Valley Gospel
A Pentecostal church experience.
Valley Gospel
Where Your Best Dreams Come True
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What if heaven isn’t far away, but closer than you think—and more real than the ground beneath your feet? We open John 14 and Hebrews 12 to explore Jesus’ promise of the Father’s house and the breathtaking nearness of the heavenly city, where the throne of God stands, the risen Christ reigns, and a joyful assembly of angels praises without end. This isn’t a metaphor to soothe us; it’s a concrete future that reframes our present pain and renews our courage.
We tackle the questions that keep people up at night. What is heaven like beyond the stained-glass clichés? Scripture paints a world without decay, violence, or grief, where beauty is ordinary and joy does not run out. Who is there now—God, Christ, angels, and the saints—and will we know one another? Drawing on Paul’s promise that we will know as we are known, we talk about recognition, personality refined by grace, and why age loses meaning when time is swallowed by eternity. And for those who fear heaven will be boring, we cast a vision of purposeful, joy-filled work under King Jesus: gifts fully alive, community without rivalry, and worship that feels like oxygen.
Then we face the dividing line with honesty and hope. The way to the Father is not a maze of human effort but a door named Jesus. He did the hard part: the lash, the nails, the cross. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, and preparation begins with repentance and faith—resting your full weight on Christ. If you’ve wondered about the reality of heaven, the certainty of salvation, or the shape of life beyond the veil, this conversation offers clarity, Scripture, and an invitation. If it stirred you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find their way to this message.
Hello. Welcome to Valley Gospel Church. We are a non-denominational Pentecostal church located in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Our sole mission is to present the living truth of a risen Lord, Jesus Christ, to a remnant church and a lost world. Let's get into the service recorded live at Valley Gospel Church.
Jesus Calls Heaven A Place
SPEAKER_00Begin today's message with two statements that I believe to be almost universally true. Everyone wants to know about heaven, and everyone wants to go there. Recent polls said that 80% of Americans believe in a place called heaven. And you know, I think that bears out in a truth that there's something within every human heart that cries out, there's gotta be more. There has to be more. And it's why we're told by God to look up. Uh, because to look around is depressing, and to look down is pointless. Look up. Look up, heaven, heaven. So what and where is heaven? Uh probably the most important aspect of that question is, and this is revelation, it's real. It's a real place, it's as real as New York City, it's as real as Chicago or Los Angeles. Uh I want to open today, if you'll listen to Chrissy, read the words of John 14. Uh this is on the very night before his crucifixion. Listen to what he has to say. John 14, beginning with the first verse. 14 and 1. Whenever you get there, I ask you to please stand in reverence to God's word this morning.
SPEAKER_01Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go 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 you may be also.
SPEAKER_00In those three short verses, Jesus calls heaven twice a place, a place, not a state of mind, but a real place. Just as real as your home, filled with real people, real structures. It's why it's compared to a mansion with many rooms, many places. And I'll use for a subject this morning where all your best dreams come true.
SPEAKER_01Amen.
