We just came.
My wife is here someplace.
Betty, you better get up because I always
get scolded for nothing.
And Joe and Maureen Guthrie are here.
They have been our hosts and our chauffeurs.
Up, up, up, up.
Pastor Guthrie's retired now, although he's quite busy.
He and his wife, but I first met
him in 1948.
That goes back a few years.
Some of you were just a gleam in
somebody's eye back in 1948.
I want you to know that your friends
in the ministry are going to enrich you.
Don't be a loner.
You can't raise a preacher anymore than you
can raise a bee.
You take a hive.
And so don't be a loner.
Get yourself some good, close, praying preacher friends.
And if there is in your area somebody
just a mite older, who can kind of
mentor you a little bit, I thank God
for the people in my life who enriched
me.
For some reason, I was smart enough to
listen to them, how that happened.
We just came from Dallas, and I've been
ministering to about 800 of our black pastor
friends.
And we had a high and holy time.
We just had a high and a holy
time.
And God moved in, and we just praised
Him for His faithfulness.
What I'd like to do during these times
that we're together is chat with you on
the simple subject of how do we keep
going.
How do we keep going?
Some years ago, I sat down with my
Bible, and I talked to myself.
If you were going to be in my
study at home, or my library at home,
you'd hear me talking to myself.
I talked to my Bible.
And I found that when I talk to
my Bible, my Bible talks to me.
And I said, Lord, what kept the people
going in Scripture?
What kept them going?
I'm going to start a unitist society for
all the dropouts.
I'm also starting a meeting, a group for
the most neglected and abused people in the
church, the janitors, the custodians.
I'm calling it premise keepers.
But I
tell you, the battle, the battle is raging.
And I thank God it is raging.
Spurgeon used to say, I didn't hear him
say it, but I read it.
Joel heard him say it.
Spurgeon used to say, the devil never kicks
a dead horse.
Dr. Culbertson, when he was president of Moody
Bible Institute, occasionally snuck into Moody Church when
I was there.
He'd come up to me and say, well,
how goes the battle?
And I better be able to say, it's
going.
That's when God blesses.
So I began to go through my Bible.
Lord, what kept Abraham going?
At the age of 75, most of us
are hanging it up.
He's just getting started.
What kept Moses going?
Eighty years old.
God says, I'm calling you.
By the way, youngsters, God is still calling
and using some older folks.
You knew that.
Sometimes he goes and gets a young Samuel,
or a young David, or a young John.
And sometimes he gets a hold of a
Moses, or an Abraham, or Joshua, or Caleb.
Because we need all.
A friend of mine some years ago, bless
his heart, he said, I tell you, church
is changing.
I said, hallelujah.
Like a mighty tortoise moves the church of
God.
Brethren, we are treading where we've always trod.
He said, I'm going to start a new
church in this town.
I said, really?
He said, yep, for everybody 60 and older.
I said, I've got a suggestion.
He says, what?
I said, put an undertaker on the staff.
Betty and I make it a point to
make friends among younger preachers and preachers' wives,
because they teach us.
I learn so much from them.
And I'm glad for younger folks who try
to get to know some older folks.
Because according to the Bible, it takes both.
We have digital watchers now, but we used
to have the old-fashioned kind.
Remember the old, with the hand?
You remember those?
They were popular when radio was popular.
And the church is something like those hands.
We older folks, we're like the hour hand.
We kind of move a little slowly, but
we can tell you what time it is.
And then some folks are like that minute
hand, goes a bit faster, like the second
hand.
It takes all three to tell the time.
And I thank God for the church where
there is a balance.
A balance, where we learn from one another.
So I began to study the lives of
these great people in the Bible.
What kept them going?
I discovered an interesting thing, that there are
in the lives of these people, in each
one of them, one key truth that kept
them going.
Terrific.
We're going to start with Abraham.
Abraham.
And the thing that kept Abraham going for
a hundred years, walking by faith, the thing
that kept Abraham going was he saw the
city of God.
Hebrews chapter 11.
Would you turn there with me?
Hebrews chapter 11.
Now, I'm going to have occasion to refer
to Hebrews quite a bit during this conference
time.
If I were back in the pastorate, I'd
be preaching the book of Hebrews.
It's a book we need today.
The book of Hebrews was written to people
who were going through shaking.
According to Hebrews chapter 12, God was shaking
everything.
Now, the saints don't like to be shaken.
They open the service with, we shall not
be moved.
God's shaking things today.
He's shaking his church today.
And the writer of the book of Hebrews,
some folks think it was Paul, tells us
the reason he's shaking things is so that
the things that you can't shake will stand
and people will say, hey, we've been fooling
around with the scaffolding.
