Turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to be reading from verse 18 through 24, and we're going to be finishing up what I started a few weeks ago. Okay. And I won't be making any promises anymore. Right? Hebrews chapter 12, verse 18 through 24.

And again, I'm going to finish up the third point that I started last week, but wasn't able to finish. Reading from the NASB. For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.

For they could not bear the command, if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come before you, we ask, Lord God, that you would protect this pulpit, that you would use it, Lord God, to declare your word and your word alone. I pray that you would soften our hearts, open our ears, and give us wills to apply.

May your word be proclaimed, and as you have ordained it, not return until it has accomplished the purpose you have given it for. And so we pray for guidance in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let me ask you a question. In your memory of your life up to this point, whether it's 18 or 60 or 70, however old you may be, up to this point, what is your happiest memory in life?

You know, just think for a second. As I was preparing this message, I was kind of contemplating, what's the happiest memory that I remember? There's three distinct things that I remember, and I remember the first memory was in 1975, when my father came to the United States first in 1974 to get his doctorate.

And so we were separated for about a year, and then when we first came in 1975, I remember the just so eager to see the plane doors opening so we can run to our dad and then be reunited with him. And so that's one of the most fondest memory I have of childhood.

And then as an adult, the fondest memory that I remember is when I got married and Esther and I, we were driving up to San Francisco, you know, on our honeymoon. And so that was our honeymoon. We were just kind of driving up and we were playing John Gibson.

Some of you guys may know who he is, may or may not know who he is, but he was the only Christian tape we had. And so we probably played that about 20 times. So every once in a while I hear that tape, and to this day, it reminds me of that drive up the, I think the Pacific Coast Highway that we took the long, you know, nice route, right?

We were in no hurry. And I remember just fond memory of that, just being so happy, you know, that finally I was able to marry Esther. And then the other memory that I remember very specifically was, you know, Esther already had two miscarriages. And when she got pregnant with Jeremy, the doctor already told us that she couldn't have, that it was a miscarriage.

And the doctor already told us that she couldn't have children in the normal way. And so that we were already talking about possibly adopting in the future, maybe that's what God wants. And then, so she didn't really do anything for the third pregnancy. She actually went to Magic Mountain because I was a youth pastor, a college pastor.

So we took our group. She went on the revolution, you know, and because she liked roller coasters, because she, we thought she already had the miscarriage. And then she went back by herself for a follow-up meeting. And then she came back with the ultrasound and said, "Oh, the baby lived." And then since then we've had three other children, right?

And so I just remember that very distinctly that day when she came back with that just shock and excitement. And those are memories that I can think very distinctly that I remember. But of all the memories that I have, and as great as those memories are, the first day that I met Christ is by far anything that I've ever experienced.

Because I knew that day that my life would completely change, right? You know, some people, it takes them time, it's a process to understand what was happening. But that day, every bitterness, every anger, every regret, all of a sudden it disappeared when I met Christ. And even though this is a Christ that I sang about, you know, memorized verses in Sunday school, but this was different.

He was real. He wasn't just a figure, you know, some big picture God. He was personal. He answered my prayer. And I met him for the first time. And you know, our small group leaders told me that I was singing in my sleep, you know, the new songs that I learned, and that I was just mumbling as we were driving down, you know.

And to this day, when I think of like one that stands out, as great as those memories are, the day that I met Christ was the happiest day of my life. And it changed me forever. The Bible says that Zion is a place where we're headed, that as great as whatever you've experienced up to this point, pales in comparison to the joy and the celebration that we're going to have when we meet Christ.

And so we talked about how in the previous passage that it's a place of celebration, and it was equated with a wedding banquet, and the angels are going to be there celebrating with us. The elders, the pure church, right? Not just people who are gathered because of whatever the reason, but the pure church is going to be gathered together.

And he says, along with that, God who's the judge, who's going to protect us and guide us and lead us in righteousness, he will be there, obviously. And then the text that we're looking at that I want to get to where he says, this is where the spirits of the righteous will be made perfect.

Spirit of the righteous who will be made perfect, meaning that those who believed in God who went ahead of us, that's where the final destination is going to be. And ultimately it will be our final destination. That what he started here, he will perfect it when Christ comes. But that word perfect is a theologically rich word, teleos.

