Jimmy Evans – Redeemed Intimacy – The Best Day of Your Life

best save your life the best day of your life is going to be the day that Jesus Christ returns because it's the day that we're going to be redeemed our full Redemption will happen jesus said in Luke 21 when you see all these things happening in the world all this bad stuff happening I mean you know there's a lot of bad stuff happening in the world right now these are signs of the times and they mean that Jesus is coming and Jesus said don't get overwhelmed and don't get your focus down here understand when you see the beginning of the end time signs lift up your head your Redemption draws near and so Adam and Eve were created perfect they had the whole package God gave them everything and so however they sinned they lost it but Jesus came to redeem us now and so we have been redeemed but we only have a small portion a down payment of the fullness that we're gonna get on the day that Jesus returns the best day of our lives let me just say the word redeem means to buy back you had it you lost it and now you get it back and so that's what we're talking about and I've talked about four of the things that we get back when Jesus returns we get perfect bodies we get immortality with perfect bodies we get pleasure back there'll be no more pain we get all of our authority back and we get to move home with God we got kicked out of the house we get to move back but here's the best one I'm going to talk about this morning we get to have a face to face relationship with Jesus we get to have a perfectly intimate relationship with Jesus Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden and they saw him face to face every day it didn't mean anything to him because they didn't have any they didn't have any frame of reference they had never lived without him and so they didn't appreciate it they obviously didn't appreciate it because they trade it in for a piece of fruit that's when you know someone doesn't appreciate you they had a face-to-face relationship here's the beautiful scripture of first Corinthians 13 verse 12 now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face how many of racy Jesus face to face I'm ready to see him face to face now I know in part but then I shall know just as I am known there's two parts of this the first is the day that Jesus comes we see Jesus we have a face-to-face relationship you know when you have a face-to-face relationship with someone you get to see what their face looks like when they're around you you know when they're pleased you know when they're not pleased you know their moods you know their expressions and the devil takes advantage of us because we can't see Jesus face we hear in the scriptures we read the scriptures that he loves us and that we're accepted in the beloved and that we're forgiven for it from our sins but the devil comes to all of us and says God doesn't love you he's angry you you've sinned too much he manipulates us where he tries to manipulate us because we can't see Jesus face but I'll say this if you can see Jesus face you would know how much he loved you and the day is coming very soon you're gonna see his face and you're gonna see it forevermore and we will then have an intimate face-to-face relationship now we see in a mirror dimly and some of you might have had dreams or you might have had visions where you saw Jesus but you saw him in a mirror dimly you're gonna see him face to face for all of eternity and the other thing is will no longer have ignorant of Jesus it says we will know him as we have been known as intimately and as perfectly as God knows us today we will know Jesus when he comes now we have a down payment of a relationship with Jesus I know you know Jesus I know you love Jesus I've been a Christian for 25 years I've known the Lord for 25 years but it's a down payment it's just a tiny part of what we will know when he returns Ephesians 1 says this in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory the Holy Spirit is our guarantee in other words earnest money this is what it means the down payment when we were saved when Adam and Eve sinned God breathed into Adam and Eve the the the breath of life was what the Bible says that was an oxygen that was his spirit because when Adam and Eve sinned they still had oxygen in their lungs but the Spirit of God departed from them and that's what it means to be lost it means our spirits dead we inherited a dead spirit from Adam and Eve but on the day that you receive Jesus the Holy Spirit came into you and breathed life into you the same way God did without them and now you're born again you're born again of the Holy Spirit and that is a down payment it's an earnest-money when you go buy a house you have to put up onus money they say if you mean business then put up earnest money God means business with you and so when you were saved he gave you his Holy Spirit is a guaranteed as a pledge but it's only a down payment of what you're gonna get on the day that Jesus returns when Jesus returns you will know him as well as he knows you right now not only will you see him face to face you will have an intimate perfect knowledge of the Son of God think about that for just a minute now when I preach on the end times or when I preach on eternity and things like that there's a question that I get asked a lot and that is will we know each other in heaven you know it's good good question well will we know each other in heaven and let me say this when you have a wrong concept of heaven you really don't want to go there and part of the reason for this series is just helping you to understand how wonderful it's going to be but in some people have the concept that in heaven were ghosts with a lobotomy and in heaven you just kind of float around kind of have this dumb look on your face and you know your mother passes you and you don't know it you know we know God but we're just kind of stumbling around heaven in heaven you know