Thank the Lord for his goodness, his mercy, his grace, his salvation. He’s been better to us than we deserve. Amen. And grateful for this opportunity, thankful for it. I’m glad that we’re able to be here together one more time on this side of eternity. Amen. We never know what tomorrow will bring, never know what the future we do not know what the future holds on this side, but thank the Lord we can look into the Scriptures and see what our future is on the other side. Amen. We see ourselves sitting in heavenly places, as we noted last week in our Sunday school lesson, and we’ll note again this morning, we cannot see our loved ones. Our loved ones have gone on and passed on before us. We do not see them physically on this side, but we are reunited. Amen. And we are with them again in heaven. We’ve seen that last week. We’ll look at some things this morning. I hope to be an encouragement to you. So if you have your Bibles, turn with us to the Book of Revelation, chapter number 21, and we’ll look at verses 21 through chapter 22 and verse number four. So and it’s an oddball combination and you usually don’t do that, but where’s we’re going to be at this morning for a little bit, revelations 21, verse 21 through chapter 22 and verse four. So before we begin to read God’s precious and holy word, let’s take just a moment and pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we love you this morning. We thank you for the privilege and the opportunity to be back in the church house with our brothers and sister in Christ on this side of eternity one more time. Thank you, Lord, for our church family. Thank you for the great gift of salvation. Thank you for loving us, Lord, when we were unlovable and caring for us, when no man cared for our soul, Father, for how you reached down further than we could ever reach up, father, I thank you for that this morning. Lord, I thank you that you care for us and you love us even when we’re in loveable, Lord, you still love us. I’m grateful for that this morning, Father. Many hearts are heavy today, many hearts are saddened, many hearts are hurting and broken this morning. And I pray, Father, that your spirit of God would comfort them and encourage them and strengthen them, lord, I pray put your arms around about them and lift them up close to you, Father. I pray you’ll minister to them today, Father. I pray as we open your word that it’ll become real to us, Father, for just a few moments, that we’ll forget about all the trials, the troubles outside of these four walls, Lord, and we’ll be able to look and see ourselves in the eternity, Father, with you, with our savior reunited with our loved ones, Lord. That this morning. We’ll see. We’ll get some hope and encouragement and some help. Father, I thank you again for loving us. Father, I pray this morning you’d bless in the Sunday school hour, blessing the preaching hour, that each and everything said and done might bring praise and honor, Lord, to Thee. We need you this morning, Lord, not on this side, but in the next God and directed. We’ll thank you, Father, and we’ll praise you for asking all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Before we look into the word of God and we read the Scriptures, it’s a blessing and it’s an encouragement to the saints of God to be able to know that this is not the end, that there is a future, that there is more to living this life than just this life. Amen. Amen. Heaven is our home, and we’re grateful for that. So as we read the word of God this morning, let the Lord speak to your heart and encourage you. The Bible says in Revelations, chapter 21 and verse 21, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gates was one of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. For there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall be, and there shall and no wise enter into anything that defileeth. Neither whatsoever works abomination or maketh a lie but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of life. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of the street of it. And on either side of the river was there the tree of Life which bear twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no knight there they need no candle, neither light of the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light, and say shall reign for ever and ever. I want you to look at verse number six too. The Bible says there, and he’s said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. So we titled this morning Sunday school lesson. It’s on this thought. This is what I want you to focus on is verse number three. No night there, and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. Draw back up to let’s look back up to verse number 23. In the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God to lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. In verse number 22. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God almighty and the Lamb, or the temple of it, there’ll be no more night there. No more night, no night there. As you look at this pasture scripture, I know this morning, it seems like an odd place to kind of pick up at the end of a chapter and read the first part of the chapter. But remember this the word of God was written, was given to man under the inspiration of the holy spirit of God. And when he gave it, there were no chapter divisions, there were no verse divisions. That all came later. Those are for our reference. Those were not verbally inspired like the scriptures are. So I know it’s an oddball place to pick up, but it’s the thought there that I want us to look at that I think will help us. There’s a great truth in this pastor scripture as we leave, and we have left it pretty quickly, as a matter of fact, 2022 behind us, we find ourselves looking for new beginnings in 2023. Some of you have started a new diet. Some of you have thought about starting a new diet. Some of you are thinking about how you’re going to end 2023. And we’re thinking about the things that happened in 2022 and how can we change those things for 2023? We’ve thought about those. Some have made commitments and goals and set resolutions that they’ve already broken, that they’ve not capped. Amen. But the one thing that we want to get