In fact, back in seminary I did a whole paper just on this word teleos. It's kind of very similar to the word agape. You can do a whole series on the word agape or another word in the New Testament, the word meno, to remain. That's another word that can't be translated with one word.

And so in the Greek, in Colossians chapter 128, it says, "We proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that they may present every man complete in Christ." And that word is teleos. In the NIV, it says to be made perfect in Christ. And in the ESV, it says to be made mature in Christ.

So the word perfect, teleos, in this passage is not referring to perfect as in reference to not being perfect, not like having some sort of a defect. The word perfect has the idea of fulfilling, meaning to bring to conclusion what was started. That's what the word means. And so theologians call this theology here and not yet.

God initiated the salvation, justification. We are in the process of sanctification, but ultimately we will get to glorification when he comes. But these are not three separate things. These are all one thing that he describes in different ways to help us understand. So the word teleos has the idea of reaching its goal, to fulfilling its purpose, to reach the finish line, to finish the term, and to make something complete and full, that there is nothing more than that.

Meaning that everything that God has started here is going to be fulfilled when we are in heaven. And as great as that day was when I met Christ, he said it was just the initiation. Every other memory that I have on this earth, and probably that you have, is temporary.

As great as that memory of meeting my father, it's temporary. And it's only for me. And as great as it was that the day that I got married, it's only here. Whatever memories that you may have, it's temporary because life is temporary. But what he initiated with us, he said he's going to teleos.

He's going to bring it to completion. And we talked about that last week, how heaven is a place of celebration. And he says it, John 15, 11, "These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full, complete, teleos." What he initiated, this joy, this celebration, we're going to be in heaven celebrating in its fulfillment.

John 10, 10, "The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." To the full, it says in the NIV. So the purpose of salvation isn't simply to save us from judgment. He saved us from judgment so that we may have this Zoé and have it eternally and have it to the fullest.

So anything that you and I have experienced on this earth was just the initiation of that. And that's why the Bible calls us to taste and see that the Lord is good. Because if you have tasted his goodness, that taste is what drives us to pursue him further. That taste is what causes us to praise him and worship him.

In Luke 10, 17-20, Jesus sends out the 70 disciples and they come back elated, joyful, happy, because they were able to cast out demons in his name. Remember, we talked about the power of angels, whether they were fallen angels or whether they're angels worshiping God, serving God. Angels were powerful beings.

Remember, we talked about how one angel wiped out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers? That's how powerful they were. So the disciples were aware of that. In fact, angels were so venerated that some people in the early church started to strain, actually started to worship angels. So they knew how powerful these angels were.

They were living in fear of these demons. They went out in the name of Jesus and they started casting out demons. And they come back and say, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name." And he said to them, Jesus said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all power and enemy and nothing will injure you." Imagine the joy and excitement of hearing that and seeing the kind of power that God has given, Jesus has given them. But Jesus says in verse 20, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven." There are other times it recorded where the disciples were trying to cast out demons and they couldn't cast out because the demons were too powerful and they come back discouraged.

The reason, what he is saying here, he's not saying don't rejoice or don't be happy. He said if you're going to place your hope in anything, place your hope in something that cannot be taken away, that the Son of God died for you. If you're going to rejoice in anything, rejoice over the fact that the Son of God loves you.

In fact, in Luke chapter 15, verse 10, it says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." It says, "Whole heaven rejoices when a sinner repents." People ask me, as a church grows, how big do you want the church to get?

Now, I don't know the motive behind that question because I can't read what they're asking. Part of it is because, especially if you came to our church when our church was small, and as the church grows, there's an initial excitement of, "Oh, the church is growing, the church is growing." Then it grows to a certain point, it's like, "It's just not the same." Some of you guys remember when our church was smaller where you knew every part of my house.

You knew every part of my house because we had Wednesday Bible study there, Friday Bible study, we had leaders meeting, and we even celebrated New Year's Eve. I'm sure our neighbors didn't like that, but we did everything out of our house. We had intimate relationship. I remember when our church was young, remember when we would send people off to China?

