1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 
This morning, as we continue with our discussion of heaven, we will consider the second primary aspect that heaven should have within us on a very personal level. The first, as we saw last week, was our consideration of death. Today, let us look at our personal time with Christ. These two elements comprise much of the manner in which we see and understand what God has done through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. These two realities must be dealt with in our hearts and minds in order for us to show forth the excellencies of Jesus Christ, and our relationship with Him in our daily walk on this earth. It is easy to proclaim to be a Christian, a born-again believer, but what is the evidence of that claim in our lives? If we are truly heaven-bound, our lives should give forth the living witness of our confident assurance in Jesus Christ. 
Quote, Since heaven means being with Jesus, being with Jesus must mean heaven. And we can be with Him now. As Christians, it is our immense privilege to commune with Christ, daily, hearing His voice in the Bible, seeking Him in prayer, sharing with Him our anxieties and concerns, expressing to Him our love and worship. We come to Christ with requests for our own needs and those of others and for the advancement of His kingdom. We receive from Him direction, strengthening and comfort. Is this not a foretaste of heaven? End quote.
This is the encapsulated statement of what our Christian walk involves. It is a matter of experiencing heaven on earth, as we even now commune with Christ. How can we live the Christian walk if we do not know Christ? How can we be a Christian, if we do not learn to listen to Him and to obey Him? Just as Jesus Christ is central to every single aspect of heaven, so also is He central to every single aspect of our lives. This is a reality that needs to sink deep into the fissures of our minds and hearts. It is not a casual remark. It is not a Christian cliché to be bantered about from mouth to mouth. Jesus Christ is to be the central focus and purpose and substance of this very life that we live, now!
Many people have great difficulty with this truth because they feel that they have a life apart from Christ. Before we judge too quickly, let us examine our own hearts before God. Let us look deeply into the life that we each live. Let it be just between you and God, between me and God. See if it is not the case that we have areas, many, many areas where we shelter to ourselves portions of our time, our energy, our desires, our wants, our needs, and our dreams. 
We harbor a dedication to our delights that is separated from complete delight in Our Lord Jesus Christ. Even the sense of our spirituality can be an area in which we take delight, not in Christ, but in our idea of being a good, Christian soul. The focus, well-meaning and generous as it may be, is on our goodness and our special place in His heart, rather than in Him. 
I don’t know if I am giving full expression to that which is before us. I don’t know if I am truly able to talk to the point of utter abandonment of everything unto Christ, because this is something that is constantly at work. We are constantly faced with the truth of Romans 7:18-24, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 
	This is where heaven comes to reality in our lives, this very moment. This is where Jesus Christ comes directly into our lives as our life. We do not stop at this point! We do not settle for the constant battle of self vs. Christ. We push on into Him! We recognize the issue for what it is and we push forward into Him because of the truth that is proclaimed in the verses that follow. Rom 7:25-8:2 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 
	Notice, nothing of us, nothing of ourselves, no righteousness within our power to conjure up and produce. It is all of Jesus Christ. This is heaven coming into our lives in Jesus Christ. So many people delude themselves in terms of their getting to heaven. They look at heaven through the filter of how they will get there, how it will affect them, how they will deserve the rest and the glory and the joy of heaven. Even while professing that it is not within our capabilities to get to heaven, we still carry a conscious conception of our place, our reward for a life that we have made on this earth. We try to earn our way to heaven. We try to enter through the door of Jesus Christ on our own two feet.
The reality is that heaven gathers us unto Himself. Jesus Christ comes to us, as the Great Shepherd Who draws together His sheep. He brings us into Himself. He brings us into heaven. This is why heaven on earth is so vital in the plan and purpose of God. This is the manner in which God assembles together His flock. He shows forth Himself in those whom He has already gathered together. We are the ambassadors of heaven, of Jesus Christ. This is why our lives are not our own, not any single aspect that we might try to shelter unto ourselves.
Listen to David as he prays to the Lord in 1 Chron 29:11-16. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might; and it lies in Thy hand to make great, and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee. For we are sojourners before Thee, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build Thee a house for Thy holy name, it is from Thy hand, and all is Thine. 
He had a good understanding of the fact that we are here because that is what pleased God to do. We stand for Him on this earth. We are but sojourners and tenants, representing Him to all the peoples of this earth. As such, what can we claim as ours in our lives? All belongs to God Alone.
