Finishing Well || Victory Church [Heaven #2]

- Ah, yeah, sorry. - Yeah, sorry. - You're still kicking, you're still here. - I'm like a timing. - I love it. I love every second of it. But I think what's kind of lost on a lot of us when we think about age, we think about time is literally the generation differences. I mean, you were born right there at the tail end of World War II, which is crazy. I mean, a lot of people in the church weren't even alive during 9/11, right? But you were born right there at the tail end of World War II. And so we're in this series talking about heaven. We're talking about what it looks like, what it'll be like, what it'll be like, what our bodies will be like. We're gonna walk through Revelation 21, 22. I would love to hear what you thought heaven was like growing up as a little boy there in the deep south. - Yeah, part of my childhood was spent in Fitzgerald, Georgia, done in south Georgia. And at the age of seven, my family moved to Athens. We were part of the Methodist church. My mom and dad came out of a Presbyterian Methodist background when they were growing up. And the Methodist church gave us a, I think a pretty good foundation.

Went to worship services, but like a lot of children, I would count the holes in the towels. But heaven for me was, I think for like a lot of kids, God is just somewhere up there. And it's a place, it's a place beyond sight, sound. And it took time for me to develop another conception of what it meant to be away from the body and into the spirit, so to speak. And it's something I still wrestle with. Here I am at 80 years of age. And I've done a lot of reading on heaven. I've done a lot of studying. I don't think I've done that much preaching on it, because heaven is such a personal concept. We learn a lot about heaven from in the beginning God created. We're God with somewhere, God, heaven. We come over to the end of Revelation and we see the picture of Revelation, but as you mentioned in the sermon last week, heaven so much comes into being through personal experience. Now we can talk about it, but John had a difficult time describing heaven in all these common terms of the day of what it would appear like to a person. Even Paul said, I go into the third heaven, but I can't describe anything there. I just knew that it was a special place that when those who followed Jesus, as soon as they left this life,

would go to be with Jesus in heaven. - So last week at Victory, we had probably across all the campuses and online about 25,000 people, probably about 25,000 people hearing us talk about Revelation 21 in heaven. You know, when you have 25,000 people hearing about heaven, how I've been saying is 25,000 sets of ears and 25,000 sets of eyes and 25,000 brains and 25,000 hearts and life experiences and different ways of hearing this and then God in his own unique way, speaking that of this is what it means to you. And particularly two stories that stood out was one young woman who's married came up to me afterwards and said, I felt like God said, now I can have children. And it wasn't this miracle, like now she's able to have, no, it was that she had always believed, like, oh, as soon as I have kids, my life is over, I can travel, I can't do stuff, which is not true. We know how life works. And basically, God just showed her, no, like, hey, you are gonna travel, but even if you never traveled a day in your life, you're gonna get that stuff out there, right? This new heaven, new earth, and God used this picture, this truth of heaven, you know, the truth sets us free. So this truth kind of came back and set her free in the moment to live free today.

There was another man that I've known for over 20 years who has some disability in his body, and he came up to me afterwards just with a smile and tears and he said, I'm a new man. And while we were preaching, God showed him what his new body was gonna look like. And you're talking about the experiential side of heaven, here's how I've been thinking about it, is what if we actually allowed this picture of heaven, this truth of heaven, to kind of wash back over us today? Like, what should be true today in light of that day? And so what I'd love to hear from you in 80, being a pastor for a long time, from what you've learned and what you feel like God has shown you, what would you say to people in different seasons of life? I've discovered over the years that most ministers either talk only about heaven and nothing else about how to live here, or they talk only about living here and nothing about heaven. And one of the things that I really appreciated is your courage and your boldness to really approach these subjects, these theological doctrines and truths that we have picked up through the years in scripture. I think when we're especially young, like the teenagers, we're out with our buds, our gal friends, whatever, and that is the primary relationship. But when we begin to look at it, as we go through these seasons of life, that is not the most enriching relationship that we'll ever have. If we can begin early, and if moms and dads can begin to pass on the faith to their children, a lot of times, our children aren't prepared. We just have to be the seed planters and let God through the Holy Spirit, work in their lives, continue to nourish and nurture those kids as they go along. But to encourage our kids to develop a relationship with Jesus, much more than simply having a name in a book that they would open up and they would read about Jesus did this, that and the other. But Jesus is a person, a real live being, and Jesus wants us to know him in a variety of ways. And this has helped my prayer life, that I would say to all generations, that when I pray, if somebody is sick, I'll use the great physician. If there are other