We had 120 people, and 120 people would show up at the airport to send people off. Our church was known as a loitering church because once we got together, we would never leave. Every once in a while, somebody may ask, and again, I'm not saying that that's the reason behind it, but I know sometimes when that question is asked, it's because, "How do we manage this growth?" At some point, maybe that's it.

Whenever they ask me that question, I tell them, "How big do you want the church to get?" They say, "Seven billion. Seven billion. That's my goal. Until then, we're going to keep growing." If the purpose of our church and the reason why we're doing what we're doing is to build our kingdom, even 10 is too big.

Five is too big. Even one is too big. If our goal is to reach the lost, the Bible says every sinner that comes to Christ, He says, "Heavens rejoice." Some of the greatest joys in my life after I became a Christian was seeing sinners come to Christ. I remember, and this was the second person that I was able to share the gospel that came to Christ.

It made such an impact in my life. We were up in Seattle, Washington, and this is when I was about sophomore in college. Our Bible study leader took us out. We were downtown Seattle. They were trying to share the gospel, but there was this homeless man that stood out to me.

I could tell he had a bit of alcohol in his breath, but he wasn't drunk. As I was walking around, I stopped and I tried to share the gospel with him. You could tell he's just not having it. I'm like, "Get that trash away from me." He was angry.

Then I was kind of curious. Normally, I would just kind of walk by and talk to somebody who's more interested, but I could tell in his eyes that even as he was angry, that he wanted to engage. I asked him, "Hey, can I ask you a personal question? If you're offended, you don't have to answer me." I said, "What happened?

How'd you get out of here?" Then with tears in his eyes, he started to share with me. He said he was a middle-class engineer, had a nice house, had a wife that he loved, and had two small children. He had a great life, except him and his wife got into this habit of doing drugs.

After work, him and his wife would do drugs, and it just got more severe. One day he came home and found his wife overdosed, and she died from that. He loved her, and you could tell he loved her. As he's telling me this story, he's weeping. He said, "I just lost all motivation to live." Eventually, he lost his job.

Because he lost his job, he couldn't pay for his house, and so he lost his home. Because he lost his job, he lost his home. He couldn't pay the bills, so the government came and took the small children away from him. Then he just said, "After that, I just want to die, but I just can't." He was out in the street, drowning his sorrows whenever he can.

Obviously I wanted to help him, but I remember that story. Peter and John at the temple, they're begging for money. He says, "Silver and gold, I have none, but what I have I give unto you. I don't have any dollars. I don't have any coins. But can I share with you something that happened to me?" I started sharing my testimony, and then I started to share the gospel with him.

I went through the whole ... that we all have sinned, fall short of the way, how I was trained in college. I came to the end, and he was very attentive. I asked him at the end, "Do you want to accept Jesus Christ?" He eagerly said, "Yes." I'm a little bit skeptical.

By that time, shared the gospel maybe about 100 times, but he's only the second guy who was interested. I said, "Is this guy real or not? Maybe he wants money. Maybe he's just going through the motion." I said, "Let's pray." We were standing there with all these people walking around, and they started staring at us because he saw me engage him.

When I said, "Let's pray," he grabbed my arms and he got on his knees. He pulled me down with him. I said, "This is the middle of downtown, people walking around, and I'm embarrassed, but we're going to pray." I led him through the prayer, and as I was leading him through the prayer, I said, "Lord, I'm a sinner.

I need you. I believe in Christ. He died for my sins." I could hear him weeping. After we finished the prayer, he opened his eyes, and I looked at his eyes. He was not the same guy. He was not the same guy. He genuinely repented and accepted Christ. He got up on his feet, and then he said, "Give me your tracts." I had a pocket full of tracts that I was trying to hand out, and he took all of it.

He said, "I'm going to tell my friends." I didn't live in Oregon at that time or Seattle at that time, so our leader said, "Hey, we have to go," so we packed up, and I wasn't able to follow up with him. I remember that experience made such a deep impression in me.

What could I have possibly given this man to change his situation? Even if I was a millionaire, gave him $100,000, couldn't bring his wife back, his children, everything that he lost, he just wanted to disappear, but what I did give him was a hope in Christ, his sin forgiven, and I could tell he had a new reason to live.

