Supernatural

What's really happening beyond what we can see Are heaven and hell real? Do angels and demons actually exist? What about miracles or the end of the world? Everywhere we look, we're surrounded by questions. But what if the truth is bigger than the rumors? What if God's plan is greater than our fears? Let's step in to the supernatural. So I've started a new habit where, uh, early in the morning or late at night, uh, I've started walking. I try to walk, uh, my neighborhood for at least an hour a day. It's been great. Helped me clear my mind. Hopefully it's given me a little bit of exercise. But I've started doing this. I wanna share with you what happened to me, uh, a couple weeks ago. And it's actually happened to me multiple times on my walk. So I go early or I go late, so it's dark outside. So, uh, I was walking and, uh, I started to feel, you know, that feeling like somebody's watching me, uh, or somebody's in the room with me. Oh, you just kind of feel it. Uh, well, I started to kind of feel that, and I thought I heard footsteps coming behind me. So I, I pulled my earbuds out and put 'em in my pocket, and I, I just kept, I kept hearing it and, and I kept feeling it. And of course, I'm, I'm looking around, I'm checking behind the bushes and behind the cars and, and there's man, there's just nothing. And, and it was warm at night, and I get really cold. And you, you know, you feel it kind of tingle up your back. And every hair on my body is standing up, and I'm just telling you like, something was there with me. I, I don't know what it was, but something was there. And it's happened multiple times. And there's two spots on my walk. I walk the same route pretty much every day. Uh, and there's two spots where this happens almost every time. Now, when I walk through there, and I think that I'm a pretty tough guy. Uh, and also, look, I'm a follower of Jesus, right? So I have the strength of God, and I'm just gonna tell you, uh, don't, don't laugh at me, but there's times I've turned around and whatever it is, it got rebuked in the name of Jesus. Uh, and because I'm really not scared of it, I even, I kind of, I kind of mean mugged it when I rebuked it. 'cause I was gonna scare this thing off. And then I'm thinking, how many ring cameras have me mean mugging the air and rebuking nothing? And look, here's what I'm telling you, it was just weird. It, it, it was a little bit creepy because I couldn't explain it. And we're doing this series called Supernatural. And, and what we want to talk about is some of those things that we can't explain, and they're just a little weird, or, or maybe even a little bit creepy to think about. And, and supernatural just means that it can't be explained by the laws of nature. And some thing, like, I don't know what was there. But some things are supernatural, like, uh, angels and demons, and we think about other supernatural things like miracles or supernatural things like an afterlife, and we can't explain those things. So I think they bring great anxiety at times for us, and we want to cover those things. And I think in this series, we're gonna answer a lot of questions. I think you're still gonna have a lot of questions because it's supernatural, can't necessarily be explained, but, but it's in scripture all the time. It's, it's not natural to die and to come back from the dead three days later. It's not natural for your friend to call and say their daughter has died, and you say, that's okay, I'll go. And you just go wake her up. Like, like, these things aren't, na, it's not, you know what? You can't spend eternity outside of your body, but still present Like that doesn't make any sense. So we are gonna cover all of those things through this series called Supernatural. My name's Chuck, by the way. I'm the campus pastor, uh, out at our ha campus. Man, I'm so glad you're tuning in, whether you're at a campus or here watching live with us or you're watching online, and thanks for being a part of this. We always want you to get the most, uh, out of our series and out of our messages. So make sure you look through your programs. Uh, really what we'd love for you to do is take out a connection card, uh, either in person or if you're doing one digitally online, is to fill out that connection card. Uh, let us know you're here. Let us know how we can pray for you. If you want to have a little fun in the comments on your connection card, you can write us your supernatural experiences, uh, that you've had. But today, I want to talk about the supernatural phenomenon of heaven and hell, because here's what we know. Uh, we don't know all the details about heaven and hell, but we do know that scripture is very clear on a few things, and we wanna share those with you today. So if you have your Bibles open up to Luke chapter 16. Uh, let me set this up for you. Uh, this is Jesus teaching, uh, Jesus's teaching in the presence of these people known as the Pharisees, very religious, very educated, uh, very smart people. Uh, and Jesus would often, uh, tell stories to illustrate his points. And some of these stories, they were called parables and they didn't really happen. This is not one of those, the difference between a parable and this story that is very real is Jesus use is very specific people in very specific instances in parables. Everything's generic. And, and usually, uh, God is a character in the parable. And this is a story of things that happened. Actual names, actual people. Here's a story he tells in Luke 16, starting in verse 19. He said, there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day at his gate. So, so just at the edge of his property, at his gate was laid, a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. Now, I, I know that might seem a little gross, but I think here's what Jesus is doing in telling this story, is Jesus is drawing a very clear and very graphic distinction between the two people in this story. There there is the king who, uh, just eats in excess and he wears the finest clothes, uh, and apparently lives in this great place. And then not very far from him physically, like physically, he's just at the king's gate is Lazarus. And Lazarus is the opposite. Lazarus has nothing. He, he doesn't have a place, he doesn't have, uh, healthcare. He, he doesn't eat. Like they could not be further apart socially or when it comes to status or, or what people thought about them or physically so far apart, but so very close at the same time. Let's keep going. