Hope

Do you have hope? A hope that can carry you joyfully through the challenges and disappointments of life? Jesus came to give us such powerful hope.

Romans 8:18-25,5:2,15:13
Acts 23:6
Mark 7:34
1 Corinthians 15:42-43
Philippians 3:20-21
Titus 2:13
Colossians 1:3-5
Ephesians 1:18,2:12

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why is it hard to get modern folks to look at eternal realities?
• What is Redemptive Hope, and why is its definition different than the one people usually use?
• What are our deepest longings (groaning)?
• Why does the gospel give us hope?
• What effect does hope have on people?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

2 Corinthians: God's Down Payment

What happens to Christians after they die? Where do they go, and how do they go there? When does the resurrection body come in? How can we have confidence that this will be our experience? These are the subjects Paul takes up in 2 Corinthians to encourage the believers. He also speaks of the guarantee or down payment that God has given us ahead of time to fill us with confidence!!

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Achieving Heaven: A Bright and Glorious Future

In the world of competing worldviews... the vision for the future of Christianity is breathtaking... for the others, theirs is pathetic. A New Heavens and a New Earth speaks to our deepest longings and is true!!

2 Peter 3:10-13
Romans 8:18-23,5:9-10
Revelation 21:1-8,22:3-5
Acts 3:19-21
Matthew 19:28,5:5,26:29
John 5:28-29
Isaiah 6:17,11:6-9

Are we to spend eternity somewhere off in space, wearing white robes, plucking harps, singing songs, and flitting from cloud to cloud while doing so? On the contrary, the Bible assures us that God will create a new earth on which we shall live to God's praise in glorified, resurrected bodies. On that new earth, therefore, we hope to spend eternity, enjoying its beauties, exploring its resources, and using its treasures to the glory of God. Since God will make the new earth his dwelling place, and since where God dwells there heaven is, we shall then continue to be in heaven while we are on the new earth. For heaven and earth will then no longer be separated, as they are now, but will be one (see Revelation 21:1-3). But to leave the new earth out of consideration when we think of the final state of believers is greatly to impoverish biblical teaching about the life to come. Anthony A. Hoekema The Bible and the Future

Sermon discussion questions for parents to use with their children:

• Why is the vision of the unbelievers worldview so sad and pathetic?
• What is the Bible's vision of the future?
• Why is the New Heavens and New Earth so exciting to us as humans?
• What are some of the things you look forward to?
• Why did the Pastor so emphasize to all of us to Get There?
• What is your hope that you will get there?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: Resurrected Bodies

When believers die and their souls go to heaven they are in paradise and yet look forward to an even more glorious day. That is the day Christ returns and they receive glorified bodies. What does that mean...glorified bodies? In this message we will examine the great change and future for the believer in Christ.

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Titus 2:13
John 5:24-29
Philippians 3:20-21
Romans 5:18-23
1 Corinthians 15:3-58
Matthew 13:41-43

He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine. C. S. Lewis

But God tells us that in heaven our bodies will be filled with energy. We will not know what weariness is. A new dynamism will possess us, new physical powers, so that the swiftest, strongest Olympic athlete would appear feeble in comparison with a believer in glory. Edward Donnelly

Try for a moment to imagine the sheer physical well-being of heaven. Just as the pains of hell are more excruciating than any conceivable on this earth, so are the pleasure of heaven infinitely more delightful than any we can presently imagine. Our bodies here are subject to the results of the Fall. Even the youngest and strongest do not know what real health is like. We have no idea of the exhilarating sense of well-being that will course through our veins in heaven. It will be physical pleasure of the most intense kind. Edward Donnelly

My dearest child, the true love of God strengthen you in virtue, you who are yet so young, and whom I must leave in this wicked, evil, perverse world. Oh, that it had pleased the Lord that I might have brought you up, but it seems that it is not the Lord's will...Be not ashamed of us; it is the way which the prophets and the apostles went. Your dear father demonstrated with his blood that it is the genuine faith, and I also hope to attest the same with my blood, though flesh and blood must remain on the stake, well knowing that we shall meet hereafter. Young mother from prison 1573

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA