Made for Another World | Sunday, May 11, 2025

Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Youth Worship Team. Good morning, Cross Connection. Welcome! We're so glad you are here. You can have a seat for just a moment. I will make you stand again in a few minutes, but for now, you can sit.

We want to take just a moment this morning to recognize some important people in our fellowship on Mother's Day. So, if you are a mom, would you please stand? We want to acknowledge all of you. Thank you so much. Stay standing for just a moment. As a church, we are grateful for all of you moms. We believe that God has placed upon you an important and unique calling. You are a blessing to your kids and your family, but you are also a blessing to our church and our community, and we are so grateful for you.

We do have a gift for you this morning, as we do every year on Mother's Day. This year, it's a little bit different than it has been in past years. We recognize that there are days that can be very difficult for moms. Some of you have kids, like me, who have made it more challenging at certain times. There are moments when you need an emergency stash of chocolate. So, we want to make sure that you have these little containers of chocolate. This is like an emergency supply to put in your purse, and you can carry those with you. We will have those for you after the service.

Also, you'll note that we have white roses up here. Those are to acknowledge that this day, while it is a blessing for so many, can also be a real challenge for others. I know that there are more than a few ladies I have met over the years who say they have chosen not to go to church on Mother's Day because it is painful. There are those within our church who desired to be moms and never were able to. There are moms who may not come to church because this day is very challenging for them, either because their children are estranged from them or not where they would like them to be at this point, or because they have experienced extreme loss. There have been miscarriages, stillbirths, and children who have been lost. We recognize that this can be a troubling and difficult day.

These roses are to acknowledge that. If that is you today, feel free to take one of those at the end of the service. If you see a lady with a white rose, you probably don't need to go up and say anything to her, but you can lift her up to the Lord in prayer, which we want to do right now.

So, let's pray for our moms. God, we thank you so much for these ladies. As I said, Lord, I believe you have placed upon them a very important call. And God, every single one of these moms, you...

Treasure them, and you have a purpose for them beyond just giving birth. You have a purpose in taking care of these kids throughout their lives. Even when their kids move out of the house and move on into adulthood, that doesn't stop motherhood. All the concerns, cares, prayers, and worries continue. Would you be the one that these ladies rely on in all of that? Pour out a blessing upon them today, we pray in Jesus' name. All those agreed said, Amen.

Okay, instead of you sitting, everybody else stand. If you would take out your Bibles this morning, if you have them. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and an usher will bring you one. We'll also put up the passage on the screen, I believe. So, turn, if you will, to the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21. We are doing just a short series, last week and this week, talking about the kingdom of God and the future that we call heaven or refer to as heaven.

We read a little bit about it this morning in Revelation 21, where we read from last week, and we'll read it again today. Verse one, John says, "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He, God, will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.'"

Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."

God, I pray as we consider this text and other passages like it this morning that You would continue to do a work in our hearts and our minds, transforming us. Lord, make us, by the working of Your word and by the working of Your Spirit, more like You. Cause Your grace, peace, joy, and hope to be so evident in us that it would be seen by others. So God, transform us by the renewing of our minds today, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Those that agreed said, "Amen." Amen. You may be seated.

In 1927, the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, published a book entitled The Future of an Illusion, in which he wrote these words: "Religious beliefs are illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind. The secret of their strength lies in the strength of those wishes. Helplessness in childhood arouses the need for protection provided by the father. Helplessness lasts throughout life, making it necessary to cling to the existence of a father, a more powerful father. The benevolent rule of a divine providence allays our fear of the dangers of life. The prolongation, the extension of earthly existence in the future life provides the local and temporal framework in which these wish fulfillments shall take place."

What did Freud mean when he wrote those words? The basic premise of what Sigmund Freud was explaining in that book is that the religious beliefs you may hold this morning—beliefs about there being a God, and not just a God, but a kingdom that He holds, and that one day you'll be a part of—are, in Freud's view, merely the product of wish fulfillment. They are not really real. God, in his mind, is not real. The kingdom of God, heaven, is not real. He argues that the only reason you hold those beliefs is that the existence of life in this world is hard.

