Destination: What’s next?

We’re glad that you’re joining us for worship this morning. My name is Ben. I have the privilege of being one of the pastors here. That’s fun to say. I don’t have to say vicar anymore. And can we also. Can we give God a hand? Over 2000 people gathering to worship together last week. And that’s just a testament to who God is. What an amazing thing. hopefully some of you were able to to join in that and hopefully you join us, in the coming weeks and of course, for outdoor service as well. This is going to be the third and final part of this summer series as we’re going through. Are we there yet? And the first week we talked about, your direction in life, how you had somewhere, the directions that you take. Then the following, segment was on detours, distractions, things that might get in the way. And today we’re finally going to be talking about your destination, your goal, your the place you’re trying to land, that place you’re trying to get to. And so we can personalize this question just a little bit more rather than, are we there yet?

Are you there yet? Has anybody here maybe someone online who’s there, who’s arrived? Anybody there yet? Anybody who completely arrived. Oh, okay. So you guys are all saying good. All right, so there’s not one person that has their whole house in order. There’s nothing wrong with one of your cars. Your finances are fine. Your kids are well behaved. There is a match for every single sock in your house. I mean, talk about being there. All of us want to be there, though all of us will have a destination in mind for our lives. We have different goals, different land, landmarks that we want to reach. And oftentimes we can like, think about them in shorter segments. In an interview, you may be asked a question like this where do you see yourself in five years? It begins to get your wheels turning and thinking about, okay, well, where where do I want to be? What do I want to change? What? What do I want to be different about my life? Am I not just being an interview? 

It might be at, you know, the the start of a new year or a new season of life and you begin to ask yourself a question like this. What can I change? What can I do? What destinations are on my horizon? We recognize this, that there’s all sorts of different types of destinations in our life. Here’s a short list. It’s not exhaustive, but it could be achievements that you’re trying to reach, maybe a promotion that you’re you’re trying to to chase down. Maybe it’s finishing a degree, maybe getting obtaining a new degree in the summer months here in Michigan, a destination for all of us is a vacation, right? Amen. Go enjoy the beautiful weather out there or retirement. Being an empty nester, kids out of the house and being able to retire and enjoy your time. A couple of weeks ago, as many of you are aware, I reached a destination of sorts, but it wasn’t the destination that many of you are thinking of. Those of you that were in attendance, that were able to join us for the banquet.

You saw this, but I have to share this with everyone. I don’t even realize I reached a destination or goal or landmark. See, at the banquet. At my ordination, I was presented, bypass. Written with this. The longest sermon here at Shepherd’s Gate, which I preached on March 5th, was 40 minutes and six seconds long. Yeah. But he said after he had already gone to the trophy shop the next of the week, right before my ordination, I preached again, and that was 40 minutes and 18 seconds. So I beat my own record and I didn’t even know it. and the crazy thing about all that is that was all while I was a vicar. And now, like, you know, I get an extra, like ten minutes or something. They told me so, and I, I think I can tell you guys are all in the interest of helping others achieve goals, right? And so you have nothing else to do today. I mean, I know we sunny and stuff, but we’d rather be in here. We all have different types of destinations. That wasn’t a destination I was necessarily going for.

But not only do we have different types of destinations, but there’s different types of travelers, aren’t there? You can be someone who just lets life happen. Just kind of go with the flow. Or you could be the person who makes things happen. I mean, how many you you degree? It’s not the destination for the journey. How many journeys do we have in here? Just the journey, not the destination. And then, who are those people that are the destination? People that do not stop for bathroom breaks right now. We are getting there. I have to tell you, I grew up and my dad was one of those the second. Let’s make this thing happen. If we’re going from our house down to Florida and, you know, at least back then, it was MapQuest, right? That’s 20 hours. Yeah. Yeah, right. let’s see if we can do it in 18. All right, let’s go. And I found myself actually following in that same kind of pattern for a while. I lived out of state, went to school out of state Chicago. Lived in Saint Louis, lived in Houston. So living out of state, there’s always big road trips. And I had that second type mentality.