situations in life that are going on, like marital difficulties, I will go into the Lord, Lord of the Marriage Supper, and so forth, to help people to direct their prayers and so forth. So starting with teenagers, and maybe even younger, is moms and dads incorporating children into the family devotional life and being intentional about having a family devotional life. I know your mom and I tried to do this, we weren't always faithful, but it was always at the bottom of what we wanted to have happen with you and Bishop Malera. So I will start there and say, talk about heaven that we live here. Our life is not defined in a number of years. There's a time when life ends, and so we want to be also preparing for that time to come out here, especially for what I would call late teens early, early twenties, 30 somethings out here, before you really get into those, most of the time, child, child-bearing, child-reading ages, that most of your relationships are defined and now all my future. What am I going to do with my vocation? I'm going to sacrifice everything to get to where I want to go, and sometimes it's even putting off marriage or other important things in life. I've just got so much to live, I want to pack everything into it, and my encourage to folks who find themselves in this part of life is to stop, really examine your priorities. If you have Jesus Christ as your foundation in life, if you're developing that relationship with him, you have someone to build upon who's never going to leave your forsake you in the society that changes so much in marital relationships, but to build that relationship with him, to start there and then to look at where he wants me to live, serve, to date, to marry, and things like this. I also defined a place of worship, because a place of worship may not seem as exciting as a club or another place that you can go to after hours to get your cocktail or whatever, but you're going to be in an environment with other people who are having their souls and spirits replenished, re-nourished, and you're going to be prepared in that age group to go out into the world and live with somebody beside yourself. I think to parents who are raising young children or children going into the teenage years, it's a whole different time. I read a book a long time ago when I was doing my doctoral work called the Seasons of a Man's Life, and in the Seasons of a Man's Life the author was saying that men go through different phases, and we go through, like, getting to the point where we start looking for someone to share a life with them, we go into that child bearing the child, rearing the child, releasing the empty nesting in and out, and men in particular, I think, help mate with their wife, that they can have children that they're going to raise in the

fate, and that you can look at long-term commitments. I found out through four years of ministry that some people enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ on a part-time basis. Basically, as long as it's convenient, as long as I'm getting what I want without looking at the long-term effects of going through the ups and downs of life. But even then, we can begin to look at that aspect, especially in this age, that I'm not living for tomorrow. I need to be looking at eternity, because when I look at eternity, it shows me how to live today. And to know that life is not certain again, especially when men start getting into their late 40s to mid 50s, there's still a lot of people that go through heart problems and cancer problems and so forth. And we need to be aware of that there's a place for us in the event something happens to us physically and with mortality. So it helps to start studying and talking with people in a be in a church environment where you can be supported and encouraged by a group of people, your age or older people. Hopefully, one thing I found too is that when you reach a certain age, when you get into your 70s or so, you begin to get this kind of, well, you've had your time now, it's time for everybody else. But I look at all the life experience that people 70s, 75, 80, 85, 90 have that can come in as being people to sit down and talk with about the different seasons of life. And especially, how are you planning for the time to come? Well, that's literally what we're doing right now. Well, I mean, I remember being over in England, and I said this in a sermon before, but one of the pastors there said, "We need to hear from those who have seen many winters, who have seen more winters," is the most British way of saying older people. But I think that's what we're doing right here is just hearing, there's power in being able to hear from people who have lived longer than us, what they've experienced, how they're thinking about heaven and how that view of heaven would... I mean, just think about it. I mean, it's impossible for any of us. But if what you know and what you believe and where your faith is at today, if you had had it at 20 and 25 and 30 and 35, that's the benefit of having the generations together. And I think we do need to do that more often. You're talking about mortality, which I feel a certain way about when I think about my dad. But we're not going to press into the emotion of that right now. But I give you a hard time about it, but whenever you and mom are over, we'll sit down for dinner, probably about $5.55. And exactly five minutes later, I know when it's six o'clock, because both of your phones, the alarm will go off at every night at six o'clock, the alarm goes off for you to take your medication. And you'll pull out a backpack with like a thousand