We've been messing around with the scaffolding.
And the scaffolding's all gone.
You know, the church is still here.
A lot of churches are wasting a lot
of time and money just on the scaffolding
instead of building the building.
The book of Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13.
Talking about the patriarchs.
These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, that is, the things that were
promised, but having seen them afar off, and
were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth.
That's one of our problems today.
The saints live like this is home.
Folks, I've got news for you.
This is not home.
A fugitive is running from home.
A vagabond has no home.
A stranger is away from home.
A pilgrim is heading home.
And we're God's pilgrims.
This world is not our home.
That's why Abraham, who was a wealthy man,
and could have built himself a mansion, lived
in a tent.
And when he wrote his will, we've written
our will, it says, being of sound mind
and body, I'd spend it all.
When Abraham wrote his will, he said, Dear
Isaac, there is my will.
I'm leaving you a tent.
Jacob, a tent.
That's where Lot got in trouble.
He gave up his tent.
Settle down.
For those who say such things declare plainly
that they seek a homeland, a fatherland.
And truly, if they had called to mind
that country from which they had come out,
they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is,
a heavenly country.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for He has prepared a city
for them.
What was it that kept Abraham going?
He was looking for a city.
When you get to the end of the
book of Hebrews, the writer says, Now I
want to remind you folks that we here,
here on this earth, we have no continual
city.
You say, Well, I don't live in a
tent.
Oh, yes you do.
For we know that if this earthly tent,
tabernacle, in which we're living, is taken down,
you live in a tent, 2 Corinthians 5.
You don't live in a house, you live
in a tent.
And that means you're temporary.
Abraham, you're a wealthy man.
Why do you live in a tent?
This isn't my home.
Where are you going?
Right up there, you see it?
A city.
He's preparing for me a city.
And it was the vision of heaven that
kept Abraham going.
Now, there are three cities involved in Abraham's
life.
And there are three cities involved in every
believer's life.
Now, the unbelievers only have one city.
There are three cities involved in your life.
I don't know what city you come from
to come to this conference.
But every one of us, spiritually speaking, spiritually
speaking, is involved in three cities.
First, Abraham had a city behind him called
Ur.
Ur of the Chaldeans.
And then Abraham had a city beside him
called Sodom.
And the thing that kept Abraham from going
back to the city from which he came
was the fact that he had a city
before him and beyond him, heaven.
I want to talk about these three cities
in your life and my life.
First, there's a city behind us.
Every one of us, as a believer, has
turned his back on the past.
That's important.
If we don't, if in our hearts or
our minds we're still attracted to the past,
the pull of the past, we're heading for
trouble.
The writer says, Abraham, if he had thought
about that homeland he came from, that place
he came from, he could have gone back.
He could have gone back.
Did you know that the greatest judgment God
can put upon any of us is to
let us have our own way?
It's the greatest judgment.
We had Romans 1.
He said, we just gave them all the
time.
You want to live that way?
Go ahead.
But you can't change the consequences.
Abraham had a city behind him called Ur
of the Chaldeans.
Now, we get the idea that this ancient
history describes people who lived in caves and
walked around like they were gorillas.
Don't you kid yourself.
Ur of the Chaldeans, according to Sir Leonard
Woolley, the great archaeologist, was no mean city.
Population of over 300,000.
They had water conduits.
They had figured out square roots and cube
roots.
Some of us can't do that today.
Lush country.
It was not in the middle of a
desert.
Lush country.
Vast buildings.
Some of the wealthy people had 14, 15
room villas with running water.
And Abraham was a wealthy man.
Let me quote Sir Leonard Woolley, just in
case you may doubt me.
Abraham was the citizen of a great city
and inherited the traditions of an old and
highly organized civilization.
Wealthy.
He had status.
Comfortable.
His neighbors would say, boy, we're like Abraham.
Man.
And then one day, Abraham had one of
those life-changing experiences by the grace of
God.
You know what?
Stephen says it this way in his sermon
in Acts 7.
The God of glory appeared to Abraham.
That's happened to you, hasn't it?
And God says, get out.
Leave your family.
Just get out.
Just take Sarai, your wife, and get out.
He didn't obey.
He took Sarai.
He took Terah, his father.
He took Lot, his nephew.
And he got as far as Haran.
And there he stopped.
I don't criticize Abraham.
There have been times when God has asked
me to take giant steps.
And I've taken little baby steps.
I don't know what there is about us
that we don't want to trust God.
I mean, he saw the glory of God.
God said, get out.
Well, Terah died.
He left Haran, Abraham, and Sarai, and Lot
did.
And God had said to Abraham, go to
a land I'm going to show you.
Now, I like to read the books that
the secular press puts out on administration, business.
I like to be efficient.
I'm one of these people.
I carry a card in my pocket.
If I get an idea, I have to
write it down.
I'll forget it.
Right next to my dead stand, I've got
a stack of notepaper, and I've got a
ballpoint pen with a flashlight in the point.
Now, folks, how efficient can you get?
Pen makes eight carbon copies and no original,
but it's a good pen.
And if I wake up at night and
I've got a great idea, I have to
write it down, because I'll lose it.
I like all these books on efficiency.
And all these books on efficiency say, now,
you plan.
You know where you're going.
You have a one-year plan, a five
-year plan, a ten-year plan, all the
while James is saying, you don't even know
if you're going to be alive tomorrow.
So God, Abraham goes to Sarai.
Abram goes to Sarai, and he says, my
dear, we're moving.
Where are we going?
I don't know.
You don't know where you're going?
No.
Well, how will you know when you get
there?
God will tell me.
IBM would never accept that.
Abraham marched off the map.
He didn't even have a map.
And I want you to know, there are
times when God calls us and says, now,
start moving, and doesn't always tell us where
we're going.
Now, I'm the kind that likes to know
where we're going.
That's why my wife travels with me, because
I get lost in a phone book.
We're driving down the interstate, you know, and
she'll say, didn't you see that exit?
I said, well, you've seen one.
You've seen them all.
That was our exit.
Oh, there's another one down here.
So when we travel, she does the planning,
figures out what's going to happen, and I
like everything to work on schedule.
But if you have all day, you fly
the American way or the Delta way.
Anybody who would believe the announcements in an
airport would believe anything.
So God called Abraham to go to a
country he'd never seen, and he went by
faith.
I said, Abraham, I want you to know
something.
This is not your final destination.
Now, if you lift up your eyes higher,
I'm going to show you.
Out here, there's a city, a country, a
homeland.
And Abraham, I've written your name down in
heaven.
Isn't that great to have your name written
down in heaven?
I like that Greek verb there in Luke
where Jesus says your name has been written
down, it is still written down, it stands
written down, and always will be written down.
That bothers some people, I know, but that's
all right.
There's a new name written down in pencil.
Abraham, you're going to heaven.
And Abraham, if ever you think about Ur,
your comfort, your well, all of these things
you had in Ur, don't look back, look
up.
Everything that Abraham ever dragged with him that
he wasn't supposed to bring with him got
him into trouble.
Lot got him into trouble.
Abraham went down to Egypt, got Hagar down
there.
Hagar got him into trouble.
That's why the Bible warns us, don't look
back.
Jesus said, anybody who puts his hand to
the plow and looks back isn't fit for
the kingdom of God.
Then he said, remember Lot's wife.
That's what she did, she looked back, turned
into a pillar of salt.
Paul said, what?
Forgetting those things which are behind.
That was the whole problem with the Jewish
nation.
God delivered them from Egypt, and the minute
they got into any kind of difficulty, whether
it was the Red Sea, or what are
we going to drink, or what are we
going to eat?
Anytime they got into any difficulty, they sang
the same song.
Let's go back to Egypt.
That used to be our home.
Oh Moses, we want the leeks and the
onions and the garlic.
That's one crowd you wouldn't ask to sing
Breathe on Me, I'll tell you that.
And the problem with the Jewish people was,
their philosophy was, whenever you're in trouble, go
back.
And for us as Christians, whenever we're in
trouble, the answer is, go forward.
Every one of us has a city behind
them.
And every once in a while the devil
says, you know, you'd have it a lot
easier if you were back where you used
to be.
I mean, you gave up your job, you
did this, you did that, and here you
are serving the Lord.
And, yeah, but just think of what you'd
have if only you would have stayed in
Ur.
Why don't you go back?
Why don't you go back to Egypt?
And Abraham would say to that, as Paul
would say, no, I got my eyes on
a city out there.
That's where I'm going.
We have a city behind us, and we've
got to be careful about the pull of
the path.
Peter said, you've had enough time in your
old life to satisfy yourself with that, now
forget about it.
Move ahead.
The older I get, the more comfortable I
want to be.
I'm becoming more and more artificial.
I'm wearing artificial eyes, trifocals.
I've got some artificial ears.
Betty and I have an interesting ritual at
night.
I take out my hearing aids, and she
puts in her earplugs.
I have moved into the AIDS syndrome.
I have hearing aids and band-aids and
roll-aids.
But I'm getting more and more artificial.
I can't run like I used to run
and carry luggage like I used to carry
luggage.
But God keeps stirring me and saying, don't
get comfortable.
Don't look back.
Look ahead.
Now, Abraham had a city beside him.