Let’s get this thing done until I realized I think it was my wife. Let me realize, like, rather than trying to just, like, inhale food while you’re driving, like you could stop at a restaurant you want to eat at, you could sit down and you could enjoy a meal. It was a total paradigm shift. I don’t know if any of you knew that, like you, that you can do that and you can still get to your destination. And today we’re going to actually look at a Bible character. In this Bible character is certainly the second type, the person who makes things happen. We’re going to look at the Old Testament character and the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, and I’m going to give you a 30,000ft view of Nehemiah. We don’t have enough time to dig into all of it, but I want you to see who Nehemiah was, what he tried to accomplish, and what we can today glean from that is he had a destination, a goal in mind that he went and he achieved the goal. But then what? What what was the aftermath that came from all of his achievement?

So it begins in chapter one, starting in verse two and three. This is Nehemiah speaking, says Hananiah, one of my brothers came from Judah with some other men. And I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that have survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. What’s taking place here? This is actually near the end of the time of the Old Testament. The Jewish believers had been taken out of their home, in particular their home city of Jerusalem, and they’ve been moved hundreds of miles away into the land of Babylon. That’s where Nehemiah is. That is where Nehemiah is actually an official for the king of Babylon in the city of Susa. And so he’s hearing about his homeland, where all of him and his relatives were ripped away from. And now they’re living in exile, away from where they actually ultimately belong, enslaved by another nation. And he gets this word back from them. They said to them, those who have survived the exile are back in the province because some of them had headed back, but they’re in great trouble and disgrace.

The wall of Jerusalem has broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. And what happens here is Nehemiah is cut to the heart, because what we can’t quite understand is what walls mean to a city. This city is now a disgraced city without walls. It is completely and utterly defenseless. How much peace of mind would you have if you said, you know what, I’m going to go up. I’m going to go camping for two weeks in the up. But before I leave, I’m going to open every single window in my house. I’m gonna leave my home. I take the doors off the hinges and I’m just going to go. Everything should be fine, right? There might not be that subtle feeling inside of you leaving that all to a greater extent. That’s what walls meant to a city. The safety and security of the city, the defense of the city. And Nehemiah hears these things. And then this is his response. I sat down and I wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. His first response wasn’t to like, mount some big effort to go fix the walls.

His first response was actually to go to a God who could do something about the problem that he saw. And then what’s amazing after this, it actually records his prayer. And in his prayer he first repents of his own, said he repents of the sin of all of the people of Jerusalem. Then he recounts God’s faithfulness, how God has been faithful to his people time and time and time again. And then he finally asks. He makes the petition and ask God, God, will you grant me favor in this endeavor that I might be able to go back? He have this destination in mind? I want to not only get back to Jerusalem, I want to get back there so I can accomplish this goal. I want to rebuild these walls. And again, 30,000ft view. God answers his prayer. He comes before the king. The king notices that his face is downcast. He tells the king that he’s so distraught because the walls of Jerusalem are torn down, and actually being sat in front of the king could have gone and killed by the king because of God’s favor. God’s grace towards Nehemiah.

The king sends him back to Jerusalem with an entourage to go restore those walls. The first thing that he does after traveling over 800 miles from Susa in Babylon, back to Jerusalem, isn’t. Rest is actually goes. And he starts to examine the walls right away. He wanted to know what? What’s the problem? I mean, you can tell already this guy, he made this massive journey in. The first thing he does is like, he just wants to get to work. What is the problem? How can I saw this starts to gather and rally the people around the fact that we are going to rebuild these walls. And then he starts to meet some opposition Sanballat, Tobiah and guess him who are not Israelites. They mocked and they ridiculed us. What is this thing you’re doing? They asked, are you rebelling against the king? That is the King of Babylon? And so they start to push back on it. And actually they got to the point where Nehemiah had to instruct all of the people who are rebuilding the walls to rebuild with one hand and to hold a weapon with another hand because they thought they were going to be attacked.

Then what is astounding about this is that they did it. They rebuilt the wall, but before they did, Nehemiah first answers them. He tells them how he’s going to rebuild it. He said, The God of heaven will give us success. We, his servants will start rebuilding. But as for you, that is to all those adversaries against him. You have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it. So they wanted to take advantage. They were happy the walls were down because they were living in the city. They were taking over the city and they were corrupting the people of the city as well. And not only does Nehemiah want to rebuild the walls to secure the city, but he wants to get these guys out of the city as well. So the wall was completed on the 25th day of Ilu in 52 days. When all the enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their confidence because they realized that this work had been done because Nehemiah was such a great leader.

