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4 months ago

TJC / Heaven and Hell

Session 1 - Death and Judgment

The audio for this sermon series belongs to The Journey Church. I listened to this Heaven and Hell series several years ago and at the time, for the sake of offline listening, I downloaded the raw audio files that they made available from their web site for the entire series.

Recently, our small group has decided to listen to and go through this series again (it's fantastic), and when we found the series on their web site, we found that none of the audio for it was available. I still had the audio files that I had previously downloaded saved, and am hosting them here on my site for the sake of sharing with our group. Permission for this from The Journey Church is pending.

Comments1
  • Comment4 months ago

    • Hebrews 9:27 - “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”

    • He states: The Bible teaches that every person will spend eternity, somewhere, one of two places: [heaven or hell].

      • I find myself wishing that he would elaborate on this a little bit more.

      • Like specifically, where does it say this? I'm not questioning it, I know it does. I just wish we could establish it more clearly and definitively where exactly it states this, clearly.

    • The misconceptions we have about heaven and hell are harmful.

    • Having a clear, accurate understanding of heaven and hell should have an immediate impact on the way we live our lives each day.

    • Two things we all have in common: 1) all of us are alive, and 2) we're all gonna die. That's it. Those are the only two things that we all have in common. Unless of course Jesus returns first.

    • 👉🏼 Death is the beginning of forever.

    • Where we spend eternity (heaven or hell), will be determined by what we do while we're here.

    • We are never going to know when our time is up. Only God knows.

    • 👉🏼 There are NO second chances. ‼️😳

    • If that last thought isn't sobering to you, something is wrong. It should be.

    • Be watchful. Be ready.

    • Do you live like you know you're dying? Do you live in light of eternity??

    • What is/are my relationship(s) with others like? How do I want to be remembered? 😳

    • Living in light of eternity should affect our relationship with stuff. We were made to live forever, NOT to accumulate stuff in this life.

    • Luke 12:16-21 - Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool.

      • I'm struggling with this one a little bit. I feel like there must be something unspoken here. What ultimately is this about? What is God's issue here, or rather, Jesus' message here? Is it about the accumulation of wealth, and not sharing it? Is that it? Is it about the condition of the heart? I dunno.

      • I guess ultimately what I'm wondering is, is the message here truly that the accumulation of wealth at all, at any level, is a bad thing? Or is it more a matter of, hey, regardless of anything else, if you're not making efforts to put yourself in right standing with God, and align yourself with him, you're being foolish and short-sighted. I feel like it must be more like this.

      • Jesus said: "This is how it will be for those who store up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God."

      • Our relationship with stuff changes, when we recognize and acknowledge, that life is short.

    • Death is coming, and knowing that should affect how we live.

    • There will be two judgments:

      • the judgment of faith.

      • and the judgment of works - the judgment that will come when Jesus returns.

    • Did you meet / uphold the standard that I gave you to live by? No, nobody can or does. - Romans 3:23

    • Did you put your faith in Jesus? Yes or no, real simple.

    • No one in hell will ever be able to claim injustice. Everybody in heaven will continuously say, I don't deserve to be here.

    • Are you prepared to stand face-to-face before the judge of all the earth?

    • The clock is ticking, always ... are you ready?

      • I keep thinking of the Wolves at the Gate song, Death Clock 😏

    • There are no second chances.

      • I know I noted this above already, but I don't think this point can be over-stated, and it's beyond worth making note of over and over.

    • Once we've died, or Jesus has returned, the time for making decisions, is over. It will be too late. There is no going back. You cannot change your mind after-the-fact.

      • I'm reminded here of Luke 16:19-31, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

    • There is no faith and repentance after death.

    • Universalism is not true ... not everyone gets in.

    • Your standing with God at death, is where you'll stand with God for eternity.

    • All of the above is exactly why its so critical that as the church, as the body of Christ, that we should be so urgent about all of this, with everyone. The clock is ticking.

    • 💡 I am reminded here of Pascal's Wager, and specifically the controversial exclusivity of our belief system. This is a critical piece of what makes the Christian faith so unpopular.

    • There must be an urgency in the church to recognize that this life is it, and what you do in this life will determine where you spend eternity.

    • James 4:13-14 - we have no idea what tomorrow will bring

    • What we do in this life will shape and impact, our forever

    • We all know this, but we're not letting it impact or change the way we live.