Society has many views , speculations, and doubts on what the after-life will be like. God’s word gives us some images of things in heaven that we can be sure of. The most frequent illustration of heaven is that of a large, festive banquet. At the beginning of eternity, there is a large feast called the “wedding supper of the Lamb.” (Re 19:9) The invitations have been mailed, the guests are making their RSVPs, and the table is being set.

Culture has many views and speculations on what the after-life will be like. What does the Bible teach about heaven and hell? In the first part of this series, we will look at what the Bible teaches about hell.

Imagine that once upon a time, there were men –and only men – living on the planet Mars. Two planets over, on Venus, there were only women. One day, the men looked through their telescopes and spotted the women on Venus and it awakened feelings they had never known. As time went on, the Martians and Venusians decided to settle on Earth and everything worked great – for a while. Then trouble crept in - tension in their relationships, mainly because of selective amnesia. The men and women forgot that they came from two different planets and were wired differently. Today, we learn how to survive the invasion from Mars!

In the perfect world of Eden, God made and wired men to be protectors, providers, and cultivators. Sometimes that wiring gets messed up. It may be a short-circuit brought on by bad nurturing or by circumstances, but ultimately it comes from a man’s decision to live his life differently than how God made him. Today, we’re going to look at the sad situation of “men gone wild.” We’ll look at how men usually deface the image of God in them, the consequences of this defacement, and how we can restore the image.

There’s something that stirs in a man when he watches William Wallace, Aragorn, Maximus, “Dirty Harry” Callahan, Luke Skywalker, or Rocky Balboa do their stuff. It’s what John Eldredge describes as a man’s deep-down desire for “a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.” What stirs within us is the memory of battles and adventures and rescues that we have lived out. Or what stirs within us is a thirst for what we wish we were like.

Differences between men and women are often explained by saying, “It’s a guy thing.” As we look into God’s word, we’ll see that there really is a “guy thing.” Men and women are both bearers of the image of God – equal and unique. But while culture tries to dull the differences between men and women out of fear, the solution is to understand Biblical masculinity and learn to use it in the right way.

As we go out into the world, Jesus calls on us to be His witnesses. In this message, Pastor John uses the letters in the word WITNESS to help us remember how to sow seeds for the gospel.

The Great Commission that Jesus has given to His followers starts with the word “Go.” The Father’s intention is for the whole world to know about Jesus and the salvation He provides. His solution is to use ordinary people like you and me to spread the word.

On a hot day at noon, Jesus met a woman who deep inside had hidden hurts – things that were said to her in private that she would never say in public; secret sins – embarrassing things she had done and regretted; deep-down dreams that appeared only in her mind and heart and with each passing year seemed like they would never turn into reality. She was a dry, thirsty person inside – but on the outside she wore it fairly well. In this passage, we learn that Jesus wants to put us in touch with our thirst.

We know the saying, “Money can’t buy happiness,” but we live differently. In His teaching on worry and anxiety, Jesus shows that money and things don’t buy happiness - they buy worry.