Now the realize had been done because the Israelites are really good at building walls. It’s been done with the help of our God. This is an over a two mile circumference wall that in some places is over 12ft high and in other locations is over eight feet thick in 52 days, while under the threat of being attacked in 52 days. Depending on what township you live in, you probably can’t get a permit to put up a shed. This is astounding. They they restored the whole wall. But I, like I mentioned, this is one of the goals. This is one of the goals that Nehemiah had in mind. Here again, 30,000ft view. The first segment of the book is all about the walls, the walls being rebuilt. But there are more goals that follow for Nehemiah. But he wants this covenant to be renewed with God, and then he wants the society to be reformed. Because whether you are the type one person, go with the flow or you’re the type two person that wants to get everything done and you want it done, now we do all have goals, don’t we?

Even if you’re the laid back person, maybe your goal is to just avoid confrontation. Maybe your goal is just to be happy. We all have goals, whether we voiced them or not, and at least in our society. According to Pew Research, just this last year, these are our common goals. Want to exercise more, eat healthier, lose weight, spend more time with family and friends, live more economically, spend less on social media, reduce stress on a job. But at the same time, we also want to improve our performance on the job. We want to quit smoking, cut down on alcohol and one that I will never understand or never have in my own life is become a vegetarian or vegan. It’s not going to be a goal of mine. We can have a couple of these goals all at the same time. But what I find so interesting is that we have these goals over and over again. Maybe one of these was your goal that you set back in January and you can like take account. Now, how am I doing with this goal? Maybe you’ve reached it. What happens when you reach your goal? What happens when you reach your destination? We build these things up in our minds. I have to do this. I have this goal. 

I have this achievement. I want to get I have this degree. I want to finish this job. I want to start a house. I want to buy whatever it may be. We build these things up in our mind, but oftentimes I don’t think we think about the consequence, okay, whether good or bad. Now I reached my destination. Now what? And we can learn a lot about what our goals and what our destinations actually mean to us when we evaluate what happens when they reached the. There was a goal that I had a couple of years ago. I did a little work towards it. It didn’t accomplish it, and it actually just pop back up a couple of weeks ago. She’s like two years ago with a coworker. I thought to myself, you know, one thing I’d never done done a number of different sports. I’ve never been a runner. Full marathon seems ridiculous. Those people are crazy. But a half marathon, that’s for the same. And so without any training, any preparation and just a few minutes notice, my wife finished working out as on the 4th of July I was watching the three boys.

She finished working out. Now it’s my turn. She’s going to tag me and I was going to go do a little workout and I thought to myself as a lace my shoes, you know what? I’ve never done? I never run a half marathon. So I ran a half marathon. you can see the start down by that one mile marked on the lower left. and what’s amazing about this, that first six miles I ran from my house. Where? Over in Chesterfield. I ran a new Baltimore. You see, there’s actually strategy behind this. Two folks. I ran half a distance away from my house, so I had no choice. I had to do it. But, man, those first six miles I was running like not being a runner. All of a sudden, I felt pretty good halfway through this thing. Go to New Baltimore, get a drink of water like I’m a runner first. I am doing great. But then so green means go, right? Red means so somewhere between eight, nine and ten. Somewhere in there, while I was crawling on the pavement and my soul was leaving my body, I was. I was starting to question my previous thought of being a runner, but I had run half the distance away from my house, so I had to run the other half back and I had to complete it.

And to answer that question now what? What happens when you reach your goal? Well, I was sore. I was very sore for a few days. That’s what happened. Now, I don’t know what we’re hoping for out of those sorts of things, but then you’ve had to slow down and evaluate what am I hoping for by now? The type of person who says they’re going to do something and they did it, or now I am a runner and I’m going to identify as a runner because I did this one time very, very poorly and didn’t train for it whatsoever. You see, the way that we respond to reaching our destinations, our goals, our achievements, that tells us about how a lot about how important they are to us. I was excited about it. I did it, but it didn’t carry a lot of weight. It didn’t change my my identity, who I was. It was something that I did. It doesn’t become ingrained and enmeshed in my core. But it can for us. It can become all encompassing. It can be the thing that you want to be known for, known about. Right now, we’re actually kind of witnessing this on a global stage. Are we?

