# Heaven

Date: June 7, 2024

Thank you guys. Thank you. Ms. McKenna would love to be here, but she is taking it a little bit easy because he did come like three and a half weeks early, so it is going to be a little while.

But Pastor told me or asked me to give my testimony, and I was like, “What do I talk about? Everybody knows me, basically. Some of you guys saw me grow up from a little kid.” So I will just kind of start from the beginning. I was saved at a young age. I was saved at the age of four up in Indiana, and I got a reassurance when I was seven. But from a young age, I knew I wanted to be in full-time ministry.

Some of that might have been—I saw my dad being a pastor; I do not really know. But I always tell people all the time, a lot of people are like, “Oh, you’re a pastor’s kid, you’re a horrible kid,” or something like that. Or we’ve had—I got pulled over by a cop one time with Zach, actually. He thought we were doing drugs. I was like, “No, sir, I’m a pastor’s kid.” He was like, “Well, my best friend was a pastor’s kid, so I know what you guys are about.” And I was like, “Oh, my goodness.”

That is how it was growing up. Everybody is like, “Oh, pastor’s kids are the worst.” But me and Sarah both say that my parents are the same here as they are back home. They gave me a love for the ministry, you know. So at an early age, I wanted to be in the ministry, but I did not know how, I did not know what.

I think it was about 12 when I really started wanting to be a youth pastor. I always told everybody it is because I did not want to grow up, you know, it is true. With the teens, you kind of just be crazy, and they are like, “Oh, cool, he is cool,” you know. Adults stare at me like, “This guy is weird,” you know. But when I—I graduated from Franklin Road, and I went to Golden State.

I knew I wanted to be a youth pastor, but I did not really take the Christianity for myself. I lived with my parents, who were great Christians all my life, so I kind of could just live off their religion. I struggled a little bit in college, and I bounced around. I came back here for a year, and it kind of made me—there was not a whole lot of people my age; there was not a whole lot of fun or goofing off. I worked every day, went to work every day, and then I would hang out with some older men in the church, and that kind of made me mature a little bit.

I was like, “You know what? I think I want this Christianity for myself. I think I want my family one day to be in church. I want to be a pastor for myself.” It kind of made me get a little bit serious about my life for once and kind of accept that. The church did that, coming to church all the time; my parents did that. So I was like, “Okay, I am going to finish where I started.” I was going to go back to Golden State and finish with a year.

Right after I had decided to go back to Golden State, my wife and I started talking. I DM’d her on Instagram, and we started talking a little bit there, texting, and then stuff progressed. I was like, “Cool, well, hey, I am coming out there.” We went out there, got married. We finished college, we got married, and then we were kind of praying about where we wanted to go. I think I had like three offers to be assistant pastor, a youth pastor—something. I just really did not feel like the Lord wanted me to go to each church. I did not mean—kind of talked about it.

I am like, “I do not really know. This is a great opportunity. Some of these were good places.” I just did not feel like this was where the Lord wanted us. I feel like we should go back home. I did not really know why, because we had a great youth pastor, Brother Anthony. I was looking for them everywhere. But the Lord had a plan. We were here for a couple months. I think in September, we took over the teens. Our teens are a little crazy, and they are amazing, but… no, okay.

Me and my wife, we love being the youth pastors here. We love our teens. We love hanging out with them. It has been a little bit crazy. We took over the teens in September. Then we were gone for three weeks because we went to visit my wife’s parents. We felt like we were getting going a little bit, and then we had to stop. Then we felt like we were going again. We were having a lot of teens come to church, and then COVID hit. So it is like two months we did not get to see our teens. Then we felt like we were finally recovered from there, and now we have a baby. So it is like, I do not know what is going to happen now. My whole life has changed. I do not know where my wife is; I have not seen her. But the Lord blesses. We have great teens. So we thank you guys for letting us fit in the church. We thank you guys for letting us be the youth pastors. I wish McKenna was here; she would love to say hi and loves being here. So thank you guys. What a blessing. That is so good.