It was called Sodom.
You and I are living in the midst
of a society where Sodom is our next
-door neighbor.
What was Abraham's relationship to Sodom?
The book of Genesis says Sodom was an
exceedingly wicked city, so much so that throughout
Scripture, whenever the writer wants to talk about
judgment, he says he knew about Sodom and
Gomorrah.
What was Abraham's relationship to Sodom?
Well, number one, he was separated from it.
He lived in a tent over here.
They lived in a city over there.
But he was separated from it.
It is possible, dear friends.
It is possible for us to be in
the midst of an evil society and not
be tainted by it.
It's tough.
John wrote, Love not the world.
He didn't say don't live in the world.
Jesus said, I have called you out of
the world.
I'm going to send you back into the
world, even though you don't belong to the
world.
Since we have been called out, and one
day we're going to be called up and
get to that city.
Meanwhile, between being called out and called up,
we've been called to live in a wicked
world.
We are the light of the world.
We are the salt of the earth.
And down through the centuries, the thing that
has killed the church is that it has
become an exclusive club.
And we have forgotten that we are light
to shine in the darkness.
We are salt to be applied to that
world around us.
Love not the world.
James said, keep yourself unspotted from the world.
Then James went on to say, friendship with
the world is enmity with God.
That's the way we usually go down the
drain.
First there's friendship with the world.
Then when you start getting friendly with the
world, the world's going to spot you.
Get a spot here, a spot there.
And we're spotted by the world.
Before long, we love the world.
It's like two kids falling in love.
First there's friendship, and before you know it,
they're both wearing identical t-shirts.
And then before long, they're in love.
And of course, the result of all this
is Romans 12, 2, conformed to the world.
Now you see this in Lot.
Lot was, what a privilege Lot had.
I think one of the great tragedies in
Scripture are the people who miss their opportunity.
What would an opportunity Lot miss?
To be able to walk with the friend
of God.
I mean, I'd be going around saying, hey,
do you know who my uncle is?
Do you know who my uncle is?
He's God's friend.
God talks to him.
But instead, you find Lot pitching his tent
towards Sodom.
Blessed is the man that walks not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
the way of sinners, nor sits in the
seat of the scornful.
Pitches his tent, and before long, he moves
in, and he's at the gate.
He's one of the aldermen, one of the
mayors of Sodom.
And he lost everything.
Lost his tent.
He lost his altar.
He lost his fellowship with God.
He lost his fellowship with his godly uncle.
Lost his testimony.
When the angels came and said, get out!
We're going to blow this place up!
He went and told his family, and they
laughed at him.
He lost his testimony.
It was his own family.
And he lost his wife.
He lost his daughters.
He lost his purity.
Ends up committing drunken incest in a cave.
I mean, that's Lot who used to go
to church with Abraham.
He said, that can't happen to me.
Don't kid yourself.
Let him who thinks he stands take heed
lest he fall.
That applies to me.
Now, what was Abraham's relationship with Sodom?
He was separated from it.
But brothers and sisters, separation is not isolation.
Because in chapter 14 of the book of
Genesis, when those kings came down and swooped
down upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the three
other cities of the plain, and took them
captive, somebody came running into Abraham's camp and
said, everybody in Sodom and Gomorrah and those
other three cities, everybody's been captured by the
king!
Abraham said, what about Lot?
They said, Lot's one of them.
Now, you'll forgive me for being just a
little bit carnal.
I wouldn't do it except you do it
occasionally.
If Lot had treated me the way he
treated Abraham, and they came and said, Lot
has been captured, you know what I would
have said?
Let him stew in his own grease.
That's what he deserves.
But Abraham's a better man than I am.
Because Abraham knew that one day, Lot was
a saved man.
Didn't look like it, but according to Peter,
he was a saved man, just Lot.
Abraham knew that the day would come when
he and Lot would be walking on the
streets of the city together.
And Abraham didn't want Lot to turn to
him and say, Uncle Abraham, why did you
desert me?
See, some of the people you don't get
along with are going to be in heaven.
Now, you may want in and out privileges
because of that, but Abraham said, get the
army!
And so over 300 of his men trained
and armed got on their horses and camels,
and away they went at night.
And they won the battle.
You know why they won the battle?
Abraham was a man of faith, and this
is the victory that overcomes even our faith.
And this man with 300 and some soldiers
whips four kings, brings everybody back.
Would you have done that for the people
of Sodom?
I have Christian friends who are praying that
God will blow up all these sinners.
Some of them even go so far as
to shoot a few of them.
Abraham wasn't that way.
When the prophet Jeremiah, my favorite prophet, was
ministering in Judah, Babylonians had come down and
taken a bunch of exiles before they destroyed
the city.
