5/16/21 Revelation 22:12-21 “How to Be One of the Richest People in the World!”

14 May 5/16/21 Revelation 22:12-21 “How to Be One of the Richest People in the World!”

5/16/21   Revelation 22:12-21       “How to Be One of the Richest People in the World!”

There have been many times in my life when I have been accused of faulty thinking, and generally these people have been right.  It seems that we see our own mistakes long after others see them.  I wanted today’s message to tie in a little with the seniors of the community who will be starting a new phase in their lives.  Well, I looked and looked for something and I found that it was right in front of me all the time.  It is the very end of the Bible.  What could be better than the final advice and support that God gives us from the Bible.  This is a book that when we finish reading it, we should be able to live out our new lives whether young or old.  And this is exactly what our seniors in the area will be doing.  They are starting out new.  So here we go again for the third time in the last few weeks where I will be preaching from Revelation after saying that I don’t preach from there very often.  Today we read where Jesus is leaving us with this book that has all the information that we will ever need for a fulfilled life.  Let’s see if there is something here for not only the seniors but all of us.

Do you remember last Sunday when I asked the question, “Do you know without a shadow of doubt where you will spend eternity?”  Well, Chris Gowen tells the story of a preacher who asked a similar question.  He asked, “How many here today want to go to Heaven?”  The instant response of the congregation was that everyone’s hand went up, everyone except one elderly man.  The preacher asked him, “Sir, don’t you want to go to heaven?”  “Oh, yes,” the man replied. “I just thought you were talking about right now.”  I would guess that everyone here today wants to go to heaven but maybe just not today.

This type of thinking reminds me of some of the hurricanes we have had off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of over the last few years.  There has been so much damage that we really cannot imagine it unless you have never seen it firsthand.  With our modern technology, we were warned fairly far in advance for all of these storms.  There were many people who boarded up their places, got supplies and evacuated.  But there were also many folks who didn’t take the warnings seriously and didn’t get ready.  People died because of this.

These people are like the people we have today who ignore God’s word.  There are a lot of people, and maybe some here today, who feel that there is a lot of time to turn to God.  They are going to have some so-called fun first.  So, what happens if your heart stops tomorrow?  What happens if you get in a car accident and are killed instantly?  You don’t have the time that you think you have.  Jesus has warned us that we are to come to Him.  He warns us ahead of time but when the time comes, we will not know it until it is too late.

There is something else going on here also.  Many people postpone walking with God until they get a little older.  This is stinkin thinkin at the lowest level.  Did you know that if you haven’t firmly established your walk with Jesus by age 14, chances are you never will?  I beat the odds when I started my walk at age 40.  I know of other people like this.  There is always hope no matter how old you are but don’t postpone your walk any longer.  Jesus is always there but the time will come when it is too late.  We have a God who loves us all tremendously but He is also a God of judgment.  The choice is yours so don’t be too late.

The first thing that I would like to bring up is when Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon.”  This is probably a great comfort for John.  You see, John is a very old man by this time.  He has been banished to the island of Patmos.  He is stuck there in his old age.  There is no nursing home or assisted living for John.  These had to be very hard times on an old man.  So, he would take great comfort in that Jesus is coming soon.

On the personal level, Jesus was coming to John soon.  He was getting to the end of his life.  He had been very faithful for many years.  And soon he would be able to rest in the arms of Jesus.  This has to be a great comfort for us also.  Every day that we live is another day closer to when we will be with Jesus.  He is there waiting for us in a place where there is no pain, no death and no sorrow.  So, John is talking on a personal level here.

But he is also talking on a more general level.  Jesus is coming back soon for all humanity.  We have to remember that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day for Jesus.  In other words, there is really no time in heaven.  Therefore, we have to be patient and know that Jesus will be coming back to this world and when He does, things will happen.

One of the things that He says will happen here is that we will be rewarded if we are faithful.  Sometimes I think that we get a little sidetracked here.  We often like to confuse the rewards from God with things that we want.  This has nothing to do with your wish list for life.  Chances are you will not be rewarded with a nice new car or new house or new anything.  This isn’t what He is talking about.  He is talking of rewards that are so good that we cannot even begin to imagine them.  They are out of this world.  If you stop and think about this for a minute, it really isn’t very nice in this world.  Every day we have problems and trouble.  We cannot get away from Satan.  In heaven all will be different.  I cannot even begin to imagine what it will be like without Satan dragging me down all the time.

So, you will get rewarded if you are faithful.  But what about those people who aren’t faithful?  What will they get?  They will be outside of heaven and they are dogs.  So, you say, “What is wrong with being a dog?”  After all they get fed every day, they can sleep pretty much all the time, and they get pampered a lot.  I remember the dog we used to have named Sparky?  He had it so nice that he didn’t even have to jump up on the couch or chair or our laps.  We would always lift him.  He was a little spoiled.  He was a good dog.  Anyway, this is how we picture a dog.

But this isn’t what John is talking about here.  The Jews hated dogs.  They were considered to be unclean and they couldn’t even touch one.  The dogs that John is referring to are pretty much on their own so they might be wild or feral.  Some of you might remember these types of dogs.  When I was growing up, it seemed that every other farm had mean dogs like this.  Most of them had pretty good size as they were probably some sort of collie, shepherd cross.  I always thought that they would just as soon tear you apart as look at you.  We hated those dogs.  And the Jews hated all these dogs.