everybody well I mean let me say this so people say that will we know each other in heaven do you think we know each other now people say how you doing you say fine you're lying we keep our guard up we've got insecurities and hangups we have issues I have issues I'm gonna tell you what I want you to know about me I'm gonna keep my guard up because in this life we don't know who we can trust right but there we can trust everybody there's no sin nature there we will know as we have been known and finally we will be able to know each other in perfect peace perfect perfect harmony you'll know all of your relatives when someone important passes by you will know them they will know you I believe we'll know all the Bible characters to remember those there's no devil there there's no sin there there's no sin nature there there will be no ego no pride no competition no jealousy or envy no dysfunction no past hurts or bad memories thus we will always be able to fully love without fear for all of eternity but the most important thing is we will know Jesus we will know Jesus and have perfect and total intimacy with him let me read you the scripture I'm going to change gears in this message this is revelation 21 then I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband I heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people God Himself will be with them and be their God and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away then he who sat on the throne said behold I make all things new and he said to me write for these words were true and faithful he said to me it is done I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts he who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he will be my son that is redemption that day is coming very soon it could happen any moment in the twinkling of an eye when we have the best day of our lives and we get every single thing back that we lost the most important of which is a face-to-face intimate relationship with God for all of eternity that's the biggest prize of all now let me let me change gears one of the one of the reasons for this series one of the reasons for this series is just to get you excited about where you're going and to understand the fullness of what happens another purpose of this series is to help answer some questions maybe some nagging questions that you have or maybe other people ask you so I want to ask an answer a couple of questions to finish this sermon in this series the first question is this why didn't I listen Allah jiz one of the things we lost in the fall and get back when Jesus returns in other words what I'm talking about redemption of things that Adam and Eve had that they lost and Jesus redeems back to us why didn't I mention knowledge in that I'm answer because they didn't have knowledge Adam the Adam and Eve were not knowledgeable people they were intelligent but they were not knowledgeable as far as we know the only significant things that God had said to Adam and Eve were be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the earth and don't eat of that tree over there their Bible was very thin they didn't have a whole lot of scripture in their Bible so solicit so you say wait wait Jim wait wait why in the world would God create Adam and Eve and not give them knowledge well he gave them something better than knowledge he gave them himself the omniscient God of the universe lived with him in the Garden of Eden to be their mentor God loves being a father he divinely disables all of us so we will need him and even though he gave them many other things he didn't give them knowledge he gave them himself can you imagine having the God of the universe standing right there anytime you had a question you could ask you know these machines that people having their homes to answer questions these eerie demon filled machines that the Russians are listening through and I'm probably not a good advertiser for those at this moment but I'm saying and you say whatever that machines name is Lucifer I mean how far is it to the Sun 93 million miles and the reason that they can answer it is because they're listening all the time Geary so anyway but the thing about those machines is they can't tell you what your destiny is they can answer your spiritual questions it's handy it is handy to have a machine around that you can ask questions to but imagine you could walk up to God in the garden and face to face and say why was I created or what's the meaning of the stars in the moon and the Sun what's the meaning of my life tell me about marriage tell me about family tell me about science tell in any question you had all day long you could walk up and ask God see God God could opt it into atom need you God could come up to you right now and zap anything into you he wants but he's not a zapper he's a father he doesn't want to instantly make you perfect what he wants is to father you to perfection now when we get to heaven will be perfect and finally we'll be able to rest from our sin nature and from all of our issues but God created them dependent God created us dependent upon him and spiritual intimacy always equals spiritual dependency you can only be intimate to the degree that you're dependent we have a problem with this now in the Bible one of the major analogies in the Old Testament and New Testament for God in us in our relationship is a shepherd and sheep Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me to lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters this is David the shepherd boy who perfectly understands the relationship with God this is John 10 in the New Testament Jesus I am The Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd is life for the sheep but a hireling who is not the Shepherd one who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them the hireling flees because he's a hireling and does not care about the Sheep I am The Good Shepherd and I know my sheep and I'm known by my own as