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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
00:00:02:14 - 00:00:26:40
Orador 1
This is a reading from revelation 21 one through four. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
00:00:26:54 - 00:00:47:30
Orador 1
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.
00:00:47:35 - 00:01:09:27
Orador 2
Well, good morning and welcome again to Christ Community Chapel. My name is Mike, one of our pastors here. Really great to be with you. Hope you had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. We're going to finish our advent series, our Christmas series, looking at joy one more time. And this morning we're looking at the joy of the future, the joy of your future.
00:01:09:31 - 00:01:40:36
Orador 2
It was March 22nd earlier this year, around 235 in the afternoon, just north of Charlotte, North Carolina, driving on I-77 south. When my 2018 Honda Odyssey like a disgruntled employee decided to quit. All the lights came flashing on and the engine sputtered, sputtered, sputtered and stopped. And so there we sat. My wife and I are three kids, ages eight, three and one at the time, on the side of 77 South.
00:01:40:38 - 00:02:16:52
Orador 2
Cars going blazing fast past us, eight hours from home, four hours from our destination. And questions just started coming. What is going to happen next? What are we going to do? What's wrong with the van? All kinds of questions about our future and questions that were pregnant with anxiety and stress and fear and all the things. Right? Life has a way of giving us these kinds of moments, these kinds of seasons in our life when we have lots of questions about the future, but not the answers that we want.
00:02:16:57 - 00:02:46:09
Orador 2
And so we live with a sense of anxiety and stress and fear about the future, wondering what exactly is going to happen next. It's just hard when you don't know what's coming. It's hard to be in the present, right? It's hard to live now, in the present. When future answers of the future are absent. And what I love about our God is how much he understands us, how much he knows about us, and how much he cares for us.
00:02:46:14 - 00:03:18:22
Orador 2
And the passage he gives us today comes from his understanding and his from his love. Revelation 21 Is God giving us an insight? A preview into our future, letting us know exactly what's going to happen next. And in this passage, there is one idea, one central idea to carry us through the morning. And it goes like this. God is telling us the future is set with joy forever.
00:03:18:27 - 00:03:46:17
Orador 2
Point one the future is set. Point two with joy. Point three. Forever and ever. I invite you to turn to revelation 21 with me. It's on page 977. If you want to find a Bible that's in front of you, pull it up on your phone. But let's get started with revelation chapter 21. First point is the future is set.
00:03:46:21 - 00:04:11:12
Orador 2
You know, there's a phrase that we will often use saying, I will pencil you in. I will pencil it in. Right. We talk about the future and we will use a pencil. Write the ideas that we have hopes, we have desires. We have wishes that we want our future to go a certain way for our family, for our kids, for our grandkids, with our money, with our health, with our finances, with all kinds of ways.
00:04:11:12 - 00:04:39:05
Orador 2
And so we write with a pencil because we know we we can't actually set our own future. We don't have that kind of control or authority or ability. We think about the future and we write with a pencil. Things can change. And on some level we might think God is like us, that God is preparing and planning and wishing and hoping and trying his best for the future as well.
00:04:39:10 - 00:05:03:38
Orador 2
That God writes in a pencil. But revelation 21 tells us that God does not write in pencil. He's not just hoping or praying or wishing the future or the end goes a certain way. God isn't some kind of master improviser who can just navigate situations as they come, but God is a God who writes the future with a Sharpie.
00:05:03:42 - 00:05:34:51
Orador 2
In this passage, God is telling us. He is telling us that the future has already been set. It's already set in stone. It's been decided. It has been written. It is 100% guarantee for certain this future is set. And that comes from how we understand who God is. Right. There is a phrase that is unique to revelation about God, the beginning of revelation, and the end of revelation.
00:05:34:51 - 00:05:55:27
Orador 2
There is one phrase that is used about God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Alpha and the Omega. There might be a new phrase for you. We don't use that phrase often. I know I don't, but the New Testament was written in Greek, and Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter, right?
00:05:55:28 - 00:06:22:09
Orador 2
We would say God is from the A to Z, which doesn't sound nearly as good as God is. The Alpha and the Omega. And we see it in the first chapter and then the last chapter of revelation. Look with me. Revelation chapter one says, I am the Alpha, I am the Omega, says the Lord, who is and was, and who is to come.
00:06:22:14 - 00:06:51:04
Orador 2
And the last chapter of revelation, the last chapter of the Bible, revelation 22 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Like a director to a movie, the author of a novel, God has written the beginning, and God has already written the end. It's been decided. It is actually set.