Because life in this world is difficult, we have the wish for protection, provision, and the security offered by a benevolent Father God in heaven. Therefore, we project into the future that reality, and our hopes for heaven are just wish fulfillment. His view was that your psychological default, given the challenges of life, is to believe in these things, which merely gratifies that deep-seated desire for comfort and security.

Longing is a deep-seated desire that many people experience. Some view religion as mere wish fulfillment. This perspective suggests that the only reason someone believes in God and heaven is because they are seeking comfort in their weaknesses. It’s likely that you have encountered individuals in your life who hold this belief. They may think that your faith is simply a crutch for those who are weaker, while they themselves do not need such support.

This mindset is certainly prevalent. However, when we examine Sigmund Freud's assertions more closely, we must acknowledge that there is a kernel of truth in his observations. Within each of us, there exists a longing for something greater. This desire is not limited to believers; it is a universal human experience. If you were to stop a hundred people on the street and read the passage from Revelation 21:4, which states that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and that there shall be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain, you would likely find that everyone would wish for this to be true.

I cannot imagine a single person responding negatively to the idea of a future without sorrow and suffering. Most people, if not all, would express a desire for such a reality. In this sense, Freud's assessment is not entirely incorrect; he recognized this wish in the individuals he analyzed. If you were to engage in similar observations, you would likely notice this longing in others as well as in yourself.

The critical question then becomes: Do I believe in God and heaven solely because I wish it were true, or is there another reason for my faith? The words of Sigmund Freud have shaken the faith of many, particularly first-year college students. Perhaps you experienced this uncertainty during your own first year of college, or maybe you have a first-year college student who has come home expressing doubts about the validity of your faith.

Their faith, which they were raised in, is often dismissed as dumb. Why? Because they took Psychology 101 and read Sigmund Freud, which challenged their beliefs. Not only did they take Psychology 101 and read Freud, but they were also introduced in Philosophy 101 to another German intellectual, a philosopher by the name of Hegel, who developed the Hegelian dialectic.

What is the view of the Hegelian dialectic? It consists of three parts: a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis. The thesis is a proposition or a truth. What is the thesis that many people were raised under in Sunday school? It is the belief that there is a God and there is a heaven. That is the thesis.

Then, they are presented with an antithesis, which is a counterargument to that truth. This counterargument comes from Sigmund Freud, who suggests that the only reason one believes in God is due to wish fulfillment. So, there is the antithesis. The third step in Hegel's dialectic is synthesis, where one must take the thesis and the antithesis, weigh them, and merge them to figure out what the synthesis is.

Many first-year college students come home after their first year with their faith shaken. The thesis they were raised under in Sunday school or at home was that there is a God and there is a heaven. However, after reading Sigmund Freud, they begin to think that it is just wish fulfillment. They can see that in themselves and others, leading them to conclude that there must not be a God.

Sigmund Freud was a 20th-century intellectual, post-Enlightenment and post-Scientific Revolution. The teachings they received in Sunday school are viewed as pre-critical and ancient, merely myths. Therefore, it seems obvious to them that these beliefs cannot be true. They begin to accept the reality that there is no heaven.

Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people. Some people say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Here’s the question: Is Freud’s answer the antithesis, or is it just a new thesis that requires an antithesis? Is there an antithesis to his perspective?

It's interesting because a couple of years after Sigmund Freud died, there was a man by the name of C.S. Lewis. Two years after the death of Sigmund Freud in 1939, C.S. Lewis, in August of 1941, about three months after the conclusion of the bombing of Britain, came onto the BBC for several evenings for 15 minutes to give some talks that became the book, Mere Christianity.

In one of his near-closing chapters called "Hope," which is a wonderful chapter, C.S. Lewis says this: "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. If I find in myself a desire with which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing."

Sigmund Freud said, "Your belief in heaven, if you have it, is just wish fulfillment." C.S. Lewis responds, "Maybe that's not the case. Maybe the fact that you have this desire is an indication that there is some way for that desire to be fulfilled." Just as you have a desire for food, there is obviously something to satisfy that desire. There are all kinds of different bodily desires or things that we wish for within us that have a solution.

Lewis suggests that if there is a desire for a heavenly reward, it may indicate something beyond this world. Perhaps Freud represents the thesis, and what Lewis says is the antithesis. The synthesis is that our longing for heaven is not an illusion but a signal. It is a signal to what we were truly made for.