The Dwelling Place Of God
Mount Zion And Nearness To Heaven
What Is Heaven Like
Who Is In Heaven Now
Saved And Lost: The Great Divide
Will We Know One Another
Age And Identity In Heaven
What We Will Do In Heaven
Jesus The Only Way
A Prepared Place For A Prepared People
Prayer Of Salvation And Closing
SPEAKER_00Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord. Thank you for this glimpse not only into the future, but into the supernatural world, Lord, that you have created for us. Lord, we ask your anointing on this word this morning, Lord. Let me rightly divide your word of truth, not say anything amiss or anything out of order. Lord, it is in the name of your blessed Son, I pray. Amen and amen. Please be seated. Your Bible tells us that heaven is the dwelling place of God. His throne is there. Amen. The angels and other creatures, heavenly beings are there. The Lord Jesus is there at the right hand of the throne. Our citizenship, mine and yours, is in heaven. You know, we say we're American or we're from this country or that country we came from. We have an allegiance to a country, a continent. I'm Asian, I'm African American, I'm Italian. Our citizenship is heaven. Heaven. This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. The Bible hints that heaven isn't that far away. You know, we think of it as it's it's light years away, millions of light years, but it may be much closer than we think. Turn to Hebrews, please. Hebrews 12. 12 and 22. Listen to this. This is this is powerful. But we are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Truly amazing, truly amazing when you look at that verse in depth that you have come, and it's speaking, it's regarding heaven, that you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the living God. You've come to thousands, no, tens of thousands of angels in joyful assembly, praising the name of the Lord our God, to the firstborn of the church whose names are written in heaven. You've come to God, the judge of all men. You've come to the spirit of righteousness in men and now made perfect. Now made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. The writer, most likely, Paul. I know there's some doubt about whether the apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but he compares Mount Sinai to Mount Zion. Under the old covenant, we couldn't, they couldn't see God face to face, either saw him through a burning bush, a wall of fire, a cloud, couldn't look at him. But now in Christ, in Christ, you and I are brought near to heavenly reality, not that far from heaven. Not that far away, not that far away from angels, not that far away from loved ones, not that far from God, not that far from Jesus. So I have a series of questions that I have at one time pondered and asked God, what's heaven like? What's heaven like? Heaven is God's dwelling place, according to the Psalms. Heaven is where Jesus is, it says in the book of Acts. Heaven is where Christians go, according to Philippians. Heaven is my father's house. Glory. Heaven is a better country, as Hebrews said. Heaven is paradise. Paradise, according to Luke. Heaven is a place where the streets are paved with gold. Alright, now you're going too far, Pastor. See, that's just poetry, is it? Where the gates are pearl, the walls are jasper. So we asked the question, is that literal and true? And the short answer is yes and no. Yes, it's literal, but it's far greater than we could even imagine. Than we could even think. Hallelujah. I think it was Billy Graham told the story of a man who spent his life panning for gold and collecting gold bullion and melted it, smelted it down and kept it in the suitcase. He had 18 five-pound gold bars. He was buried with those, with that suitcase of gold bars. So roughly, I don't know, hundred, hundred pound or more was in his casket. Well, at the rapture, somehow he hung on to the suitcase. And he got to heaven. And he was told at the gate that you can't bring anything in here. Everything you need is inside the gate. You don't need that. But the angelic guard at the gate was curious and said, Do you mind if I look inside your suitcase? What's so important that you brought to heaven? And the angel opened the suitcase and looked inside and he said, You brought pavement. You brought pavement to heaven. That's what you're telling me. Heaven is pollution-free skies. Heaven is always crystal clear. Always. Heaven is no crime, no violence, because no criminal can enter. Heaven is no politicians, no drug sellers, no potholes, no power outages, no cold, no too hot. Heaven is filled with an abundance of parks and rivers and streams, rolling meadows and forests, flowers that are in bloom continually. Glory, glory, fruit trees that are always ready for harvest. Without pests, without disease, no blight. The gates made of pure pearl, walls of jasper, precious stones, rubies, diamonds lying on the ground like gravel. On every corner, children playing, ball games going on, bright, upbeat conversations, music floating from every direction. In that city not made with hands, that God built, there are no tears, no sorrow, no regret, no guilt, no remorse, bitterness is gone forever, failures left behind, suffering being redeemed, difficulties rewarded, no glasses, no wheelchairs, no crutches, no braces, no false teeth, no hearing aids, no hospitals, no nursing homes, no funeral homes, no hospices, no paramedics. Doctors and nurses will be given new