It’s good to be in the Lord’s house this morning. Amen. Amen. Good to see each and every one of you here today. Appreciate you being here, excited for what the Lord’s got for us today. Amen. I can encourage you, hopefully you’ll be encouraged today through the word of God. We are not going to be in Hebrews per se, we will be in Hebrews. But I want to give you something. I want to give to you something that the Lord has been dealing with my heart for a couple of weeks about, and I hope it’ll help you. And I believe if you listen this morning with open hearts, the Lord will encourage you and strengthen you. And we need that in today’s time. Amen. You can tell by the prayer list, you can tell by the concerns are lifted during our times that we ask for prayer, that people are hurting and people need help, people need hope. Amen. So I want to encourage you today, we want to look at three different passages of Scripture. And you don’t have to turn to all three because you’re familiar with all three, but obviously I want to look at Genesis one, one and two, john 14, one through six and then back in Hebrews, chapter twelve, verses one and two. So we’re looking at three different passages of scripture, but I’m going somewhere and we might be taking a trip. It may not be a onesunday lesson, it may be two or three Sunday lessons, who knows how long it will be, but it’s just what the Lord has been dealing with my heart about and I want to share it with you. Not that I think that we’ve exhausted everything there is to study in Hebrews eleven, but that I think that there’s something that ties to Hebrews eleven and twelve that we need in our hearts, I need in my heart anyway. So let’s pray and ask God’s blessings upon the reading of his word. Our Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus mercy, grace and salvation. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity that you’ve afforded us on this side of eternity to be back with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Father, it’s always a blessing we can be in church together once again, father, I thank you for that. Lord, I thank you for how you love us. Thank you for how you encouraged us. I thank you for this, my church, family. Lord, what a blessing they are to us, our home, our family. Lord, I thank you for the Lord, I thank you for our pastor, thank you for his family prayer. You would encourage them, strengthen them, pray. Father, you’d meet through each and every need, guide them and direct them. At this morning we come needing help and hope from the word of God. Or do you know what you’ve spoken to me about and how you’ve helped me? And I ask you, Father, to take the encouragement from the word of God this morning and through the Holy Spirit of God, plant the word of God in our hearts. So that, Father, these difficult days that we are facing, the ones that we’ve already faced, Lord, that our hope will be encouraged and strengthened in Thee. Father, thank you that you left us Your word. Thank you that you gave it to us, that you give us the eternal hope of salvation, Lord, the eternal promise of salvation. And Father, the hope that we can find in the word of God. Now God, I ask you to go direct as long you can meet each and every need. I pray our hearts would be tender to your Word this morning and I pray that our ears would be a tender. We ask in Jesus name, amen. So obviously you know a lot of these verses by heart and I’ll read them to you just so that we can say we’ve read them from the pages of God’s Word. But in Genesis chapter one, verse one, the Bible says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was out form and void and darkness on the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The key verse there is in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God did that. Amen. Then you turn with me over to John chapter 14 and you see the Bible promise. Bible mentions again, not so much in name, but what about this heaven? Well, Jesus says in John chapter 14 let not your heart be troubled ye, believe in God, believe also in me, because in my Father’s house are many mansions. And 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 unto myself. That where I am, there you may be also. And whither I go in the way, you know, we’ll stop off reading there and then we’ll turn back over to Hebrews chapter number twelve, verses one and two. The mobile says we’re forcing, we also can pass about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every way and this sin was just so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that has set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and the finish of our faith, for whose joy was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So titled this morning’s Lesson in the Beginning in the beginning we are facing a lot of things that just kind of discourage us on a daily basis, right? You can’t help but looking to watch the news, seeing the paper, if you still get a paper, or on your flashes on your cell phone to come up the news. There’s nothing encouraging at all much in the news. A lot of things bring us down. A lot of things here over the last several weeks have kind of disheartened us in some ways last couple of months, maybe the last couple of years, some health issues. Our church family is experiencing some difficulties. Our church family has gone through some issues that our church families faced that we’ve all faced individually. And so the more the older we get, I think the more we tend to think about heaven. And I want to encourage you this morning that heaven is a real place and that God created