pills. And I also know, not too long ago, you had heart surgery, there's other things that are going on with your body. And, you know, I think it would maybe, it would be a blessing to hear, how does your view of heaven, you know, we've been talking about this and we're going to talk more about it in the following weeks, but your view of heaven, what is going to be like the resurrected body? You know, like whenever we do a funeral, we say insured in certain hope of the resurrection, we commit this body to the ground. So there's this hope of the resurrection. But obviously it's, there's something that has it for a body to be resurrected, it has to die. So, so, you know, I think you being 80 with this view of heaven, obviously being closer to that moment than than many of the people inside victory, and prayerfully, you know, myself, my family, all that. How does that cause you to think differently about taking the medication and some of the things that you're going through in your body? How, how, how, you know, how would it benefit people who are going through health issues right now to really cling to that hope of the resurrection? That's a good and a difficult question. When we look at our health, God wants us to take care of our bodies first of all. And I know that I've been blessed more than a lot of people because I've not had a lot of other things to deal with. But my dad died at the age of 53 with a heart attack. I started taking medicine really with high cholesterol and then came the biggie with the heart issue and when they took me into Piedmont, Atlanta, they said, "Mr. Boot, you're dying." And that was seven years ago, age of 73. And so here I am and I'm thinking, I'm too darn young to do this. I got a lot more life left in me and they began getting a lot of fluid off my body and there I was having lots of times to talk with God. And up there in the hospital room, there was a moment that was not too far away from the time they were going to take me downstairs in the surgery. And so I was doing this long conversation with God about, "Okay, where do things stand now?" And I believe Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I'm going through this, this, this, and it was not a check-off. Of course, Jesus has been my Lord. He's been my Savior. He's been my friend. He's been the one that I love primarily in my life. You know, I'm not really afraid to die. I just don't know what it's like. What is it like to put the hand out in faith to go? So there I am in the room by myself and all of a sudden sounded like the rustle of dove wings all around me.

If I actually thought of dove, he'd gotten in the room. And I kind of looked over toward the door and it was one of the most unusual experiences I've ever had. And we in the Reformed faith don't talk a lot about experience. We talk about encounters. So here was the rustling that was occurring and it was almost like eight, nine, ten foot translucent figures that stood around me. And it was their garments rustling. And I've been praying, "Lord, I need peace." I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going. I've claimed that promise before. And all of a sudden the figures moved in and I had the greatest peace come over me that I've ever had in my life. And I knew that I was going to be well because I also claim in life and in death I belong to God. And whenever that time comes where I do believe I'll reach out and there will be a hand to take mine that there is that environment out there called the domain of the kingdom of God, heaven. So I take my medicine three times a day along with mom and I take the medicine to take care of my body until that time comes. And I feel like a pharmacy nowadays in many ways. That part of my finger was cut off with them too. I have a chicken pox car. Sometimes I look like I'm getting ready to deliver a baby. I don't have that girly young man for you anymore. And I know that somewhere between here and there when the crossing comes I will have a heart that is not giving up. I will have a heart that doesn't need a pacemaker. Other parts of my body which are gradually slowly fading because of age. My cardiologist last time we met said, "Hey Ron, you just got to remember you're 80." Yeah, but I'm not really ready yet. But I realize this is why I do my best to pass on to y'all, my children and grandchildren for the days coming. I won't be here. I just want y'all to know how much I love you now. -We do. -I don't know. back from the hospital because we, uh, I think we all like went to go get something to eat because you were about to, they were prepping you or something, so we're like, we'll just go leave and get something to eat. Yeah.