Point number one: desire for heaven isn't wishful thinking; it's homesickness. Deep in every single one of us, the desire within you is not for fantasy; it is for fulfillment. King Solomon, the great wise...

King of Israel 3,000 years ago, he observed this in Ecclesiastes chapter 3:1: that God has put eternity in our hearts. There is, deep in your heart, a desire for eternity. Billy Graham wrote about this in his day-by-day devotional on September 18th. He says that one of the basic desires of the soul is to live on. Self-preservation is the first law of nature. God has arranged to satisfy this yearning of the soul to live forever and the desire to be free from pain, sickness, and trouble.

Jesus Christ is the only one who holds the keys to death. In His death and resurrection, He took the sting out of death. Now, God offers eternal life to every person who puts their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. I have shared these truths, both from C.S. Lewis and from Billy Graham, in every one of the dozens of funerals that I have conducted over the last several years—probably ten or more years. God has placed in every single one of us a sense of eternity. There is a desire and a longing for every tear to be wiped away and for sorrow, sickness, and pain to cease.

There is this deep yearning in us for life to live on. God put that in you to stir in you a desire to seek for it. Because God knows that in seeking for it, there is only one ultimate place that you'll find it. John chapter 1, the Gospel of John, says, "In Him, Jesus, was life, and that life is the light of men." One way to read that is that the light of men represents desire. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. Jesus came to fulfill that desire.

Heaven is not escapism; it is the desire for home. Jesus is not merely a symbol of comfort. Some in our culture today say that the image of Jesus on the cross, with that serene and peaceful look, is meant to help you bear your cross or go through whatever challenges you face. They suggest that if He was able to handle those things, then you can handle them too. This is a purely humanistic way to look at the crucifixion, but many people in our culture today adopt this perspective. They say He is just a symbol of what it means to endure suffering. Instead, the Gospels affirm that in Him was life.

This is evident in several of His "I am" statements in the Gospel of John. One of them is recorded in John 11, when Jesus is walking with or helping a family that is facing the death of a loved one. They had just lost a brother named Lazarus. He meets with one of the sisters, and Jesus makes a statement that has become one of the most famous sayings of His ministry. In John 11:25, He says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." He then asks this woman a very important question that ultimately is posed to every one of us: "Do you believe this?"

Death is troubling. We are all confronted by the difficulty of death, the suffering, the pain, and the sometimes illness that is connected to it. In the face of death, Jesus says, "Let not your heart be troubled." What is trouble of heart but anxiety? He continues, "You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. 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, that where I am, there you may be also."

Another one of these great "I am" statements of Jesus is found in John 14:6, where He declares, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."

Point number two: Jesus isn't a symbol of serene heavenly peace; He is the Savior who shows us the way. In Him was life, and that life was the desire of humanity. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life." Nobody likes sickness. Nobody enjoys pain, suffering, death, or tears. We want a world where death dies, tears are wiped away, and sickness, suffering, and pain cease. Is there really anybody who does not want that?

Freud's answer to this is that the only reason you believe these things is because you wish for them. The wish is so great that it makes you believe them. However, C.S. Lewis argues that the reason you desire them is because there is a place where these desires are satisfied. We long for an alternative to the brokenness of this world caused by sin. We wish for heaven. The Christian message, the gospel message that we call...

The good news is that this wish is fulfilled in Jesus. In Christ, we have the hope of glory, as stated in Colossians 1:27. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking; it is not blind faith. It is an absolute certainty according to the promise of Scripture.

Here’s the awesome thing: this promised hope changes our present reality in so many different ways. For one, this promised hope changes our present reality in that the sorrow and grief we experience when someone we love is lost in death is a sorrow and grief that is not without hope. In First Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul says, "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep." This is a metaphor for those who have died. He continues, "Lest you sorrow as those who have no hope."

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring with Him those who sleep or die in Jesus. Twice within a couple of paragraphs after Paul writes those words, he emphasizes that we should not sorrow as those who have no hope. He instructs us to comfort one another with these words. This is a comfort: the hope offered in the Scriptures that there is a God, that He has a kingdom, and that we will be with Him in His presence in the future. It gives us hope and comfort.

