Promise Land - Week 5 - The CORE - Pastor Mike Novotny
Promise Land
Week 5 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Well, good morning, happy Sunday, and welcome to week number five. Last week of our sermon series Promised Land.
Can I just tell you that I really, really, really, really, really love Earth.
Kind of.
After 43 years on this planet. That's my conclusion. I love Earth. With a big asterisk at that emphatic statement.
I think of a family vacation that my wife and my daughters and I recently took. We drove way way west to the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Have you been there before? And just as we're pulling in, we're like going to our first stop and this truck passes us going to the other direction. He stops. He rolls down his window and says you need to turn left and park down there right now.
Okay, so I turn the van in, it's an empty parking lot, and there's no one around we jump out and do you know what we see?
I'll show you a video of what we saw. We go down to this River, and we just see this moose
Chilling out during the happy hour. Just get a drink all buy himself. Look in the back. Just these towering snow capped mountains. The sun is shining. The water is still. It was just so epic. It was hard to believe that we were seeing this face-to-face and it was just us. My pan over is I'm taking the video, my wife is just worshiping my daughter's saying. Yes, like Earth, isn't it amazing. It is.
Sometimes. So we get to our campsite. Some places on the internet say it's one of the best campsites in all of the national parks and all of the nation. It's one of those campsites that you have to like, be waiting on your computer to reserve it like exactly six months before the dates. We did it. I got it. We set up the tent. This campsite has these towering Mountain Peaks of the Grand Tetons right behind it above the trees. So, sell the tent. I take a picture of the mountains. Here's what the mountains. Look like at that day.
Earth. That's actually like almost cloudy overcast week like, oh my goodness. We're gonna be here once in our life. And this is what happens, right?
That's kind of like a metaphor for my time on this planet. It's amazing. And then it's not. It's breathtaking. And then it's disappointing. But there's moments that just so exceed my expectations, and there's moments that kind of break my heart.
Again, our front yard, we have this big tree and every October here in Wisconsin, it is the most beautiful tree you've ever seen. It lights up blazing orange and red leaves. Literally, I'll turn down my street even after all these years and just stop stunned and worship the God who made that tree.
And then,
If you're from Wisconsin, you know what happens, next. Then November comes and all the million leaves of that tree sit down in my yard and this is some weird curse of nature that my leaves fall directly down and off my neighbors leaves fall at a 45 degree angle. So in my yard, I get this one day off every week and I'm spending it, raking and raking and back getting hauling the leaves, like it's amazing. And that it's not.
I think in my sporting career um I can remember a time, maybe 15 years ago when a soccer teammate crossed me a soccer ball in the air and I went for it. I jumped like flipping bicycle kick one in a thousand opportunity. I smash it Square. I watch it fly over the goalie's head, and strangers shaking my hand after they scream its the best goal they had seen in their life. Yes, Earth.
I remember my sophomore year of college when another teammate crossed me, another soccer ball. And this one, I trapped right here on my chest. And when I did, my lung-exploded collapsed.
End of the year, almost ended my sporting career.
Earth.
I think that day when my wife Kim pushed for the last time I could tell you right, where I was standing. And I discovered that I wasn't just a father, I was the father of a daughter.
It's like wept like I've never wept before. And I could also tell you where I was sitting next to my wife as she a daughter watches her father take his final breath.
And so I love it. And I love it not. Thrills my heart and then it breaks it.
And about, if you had a few minutes in a microphone, you could share your own. Roller coaster Journey on this old Earth.
You have a friendships and the Heartbreak falling in love. And falling out of love some days Earth, makes you want to jump out of bed and dance and other days. It makes you want to crawl back into bed. And never leave.
Even wonder just about today what you're experience has been on Earth.
I've had a whole bunch of you just jump out of bed. Feeling good, the coffee was hot, the breakfast was there? The sun was shining?
In others of you were part of the sad statistic of 20% of Americans who live with depression. 31 percent of us who deal with frequent anxiety.
Yeah, maybe came to church and you came with someone. You loved a good friend, a mom, or a dad, a partner, or a significant other.
Or maybe you're part of the 50% of marriages in our culture, that don't make it. To start out with beautiful vows in the dress and the flowers, but they don't end that way.
And maybe you're running around this morning, got in an early run and worked out at the gym.
Or maybe if you're one of the 40% of people who get cancer.