My toughest time at all. That's what a family is for. Jesus. Why are you going to leave me? You worry. You're in the Garden of Guess. We all left you, um, but I remember coming back and you were a mess because you were like, I've seen God and, uh, I think I just wanted you to have that moment. I didn't even ask, you know, what it was, but that's special. It's really special. One of the holiest moments I've ever had in my life. So when I went in surgery, there's five hour surgery, um, I wasn't afraid when I closed my eyes. The one thing that I did have the opportunity to do, let me take just a second on this, uh, when they were getting ready to put me under, uh, the anesthesiologist coming over with a mask and I said, wait, just, and everybody in the surgical team had gone around and they had said, well, my name is and this is what I'm doing today. So I said, can I have a moment? And I went through, I have a weird sense of humor and I said, well, I'm wrong. I'm moving. I'm your patient today, but I want you to know that I appreciate what y'all are doing against the abilities that y'all have and that I am at peace with myself because I know that whatever happens, I'm okay because I'll be with Jesus. And so I want you to go ahead with what you do and just thank you for being part of my healing process. Okay. Then the anesthesiologist gave me the old sleeping medicine and I wake up five hours later. Do you have a, maybe a scripture that you hold on to about life, about God's promise, about something that gives you hope. I mean, you're just talking about something that I think a lot of people are silently

going through. You know, I think COVID did a number on a lot of people, I think economics are crazy thing right now. I mean, there's a whole lot of world things happening and just that courage to keep going and, you know, allowing the hope of heaven to wash over us. But I mean, do you have a, do you have a scripture, a promise that you're just holding on to? Well, there are a couple, one of them comes from Romans five, I think it is for Paul writes, therefore, there is no condemnation for those in Christ. And to me that covers everything. Yeah. I'm not the perfect person. I'm like most people that there have been parts of my life that I'm not real proud of. But the blood of Christ has covered those, therefore there is no condemnation, his love, his life, his blood has covered and has made me clean and made me righteous before God because of him. So you know, I like to pass on the people who kind of lived a shadowy past or uncertain about who they are, what they've done, where they're going. You can hold on to that, therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And I think this is what the woman and John chapter eight experienced when she was getting ready to be stoned because she was caught in a dulter. And Jesus said to her, who condemns you? She said, no one. He said, neither do I, therefore there is no condemnation in Christ. So whatever people have gone through, there is hope, there is hope. The past is gone, the present is here, the futures yet to come live for the future. The other one that has had quite a deep meaning for me recently following up on that last question is that how am I kind of preparing for this time which is moving towards some end out here in the future? When Paul writes to the church in Philippi, he says, I want to know Christ, I want to

know Jesus, I want to know his sufferings, I want to know his resurrection. I think that's in chapter three of Philippians. And then he says this, he says, what is past, I forget, I lay it down, I'm moving on, I press on to the upward call of God and Jesus Christ, I press on, I press on, I press on. So my encouragement to people wherever they find themselves, whatever can they find themselves. Today, to present them, you know, in Christ there's no condemnation. You have a fresh start, a new beginning. It moves us toward the new body that Christ has waiting for us when we cross that demarcation line of this life into eternal life. And to me, that gives me great peace. It gives me encouragement. It gives me hope. And I can't run like I used it. I used to live running. I was a long distance runner. But now just being able to walk, to walk across that line, to be moving toward Jesus the older I get. And you know, that goes back to teenagers, to the 2030 somethings of 40 50 and above. Move toward something of value. Move toward the one who has created you. Move toward the one who loves you with an abundant everlasting eternal life. Move toward the one who holds your life in his hands. Move toward the one who has gone to prepare a place for you. Move toward the one who is out there, just waiting to be reunited and see face to face. To me, that is great hope. Well, something you've been saying a lot lately, a lot, and I joke with you, you speak in an alternate amount about death. I speak in tongues. No, you don't speak a lot, but you do speak a lot about dying. And in essence, that's, you know, it's a gift to be aware to not let it be haunting, but to be aware. But you've been saying this a lot with that is I just want to finish well. Like, I've heard you, I don't even know how many times say that lately. Like, I just want to, and it's unique because I haven't heard you say that before, but lately you've been saying, I just want to finish well. What does that mean when you say that? My best friend up until his death was my dad. Age of 53, I mentioned. And dad was my hero. He was the one that I looked to. And dad worked five and a half days a week, a blue collar worker worked his life almost to death, providing for my brother and me. And dad taught us things. He didn't tell us about, he taught us. You want to know how to paint? Well, come here. You can help me paint. I was able to work on my 54 Chevy and keep it running for a long time because I knew I had to pop the hood and change the distributor parts and work on