jobs. Hallelujah. Aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, Lysinipril, drugs of every kind banished forever. No one grows old or feeble in that city where no one dies. And if you trust in Jesus and make it to that city, you'll never die again. This is heaven. This is heaven where all your best dreams come true. So who's there now? Who's there now? Not a hard question. God is in heaven, that's his dwelling place. The Lord Jesus has been there in the flesh since his ascension. Angels are there, ten thousand times ten thousand, an uncountable number of heavenly beings. The saints of God who died in Christ are there. Old Testament saints that awaited redemption at Calvary are there. Children who died are there. The emotionally or mentally impaired are there, all restored. But listen, I don't want to be evasive or paint this rosy picture or be ambiguous regarding heaven. Not all those who passed on are in heaven. Maybe some of your relatives and maybe some friends. Some won't be there, some won't make it. The Bible says narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. The Bible talks about the saved and the lost. Saved and lost. Saved are those that trust in Jesus with all their heart, soul, and mind. The lost are those who have rejected Jesus in this life. See, this is the great divider. It's the great divider that the majority of the church world doesn't even want to talk about. It's the great, the line of humanity, either saved or lost. Saved or lost, really clear. There's no middle ground. No chances on the other side of the grave. No one can pray you in. No one can help you. All chances are on this side of life. That's just a fact. Look, I'm not here to judge who's in Christ, who isn't, who's going to heaven or who's going to hell. That's God's job. I'm in sales. I'm not in administration. That's my job. I simply want you to know what God said about heaven. Who will go there? And I will say this. We're going to be really surprised at who we see there. It is going to be more wonderful than we could even think, but its population will be smaller and more diverse than you think. I'm sure of this. No one will enter heaven except by the grace of God and through the blood of one spotless lamb. No one. I hear this all the time. I'm going to leave that in God's hands. They have no hope for heaven. Another question that's asked often. Will we know one another in heaven? And there's a lot of opinions. Let's go to First Corinthians. Thirteen, reading one verse, twelve, verse twelve. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. So here's the question. How well does God know us? How well does he know us? He knows us completely, right? Intimately. Nothing hidden. Everything's out in the open. It says even the very hairs on our head are numbered, which are which for some of us that's a smaller amount than others. Bible scholar R. A. Tory wrote that we can be sure we'll not know less in heaven than we know now. We can be sure that we will not know less in heaven than we know now. And when sin is lifted from us, when all the imperfections of this life are removed, no need to cover ourselves, no need to hide or be embarrassed or keep this private or this secret, we will know every person. And all of them will either be friends or loved ones. And how many of you know that your personality, at least to some degree, will survive into heaven? Amen. And I say that because all the uh all the imperfections will be removed. But you will be you, but with the limitations of sin being removed. Your essence, I don't know, maybe that's not the right word, your your essence will survive throughout eternity. Improved, yes. Uh lack of sin, God's grace, it will be improved, but it will be you. Another question. How old will we all be in heaven? You know, some of us have lost babies, some of us have uh and we don't understand that, or you know, a mother who's 104 and was barely able to breathe, how old will they be in heaven? I heard one teacher say that everybody will be 33 years old because that's how old Jesus, or about how old Jesus was when he died. And just let me be really clear, no scriptural support for that whatsoever. Uh I don't know where it came from. But the truth that I have studied is that there will be no age in heaven, at least as we understand age. See, age is a function of decomposition. Uh the older we get, the closer we are to being decomposed. Right? And the older you get, that's when things start to attack your body and things start to, you know, young, you're young and vibrant and healthy, and as you get older, all these afflictions start to come. Uh I don't bel and that's all a function of sin. Sin, garden. Uh I don't believe there will be any infants in heaven, nor do I believe that there will be any emaciated 142-year-olds in heaven with canes and walkers. Um all youth or elderly has no meaning in heaven. Has no meaning. What are we measuring against? Eternity? Forever. Um what? Um seven day It makes no sense that we have years as opposed to eternity, which is forever. We will know one another regardless, regardless of the age at our death. You say, well, they died as an infant, or they died as a small child, or an old person. I don't even know if I'd recognize them. We will recognize them. How do I know that? It's how James and John and Peter recognized Moses and Elijah at the ascension. Amen. They've been dead hundreds of years, but they knew them. They knew who they were and recorded it. None of them saw