For those that are watching the Olympics, a number of Olympics ago, you may recognize this gentleman who’s this Michael Phelps. He knows a thing or two about the Olympics. Does anybody know how many gold medals Michael Phelps has? He has a total of 28 medals. Five of them aren’t gold. So I think you threw him in the trash. 23 for the actual gold medals. 23 gold medals. This is a photo taken as he’s being interviewed shortly after in 2012. He got a good chunk of those gold medals. And what he’s telling reporters at this moment is not about how great he felt, because he trained since since childhood, and he had been prepared for this moment. And he was so excited that he had reached the pinnacle of his swimming career. But rather, he was telling them that since the time of receiving those gold medals accomplished in this thing that he had set out and sought to do for the entirety of his life. Is that he was dealing with bouts of depression. This is not isolated just to Michael Phelps. This is actually a phenomenon that happens not and also not just for Olympians, but for all of us.

There’s actually a term for this. It’s called post achievement depression that you work so hard towards something that you put so many eggs in the basket of whatever it may be, whether it is a gold medal or saving up for something or whatever it is. And then you actually reach the goal. And the thing that follows is not joy and happiness and elation. And now everything is right in the world and you’ve arrived. But rather it’s met with either a mild or severe case of depression. The other one, as I was looking into this, is that there’s also something out there called post vacation depression. Isn’t that great? A study back in 2010 said that looking at those that were preparing to go on vacation and those that were not preparing to go on vacation, those that were for preparing were in fact statistically happier than those that were not preparing, but once you returned from your vacation, your baseline happiness and those that never went on vacation was the same. So what I propose is that all of us just plan vacations and never go on them. You just stay happy.

Just plan super extravagant vacations is it’s not an experience that some of you have had. There you go. You go for the you go for the gold. You try to get an achievement. You work tirelessly for it or you plan and you want to go on the vacation and you go on the vacation. But then the last day comes. Then all of a sudden there’s like fear, there’s trepidation, there’s worry. I just just witnessed this just over just two weeks ago, I was able to go on a wonderful camping trip with my family, families, and going to the same state park for over 60 years. My dad’s one of seven kids. I’m one of 19 cousins. The vast majority of the family goes up to the state park for a week, if not more, during the summer. At the same time. And so there we are camping. My boys and their second cousins, who are all around the same age, running around us, being able to just enjoy being on the waterfront and the best kinds of boats, jet skis, kayaks, paddle boards you could ever ask for. You know what kind other people’s right? So they got to go tubing. They got to go on boat rides. They got to do they got to do all this amazing stuff. They got to go pick huckleberries.

When I saw the Mackinaw Bridge, they went on treasure hunts. I think not one, not two, but three different treasure hunts because family members made treasure maps and they ran around. And on that last day, my seven year old son got hit with a big old boat, a post vacation depression. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that this moment was coming to a close. We mean he thinking back when we’ve been packing, we went on a shopping trip. We loaded the van. We driven all the way up. There were there were in the middle of it, were enjoying it. But the day that it was coming to a close and other people are pulling off their lots, you could feel like you could just it just sucked all the air right out of our van, because he’s just almost in tears over the fact that this thing was coming to a close. But what did we hope for the vacation to do? What was it supposed to be? Eternity? Was it supposed to be there forever? We just stayed at this campsite forever. We’d be happy forever. It says a lot about what our expectations that we set for these types of things, for this type of destination, that this is a fleeting thing, that this is a passing thing, a beautiful thing thing with two with wonderful memories, but a thing that will pass.

It is not the ultimate destination. What I call it’s a lower D destination, not the ultimate destination. In the same way, the wall for Nehemiah was not the destination, he took one step closer towards the destination with the help of Ezra. So we jump back into the text. He first rebuilt the wall, and then they wanted to renew the covenant and bring reform to society. And this is how they went about it. This is on the first day of the seventh month. Ezra the priest brought forth the law, that is the recorded scripture up into this point in Nehemiah before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. And he read aloud from daybreak till noon. Pause right here. 40 minutes is nothing. We’re talking five, six hours, at the very least, that he’s preaching. And now is he faced a square before the Watergate in the presence of all the men and women and others who could understand. All people listened attentively to the book of the law. They were excited to be there. They were happy to be there.