I thought we would just take some time tonight and just talk about heaven. I do not even know if it sets a message, just some facts about heaven. Let us just look at a couple of things. Sometimes it is good to get your mind going towards heaven, setting affection on things above. We are just going to live here seven, eight years, maybe. But you are going to be in heaven if you are saved, for eternity with the Lord. If you are not saved, hopefully you get saved, amen. Heaven is a good thing to think about. Let us just talk about heaven for a little bit tonight, since it is going to be your home if you are saved for a long, long time.

So let us stand, if you would. John chapter 14. We are going to start in verse number one, and we will read down through verse number six. John 14, verse number one. If you are there, would you say amen? Amen. Amen. Here we go, verse number one: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” By the way, it is not just believing in God that saves you. The devil believes that and trembles. It is believing in His Son. The Bible is very clear about that: “For believing in the Son, he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life.” Your total belief on Him, on the Son—that is what saves.

“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. 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.”

“Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.” Thomas saith unto him, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

I think it is about seven things about heaven. Number one, verse number two right here. You see in verse number two, he says, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” If it were not so, I would have told you. “I go to…” What is the next word? Place.

It is not just a state of being somewhere. It is not somewhere where they are just laying there. It is not a mental, imaginal, imagination place. No, no, no, it is not a state of being. It is not an imaginary place. There is an actual place. “I go to prepare a place.”

I live at 8133 Misty Lane, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and you drive there. There is a place you can touch it, you can feel it, you can walk in the door, and you are home. There is an actual place called Heaven. One day, if you are a born Christian, either when the Lord comes back, you go home, you are going to go to an actual place. It is not just some state of being somewhere, a twilight zone. There is a place called heaven.

Something else, verse number two. Let us just very quickly—seven things. He says there, verse number two, “In my Father’s house are many…” What is the next word? Mansions.

Now let me say this: Do not let all these people, these new versions and all that, take away “mansions” from you. Those that say they know Greek—I had a fellow several years ago try to tell me, “Well, the Greek does not mean mansions.” I said, “Go ahead and speak me a paragraph of Greek.” He cannot do that. He does not know Greek. Well, I heard on the radio—that fellow on the radio does not know either. He is just listening to somebody. They do not know Greek, friend. By the way, the King James translators knew tons more than these guys nowadays, and besides all that, God had His hand on that thing. God says there are many mansions. Praise God, there is a mansion right there. We are going to walk up. We are going to say, “Wow, look at that mansion right there.” Mansions in heaven, friend.

We went to Florida for vacation, and you will not believe it—you are going to be like, “My pastor, I do not know about him.” I do not know about him myself, by the way. But I like to ride motorcycles. They have this app where you can rent a motorcycle from individuals. We rented a motorcycle one day. My wife drove, and I rode on the back of it. No, I am teasing. We got a Victory; they do not make them anymore. It has a great bike, and we rode all around Florida. We decided let us go down to see the President’s Mansion—Mar-a-Lago, you know where it is. That is where we went. We rode down there. The President asked my advice about a couple of things; I gave him some suggestions. We talked a little bit, told him we did not have time; we were on vacation. But man, we saw that mansion, rode around the walls, and saw the watchtower with a fellow up there with a machine gun. I saw a red dot on before; I did not think that was too good. I am joking, of course, about that part. But we rode down there—beautiful, beautiful. We could not see a whole lot with the walls all around it, but a beautiful mansion. Hey, friend, that is nothing in comparison to the mansions in heaven. Hey, he has not seen anything yet, as they say. Praise the Lord, there are mansions in heaven. He has been preparing that place and has got mansions. Can you imagine riding up there and seeing Frank DeLenardo on the front of the mansion right there? Wow, sure enough, there are mansions there. In my Father’s house, not just one or two, but there are many, many mansions. There are mansions in heaven.

