Death is Gain: Heavenly Rewards

What motivates us? Is it heaven and its treasures? Should heavenly rewards be a motivation for us? What kinds of things will be rewarded? What will the rewards be? Get prepared for some heavenly economics!

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Matthew 5:5,5:11-12,6:1-4,6:19-21,10:40-42
Romans 8:16-18
2 Timothy 3:12,4:6-8
Luke 12:33,18:22,6:35
1 Corinthians 3:8
2 John 1:8
Revelation 11:18,14:13
Hebrews 10:35
1 Peter 1:3-4

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: New Heavens and New Earth

Why did Jesus, the Son of God, come to earth? To save sinners...yes...but more! To take us to heaven...yes...but more! How about this?...Jesus came to fully restore the earth and universe to the original paradise intended by God!!! Yes, a New Heaven and a New Earth is the ultimate reason Jesus came and what a wonder and glory that will be!!

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Revelation 21:1-5,5:9-10
1 Timothy 1:15
2 Peter 3:10-13
Romans 8:18-23
Acts 3:19-21
Matthew 19:28,5:5,26:29
2 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Isaiah 66:22-24,11:6-9,65:17

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

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

Death is Gain: When Do Christians Go to Heaven?

When do Christians go to heaven? Upon death or at the general resurrection from the dead? What about our bodies? How does this all work? How can I grow in confidence as I approach death that I will be with the Lord?

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2 Corinthians 4:9-5:8,1:8,12:2-4
Genesis 2:7,3:19
Matthew 10:28
James 2:26
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Luke 23:42-46
Philippians 1:19-23
Acts 7:59
Romans 8:23
Revelation 6:9-11

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Corinthians: Challenged to Love as God Loves

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1 Corinthians 13

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: We Will Be Changed

We are sinners, yet sin can't exist in Heaven. How? We will be changed on the inside.

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Romans 7:7,7:13-25
1 Corinthians 9:27
Revelation 21:6-8,21:27,22:12-15
1 John 3:1-3
Hebrews 12:14,12:22-23
Ephesians 1:4,5:7

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: Heaven is Paradise

Heaven is the center of God's plan for us. We will see its connection with the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

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2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Luke 23:39-43
Hebrews 12:2
John 14:28
Revelation 2:7,21:3-5,22:14-15

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Corinthians: The Love Chapter

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1 Corinthians 13

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: Heaven Is Being with Jesus

The longing of New Testament Christians was to be with Jesus. This longing was so great that they thought death was gain! To be with Him was their goal and should be ours as well.

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2 Corinthians 5
Philippians 1:21-23
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
John 13:33-14:5
Revelation 1:10-17,5:6

It is interesting that the New Testament nowhere speaks of believers going 'to heaven' when they die. Instead, they go to be with Christ. Edward Donnelly

John Bunyan's Mr. Standfast (The Pilgrim's Progress), just before he dies, rejoices that 'I am going now to see that Head that was crowned with thorns and that face that was spat upon for me. I have formerly lived by hearsay and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself.' Edward Donnelly

Sooner could a worm aspire to be a brain surgeon than a sinner expect to work his own passage to glory. Edward Donnelly

So then let Deserved be written on the floor of hell, but on the door of heaven and life The Free Gift. Richard Baxter

If you are in Christ, do not be afraid of death. He who has conquered that last enemy is waiting for you on the other side. As soon as our souls pass into glory we will see Jesus. He who has known and loved us from before the beginning of time will welcome us into His immediate presence. We will not feel strange or out of place, but profoundly and permanently at home. We will know that we are where we belong, and everlastingly secure. Edward Donnelly

If we do not get to heaven before we die, we shall never get there afterward. Charles Spurgeon

The joy of heaven is communing with Christ. The joy of earth should be communing with Him as well. Edward Donnelly

Modern Christians are ready to busy themselves in almost any religious activity but that of quiet communion with their Lord, regarded more as a duty than a delight. They hope to go to heaven, claim to be looking forward to it eagerly. Yet the essence of the heaven they profess to long for is that communion with Christ in which they show so little interest! Something profoundly troubling underlies this spiritual apathy. Edward Donnelly

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Corinthians: The Most Excellent Thing

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1 Corinthians 13

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: Heaven is God's Home

Heaven is God's home! He lives there and it has all the powerful realities of being at His place where He reveals Himself most fully. Consequently it is a place of Glory, Love, Peace, Holiness and Joy!

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John 13:31-14:6
Isaiah 63:15
Psalm 33:13-14,23:6
Revelation 22:4-5
Luke 2:9,9:29-31
Acts 9:3,7:55
Exodus 40:34-35
Genesis 28:16-17

Heaven is a part of creation that God has built for this end, to be the place of his glorious presence, and it is his abode forever; and here will he dwell, and gloriously manifest himself to all eternity.

And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that "God is love;" and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and over-flowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.

There, even in heaven, dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is, or ever was, proceeds. There dwells God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, united as one, in infinitely dear, and incomprehensible, and mutual, and eternal love. There dwells God the Father, who is the father of mercies, and so the father of love, who so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son to die for it. There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God, the prince of peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood, and poured out his soul unto death for men. There dwells the great Mediator, through whom all the divine love is expressed toward men, and by whom the fruits of that love have been purchased, and through whom they are communicated, and through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all God’s people. There dwells Christ in both his natures, the human and the divine, sitting on the same throne with the Father. And there dwells the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God, as it were, flows out, and is breathed forth in love, and by whose immediate influence all holy love is shed abroad in the hearts of all the saints on earth and in heaven. There, in heaven, this infinite fountain of love — this eternal Three in One — is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it, as it flows forever. There this glorious God is manifested, and shines forth, in full glory, in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight, and these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love, and that forever! Jonathan Edwards, Heaven a World of Love

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Corinthians: Wrestling with Spiritual Gifts

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1 Corinthians 12-14

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Death is Gain: Heaven is a Real Place

This is the first in a series on the glorious doctrine of heaven. Many Christians show a strange unfamiliarity with heaven and so deep down inside do not feel death is gain as the Scriptures teach. We are the poorer for it. So in this series we will look at what the Bible teaches of the wonderful place in hopes that it will set our hearts longing with excitement to be in that special place.

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Acts 7:44-60
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
Matthew 5:16,5:45,5:48,6:1,6:9,7:11,3:16-17,18:10,5:12,5:34,23:22
1 Peter 3:22,1:4
Revelation 5:11,4:1-11
Hebrews 9:23-24,10:34
Luke 1:19

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Luke: Mission not Impossible

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Luke 24:46-53
Acts 1:4-8
Mark 16:15-16
Matthew 28:18-20
Ephesians 1:19-22

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Luke: Is the Resurrection Really That Important?

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Luke 24:36-53
1 Corinthians 15:17
Ephesians 1:19-20
Acts 17:30-31

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

1 Corinthians: Serious Trouble in Corinth

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1 Corinthians 11

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Luke: That's Crazy Talk

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Luke 23:49-24:35

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Attacking that Besetting Sin

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Galatians 5:16-26
Hebrews 12:1
Romans 6,8:9-13
Ephesians 5:18

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Living Stones

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Exodus 19:6
Deuteronomy 7:6-8
1 Peter 2:4-12
Matthew 3:9
Galatians 3:14
Ephesians 2:20
Micah 6:8

Ron Beil
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Opening Doors with Prayer

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Colossians 4:2-4

Pastor Lon Snyder
Riverwood Chapel
Kent, OH