the father knows me even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the Sheep when when God looks at us he sees she or she and in his eyes and he's the shepherd well sheep are cute you're cute too God they're lovable they're just lovable cute animals but they're pathetically weak they can't navigate you've never heard of a homing sheep they can't bear burdens you never heard of a packed sheep and they can't defend themselves you never heard them in attacks sheep they are completely dependent upon a shepherd and one of the most pathetic things in the world is the picture of a sheep out on its own but this is us Isaiah 53 he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement for our peace was upon him and by His stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all in the Garden of Eden there was a dynamic that was going on that we need to understand is the same dynamic is happening in our lives God the Father created these wonderful beings perfect imperfection but not not complete because he wanted them to depend on him and so he did not give them knowledge he gave them himself I'll teach you whatever you need to know I'll answer any question that you have he loves being a father more than any father in this world enjoys being a father he loves being your father see there's two sides to the Cross we we stand on our side of the cross and we say Jesus thank you for the price that you paid so that we can be forgiven and come back into your presence but there's another side of across that's God's side and he's on this side looking at us saying it was worth everything we paid to get back into your presence a heartsick daddy sent His only begotten Son so he'd get back into your presence he loves being with us more than you could possibly understand he simply loves his family he loves being with us but the devil came into the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve were very naive but they had God and the devil did what he does to all of us he offered them in exchange something for someone in exchange for God the Father in their intimate relationship with him he offered them a piece of fruit and interestingly the piece of fruit offered them instant knowledge God would not zap knowledge he wanted to mentor it into them over eons of time as their father but the devil said you don't need that guy over there in the day that you eat this fruit you're gonna be just like him you're gonna owe everything and they traded got in for a piece of fruit and of course they fell and died because the devil is a liar and he always over promises and under delivers he's a murderer and a liar but the same scheme that he had for Adam and Eve he has for all of us he wants to lure us away from God in our dependent intimate relationship with God and he wants to give us something for someone and this is first John to do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life it is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it but he who does the will of God abides forever when it says don't love the world it's not talking about the earth the earth is wonderful God created the earth in God's creation is a wonderful thing and so when you enjoy God's creation that's not that's not being whirling the world is a system that Satan has created to replace God and the by says don't love the world lust of the eyes lust of the flesh pride of life it's there to replace your relationship with God the Father let me be more specific for everything God the Father offers us the devil has a substitute something for someone one example is Mammon versus provision see God is our Father and Jesus told us in the Lord's Prayer to go to God everyday and say give us this day our daily bread now let me tell you something about provision God your father wants to provide for you but the word provision means for the vision so when God provides he doesn't just give us money and things he gives us direction for our lives he Daddies us he doesn't just throw money he gives himself and so when we get provision we get God we get peace we get direction we get vision but the devil offers us famine jesus said you can't serve God and Mammon Mammon is the money God that offers everything that God does listen God says I'll make you secure money says ooi if you watch financial ads on TV the word security and independence constantly in there the devil says god says he'll make you free I'll give you money Mammon will make you free God says he'll give you an identity go show this money around you'll have an identity Mammon comes to us and says you don't have to serve God doing that be moral you have no allegiance to a higher moral being all you need is money this is the mantra of the world and here's what 2nd Timothy 3 says concerning the end times know this in the last days perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy unloving unforgiving slanderous without self-control brutal despisers of good traitors headstrong lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God listen this when having a form of godliness but denying his power it says people in the last days will be lovers of money and they will have a form of godliness denying his power here's what this means they say they love God but they don't trust in his power to provide financially they have a form of godliness but they deny the power they trust in money and so you can be on your way to heaven and God loves you but I'm saying the devil the devil tries the same thing for all of us he wants to lure us away from a daily dependent relationship with God the Father where he's providing for us and get us to chase money something for someone let me tell you something when you get provision you get money and you get God well you just have money very limited another thing that the devil offers is lust for love the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh 2nd Timothy 3 unloving these are the signs of men in the end times unloving unforgiving slanderous