Let us look at a couple of things. Look back at verse number two. This is in verse number two and verse number three. Verse number two: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to…” What is the next word? Prepare a place for you. “And if I go and…” What is the next word? “…prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Here is your third thing: It is a prepared place. We rented a place through Airbnb on a vacation. It was a little home we had rented from a couple. You do it all online. We came there, and she had everything ready. She had been in there cleaning. In fact, she was in there cleaning when we pulled up. She had the air conditioning on, and she had everything ready to go, and she had it clean. She wanted to show us around. “Here is the keys for the place, and here is this, and here is that.” It was her place, so she was a little particular about it. She said, “Here is how this works, and here is how this works,” and all these different things. She said, “I have been cleaning, been cleaned all day, got it ready for you.”

Friend, when you go to heaven, Jesus has been preparing a place for you. He has got the light on out front, if you will. He has been preparing a place for you. By the way, He made this world in six days, and there has been a flood that has messed up. We have a lot of problems in this world, but it is still beautiful. Imagine He has been preparing this place for 2,000 years. Can you imagine? Every once in a while, you get one of those smart ones who say, “Well, I do not want streets of gold and all that. I want to live out in the country somewhere, just in creation.” Sometimes, not always, I tell them, “Well, buddy, who do you think made the country?” God’s world is out there. God has been preparing heaven for 2,000 years. You want to talk about something beautiful, friend? Sure, it is a prepared place.

I think about Ms. Ritha. It was a shock to all of us, but it was not a shock to God. He had it clean, ready to go, if you will. He had been preparing a place. He is the one that made you. He knows all the things you like. Does anybody ever have a hard time finding the perfect mattress for you? Come on now, we are all human. I will be honest with you. He knows the best one for you. You will not need to sleep there anyway; you will have a brand-new body. He has the perfect mattress for you, individually designed. That mansion, everything about it, individually designed.

Ladies like to feather the nest. Praise the Lord for ladies who do that, amen. They make life wonderful. They clean everything up, and you just put your little special touches on it. Every lady is a little different. My wife, the last couple of years, has been into the beach theme. Everything at our house looks like the beach; we want it to look like it, talk like it, sound like it. Pretty soon, we are going to have water about a foot level on the floor. Just the beach theme to me, and I like it. But they are all unique; they have their special touches, and God knows what is special to you.

He has been preparing a place for you. He knows the likes and dislikes of Destinique over there. He knows her favorite color. He knows her favorite food. He knows all that, and He is preparing. Heaven is a prepared place, and your Creator has been preparing that place for you for 2,000 years.

Let us get something else in here just about heaven. We are going to leave John 14 a little bit. If you look over at Hebrews real quick here, Hebrews 11, verse number 16—just a little phrase here in this passage. Hebrews 11, verse number 16 tonight, just some facts about heaven. He says, “But now they desire a…” What is the next two words? Better country, that is, an heavenly. “Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

It is a better country. I say it so often: I believe we live on the greatest nation. The best country in all the world is America. I am so thankful. I did not do anything to deserve it, but I was born in America. I love it. It is a wonderful country. I told Brother Fontaine tonight coming in, “Man, you need to stand up so we can read the Declaration of Independence,” or Constitution, whatever. I love America. It is wonderful. But heaven is better. It is a better country.

Can I tell you a couple reasons why it is better? There is no death in heaven. There is no bitterness, no fighting in heaven. No sickness, no hospitals in heaven. You will not hear the sirens go off and say, “I wonder where that ambulance or fire truck is going. Where is the policeman going?” You will not have that in heaven. It is better. No funeral homes in heaven. No taxes in heaven. Somebody say amen right there. It is better.

Every angle you look at it, heaven is a better, better, better country. No worries in heaven. This whole world is filled with worries, and fear is just rampant in our day. Everybody is living on fear right now. No fear in heaven; it is a better place. Nothing to fear in heaven. It is a better country. No depression in heaven. What is heaven like? Better. How can you describe it? Better. What I think about it? Better. It is just better every way you look at it. Heaven is a better country, amen. I am excited about going there.

Let us get a couple other things about heaven. It is a place. There are mansions there. It is a prepared place. It is a better country. Here is an interesting little thing. Look over in Luke 16. I just thought we would throw it in there and just get some facts in there. Luke 16. When someone passes—we looked this morning, I believe it was, in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “absent from the body [to be] present with the Lord.” But let us just look at how that happens. When Ms. Ritha took her last breath this morning, how was it that, boom, her soul was in heaven? How did that happen? The Bible gives a little glimpse into that over here, Luke 16. Look in verse number 22, if you would. Luke 16, verse number 22: “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried.”

