuff of earth. In Verse 47 he says, The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from Heaven. As was the earthly man… Adam, …so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from Heaven… Jesus, …so also are those who are of Heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man… Thats us right now. …so shall we bear the likeness of the man from Heaven. Youll be made of the stuff of Heaven. Your essence, your spirit-you-will be in an entirely different vessel, one thats made to inhabit eternity. Now what is the application of this? This is all well and good for one day. This is all good for Heaven, but what about the here and now? I mean that glorified body doesnt help me right now. Im still struggling with weakness. Im still struggling to fulfill my purpose. Im still dealing with a perishable body. How does that help me here and now? Paul speaks of that in Verse 58. He says, Therefore… Whenever you see the word therefore, find out what its there for. Therefore pertains to everything hes just said about this glorified state. He says, Therefore, my dear brothers… In light of all this thats going to happen; in light of the fact that God knows you; in light of the fact that God is going to glorify us, …stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Its not in vain. What you do for Christ matters. What you do in ministry to serve Him matters. Your struggle to obey matters. Your struggle to fight temptation matters. Everything you do is not in vain. God sees; God knows; and God will reward. I saw vanity this week. My son and I went to the Inauguration in Washington. Its history. To me it transcends any political party. It was a historic event as the first African American President was sworn in to the highest office in our land. It was going to be the largest gathering in the history of our Republic. We went to the We Are One concert at Lincoln Memorial on Sunday with U2, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce and Bono, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Usher and all those people who were there. There were a half million people there. Well, this is going to be four times that: 2 million people gathered in the mall to witness history. I was fortunate enough to land a couple of tickets from a friend of mine who works in the political field, so we made plans to head to D.C. On Monday, we had to go pick up our tickets at the Senate Office Building. We got there early and waited in line. We got our tickets, and people were excited by the thousands. Everywhere you went, it was just a jovial high-spirited atmosphere. We looked at our tickets like we were Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. We had the golden ticket. We have to take this thing back to the train, get back to our car, and hide it in our trunk, so it doesnt get stolen, ruined or lost. Once that settled, we went back and enjoyed our time in D.C. We had a meal in Chinatown, got back on the train and got back to our rooms at 11:30 at night. We had enough time to shower, change into our Inauguration duds, get back in our car and drive back to the Metro so we could be at our designated gate by 5:30 in the morning. At 5:30 in the morning, there we stood-freezing cold, 10 degrees-waiting with everybody else. Conversations were going on around us. The gate was to open at 8 oclock instead of 9 they said because there were so many people. I said I thought they should have opened at 5 because I didnt know how they were going to screen all those people in that short of a period of time. Then 8 oclock came and went and nothing happened. The crowd had grown bigger, but they were still happy. Occasionally theyd break into a patriotic song, and conversations continued. By 9 oclock, the gate was still not opened, and the crowd had grown to the point where you couldnt move. If you were claustrophobic, that was not the place to be. For blocks, people were packed in like sardines. I couldnt even reach down and grab my cell phone to see what time it was. I couldnt get my arm down. That's how tight we were. An ambulance came through and couldnt reach the person that had fallen. It was a potential situation where if there was something that went wrong, people could have easily been trampled to death in this crowd. It was a volatile situation, no policemen, no security, nobody with a megaphone or in a brightly colored vest telling us where to go-nothing. We felt very left out and very bewildered. There was no TV to watch; there were no reports coming in; there was nobody, just this mass of people. Some had tickets; and then [there were] thousands and thousands without tickets who had flooded the area and clogged and congested it. I spent most of my time talking to a dear woman in her 70s from Atlanta, Georgia. [She was an] African American, [and it was the] proudest day of her life. She knew the reverend who was going to give the benediction at the Inauguration. She knew Jesse Jackson. In fact, earlier on, the crowd started to cheer. We thought, Oh, the gates are going up, but it was just Jesse Jackson walking through the crowd. He walked right by us. I dont know where he was going, but if you would have come a couple hours later, he wouldnt have gotten through either. Andrew Young-all these great Civil Rights leaders were her friends. She had worked tirelessly on this campaign, and it looked like she wasnt going to see anything. I spent a lot of time trying to keep people off of her back because they were pushing against her, and she was complaining how it was