Jeremiah wrote them a letter.
It's in Jeremiah chapter 29.
It's a great letter.
He wrote and he said, now you dear
exile, this is from Jeremiah, how should you
behave as God's chosen people now that you're
in Babylon?
Here's the way you're supposed to behave.
Number one, get married, have children, plant gardens
and farms, and pray for the peace of
the city, and do good.
Don't carry protest signs, don't blow up buildings.
Just pray for these people and do good.
Now when Peter wrote his first letter, he'd
been reading that.
When you read 1 Peter, he tells us
how to get along with the government.
How to get along with a world out
there that thinks we're crazy.
He said, now here's what you do folks.
You honor the king, you pay your taxes,
you respect authority, and you do good.
You do good.
You find some hungry people, feed them.
We, in our churches, and we ought to,
and I hope it continues, are sending young
people out in the summertime to mission projects.
They go to Mexico and build buildings and
go to someplace else.
But they all can't go.
And somebody has to stay home and do
something.
I once asked our youth pastor, I said,
what are the kids doing this summer?
Well, this, this, this, and this.
I said, what about the ones that aren't
going any place?
Well, I guess they'll just, you know, do
something.
I said, why don't you go down to
the park commissioner and find out what needs
to be done in the parks in Lincoln,
Nebraska.
There may be fences to be painted or
restrooms to be cleaned.
Wouldn't it be neat if the word got
out in the body politic of Lincoln, Nebraska,
that a hundred young people from Berean Church
cleaned up Holmes Park.
Do good.
That's what Abraham did.
See, if I'm driving down the highway and
I see a man in the ditch in
his car and I pull over, I don't
walk up and say, are you saved or
unsaved?
I say you're driving a Cadillac, you must
be saved.
Are you Presbyterian, Baptist, independent, charismatic?
You don't do that.
If somebody's lying there in a car, you
help them.
As one human being to another, you help
them.
So Abraham not only was separated from Sodom,
but he ministered to the people of Sodom.
And then when it was over, all the
prisoners of war came back and all Abraham
and his men came back and Abraham's standing
there.
Up comes the king of Sodom and says,
look, take all this wealth.
Just give me back the people.
Abraham said, uh-uh.
See, we don't serve other people for what
we're going to get out of us.
He said, I don't even want a shoelace
from you.
If I borrowed a shoelace from you, that
would affect my walk.
I'm not interested.
What a testimony to those people.
It's possible for us to do good for
unsaved people and be a witness to them.
Then up came Melchizedek with the bread and
the wine.
The Lord Jesus shows up.
Before the battle, he shows up, Joshua.
Before the battle of Jericho, Jesus showed up
with His sword.
After the battle, He shows up with the
bread and the wine.
He said, Abraham, Abraham said, I'll give you
all the tithes.
See, you can acknowledge Jesus before unsaved people
if you've done good.
So he was separated from them.
He served them.
And he prayed for them.
The Lord Jesus showed up and sat with
two of His angels and said, we're heading
for Sodom, but I've got to tell Abraham
what's going on.
He's my friend.
Abraham said, now look, if you find fifty
righteous people, will you spare the city?
Yep.
And you know the story.
Down to ten.
Lot, Mrs. Lot, they had four daughters.
Two were married.
Two were unmarried.
The two were married.
They had husbands.
That's eight.
If he had just gotten two people saved,
he could have spared the whole city.
Lot, Mrs. Lot, four daughters.
We don't know about the sons-in-law.
Yes, he'd gotten two people saved.
He spared the whole city.
But Lot wasn't a witness.
You know how to change this world?
Get people saved.
How do you pray for unsaved people?
The people aggravate you.
The neighbors, two o'clock in the morning,
turn the amplification up.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors
and love our enemies because they're usually the
same people.
Abraham was separated from Sodom.
Abraham served the people of Sodom to the
glory of God so he could give his
witness.
And Abraham interceded for the people of Sodom.
Our pastor got up one day, one Sunday
morning a few years ago, no, it was
several years ago now, and said, I want
everybody in this church to have a hit
list.
Now, I grew up in Chicago where on
a clear day you could see your feet.
And a hit list in Chicago meant, you
know, call the undertaker and get an estimate
because you are on the list.
But what he meant by that was make
a list of the people you know who
are unsaved, people you're close to who are
unsaved and start praying for them.
Start praying for them.
Well, Abraham had a hit list and on
that list was Sodom.
Folks, we are not going to change this
world.
But we can let God use us to
change people in this world.
The sewage is going to get deeper.
The smell is going to get worse.
But sometimes things aren't too fragrant inside the
church.