Now here is the thing: I have been in hospital rooms when someone was passing. Sometimes, it depends on the situation. Sometimes I will say, “I wish we could look into the spirit realm right now.” I think we would see the angels gathered around, waiting for them to take their last breath. Those angels carry that soul. That is what it says right there. How do we get from earth to heaven, boom, like that? Angels.

Yes, and they were carried. The beggar was carried. Lazarus was in paradise. Of course, Jesus led captivity captive and took them home to be with Him and the Father, and they are in heaven now. So where they go? They will go to heaven. The angels carry them. With Ms. Ruth, nobody was able to be with her, unfortunately, at the end, but the Lord was with her. The Lord said, “All right, angels, gather around.”

Has anybody ever ridden in a taxi? How many of you have been in a taxi? I have never ridden in a taxi before, to be honest; we never have. We just ride with different people. Those angels, they have a taxi cab, if you will. I have been where the person is passing, the body is there, and the family kind of wants you to wait until the funeral home gets there to take the body. When that person passes, the transportation team, if you will—those angels—they are there. And just boom: “Come on, time to go home.” They take them home to the Lord, to heaven. How does that soul get there? Angels carry them.

What happened to Lazarus? A couple other things. Look over, if you will. Almost done here. Look over in Matthew 8. I like this one; it is one of my favorites. Matthew 8, verse number 11, just things about heaven. When you find Matthew 8:11, would you say “Praise the Lord,” please? Good deal, amen. Matthew 8, verse number 11, and he says, “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” Here is the thing I want you to know: they shall sit down with these great patriarchs. There is going to be a wonderful fellowship in heaven.

Do you ever just feel limited? You cannot really get—Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night is great. You shake hands, you talk with them briefly, but it is a little hard. You are limited on the amount of time; you cannot sit down with them. Life is busy down here. Everything is going. When you get to heaven, you will be able to sit down in fellowship. You are not going to be limited in heaven time-wise. Our lifetime here is like a vapor—just here and gone. Everything is hustle and bustle. But in heaven, you will be able to just sit down in fellowship. I would like to sit down with my dad; it has been a long time, and just sit down and talk with him for a while. You will be able to sit down. I love our church members, and it is busy, but sometimes you do not get to sit down and just fellowship for very long. But in heaven, you will be able to do that—just sit down and enjoy the fellowship.

I think about my Granny Lee. She always had a glass—you know those older folks, they made sweet tea in a pot and all that. You had to put a whole lot of ice in there to cool it down because it was so hot when they poured it in. She would have a glass of sweet tea with a bunch of ice in it. She always had it when you came to her house. I look forward to sitting down and fellowshipping with Granny Lee again. You will not be pushed for time. We will have a thousand years back here on earth in the millennium reign; that is just the beginning. We will have all eternity just to sit down in fellowship and enjoy. I think about Ms. Dillon today; we will fellowship with Ms. Dillon. And all the different ones, Brother Donnie Fontaine’s son. If I start mentioning names, I will miss so many. But so many folks will be able to sit down and just enjoy fellowship with them. That will be part of heaven. We will be able to sit down with them. What a blessing it will be.

Let us look at a couple other things here, and we are done. I think this is actually our last one. Look over in John chapter 12, if you would please. John chapter 12. We said it is a place; it is not imaginary, some state of being. No, it is a place, friend. I am going to walk on streets of gold.

Me and Brother Kevin always joke. He is going to have a Mustang; I am going to have a Corvette. We are going to lay black rubber down the Golden Street. We are going to drag race in heaven. There is a place. Amen. We will be in heaven, and there are mansions there. It is prepared; Jesus has been preparing it. It is a better country; it is just better. Angels carry you there if you pass or the Lord comes back, and we will enjoy just sitting down to fellowship. We will go over there and talk to St. Peter and Paul, Abraham, Jacob, and it will be a wonderful time to fellowship.