Maybe you popped out of bed, excited about your connection to God. You knew that God is with you. That God is for you. That God forgives you like almost could feel his presence, belief, his promises.
Or. If you're having one of those days where, you know, you come to church and you sing the songs just doesn't. Does it work you try to pray? Read the Bible, it doesn't. Change things. You don't feel necessarily forgiven. You don't feel Like God is near you. Like this. I think for all of us sooner or later there are these highs and there are these lows we just get used to the uncertainty and all the stuff that can happen to us right here on Earth.
Sometimes Earth feels like a glimpse of Heaven.
And sometimes Earth feels like a living hell.
And I think that's why we ache for something more.
I don't know that any of us wants to just hold our breath. And hope that today is like this instead of like this. To hope that this ends soon or this doesn't end. Soon, there's something within us that just doesn't want to have to worry about everything falling apart or the wheels falling off the blessing bus. We just want to know, it's going to be good and that's going to be good and then it's going to be good. We ache for something stable, something certain
Which is exactly what God promises us.
There's a promise in the Bible that honestly, a lot of Christians are totally clueless about
Actually, after I just preached a sermon, a guy came to me in the lab, he said pastor, there are a lot of Lutherans who don't know this
To which I responded. It's not just the Lutherans.
A lot of people don't know that God has said that this old Earth. Has an expiration date. And that God has a physical place, a new Earth for his people to live. That's what I want to talk to you about today. I'm going to show you that in the Bible, in the Old Testament and knew God has promised, every follower of Jesus, a whole new world. That is where we'll be.
A thrilling place.
I want these are the letter extended songs if you don't know like like this whole new world that God has promised us, I'm going to show you from the Bible that's coming, it's certain for every follower of Jesus and it is better than you can ever imagine.
So today I want to open up to one of the last pages of the Bible. Like if you've read this far in the good book, you get to the final two pages. Or God wants to talk to you about this whole new world, what we call the new Earth.
So look what Jesus's friend, John, writes in Revelation chapter 21.
Then I saw a “new Heaven and a new Earth. For the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away. And there was no longer any sea.”
So, John sees something new. Of the word new means something like unheard of, never seen before. Absolutely remarkable.
He says the first are the former Heaven and Earth had passed away. So this old Earth that we're used to was gone.
Heaven here in the service, probably means the sky where the birds are and space where the stars are. It's like all of creation is pushed aside.
And he says, in curious phrase. There was no longer any sea. And if you kind of get freaked out when you're swimming and really deep water.
You never know. It's like down in the darkness to see. We got to get you a big creature in the ancient world. The sea was a scary place. You know, waves could whip up and end your life, be creatures bigger than you. That can swim faster than you might be swimming beneath the surface. And so this line there's no longer any C is this reference that all the scary uncertain stuff, all of that is absolutely gone. And instead, Which on sees is quote a new Heaven. And a new Earth.
But if you had, through the Bible up to this point, you would know that what John sees is not entirely new. Because God had actually promised this before.
All the way back to the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah and God made this promise.
I will create new heavens and a new Earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind but be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create a private Jerusalem is a delight. And it's people of Joy.
And God's repetitive. He says I will create something new. I will create something new. I will create something that will be a delight and a joy. So be glad And rejoice forever.
For centuries Christians picked up on that promise.
The aches for this new Heaven and a new Earth. In fact, Jesus’ friend, Peter wrote these words He said we Christians are looking forward to. A new Heaven and a new Earth. Where righteousness dwells.
You know, righteousness means everything's all right. Like me and God are all right, me and you are. All right, we in nature are all right, you know? Right now there's tension, frustration things go wrong all the time but on the new Earth righteousness, dwells everything is all right, in every single Direction. In other words, the Bible an Old Testament and knew says
See, look at this. God is going to create something brand new.
Describes it in verse 2.
In fact, here in Revelation 21, he says, I saw the holy city.
The new Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven, from God, prepared, as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
It's a really cool description of a new Earth. First, John calls it, the holy city.
A quick church survey, how many of you love to go to big cities?
All right, handsome. How many of you hate going to big cities? Yeah, we got outvoted. He has a really cool thing about big cities. They're often places of diversity, energy and creativity.
Lots to do. Lots to see and all kinds of people. All right, doesn't matter if you’re white or black Latino, or Asian, you go to a New York City, a Chicago, you know, you belong there, like you don't feel out of place there. Big cities are amazing at that.
