Maybe you don’t even think much about heaven. Maybe you are busy enough in your everyday life with your countless activities such that you don’t feel you have time to even contemplate heaven. However, the thought of spending eternity in heaven can bring peace in the midst of despair and in the tumult of life. But heaven isn’t about us wearing white robes, sitting on a little cloud and playing a little harp. In fact, it isn’t about us at all! It is about spending eternity in His presence.

Have you ever thought about living in a perfect world? Think about that for a little bit. There would be no need to lock your doors. You wouldn‘t need central air or heat. Doctors would be unnecessary as would lawyers. The list of things that would be different is long. For me, I would be 6′ 2″, thin and the best bass singer gospel music has ever known!

The truth is that you and I can live in a perfect world. Just not today. But there is coming a day when that will be possible. No matter how bad life gets today, we can look forward to a place of eternal perfection – heaven.

Look at our study passage in Revelation 21:1-26. John was given a glimpse of what no man had seen before and no one has seen since. The entire book of Revelation draws a picture of what the end times will look like and tells us about life beyond this earthly journey. The descriptions are the best that John could come up with. He saw the unbelievable and indescribable. And he tried to describe it to both Christians and non-Christians.

Not an easy job! Especially considering the task of trying to describe the indescribable using earthly words and images.

In the 21st chapter of Revelation, John begins by pointing out that the “first earth had passed away.” Staying on this planet doesn‘t seem to be an option, does it? It looks like we will relocate somewhere for eternity. And John saw a new location for those who are forgiven and are in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. He saw a new city in which God and man will live together in peace similarly to the way they did once before in the Garden of Eden.

Those who fail to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and choose Heaven will, by default, choose eternity in the “lake of fire.” But choosing Jesus Christ and Heaven is much more than getting a free pass or “fire insurance”. It is all about allowing God and His Holy Spirit to live in us and through us until that time that we reach the end of our earthly journey. It is an abundant life now and an unbelievable life after that.

John goes on to say that there will not even be a temple in heaven. Imagine that. God’s own Heaven and it doesn’t have a temple.

How about this as a concept. . . . Heaven, by definition, will be a place of worship! After all, that‘s what worship is. It is a natural response to being in God‘s presence. And we will be in His presence always and forever. There will be nothing to distract us from worship and from praising Him and celebrating being in His presence.

Go back and read Genesis 1. In the beginning, God designed a place where everything was good and perfect. But man messed it up by his sin and his disobedience. man chose to believe the serpent instead of the Creator who walked with him in the cool of the evening.

Since that time, we have tried to redefine good. We have equated good with big houses, fast cars and high-powered jobs. We have lowered the standard of goodness so that we can experience things that we believe to be good. But good isn‘t good unless it is Godly.

When the things we define as good can be made better, we have missed God’s concept of good. For God, good was the supreme expression of His creation. He looked at Adam and Eve and He said that it was good. God had no better. When God declared that that creation was good, He didn’t mean that it was good enough until something better came along. It was perfect and that is just what heaven will be like.

Do you want to spend eternity in the place that God calls good?

If so, then you can. Simply confess your sins and ask God to forgive you. If you have done that, then ask Him to send His Holy Spirit to indwell you and empower you to live a life of what Wesley called, “Christian perfection.” And allow the Holy Spirit to work in you to bring about a life worthy of heaven and a life that is pleasing to God and that will allow you to anticipate heaven and anticipate being in God’s presence with absolute peace.

This is the abundant life that God offers. Would you like a life like that?

What is it?

Hell.

And many times we never even give it a second thought until Halloween rolls around. But even then, we make light of it.

So why do we try to make light of it or minimize it? It just might be because if we dare to acknowledge that it exists, then we have to deal with some criteria for getting in to it or staying out of it. And if we seriously consider that criteria we may find we are more “qualified” or closer to the admission criteria for hell than for heaven!

For some folks, salvation is little more than “fire insurance.” They bought it one night at a revival or at the conclusion of a scary “turn or burn” sermon. Maybe it was purchased one night at teen camp when they showed one of those scary end-times movies that they inevitably showed us.

Some folks even say that they might prefer hell over heaven because that’s where their friends will be. So let’s be clear about this. Hell is not a place for companionship. Heaven is not the Ritz Carlton and hell is just the Motel 6! Hell will be experienced in agony and alone. In fact, it is eternal separation from God and everyone else in heaven. It is eternal punishment with fire. There will be absolutely no respite from the torment.

Read Matthew 7:13-23. Entering the city through the narrow gate meant leaving all of your possessions outside. It is interesting that Jesus compared salvation in that way. Imagine walking up to the entrance: In your backpack are all of your possessions and all the good things that you have done. Maybe you have your checkbook in there and your laptop. Behind yourself you are pulling a big suitcase with all the trophies of your accomplishments. Inside are your diplomas and the souvenirs of your great worldly accomplishments. Only one problem, the gate is too narrow for both you and the baggage to pass through. You either stay outside with your “stuff” or you put them down and enter alone. The cool thing is that once you get inside, you come to realize that all the stuff that you thought was valuable is now behind you and you are left to stand in awe before God on your own. All the stuff that you accumulated and accomplished is now insignificant. And you are left with nothing but your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Heaven and hell are real. Your choices in this life have eternal implications. You can “want to go to heaven” all you want to, but if you don’t have a right relationship with God it will never happen. And a relationship with God requires some things from you relative to your sin, relative to His will and relative to our obedience to His commands. And God operates on a completely different value system than you and I do prior to becoming a Christian.

Whenever we are operating on a different value system than God, we are living in disobedience to God. In other words, we are holding on to that backpack while trying to squeeze through the narrow gate. We are like Winnie the Pooh in the popular children‘s book — we are unable to get through the opening.

And false spirituality is no spirituality at all. Read Matthew 7:15-20. Real faith is revealed in changed lives. When we are living for God, we say Godly things and think Godly thoughts. We do the things that are important to God. Jesus warned people to steer clear of folks whose faith doesn’t call for or produce a changed life.

Hell is very real. It is not just a sub-standard eternal resting place. The Bible says that it is a place of eternal agony for those who have refused God’s love and His offer of forgiveness. In our focus verse for this summer, John 3:16, the idea “perish” is equated with eternal torment and punishment. Those are the two choices: eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. Either way it is eternity.

How will you face death? Will you face it with joy and anticipation? As the Apostle Paul said, “For me to die is gain . . .” Or is death something that you dread? Now I am not looking for folks to be anxious to die. God has placed us here for a time and for a reason. Esther in the Old Testament stated it best when she proclaimed that she was here “for such a time as this” as she found herself in the royal court and in a place of great influence.

For many of us, there are many years to come ahead. And God expects us to live it for Him and with great enthusiasm He expects us to do all that we can to take as many folks on to heaven with us as we can. Yet, when our life here on earth is over, we will face eternity based upon the choice that we made while we were alive. The good news is that you can have peace here and now. And you can face the future with peace and assurance that you will spend eternity at the feet of Jesus. The choice is yours and yours alone.