It wasn't St. Augustine who said the church
was something like Noah's Ark.
If it weren't for the judgment on the
outside, you could never stand the smell on
the inside.
Now, let's focus on the main thing we
want to get from the passage.
Abraham had a city beyond him and before
him, the city of God, Heaven.
I want to talk to you about Heaven.
It's too bad that in our churches today,
the only time people talk about Heaven is
when somebody is very sick or badly injured
and is going to die.
We don't talk about Heaven.
Let me read you a quotation from C
.S. Lewis.
If you read history, says Lewis, you would
find that the Christians who did the most
for the present world were precisely those who
thought most of the next world.
It is since Christians have largely ceased to
think of the other world that they've become
so ineffective in this world.
And that's true.
That's true.
You see, in order to do good here,
I need perspective.
And the only way to get perspective is
to look beyond.
And those in the Bible and those in
church history who had their eyes on the
city were the ones who said, we've got
to do something about the situation here.
Whether it was the British evangelicals who fought
slavery or the abuse of children during the
Industrial Revolution or those who built hospitals or
those who went to mission fields, those who
were the most concerned about the next world
had the greatest concern for this world.
To put it in one simple sentence, and
I hope you'll preach it, brothers and sisters,
heaven is not just a destination.
Heaven is a motivation.
And if I am motivated by heaven, I'm
going to keep on going.
Abraham had his dark moments.
Lot was a disappointment to him.
Broke his heart.
Anybody you've ever ministered to broken your heart?
Life wasn't easy for Abraham, but he said,
I'm going to keep on going.
There's a city up there.
Now we're going to leave the Old Testament
and move to the New Testament to the
Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John.
Chapter 7.
When you are studying your Bible, notice the
repetition of phrases in the Bible.
Those are important.
Three times in the Gospel of John, Jesus
says, lift it up, lift it up, lift
it up.
Why?
Four times in the Gospel of John, Jesus
uses this phrase, where I am.
He's talking about heaven.
Four times he says, where I am.
Jesus was motivated by heaven.
John chapter 7.
If I become a believer, a pilgrim, who's
motivated by heaven, how can I tell?
How could anybody tell if Warren Wiersbe is
motivated by heaven?
If I wake up in the morning and
say, today may be the day we go
to heaven.
If I put my head in the pillow
at night and say, well, I may just
wake up in heaven.
What difference does it make?
Verse 32.
John 7.
The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things
concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief
priests sent officers to take him.
Have you ever been arrested for preaching a
sermon?
I wish I had been arrested before preaching
some sermons on history.
Then Jesus said to them, I shall be
with you a little while longer.
And then I go to Him who sent
Me, and you will seek Me and not
find Me.
And where I am, you cannot come.
And the Jews said among themselves, where does
He intend to go that we shall not
find Him?
Does He intend to go to the dispersion
among the Greeks?
A lot of Jews have done that and
teach the Greeks.
What is this thing that He said?
I shall be with you a little while
longer.
And you will seek Me and not find
Me.
And where I am, you cannot come.
You ever notice in the Gospel of John,
every time Jesus talked about something spiritual, people
interpreted it as something physical.
Destroy this temple, three days I'll raise it
up.
Well, it took 46 years to build this
temple.
Next time you're in a building program, remember
that.
It will encourage you.
You must be born again.
How can I get back in my mother's
womb?
I will give you living water.
You haven't even got a bucket.
Except you eat my flesh and drink my
blood, this man's a cannibal.
Isn't it that way today?
You talk to people about the wonderful spiritual
truth.
They just can't see it.
Jesus knew He was going back to heaven,
and He knew there was only one way
to heaven.
When you know you're going to heaven, that
motivates you to an uncompromising witness.
I do not have to tell you this
because you know it already.
I only do what Peter did, stir up
your pure minds by way of remembrance.
One of the greatest battles that is being
fought in the evangelical church today is being
fought on this question.
Is indeed Jesus the only way to heaven?
In the past couple of years, I've read
four books wrestling with if a person is
a sincere Hindu, will not God forgive him
and take him to heaven?
How much faith is saving faith?
How much knowledge is saving knowledge?
And the theologians are wrestling with this.
Now, whatever the theologians wrestle with and write
books about, in about five or six years,
percolates down to the saints.
And if the saints start believing that Jesus
is one of many ways to heaven, there
goes evangelism, there goes world missions, and there
goes the church.
We're going to heaven.
Jesus knew He was going to heaven.
He knew they weren't going to heaven.
So He told them so.
He said, you are not going to heaven.
The woman at the well, the bad Samaritan,
said to Him, oh, our fathers worship in,
you worship in Jerusalem, but we worship here,
on Mount Gerizim.
