God’s Perfect Kingdom February 5, 2005

What does your home look like? Do you feel comfortable there? Do you feel safe there? What do your parents do for you at home? Does your family care for you? Do you feel special at home? Do you feel like it’s the only place that you could ever call “home”?

Even though we all have a home hear on earth, where is our real home? HEAVEN!! Do you think you’re going to feel safe in Heaven? OF COURSE!! But why? Why should all of us feel special in Heaven? Let’s try to imagine Heaven together…

1. No Hunger, Thirst, Heat or Cold On earth, our human bodies feel hungry and thirsty all the time and we always ask for food and water. But in Heaven, we’re not going to feel any of that! We are all going to be satisfied with the Living Bread and Water of Jesus Christ in Heaven

2. No Weeping, Pain or Sickness Whenever someone does something to hurt you or that is offensive, our first reaction is to get upset because we feel the pain. But in Heaven, God gets rid of all of the pain and hurt we may feel from the people around us. The only thing we can feel is happiness!

3. No Envy, Jealousy or Hatred In the world today, all we do is compare each other with other people to see what they have that we don’t have. This can make us feel jealous towards them and sometimes even makes us hate them. But in Heaven, the only thing that we can feel is love! There is no room for hatred in God’s house.

4. Beauty The world today thinks that certain clothes and looks are beautiful and the best looking. The media tells us sometimes that if we don’t look and act a certain way, then we are not beautiful. But in Heaven, true beauty is when God’s children obey His Holy Word. In God’s eyes, beauty comes from the heart and everyone in Heaven will be beautiful!! Even Heaven itself will be absolutely beautiful to everyone because of the lovely light of God.

5. The Presence of God Here on earth, some people choose to accept God and His teachings, but there are also those who don’t believe in Him. Because of some of the disbelief, the world sees wars and fighting. But in Heaven, God is there!! The thing that makes Heaven so special is its presence of God. Everyone believes in God and all are praising and worshipping His Holy Name. The beauty, the joy, the peace, and the faith all come from the wonderful radiance of God, dwelling with His people in Heaven.

So do we agree that Heaven sounds wonderful?! But is the way we are right now suitable for Heaven? So we have to prepare ourselves for living in Heaven… There are many ways we can do this!

Think about everything that you do: If you use profanity (bad language) on earth do you think that you can use it in Heaven? If you disobey your parents in Heaven do you think you can disobey God in Heaven? If you hate someone on earth, do you think you can hate them in Heaven? Heaven doesn’t have any of those bad things. It is important for us to prepare ourselves here on our earth for our ETERNAL LIFE in Heaven

Conclusion Together we can help each other by reminding ourselves that our journey here on earth is TEMPORARY Our real lives will be lived in God’s Kingdom in Heaven If we can teach ourselves to love everyone here on earth, it will be so natural for us to do so in Heaven.

Most importantly we need to understand that we will be like angels in Heaven! What do the angels do? They praise God continually!! Sometimes we can’t even handle praying and singing to God in church for liturgy. Think about how we will be in Heaven for all of eternity praising God!!!

When we work on our character here on earth, we will be more suitable for Heaven’s environment and be able to stand in the courts of the House of our God and praise with all of our hearts…

Memory Verse “Eye has not see, nor ear has heard, nor have entered in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” - Matthew 2:9 *Bonus: I will give anyone TEN EXTRA POINTS if they can find where this verse is in the Old Testament!!