Whoa, those are houses!  No, those are shanties compared to the mansions that you and I have in heaven.  I Thessalonians 4:17.  “After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever.”

This is referring to the Rapture.  The Rapture means that those of us who are in Christ, those of us who still are living on this planet will be raptured to heaven one day.  We will meet the Lord in the clouds.  And people who are left behind will try to explain it.  In fact there is an entire series in our bookstore written by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LeHaye called Left Behind.  If you want to read something exciting about what I just said, buy that series.

But somebody left behind will just try to explain it away, but we will be in heaven.  This is not referring to the Second Coming.  The Second Coming will happen after the Rapture and after the seven year Tribulation which is hell on earth.

That means love in action.  “…never fail, they are new every morning.  Great is your faithfulness.”  We should worship God because He is a fresh God, a new God.  He has a standing appointment He wants you and me to keep every single day.  But too often we call in sick, make up excuses and we miss our moments with God.  There is no way we can live a fresh and vital life if we don’t spend time with Him.  It shouldn’t be a legalistic trip, it has got to be a relationship.  Fellowship with the Lord.

Let’s think about the clouds.  We think about the clouds a lot.  We watch Troy Duncan and he talks about this system or that system.  The clouds should cause us to worship God.  God has a home for you and for me in heaven.  In this area there are some pretty impressive homes.  How about Highland Park!

If God walked up to your conversation, could you introduce him?  Yeah, you know his name, but could tell about his character?  His nature, the essence of who he is.  The Bible said, and I just read, that, that, that we should worship God because of his name.  Do you know what the name of God really means?  You know what the name of God really carries?  I don’t know.  Psalm 139; “for you created my inmost being”, the psalmist writes, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb”.  That, that’s a true thread isn’t it?  The, the true designer.  That’s God designing you and me.  “I praise you because I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well”.

You talk to someone who knows fashion they can look at someone’s outfit and tell you what they’re wearing.  Oh, that’s Armani, Versace, Proda, Target.  They can just do it that quick.  (audience laughter)  As Christ followers, those of us who are clothed in Christ, those of us who have the thread of our designer, people should look at us and go, oh, man, I know you’re wearing, that’s Jesus Christ.  I see the Lord all over your life.  I see, I see him in everything you do, say, touch and feel.  I see the designer.  I see the thread.  So let me take some time, just a couple of moments this morning, and introduce you to God. I want to introduce you to the essence of who he is because it’s all about his name.

Meet Elohim – the creator.  That’s a name of God.  A plural name of God.  Elohim, the creator.  If you have your Bible’s turn to Genesis Chapter 1 verse 26.  Genesis Chapter 1 verse 26.  God is speaking and he says, “let us make man in our image”.  You might be saying, man, what’s up with that Ed, us?  I mean, singular.  No, no, no we’re talking Elohim, the creator, us, who’s us?  It’s the essence of who God is, the Trinity; God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit; co-existent; co-eternal.

They reflect you.  And you reflect they.  It’s like you’ve got some mirrors going on.  If you want to see who you are, look at the “they” in your life, because “they” reflect back to you and me who we are.  We have this desire for significance and value.  We have this passion for props.  You do, and so do I.  There’s something in us; we want to stand out.  We want to be unique. And the reason is we’re made in the image of God.

When God made you and me, he made us different. And being different is a good thing.  If I compare myself to the wrong “they,” I loose my significance and I become one of them.  If I compare myself and look at the right “they,” then I can possibly discover who I am—if the right “they” are really the “right they” and they point me vertically to God.  Because for us to discover our DNA, our thumbprint, we’ve got to look to God first.

We’re not an accident. We’re not taking up space on a planet spinning into eternity. We are here for a reason.  We have a purpose.  We have an agenda.

The Bible says that we are the crown and glory of God’s creation.  Isn’t that amazing?  We’re made a little lower than the heavenly beings.  So, God, through His word, tells us to be who we are.

And I say it this way: you be you.  If you aren’t you, there’s going to be a hole in history, a gap in God’s creative genius.  When we die, God’s not going to say, “Ed, why weren’t you more like Frank?” Or, “You should have been like Lisa.”  He’s going to say, “Ed, you should have been more like you.”

Who are you?  Do you know who you are?  Do you understand your identity?  You’re saying, “Well, yeah, man, I know who I am!”  Do you really?  Because I talk to so many people who are existing as opposed to living.  I talk to so many people who don’t understand their significance and their uniqueness and what they have to offer in this one and only life.