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. Now, very quickly, uh, we, we see in scripture that it's quite possible when people go to heaven, that they will be greeted by some of the fathers of the faith or some of the saints who will be there and heaven already. So the illustration here is he was taken to a place apparently of heaven. The rich man also died and was buried in Hades, where he was in torment. He looked up and he saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. Now, oddly enough, the two men were, were in fairly close proximity, but they were very different in very different places socially. In this case, these two men are at least close enough physically in proximity to see one another, but they are in dramatically different places. Lazarus was taken off, apparently towards heaven, and the rich man obviously has not landed there. So they talk about a place called Hades. Now, a lot of times we say, well, Hades just another word for hell. Not exactly, uh, the way scripture, the si uh, describes Hades, uh, as the realm of the dead. And it seems to be a place where souls would go to receive judgment. This is a temporary place before it becomes obvious, before they're given their eternal destination, either in a very, very real place called hell, or very, very real place called heaven. So th this would be like, it's called the realm of the Dead. We actually see this referred to, uh, later on in Acts two, where when Jesus died, he was in the realm of the dead, and scripture tells us he would not be left there. So Hades temporary place, heaven and hell would be permanent, goes on. So he called to him, father Abraham, have pity on me and sin Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in agony in this fire. The rich man says basically like it is hot as hell in here. He he's in agony, he's in torment. And what he thi he's like, if I, if he could just dip his finger in water and just, just give me a, that's how desperate he is. This is a terrible place to be. And here's the worst part of that in my mind. He can see the other side. He can see the other side. He can see where Lazarus is. Lazarus is not where he is, but he can see the, the torment he's going through Lazarus can, can see the agony that he's experiencing. And, and here's what this, this makes so clear to me, is that your eternal circumstances are not reflective of your earthly life. Don't miss that. Don't miss that. The eternal circumstances of the rich man, that doesn't match up because he had it all on earth. He had it all. La Lazarus was begging to eat the crumbs that he dropped. And on the opposite side, Lazarus had nothing. He had nothing. And now, after life in eternity, he has it all. He has, he has none of the suffering. He has none of the doing without, none of the hurt, none of the pain, none of none of the illness. Listen, if, if you've ever heard what's called the, the health or wealth prosperity gospel, it, it's so far off and it's teaching because it's, it's, well, if you're faithful and you believe in God and you're a good Christian, God will bless you and, and you will be wealthy and you will be healthy. And we see that, and then he goes to hell forever. And, and then we see an obviously faithful man and Lazarus who has nothing and he's sick and he's begging and he's hurting, and he is going to spend eternity in heaven. Please don't buy into that. Your earthly circumstances do not determine your eternal destination. Verse 25. But Abraham replied, son, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things while Lazarus received bad things, but now he's comforted here, and you are an agony. Besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been set in place so that those who want to go from here to you cannot nor can anyone cross over from there to us. It's so permanent. It's forever. It's, it's eternal. And, and you need to know this, what you believe about eternity and what you believe about heaven and hell, it should shape how you live. It should shape your decision making. And look, I I'll let you off the hook. If you don't believe in the afterlife, and you don't believe in heaven and hell, then, then whatever you do today doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. But if you do, if you believe in the truth of the word of God, and you believe in what scripture says, is God inspired and true than what you believe and how you respond to that, it matters more than anything. It matters more than anything. So here's what I wanna do for you today. We look, we don't, lemme just be honest, we don't have a hundred percent clarity on all the details about heaven in Hell. We have some, we don't have it all. What we're gonna do today is we're gonna focus on the things that are absolutely clear, because we think it is the most important thing for you to know. And here's the first thing that is so clear and it's so evident and it's so laid out for us in scripture, is that eternity is real. And it's unavoidable. It's real meaning we will end up in one eternal destination or another. And it's unavoidable. We're all gonna die. We're all gonna face the judgment seed of Christ. And we're all gonna go to one of the two, two places. And here's, here's the, here's the hard part of this story for me, is that we see the rich man discovers this in the worst way. He discovers it the hard way. Imagine the regret. I, I can see the other option, but it's too late. I, I can see Lazarus and I feel like he can quench some of this, but you're telling me it's too late. There's a great chasm and nobody can cross it. It's too late. And imagine the agony. I imagine the pain. And, and look, second Corinthians five 10 tells us we're all gonna sit here. It's real and it's unavoidable. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Can, can I just tell you this, this is why we constantly give opportunities for people to accept Christ. Whether, whether it's in our services or our starting point class in our conversations with you, it's the most important thing. It, it's why we constantly, you guys, you probably, you might get tired of hearing this. It's why we constantly tell you, invite your friends, invite your loved ones, invite your family and your neighbors and your coworkers. Invite them to hear about Jesus, the, the saving power of Jesus. Invite them to that because it's eternity and it's really good where it's really bad and it's really forever. I, I want you to do, do me a favor, do this with me. I want you to close your eyes with me, just, just all of us, just for a minute. Close your eyes with me. And I just want you to imagine a couple things. I want you to imagine what, where Lazarus was. I want you to imagine this, this, this beautiful place, this indescribable place where there's, there's no hurt and there's no pain. And, and Lazarus is fully healed. He's fully healthy. Uh, he, he's probably fully fed. He, he doesn't want for anything and it's just perfect. And now I want you to imagine how he can see the rich man. I want you to see the rich man, and I want you to see the agony. He's, and imagine it picture the, the heat and, and, and the fire and and picture the torment. And the Bible talks about gnashing of teeth and weeping and crying and hurt and pain and, and suffering and anger. Picture that picture. Picture the rich man he's experiencing all that. You can see it now, right next to him. I want you to picture someone you love the most, right there with him. You can see him. It's not that far away, but there's no coming back. And for some of you, that's that's your brother, that, that's, that's your really close friend, that that's your neighbor, that's your coworker. Do you see them? Do you see what they're going through? Some of you, you see yourself there. Now, open your eyes with me. You don't want that for anybody, especially those you love the most. I I know. Like these are hard thoughts to have. These, these are ugly things to think about. Here's the good news is that the Lazarus side of that, the heaven side of that, it's a promise. It's a promise to you. It's not a reward for stuff you have to do. It's not something that's given to those who did more good than bad. It, it's not, I, I hope like I would never have to, to meet Jesus. And he says, well, let's count up all the good stuff you did and let's count up all the bad and let's see which side of the line you fall on. I don't know where the line would be. I don't know which side of it I would fall on. I don't have to earn that. It's not just a reward for, for the things that I did. Scripture tell us that all will be judged. But here's the great news. We don't have to worry about whether we've done enough. Look at Ephesians chapter two verses eight through nine. Here's what we only have to worry about for. It is by grace that you've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It's the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. So there's not gonna be a list, there's not gonna be an accounting sheet. It's by faith, by by faith in a God who gives us tremendous grace. Listen, eternity is real and, and there's gonna be that temporary place. But you know what? Then we go to a permanent place, permanent place of heaven or hell. And let me just tell you about heaven. Lemme just tell you what we do know about. There's so much we don't know. There's so much we probably can't even begin to imagine. But lemme tell you what we know, we know it's an eternal place. We, we know that, uh, we can have eternal life there. What Ephesians said, through grace of God and our faith in Christ, we, we know that it, it's a whole other realm that we know that it's God's dwelling place. We, we do know, scripture tells us that there will be heaven if you and I, if we die before Christ return, that there will be a heaven. And then when Christ does return, that there will be a new heaven. We, we do know this. We know there will be no death, there will be no aging. There will be no decay, no pain, no sorrow. The verse 20 said, it's gonna be a place of comfort. No creepy things coming up behind you while you're taking your walk. None of that. Now let me tell you about hell, because hell on the other hand, in the same passage we're told, is a place of torment and agony. It's a place of discomfort and aging and decay and pain and sorrow and disconnection and longing. And even more than this, this temporary place of Hades we're told about, we're told that eventually that those people will end up in a lake of fire to real places. Here's the good news. Hell's not a choice or hell is a choice. Excuse me. Hell's a choice. It's not just like some life sentence you've been given. It's a choice you can make. It's a choice you should not make. It's not a sentence you've been handed down unfairly. Look at John chapter three, verse 18 through 19. It's pretty simple. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe does stand condemned, already condemned because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son. This is the verdict. Light is coming to the world. The people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. It's a choice. There, there's a word called apostasy. And here's the choice. Apostasy is when you fall away from Christ. Apostasy is when you rebel against Jesus. Apostasy is when you defect from Christ. That is a choice. That is not a sentence that was hand handed down to you. That's not some damnation that God decided that you deserve. Again, this is why we encourage you and invite people who don't know Jesus, invite them here. Let's serve them. Invest in in our ministries. They're so important. It's, it's beyond life and death. It's heaven or hell. And, and the results of people rejecting or rebelling against or defecting from Christ are horrific. The horrific and the eternal. Verse 26 told us, there's, there's a great chasm between the two and no one can cross over. I was in third grade at UDub Elementary in Ken, Louisiana, second floor of the building. Uh, it was recess time. You might be wondering, well, why were you in the building if it was recess time? It's a very good question. Here's why. Because I was in detention. I got recess detention and I had to sit and miss cornfield's classroom while my friends just outside this window were having the time of their lives at recess. I mean, it was so great down there that I think through the brick wall and the glass window, I could hear the birds chirping. I could, I think I could smell the grass. And every kid, uh, the way I remember every kid was skipping and every kid had such joy on their face and the biggest smiles and every kid had their piece of the parachute. And you know, the elementary school parachute I'm talking about, don't you? Oh yeah, it was, it was yellow and blue and red. And we would hold it and we would all wave it. And those plastic balls, they would in slow motion, just bounce super high and just bring great joy to all the boys and girls. And if you were really lucky, you would get to run underneath the parachute. I'm telling you, they were experiencing third grade heaven. And I was in that room with Ms. Kornfield in third grade hell. And here's why they were experiencing that. And I was experiencing this one really bad choice. That's all that separated us. I was a really good kid in elementary school. I was the teacher's pet a lot of the times. All the teachers really, really loved me. I had siblings that went there before me, like our family had a name there. I would venture to say I was one of the favorites. But one choice is what separated me from my friends. It's the same for us. We can be so close, but one decision changes everything. And there's a chasm there between those two decisions. And there's no going back. Listen, I, I can't plead with you enough. Choose your forever. Choose your forever. It's a choice. And, and I think there's two groups of you in here, there, those of you that you've not made the decision to follow Jesus. And when I asked you to close your eyes, you may have pictured yourself over there with the rich man and you've not made that choice. And you're fearful that there's a great chasm gonna be between you and heaven and you won't be able to make it. I'm gonna give you an opportunity if that's you in just a second to pray with me. I want you to change all that one decision can change all that I know also, there's a group of you in here that who I've already made that decision. I've already accepted Christ as my savior. I'm not gonna rebel. I put full faith and risen Christ. And you have the promise of an eternal life in heaven. Well, let me ask you, are you pointing the unsaved people to Jesus? Are you pointing unsaved people to Jesus in your daily life, in, in your workplace? Are you inviting people? Come to church with me. Come hear about the good news of Jesus. Are you serving those people in the name of Jesus? Are you investing in those people in the name of Jesus? I'm gonna pray for all of us and and both of those groups of people, I'm gonna pray for you individually. So all I want you to do, and listen, you don't need to come up here, you don't need to raise, um, your hand and let us know. I just need you to pray as honest as you can, the things that I'm gonna lead you through. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, for that first group of people who've not made that eternal decision to accept your son Jesus as their savior. God, I'm gonna lead them in a prayer towards you. And and I pray they'd be bold enough to pray this. And if that's you, just as honestly as you can just to yourself, just pray, God, I wanna make that decision. I wanna make the decision to put my full faith and belief and that redeemer that was promised to the rich man and Lazarus and who's come in the name of your son Jesus. I know that he's come to redeem not just them, but to redeem me for my imperfections and my sin. I know that my, my sins on earth don't have to dictate my eternal destination. And God, I wanna put my full faith and your son Jesus, who died on that cross to pay the price for my sin who defeated death and rose from the dead. And who I'm promised that if I put my faith in that resurrected Christ, that I have the promise of an eternal life in heaven. And God, I want to give my life to you right here and right now. And God, I pray that if somebody prayed that for the first time, that you would give them the courage to, to approach one of us, to, to write it on their card, to text, email, call us, to please get some help with their next steps. And, and for those of us, God, that have already accepted Christ as our savior and we're certain about our eternal destination and we know that promise you gave us God, would you, would you use us? Would you encourage us to constantly, constantly focus on those people who have not made that choice? Because we know the consequences are real and they're dramatic and they're forever. I'd pray you'd give those people the ability to invite people to come here. Your word, to serve them well, to invest in them, and to make them a priority. God, we love you. We thank you for your son Jesus. We know the promise of heaven is real and it's offered to all of us, and we could not be more grateful. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.