the carburetor or change the hoses on the radio, things like that. Dad took us to church. He taught us how to pray. He was there whenever I needed him. One night I had taken a date, not your mom, home and the line of how it was being worked on right beyond our house. You know, it was in our 1957 Chevrolet. And dad had told me not to take this particular way back home after the date because it was muddy and it had been raining. But here I am a little late getting here from the date. And so I take that shortcut and I slide off into a ditch. So I'm stuck at 11 o'clock at night. Rainy night, muddy road, all the businesses are closed. There was an Arctic girl like a Dairy Queen off to our right. My right. And I took my nickel and went down to the pay phone. The child of the 40s and 50s and 60s. Put my nickel in the pay phone and 11 o'clock at night I called dad. Dad, I need help. Where are you? I told him where I was. What do you need? I told him I had disobeyed him. He said, give me 5 or 10 minutes and I'll be there. Well dad worked for Chevrolet company. He got a pickup truck that he had at his disposal. So dad comes out in the middle of the night, hooks up a chain to the car, pulls me out. Doesn't give me a lecture. That's the kind of man he was As I finish well, I want to do what dad said Use all the gifts and abilities that God has given you Use them to the best of your abilities And to do the best that you can So that it stuck with me all my life the second thing Goes more into the line of faith That I believe God gave me in everyone else who follows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior gifts abilities and activities and God invested into me certain gifts before I renew I would become a pastor and In the places where I found myself I found God there with me and I was able to use those gifts and abilities in those places like in the military and in city planning and city management and Then when I became a pastor I was able to use those gifts

And now that I've been retired almost 13 and a half years I Find out That in that 13 year period of retirement I was still able to use those gifts because God had invested them not simply for my benefit But for the benefit of his people And so I've been able to use those To finish well would be to be faithful and using the gifts that God gave me as long as I can I Third thing for me would be in what I've tried to do just recently A year ago Jeremiah and Isaac gave me five little booklets They're about envelope size long And it has only outside letters to my grandchildren So I was given five of those they gave you work to do And so for ten months, they sat on my desk upstairs. I said when am I ever going to do something with these? and This last October September September October I was compelled I was compelled to go up and pull those down and To open it and inside each one of those booklets is a place for about ten different letters with ten different topics There are some general topics on what would you like for your grandchildren to know about you? How did you grow up? What were you interested in this that and the other? But there are about four or five that were specifically to them My dreams for them my hopes for them my expectations my prayers And so I started with the oldest grandchild Joshua and wrapped up with the youngest, which is Isaac

And I put down my dreams and hopes for each one of them all different Oldest is 29 youngest is getting ready to be 16 And I put those together and it took about a month and a half to write And then I made all those to them as part of their Christmas presents With Laura and Bishop and you I do my best every time I see you to hug you Maybe give you a cheek on your but she be she face to say I love you and To be an encouragement In saying the positive things that I want to pass on to you Because I think God's really blessed you Yeah, long with Lara and Bishop, but you've been given the words and so I do that with Barbara. I looked up this morning and I'll write on sticky notes to her before she gets up if she's Had a long day or she's done something special I would just Like love you cup of coffee hard in it or something There's a row of sticky notes in back of the coffee maker and it was Words that I want to express I want to come to the end Having said all that I need to say - Thank you. holding back anything that I should have said in past stone and I do this in part because that's what my dad did for me and I want to be a good dad just like reserve a good father who has a place for us and a place beyond sight and sound a place a new body a new heaven and so that's part of my prayer for every dad every mom especially every every person within the church especially for my children I really appreciate this time being able to talk with you well you just said it there at the end you know doing doing what you did for as long as you did being a pastor and doing what I do now one of the the