Here are the Ten Commandments. I share them with you:

[Ed is standing at the edge of the stage. As he reads each commandment, he takes a step back toward the middle of the stage.]

“I shall have no other human relationships before Lisa, including the kids.”

Spouses stay, kids leave. Build your home around your marriage. Don’t become a Kid CEO household.

“Remember your date night and keep it holy.”

Faithfully, Lisa and I protect, guard and schedule our date night. And it’s more difficult today than it was ten years ago. I wish I could tell you that it’s just easy. But scheduling and rearranging stuff, and picking up kids and all that…it’s tough. But it is worth it. It pays monstrous dividends. So, let’s water our own grass as opposed to looking and longing for other stuff. Because no matter how difficult it is to make your marriage work, the price tag is always greater when you end up in the wrong bed and try to do it. Again, your kingdom will get split one day and these lawyers will have to come in to pick up the pieces. You see, lawyers don’t understand the deal. Marriage is not a contract. I love lawyers, but, I’m sorry; it’s not a contract. Lawyers look at it from a humanistic perspective. Marriage is a covenant before God. That’s a whole other message I’ll talk about next time.

“Honor Lisa on anniversaries and special days so that you may live long in the land the Lord has given you.”

I made the mistake one time of buying Lisa a bathrobe for her birthday. That was not a good idea. Don’t do that, guys.

“I shall not take the covenant of marriage in vain by apathy.”

I’ve got to work. Do you realize when someone commits adultery they’re taking God’s name in vain? You’ve made a covenant before God. “Well, man, I didn’t mean it.” You said it.

Well, today is one of those days. I don’t really enjoy talking about this to you; but I have to because Jesus talked so openly and so plainly about the subject matter that I’m going to discuss.

We’ve been talking about change. We’ve been talking about how God changes our lives. We’ve been saying around here that when God changes our lives, we have to come to a point where we say, “You know what? I can’t change.”

And once we make that decision, this exchange takes place; we open the lid of our lives and invite Christ to come in, and we trade our failures for his forgiveness, our guilt for his grace, our pursuits for his plan and agenda. That’s what happens when true change takes place.

I’ve also talked about what happens when we keep change at bay. I’ve talked about what happens when we don’t really change.

Jesus preached the greatest message in the history of the world. It’s called the Sermon on the Mount. You’ve probably heard of that before. And Jesus was talking, pretty much, about change. He talked about, “Here’s what happens when change occurs; here’s how you can help the needy; here’s how you can resolve conflict; and here’s what change looks like.”

Then in Matthew 7, he changes gears as he talks about change because he talks about, “Okay, here is the crux of change.” Jesus said, “Here is the true core of change.” He says, “If God changes your life, here’s the deal.” Then he says, “If you keep God at bay; if you distance yourself from God; if you don’t allow God to change your life, here is what’s going to happen.”

Thirteen percent of Christ’s words were about eternity. Two-thirds of all of his parables were about heaven and hell type issues. Jesus, in Matthew 7, is talking about heaven and hell.

Very important! She ate the divine portion and because she ate the divine portion, what happened? She was cursed. Adam and Eve were cursed. They chose to be cursed. I thought that was fascinating.

So God always keeps something for himself, a divine portion. And it’s interesting how God formed his partnership with Adam and Eve. Let me put it to you in terms that we can all understand. Bill Gates. Microsoft. You’ve heard about that? I’ve heard of him before. The guy is amazingly wealthy. What if Bill Gates came up to you, Ray, “What’s up Ray? How are you doing?” What if Bill said, “Ray, you’re my man? I like you. You got a nice bald head. You look good. You smell good. You know what, Ray? I want to do something for you, brother. I want to do this deal with you and here’s what I want to do. I will give you 90% of Microsoft, 90%. Just give me 10. That’s my portion.

Ray, would you take that deal? Would anyone here refuse that? I’d be like, “Bill!” We’d all be turning somersaults and stuff.

Well, that’s the kind of deal, the kind of partnership that God had with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve enjoyed the garden. “I have created you in my image. I have made you. Everything is a gift from me. I want you to reflect your love to me. Show me your love.” That’s what God was saying throughout Genesis. “But there’s this one tree. Don’t jack with the one tree. Don’t mess around with it. It’s mine,” God said. “It’s mine. It’s mine.”