He is the Father of mercies, the God of all comforts, as stated in 2 Corinthians. We are comforted by these realities. So first, this hope changes our present reality by helping us to have hope when someone we love is lost in death. There is not a single person in this room this morning who has not lost someone to death. The longer you live, the more you will lose. The grief and sorrow are real; they are not illusions.

But for the believer, for the Christian whose Lord has said, "I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life," we have hope in the midst of those things. Secondly, this hope changes our present reality because suffering, though real, is temporary. Here’s the harder concept for us to grasp sometimes: suffering may also be purposeful. Now, there are worldviews that...

Religious convictions or views that say that suffering is just an illusion present a significant problem. It doesn't seem like an illusion. Let me give you an example. How many of you have ever had a dream in which you suffered? Perhaps you had a dream about a car accident or some major incident. How many of you have experienced one of those dreams? How many of you had that dream, and it seemed so real that you were grateful when you woke up? Many of you have had that experience.

Here's the fascinating thing about that dream: within about 30 seconds of waking up, you forgot about it because it was an illusion. However, the pain you felt when you lost your mom was not an illusion. It still hurts today. Those worldviews that claim pain is just an illusion are misguided. If it is just an illusion, it is a very, very bad one. It doesn't feel like an illusion. Suffering is real. That's what the Bible says. It doesn't gloss over it and say, "Oh, just pretend it didn't happen." No, it acknowledges the reality of suffering but also states that it is temporary and may actually be working in us a purpose.

I have a hard time grasping this sometimes, but this is what the Bible says. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 17, Paul writes, "For our light affliction." You might think, "Come on, Paul must have had a really good life. Light affliction? He doesn't know how hard my life has been." However, this is the same man who was shipwrecked multiple times, beaten multiple times, imprisoned multiple times, and ultimately died by beheading as a martyr. You probably haven't experienced that. How do I know? Because you're here, and you have your head on.

Paul continues, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, the temporary things of this life, but at the things which are not seen, this kingdom that we cannot see. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Moses observed, as recorded in Psalm 90, that the days of human life are 70 years, or if by reason of strength, 80 years. This was thousands of years ago.

Roughly 70 to 80 years is the average lifespan here in America. Maybe you have a really long life and live well into your 90s, or perhaps you even pass the century mark. That's a long life. However, even if for a hundred years you had every single day filled with horrific suffering, what is that in comparison to eternity? You can't even equate the two. The sufferings of this present life are not worthy, as Paul says, to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to us. Romans 8:18 aligns perfectly with 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

This future promise changes my present reality because the suffering of grief that I experience when I lose someone is not without hope. Secondly, it is temporary. It's momentary and working a purpose that I can't understand. I will not be able to comprehend how the sufferings I experience in this life work toward some sort of good until I can see it from the perspective of heaven. I don't understand it now.

That's two ways that this changes my present reality. There is at least a third. The trials and troubles we experience in this life are but tests. I don't like tests. I have four kids in school, and they don't like tests either. Some days they want to skip school because there is a test. I'm sure none of you have ever heard that happen. In my day, you just cut class. Now, they actually ask their parents, "Can I stay home?" But don't cut class. My kids are over there this morning.

We don't like tests, but these trials and troubles are tests that produce something in us. I would suggest to you that they are not tests of my faithfulness; rather, they are tests that reveal God's faithfulness. Another way of framing it is found in Romans 5:1: "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the coming glory of God."

Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Who rejoices in tribulations? Only the person who knows this: knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Spirit. James chapter 1, verse 2 states, "Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." I know that's exactly what all of you do because you're good CrossConnection Christians. I have a hard time with this one: how could you possibly count it all joy when you fall into various trials?

Well, if this is true, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, let patience have its perfect work in you so that you will be complete, lacking nothing. The promised hope of heaven changes my present reality in the experience of loss when a loved one has died. I have hope in the experience of suffering; though it is real, it's temporary and purposeful. In the area of trials and troubles, God is working through those things.

Point number three: death isn't final. Suffering isn't forever, and trials are but tests revealing God's goodness. Heaven doesn't erase the difficulties; it acknowledges that trials and troubles are real, that suffering is not an illusion, and that grief is actually real. It acknowledges all of those things. It doesn't erase them, but it does ease those things. It reframes them, making them perhaps more bearable. It helps us to see that they might be meaningful, even though I can't understand it.