hardest things that we do as funerals you know is can be the hardest thing we do and one of the hardest things and one of the hardest things is that a funeral is all the regret it's there because of words that went unsaid so you know I think that is one of the greatest things that you've tried to give to me to my family to all of our families you know and you know you even do this thing and which I still do it the funerals that I lead of taking a rose and say why do we wait until flowers or funerals to get flowers and say give a flower every day and you've done that I mean every time we we were together you know there'll be a 15 minute moment of just heart pouring out and it's I you know I treasure that and I want to be the same way I want my kids to be the same way I would love it victory was was that people that that did not wait until funerals to get flowers like what would happen if we actually told the people we love the most that we love them the most and we're generous with our words today and so you know I I sat down with a friend of mine who's a pastor here in the city not too long ago and we were both just found out he had a good dad I've a good dad and just both in our 40s we're just kind of gushing and just saying you know with with a lot of the people we know not having a good dad can really mess you up but having a good dad set you up for so much success in life and I just want to share my words that you have done that thank you I don't know how much that is blessing to me thank you didn't blame on grind you've done that you're still doing it that you are finishing well and you will finish well and you will hear well done and you know you told me a lot too much that you're proud of me I'm proud of you and I'm better for it my family's better for it and this church is better for it and I love you very much okay steak breath everybody stop crying including me um you know I think this idea of being generous with our words and being true with our words and not holding our words close to the chest is maybe some of the best advice we can get and maybe your homework I just kind of want to leave us with this today is to be generous with our words and so if there's somebody in your life maybe

just need to reach out and say I love you maybe some of us need to reach out and say I'm sorry maybe some of us need to reach out and say hey can we grab a cup of coffee or maybe we need to say hey I'm in my car we need to talk one of the things I love about Jesus is even at the last supper table he is generous with his words to his friends God throughout the scriptures is generous with his words to us John writes it down God so love the world actually made a way that we could actually inherit some of the things that we were talking about today so that we can look forward to heaven, so that we can look forward to what that new city on that new earth with God will be like, so that we can actually look forward to the resurrection of the body, and it's only possible because of Jesus. So if you're in a place where you can, let's just bow our heads real quick, let's talk to the Lord. Father, I thank you for your great love for the world, that in our sin you did not abandon us, you did not just curse us in that place, you actually came and you stood in our place on the cross, you died and you bled for your people, and on the third day the stone rolled away, Jesus Christ rose again, and now through faith and him death no longer has the final lasting, and so God today your children say thank you for the hope that we have that's called heaven, that death no longer has the final word, now Jesus has the final word, and so today God we acknowledge that the door is open, the invitation is set, God for others to come into the family, and so maybe today as you guys are hearing this, maybe some of you have been outside the family of faith, and today just through these words God's used these few minutes that we had to speak to you, he's calling you, he's drawing you to himself to faith in Christ, and if that's you I want to lead you in a prayer because today is the day that you could be born again and that heaven could become your home, so let's pray like this say Jesus, right now I repent of my sin, my old life, my old me, God that only leads to death, and right now I turn to you to put my faith in Jesus, you are my Lord, you're my Savior, you're my King, you're the Son of God who died for my sin and you rose again, and right now I give you my life, my past, my present, and my future, it's all yours. I ask that you would give me your Holy Spirit to come and live inside me, to help me to live for you, and I will live for you the rest of my life, and one day I will see you face

to face, in heaven, all because of Jesus, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, guys. Thanks for being a part of Victory Church on the Pando app, we hope this content was a blessing to you, but we want you to know that you're not done yet because we want to hear from you, so send us a letter and tell us things like what God is doing in your life, how we can pray for you, or even content that you would like to see us create in the future. We just want you to know that we see you, you're important to us, and we'd love to continue to create some things in the future that will bless you, so send us a letter and we hope to hear from you soon.