So it was at that time I thought to myself, I didn't think about pastoral ministry, but I said, "This is what I want to do the rest of my life. I want to tell people about Jesus Christ. I want to spend the rest of my life and give my full attention to share the gospel to as many people as possible," not simply because it was an obligation, not because the Bible said so, because it brought so much joy.

To see that joy in his heart brought so much joy in my heart. The Bible says that true celebration is coming, and once we forget that, Christianity becomes such a burden. Things that we need to do. Life is hard enough as it is. Those of you who have small children at home, you're huffing and puffing just to make it out of the door in the morning.

You come back and you're exhausted and tired. If your walk with Christ isn't because it produces the greatest joy, on top of all the burden of living in this sinful world, you have to appease this God that you cannot appease. You have relational problems at church, you have relational problems at home, and you're trying to do it, constantly feeling guilty, because that's all Christianity is if you don't know the joy that Christ brings.

You know the parables, the three parables in Luke chapter 15? Jesus gives the same three parables because he was hanging out with the sinners, the prostitutes and the tax collectors and the Pharisees and the scribes became angry because he was gaining a lot of popularity and they thought that they needed to be pure.

We need to keep the law perfectly in order to get God's blessing so that God doesn't condemn us again. So here's this Messiah and all these people are coming to him and yet he's hanging around with the sinners. He's going to ruin God's blessing for us. So they became angry with him, and in response to that, he tells these three parables.

The parable of the 99, leaving the 99 and going after the one lost sheep. Parable of the one silver coin that's lost and she sweeps the whole house and gets it. And then the parable of the prodigal son. And all three parables are really meant to be understood together because it makes the same point.

The first point that he makes with these three parables is that they did not understand the heart of God. They said, "Oh, we need to be pure. We need to be holy." And he said, "You don't know the heart of God." He would leave the 99. He's not saying he's going to forsake them, but how every single sheep is precious.

Every single soul is precious. So he was reversing the table and he said, "You're saying that we don't know God." And Jesus said, "No, you do not know God. This is who God is." He would leave the 99 to go after the one. He would leave, like sweep the whole house and get one.

He's eagerly waiting for the prodigal son to come back. If we dissect these parables, there's certain parts of it that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Because the third part of this message, or another universal part of this message, is that once he finds them, he celebrates.

And I was thinking about that, when he comes back with that one sheep and they say, "Hey, I found this one sheep. Let's celebrate." And usually when they celebrate, they slaughter the sheep. They find one coin, they say, "Oh, I found this coin. Let's spend the other ones to celebrate." But the point of that is not about the coin.

The point of that is not about the sheep. The point of it is how it is precious, how every single one of these things are precious. And that's the point that he was trying to make. You've forgotten your calling. The only reason why the nation of Israel was called is so that he would bless them and that through them, bless the world.

So that the sinners may come to him. But you've used your blessing to get on a pedestal and look down at everybody else. So his point was, you do not know the heart of God. God celebrates the salvation of each sinner when they repent. And if you look at the prodigal son's message, he says in verse 15, the prodigal son wasn't able or wasn't willing to wait until the father died because he was not the first son and he wanted my possession.

He takes it and we know the story. He goes back and he just blows it. Look, look at the way it's described. So when he went and hired himself out to the one of the citizens of the country and he sent him into the fields to feed what? Swine.

Right? Who is this? What is a swine? Right? It's a dirty animal. And who is this man? He's a Jew. He grew up in a faithful Jewish home and for him to work to feed swine is the lowest job that he can have. And Jesus is telling this story on purpose to demonstrate just how far he fell.

And then the very next page, verse it says in verse 16, and he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating and no one was giving anything to him. Not only was he feeding the swine, he fell so far. He said he was willing to eat what they eat.

That would have been so sacrilegious for a Jewish man. But that's the point that Jesus is trying to make. That's how desperate he became. And it wasn't until he became that desperate he realized what he did. And he says in the next verse, but when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger.

I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Take me as one of your hired men. He was so filled with pride when he demanded to have his possession and left, but it wasn't until he fell flat on his face and he was so hungry, he was willing to eat swine food, he realized what he had with his father.