Let us look at this thing here. This is an amazing passage about heaven. John chapter 12. Look in verse number 26. God’s word: “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be.” That is what makes it heaven. “If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” That is pretty incredible right there. It will be a place for those that have served Jesus; the Father will honor them.

I think about Mr. Jackson. Do you remember Mr. Jackson used to be around here? Mr. Jackson, his little dog Peanut; he was our World War II vet. How many ever heard some of his war stories? Oh, he had good ones. I regret that I did not record them. By the way, I believe them because they were always the same. He had seen a lot of action. He had two Purple Hearts and other medals. I have seen the papers for them. Some of those old guys—their philosophy was, “The guys that deserve the medals are those that never made it home.” So he never got his medals; he had the papers. We tried a little bit to get the medals for him, but he had a lot of medals. He never got them. He said no; they sent him the papers, and he never went and got the medals. But the honor—we wanted to give him those medals and just honor him. I think we found somewhat of a Purple Heart somewhere, and we tried to honor him one day and gave him one. But all those that have served Jesus, the Father is going to honor them. Isn’t that amazing? He deserves all the honor. He says, “You serve me.” Wouldn’t it be something for the Father, for the Lord, just to say, “Hey, you did a good job,” proud of you? Can you imagine the Lord just saying, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”? Maybe He will put His hand on your shoulder and say, “I am so proud you did a good job.” Honor. It will be a place where the Father honors those that have served the Lord, and they truly, sincerely serve God.

I think about Ms. Ritha. I understand the judgment seat of Christ does not happen until Christ comes back, but I believe whenever—maybe now—she has received some honor. The Lord says, “I am so glad you served me faithfully all those years.” It would be wonderful to see so many people serve God in the shadows; God will honor them. It is a wonderful thing.

You have heard me tell this story; it is so fitting when talking about heaven. It is about an older missionary couple that spent their life—true story—spent their life in Africa serving the Lord. They spent their life over there. In their later years, their health could not hold up in Africa anymore, so they boarded a ship heading back to America. They were on the ship heading back to America, having spent their life serving God in Africa. Teddy Roosevelt happened to be on that ship—true story. He had been over in Africa on one of his big game hunting trips. Nothing wrong with that. But there was all kind of fanfare on the boat, reporters there, and people trying to talk to him, all the press there, because the President had been on a big game hunting trip. The older missionary couple, their health was shot; they had no retirement, and they were coming back. Nobody even knew they were there. The husband got a little bitter about it all. He said, “It does not seem fair; it does not seem right. We spent our lives, our health, everything over in Africa serving God, and nobody even knows who we are.” Everybody is making a fuss over him; he has been over there hunting a little bit.

They came into New York. When they came into New York, there were bands waiting to greet the President. It seems—and I recall I have read it—that maybe even the mayor of New York was there, and the bands and press and all that were there to greet the President. And that older missionary couple got their luggage, and they walked down that little plank, if you will. Nobody was there to greet them. The fellow was getting upset about it. He said, “It is not right.” The wife even told him, “Dear, you should not feel that way.” He said, “I cannot help it, but it does not seem right.” They went and found a cheap flat on the East Side. They went to a little place, just in the hope that maybe the next day they could get a little job to make a living in this city, a place to live. They got settled there that night, and it was just too much for the man. He said it was just not right. He went off into the back bedroom a little bit. A little while later, he came back, and he had changed. The wife knew it right away. She said, “Something happened to you. You seem like you are good now.” He said, “Well, I went in the back bedroom, and I told the Lord how bitter I was that the President should receive all the tremendous homecoming when no one met us there when we returned.” He said this—some of this I am reading, quoting: He said when I finished it, it seemed as if the Lord put His hand on my shoulder and simply said, “But you are not home yet.”

Oh, friend, heaven is coming. If you are a born-again Christian, heaven is coming. You talk about choirs and bands singing and playing in heaven? Oh, yes, it is a prepared place. Heaven. Jesus said, “Set your affection on things above,” Colossians.

Original File: HEAVEN - Pastor Paul Chisgar 7520 PM