But, you know, the bad part of big cities.
They are rarely Holy places.
Got to keep your hand on your purse or your wallet. You gotta lock your door and your car. You can make sure someone doesn't pick your pocket, you don't get assaulted. There's, there's Godlessness, there's a lack of Jesusness. The traffic is definitely Unholy. Right? So there's good things about it but there's these bad things about our cities on the old Earth but look at the phrase that John uses “I saw a holy city.”
You can imagine a place with all the energy and diversity and creativity but none of the lack of Holiness. The drama. None of the frustration.
It's like John takes the best part of Earth and then he makes it even better.
And he calls it by another name, he says, I saw the new Jerusalem
I've been to the old Jerusalem that is now Jerusalem and it is an amazing place. Kind of.
It's a place where people have worshiped for so many years and they've also gone to war for countless years.
It's a sacred space where our savior himself walked.
And that space also made him so mad. He flipped over tables in the temple. It's a place that some Christians can't wait to visit and see with their own eyes. And other Christians are scared to visit because they know what happens in that land.
But John doesn't see the old Jerusalem. He sees the new one.
Well, the history of God's faithfulness, all the beauty, all the part of you that aches for that wants to see it except it's not broken this time. It's a whole new version. What John sees is coming down from heaven, is like Earth, but infinitely better.
Closest description. He can come to it. Is that this place has been prepared as a bride. Beautifully dressed for her husband.
It was a pastor, I get to go to a lot of weddings. And as a pastor, I get the privilege of standing closer to the groom than often even his mother and father in the front row.
You know, I've never seen in over 100 weddings.
I've never seen a groom when he sees his bride look bored.
I've never got nudged or elbowed by a groom and say, well, you want to bail?
When he sees, like a bride beautifully dressed for her brand new husband. It's one of the most beautiful like he already loved her. And now, it's like, she's as beautiful as she gets. Like that's what John says. The new Earth is like you're not bored. It's not all forever. Like no. Like when you see it it's like a city. But holy it's like Jerusalem. But now it's not just like dating or being married. It's like the wedding day when it's so beautiful. This is the future that God has promised for this planet when he comes back and makes all things new.
Maybe I could summarize this biblical teaching on Earth. With the points in your bulletins particular notes. Real quick. I think there are three phases, the Bible talks about with Earth. Here's the first one. When God, created the heavens and the Earth way back in the beginning, Earth was
God looked at everything that he had made the man and the woman. The plants and the animals. The sea and the land and it was so good. What God saw, put an exclamation point after that, it was Earth in a beautiful form.
But then sadly Earth with an exclamation point became within ellipsis.
After the fall into sin, when Adam and Eve tried to do things their way instead of God's way. When they lived their truth instead of God's truth, and followed their hearts instead of God's heart Earth got broken. And you see the proof around you every single day. It's good and it's bad. It's wonderful and it's not. You wish you could be here forever. You wish you could escape it today.
I was teaching we have, It's amazing phase three that the Bible is teaching us that after judgment day when Jesus returns, it could be today. Or tomorrow or 10,000 years from now. Um, Earth will not be the same. In fact, how many exclamation points you have room for in your program? Still it up all the way to the edge because we were talking about Earth.
So, John's talking about back in Revelation, 21, Look at verse three. Thinking of the new Earth, he says, I heard a loud voice from the throne saying look
So the guy who rolled on his window, told me about the moose, “look like don't miss this.” God's dwelling Place is now among the people. And he God will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Can you pick up the point of the passage? Like look, even Heaven has amazed God who used to dwell up in heaven? Far from his faithful. People on Earth is now coming down to dwell with them.
That doesn't make your eyebrows. Do this John says it again and God himself will dwell with them. They'll be his people. Oh yeah. Did I mention God himself will be with them?
Like the amazing thing about the new Earth is not just a 2.0 version of your body or birds being better or cities being more beautiful. It's the fact that God who you used to see by faith? Now, you get to see face to face.
And the thought is so amazing, that John doesn't just repeat it. He repeats it again. God will dwell with his people.
And not how long ago, a little second grader from Ohio named Eli was sitting in his little desk at another day of school.
Except this would not be just another day at school for little Eli because Just then as his teacher is mysteriously, pulled their phones from their pockets. The school mascot came walking through the door.
Big Tiger walked in. We have all the kids.
