know the future?

Isaiah 42:23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?

(The time to come – the future. Do we think about the future? Do we care about the future? Do we worry about the future?

When we worry about the past or the future, what good does that do? When people worry about the past, they go to a therapist.

And when they worry about the future, they take Xanax. How fruitless those things are.

Only Jesus takes care of our past and our future: By his blood that he shed on the cross, he washed away our every sin.

By his resurrection, he secures our future. So, why not look to Jesus when we wonder about the future? He wrote it in his book:)

Isaiah 46:10a Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,

Isaiah 30:8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

(Why do people instead try to learn about the future by false ways: tarot cards, palm reading, crystal ball, horoscope, fortune cookies?)

(So, do we want to know the future?)

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

(Those who trust Jesus for their salvation, he takes to heaven, but those who trust that they are not too bad, will be damned in hell.

Now we know the future – only two eternal destinations, and we get to choose whom we will trust: Jesus or ourself.

All the worrying in the world, or Xanax, or fortune telling, won’t keep us from hell – only the blood of Jesus will do that!)

(So, for those of us who repent, turn to Jesus, and believe on him for our salvation, can we know some things about our future? Yes!)

Ephesians 1:18b that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Colossians 1:5a For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,

I Peter 1:4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

Psalms 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

(So, why not start thinking the following way about the past and the future:)

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

(What else about the future? Where will live?)

Hebrews 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

Hebrews 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

(What about our bodies that are getting older, weaker, and sicker?)

II Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

(So, what’s there?)

Psalms 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

(Do we really want to stay here any longer than we’re supposed to?)

II Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

(Paul was ready to go!)

Philippians 1:23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

II Timothy 4:6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

(Asaph was willing to live for the LORD here, but also was ready to go:)

Psalms 73:24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

(What will it be like for us?)

Psalms 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

I Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

I John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

(Also, Jesus is coming for us that are still here, so that we too will be with him)

Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Philippians 3:21a Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

I Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

(The moment we show up in heaven, we will be completely innocent, much more so than Adam and Eve were.

Now we have both an old & new nature, but then suddenly we will no longer have our old nature – only the innocent new nature!

The closest thing that we can think of, now, is the innocence of little children, puppies, and kittens, here on earth.

Here they all still have a nature of this fallen world, but their faces are like they are, because of the preponderance of innocence.

All the faces in heaven must be like little children and kittens, even the four beasts must have such an innocent appearance.

Even though Jesus was describing the thousand year kingdom on earth, how much more may the following describe heaven?)

Luke 18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Matthew 18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

(We won’t be small and under-developed, but in eternal bodies like Jesus, completely innocent, and it will show on our countenance.

We will forever be the children of God:)

Luke 20:36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

II Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

(In a similar way, the disciples, in prayer to the Father, referred to the ascended, glorified Son of God, as, “thy holy child Jesus”)

Acts 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,

30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

(Also, was this not somewhat prophetically pictured when Naaman was healed of leprosy?)

II Kings 5:14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

(What about a young person who had hopes & dreams for their life, never saw them, because of someone’s sin, maybe their own?

If they get saved, all is forgiven, yet maybe they carry a broken heart, or a longing, for the remainder of their life, here on earth.

Also, for centuries, millions of children had their childhood robbed from them: some orphaned, some deformed, and others never loved.

What about those that were misused or abandoned? Maybe they grew up hardened and angry, but Jesus found them & saved them.

Though they now, here, still have scars of the heart, they’ll suddenly show up in heaven, with all that gone!

They’ll be totally innocent, and they will be ushered into a wonderful homecoming celebration.

Everyone there, with faces of innocence, truly caring for them – but most of all, they finally see Jesus’ perfectly innocent face!

They’ll be able to enjoy that innocent life they always wanted as a child, but there, as a child of God, in complete innocence, forever.

At any time they want, to run up and hug the Father, or even to sit in his lap, to be loved on by him, and to be sung to by him!)

I Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.