And this was him repenting. I remember when I first became a Christian, I was so excited about my faith. I didn't know much about the Bible, even though I grew up in a pastor's home. I didn't know much about the Bible. We moved around so much, but I was just so eager to tell people about God.

And I remember in my mind thinking that I'm going to preach to as many people as possible. I'm going to see revival. And I've always wanted to be in the military. And I fantasized about that. I wasn't going to be a general. I was going to be a general in the kingdom of God.

I remember thinking that as a young Christian. And then, just like many young Christians, reality set in. My flesh didn't disappear. I started struggling with the same things. Started getting into fights. I was still disappointing my parents. Purity, it didn't just disappear. And so every Friday, we had a prayer meeting in LA, and every Friday I was praying for forgiveness.

Every Friday. In fact, I prayed so much for forgiveness, I was crying out to every Friday, just, "God, forgive me." And I would sit on Monday, and I would wait until Friday so that I can repent and get restored. And this was a cycle over and over. And I didn't realize just how loud I was when I was praying.

One of our Bible study leaders pulled me aside and said, "Peter, we can't pray when you pray." I was so hurt by that, because I'm praying to God, and he's telling me, "This guy's leading me Bible study, he's telling me to stop praying." I must have been really loud, because every Friday I was pounding, "God, forgive me.

God, forgive me." And then it got to a point where I got tired. I got tired of repenting. I got disappointed in myself. And it wasn't because of a temptation in the world. It wasn't because of some discouragement. It was just, "How can I go to God again?" And so for about a year and a half, I fell away from my faith.

I just kind of let myself be, and I started getting into things that I didn't get into even before I became a Christian. Because I became a Christian when I was 16. When I backslid, I was about 18 years old. And so my friends that I didn't talk to for a while, they started driving, have money.

And so we got into things that I didn't get into even before I was a Christian. So I remember this one particular night, about a year and a half of just doing this, that we got wasted. I'm not going to get into the details, but we got wasted. And we barely made it home.

He dropped me off at my parents' apartment, got home about 3.30 in the morning. And I was sitting in the living room in the middle of the night in my parents' apartment, and I was just talking to myself, "Is this fun? Is this fun?" And I was like, "This is so stupid." Maybe before I was a Christian, I could have enjoyed this, but as a Christian, in the back of my mind, this is not right.

I don't want this. I'm not even having fun. This is dumb. And I remember half drunk, sitting in that room thinking, "I'd rather sit in the back of the seat." Forget this revival. I'm going to be used by God. It's like all that went out the door. I'd rather sit quietly in the back, even if it's just an inch of progress a year.

That's better than this. And so it was much different. My first repentance was like, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe God is real and He loves me, and I'm going to tell the whole world about God." And that was my first conversion. But the second time I repented, it was just, "My Father's house as a servant is better than this." See, it says in Luke chapter 15, "When the Son came," verse 21, "the Son said to Him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Your sight.

I am no longer worthy to be called Your Son.'" But He was expecting His Father to come out and He said, "You, after what you've done, everything you blew, the disgrace that you brought to our home," He says, "But the Father said to His slaves, 'Quickly, bring out the best robe, put it on Him, put a ring on His hand and sandals on His feet, and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

For this Son of Mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found.' And they began to celebrate." He was trying to tell the Pharisees and the scribes, "This is your Heavenly Father. What you think Heavenly Father is, you've missed Him. This is the Heavenly Father who is eagerly waiting for sinners to repent and come.

But not only He will celebrate, that they're going to be celebrating for eternity in Zion. This is who God is." See, all that you and I have experienced, all the joy that you and I have known as Christians, we're really meant to be hors d'oeuvres. You go to a wedding and they'll present the hors d'oeuvres.

You don't go to the hors d'oeuvres and then go home. You get the hors d'oeuvres because it kind of whets your appetite and prepares. So you go to some places and the hors d'oeuvres are ridiculous. And you come and say, "Oh my gosh." In fact, some of the people at church have pictures of me standing by the door waiting for hors d'oeuvres.

You got to stand in the right place because when they come out, the hors d'oeuvres that aren't that popular will make its way around, but the good ones don't make it past 10, 15 feet. Jason knows what I'm talking about. I have a picture of me and him standing by the door.

