The Case for Heaven // Lee Strobel

thank you so much thanks josh that's very kind and great introduction and wonderful we we're with you at lake point it's such an awesome church and such a privilege to be with you although i got to be honest and tell you i'm glad to be anywhere after what happened to me in little rock arkansas i went to little rock to speak at a charity event and this pastor picked me up from the airport and we're driving to the event we're chatting along the way he said yeah he said i i told a young woman in our church i said lisa is going to speak tonight she said oh the guy who wrote the case for christ is he still living [Laughter] so i'm glad to be anywhere i'm glad to be alive after that but especially glad to be with you because i am a new texan i have moved to the state of texas all smart people end up here right eventually it took me a little longer than you but i made it actually my daughter and her husband and our two oldest grandkids moved to houston and so we moved there to be close to them and they have totally be totally become texans the reason we know is one night at dinner little abigail said could i pray for dinner we said sure so this is what she prayed god is good god is great thank you for the lone star state so so they're total texans they're totally so i'm from chicago what do i know about texas i don't know anything about texas so yeah i got a couple of chicagoans it's great we should get together for pizza afterwards so have one shipped in but because you don't want texas pizza i'm sorry but anyway i don't know anything about texas so i i got a book on amazon no kidding called how to talk texan there's a book you can learn how to talk to and i read it and the first thing i learn is the difference between y'all and all y'all that all y'all's plural well you know i never thought about it but it makes total sense but the thing i learned about talking texan that i like the most is that i found out that in texas if you want to say thank you to someone you can say thank you or you can say i appreciate you i love that i just isn't that warm isn't that nice i appreciate you and that's what i want to say to you i appreciate you appreciate all y'alls what i want to say um for taking part of your weekend to be with us here at lake point to praise the lord and to hear about his word and what it might say to us especially in the midst of this pandemic that we're in so i want to begin with kind of an odd question did your dog hide under the bed on the fourth of july there's a good chance he did because one-third of dogs have a form of phonophobia which is a phobia a fear of the sound of fireworks and so they hide under the bed on the 4th of july in fact did you know that more dogs run away from home on the 4th of july than any other day of the year now we may think that's a little weird for dogs to be that afraid of just the sound of fireworks but you know what we human beings have a lot of phobias too you know some have a phobia called triscodechophobia which is the fear of the number 13. that's a a fear that some people have other people have umphalophobia that's the fear of navels there's turophobia which is the fear of cheese now i can understand not liking cheese but some people are actually afraid of it uh there's globophobia which is the fear of the sound of balloons popping uh and this one i've got nomophobia the fear of being without cell phone coverage that's a i get that one i get that one there's even phobophobia which is the fear of developing a phobia but you know the bible talks about a fear that is especially prevalent among people but we don't like to talk about it and that is the fear of death the fear of death hebrews 2 verse 15 says people can actually become enslaved to the fear of death even king david from time to time had a fear of death we see that in psalm 55 where he describes how his enemies were harassing him and in verse 4 he says my heart pounds in my chest the terror of death assaults me well even though you may not like to dwell on it maybe the fear of death really is the greatest fear in your life maybe it's an unspoken fear but it's a fear in your life one psychiatrist from stanford university said we can never completely subdue death anxiety it is always there lurking in some hidden ravine of the mind you know i was an atheist for much of my early life and i used to believe that when we died it was like closing refrigerator and the light going out you're just snuffed out of existence and that honestly is a very frightening thought to have the old testament says in ecclesiastes that god has planted eternity in the human heart now the the hebrew there is a little obscure but most scholars say this refers to god planting a desire in us to live forever and as a result a lot of people try to somehow achieve immortality apart from god by creating a legacy or leaving a mark on the world through their achievements well as was mentioned by chris my my new book is called the case for heaven a journalist investigates evidence for life after death and and most of the book is about the evidence of science and philosophy and history and theology and so forth that gives us confidence that indeed there is a life after death there is a heaven there is a hell and so i document that in the book but one of the chapters in the book is about this fear of death and for that chapter i interviewed an expert on that topic his name is dr clay jones and he wrote a wonderful book called immortal and he talked to me about several ways that