Heaven emphasizes over and over again that these things are not final. All of these points are great encouragements. By this point, you might say, "Well, Pastor Miles, I appreciate the encouragement. That's helpful." Looking at the loss I've experienced of this loved one, or the trial that I'm going through right now, or the suffering that I've endured through chronic illness—whatever it may be—those things are all very encouraging.

But I still have a weighing question in my heart and mind. That question is something like this: What about my brother, my mom, my dad, my sister, my friend, my cousin, my coworker who died? What about the person who dies in Christ? I would say perhaps the most painful part of death is not the death itself, but the experience of the death of those who are left behind.

As a pastor and also as a fire chaplain, I have found myself many times in the environment of those who are suffering the realities of death. My wife was a critical care nurse for nearly a decade, and she worked through COVID. Many times, she would have to hold up an iPad so that the family members of a person on a ventilator, about to die from COVID, could say goodbye. That is a very devastating reality of death.

We live in a culture where we try to diffuse that or keep it at arm's length, where we don't normally experience it. However, there are certain people who experience it very tangibly. I remember being in the room with a mother and father who looked at their 18-year-old son two weeks before graduation at Escondido High School after he had gotten in a car accident and died instantly. I was there with them by their side as they looked at the body of their dead son. There is nothing more hellish here on earth. It is painful.

My wife and I have been walking with some family friends, praying for their daughter Laya, who passed away a couple of months ago from cancer and a lung infection. There is nothing more devastating than going through those experiences and grieving loss. Those things are real. Some in our church right now are preparing for that possible eventuality because they have a family member who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. They are walking through the midst of that. Yes, it isn't final, and suffering isn't forever. God will reveal His goodness to us and His grace in the midst of those things.

But what happens to that person when they die? What happens to the person in Christ, the person who is a believer? Paul said something strange. Actually, Paul said a lot of things that were strange, but he said one specific strange thing in Philippians 1:21. He says, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Another word for gain there is advantageous or profitable. To die is profitable. What kind of person says death is advantageous and profitable? How is that even possible for someone to say something like that?

I would suggest that it is only possible for Paul to say something like that if he has knowledge of something very important. What did Paul know? Well, how about this? 2 Corinthians 5:1. I'm in the wrong book. Hold on one moment.

2 Corinthians 5:1 states, "For we know there's knowledge, certain knowledge." We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, Paul says, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He uses a metaphor here. Our earthly house is not even a house; it's just a tent. How many of you have some holes in your tent? You need to get some things repaired in your tent.

For in this we groan. Can any of you identify with this? We groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened. Not because we want to be unclothed; we like life. We like this tent we have, but we would rather have something different. Amen. We groan not to be unclothed, but to be further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Now, he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us His Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, in this tent, we are absent from the Lord. We walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord.

For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. How could someone say that death is advantageous and profitable? They could say that if their confident conviction is that to be absent from this body is then to be present with the Lord. This passage is rich in phenomenal theology. The basics of it are that to say dying is advantageous is because Paul knew that death is a doorway to the presence of God.

For many in our culture who do not have this hope, death is...

Finality is the annihilation of existence. It is the ceasing of consciousness. It is being reabsorbed back into the ground. But for the Christian, death is a doorway to the presence of God. To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. God has prepared us for this very thing. Jesus said, "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, that where I am, there you may be."

This passage is rich in theology, and you could spend quite a bit of time studying and breaking down all the elements within it. There are two particularly interesting aspects in this passage from Paul that defeat two very prevalent false teachings.

The first is the Roman Catholic teaching of purgatory. This teaching states that after death, your soul will go to a place called purgatory, a place of limbo, a place of purification where you will be purified from your venial sins so that you can then enter the presence of God. However, this teaching has one significant problem: it contradicts the Bible. Paul states that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, not in some place of purification for a long period of time.

The second false teaching that this passage defeats is the Jehovah's Witness teaching, as well as some Seventh-day Adventist teachings, regarding what is called soul sleep. According to this view, after you die, your soul enters a state of sleep for a long time, resting in peace until the resurrection. But both of these views are refuted by the statement that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

While this passage addresses these false teachings, it raises other questions, such as the state of the soul after a person dies. When the body is dislocated from the soul, what happens to the disembodied soul? Where is this soul, and what is its state during that in-between period? To be quite honest, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding these questions. We are not given clear clarity on all the particulars. However, many theologians believe that when Paul speaks about being naked and unclothed and absent from the body, he is addressing these very issues.

