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1st scenario, Your no longer on earth your in heaven… We have now been here in heaven for 700 years. Earth, as we knew it, is all finished. We have all experienced the reality of days we knew were going to come, like the first time we personally met with Jesus face to face……………………………………….. And like the day we died. We’ve all experienced how fearful Judgement Day was, especially when God asked us to give an account of our lives, wow that was terrifying! “We were especially grateful for Jesus’ that day!” We all remember how we wept in horror when we saw people we knew stand before God in judgement, still in their sin and we don’t see them any more. We all remember the day Jesus said to us, ” come in to paradise”, calling us by name and giving us an enormous welcome. Some things about life on earth are quite hard to remember, looking back we’re all so glad that, that world is over, it was so cruel. Most people lived in their own little world, just looking after number one, walking past hundreds of people every day and not even noticing that they exist. It had so much greed, two thirds of the planet was starving and there was enough money to make every person a millionaire. In each second that pasted by, someone somewhere in the world was being murdered; everywhere people hating and hurting others, violent wars, death, starvation. A diseased world, full of cold-hearted people, that couldn’t see past their own needs. Funny the earth didn’t seem so bad when we were there; I suppose we knew no different. Anyway we are here in this room, we have a reunion every few years because we like to get together, were all mates from the same city on earth. We all worked together to reach the people around us. At the moment we are discussing the life we lived on earth, it’s quite hard to remember, but someone has just mentioned Dunedin. Join in the conversation …………………….. “Who can remember Dunedin’s weather?” “Who remembers the house where they lived?” “What was it like?” “What about going to a school?” “Who remembers where they worked? Where?” “Remember the way we used to partner up and get married?” “And have children, and how we grew old?” “Who remembers TV.? Wow! So many people wasted their lives on TV. It was always pumping the world’s ways into us; can anyone here remember a TV. program they can tell us about? Horror movies? Night-time? False religions? Fashion? Lipstick? Aerobics? Remember how our insecure culture lived. They thought that if you collect as much as you could for yourself then you were successful. (Successful at being selfish) If you wore this type of clothes you were elite, especially if your body a certain this shape. You were to have this kind of career, and live in this part of town, if you did you were better than others and they should honour you. Wow! That’s what bound most of us up with insecurity and pride, and wanting that acceptance, stole our love and our zeal. And when the earth was all over, out of all the hard work, and things people spent their life chasing on earth, out of all the lives that were lived through all the centuries. The only work that remains now is the effort that people put in to people, towards getting them here. Who remembers Judgement day, how we trembled as we watched? Who can tell me what they thought when they saw people standing before God terrified for they could see all their deeds, and the screams as they were refused entry to paradise and taken away. Wow God hated judgement Day! You could see it hurt him.
1. When you remember your life on earth, what are you disappointed about?
2. What now do you wish you had done with your life on earth while you were there? I wish I’d….. 3. Looking back at your life, what kind of things do you think hindered you? 4. What are the things your glad about now, that you did, back on earth? 5. What do you wish you hadn’t done? 6. Knowing now the seriousness of the gospel and its urgency, if you had a chance to go back what would you do different? I would… 7. Knowing now what you know about God and life, if you were given the chance to go back and talk to yourself, by intercepting the life you were living 2006, sent to give yourself 5 minutes of advice, what advice would you give yourself? I would say….
Life is too short to be mediocre; God loves this perishing world and needs us to be sold out to him and his gospel. He hopes in us to walk close to him and be obedient to his prompting, the enemy wants to blind us, bind us and close us down, so we don’t spend our lives effecting eternity. God doesn’t want us wandering through life in a dream, or caught in a rut. It can be so easy to loose sight of what God wants, the gospel looses its urgency, and we start chasing less important things. Moses is dead, The Apostle Paul is dead, now it’s your turn and the one who created you comes to you and say’s “I want to know you and walk with you”.
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