Because the hors d'oeuvres are to prepare us, and if the hors d'oeuvres are this good, what's inside? What's inside? That's what this means, the here and not yet. That's what the word teleos means, is to be made whole, to bring to completion. That everything that he has shown us, everything he has taught us, is just to whet our appetite.

So he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion, until the day of Christ when he comes. He will bring to teleos what he has intended. In 1 Corinthians 13, 9-12 it says, "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, teleos comes, the partial will be done away with." When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child.

When I became a man, I did away with childless things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. I can't describe to you with words the day that I became a Christian.

Some of you are probably sick and tired of me sharing my testimony, because you've heard it over a hundred times. I can tell it to you another hundred times. It was the happiest day of my life. An angry child became happy instantaneously. Instantaneously. I didn't have to get counseling, I didn't have to get discipled.

I met Christ and everything changed. Everything changed. And to think, those were just hors d'oeuvres. That when we get to heaven, this God who opened my eyes to see Him, I'm going to be in front of Him face to face. And it's not going to be temporary, it's going to be forever.

That's why Jesus says He went to the cross because of the joy set before Him. Not because He was obligated, not because somebody was twisting His arms. Because of the joy set before Him, He was able to endure the cross. The moment we take our eyes off of what's coming, it just becomes the cross.

It just becomes suffering. It just becomes obligation. It isn't until we have firmly placed our hope in Christ. That's what it says in Philippians 3, 12-15, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also He laid hold of me." He says He's pressing on because He wants what God has already given Him, but He hasn't reached it yet.

He hasn't been made perfect yet. In 1 John 3, 2-3, it says, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure." He just described sanctification. Sanctification isn't just hard work. It isn't the right program. It isn't the right organization. It isn't meeting the right person. He says sanctification is the individual who recognizes this hope in Christ.

And he who hopes in this Christ, he purifies himself just as Jesus said, "He endured the cross because of the joy set before Him." If we believe that true joy is coming to Christ, true life is coming to Christ, and that's why anything that gets in the way of tainting that, we don't want anything to do with.

That's sanctification, not just hard work, not just right organization, not just right program. Do we believe this? Do we believe this? He who believes it, sets his hope on Him, will purify himself as He is pure. You know, some of you guys probably have different bucket lists, right? And I know some of you guys love to travel.

I like traveling, but some of you guys are really like traveling. And every once in a while, I ask you like, "Hey, can you tell me if we go here what to do?" And then the itinerary you give, 7 o'clock wake up, 7 o'clock brush your teeth, 7 o'clock get breakfast, 7 o'clock get coffee.

It's just, I don't want to go to this vacation. I'm tired looking at this itinerary. That's a vacation. You're supposed to go there and relax. I'll wake up when I feel like waking up, and then if I'm hungry, I'm going to eat. And then if I'm bored, I'm going to go see something.

And then when I'm tired, I'm going to come home. This is worse than the job. But because you love it, you love traveling to the point where you want to go maximize the time that you have when you get there. And you pour so much energy to maximize it, right?

Why? Because it makes you happy to do that. You put time and effort and energy and money because it brings joy. If we recognize the things that God has given us in eternity is so much more than anything else that we can experience here, how much more energy and time and effort should we be pouring into pursuing that?

Let me close with this, Isaiah 25, 6 through 8. The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine. And on this mountain, he will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. Amen. I pray that the promise of Zion will be so deeply embedded in us that what he started in us now will cause us to long for the day, right?

Long for the day that we would also eagerly wait and be purified as a result. Let's pray together. Lord, what an awesome God you are. Lord, you know our weakness. You know how easily we get entangled and tempted by the things that are temporal. We know, Father God, in our minds that all of these things are passing away.

And yet we are constantly concerned, worried. Help us, Lord God. We're helpless when we are away from you. I pray that your word and your spirit would lead us, guide us, help us, Lord God, to know that true joy, true celebration is coming with Christ. That though our life is now hidden with Christ, help us, Lord God, to wait for him coming and when he is glorified, that we will be glorified in him.

May your name be honored. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.