Transcript (may contain transcription errors)

Of everything, all the tragedies and the, as we call tragedies, and it just kept, it’s seen that the stories kept coming. In the midst of that, my dad and my mom shared part of a testimony of God intervening in, in his, in that way, right? And it was almost a reminder, it was a reminder that no matter what happens, God is sovereign and God is in control and we can’t forget that nothing happens without his intervention and without his approval or allowance. And especially when it comes to the people of God, that those who love God, those who are walking in God’s ways, that all of our steps, we have to remember that all of our steps are ordered by the Lord, even when it doesn’t seem or feel like it.

And so as I was thinking this week about what God would possibly want me to preach about, and I feel a big part has already been preached, and I knew that would be because, you know, it’s when the Spirit of God is in a place, it’s not necessarily a specific person that preaches the Word and that when you understand that, oftentimes the Word is preached in a variety of ways. When we come together, the Word is preached through song, the Word is preached through encounters that we have with others via conversation that no one else hears but those two people, the Word goes forth and the Word goes forth in so many different ways outside of just the person that is the preacher quote unquote for that day. And so if we keep our ears open, listening to the voice of God, that will realize that God is always preaching even if there is no preacher, that the Word of God is always going forth when we come together.

When he said when two or three are gathered together in my midst, in my name, there I am in the midst of them. And I love that Picard sing that song well done because what came to me this week was well done. That came to me, that message, God gave me that message well done, but changed it a little bit, you know, in terms of the title. And if you want to write a title, the title for today’s sermon is a prepared place, a prepared place. We’re going to turn to John 14. And as we turn there, I’m going to pray and God, I thank you for this time together. I pray that whatever you have for me to speak, to encourage, to uplift, to glorify you, whatever words you want said, may those be the words that are said, may be what you want done, your will, not about me, but all about you being glorified in this moment. Thank you. Thank you for your grace, your mercy, your love. Thank you for your sovereignty. Thank you for your power, for your faithfulness.

Be glorified in this moment, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen. It is very natural. You’ve heard people talk about grieving this morning. That is that is a natural process. And that is something that is because you when you are close to someone, a man, you miss them. You miss the interactions. You miss having that person around to share the stories and the laughter and to hear them expressing their gift. And so grieving is a very natural process. And it’s not something that can be rushed and not something that should be rushed. But as we grieve and as we mourn, we can also praise a man.

We can also remember that God is in control. We can also remember, as Mark said, the hope and the promises of that prepared place. In John 14, starting at verse 1, the Lord says, “Let not your heart be in trouble.” He believed in God, believed also in me. He says, “In my father’s house are many mansions.” And he says, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” And he says, “I go to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you.” And what hit me about that particular verse and more, I guess, implicitly or importantly, the word prepare, I started thinking about the magnitude and the power of our God. And you look at the Genesis creation story. We recently covered this, Pastor covered this. And you’re talking about our God who created everything that we see. The earth, the sky, the universe with his words in six days.

So the creative power and ingenuity and just the how magnificent everything that we see, even the most beautiful vacation spots and all of this was created in six days just through the voice, just through the word of God. But then when it comes to our future residents, he says, “I go to prepare as if I’m taking extra special care in producing and creating this place that you haven’t seen yet. I’m taking, I’m making the adjustments and arrangements and I’m putting just extra like all the bells and whistles to make sure that this place is just beyond anything that you can imagine.” And stick with me, I won’t be long today. I don’t think so.

But we’re going to get there. We’re going to get there. Just laying the foundations. And I’m trying to take my time because I told somebody, I told somebody recently, I said, when I’m preaching, sometimes I get so excited internally that then I start to rush and I start to stumble over words and so I’m trying to pace myself because when you get excited about something, it’s hard to contain that excitement and deliver at the same time. And the preachers, and you understand, you understand, and the teachers as well. But this place that is being prepared, 1 Corinthians 2, 9, he says, “But as it is written, I have not seen,” right?

Nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. And so I think about how beautiful this place is, how beautiful this prepared place is. And we see a glimpse of that and John the revelator’s vision of the New Jerusalem. When this was in Revelations 21, where he talks about this beautiful city descending from heaven and he said, “The foundations were made of precious stones and the streets, the roads were this gold, but it was this translucent gold because you could see through it.” And I’m like, we don’t even have materials like that on this earth, right? A gold that is translucent, you can literally, or it’s pure gold, but you can see through it as well.

So he could only describe the beauty of this place through elements and precious stones and rubies and jasper and things that he knew on this earth, but it was still something yet that wasn’t even in existence on this side of eternity. So basically, just saying that this place is more beautiful than our imagination can even conceptualize that we can even think of, that this is, again, going back to what was said earlier, this is our hope, this is our prepared place. And now here’s the beauty of this prepared place because he said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” So each and every person that is under the sound of my voice, there is a place that is being prepared for you. Just think about that. That right now, this day, the 25th of February, your reservation is already made. That your place is not done yet. It is not finished. The bed is not quite complete.

The windows and the doors, all these things, they’re not quite fit out to the specs that our master architect has developed for you, but it is currently being prepared for you this day. 2024, he is being prepared, but it’s not quite ready for you to move in yet because you still have work to do on this side of eternity.

But when you complete your work, when you have finished what I have commissioned for you to do before the foundations of the world, before you were even created in your mother’s womb, when you finish that work, he that began a good work and you shall complete it through Christ. When you finish, then everything will be ready. Your prepared place will be ready for you to move in for you to check into.

And here’s the beauty. This isn’t even written down. You won’t even have to bring any bags with you. This place is fully furnished. It comes with you don’t have to worry about all the amenities being there because the Lord, imagine this. This is our God who has counted and numbered every hair and I don’t have a lot of hair right now, but even here with this bus cut, he knows this number right here is 10,452.

This one over here is 15,506. That kind of God, our God, that takes that much care over us. Imagine how much care over that next place that is prepared for us to move into. So don’t worry about amenities. When we finish the work that we have been called to do, and I love the going back to that song, well done, now good and faithful servant. I think of two parables. The one, the parables of the talents, right?

And I’m sure that that was based off of that song in Matthew 25. You can write that down and maybe read it later. When he talks about those that were given essentially talents and to complete their work. But then also you combine that with Matthew 20, another parable, right? This is the workers in the vineyard who agreed on receiving a certain wage and you know how the story goes every several hours that that owner of the vineyard went out and he found more workers, but he also agreed to pay them the same wage as those who have been working since the beginning and by the end of the day, he paid some more workers, but he paid them the same that he had paid the ones that had been there since the beginning of the day.

And so by the end of the shift and it was time to pay the workers who have been there all day long, they started to complain and argue, said, well, we’ve been out here working for this period of time and we’ve done this and we’ve done that. They just got here. Why are they getting the same wage that we are? We deserve more. And the owner of the vineyard said, well, listen, you all agreed on the same wage. So how are you angry with me giving you something good, something that you agreed to receive?

And so, you know, and I look at that and so you take both of these together, Matthew 25 and Matthew 20 and it, and you look at that and you say, well, number one, there’s no respecter of persons when it comes to being able to have this prepared place. And it doesn’t matter when I start working, it doesn’t matter if it’s near the end where I am saved or rescued from the destruction of, you know, this, the worldly life later on in life or early on in life, I still get the beauty of this prepared place that the Lord is crafting for me. But then one of the things that really that kind of hit me with this whole good and faithful on it, and I said, you know, you’re calling us good and faithful where Jesus even told to the rich young ruler, he said, well, listen, I don’t, why are you calling me good? And he said, there’s one good, but God, he said, the father, he said, what?