people try to cope with this fear of dying first there's denial there's denial how many times do we leave a funeral with kind of an unspoken attitude that says oh well too bad about uncle bob dying glad it's never going to happen to me you know we think you know i'm the exception if science keeps advancing if i keep living long enough they're going to cure anything that threatens my life which of course is just wishful thinking because death has a 100 percent record everyone will die in fact just during the time it's going to take to deliver this message 3710 people around the world are gonna die it doesn't do any good just to deny it second way people cope with death is through distraction jones told me he said lee we pay entertainers and sports stars huge amounts of money because they're valuable to us they divert our attention from the fact that we're gonna die and then there's delay we think if we if we just eat the right foods if we just exercise enough somehow we can beat death and yet one expert from harvard university did a study and he calculated that even if today we were able to cure every form of cancer the average life expectancy in the united states would only increase by less than three years per person something else will kill us others try to delay death by having the cells frozen when they die so that they can be thought out when a cure is discovered for whatever it is that killed them but that's fraught with problems for instance have you ever taken a glass of ice cubes and poured coca-cola over it you know that sound that year that crack crack crack scientists call that sonic fracturing and that's what happened when it happens when you try to thaw out a brain or an organ just crack crack crack nobody knows how to fix that one cryonics company suggests maybe you can glue parts back together or sew them back together now you got frankenstein come on that's not going to work another way people try to deal with this fear of death is through depression especially among those who don't believe in god i mean if there is no god then admittedly there is no hope one atheist wrote this depression is a serious problem in the greater atheist community and far too often that depression has led to suicide he said this is something many of my fellow atheists don't like to admit but it's true on the other hand recent research at harvard university shows that attendance at religious services like this one dramatically reduces depression-related deaths from suicide drugs and alcohol by 33 among men and by 68 among women when there is a god there is hope other people try to cheat death by living on through a legacy or being remembered for some great achievement that they did during their lifetime and in the positive sense this can motivate people to accomplish great things they can design wonderful cathedrals they can invent inventions they can write great books or paint great paintings or make scientific discoveries and you know that's all good but other people in a negative sense try to leave a mark on history try to leave their name in history by doing evil deeds for instance why did mark david chapman kill john lennon well he was really honest he said he wanted a piece of his fame he told the parole board that bright light of fame of infamy of notoriety was there i just couldn't resist it others seek immortality through their families they hope you know you have a large family and they hope that their name and their memory is going to be kept alive through their descendants through the years but that doesn't work either for instance how many of you know the names of your great great grandparents anybody know the name of most people i don't know the names of my great great grandparents and even if you do know the names of your great-great-grandparents do you care about them probably not i mean so much for living on through your family i mean we've got to face it fame is fleeting the painter andy warhol once said that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes and then a few years ago a television commercial said somebody once said that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes they actually took his name out i mean even that fame didn't last for so it's a challenge to try to deal with our fear of death apart from god as one physician wrote in psychology today i've tried to resolve my fear of death intellectually and come to the conclusion that it cannot be done at least by me well in his book immortal clay jones sums up the atheistic story of dying without god this way he said when you die your consciousness will cease your body will then decay where as the hearse song goes the worms crawl in the worms crawl out the worms play pinnacle on your snout you will have no hope of reuniting with loved ones you will never again enjoy other people or sunsets or beaches or breakers or mountains or redwoods or roses or anything else for that matter soon everyone will forget you but even if you do become a footnote of history does it really matter you're still dead so what's the answer what's the answer to this the bible provides it in hebrews chapter 2 verse 15 that says this jesus set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of death in other words jesus is the answer to our fear of death a robust view of jesus and who he is is the antidote for our fears you see that in contrast to the hopelessness offered by atheism christianity provides the best possible outcome for followers of jesus after they pass from this world reveling in god's presence reuniting