We have our own worship, our own priesthood,
our own temple.
And that would have been a place for
Jesus to say, if it were true, terrific.
Hey, go ahead.
You worship one way, we worship another way.
It's different.
We all have different ideas.
Many roads lead to Rome.
He didn't say that.
He said, you don't even know what you're
worshiping.
Then He said, we know what we're worshiping,
meaning the Jews, for salvation is of the
Jews.
If you weren't saved by a Jew, you
aren't saved.
Because Jesus came as a Jew.
I was sitting in the airport in Kansas
City one day, and a man came up
with a briefcase.
I'd spotted him.
I knew exactly what he was up to.
He wanted to sell me a book.
And he sat down and he said, I
have a book here I'd like you to
see.
I said, what's it about?
He said, it's about how the world can
be saved.
I said, that's interesting.
Who is the Savior that's going to save
the world?
And he gave me the man's name.
I said, where was he born?
He said, Korea.
I said, I'm not interested.
My Bible says, salvation is of the Jews.
And I reached in my briefcase to get
my Bible, but he didn't see it.
Off he went.
When we really know we're going to heaven,
we do what Moses did.
He turned to his father-in-law and
said, why don't you come with us?
That's what he said to his father-in
-law.
Why don't you come with us?
We'll do you good.
God has spoken great things concerning us.
Come on with us.
That's all you do when you witness.
You just end up saying, hey, I'm going
to heaven.
Why don't you come with me?
It's the motive for an uncompromising witness.
Now we turn to chapter 12 of the
book of John, the Gospel of John.
Some Greeks came to see Jesus in verse
20.
And Jesus says in verse 23, The hour
has come that the Son of Man should
be glorified.
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, it remains alone.
But if it dies, it produces much grain,
much fruit.
He who loves his life will lose it.
And he who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life.
By the way, that's repeated six times in
the Gospels, in one way or another.
If anyone serves me, let him follow me.
And where I am, that's heaven.
There my servant will be also.
If anyone serves me, him my Father will
honor.
Knowing that you're going to heaven is not
only a motivation for an uncompromising witness, it's
the motivation for an unselfish life.
We have a generation coming along whose slogan
is, Me first.
Me first.
Unselfish life.
Now, you and I are seeds.
A seed doesn't look like much, but it's
got life in it and power.
A seed can wreck the foundation of a
building.
A seed can wreck a driveway, a street.
And the Lord says, I want to plant
you.
Now, if you ever get discouraged, and the
devil comes along and says, Boy, God loves
you and put you here.
God loves you?
He never brought you to this church.
You just remind the old enemy, God does
not bury us, he plants us.
In the parable of the tares, the seed,
the good seed of the children of the
kingdom, and God plants it.
He planted me in East Chicago, Indiana, then
he planted me in Wheaton, then he planted
me in Covington, Kentucky, then he planted me
in Chicago, and then Lincoln, Nebraska.
He plants us.
And he said, Now, you bear fruit where
I plant it, and wherever I lead you,
you bear fruit.
And sometimes it's rough.
You say to a seed, Do you want
to be planted?
No, it's dark down there.
You put me down there, man, I'm going
to die.
Do you want to be alone?
No, I don't want to be alone.
Well, then, let's go.
A crazy world.
We have six billion people in the world,
and psychiatrists tell us the biggest problem is
loneliness.
Loneliness.
Boredom.
I can't recall...
Well, I've heard some boring sermons, actually.
I think I've preached a few.
Jesus says, Hey, you want to be beautiful
and fruitful?
Let me plant you.
Die to yourself.
And if ever you worry about, Boy, I'm
down here dying.
Just remember, you're going to heaven.
And one day I'm going to stand with
you in heaven.
And my Father's going to honor you in
heaven.
When Jesus got to the garden and prayed
that great high priestly prayer in John 17,
Oh, what a prayer.
What a prayer.
He says, Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your Son so your Son can glorify
you.
I have glorified you on the earth.
I finished the work you gave me to
do.
Folks, that's all I want to be able
to say when I get to heaven.
I just want to honestly be able to
say, I've glorified you on the earth.
I finished the work you gave me to
do.
I can't do your work.
You can't do my work.
We've got to finish the work He gave
us to do.
And what keeps us from getting discouraged?
He plants us and we're dying to self.
And then out comes the shoot, and then
the beauty, and then the fruitfulness.
And then, knowing that you're going to heaven
motivates you to an unselfish life.
What difference does it make what sacrifices we
make here?
It's only for a short time.
We're going up to heaven where forever and
ever and ever sacrifice will be turned into
joy and suffering will be turned into glory
forever.
Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John, very
familiar.
