Sermon Tone Analysis

Happy Mother’s Day!

So this morning we continue in this series of Eternal Realities.

This morning I want to take some time to prepare us for the upcoming weeks.

We will be talking about the end of the world but before we talk about the end of the World we need to take some time to prepare our hearts to even talk about this.

We first need to pause

We need to recognize that so much of what we spend our time on today will not matter 10 years from now.

I have good childhood memories of playing sports.

The games that meant so much to me then do not matter to me anymore.

One of my friends was a farm girl and she played baseball for as long as she could against the boys.

I remember many nights at the ballpark at the age of 8 or 9 that her mother would bribe me to lose games and if I would lose she would by me something at the concession stand.

Today I have a hard time remembering if we won or lost some of those games and I can’t even remember if she ever got me something from the concession stand.

The point is that what we spend our time on today much of that will not matter in 10 years.

What does matter is the things that are Eternal.

Heaven, Hell and the Gospel.

These things matter.

Eternity is at stake for everyone in our community and this matters.

“Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come.

Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience.

When Christ arose from death and ascended into heaven He established forever three important facts; namely, that this world has been condemned to ultimate dissolution, that the human spirit persists beyond the grave and that there is indeed a world to come .... e church is constantly being tempted to accept this world as her home, and sometimes she has listened to the blandishments of those who would woo her away and use her for their own ends.

But if she is wise she will consider that she stands in the valley between the mountain peaks of eternity past and eternity to come.

e past is gone forever and the present is passing as swift as the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz.

Even if the earth should continue a million years, not one of us could stay to enjoy it.

We do well to think of the long tomorrow.”

A.W. Tozer

“Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come.

Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience.

When Christ arose from death and ascended into heaven He established forever three important facts; namely, that this world has been condemned to ultimate dissolution, that the human spirit persists beyond the grave and that there is indeed a world to come ....

The church is constantly being tempted to accept this world as her home, and sometimes she has listened to the blandishments of those who would woo her away and use her for their own ends.

But if she is wise she will consider that she stands in the valley between the mountain peaks of eternity past and eternity to come.

The past is gone forever and the present is passing as swift as the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz.

Even if the earth should continue a million years, not one of us could stay to enjoy it.

We do well to think of the long tomorrow.”

A.W. Tozer

The baseball and softball games we play today will not matter in 10 years or a million years.

It is the Gospel.

It is teaching about grace, forgiveness, patience, love, joy, and the resurrection of Jesus that matter.

“Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come.

Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience.

When Christ arose from death and ascended into heaven He established forever three important facts; namely, that this world has been condemned to ultimate dissolution, that the human spirit persists beyond the grave and that there is indeed a world to come .... e church is constantly being tempted to accept this world as her home, and sometimes she has listened to the blandishments of those who would woo her away and use her for their own ends.

But if she is wise she will consider that she stands in the valley between the mountain peaks of eternity past and eternity to come.

e past is gone forever and the present is passing as swift as the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz.

Even if the earth should continue a million years, not one of us could stay to enjoy it.

We do well to think of the long tomorrow.”

A.W. Tozer

We are going to think about the long tomorrow.

We need to listen and discuss with humility.

Let’s minimize the thoughts of man and magnify the truth of God.

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven

For anyone who truly believes the biblical record, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that these modern testimonies—with their relentless self-focus and the relatively scant attention they pay to the glory of God—are simply untrue.

They are either figments of the human imagination (dreams, hallucinations, false memories, fantasies, and in the worst cases, deliberate lies), or else they are products of demonic deception.

Last week, Alex Malarkey himself weighed in with a short open letter.

We know this with absolute certainty, because Scripture definitively says that people do not go to heaven and come back: "Who has ascended to heaven and come down?" ().

Answer: "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man" (, emphasis added).

All the accounts of heaven in Scripture are visions, not journeys taken by dead people.

And even visions of heaven are very, very rare in Scripture.

You can count them all on one hand.

trend away from biblical authority was even noted by a secular reporter in The New York Post.

Consider the implications of this quotation:

Last week, Alex Malarkey himself weighed in with a short open letter.

Lynn Vincent, who ghost-wrote "Heaven is for Real" on behalf of the young boy Colton Burpo and his father, said that she was initially reluctant to include Colton's description of people in heaven having wings.

"If I put that people in Heaven have wings, orthodox Christians are going to think that the book is a hoax."

She did and they didn't.

Alex Malarkey himself weighed in with a short open letter.

An Open Letter to Lifeway and Other Sellers, Buyers, and Marketers of Heaven Tourism, by the Boy Who Did Not Come Back from Heaven

Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short.

I did not die.

I did not go to heaven.

I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.

When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible.

People have profited from lies, and continue to.

They should read the Bible, which is enough.

The Bible is the only source of truth.

Anything written by man cannot be infallible.

It is only through repentance of your sins and a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins (even though he committed none of his own) so that you can be forgiven may you learn of heaven outside of what is written in the Bible . . .

not by reading a work of man.

I want the whole world to know that the Bible is sufficient.

Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough.

In Christ,

Alex Malarkey

The biblical authors are all fixated on God's glory, which defines heaven and illuminates everything there.

They are overwhelmed, chagrined, petrified, and put to silence by the sheer majesty of God's holiness.

Notably missing from all the biblical accounts are the frivolous features and juvenile attractions that seem to dominate every account of heaven currently on the bestseller lists.

Lay aside our traditions and submit to God’s Word.

Dr. Rapinchuk messing with my traditions and proving that we bring things with us to scripture.

Matthew 24:

Matthew 24:37

Let’s leave room for disagreement over second (and third) doctrines while celebrating agreement on primary doctrines.

Let’s leave room for disagreement over second (and third) doctrines while celebrating agreement on primary doctrines.

Let’s leave room for disagreement over secondary (and tertiary) doctrines while celebrating agreement on primary doctrines.

Christians divide from non-Christians over primary doctrines, and

Christians divide from non-Christians over primary doctrines, and

Christians are willing to die for these doctrines.

Churches separate themselves from one another over

secondary doctrines, yet they partner together around primary

doctrines.

Christians in the same church disagree with one another over tertiary

doctrines, but it does not in any way decrease the

intimacy of their fellowship with one another.

Guiding Principle ...

• in essentials, unity.