heaven in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. God did that. This lesson this morning is intended for us to be encouraged daily. We deal with so much grief, so much suffering, so much pain and woe in this world which we live. I think it’s good every now and then just to remind ourselves what lies ahead. You know, the days are discouraging. Days are difficult. I could start over here on the right hand side and go all the way through. And I could tell you about things that folks have been through and their hearts have been heavy. Their hearts are heavy and they’re discouraged. And we wonder how do you make it from day to day to day? Well, I know how we do it. We do it because of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this morning what I want to do is I want to take just maybe today’s lesson and maybe two 3410 others, who knows? And I want to talk to you about heaven. I want you to be encouraged this morning. Heaven is a real place and we’re headed there. You are on a fast track to heaven. We are all dying daily. And you say, Brother Mark, I thought he was going to encourage us. We are. We don’t know. Brother Frank is what today might be our last day. We don’t know. We may not make it home. We may not make it through this church service. Something could happen. We don’t know when our time is. But everybody has the time. And this is appointed unto men, wants to die. Unless Jesus returns, we’re all going to go by the way of the grave. Amen. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s a sad thing because of us, because we’re left here to deal with the memories and we miss those that have gone on before. But all heaven is a wonderful place and heaven is our home. We’re just passing through. Beckley is not my home. Rich Wood is what I claim as my hometown, but that’s not my home. Heaven is my home. I have a mansion there, probably located somewhere between Peter and who knows who else is on the other side. But I have a home there. And if you’re saved by the grace of God, I’ll meet you there. We have a heavenly hope that lies ahead for each of us. Amen. We bless the Lord, we have hope. Death is not the end. The moment we close our eyes and our body ceases to breathe, our heart ceases to beat, our eyes cease to see, we are immediately in the presence of the Lord. If we’re saved by the grace of God, there is no transition, there’s no place of waiting. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Our loved ones who have suffered, our loved ones who have gone through much grief and we’ve seen them deteriorate, we’ve seen their health leave them, we see them suffering. Understand this, if they have already gone on, they are suffering no more. They are in heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a real place. Amen. The only thing that’s changed for them is their address is a little different. Amen. Some of them may live on Hallelujah Boulevard, some of them may live on Glory Street. Amen. But either way, they’ve not been lost, they’re in heaven. They’ve just moved on to a better place. Amen. So we bless the Lord, we have hope. Death is not the end. We’re all speeding down the road of life to a moment in time where we will meet the one who has carried us through this life, the one who has saved us by his grace, the one who has given us a home in heaven. So this morning we’re going to take a class trip. Amen. You don’t even have to leave your seat, no seatbelt on. We’re going to take a class trip. Amen. We’re going to take kind of one of those outings where you used to pack your lunch and your egg salad sandwich or whatever it was your grandmother fixed for you was already weeping through the bag. Amen. If you can remember those days. And the apple, I had five bruises on it. We’re going to take a class trip. I won’t keep you long, I can’t. Amen. Because we got preaching now coming up, so we got to get back before eleven. Amen. But I want us to take just a glimpse through the word of God and see what awaits us beyond this mortal life. Heaven is a real place. We read about in Genesis, chapter one, verse one. Now we as born again children of God here at the PAX Branch Baptist Church, believe that this Bible is the inherent infallible word of God. We believe that this Bible, everything that God wants us to know is listed in these Scriptures. We believe that, we believe from COVID to COVID jesus revelation. Everything in this Bible is God’s inerrant and fallible word. Amen. We take a strong stand on that. Amen. We believe that. So saying that we believe that, we must believe there is a heaven. We must believe that there is a place that’s waiting for us. Heaven is a real place. Justice one. One tells us in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Psalm 21 24, verse eight, says our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Psalm 33 six says, by the word of the Lord where the heavens made and all the hosts of them, by the breath of his mouth. You see, heaven is a real place. God made heaven. God created heaven. There are three heavens. We know that. There’s the atmosphere, that’s one heaven. There’s the planets where all the solar systems are. That’s the second heaven. And the third heaven is where our Lord and Savior is. And many of our loved ones are today. And they’re waiting on us. It may be that before we end this service we may be reunited, but that’s where they are. We don’t feel sorry for them. We feel sorry for us. We’re the ones still struggling through this world of woe. We’re the ones still going through this life of turmoil and trouble. They’re footloose and fancy free on the streets of glory. Amen. In heaven they’ve laid eyes on our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. They’ve been reunited with your loved ones that have gone on before. They have met up with Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the ones we read about in Hebrews, chapter eleven. They’ve formally been introduced to them. Amen. They know them by name. They’re waiting on us. There’s a real place. There are places on this earth I’ve never been. I have never been to Europe. Matter of fact, I haven’t been any further west than Chicago. I know there’s a California because I have an ant that lives out there, but I’ve never been there. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I’ve never been to heaven, but that’s where a lot of my family is. And they’re waiting, not necessarily waiting for me to show up. Amen. I don’t think they’re even thinking about me right now. They’re probably too busy praising the Lord, singing in the choirs and blessing God for how good he is and how good he’ll always be. Heaven is a real place. I’d like to report to you this morning that we’ll be talking about heaven over the next week, two weeks, ten weeks, six months. I don’t know. I cannot describe the matchless beauty that’s there. I can’t I can’t tell you how lovely it is. I’ve never seen it. I can’t tell you I cannot tell you what lies there. I can tell you what the Word of God says. That’s what I want us to look at together as we take these trips every Sunday morning. You don’t need a passport. We’re going to take a trip. We’re going to look and see as much of heaven as we can see because I want to encourage you. We live in a world of discouragement. We live in a world of trial, trouble, tribulation, heartache, heartbreak. We need some hope and our hope is found in the word of God. I want to encourage you about this place called heaven. One corinthian tells me in chapter two, verse nine, that as it is written, I hath not seen, nor here heard, neither have entered in the heart of man the things which God Hash prepared for them that love Him. And I believe that includes heaven, don’t you? I believe there’s no way if we got a glimpse of heaven, none of us would want to return to this earth. That’s why we see through a glass darkly. Amen. We all got a ticket, but we’re not all ready to go. Amen. I mean, we still want to watch our children grow up, our grandchildren grow up. We still want to do those things. Amen. We still want to be a part of those things, but we know that we’re going. The bus may stop today for all of us. And if it does, guess what? It’s all right. We got to take a punch. We’re ready to go. But if not, our hearts will be encouraged because we know that’s our final destination, John, leaves us a glimpse of what heaven must be like in the Book of Revelation. But there’s no picture. There’s no painting. There’s no words that can tell what beauties and glories lie on the other side. We know our Lord is there. How do we know that? Because we just read it in John, chapter 14. If you have your Bibles open there, I want to show you a couple of things that I think will help you this morning. Several years ago, I took Eric and Ashley. We went to Cape Canaveral and toured the Cape. And there was a gentleman that drove our tour bus that worked on the Cape. And he knew a lot of the things that most people wouldn’t know, especially if you were just there and it was a job for you. He had worked there, so he made a great tour guide, told us a lot about it. And it was fun, it was interesting, it was expensive. That’s the one thing I remember about it most of all, everything, I think. Of course, now it’s not a lot. I guess now we pay $5 for a cheeseburger, but paid $40 for cheeseburger and fries and a drink. But that’s been several years ago. But anyway, I can’t imagine what it would be like today. But for a moment, I’m going to be that bus driver. And for a moment, I’m going to narrate to you some things along the way. I’ve not been to heaven. I’ve not seen it, but I can tell you what the Word of God says about it. So for a moment, I just want to show you some things here in John, chapter 14. I think I’ll encourage you, he says, we know our Lord is there. He says in John 14 one, he says, let not your heart be troubled. Do you believe in God? I believe also in me, in my Father’s house so many mansions. If we’re 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, receiving to myself that where I am, there you may be also. Do not be confused. Jesus is not talking about preparing heaven for it’s already prepared. He’s preparing the way by going to Calvary’s cross and shedding his blood that will gain us access to heaven through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I want you to look at verse one very closely. We’re given this verse so our hearts would not be troubled. He says, Let not your heart be troubled. Is your heart troubled? Are there troubling things going on in the world today? Sure there is. But Jesus said to his disciples and Jesus says to you, let not your heart be troubled. You see, the disciples if you’ll turn back a page in chapter 13 and verse 18, the disciples are meeting with the Lord. And the Lord says in verse 18, he says, I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that he has bred with me hath lifted up his heel against me. So the Lord says this to his disciples, so I’m sure it troubles them. Verse number 21 when Jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit and testified and said very verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. So you see, the Lord speaking to these twelve men. Their