Knowing that you're going to heaven is the
motive for an uncompromising witness, and it's a
motive for an unselfish life, and for an
untroubled heart.
Let not your heart be troubled.
In my Father's house are many mansions.
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.
But where I am, there you may be
also.
Now, we Christians, and especially we Christian leaders,
do not worry.
Oh, we're concerned, burdened, but we don't worry.
We don't worry.
Or do we?
It was Peter Marshall who said that among
Christians, ulcers are the badge of their faith.
We worry.
I'm not saying everybody has ulcers as a
worry wart.
No, no, no.
Other things can cause it.
You go to bed and you can't sleep.
You're worrying.
You have a meeting coming up, a board
meeting, a committee meeting.
A committee is a group of people who
individually can do nothing and collectively decide nothing
can be done.
And you've got an officer in the church
who's painted a target on your back.
I heard about a pastor's son who did
not know any cuss words and he was
being persecuted by the school bully and the
boy was groping for something to say to
this bully and finally he said, Oh, you
board member, you!
Ever feel like that?
I'll tell you one of the best ways
to get your heart calmed down is just
say to yourself, You know what?
I'm going to heaven.
Let not your heart be troubled.
Be still and know that I am God.
That word be still means take your hands
off.
Some of the things you're meddling in, just
take your hands off.
Let God do something with it.
The secret of an untroubled heart, we're going
to heaven.
Now, it doesn't mean pie in the sky,
by and by, therefore neglect your responsibilities now.
No.
D.L. Moody said, Some Christians are so
heavenly minded they're no earthly good.
No, no.
But just knowing that we're going to win
the battle, knowing that we're going to make
the trip, knowing that the journey is going
to end in glory, even in the midst
of the trenches, we're going to have an
untroubled heart.
Please don't ever criticize Peter in your preaching.
This would be a long line up in
heaven, preachers, to apologize to Peter.
He's a great man.
Peter was a great man.
And Herod arrests him, and Herod gives four
soldiers to guard him, three different changes of
the guard, and he's chained, and the next
day he's going to have his head chopped
off.
I tell you, if I were in those
circumstances, what would I do?
And Peter looked at his watch and said,
Well, it's time to go to sleep.
Good night, men.
And he went to sleep so soundly that
when the angel came in to wake him
up, he had to hit him.
Wouldn't it be terrific to have an angel
for an alarm clock?
That'd be great.
That'd just be great.
He said, Get up.
Let's go.
Why was Peter able to sleep so soundly
with an untroubled heart?
Because he knew they weren't going to chop
his head off.
Jesus had already told him, when you get
old, they're going to crucify you.
He knew he'd never be killed.
I'll tell you folks, it's amazing what happens
when you trust God's promises.
Where I am.
The secret of an untroubled heart.
Quickly to John 17.
Jesus prays.
Verse 24, Father, I desire that they also
whom You gave Me may be with Me
where I am, that they may behold My
glory.
Why?
Verse 22, The glory which You gave Me,
I've given them, that they may be one.
Oh!
Knowing that we're going to heaven motivates us
to an undivided church.
To live above with saints we love will
certainly be glory.
To live below with saints we know, that's
another story.
And here's my brother who criticizes me, and
here's my brother who doesn't like me, and
I'm tempted to let him have it in
Christian love.
And the Holy Spirit says, you know what?
You're going to be in heaven together.
I mean, John Calvin and John Wesley are
in heaven together.
I once asked a professor friend of mine
who is an ardent, ardent Calvinist, I said,
did God predestine Wesley to be an Arminian?
Brothers and sisters, it gives me great comfort
to know that while here on earth there
are people with whom I cannot see eye
to eye.
Thank God I can walk with them arm
in arm because we're going to heaven.
We're going to heaven.
And our people need to know that heaven
is not just a destination, it's a motivation.
And whenever I can't get along with somebody,
I've got to stop to think, I'm going
to heaven.
We'll be there together.
Whenever I don't want to make a sacrifice,
hey, you're going to heaven.
Whenever I've got to worry, you're going to
heaven.
Whenever I'm tempted to compromise my witness, you're
going to heaven.
I tell you, the future is secure, folks.
Jesus knows what He's doing.
He knows where He's going and where we're
going.
Beware of that city behind you.
Don't look back.
Be cautious of the city beside you.
Pray for them.
Minister to them.
Witness to them.
But don't compromise with them.
And keep your eyes, as did Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, keep your eyes on the
city because you're going to be there a
long, long time.
And so, our Father, help us to be
truly heavenly minded in the right way.
And grant that we shall serve you acceptably
in this godly fear.
Here we have no continuing city.
There we have a city that never will
end.
Hallelujah.
Amen.