00:06:51:09 - 00:07:16:27
Orador 2
And what help me, as I was preparing for this message, is one idea that the way we think about the past, God thinks about the future, the way we think about the past with certainty and confidence and clarity of this actually happened. God thinks about the future in the same way, with the same clarity and confidence and certainty.
00:07:16:29 - 00:07:34:09
Orador 2
This is how it's going to end. If someone were to try to change a part of your story in the past, you would just say you. You can't actually go back in time and change part of my story. And the same way with God, you can't tell God this is going to be a different future. Alter it in some way.
00:07:34:10 - 00:08:06:12
Orador 2
The future is set. God has set the future. And the question, of course, is what kind of future has God set? What kind of future does God want to give us? What kind of future is God able to give us? That's my second point. The future is set and the future is set with joy. With joy. The book of Revelation is God comforting Christians who are on the side of the road.
00:08:06:17 - 00:08:39:23
Orador 2
You can often read the book and feel like that's not the point. If you've spent any time in revelation or if you decide to in the new year, you will find yourself probably confused. There's all kinds of images and analogies that can often leave us feeling confused, but that's not the point of revelation. The point of revelation is to comfort people who have lots of questions about the future, and they are waiting and wondering and fearing that their future isn't going to end well.
00:08:39:28 - 00:09:05:47
Orador 2
I had friends recently who were awaiting a diagnosis and the fear was cancer, and they were waiting and they were wondering and they were fearing. And that seems to be our pattern with the future. We are waiting, we are wondering and we are fearing. And the doctor came to them with really great news and said, it's not what you fear.
00:09:05:52 - 00:09:35:50
Orador 2
There is no cancer. The diagnosis came back great. God, like a good doctor is coming to us in revelation 21 and saying, I have good news and not bad news. Your future does not end with cancer. Your future does not end poorly. Your future ends with joy. With joy. You see, in this passage, God is describing for us a whole new place that he is preparing for us.
00:09:36:05 - 00:10:02:29
Orador 2
It's called the New Heavens and the new earth. The beautiful unity of heaven and earth in a perfect, wonderful, beautiful way. And the best word to describe this new place is the word joy. Joy marks our future for two reasons. First, what is absent from our future? And then second, what is present in our future takes two parts what is absent and then what is present.
00:10:02:31 - 00:10:34:46
Orador 2
Look with me at what is absent. Revelation 21, verse four says, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. Notice the emphasis on tears and mourning and crying. There will be no tears. There will be no crying.
00:10:34:47 - 00:11:05:13
Orador 2
There will be no more mourning. There will be no more sadness in our future. There was a Cleveland comedian in 2011 that when he was thinking about the Cleveland Browns Stadium, had one expression that he called a factory of sadness. And we laugh. And maybe we don't laugh a little bit because 15 years later, that still true. But that's not limited to sports.
00:11:05:18 - 00:11:31:31
Orador 2
That expression factory of sadness. It's not a sports thing. It's not a Cleveland thing by any stretch. And they they are everywhere in this world. I visited a family who had a one year old son who is in the pediatric intensive care unit at Akron Children's Hospital. I'd never been to a kid's ICU before. And you walk the hallways, and there's no better term than to call it a factory of sadness.
00:11:31:31 - 00:12:01:08
Orador 2
I visited it a long time member who has since passed away at a memory care facility and walking the hallways of a memory care facility. There's no better term than a factory of sadness. They are everywhere in this world. They are everywhere in our life. My guess is there is an event. There is a season. There is something in your life that the best way to describe it simply is a factory of sadness.
00:12:01:13 - 00:12:29:47
Orador 2
And what God is telling us in revelation 21 is that there are no such factories in your future. There is none. They will be demolished, taken down, and forever gone. In your future there will be no sadness. What I love about this verse is the very beginning. It says he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. He will do it.
00:12:29:47 - 00:12:58:05
Orador 2
God himself, in such a personal, fatherly, loving way. He will wipe away every tear from your heart and empty the sadness that is deep within you. We could be running to heaven literally with tears in our eyes. And God will pick us up, hold us close, wipe away our tears and drain the sadness that has been storing deep within us and say, you, you are safe now.
00:12:58:10 - 00:13:28:31
Orador 2
You are safe now. You will never experience sadness ever again. Our future is set with joy first because there is no sadness in second. That's what's absent. What? What is present, right? Joy takes two parts. Not only what is absent, but what what is actually going to give us joy and delight and happiness. I think this is where I maybe I feel confused sometimes.