behind us in 2022, we want to get behind this sorrow and heartaches, a lot of it in 2022. Amen. A lot of hurt, a lot of heartbreak. And we look into 2023. We think it’s a new beginning. It’s a new start. And I don’t want to discourage you this morning, but I want to bring us back into realization is that our tribulations and our disappointments are not behind us. There’s still more ahead for 2023. There’s some great things to look forward to in 2023. By the grace of God, brother Andy will get married. Amen. That’ll be exciting. That’ll be wonderful. That’s a great day. And whatever God holds for his future and her future, I know, will be a wonderful thing. So that’s a great day. It’ll be a great day when Jessica returns back to Beckley. Bam. That again will be another great day. But there’s still some days between now and then that are going to be hard and some difficulties. But can I assure you this morning that though there may be dark days ahead in 2023, there will be no dark days in heaven. There’ll be no night there. Brother Andy I know growing up, and even now when I close the store at night, it gets a little scary. At night, in the dark time, at night time, the lights go off and it’s pitched black in the parking lot, and there’s people milling around in the parking lot that you don’t know are there until they turn the lights on in their vehicle and speed away, and you wonder why they were there. So it gets a little scary at nighttime. It’s a little unnerving when you know that people are cutting into the building, breaking into the fence line, and you don’t know whether to expect somebody when you’re walking and trying to shut everything down. Nighttime can be scary. Night time can be unnerving. You get home and you’re walking around the side of the house, and it’s pitched dark, and ford deer that you’ve never seen in your life decide to show up. It can be a little nerve wracking. Amen. They jump and they scare you. You think you’ve scared them, but they’ve scared you worse than they you scared them. Amen. In 2023, there will be some things that will be hard and difficult. When we get to heaven, we won’t have to worry about darkness. Have you ever noticed that there’s things at night that sets you more on edge than they do during the day? Why? Because during the day, you can see, can’t you? You can see what’s out in the forest. You can see what’s in the woods. You can see what’s down the road. But at night time, you can only see so far ahead. That’s the same way it is in this life. We can only see so far ahead. So we get a little restless. We get a little discouraged. We don’t know what the future will bring, and we know that there’s going to be difficult times. But I can reassure you this morning, there’ll be no night in heaven. Amen. There’ll be no more dark days when we get to the other side. Yes, there’ll be a time when we’ll have to give an account for what we’ve done on this side of eternity. I understand that. I understand that. There will be a time when there will be tears, there’ll be shed. But at some point, there’ll be no more tears shed in heaven. At some point there will be. There will be. Rest assured, this morning. There will be no more dark days ahead. There’ll be no more night. There’ll be no more curse. Did the Bible not tell us there in one of the verses we read this morning that there’ll be no more curse. No more curse. You know what comes along with curse? Sickness. Death. There’ll be no more sickness, there’ll be no more death. If I can encourage you about Heaven this morning, I would say this, that I know that this life gets hard, it gets discouraging and we feel defeated. But can I encourage you this morning to do as our pastor has read several times already in the last several weeks? In Hebrews, chapter twelve and verse one he says we’re for seeing we are so capacitive out with so great a cloud of witnesses let us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin was just so easily beset us. Let us run with patience. The races is set before us looking unto Jesus as we go into 2023. Let us look unto the Lord. Amen. Who is the light? I am the light of the world. He said in the darkness that’s coming in 2023 he is our light. Amen. He is our light. So we’ll continue to look unto Jesus looking for strength, looking for guidance and looking for direction. I want to give you a couple of truths about this pastor scripture. First of all, go back with me to verse number 21 and just look at this city that’s coming down now. We understand this morning you understand, I understand that this is talking about the New Jerusalem. We understand this. This is still in our future. This is still a part of our future when we’re with the Lord in heaven. But look at this beautiful site that some of our family members will be experiencing that we will be experiencing very shortly when we enter this time into eternity. Notice what the Bible says the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was one of one pearl and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass. Isn’t that amazing? The morning you’ll find me touring that city where the Son of God is the light. Amen. You’ll find me there on the street so pretty, made of gold, so pure and so bright. Amen. That’s what heaven is. Blessed Lord. We’re going there. We’re going there. But think about that. Think about this place called heaven as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Bless the Lord and the city had no need of the sun. And I won’t draw you back to this in just a moment but read this with me. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it. Why? For the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates look at this. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. Why? For there shall be no night there. I want you to think about what night brings. Night brings shadows. Daytime brings shadows, too. If you’ve been out in the woods in the wintertime and the sun’s coming up, you want to be in the sun. Amen. You don’t want to be in the shadows. Why? It’s colder there. We won’t have to worry about shadows in heaven. Think about a city where there’s no shadows. There’s shadows in the church this morning. There’s a shadow here. I can see my shadow. I can see me waving at me. I can see a shadow of this chair. There’s no shadows in heaven. There’s no darkness in heaven. There’s no shadows. You see Jesus’s light, the light of God, the glory of the Lord feels every inch of heaven. Amen. There are no shadows. We read in my Father’s house are many mansions. There’s no shadows behind those mansions. Nothing but light in heaven. When you say by the mark, you’re going somewhere? I am. And I know it seems like a windy trip sometimes, but follow me if you can. Please. Follow me. You’ll you’ll be encouraged. And there shall be in no wise enter into it anything in verse 27. Any wise that defileeth neither whatsoever work at the bomb nation or make it a lie which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Then in verse 22 look at this. This is pretty amazing. And he showed me a pure river of wander of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river was there the Tree of Life which bear twelve banners of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. In verse three and there shall be what? No more curse, no more sickness, no more cancer, no more illnesses. No more death. There shall be no more but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him. There we are. There you are. And his servants shall serve him there we are. And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. And what? And there shall be no night there. They need no candle, neither light of the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign forever and ever. Now, we read that once before, and we looked at it a little bit closer and we’ve seen the beauty of heaven. We see the glory of the Lord. We see how wonderful heaven will be. We see how we even see some of the things that are there. We see a tree. We see a river. We see a street. We know from John, Chapter 14 that there are mansions. So we see a little bit about him. God gives us a glimpse of what heaven will be like and that’s a blessing. Amen. But the thing that I found to be the greatest encouragement to this week is verse number five. And there shall be no night there my grandmother, when she was much older, in the later years of her life, seemed like the nighttime was the hardest for her. She would call my dad every morning. About two in the morning. My dad go to bed, had to be up by 4430, drive the school bus. But she would call and he would go over to her house and check on her. Maybe take her to the emergency room, bring her back. Probably maybe not a whole lot wrong with her, but she just needed somebody there in the middle of the night. Nighttime gets hard. We can’t see sometimes at night you can’t see what’s out there. Sometime at night you can’t see the future. Sometimes at night you can’t see tomorrow. Sometimes it’s as if the night will never end. But can I reassure you this morning where there’s coming in day, where there’ll be no more night, there’ll be no more darkness. See, we see through a glass darkly right now, don’t we, Brother Eddie? We can’t understand. We don’t understand a lot of things in our life. We don’t see. There’s coming a day when we’ll be able to see clearly. There’ll be no more night. No more night, there’ll be no more darkness. There’ll be no more heaviness of heart. There’ll be no more discouragement. There’ll be no more sicknesses. We don’t have to worry about it anymore. How many times do we come to church on a Sunday morning? And there’s a new announcement. Somebody has cancer. Pray for somebody’s family member. They’re passing away. There’ll be days in heaven you’ll not hear that anymore. There’s coming a day where there’ll be no more night. You see heaven’s glory. You see heaven’s protection. In verse number 27 there should be in no wise enter anything to it that defileth neither whatsoever works abomination. There’s coming a day when there will be no more night. But there will also be no more devil. Amen. No more Satan, no more temptory. Amen. No more drawing us away from the Lord. Amen. No more nothing to bring us heartache and misery and grief. There’ll be no more Satan. Amen. One of these days heaven has some protection for us. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that they will not even close the gates in heaven in that new city look what the Bible says. In that new city in heaven. And the gates of it in verse 25 shall not be shut at all by there’s no need to shut it. We’re not keeping anything out. There’s nothing to protect us from. We are in the presence of God. Amen. Think about that. Why today we have to put people at our door at the church house because of people that are going around acting crazy. I have to do that anymore. There’s coming a day can I encourage you this morning to say that there’ll be a day where the sun that there’ll be no more shadows, that the sun is that the Lord the glory of the Lord will be shining so bright that there’ll be no shadows in heaven. There’ll be no more dark days. There’ll be no more dark times of sorrow. There’ll be no more difficulty of seeing what lies ahead. Shadows can bring a change in their temperature. Shadow can bring a change in the warmth. Shadow can give us not your shadow, by the way, Pastor, but shadows in general can give us heartache and grief. Amen. But there’s coming a day where there’ll be no more night, brother Andy. No more night. No worry of intruders, no worry of enemy entering the sea, no more need of protection from sickness, pain, misery and row. There’ll be no need to close the gates. So if I could give you some encouragement this morning, here’s where I’m going with this lesson today. I need for you and for me in our hearts to understand this morning that the days of sorrow, as long as you’re living and breathing, will have those on this side of eternity. But on the other side, there’ll be no more grief, heartache, misery, woe or death. The same Lord that shined so brightly in your heart the day that you got saved. You remember the day you were saved. You remember how the burdens were rolled away. You remember the glory you felt in your heart. You remember those days of camp meeting when God would stir your heart. And it was if God was so real you could touch him, you could feel his presence there’s coming a day when that’ll be a reality. These days of misery, these days of