with loved ones living without tears or struggles or fears experiencing a wondrous world of adventure excitement and exploration finding contentment and joy and love forever i mean no wonder even the atheist philosopher luke ferry conceded i grant you that amongst the available doctrines of salvation nothing can compete with christianity provided he said that you are a believer and i'm convinced it is rational to be a believer in the christian story in the christian worldview i've written several books that lay out the historical evidence that jesus didn't just claim to be the son of god he backed up that claim by returning from the dead he conquered the grave and that shows not only that he is the son of god but it means that his view of the afterlife is definitive he's an eyewitness to the afterlife in fact he created the afterlife and what does he say about the afterlife for followers of his well he told his followers in john 14 don't let your hearts be troubled in other words don't fear death trust in god he said and trust also in me he said there is more than enough room in my father's home i love how he uses the metaphor of a home to describe heaven have you ever traveled for a long period of time maybe far away internationally somewhere and maybe conditions are a little more primitive a little more difficult different language and so and it's it's kind of uncomfortable you're enjoying it but it's uncomfortable a bit and and all of a sudden you just begin to long for home you get this homesickness and finally when you get back to your home and you crawl into your own bed for the first time in a long time there's such a sense of love and security and comfort and family and warmth and jesus uses that metaphor to describe what heaven is like friends this is not your home you're only going to be in this place for a short period of time you will be in your heavenly home for eternity a lot longer than you'll be here well when i was researching my book on heaven i did something a little bit unusual i flew to portland oregon to spend the day with a hero of mine a friend of mine who was on the verge of dying his name was luis palau he was one of the greatest evangelists of all time he was often called the billy graham of south america but his ministry was really global he and his ministry did rallies and events and so forth all over the planet do you know that during his lifetime luis palau shared the good news of jesus christ with a billion people a billion people well he had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer it was inoperable and he was given a short time to live and so i thought you know writing a book on heaven wouldn't be interesting to sit down with someone you love and care about who knows that they're about to pass into heaven and hear what they have to say so i went out and i spent the day with luis and his wife pat and i asked him i said louise do you fear death and he thought for a moment he said lee i really don't he said i'm so convinced from scripture that after i close my eyes for the last time i go to be with god he said the apostle paul says to be absent from the body is to be immediately present with the lord and then he told me about how his father who was a devout christian had died when louise was just 10 years old he said just before he died his father suddenly sat up in bed and sang a hymn about heaven bright crowns up there bright crowns for you and me and then his head fell back in the pillow and he pointed upward and he said i'm going to be with jesus and then he quoted paul's words from philippians which is better by far and louise said you know my dad taught me how to die with a hymn in my heart and with scripture on my lips and that's what happened to louise a short time after i interviewed him when he passed from this world at age 85 and went to be in the presence of god you see it was jesus who released louise and his dad from this fear of death and louise told me you know he said lee jesus is the first person i want to see in paradise he said the first thing i'll do is fall before him with a heart overflowing with gratitude and praise and he said i want to reunite with my mom and with my dad i want to i want to meet the heroes of the faith and then he said lee i want to see the throne of god he said just read revelation 4 lee he said it's magnificent it's breathtaking it'll blow your mind the one sitting on the throne has the appearance of jasper and ruby there's a rainbow shining like an emerald there are flashes of lightning and peals of thunder there's a sea of glass clear as crystal there are 24 elders and fantastic creatures with everyone praising the lord holy holy holy is the lord god almighty he said how much of that is literal how much of this is a word picture to point us to something that we can't even comprehend at this point he said well i can't wait to find out and then he said lee i wish i could send you a text message from heaven and give you all the details because i know the journalist in you you'd want to know it all friends why was louise able to conquer the fear of death because he was a great evangelist who shared his faith with a billion people and so he he had confidence he'd somehow done enough to earn his way to god no because of jesus first john 5 11 says god has given us eternal life and this life is in his son louise was a sinner just like me just like you but jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty that louise deserve for the sins that he had committed to pay the penalty as luis's