They were. They were hungry to hear God’s Word. I’m sure they were tired from actually building the wall and being ready to defend themselves. But now here, this moment is they haven’t heard this word, and now they get to hear it. And their response is a good and right and appropriate response. It’s the Ezra, the priest who’s leading all them. Praise God, the great God, and all the people lifted their hands and responded, Amen, Amen. Then they bowed down and worship the Lord with their faces to the ground. They were excited not only about the wall being read rebuilt, but the word coming back to them. And after that, every single one of them lived happily ever after. And there are no more problems. No. See what actually happens. And again, moving fairly quickly. But Nehemiah is there. All this takes place, walls rebuilt. The words given to the people. The people want to hear the word Nehemiah for a short time travels back to Babylon, and he comes back to Jerusalem. And things were not going well.

And we see how important this goal was to him, because now there’s a missed goal, there’s a missed destination. The walls have been rebuilt, but the people aren’t acting how they should. And the way we respond to our missed destinations are missed. Goals are missed achievements. That also tells us how important they are to us. We put too much weight on it and we achieve it. We can get depressed, we put too much weight on it and we miss it. And you’ve witnessed it. And maybe you yourself have done it and you go into fits of rage. You start pointing the finger at other people. Like, I would have gotten my goal, but it was this other person. I would have gotten the promotion or I would have been able to do this, or I would have been able to be first string. I would have been able to. I would’ve been able to save more. But it was the market was this we start looking and blaming, and we just get angry about the fact that we’ve missed a goal, missed the destination has surely.

I mean, it couldn’t. It couldn’t be us. Because if I missed the if I missed the destination, it’s on me now. It’s on my character. But it has to be something outside of me. So I’m going to get angry at everything outside of me, or I’m going to get angry at myself. What’s interesting is this is not unique just to us in the way that we respond. This is actually how Nehemiah responds as well. Nehemiah is upset that the wall was burned down, but he’s also upset that God’s people weren’t acting like God’s people. He comes back and he sees that these people are not obeying the law, the law that they were so happy to receive whenever Ezra preached. It allowed. And he sees them partaking in all sorts of sin. And this is how he responds. Nehemiah said, I argued with those people. I put curses on them, hit some of them, and pulled out their hair. Hopefully nobody has a boss like this. I said I wanted it on Friday, just yanked your hair out. This is not a good and godly response. This tells us a lot about what Nehemiah thought and felt about these goals.

So he had this good and godly right conviction that the walls need to be rebuilt, and that the word needed to come back to the people. But when he saw the people were out of line, he didn’t respond. And that’s inspiring way or in a leadership type way. But he just responded in a terrible way. I’m not certain about Nehemiah’s case, but I know for many of us, the reason behind this is our goals make terrible God’s. Very simply, some of the goals that we set, some of the things that we hope for, whether it be vacation, retirement or whatever it is for you. When you are serving that thing like it is on the throne where Jesus belongs, it is a terrible, terrible God. It will not give you the things you’re looking for, will not give you the everlasting sense of happiness, completeness, whatever it is that you’re looking for. Because ultimately, what I think that we’re looking for behind some of these goals might just boil down to this. I want to be good, and I want everything to be okay. I want to be good, and I want everything to be okay.

That’s it. Like, if I don’t reach this goal that I’m not good now it’s saying something about my character. But I also want everything around me to be okay. And that’s why I’m pursuing these goals. I’m going to be okay. First. I’m going to be a good person. Everything around me is going to be okay. The problem is none of our achievements, accomplishments, accomplishments on this side of eternity can actually offer you those things. So then for us, it has to raise this question. Then why? Why even make goals? Why even have different destinations that you want to go to different things you want to do in this life? Like what is the purpose behind those things? If they can’t fulfill us, then should we even bother with goals? Should Christians make goals? One text that speaks directly to this, of many that are in Scripture comes out of Ephesians. In chapter five it says, look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. And say this with me making the best use of your time, because the days are evil.

How do you make the best use of your time? You have to have it planned out. You have to have a destination in mind. You have to know. I have to know how to use your time. And what actually follows in these verses is an echoed throughout Scripture as well, is that it’s the will of God that will help you determine how you should use your time. Very simply, does it fit within the Ten Commandments? Those are within the will of God. If it’s contrary to one of the Ten Commandments, then you have no business doing that goal, pursuing that goal, trying to accomplish that destination. It is good and right for us as believers and people in general to set goals, but we have to recognize who is determining those destinations, who is setting those goals for you. Because all too often I think we just go on autopilot. We see the people around us and what they have accomplished, and then we want to do the same. Like, I mean, how many of you later today are going to go run a half marathon just because you saw that I did it?

