2010 BSCF Alumni Sabbath Sermon Notes

Topic: Heaven

Sermon Title: "Living in Anticipation"

Before I delve into the notes I took on the sermon I want to take a moment to speak about the sermon presentation. It was refreshing to see a new approach to their sermon. The husband and wife team spoke together from the podium. I felt that this captivated my attention as well as the attention of those in attendance being that it was just different from the norm. I was engaged because I'm always fascinated about getting information from as many sources as possible. So to get the sermon topic from both the male and female point of view and also from their perspectives as husband and wife really spoke volumes about their collective passion for each other and the topic.

Speakers: Baldwin and Pollyanna Barns

Life is all about relationships and what roles they play in our lives; be it our relationship with God, parents, spouses, relatives, friends, co-workers, and associates.

When you know that something important is about to happen you live your life in a state of preparation of the big event be it a wedding, funeral, trip, or even project deadline.

Heaven is a literal place and we need to think of it as such because then the way we live our daily lives will begin to reflect our belief.

There are a series of questions we as Christians should be asking ourselves as we get closer to the second coming of Christ with each passing day.

The questions are as follows:

• Am I living in anticipation or expectation of Heaven?
• Am I living in anticipation of the second coming of Christ?
• Have I taken time to envision my life in Heaven?
• Who is it that I need to be in my daily life here on earth so that I can receive the gift of salvation?
• Can I start now to live in an existence of true love and acceptance of everyone with whom I come in contact?
• What is it that will make Heaven real to me in a tangible way that will effect the way I live my daily life?
• Now if we look at our lives are we living in a way that reflects our destination being Heaven which should be the ultimate destination for a Christian?
• Have I thought about what it would be like to live with everyone in Heaven forever in a continual state of Joy and happiness?

There is something about living in anticipation. The story was told of a mother in law who was planning her trip to the Islands. For months she shopped and prepared, and packed so that she would be ready when the time came for the trip. There was no detail that was overlooked. Finally, the day came for the departure and so much anticipation had been built up that she wasn't able to sleep the night before. So on the day it was time to go she got dressed and fixed breakfast and then took her seat in the living room with her luggage. Now the departure wasn't for several hours but she had lived in such a state of expectation that she was ready well in advance.

Have we stopped to actually envision what it will actually be like to live without limitation?

We as Christians should be living in the state of mind of the future in this present day in age.

The reason why its important for us to envision Heaven as a real place is because we need a motivating factor to help put "a fire" under our bottoms.

We as Christians need to find something about Heaven that thrills us to the point that our life will transition from earthly issues and concerns to Heavenly blessings and pleasantries.

It is interesting to realize that even our very best efforts here on earth are so narrow and limited in comparison to the endless abilities we each will have once we get to Heaven.

1 Corinthians 13:12 Brings out the point that now we see things through the mirror of our own individual limited understanding.

Its hard to even understand the concepts of what it will be like to never grow old, never sleep, never have to use the bathroom, never get tired, never run out of time, never experience sadness, pain, sorrow, or death.

Our lives should reflect that fact that:

*God is real

*Jesus died on the cross so that salvation from our sins was possible

*Heaven is a real physical place

An interesting fact: Did you know children are programmed to be negative being that the word they hear the most during their entire childhood is no.

We need to allow God's light to take away the shadows of sin in our lives.

We need to also understand that we here on earth can begin to dwell in heaven by living by the principles of the God we serve.

It should be our goal to practice living in a state of authenticity.

Imagine for a minute if everyone who is close in your life could read your thoughts. Would the things you thought about them be positive or negative?

In Heaven even our thoughts will transform from the negative state they were in prior to translation.

Ephesians 4: 29-32 Speaks about the importance of not speaking unwholesome words. Some bible translations of this text go so far as to challenge us to not allow corrupt communication to come out of our mouths.

The speakers used the analogy of our bodies being a golden bowl to represent the temple of God. Now the question was asked what type of fruit do you want to be in the bowl. Do you want to be a golden bowl that is full of rotten, dirty, bug infested fruit? Or do we want to be a golden bowl that is full of luscious, ripe, juicy, delicious fruit? Well the words we speak are either good or bad fruit in this analogy.

When we put all this into prospective we will begin to appreciate the fact that our lives will alter by default when you begin to remove the negative fruit from our lives.

There are some tips that we can do to start living here on earth in anticipation of living in Heaven.

• Have family worship
• Get connected with God everyday through some type of devotion or bible text
• Work on developing an active thriving prayer life
• Eliminate bad foods from our diet that are hindering our health so that we can have a clear mind to communicate with God
• Develop a functional relationship with God

When I am connected with God great things will happen in my life and in the life of others who come in contact with me.

God's power will flow though our lives in a tangible way if we are connected to Him. So there will be evidence of our spiritual connection to God in how we live.

How many of us have our suitcase ready for when Jesus comes again? Suitcase representing our character because that's the only thing that we will take with us to Heaven our character and personality.

Our salvation is sure we need to live in anticipation of the fulfillment of the greatest gift which is the gift of life and salvation made possible through the death of Jesus on the cross!

If that isn't good news then I don't know what is....God bless each of you who took the time to read this post!