substitute so louise didn't have to and he offered luis forgiveness and eternal life as a free gift of his grace a gift that louise gratefully received it's a gift that i've received i hope it's a gift that you've received as well so if you fear death meditate on verses about this message of hope in the bible like first corinthians 15 that says where o death is your victory where o death is your sting thanks be to god he gives us the victory how through our lord jesus christ or one of my favorite verses first corinthians 2 verse 9 it says no eye has seen no ear has heard no mind has even imagined what god has prepared for those who love him i mean when you think about the glory and the adventure and the joy and the wonder of the world to come then the prospect of leaving this life becomes less onerous and we begin to anticipate what awaits us after the grave so as i was talking with louise toward the end of our time together i asked him i said luis in all seriousness you know this idea of a text message from heaven is kind of intriguing to me i said just imagine that you're already in heaven and you could send back a text message to all your fellow followers of jesus christ what do you think you'd say in that text message and he thought for a moment he said lee i think i'd say go for it go for it i said what do you mean go for it he said take a risk tell other people the good news of christ he said remember it's the job of the holy spirit to convict him of their sin he's your partner let him do his work in them you bring them the best news on the planet that there's redemption that there's a relationship with god that there's heaven that there's an eternal party that is waiting for them and then my friend louise among his last words he spoke to me before he died he looked at me and he said lee i can tell you from personal experience that when you get to the end of your life when all is said and done you will never regret being courageous for christ you'll never regret being courageous for christ and it made me ask myself am i being courageous for christ if you're a follower of jesus are you being courageous for christ are you seizing those opportunities despite the social risks are you seizing those opportunities that god brings your way to tell them this good news that they don't have to fear death that there is an eternal life awaiting them in heaven if they receive this free gift of forgiveness and eternal life this is on so many people's minds these days because of the pandemic uh leslie and i were at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago and the waitress was a young woman i don't know maybe 18 years old and we started to talk to her and and she burst into tears and we said what's wrong and she said i'm sorry she said i almost didn't come into work today we just lost a family member to covet and i thought here's a young woman maybe 18 years old probably never thought about death before but now it's come knocking at the door of her family and now she's got questions now she has fears now she wants to know with confidence what does happen after i close my eyes for the last time in this world people are asking those kind of questions these days and so it's an opportunity for us to tell them there is hope there is redemption there is a party waiting for you if you follow jesus one thing that i found it's easy to say you know well for me i found a lot of hope in the bible but i know the bible is a big book it's 800 000 words i get that but would you be interested if i could summarize the central message that the bible wants you to know in just one verse in just 21 words would you be interested in that and invariably people say yeah what are the 21 words to summarize the central message of the bible i say it's romans 6 23 it says for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life through christ jesus our lord i said the wages of sin is death in other words the consequence of the sin that we commit we've all committed sins we've all done things we knew they were wrong when we did them we did them anyway and the consequence of of sinning of falling short of god's standards is that it's death which is eternal separation from god nobody wants that but the good news is there is eternal life available through jesus christ that he went to the cross to pay the penalty that you deserve for the sins that you've committed as your substitute he died so that you don't have to and he offers forgiveness and eternal life as a free gift of his grace and just like any gift it becomes yours when you receive it in a prayer of repentance and faith 21 words summarizing the central message of the bible here is my challenge to you lake point church what if we all committed those 21 words to memory what if we all memorize that one verse romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life through christ jesus our lord and we pray and say god give me an opportunity to share this good news with someone who needs to know it i'm telling you something god will bring people your way if you do that and i hope you will be courageous for christ in telling him the good news well then i asked luis i said louise what if you could send a text message from heaven to people on planet earth who are not followers of jesus what would you say to them and he thought about it for a moment and he said lee i think i'd say don't be stupid [Laughter] and he laughed and you'd have to know louise louise was one of the most winsome guys in the world he just he meant it in a very winsome way what was he