Okay, okay, no one’s quite that crazy. But we see what other people are doing. We see what other people have. We see what other people accomplish. We want to keep up with the Joneses, and we think, okay, well, for my life to be good, I need to be married by this age. I need to have a house by this age. I need to have kids by this age. I need to have this kind of job. I need to have this kind of annual income. I need to have this, that, and the other thing, I need this kind of vacation in order for my life to be okay. These are the things that I need because I want to be good and I want everything to be okay. And the problem is, when we pursue these goals that just are handed to us and that we don’t actually actively pick or think about is that we start to model our life after those that model their lives. For those goals, and those that are pursuing those types of goals, in all likelihood are not pursuing them in light of God’s will for their life. And so it’s good for us to all pause for a moment to think about, okay, who’s determined my goals, who’s determining my destination, and is it within God’s will?

And then ask yourself the question we asked at the beginning. Are you there yet? If the goal is to get married at the right age, house, right age, right degree, right career, right location, right number of kids, whatever it may be, if the goal ultimately is the will of God for your life. Are you there yet? What God wants for you, not from you. And here’s a beautiful, theologically correct answer are you there yet? Yes and no. You live inside of a tension. Let me unpack that a little bit. Are you there yet? In terms of is your ultimate big destination secure? Yeah. All those who have received the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. Guess what? Your destination secured through the death and resurrection of Jesus. You have a destination that is set for you. There is a destination that you do not have to lift your finger for. There’s a destination that there is. There is nothing to do to add to it or take away from it, provided you just simply have faith in the one who came to fulfill everything you couldn’t fulfill.

He came to do the whole checklist, to fulfill all the goals, do all the law, and then not only that, but to die on a cross that you deserved in order that you might now have life and life to the full. Not simply just being forgiven of sins. Because I know we can all say that we’re forgiven a sins, and it is good and right to recognize. But more than that, you actually have a destination that is outside of this temporal world that now sets the course for everything else. It changes the meaning. It informs all the other destinations and detours along the way. Because we can still live our lives trying to pursue things, trying to pursue achievements, promotions, degrees, vacations, retirement, whatever it may be, and worry ourselves with that. Whether I’m going to achieve a thing in time or I’m not going to achieve it, we’re going to be anxious and we’re going to be depressed. We’re going to worry about all the mistakes we made about the past. We’re going to be anxious about the problems that are going to come in the future or, you know, or rather than focusing on ourselves and our past and our future.

Rather, we could focus on Christ past which now has determined your future. And you can recognize this, that your ultimate destination of heaven is far greater, far outweighs anything that you could do here in this temporal world. And it doesn’t mean that these things don’t matter, but they’re subservient to the ultimate destination that’s been secured in Christ Jesus. That you can do these things, and whether you achieve it in time or not, no longer says how good you are because he’s called you his child. Whether or not things go as planned or they all fall apart, it doesn’t matter because everything is going to be made right in his presence. Every tier will be wiped away. There will be no more sorrow. We will be in his presence. And for all of us that spend too much time worrying about how am I going to accomplish this goal? Rather than looking at how to accomplish the goal, rather, look up. And for every one time you look at the goal, look ten more times at heaven, because it’s not worth comparing all these trials and all these accomplishments with the glory that will be to be in his presence and that secure, that set that is done, that is assured through the cross and the empty tomb.

And so now the challenge for us today is this. Live like that is true. You live like you actually believe that your ultimate salvation is secured. Live like you actually believe that all the treasures and all the glory of being in the presence of your heavenly father to be see your Savior face to face. Actually believe that that is in your future and is your ultimate destination. And if you have that ultimate destination in mind, I believe it informs everything else that we do in the journey along the way. All these other detours, distractions, all these other small destinations no longer carry the same weight. Because we have something that is far, far greater, that is in our future. And for those of you that are believers, you need to cling to that. For those of you that you may be hearing this for the first time, you need to recognize this. The thing that you need is the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit to believe in Jesus. The one who has come for you, died for you, and now was resurrected for you.

Because his tomb is empty, one day you will have a glorified body and be in his presence, and all you have to do is receive that gift of faith for those that are believers to be reminded again and again about the goodness of God and all that he’s done for you, and to cling to that hope of heaven that we do have that ultimate destination. Amen.