John tells us that these people or dogs who are outside of heaven had practiced magic, sexual immorality, and murder.  They worshiped idols and loved every falsehood.  These people are vile, filthy creatures.  It sounds like many people in this country.  This is the last thing that God is telling us before He finishes this book, the Bible.  Therefore, this stuff is important.  Listen to this and don’t do them.  These are the things that will keep you from heaven.  These are the things that will keep you in agony, absolute agony for eternity.

God knows the temptations that we have.  Remember that He lived here for 33 years in the form of Jesus.  He knows how we want to look at people of the opposite sex in a wrong way.  He knows of our love for money and worldly success.  He knows how we love power.  He knows how all these things will corrupt us.  And still, He wants to walk along side of you and take you to heaven, even if you are totally unfit.  I don’t know about you but this is the type of God that I’m going to follow.  I’m not worthy and He still wants to walk with me.

Then Jesus tells us why we should do these things.  He tells the ancient readers and us that He sent John an angel with all of this information.  The angel tells us that Jesus is the root of David and the bright morning star.  This is the ancient way of telling us that He is the God of the Old and New Testaments.  He is the fulfillment of all the prophecies.  He is the way to salvation.  He will give us the water of life.

Most of you know pretty much where I stand on things.  You know that I will follow the Bible and what it says as best I can.  You know that I have little regard for what our society tells us to do especially when it comes to moral issues.  Our country has slowly become totally immoral.  And here we have Jesus closing out the Bible with moral teachings that don’t always go with society.  If you are starting out anything new in your life, follow Jesus.  I can guarantee that your life will be far, far better if you do go with Jesus than if you don’t.

I think that one of the most alluring terms we have ever come up to lead us away from God is ‘political correctness.’  A lot of it is just common sense that we should use.  We are supposed to treat everyone like we want to be treated so this shouldn’t be a problem.  But our society and Satan want us not to tell people when they are doing things against God.  They want us to turn our heads and pretend that everything is ok.  But that is not what Jesus did.  When the Pharisees were wrong, He would march right up to them and tell them.  He did it in a nice way but He still told them.  He would get in their face in a nice way.  But our world tells us that we are to keep quiet and things will go away.  Don’t make waves!  Some political correctness is ok but for the most part it is a political agenda for someone.

For example, we are supposed to keep our mouths shut about abortion which I strongly oppose.  Society tells us to be quiet about it and hope that it will go away.  But it doesn’t.  There have been bills presented by our representatives where they can kill babies up to 10 days old.  What will be next?  We also have laws that allow older people to die if they choose.  If we don’t stop this type of thing, soon the government will set up standards by which life saving techniques can be used.  This is exactly what was in that last health care bill.  And please remember that our government has had very little success in running anything.  These types of things are terrible and they are not how we treat our neighbor.  If anything, these things reek of political incorrectness.  It is our job to take a stand up on these issues from the Bible.

We can do this because Jesus leaves us with His authority.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus never stood by and was a wimp.  He was one of the most aggressive men I have ever read about.  He wants us to be aggressive also through the Holy Spirit when people and governments are breaking His laws.  Please understand that His laws are much more important and better than our laws.

And finally, we are warned not to add or subtract from the Bible.  When the Jehovah’s Witness come to your door with their Bible, remember that they have changed it.  They will suffer for this.  The same way with the Mormons as they too have changed the Bible so it reads the way they want it to read.  The Koran was never a Bible and never will it be a Bible.  If you study its history, it is the writings of a very irrational man, not God.  He was also super violent.  We have the real deal with the Bible.  Read it.  Use it.  Love it.

And finally, Jesus says again, “Yes, I am coming soon.”  Then he leaves us believers with His grace.  Wow!  These were the some of the things Jesus had in mind as He ascended into Heaven.  These are the things that you should have in mind as you start out on new journeys in life.  These are the thing that you should have in mind all the time.  If you are to be successful in your life in this world and the next, it all begins with following Jesus.

This is illustrated in the following story from Sermon Central of a boy named James who had the wildest desire to be the most famous manufacturer and salesman of cheese in the world.  This is a true story.  He planned on becoming rich and famous by making and selling cheese.  He began with a buggy pulled by a horse named Paddy.  After making his cheese, he would load his wagon and he and Paddy would drive the streets of Chicago to sell cheese.  Months went by and the young boy began to despair because he was working hard and long hours and not making any money.

Finally, one day he pulled his pony to a stop and began to talk to him.  He said, “Paddy, there is something wrong.  We are not doing it right.  I’m afraid we have things turned around and our priorities are not where they ought to be.  Maybe we ought to serve God and place him first in our lives.”  So, James drove home and made a covenant that for the rest of his life he would first serve God and then would work as God directed.  Many years later in his manhood, he stood as the Sunday School Superintendent at North Shore Baptist Church in Chicago and he said, “I would rather be a member at this church than to head the greatest corporation in America.  My first job is serving Jesus.”  So, every time you take a bite of Philadelphia Cream cheese, sip a cup of Maxwell House, drink Kool-aid, eat a DiGiorno Pizza, have Grey Poupon on a sandwich, stir up some Cream of Wheat, eat some jiggly Jell-O, break an Oreo cookie to get at the frosting in the middle or serve some Stove Top Dressing, remember a boy, his pony named Paddy, and the promise that James L. Kraft made to serve God and work as He directed.

There are many, many stories like this where men and women have first given their lives to God and then followed Him.  These people are some of the most successful in the world.  I would put myself in this category as I feel that I am one of the richest people in the world.  Jesus loves you so much that He will give and give and give to you if you would just serve Him and do as He directs.  I praise the Lord for all He has done.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.