them, none of them had ever met, but they knew who they were. Glory. So what do we do in heaven? What do we do? Again, you hear you see the depictions, the art depictions of floating around on clouds eating grapes, right? Or worship 24-7. And again, time isn't there either because what do you it's twelve what's the difference? No watches in heaven. And some say that worship all the time, that's going to be really boring. That's going to be really boring sitting around with the choir and just singing to God all day long. And while we don't know everything about heaven, and I don't pretend to, we can be sure that heaven will not be boring. It will be more fun, more exciting than anything you have experienced on this earth. David, the first time that you soloed all by yourself, that excitement, that adrenaline that's going, that I'm actually flying this beast, pales into comparison of what heaven will be. So what do we do? Short answer is that we'll work for the Lord, running the universe, his kingdom. Look, who knows what plans God has for the future. We think of it as a finite thing that this happens, then heaven, and then we just luxuriate on a cloud. All right? I don't know what plans God has. I don't know what he's gonna set up. I don't know what other planets, what other uh galaxies, what other universes there are that we may be a part of in administrating. Uh his kingdom has no end. So there's a lot to do. But we will use our gifts to administer this new heaven and new earth. Bakers will bake, teachers will teach, singers will sing, musicians will play. Uh Kurt, imagine, new sidewalk we need. Well, smell some gold. Gotta smell some gold. Glory. All the plants, all the trees, the flowers. Maybe athletes will play. Maybe there'll be sports. I don't know. Hallelujah. But no one will be sitting on a cloud eating grapes. Guarantee you that. Too busy for that. The best part, the best part will be seeing Jesus face to face. Hallelujah indeed. I heard a preacher this week say if he could look through a keyhole and see Jesus just once a week, that's good enough. Maybe so. Maybe so. The final question, maybe most important. How can I be sure that I'm going there? A wonderful truth. And look, God has made it easy for us to get there. He did the hard part, John, right? He did the hard part. He paid the price. He endured the lash. He suffered the nails. He paid the price that we could stand before the judgment seat, seat righteous. Back to John fourteen. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Jesus is the way to heaven and the door to heaven. Let me say that again. He's the way to heaven and the door to heaven. There is no other way. Nobody gets grandfathered in. No one comes by a different way or chooses their own God or their own form of worship. If you were to pass, if you were to die, let me be plain. If you were to die today, tomorrow, next week, you know, I've been thinking of Pastor Jeff Leek all week. Finishes preaching a sermon and drops dead. Hmm. Would your entrance to heaven be sure? And look, church, this is too important. This is too profound. This is too forever to say, I hope so, I think so, or I'll leave it in God's hands. Because let me tell you this: if you're wrong, you're going to be wrong for a long, long time. Amen. No one goes to heaven or hell by accident or by coincidence or by I lived a good life. I worked really hard by being good or bad, by giving or not giving, by going to church or not going to church. Jesus said he went to prepare a place for us. A prepared place. Glory. He expects a prepared people. Glory. I'm preaching better than your amen. Hallelujah. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ. Our only hope. Put your faith in the cross, your trust in Jesus. Stand with your full weight on the rock. Glory. That's the only way to really make it. We did a song a few weeks ago. I don't know if I can remember it. I'm going to wear a crown. Soon as my feet touch Zion, I'm going to wear a crown. I'm going to lay down my heavy burden. I'm going to wear a crown. I'm going to sit down beside my Jesus. I'm going to tell him all about my troubles. I'm going to wear a crown. Glory. I'm going to close this message with something we did a few weeks ago. And I'll ask you all to stand if you're able. And we'll close with this. Lift your hands to the Lord. Look, time is short. There's no time for doubt or I hope so. And I'll lead you in a short, what we call a sinner's prayer. Look, saying this prayer won't save you, but if you believe it, it will. It will. And don't say I did this a couple of weeks ago or many years ago. I'm not doing it again. What? You're afraid you'll get too saved? Repeat after me. Lord God, I admit I'm a sinner. I need and want your forgiveness. I accept your death as the penalty for my sin. I recognize your grace and mercy. Is a gift from you. Not based on anything I have done. Cleanse me. Make me your child. By faith I receive you into my heart. As my Savior, Lord, and King. Help me to live for you. In your control. I believe what I've spoken. I am washed. I'm cleansed. I'm born again. I am saved. I am saved. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for listening to this week's podcast. We pray it was an encouragement and a blessing to you. You can contact us at Valley Gospel Church, 1069, Butler Logan Road, Springdale, Pennsylvania, 15144. We invite you to listen to this week's worship service that follows and tune in for next week's podcast.