00:13:28:32 - 00:13:55:57
Orador 2
Maybe you feel confused sometimes. What exactly will fill you with joy and happiness and delight in an unending way? Like if God would say to you, hey, today I'm going to grant you one thing that you will experience forever that will fill you with joy and happiness and delight. What would you say? What would be your answer? This is the way our passage answers it for us.
00:13:56:04 - 00:14:21:28
Orador 2
Look with me. Revelation 21 two and three. Then I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. We'll come back to that language. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them.
00:14:21:32 - 00:14:48:53
Orador 2
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. What is present in the future? But the very presence of God, the full, complete, satisfying presence of God. That's where the future is going, right? The language is here. The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them. God himself will be with them as their God.
00:14:48:54 - 00:15:17:25
Orador 2
The main focus of the future is relationship with God. For church, for us to be in the very full, complete presence of God forever. That's the focus of the future. That is the whole point of Christianity. If you want to know what Christianity is about, it's about God in relationship with us, in us, in relationship with God. That's the whole movement of the story of God.
00:15:17:30 - 00:15:44:45
Orador 2
The whole movement of the story of the Scriptures of God desiring planning and creating relationship with us. That's why Jesus came in a manger. That's why Jesus was crucified on a cross. That's why God has set in eternity that we would be with him. Because the heart of Christianity, the heart of the Bible, and the center of the future is us.
00:15:44:50 - 00:16:14:01
Orador 2
In relationship with God. And so if you are here and you're curious, what exactly does God want? What exactly is God after? The answer is you. God desires relationship with you to dwell with you through His Son Jesus forever. That is what is present in the future. The image that came to mind for me from the movie Home Alone.
00:16:14:03 - 00:16:38:09
Orador 2
I'm not sure if you've seen that recently. The classic Christmas movie. The main storyline of that movie is an eight year old Kevin who gets left behind, right? And he defends the house and all kinds of crazy and funny ways. But there's a there's an underlying story to Home Alone. It's not just the son who is left at home, but it's a mom who is absolutely desperate to be with her son.
00:16:38:21 - 00:17:02:52
Orador 2
She will do anything, and she does do absolutely anything in the movie just to be home with her son. And I'm not sure if you have someone in your life that you think desires you in that way, but God raises his hand and says, that's me. My desperate desire and wish is just to dwell with you and you to dwell with me.
00:17:02:54 - 00:17:31:23
Orador 2
It is a relationship. And the question is what? What's the connection between the presence of God and our joy? Right. It would be easier. Our joy was connected to something else. Right. Whatever you answered in your head. And the one thing that would give you joy in the future, that would be easier, right? Maybe it's financial security or health, or your kids growing up and being successful or whatever it might be.
00:17:31:28 - 00:17:55:10
Orador 2
It would make more sense, right? If Joy was connected to something else. But why is joy connected to the presence of God? Well, let me give you two reasons why that is. One about food and the second about marriage. Right? First, about food. I just need to tell you that I really dislike olives. Like, I really dislike there could be black olives.
00:17:55:10 - 00:18:18:34
Orador 2
That could be green olives. You could put cheese in the olives. It does not make a difference. I am firmly convinced the olives came after Genesis three and the fall in the garden. All right. They were not in Genesis 1 or 2. But if you had me over for dinner and you had a salad that was sprinkled with goat cheese, and then you had chicken with goat cheese, and for whatever reason, you also had pizza.
00:18:18:34 - 00:18:45:12
Orador 2
And there was goat cheese on the pizza. And then you had a dessert that I've never had before, but you sprinkled goat cheese on the dessert, and that would be the best meal I have ever experienced. We are wired to enjoy certain foods and did not enjoy other foods. Right. We get that right this Christmas season. You probably enjoyed some of your favorite foods that you absolutely enjoyed.
00:18:45:17 - 00:19:09:03
Orador 2
The Bible tells us that we not only have taste buds that are physical, but we have taste buds that are spiritual that deep within us, our soul, our heart are inmost being is made to enjoy and feast upon the very presence of God. So the first reason why our future will be full of joy, because we will feast unending.
00:19:09:03 - 00:19:30:36
Orador 2
Feast in the God's presence. The second is marriage, right? And I don't know when you think about relationship with God, what what comes to mind? The Bible gets more specific. The Bible doesn't just say, hey, we have relationship with God. It tells us what kind of relationship that we have. Look with me. Let me show you in our passage.