In the mysteriously, he kneeled down right in front of Little Eli's desk.
You like Cox had? Smiled at the mascot, but the tiger on the knees started to shuffle closer to the desk.
In a closer to the desk.
And the man inside the mascot costume, put his hands on either side of the tiger head. It lifted it up.
And Eli's expression went from a Curious smile to
Because guess who was inside the costume?
His father.
His military father. Who had been deployed for over a year, had come home.
And when do you like when the brain process that he was this close to the face of his father, you should find the video online. He was like a leapfrog.
He lost himself out of the desk, he tackled the tiger rolled him on his back. Like, he always had his father. He believed him, knew him, loved him, but now he was seen him face to face.
And that's what Judgment Day is going to be like for every follower of Jesus.
Like to know that we have a heavenly father that we love. But now we get to see his face before we had faith. But on that day, we will see His face. Can you even imagine this?
And I love God so much.
When I just slow down, like the craziness of life, and just think about how great God must be. When I think that God literally made mountains and gave me eyes, To just get a glimpse of his glory.
Trueless that. God made it like parenting. He gave me daughters and then put dopamine and oxytocin wired in my brain. So that I would just get this little Glimpse of my relationship with my heavenly. Father is like to know that the mountains and the moose, the bicycle kicks, and my best days were all. Little appetizers of the greater Feast to come of seeing the face of my father. When I think about that, like, how insane is God?
So if that's what I think about,
What do you think it's going to be like when you actually don't have to think?
When you get to that day you don't need faith. You have to wonder in your heart, what it's going to be like We don't need to believe because believing is something you can't see.
And God's going to take off the mask. To every one of his sons and daughters. I think I know how we'll feel.
Prophet Isaiah said, “Rejoice forever. Because on the new Earth, you will see the face of your father.”
Promise is not just for the best Christians. It is for every Christian. Those of us who are flying high. And those of us who have hit rock bottom, those of us were improving in our faith. And those of us who feel like we're getting worse when it comes to following Jesus. For everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ. This is the future. God himself will be with them. And he will be their God.
And when God takes off a mask, look what he does. Next verse 4,
And he God. We'll wipe. Every tier from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things.
Has passed away.
If you think of something right now, That you've been through.
That you wish you could undo.
Is there something in your life that if you could just push a button and get rid of it? You would in a millisecond.
Because whatever you're thinking of right now, no more.
There'll be no more death. There'll be no more crying. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes because when he makes all things new,
All of that is gone.
It just think about that for a second, imagine a life where there's no addiction and there's no anxiety and there's no anger.
They're no backaches, there are no bad days and there's no bitterness.
There's no cancer, no chemo. No court dates.
No, debilitating depression. No extreme parental exhaustion.
11:16 AM
Mention of a world where there's no fighting. There's no fatigue.
You never grow from a gut ache, you never have to heal from a heart attack. Imagine a world where there are no injuries and there's no jealousy. There's no killing and there's no lies. We never wake up in the morning and you're still mourning that loss. You never wake up in the nighttime because a nightmare won't let you sleep. Imagine whether it's, no operations, there's no pressure. There are no quarantines. There are no ruptured relationships, imagine when there's no sin.
But imagine a day where no one sins.
When there's no trauma, no triggers, no temptation ever.
Imagine when there's no unrest or uneasiness that there's no like vice that you hide in your heart or viciousness in the comment section when you check your phone, when no one worries and there's no war, no one reaches for a Xanax, just to calm down or yells at each other or on the Thanksgiving table, imagine where no one zones out from boredom.
Like A to Z everything that it's broken about the old Earth. God will say done.
Finished. It's absolutely over because all of that is old and God has promised. I'm about to make everything brand new verse 5. He was seated on the throne and said, I am making everything new And he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. God wanted you to know this, the whole on to this and believe this, that no matter, how good or how bad it is going to get better for the people of God. You'll never have to wish you weren't down here. You'll have to wonder when this is going to end. God will end this
So please write down this final promise it's one of the Bible's best that this life as we know it with all its uncertainty and pain with all the messed up stuff inside of you and around you. God has promised that he will end this.
He will show up one day look you in the eye wipe away, every tear from your cheek, and give you something beautiful. And, so, what do we do with this?
Let me speak. The two groups of you before I say, amen. For those of you who aren't Christians, just yet.