hurting her back; so I was pushing back this way with my arm. My arm was getting very tired as I tried to protect her for hours. Then over here was a little girl, and she was crushed between two strangers-about the age of my youngest daughter. She was about to cry, and I looked in her eyes, and I said, Its going to be okay. Dont be afraid. Its going to be okay. It was not a pleasant situation. Then 10:30 came, and the music started. My son turned to me and he said, We arent going to get in, are we, Dad? We were approaching 11 oclock. I thought this day that was supposed to be so joyous-wed spent so much money and wed spent so much time-and so much hope was going to end for us in despair. I offered up a prayer. I didnt know what else to do, so I prayed. I closed my eyes and said, Lord, I dont know how were going to get in this place. There are so many people, and we cant move; but Im asking You somehow, some way if Youd get us in that Inauguration in time. At 11:30, the gates would close. These were not just-we were fortunate. Many of the people in line were people of prominence. Theyd worked hard on the campaign. They were people who really belonged more so than we did in this event. I dont know how to explain this to you, but a few minutes after we left-after I prayed-the couple next to me said, Were out of here. We give up. They started to walk sideways out of the crowd. I turned to my boy, and without saying much other than lets go, we knew if we stayed where we were at wed miss everything. If we left, there was a good chance we wouldnt get in, and we might get turned back because we jumped the line-if you could call it that. It was just this mass of people, but it was our only chance. We started to go sideways, and I dont know how in the world to explain this to you except that we saw a seam. Instead of going out to leave, I said, Lets go; and we went down that seam, and it parted. It got a little wider and a little wider. Friends, I kid you not; we walked out of the crowd. If you want to read about this, go online and punch in purple tickets Inauguration. Tell me if you see any other people who are in those lines who made it to the event. I didnt see a one. We walked through the crowd all the way around, down the block, around the corner to the gate and into the Inauguration. One minute we were in the crowd, and the next thing we knew we were going through security two blocks away. We made it into the Inauguration onto the lawn of the Capital Building just as President Clinton was being seated. When the cannons went off, [they] were just to our left. We could see the fire and smoke come out of the cannons when they went off. We were able to hear and see the event, but the thousands and thousands that we stood in line with for five hours in the freezing cold… Mystic, people were in tears. They were crying. Theyd come all this way; theyd spent all this money and all this hope, and it was vanity. Their government had let them down; the police had let them down; the representatives had let them down. The man who got me a ticket was the chief of staff for a senator-a United States Senator-he did not get in. Thousands of people did not get in: vanity. Paul writes the church, and he says, Listen, church, this is for a purpose. Your God is not going to let you down. You might feel like you dont matter; you might feel like youre insignificant; you might feel like youre a face in the crowd-that youve been ignored or forgotten. Paul says, I want you to know this is not in vain. What you do matters. The work you do matters. Those people had put all kinds of time into that campaign and saw and heard nothing of this day that was supposed to be so significant because the powers that be let them down. Paul says, Gods not going to let you down. God has something awaiting for you that you cannot even begin to imagine. Because of that very fact, he says, You press on. You press on and you give it all youve got as long as you can while youre here because theres coming a day when any hardship or struggle on this earth will be but a distant memory. It will all be worth it. Would you bow your heads in prayer with me this morning? If youre here this morning and youve never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior-youre trying to attain this salvation of your own merit-I hope youve seen this morning that that is absolutely impossible. I hope you will humble yourself before the Lord this morning. Pray this prayer with me: Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus name. I realize that salvation is only in You, that it cannot be earned; it cannot be achieved by human effort. I humbly ask You to forgive my sins. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would live inside of me, empower me and help me to live for You all the days of my life. It is my desire to become Your child and that You will be my Father for all eternity. In Jesus name, I pray. If you prayed that prayer this morning, you can have the assurance that God has heard that prayer, and Hes answered that prayer. Lord, I pray this morning for those who are weary, that they would press on; to know that we are moving toward an end, and that end for the believer is glorious. Because of Your grace, Your mercy and Your love, well be transformed into Your image in a greater likeness than we are now. The images of this earth, of this existence, will pale in comparison to what is to come. Lord, we worship You. We are humbled by that revelation today. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.