The Heights Baptist Church

What does it mean to truly worship God? This past Sunday, one of our youth, Bennett Holmes brought a powerful message from Romans 12:1-21 that challenged us to think beyond Sunday morning songs and consider worship as a total surrender of our lives to Christ. Paul's call to present ourselves as 'living sacrifices' is not a suggestion -- it is a reasonable response to the mercy of God displayed through Jesus Christ. From humility within the church body to loving our enemies, Romans 12 paints a picture of what a life genuinely transformed by the gospel looks like in practice.

When you think of beautiful places, what comes to your mind? For me, mountains and mountain streams. How about luxury and extravagance? Maybe a mansion in the French Alps. Hey, what’s the perfect life? Family, friends, good times, and of course good food. Is accomplishment and productivity a part of a perfect life? We have different ideas of perfection, luxury, and beauty, but we all have concrete ideas of those things connected to this earth. We are a physical people in a physical world, made that way by God. And it is in these physical, concrete images of the world that Heaven is described in Revelation 21. Don’t miss that. For too many, Heaven is something vague and mystical, but that isn’t what God shows us. We come to our final message in our 'What Is', series with the question, 'What is Heaven?' Let’s look at Revelation 21. Hear this for what it is, real!

Of all our what is series questions, we come today to one perhaps the most difficult: what is hell? Perhaps the most disturbing concept in Christianity is that one day vast numbers of people will go to hell. We will know some of these, love some of these people. Maybe so disturbing it is easier to ignore or deny. Christians can go to church for years and never hear a single sermon on hell. We don’t want to talk about hell, but is that helpful? Is it ever helpful to ignore the truth? Our comfort level is not how we understand this, but like with all things, what does God say.

Here we are at message #34 of 36 in our 'What is?' series. We started with what is the Bible, what is God. We got to questions like what is salvation, what is Satan. Heading to what is heaven and hell next, but today, what is death, or really what is the afterlife now? We tend to think in general terms, heaven or hell, which is true, but not technically. Heaven and Hell are future destinations. So where are people now? It is important to know.

Last week we looked at the return of Christ to this world. Jesus has returned as the victorious King. It’s time for heaven? Not quite yet. Revelation 20 is going to wrap up some loose ends. Let’s read verses 1-6, as we answer: What is the millennium? When is Satan dealt with? When are unbelievers dealt with?

The Second Coming of Christ is a huge theme of the Bible. The biblical story looks to this moment. Can we even grasp how big it is? Let’s try. The first coming of Christ, His death and resurrection, is obviously a very significant event for us. If God came to this world as He is going to in the Second Coming and there had not been a first coming, then not only would Satan be defeated, so would we. All of humanity would be sent to hell without there being a first coming. And in that God would be just. So, Jesus came a first time to provide a rescue for what is going to happen when He comes the second time.

Read Psalm 73:12-17. The psalmist has a complaint, a question, a frustration. 'Is there any advantage, any reward for following the Lord? I don’t see it. It’s not working for me and those that defy God seem to be doing just fine.' The psalmist struggled with this until he remembered the future. God promises righteous be rewarded, evil will be punished. There are a lot of days it doesn’t seem like it. And that can be discouraging and demotivating. The psalmist found his faith by remembering the future. Those who choose sin will come to terror and destruction, and only the life of faith in Christ will be rewarded. For the psalmist this was a distant idea. The Revelation presents it to us as soon and coming. Today we look at what is the Great Tribulation.

We have been in a long series this year called, 'What Is?'. We’ve answered questions like what is God, what is Jesus, what is the church, what are angels and demons, what is a human and today we arrive at what is the end. We are going to spend 6 Sundays answering this with questions like what is the tribulation, what is the Second Coming, what is heaven and hell. Today, what is the rapture. This is a study of prophecy, God telling us what the future is going to be.

Our What is series brings us today to the question, 'What are angels and demons?' Remember next week, Friend Day, we are looking at what is the rapture which will kick off a 6 week study of what is the end. We will look at the tribulation, the second coming, heaven, hell, a lot of really intriguing ideas. Use that to invite your friends. But back to angels and demons. This is an area of theology where out ideas may come from a lot of places other than the Bible. Not that horror movies can’t be a great source of theological discussion, but let’s just go ahead and start with what the Bible says. A lot of notes today. Keep in mind our church app where the notes are all there for you. Today may sound a little different, more like reading lecture notes than preaching, but I want to get a lot of info in front of you.

Today’s question: very current and very divisive. What is Israel? That question is as old as the Bible and as current as this past week’s news. Politics demands we have an answer on this. Religion demands we have an answer on this. Much of the church today that believes in replacement theology, that the church has replaced Israel. God is done with them. From religion to politics, Israel is a hot topic. Why does everyone have an opinion on Israel?