without self-control brutal despisers of good traders had strong hearty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God well I remember when I was growing up I was not a believer and I was very immoral I the week before we got married Karen told me she wouldn't marry me because of high morale I was and it was and I woke up every day and my main pursuit was pleasure was just bad stuff and I was very successful at it unfortunately I regret it and I went to parties in college fraternity parties where things happened that were just really really bad but but it was what I wanted it was what I was pursuing and I remember after having an evening of every kind of indulgent pleasure you can imagine going to bed and feeling empty and lonely night after night after night the night after my bachelor party is when Karen told me she would marry me and I woke up and I was standing in the bathroom at my friend's house I was looking at myself in the mirror and I just thought this this road does not lead where I thought it was going to lead and I said and I'd heard of Jesus and standing in that bathroom that morning I said Jesus I give my life to you and I'll serve you for the rest of my life and I'll never turn back and he came in to me and for the first time in my life I felt love inside of me and I still feel that love right now forty-five years later the devil says I'll give you sensual pleasure God says I will give you love and that love will be an eternal abiding love from the inside out and you will never feel lonely and empty again don't exchange love for lust another thing the devil offers is pride for promotion in the world you have pride but the God the father gives promotion pride James begins second Timothy says there'll be lovers of themselves lovers of money boasters and proud and the devil says you talk about yourself promote yourself you know exalt yourself it's all about you the James 4 says humble yourself in the sight of God and He will exalt you you don't have to promote yourself God the Father will promote you if you humble yourself and I say this to all of us we have a father we have the perfect father and he will provide for us he will love us he will promote us he will teach us he will do everything for us if we will depend on him and that's the question and there's our sin nature despises dependency that's all we like sheep have gone astray God the Father divinely disabled Adam and Eve but he was there to be their mentor and they traded it for something and this is the same thing the devil is trying to do to all of us we need to get to a point of being mature believers who have an intimate relationship with the Lord of saying I embrace my weakness and I love being dependent upon you you're the best daddy in the world and I'm going to talk to you about the things that are happening in my life and I'm going to trust you rather than trusting in the world that's what God's waiting on I'm saying he loves you period but all of us have this issue of living in the world but not being of the world and not letting the devil get us away from God one other question that I want to ask an answer and that is why did God set Adam and Eve up for temptation failure by allowing the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden now obviously he didn't set them up for temptation and failure but some people would say that and sometimes you might think well why was there a tree there that they couldn't I mean it seems like I said up to me well let me answer this and in answering this I want to begin every statement with what kind of a God I want to show you the choices that God had and who he would become because God has choices obviously so so what kind of a God what kind of a God would live alone and not create any other beings to relate to in other words let's just say that God never traded us and he just wanted to live alone that's a strange God and that's not our God because obviously he created us the second is what kind of a God would create creatures to relate to but have a very distant and uncaring relationship with them that's the ISM I talk to you about deism last week his deism is the belief that there is a God that created us in the universe but he's very dispassionate he does not he does not involve himself in the details of mankind Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Franklin and others of our founding fathers were deists many people the world today are dis they will acknowledge God but they will acknowledge a personal God I want to tell you what Jesus said in Matthew 6 he said your father knows every hair of your head he's more interested in you than the birds of the field of the grass of the field which or that he takes care of and he will take care of you if you will trust him we do not have an uncaring dispassionate God our God is a doting father so he is not the god of the deist obviously what kind of a God would create man to relate to but without a free will other words were program just like a microwave oven or a vacuum cleaner God created us but we're programmed we don't have a free will an authoritarian ogre is the answer of that but God did give us a free will here's another question what kind of a God would create man with a free will but with no way to express our wills against him in other words God comes to us and says you have a free will but but you can't express it against me let me use a little story here well so let me just say that I'm the creator I'm God and I'm gonna create beings that are gonna live in Jimmy's store I'm Jimmy the lord of Jimmy store and I create these beings and they wake up and they say Oh Jimmy thank you for creating us not a problem welcome to Jimmy store welcome to Jimmy's store listen I love you and you can have anything in the store you you have a free will you have a free will you can have anything this way and they go that's fantastic and so two or three years goes by in my subjects my creation they come to me one