So Jesus didn’t even really like receiving that sort of title or that descriptor of good himself. And so, but then in this terrible, he says, good and faithful servants. And I think of all the times that even in salvation and being saved where I don’t seem like I’m good and I don’t feel good and I don’t behave good.

And, you know, because we’re, we’re human and we, we all falter and we all make bad decisions at times. And so, you’re calling me good. And, and then you’re calling me faithful, but there’s so many times when I can go back and say and see where I wasn’t faithful and I didn’t behave like someone who was faithful to you.

And then he reminded me, listen, this whole good and faithful has nothing to do with you. And it has everything to do with me. Because in Jeremiah 23, six, we learn another name of God, Jehovah Tsidkenu. And that means the Lord God is our righteousness.

And so he says, listen, that good in the faithfulness, it doesn’t depend upon how good you are or how good you think you are or how faithful you can be. It’s all based upon the nature of my character, the nature of my name, which is Jehovah Tsidkenu. I am your righteousness.

And so, because you’re covered by me, you’re covered by the blood, that’s how you now can, can fall under these titles of good and faithful because I am good, because I am faithful. So, we can never be good enough to deserve heaven, Amen. We could never do enough works. We can never give enough to enough charities and people, but the beauty of Romans 10, 9 is that it is freely given. Heaven is freely given to those who believe in Christ, Amen.

So, God is our righteousness. That’s how we can now receive those titles of good and faithful, not by me, but it’s by what is by God is because of him that we can now say, okay, yes, I, you know, you make me this, you make me righteous, but it’s not me, it’s all you. And then finally, I was thinking about, you know, when you have, when you go, you know, you travel and you stay in hotels and, and, and different places. And sometimes you have problems, right?

You have problems with the check-in process. Sometimes you get there, your name isn’t in the system, right? You call it in, you book the ad, you, you went on Expedia, you went on Priceline.com, hotels, whatever. And, and you get there to the front desk, you get to the lobby and they say, I’m sorry, your name’s not here. And then, so you have to show ID and, you know, you go through all the, you know, maybe you have to pay a worse rate, right?

Because now you missed out on the special and sometimes they don’t have an adequate, adequate room size, you know, or they have like, you know, twin bed and you like, listen, I eat a king, king size bed. I don’t even know, hotels have twin beds anymore. And then, you know, sometimes you might not have the money for what’s available, right? There might be just this presidential sweep. Maybe that’s all they have, right? Maybe that’s all they, they, they have left and, and you know, but I said, you know, I’m thinking about the problems that we can have with check-ins and hotels and reservations and, and the, and the beauty of our prepared place. And that we don’t, we won’t have to show any ID.

We will be known as we are known. We, we, we will not have to show any ID because Luke 1020 says, our names are written. So when I get to the line, and I don’t even know if there’s going to be a line because I don’t know why are we waiting. Why am I waiting in heaven? I, I feel like I’ll be there. And that’s when they’ll say, come on in. Come on then, because I won’t, my, my name is written.

My, my reservation has already been stamped. And, and so sometimes, you know, if, if they don’t have the adequate room size or adequate size room for you and John 14 too, there are many, many mansions. There’s more than enough room. There’s room for everyone in, in our father’s house. And then on the, the issue of maybe not having enough money for what is available, right? And so here’s the beauty is that we have this amazing, amazing upgrade. And it’s already paid for. So you don’t, you get to the front desk.

And, and not only is your name written, and they have the room that is specifically created for you, that it’s already paid for, according to John and three 16. So remember that your place right now on February the 25th, 2024. It is not ready yet. Because you’re not done working yet. As long as you are breathing, right now, God has some great work, not just good work. God doesn’t do anything just good. Great work for you to do.

And while you’re working, God is preparing. He is preparing your place so that when we leave this side of eternity, we can go right to that front desk in heaven. They say, here’s your name. Here’s your keys. We want your name keys. You come on in to this place and enjoy the presence of the Lord. God bless you.