saying he was saying do the smart thing i said what do you mean luis he said don't pass up what god is offering out of his love and grace he said why embrace evil when goodness beckons why turn your back on heaven and choose hell why expose yourself to the harmful side effects of a sinful life when you can follow god's path of righteousness and healing he said don't miss the party that god has waiting for you in heaven that's the party by the way that luis is attending right now friends is it easy to die no it's not my mom went through a very prolonged bout with cancer before she died but guess what jesus walked her through that experience and in light of the bliss of heaven that she's now experiencing that difficult time i'm sure has now faded into insignificance but it's natural that we don't want to leave loved ones behind it's natural that we may have trepidation over the process of dying i get that but you know what jesus gets that and that's why he promises to be with us to help us to guide us to encourage us to strengthen us and to comfort us the bible says this in a different context but i think it's applicable here as well deuteronomy 3 16 so be strong and courageous do not be afraid and do not panic for the lord your god will personally go ahead of you he will neither fail you nor abandon you friends when you get toward the end of your life remember this the best is yet to come the best is yet to come death is just a doorway to an existence that will be more real more vivid more fulfilling more satisfying more exciting than anything you've ever experienced in this world jesus has flung open the gates of heaven for everyone who wants to come in through his free gift of forgiveness and eternal life hope is waiting the party is starting admission is paid for eternity friends is in the balance well maybe you fear death because you're not quite sure where you stand with god and you just wonder if i get to those last moments in my life how can i have confidence how can i really know that i'm going to spend eternity with god you know the first verse i memorized when i became a christian first john 5 13 says i tell you these things so that no that's the other verse i remember i write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of god in order that you may know that you have eternal life in order that you know that you have eternal life in other words the bible's saying you don't have to wonder you don't have to live in a state of anxiety or apprehension or uncertainty about where you stand in god the bible says right there i write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of god in orange you may know that you have eternal life do you want confidence do you want to know on your deathbed that you're about to enter into the presence of god for eternity you can know so if you're unsure i just want to offer a prayer so that you can you can always say oh well i remember that day when i prayed with lee to receive jesus as my forgiver and leader receive this free gift of grace whenever you have doubts whenever you have apprehension or uncertainty you can go back say no the bible says i can know and i do know that i've taken that step so let's close our eyes and bow our heads and if you want to take that step i'm not going to ask you to do anything weird just in your heart god will hear you if you want to take that step to know then in your heart pray lord jesus as best i can i do believe that you are the son of god you proved it by returning from the dead and right now i confess the obvious which is that i am a sinner i haven't lived the perfect life i know that and i want to turn from that and right now in an attitude of repentance and faith i want to receive receive this free gift of forgiveness and eternal life that you purchased for me on the cross when you died as my substitute to pay for all of my sins thank you jesus for loving me so much that you endured the torture of the cross so that we could be united forever in heaven help me to live the kind of life that you want me to live because from this moment on i am yours and now father we know from luke 15 that a party breaks out in heaven whenever a sinner repents receive forgiveness through your son so we celebrate with those that have taken that step last night and today we celebrate with them this certainty that they now have that they are your child forever we pray for those that are still on the journey use this great church use books whatever but help them so that someday we might celebrate their rebirth as well and finally father thank you for this great church that shines your message of hope and grace and love and redemption and eternal life that just shines it all over the world just like your son jesus talked about in matthew chapter 5 a city on a hill that cannot be hidden this metaphorical city on a hill shining your message of hope all over planet earth we thank you that you allow us to be part of this wonderful place we pray this in the name of jesus christ who is our forgiver and who is our leader and who is our very very best friend amen

Channel: Lakepointe Church

Views: 3,282

Rating: 4.8620691 out of 5

Keywords: Atheist, Lee Stobel, Case of heaven, Gospel, Salvation, Heaven, Life after death, Eternal life, Home, Fear, Fear to die, fear of death, Paradise, Luis Palau, Evangelist, Life after dead, Jesus, The Chicago Tribune, Best Selling author, Powerful, Sermon, Andy Stanley, Greg Groeschel

Id: R1_Rr8e5jac

Length: 32min 55sec (1975 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021