The Apostle Paul cajoles us in the manner in which we are to view our lives before God and man in 1 Cor 15:45-58. So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
As a direct result of the fact that we are no longer earthy, but heavenly, our lives are to reflect the heavenly, that which is of Christ and no longer that which is of this earth. There is to be an absolute change of focus, in the course of our lives, which many, many of us, especially including myself at the fore-front, have not sought before the Lord. Yes, we have asked Him for this and for that, but are we committed, committed beyond any measure to have Him establish Himself Alone as our lives? Are we willing to set aside everything else of value to us in order to live in heaven today? That is the question! This is not something to think about right now, and then forget as we go forth to lunch, to choir practice, to our Sunday afternoon, and to the rest of the week’s activities. How much does Christ mean in my life? That is the question I am asking myself. 
I do not ask it for you. You are each responsible to God to deal with this question. I do not even ask it of my wife, Laura. I ask it before God Alone and stand before Him for the verdict of His hand upon me for the sake of the witness of heaven in me. How much does Jesus Christ mean to me? How serious am I about being a citizen of heaven on this earth? This question has dire consequences to anyone who dares to think of heaven solely in terms of the glory of God.
Consider how it affected the witness of the Apostle Paul, the life that he was called to live in the proclamation of Eph 3:8-4:6. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. 
	This is not a light burden of careless abandonment that we undertake in the name of all that is good and decent. We become imprisoned in the call of Christ’s holiness and righteousness. We become living sacrifices on the altar of His sanctification with no thought of our benefit, our comfort, our safety, no thought of our circumstances whatsoever. We are His to do with as best serves His plan and His purposes, even unto the physical call of martyrdom, if that so please Him.
	As the writer to the Hebrews so eloquently declares, we are no longer the focus and the object of our thoughts and our cares and our considerations. Heb 3:1, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Our minds are centered on Jesus Christ!
	When we read of the Children of Israel, as they sought after Moses to go before God as an intermediary, we are often saddened and shocked at their apparent inability to grasp the privilege that was before them. They were in the direct presence of God. He wanted to talk with them directly, and yet they couldn’t bear it. They asked that He would stop because it was too difficult and too hard. Their eyes and their ears were overwhelmed by His presence and voice, and they chose rather to let Moses be their conduit of communication with the Lord God Almighty. 
	The writer to the Hebrews reminds us of this and then states, for our admonition, in Heb 12:22-29, But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven." And this expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. 
	How often are we just like those Israelites, refusing the intimate communion with God, the Son, by the Holy Spirit? For heaven to be our life today, means that we devote ourselves to Jesus Christ. We set aside the fear that we will lose more than we can afford in this life. We must refuse to consider ourselves at all and we must seek Him with all our hearts. I close with a sad statement and challenge from Dr. Donnelly. It is sad, because it shows us in the same light as those Children of Israel. It is a challenge, because this is the point at which we must decide how much heaven, how much the glory of Christ truly means to us. We can no longer mouth our praise. We either continue in the façade of our spirituality, or we truly seek God to be glorified in the sacrifices of praise that manifest heaven on earth in us.  
	Quote, Is it not tragic that professed believers have to be cajoled, almost goaded, into worshipping God? The ‘quiet time’ of personal devotion is neglected by so many, as if it were a tedious burden. Modern Christians are ready to busy themselves in almost any religious activity but that of quiet communion with their Lord, regarded more as a duty than a delight. They hope to go to heaven, claim to be looking forward to it eagerly. Yet the essence of the heaven they profess to long for is that communion with Christ in which they show so little interest!
	Something profoundly troubling underlies this spiritual apathy. ‘If we do not get to heaven before we die,’ said Spurgeon, ‘we shall never get there afterwards.’ We should spend more time in heaven than we do. We should take greater advantage of the means of grace which God has provided for our benefit, practice the presence of Christ more wholeheartedly, enter ever more fully into communion with Him here on earth. The richer and deeper our fellowship with Him now, the more heavenly will be our present experience and the better prepared we will be for glory. Isaak Walton wrote of the Puritan Richard Sibbes:
		O this blest man, let this just praise be given:
		Heaven was in him, before he was in heaven.
	That should be true of all of us. We do not have to wait! We can live in the outskirts of heaven today. And how different that would make us! How much does heaven mean to you? Your present relationship with Christ provides the answer. End quote. 
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit… Amen. 

This morning’s benediction reading is 2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Amen.