This text indicates that we will be a bodyless soul with God in His presence until we are reunited body and soul in the resurrection. Now, how does that all work? I don't know. There are a lot of things I can't answer about heaven, but I can say this: to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross, who probably needed purgatory, "Today you will be with me in paradise," that is what this place in God's presence is described as—paradise.

Three thousand years ago, King David wrote in Psalm 16, "God, you will not leave my soul in the grave, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption, for you will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are

If you live your entire life with trust in God and the hope of heaven, and as a result, you experience peace, joy, and comfort through the difficulties of this life, then when you die and discover that there is no heaven, you have actually not lost anything. You had the joys of that place here and now, even through all the troubles of this time.

However, if you live your entire life rejecting that, not trusting in God, and not believing in heaven, you do not have those joys, that comfort, and that peace while going through this life. Then, when you die and discover that there is indeed a place, you are in a really difficult pickle. He didn't say that; I kind of added that, but that's basically what he said. That's Pascal's wager. You've wagered on the wrong bet. You went all in on the wrong bet.

C.S. Lewis would say that desiring heaven and trusting in God is a valid desire that has an otherworldly satisfaction. I love his way of responding because he is very clearly addressing Sigmund Freud in this chapter. He begins the chapter on hope by talking about those who say that it's just wishful thinking. He states that there is no need to be worried by the fastidious people who try to make Christian hope of heaven ridiculous.

I'm sure you've never met this person who tries to make your faith in heaven seem ridiculous by saying, "I don't want to spend eternity playing harps." Has anyone ever met this person before?

I love this answer. The response to such people, if you want to know how to answer them, is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, i.e., with metaphor, they should not talk about them. I love Lewis.

So, what does he say? How should we think about this? He writes, "I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find until after death. I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside. I must make it the main object of life to press on that."

He answers the other objection because there are some people who would say to you, "Listen, you're so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good." He addresses this objection in this passage as well. Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, of heaven. They have become ineffective in this, and they have been basically told that they are no earthly good if they are heavenly minded. However, he points out that those who were so heavenly minded undid the Roman Empire in the first century and overturned slavery just 150 years ago. Many earthly goods have been accomplished by those who are the most heavenly minded.

He presents a fascinating thought to consider: "I must make it my main object to press on to that other country to help others to do the same." How shall we then live? Here are six things to think about because we hope in heaven.

First, we live without fear. God said, "I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Because we have the hope of heaven, we live without fear.

Second, we live by faith. We walk by faith and not by sight, as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:7.

Third, we live with boldness. Why? Because we are citizens of an eternal kingdom that shall not end.

Fourth, we live at peace because our future in Christ is secure.

Fifth, we live in expectation because Jesus said, "I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

Finally, sixth, we ought to live in purity. Both Peter and Paul, in light of these things, emphasize that we should seek to live in a way that honors the King and His kingdom. Peter writes in 2 Peter 3, "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found in Him, in peace, without spot and blameless."

He also reminds us to consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. I love this. I wasn't going to read it, but I will. "As also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures."

So Peter is saying that Paul's writings are sometimes hard to understand. If you think Paul is sometimes hard to understand, you're in good company because the apostle Peter thought the same.

You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Instead, grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen.

Paul's closing exhortation in Romans 13:1 states, "And do this, knowing the time that it is high time for us to wake out of our sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts."

Point number five is to live as if life will not end when this life ends. That's the exhortation of the Scriptures. The hope of God and the hope of His kingdom stir in us to live as if life will not end when this life ends. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, thank You for Your Word. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Lord, it exposes all kinds of different things in our lives, including fears and anxieties.

God, would You remind us today and this week of the reality of Your kingdom? Would You, with the reminder of that reality, stir us to long more for it and to live more for it? May the virtues of Your kingdom—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, and the many other virtues of Your kingdom that we find in the Scriptures—be evident in us as a fully ripened tree of fruit in season.

God, do a work in us. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."