hearts were troubled. Somebody of the twelve is going to betray Jesus. Why would they do such a thing? Verse number 38. Jesus answered him wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Barely verily I say unto thee he’s talking to Peter. The cock shall not crow till thou hast de nod me thrice. So we know Peter’s heart is troubled. The disciples are troubled. They don’t know which one will betray him. They don’t know what he they don’t know the full magnitude of what he’s speaking about. But their hearts are troubled. You see, they knew what it was to be troubled. We know what it is to be troubled. So the Lord says in the very first verse, John 14 says you, let not your heart be troubled. You say, you are not there. It’s not there, but it’s understood. The verb of that sentence is Let you let not your heart you let heart you, let not your heart be troubled. So he commands us. You see, there would be many setbacks for the disciples. For Peter, James, John. Over the next years of their life, they’d face many difficult times, many difficult situations. But they could always go back that one night when Jesus said let not your heart be troubled. When they’re in prison, they’ve been beaten. They’re singing praises in their heart. They can hear the Lord say, let not your heart be troubled. This would happen many times in their lives, as it does in our lives, because we too have and will experience heartaches, many heartaches disappointments and days of sorrow. But I want you to understand something. This morning, the Lord not only was telling his disciples, but he’s telling you, you let not your heart be troubled. Will you be sad? Yes. Will you grieve? Yes. Will your heart hurt? Yes. But don’t be troubled. Don’t be troubled. But not your heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe all, son me. You see, he tells them he doesn’t want them to be troubled. He doesn’t want you to be troubled. You say you mean we can make it through this life tear free and trouble free? That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying this morning that when the darkest of days in the darkest of nights, there’s hope, when it seems as if no one cares. Jesus cares, you say. How do you know he cares, brother Mark? Well, I can tell you because the song says, I know he cares, but that’s not good enough. I can tell you I know he cares because he tells me to. Let not your heart be troubled. You’re going to be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. You. Let not your heart be troubled. Who’s he’s being? To his disciples. Who’s he speaking to? Me. You. The second thing I have you note that that’s not a request, it’s a command. So glad there’s not grape juice under there this morning. So glad it was grape juice that was under there. Amen. I said it looks strange underneath the pulpin. So let not your heart be troubled. Not only is it a command, but I want you to note this about it. Not only is it personal because he’s speaking to you, you let not in your heartbeat trouble. Not only is he speaking to you, not only is it a command, but I want you to note this about this first. We have an option. You don’t have an option to grieve sometimes. Do your brother Frank. You don’t have an option to hurt sometimes. Do your brother Bill. Sometimes there’s things that just come into your life that just cause you to weep. And you have to weep. You have to cry and you have to mourn, and you have wonderings and you have thoughts and you think, now, why, God, why? I just don’t understand. You won’t have days like that. I’m not saying that at all. But I’m saying we have an option. Whether we’re going to live in that grief, live in that heartache, or are we going to move on? You let not your heart be troubled. Can you hear the Lord saying, let not your heart be troubled. You have the option. You’re still going to grieve, you’re still going to hurt. There’s still that separation. I can go around the room and ask you, and every one of you have had somebody to go on to heaven that you miss dearly, and your heart’s still grieving and it still hurts. We’re not going to heart be troubled. Why? Because we believe in God. We believe in Jesus Christ, and we know where our home is, and we know what’s in our home. We know who is in our home. Amen. Will grieve. We’ll hurt. But we’re going to do. We’re going to do like our pastor has said and many have said over the last couple of weeks. We’re going to get up, we’re going to move on, and we’re going to press forward. One day soon we’ll all be reunited. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believes also in me. There’s a confirmation there. Here’s a confirmation that we have one waiting on us. It’s found in Acts chapter oneone and verses ten to eleven. There were two angels as Jesus was going up in heaven, and the group was standing there. They looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up. And behold the two men that stood by him in white apparel, which also said, you men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Why? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall come in like manner. As you’ve seen him go into heaven, so he’s in heaven. There is a place called heaven. Our loved ones are there. So if I could tell you anything about heaven this morning. The greatest thing about heaven is that’s where Jesus is, the one that took you from a life of sin, the life of misery, life of woe, heartache, heartbreak, saved you from whatever had you ensnared and entrapped. The one that saved you by his marvelous grace is in heaven. If there’s no other thing in heaven, glory be to God. Our savior is in heaven. Amen. The one who shed his blood for you, the one who prayed for you in John, chapter 17. The one that cared about you, the one that has been there in the darkest of your hours, the one whose presence you felt in the hardest of times. Our savior is in heaven. That same one, the Bible said, which went up into heaven, will come out of heaven to receive us unto Himself. That is encouraging. That gives us hope. Go ahead, President Biden, do whatever you so. Choose our hopes not in you, our hopes in heaven. Go ahead, political party, whichever one is your choice, whichever one it may be, it doesn’t matter because they’re all flawed. They’re all men. I have something greater waiting on me. I have someone who loved me enough to die for me on Calvary’s Cross. So I have a home, and I’m excited about that home. So if there’s anything I could tell you this morning to encourage you, your loved ones that are there, loved ones that have gone on there, with your Savior there with Jesus Christ. We know that. We believe these things because the Bible tells us we believe the Bible is in Eren and found the word of God. We believe that the Bible will be fulfilled as it had tells us in Matthew, chapter five and verse 18. But the thing I think I want to drive you home to this morning as we get kind of a glimpse and we come back over into reality is we still deal with day to day griefs, don’t we? Day to day things that just we don’t understand why we go through them. We don’t understand what’s happening. We don’t understand that sometimes we have a hard time with the different Greeks that we have, no matter what they may be. I tied all this back to Hebrews chapter twelve and verse one and two, and especially verse number two. Who did we say was in heaven? Jesus. Who died for you on Calvary’s cross? Jesus did. Right. So the Bible tells us in Hebrews twelve, verse two, we should be looking unto Jesus. We know what faith is. Faith is the hope of things I’ve seen, or excuse me, I’ve got it all wrong. Let me turn over there. I wrote it up, I knew it. But I got it in front of everybody. Sometimes it doesn’t come. Now, faith is the substance. That’s what it is. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So we have faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is in heaven. So bring us back down to reality and here we are. When we leave church this morning and you get in your car, you’re still going to have those griefs? Still have those things that weigh you down? Brother Gary. Brother Jeremy. You’re still gonna have those things that’s going to break your heart when you leave, brother? Had those things that just tear you up? Still going to have those things? Why? Because we’re still living in this world of sin. But we should be looking under Jesus. And when we look under Jesus, it doesn’t make everything disappear. It sure makes things a lot better. So I’m looking under Jesus. Guess whoever Jesus is, he’s in heaven. And Jesus is in heaven with my loved ones. And Jesus hasn’t forgotten about me. Jesus knows exactly where I’m at and he’s coming back from me. He promised he would. And there’s not been one promise he’s ever felt. If he said he’s coming back, he’s coming back. And you can see it. We can see it in the signs and the times more than anyone ever has before. We can see it. And our hearts are encouraged. So let me tell you this morning, while you’re going through a lot of heartache and trouble right now, your heart is breaking. Be encouraged. Jesus hasn’t forgotten. About you. He’s in heaven. You’re on his heart. You’re in his mind. He’s with you daily. The Holy Spirit of God is here to comfort you. Amen. But where he is, that’s where our loved ones that are saved are. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it weren’t my son told you I go to prayer place you. And if I go to prayer place you, I will, I will I will come again and receive you and to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. So as we begin studying I don’t know how long it will last. I’m not even halfway through my Sunday school lesson this morning. But that’s okay. We can get our eyes off the stock market, get our eyes out of this world of sin, off of man’s solutions. And look unto Jesus, the author of your faith and the finisher of your faith, looking unto Him who’s all together, even though the heart may break brother Gary, it’s okay. He’s still in control. He still knows what’s going on. It’s okay. It’s okay. He loves you just as much as he did yesterday, just as much as he will tomorrow. His love for you will never change. And he will always be there by your side to comfort you, to help you. He’s in heaven, a real place. And we’re going to look more at this real place called heaven over the next week or two, or ten. But as we do, I hope it will encourage you and strengthen you and know all that we’ve got to look forward to. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in Heaven, I hope and pray that through the scriptures that have been read this morning, that the hearts of Your people have been encouraged. I pray you’ve strengthened them. I pray you’ve helped them. I pray You’ve ministered to them, lord, I thank you for Your word. Lord. I pray that you will help us through Your word to get a glimpse of what waits for us and help us, Lord, on a daily basis to look unto the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for our hope and our strength. Thank you for this church, thanks for our church family. Thanks for our pastor. Encourage Him, strengthen them, don’t you love him, god and direct. And we pray in the next hour in Jesus name. Amen.