heartache, these days of sorrow will pass. Look at what he says there in verse number five again. And there shall be no night. There no need. They need no candle, they neither need the light of the sun. For the Lord God will give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. Now, to me, that’s encouraging. Is that encouraging to you? Does that help you? That helps me. That helps me. But you know what helps me even more is what the next verse says. And he’s said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. Bless the Lord. Hallelujah. Jesus tells us in his word, yes, while you’re living in this world, you’re going to fight the devil. Amen. You’re going to struggle with him every day. There’s going to be sicknesses, there’s going to be sorrows, there’s going to be heartaches, there’s going to be heartbreaks. But understand, child of God, this morning you’re headed to a city where there’ll be no more night. And if the Lord told us he said, I go if I go. And he did. I will come again and receive you. He’s coming again. He’s coming again to receive unto Himself that where he is, there we may be also. Amen. So let me encourage you this morning in this there will be days of sorrow, days of surety, days of heartbreak, days of gloom and despair on this side of eternity. But there is coming a day when there will be no more shadows, no more heartaches, no more separation, no more sorrow. The same Lord that shines so brightly in your heart the day you were born again and saved by the grace of God is the same sunshine. You will know on that day the brightness, his brightness in his warmth of that life light will never, ever fade away. You say, how do you know? Because he said these sayings are faithful and true. Faithful and true. Our pastor mentioned this morning that there’s a brother and a sister in the Lord who’s going through a very difficult time this morning as we speak, as we gather, you know, there’s people that are listening, by the way, to livestream that would love to be here this morning, but can’t be. Why, there’s nighttime in their life. There’s shadows, there’s hurt. They’re discouraged. Maybe down there’s folks that are listening by a live stream this morning that would trade places with any one of you just to be in the house of God one more time on this side of eternity. It’s a blessing for us to be able to be here. Amen. It’s a blessing for us to be able to get together. I thank the Lord for it. Even if I’m late, I thank the Lord for being here. We were late this morning. I know. It’s always something. This morning we were half well, we were halfway. We were almost to cranberry when Ruth said, hey, I forgot my Sunday school lesson. Okay, let’s go back. Amen. See, even though we get discouraged on this side of eternity, remember this we are working, and we are looking for a city that’s as sure as the one you’re setting in this morning, as sure as this building is, assures that person is sitting next to you, behind you, around you. We go up and we touch each other by shaking hands, or we give one another a hug, or we speak to one another. It’s going to be the same way in heaven, you’ll know, as you’re known, there’ll be no more night. If I can encourage you this morning, I want to encourage you by the title of the lesson is no Night There, but also encourage you this morning to let you know that these sayings are faithful and true. Say, why is that a big deal, Brother Mark? Because there’s people this morning that need to know that this is true. There’s people this morning, and it may be you, maybe me, that need to know that heaven is real and that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, has not left Him nor forsaken them. And he loves them just as much as he ever did. And he’s waiting with welcoming hands and arms to those that will soon be meaning it could be me, it could be you. We don’t know. We don’t know. But this one thing we do know, if you’re saved by the grace of God, you’re headed to a place that’s real. You’ll just transition, that’s all, from this to the next. It’ll be like you went from seeing this member of your family to the other members of your family. We all like to think at times they’ll be waiting on the other side for us. My grandmother, my granddad, both of them waiting on the other side. My dad’s family, some that I never met, some that have passed on, going on. Friends and family that I’ve had through the years, they’re there waiting. I don’t know if they are or not, but I know one thing. I’m going to see them again. I’ll see them again. Heaven is real. And I know we’ve talked about that in the last couple of weeks. But the word of encouragement I want to give you today is there’ll be no more night. It’s dark for some people this morning, Brother James. Some people are hurting. It’s okay, because in my Father’s house, from any mansions, if it were not so, he would have told me. He goes to prepare a place. If he goes, he’s going to come again and receive me under myself, under Himself. That where I am, there where he is, I may be also. There’s a heaven, and it’s real. No more night. Your darkness on this side, maybe for just a moment, or maybe just for a few days, maybe for a few weeks, maybe for a few months. We may have darkness on this side, but we’ll never have darkness when we enter the streets of heaven. Amen. The streets of heaven, the glory of the Lord, when we’re in the presence of God, there’ll be no more night. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to be in church this morning. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be back in Your house with Your people. Thank you for the word of God. Thank you for how you help us. You encourage us, father, I pray that you’ll take the word of God this morning. You’ll speak to hearts. Encourage each and every one, Father. They’ll understand and they’ll know that there is more to this life than what we conceal on this side of eternity. That there is a heaven, Father, in that heaven is as real as the place we’re in this morning. Father, help us, I pray. Encourage those that need encourage, strengthen those that need strength. Help them to see, I pray help them to see the truth that’s hidden in this Word. Is point for those that need it. We ask in Jesus name and amen.