If you're here checking out the church. Uh, maybe you're watching at home for the first time, you're not. So certain about Jesus, maybe you're living for you. And not calling Jesus, your lord, and your savior. What I would say to you is It's not too late.
You might have showed up at church today because you love the girl sitting next to you or Mom dragged you.
But hey, Jesus has you here? And he's offering you this gift. The new Earth.
It's kind of weird to say this as a pastor but you know, that you don't really need Jesus for this Earth.
Whether you're a Christian or an atheist or somewhere in between, We all do this with or without Jesus and we all do this. Christians get cancer and non-believers do too.
The fact is, you can have a pretty decent life on this Earth relatively speaking with or without Jesus. But on the next Earth, only those who follow Jesus. Will inherit this glory in this Joy?
When he comes back and the Judgment Day occurs, you and I will both be judged. And the question is not, am I better than you? Are you better than me? That the question is. Does God say anything bad in you?
Because all that's bad will be pushed away.
Jesus is saying to you today, “It's not too late.”
Come to me, believe in me at the cross. I'll take everything wrong and broken and messed up all that old. And I'll erase it. I'll bear it, I'll pay for it so that you yourself are prepared for the new Earth.
And I wonder if some of you aren't here in this moment. For this moment God's saying, I still have room, there's still this time. You don't have to fix your 100 vices before you come to Jesus. You can come to him today, he is the savior of Sinners. He is your Savior too. Believe in Jesus. In the new Earth will be your New Hope and your new future.
Second and if you do follow Jesus, I put it this way when you think about the new Earth.
These moments get better.
And these moments get bearable.
When you go through something that just stinks, something you wish you could change. If you believe in the new Earth, you can say. That's going to end soon.
And just stuck in my own head racing thoughts. That stuff doesn't happen on the new Earth.
Frustrations at work division in my family. Checking the news wondering when the next war is going to happen. None of that is allowed on the new Earth.
On those sand timers. And every second of every day is closer to that never happening again.
But when you're up here, To think. It gets even better.
Look at that moose. Look at that mountain. Did you see that bicycle kick? Oh, birthday parties. Cake stuffing, turkey, Thanksgiving, friendship. Love, like, all of it is so good. Would you let your your heart just dream? What will it be like to be even better?
When your son, your daughter, your granddaughter, your best friend walks in the room and you see their face to face, and it makes you feel so good inside. What is it going to be like when it's not some little two-year-old's face? But it's God's face.
When the mountains, look, lame, compared to the face of your father in Heaven, how good must that be the promise of a new Earth? It makes these moments doable and bearable and it makes these moments even better. So please do not forget what God has promised. I am coming back to make everything new
It went back in 2016. A Christian School teacher was dying of cancer.
Earth.
But in a great Act of Love, 400 of his students showed up, filled his driveway and his front yard and sang to him about the promises of Jesus.
The principle went upstairs to the second floor where this dying man, and his wife were listening to these beautiful voices and he asked, is there anything you want these teenagers to know?
He said, “Tell them. It's all.’
Write this down.
God himself said, ‘These words are trustworthy and true.’
What I told you today is not some Disney clip to give you hope. It's not some fairy tale. It's not some opinion that I made up in my heart. I found it from the words of the god who is incapable of lying. He was seated on the throne and said, I am making everything new. Believe it. It's all true. No more pain. No more struggle. No more old Earth because of Jesus. God will make everything new even this Earth. Even me.
And even you.
Let's pray. Oh, Jesus. Come quickly.
And some days, I love my life so much and some days, I don't
But when you come back, we're going to love every second of it. I cannot wait to see your face.
But I also know that you're saving people day after day, some people that I know and care about And so give us patience as we bear the burdens of this life. Help us to believe that. You're a Good Shepherd that walks with us even through the valleys.
May we believe every promise you've made to us that no matter what's happening today, you're here and you will help and we can do this and you're going to use this.
And when we put our head on the pillow, help us just to remember, you're going to end this. And you're going to make everything new.
I've got this Earth can be enjoyable. Fun comforting amazing. But I pray that every heart here would believe that what's coming is a billion times better. Help us the egg for eternity to long for that moment for which our hearts were created just to see you. And to be in your presence.
As the psalmist said, 3000 years ago. My heart says of God. Seek his face.
And so your face Lord, we will seek So, Jesus name that, we pray all these things. And God's people said.
Amen.
