Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.13UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.54LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.4UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.28UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.77LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.86LIKELY
Extraversion
0.1UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.87LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.71LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Heaven Our Home
*Happily Ever After*
Psalm 23:6
April 15, 2007
Richard E. Powell
*Introduction*: Today we will begin a new series of messages about heaven.
The series is called, *“Heaven our Home.”
*For the next three weeks we will take a look at what Heaven will be like.
We will answer the questions, “Is Heaven real?
What will it look like?
What will we do there?
Will we know our loved ones there?
How can I know for certain that I will go to Heaven when I die?”
We will seek to answer these questions from the Bible.
There are a lot of people out there writing books, producing movies, and giving interviews about Heaven.
Much of what they say is contradictory and untrustworthy.
I believe the only reliable guide for learning about Heaven is the Bible.
The Bible has a clear, coherent, and consistent testimony about Heaven.
We do not have to listen to the opinions of men about this subject.
We can go straight to the one who owns the place and ask Him.
We can trust God to give us the answers we need.
Open your Bible to Psalm 23.
We will read the entire Psalm, but I want to focus in on the last verse.
There are Bibles located under the seats if you would like to use one of them.
I have also given you a sheet to jot down some notes as we consider this first message in the series.
Today’s message is titled, *“Happily Ever After.”*
*READ PSALM 23*
Every child loves a good fairy tale.
My children do.
This is my daughter’s book about Sleeping Beauty.
The cool thing about this book is it is a pop-up storybook!
*TELL STORY: SHOW PAGES*
*The story ends with the Princess and Prince getting married and living “happily ever after.”
*
All the children hear the words, “happily ever after,” and they say, “How sweet!” Adults hear those words and say, “Yeah, right!”
Adults don’t believe in fairy tale endings.
Life does not work out this way.
The story book does not tell you the rest of the story.
You see, before long the couple started having children of their own.
After the third kid the princess had trouble losing all the weight she had gained.
She was busy trying to raise the kids and keep the household going.
The Prince had become King when his father died suddenly of food poisoning.
The new King had to deal with the stresses of being the King during a time of economic recession.
He was forced to raise taxes.
This, along with an unpopular war caused his approval rating to plummet.
Things were not much better at home.
The King and Queen had grown apart over the years.
Then the scandal broke when it was discovered that the King was having an affair with an intern.
A nasty divorce followed.
The King got the castle, but the queen got the mansion on the Lake.
And they lived miserably ever after.
*As adults we don’t believe in fairy tale endings do we?*
We have difficulty believing it is possible to live happily ever after.
That is why *verse 6 of Psalm 23* is so intriguing.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6).
David is saying that he is confident that even after he dies he will live happily ever after with God in Heaven.
And some of you this morning are wondering if this is a fairy tale ending.
It sounds too good to be true.
Friend, the Bible’s testimony is clear and trustworthy; Heaven is not a fairy tale.
*I. **Heaven is not a FAIRY TALE.*
David did not declare, “I hope I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
He did not say he dreams or speculates about going to Heaven.
He said, “And I will!”
As a child he was born in a real place called Bethlehem.
As a boy he tended his father’s sheep on the hillsides of Judea.
As a young man he hid from Saul in the Judean wilderness.
Now he lives in the holy city, Jerusalem.
But when he dies he fully expects to live with God the Father in Heaven.
He knew that Heaven was a real place!
God also wants you to know that Heaven is not a fairy tale.
It is a real place.
*/Let me mention three realities of the place we call Heaven.
First, /*
*A. **Heaven gives a HOME to pilgrim PEOPLE.*
Joshua and Casey each have a hamster.
Donna and I bought them a few months ago.
The hamsters, not Josh and Casey!
We bought hamster food and hamster toys and hamster cages.
But when I look in those cages at the hamsters I feel sad.
They have plenty of warm bedding, plenty of food, and plenty of water.
But I feel sad because I know they were meant for such a larger environment.
I think instinctively they know they were created for more.
They know that the cage is not their natural environment.
Each one of them scurries around the cage, climbing the sides, looking for a way out and into a larger world.
*I believe that people know there is something more than this small, sinful world in which we live.*
God placed a yearning in our hearts for something more than what we experience down here.
There has to be more than the sin, and sickness, and sorrow, and shortness of this world.
The Bible says /God has set eternity in our hearts/.
David once wrote that “as the deer pants for the water brook” so his soul longed for God.
The Bible says that the believer’s home is with God in Heaven./
/“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20).
On Oct. 3, 2004 - for the first time in American history - someone became a U.S. citizen on foreign soil.
On that date 48 foreign born American soldiers gained their citizenship in Iraq.
Paul says we are citizens of Heaven.
When we accept Christ as Lord and Savior here on earth we became citizens of Heaven!
We received our heavenly citizenship on foreign soil!
We have a home in heaven with God.
That is where our spiritual citizenship is.
This is why the fame and fortune and fun of this world does not bring lasting satisfaction.
We were meant for so much more.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9