day and they say master Jimmy which I would enjoy very much is there anything in the story you don't want us to happen and I say no my beloved subjects you could this is Jimmy's story I love you can have anything you want and they say well Jimmy if there's nothing that we can choose that you don't want we really don't have a free will do it you've simply programmed to do what you want free will is not free will unless you can use it against the person who gave it to you if there was no tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden it was a sham if God created Adam and Eve in a world where everything was God's will they could not use it against him there had to be a tree of the knowledge of good and evil there has to be a choice that we can make against God or we really don't have a free will you have to understand God has to withstand eternal scrutiny in eternity God has to be able to defend honestly and say I did give you a free will and I gave you an opportunity to use it against me if God would have created a world without a tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would have been a shyster telling us we had a free will when in fact we did not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had to be there there has to be a choice here's another question what kind of a God would create a man with freewill and put a million trees of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden and Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden everywhere they turned they bump into another well honey what there's a little watch out he's trying to trap us I mean God he's trying to set you up for failure one more question I'm done what kind of a God would create us with a free will give us the ability to use it against him but with only one choice to rebel but would also pay the penalty for the rebellion himself to redeem us back into relationship with himself and to give us back everything we had lost our God that's the one who did that he's perfect when you look at God from any angle that you look at God he's perfect everything he does in our lives everything he's done in creation is perfect but I want to say to you that Jesus is coming back very soon I don't know the day or the hour but I do know that everything is happening and the best day of your life is going to be the day that you see him face to face and everything that we lost and much more is going to be ours for all of eternity but the most important thing is our relationship with Jesus Christ we're gonna open the altar else here in just a minute Pastor Mark is going to come we're gonna open the altar rails and I want to say if you don't know Jesus I mean the morning that I said Jesus I'll serve you the rest of my life and I'll never turn back and I gave my heart to him and he came into me have you ever done that before and if you haven't our ultra ministers are gonna be down here in just a minute and I wanna I want to say to you please don't leave without having a knowledge and a certainty that you know Jesus Christ that you gave your life to him and if you're with family member or friends you can bring them down with you or just ask them to wait on you just a minute this Pastor Mark opens the altar rail and and you have an opportunity to come down would you come would you come and bring somebody with you come down quickly and just say to one of them I want to receive Jesus that's all you have to say and they'll pray a prayer with you listen they'll pray a prayer with you that will change your eternity from this point forward in your life you can know that you gave your life to Jesus and that you're a believer in when Jesus comes you're gonna go and be with him for all of eternity if you're here and you're hurting remember were sheep God doesn't expect us to be strong God doesn't expect us to have all the answers God doesn't expect us to bear burdens the only thing he expects of us is too trusting and the purpose of these altar ministers down here is we want to share our faith with you maybe you're struggling maybe you're struggling to believe we want to share our faith with you for healing for your marriage for your finances to receive Christ anything you need bow your heads with me if you would Lord we thank you for your love for us for paying the ultimate price to get back into our presence as our Father as our Shepherd we recognize Lord that we have we have an issue we have a sin nature that chafes at dependency the devil is always there to accuse you to us and us to you but we believe your word we believe that you're our Shepherd we believe that you're our Father we believe that you're always present to Father us and to talk to us and to love us and to guide us and to provide for us in to protect us and as your sheep we surrender to you today we desire an intimate face-to-face relationship and in the time until now that we see your face we want to develop that trust in that intimacy and I just pray your blessing Lord I pray comfort to the hearts of your people comfort you would bear our burdens that you would guide us that you would protect us and we would rest our hearts could rest in you Jesus everything you died for everything you rose again for I pray that you would open the windows of heaven and pour out upon us in such great measure that we couldn't receive it we just have to start giving it away bless your people with peace grace health love guidance promotion opportunity open doors everything they need and I pray that in Jesus name Amen god bless you guys

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Views: 17,919

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Gateway Church, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert, Savior, Dallas, Southlake, Texas, Jesus, Sermon, salvation, christ, Love, Jimmy Evans, Pastor Jimmy, Marriage Today, The Best Day of Your Life

Id: tjM6o7W1z00

Length: 33min 12sec (1992 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 06 2018