If you aren’t already using a notebook, or saving your digital notes in the Bible App for later reference, you should set yourself up with that!
The Bible App is totally free! Once you set up an account, you can save your digital notes for future reference, and enjoy reading plans with friends.
Our “.life” notebook is an analog version of the same idea.. You can save your paper notes from Sunday, and it comes with a 30-day prayer/reading guide. Not nearly as full-featured as the digital version. BUT, if your group buys notebooks THIS WEEK, we are giving a group discount of $3.50 when you buy online. (regular price is $5.00) Just tap on the icon above and let us know how many you need.
Telltale Signs
Take a minute as a group and review the main ideas from Sunday’s message.
You can tell if you’re from the ’80’s, because you dress ’80’s. You wear your hair ’80’s. You talk ’80’s. It is obvious that you are from the ’80’s because you take on the characteristics of the ’80’s.
How is this for a good example:
Where were you in the ’80’s? What do you love/not love about the ’80’s?
It seems like these days we’ve really kind of romanticized about that decade. There seems to be a bit of a nostalgic wave about the ’80’s right now. (did you watch Stranger Things??) I think a lot of us have a misperception about it… We may tend to think of it as better than it really was, maybe? What do you think?
That isn’t the only thing.
I have had conversations with lost people about their misperceptions about Heaven. In your mind, what do you think the common perception of Heaven is? What does the average person think it will be like?
For most, it seems that clouds, togas, halos, wings, and harps come to mind. If you could sum that common perception up in one word, what do you think it would be?
I think it would be “boring.”
One time, a lost friend asked me why in the world he would ever want to go to heaven? All his friends will be partying in hell! Why would he want to miss out on that?
Maybe the conversation about hell is for a different time. Today, I want to talk just a little bit about Heaven.
Jesus has a very different conception about Heaven. On Sunday, I talked about the one word that Jesus might describe it as… Do you remember what that is?
Luke 15:1-7 (NLT)
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
For Jesus, Heaven is an always-on celebration… A big party. What is the thing they are constantly celebrating?
Luke 15:8-10 (NLT)
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
And all of the entire story culminates in one giant party, doesn’t it?
Revelation 19:7 (NLT)
(A vast crowd in heaven shouting)
Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him.
For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself.
It is the climax of the entire story! The restoration of God’s children! It is what he loves, desires, and celebrates the most.
On Sunday, I talked about preparing our little wedding feast earlier this Summer. For us, it was a HUGE celebration. By far the biggest, most expensive, most extravagant party we have ever thrown. Why would we do this? Because we SO LOVE our daughter, and were SO thrilled with her marrying Connor.
1 John 5:1 (NLT)
And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.
For any parent, how you feel about their kids determines how the parents feel about you, right?
So, the ONE THING that God the Father most eagerly anticipates, most lavishly celebrates are children coming to HIM.
Okay, so here is the big question for us… If we are our Father’s children… Why don’t our emotions sync up with his emotions? Why aren’t we eagerly anticipating the one thing that He most eagerly anticipates?
When we gather around the living room and pray, why do we spend SO MUCH TIME talking about sickness and ailments and sadness, rather than praying powerfully and aggressively for lost children to return home?
Why aren’t we living on mission like those servants, sent out from the master, compelling people to come in?
How can we say we love God if we don’t love the thing he loves the most?
What can we do about that?
How should that change the way we close in prayer this evening?