00:19:30:41 - 00:19:59:31
Orador 2
Revelation 21, two and three. Maybe you caught this earlier, says then. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. You notice the marriage language here. I'm not sure when you think about a relationship with God. If you think you're roommates, you think your teammates, classmates, close friends, siblings, whatever.
00:19:59:31 - 00:20:34:23
Orador 2
It might be coworkers. But it's it's intimate in that it's more close than that. The relationship the Bible talks about church between us and God is God as the husband and us as the wife, as the bride. It's that close. It's that intimate. We have a marriage relationship with God and two things that mark a joyful marriage. Two things that make a marriage sing with happiness and delight and joy would be closeness and commitment.
00:20:34:27 - 00:21:01:55
Orador 2
Right? A marriage that has closeness, meaning, how well they know each other, and a marriage that has commitment, how much they love each other. There you will find joy with. The Bible tells us that there is no relationship that is closer than we have with God. He knows absolutely everything and there is no relationship that is more committed than God to you.
00:21:01:56 - 00:21:27:38
Orador 2
He loves you completely. So somehow, if you want to imagine the connection between the presence of God and joy, you have to take two things. You have to take your favorite food and combine it with your deepest, closest relationship. And there you have joy. And so the future is set, and it is set with joy because there is no sadness.
00:21:27:43 - 00:21:54:09
Orador 2
Rather, there is the fullness of God's presence, the one that we were made for, or the one that we have in Jesus, and the one that we will experience forever. Which is my third point. The future is set with joy, and not just for a little while. God isn't describing some sort of long weekend, some sort of timeshare thing, some kind of vacation that will go back to our normal life after a while.
00:21:54:14 - 00:22:18:34
Orador 2
God is describing a future that is forever. And I've I've realized that forever has. Well, it needs reclaimed a little bit. At least when I use the word forever, I tend to use it in a negative sense. Right? Let me give you some examples. If I'm sitting at a restaurant waiting for food and it's taking a while, I will say the food is taking forever.
00:22:18:39 - 00:22:44:15
Orador 2
If I'm sitting in traffic right, and it's taking a long time, this traffic is going on forever. If you're at church and the pastor keeps talking and talking and talking, he is preaching for ever. Somehow, forever has become a negative word. But it is a wonderful word that God gives to us because he's saying that it is absolutely un ending.
00:22:44:15 - 00:23:13:31
Orador 2
It is an eternity. It is for ever and ever and ever without end. The last scene never stops. The last chapter never ends. It goes on and on and on in the most wonderful way. You know, eventually, eventually, an Uber came and picked us up on the side of I-77. Eventually, triple AA came and our minivan was taken to a mechanic.
00:23:13:32 - 00:23:36:48
Orador 2
Eventually, we got a rental car, and by 930 that night, we were in our hotel room eating chick fil A after seven long hours. The next day we got in our van. We finished our trip and it was a wonderful time away. Life had a way of putting us on the side of the road, but God made sure we didn't stay there.
00:23:36:53 - 00:24:06:18
Orador 2
Sure, it was awful. It was miserable. It was expensive. It seemed like forever. But it was temporary. It was temporary. And that's the beauty of the word forever. Because whatever you're going through right now, whatever season of suffering you find yourself in, whatever season of sadness you find yourself in, may be awful. It may be miserable. It may be expensive.
00:24:06:23 - 00:24:40:58
Orador 2
It may seem like forever, but it's temporary. The only thing that is forever is life with God. Joy with God. That is forever. So as we enter a new year, take heart. Church. God has set the future with joy forever. The end is an ending. Joy. Let's pray.
00:24:41:03 - 00:25:03:34
Orador 2
Father in heaven, you are the Alpha and the Omega. And that's not language I tend to use often. I don't think about you in that way very much, but it's true that you are the author of the story. You sit over all of human history. You sit over our lives. You have written the beginning. You have written the end.
00:25:03:39 - 00:25:31:48
Orador 2
God, thank you for giving us a preview that the end does not end in suffering and sadness and death. God. But our ending ends with good news. It ends with you. It ends with joy. And it really is forever. So I just pray for us as a church, whether we had a great 2025 or not, whether we're excited for 2026 or not, if we have questions, if we have anxiety about the future.
00:25:31:53 - 00:25:50:38
Orador 2
God, I pray that you would just cement in our hearts how much you love us and how much you have prepared for us through your son. That there is certainty in our future. There is joy in our future, and it really is forever. In Jesus name, Amen.