How many people are married in here? You’re married. All right. Is it enough to look at your spouse and say, “ I love you?” Well, that’s good. That’s nice. That’s romantic. But your spouse wants you to back it up. Are you guys married? Okay. When you tell her, “I love you,” and she likes that, “Yeah, he loves me.” And you like to hear it again and again and again. But also, I know you want to say, “Okay, show me.”

God wants our lives on a HNL, a ‘hole ‘notha level.  But you know what? I have a confession to make.

That’s the last time you’ll ever hear me say that phrase.  My kids have been saying, “Dad, you’re wearing that phrase out. It’s old, it’s tired, and it’s predictable.  Don’t say that anymore.”  So I’m here to tell you, I will never say that phrase again. I will, though, use hand signals instead of saying the phrase.  And here’s the hand signal [Gesturing].  God wants our lives on a [Ed does the hand signal of raising the level].

Joseph is all about that because Joseph was betrayed at a crucial time in his life.  He was also betrayed by those who were closest to him. Think about Joseph, 17 years of age.  Think about Joseph’s dysfunctional family.

Joseph could have easily played the crazy family card.  His dad, Jacob, was completely wheels off.  He had four wives, twelve sons, and one daughter.  The name Jacob means, “the cheater, the supplanter.”  Jacob, if you know anything about him, betrayed his father, Isaac, lied and betrayed his brother Esau.

Now we have Jacob’s sons doing the same thing, betraying, lying, lying, and betraying. They betrayed Joseph.  Why did they betray him?  Jacob made the major mistake of showing favoritism.  Jacob said, “You know what? Joseph is the man.”  So he bought Joseph this designer robe, the Bible calls it a robe that had all these ornaments on it.  You could see him coming from miles away.  And his brothers didn’t like it.

Put yourself in his brothers’ sandals for a second.  They felt betrayed by their father.  Betrayal hurts; it’s like living in a pit.  They became the pit vipers.

We’ve been in a series called “Uncertainty” and we’ve been talking about the fact that uncertainty is looming large in every strata of our culture.  We talked a little about moral uncertainty, we talked about economic uncertainty, and we talked about uncertainty in the whole realm of security.  Oftentimes when we’re talking about a particular topic, for example uncertainty, I know a lot of you are thinking, “Well Ed, that’s great that we’re talking about that but I want to get up close and personal with people who are going through uncertainty, who are facing these tenuous times.  How are they processing it? What should I think about?  What should I do in the throes of uncertainty myself?”

Well I’m glad you have maybe had those thoughts because today we’re going to press the pause button.  I want to interview and talk to some people who are going through times of uncertainty.  I’ve asked my wife Lisa to join me as we talk and share and I believe the result of our conversations today will be great.  You’re going to hear from these folks what God is doing in their lives and you’re also going to hear about the uncertainty that they’re facing.  I think you’ll be able to put yourself in their shoes as we talk about the certainty in the midst of uncertainty.  Let me welcome our panel of experts who are going through times of uncertainty.  This is my wife Lisa.

Lisa:  Hey, how are you?

Ed:  I’m doing great.  You know I just asked Lisa to join me last service so she had no idea she was going to be up here until the last service.

Lisa:  The joys of being married to Ed.

Ed:  Yes, she went to my office to say hi to me between services and I said, “Hey, why don’t you just join us?”  So, Lisa, have a seat.

Lisa:  All right.

Ed:  Next we have Adam Moore. Adam is nineteen years of age and went to Grapevine High School.

Have you ever had a situation where you faced death or you thought about death? That night when I thought about death, I checked my readiness factor and I was ready to die. I had peace about my death. I wasn’t exactly fired up about dying in that particular manner but I was at peace because my eternal security was in my relationship with Jesus Christ. I had put my trust in Christ because He forgave me of my sins and I knew where I was going.

This past week, I was talking to a gentleman about life insurance and we talked about this and that…important matters, like our wills, who will get the shark-fishing equipment, things of that Nature, but we never discussed the after-life, we never discussed life after the grave because that’s a settled issue for me. But what I want you to think about this morning is, how is your readiness factor? Are you ready to die? Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you were to die right now, where you would spend eternity?

Dr Ed Young – Now some of you are skeptics and you’re saying, “I don’t believe in life after death, Ed. I believe once you take your last breath on this earth, that’s it. The candles are blown out. It’s over. Selah. Period. Finished. History”. But over the next couple of moments, I would like to give you seven rational reasons for the existence of life after death. Seven rational reasons for the existence of a heaven and a hell because you need to do some homework. You need to have this issue settled.  I need to have this issue settled.  Where will I spend eternity?