In this sermon, Pastor Steve Mays discusses the future in heaven and the benefits that believers will experience. He emphasizes that in heaven, there will be no more tears, emotional pain, disappointment, insecurity, fears, or rebellion. Believers will rejoice in their new bodies and be free from physical and emotional suffering. Pastor Steve also highlights the difficulties of life on earth and the pain and heartache that exist. However, he reminds listeners that accepting Jesus Christ allows them to enjoy everything that God has prepared for them in heaven.

It's the 2012 Summer of Sermons with Steve Mays. There are certain things in heaven that will never happen. No more tears. Today, Pastor Steve Mays shares an exciting look at our future in heaven. No more emotional upheaval. No more disappointment. No more insecurity or fears or rebellion. And you're going to be rejoicing in a brand new body. It's going to be a wonderful day to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Light of the world. Light of the world. Hope that shines in darkness. So we'll follow the light of the world. Many years ago, Johnson & Johnson patented their No More Tears formula baby shampoo, so we wouldn't dread the thought of washing our children's hair. Now, if heaven were to patent its formula, we might call it No More Tears, No More Hunger, Thirst, Sorrow, Death, and Darkness. So we don't have to dread death. Today, Pastor Steve looks toward the future. It's an exciting message that comes from his latest collection on the book of Revelation. Here's Pastor Steve. Revelation chapter 7, verse 17. Let me read to you verse 14 through 17 so you kind of get a little bit of what's taking place. John now is speaking to the tribulation saints who were saved. And I said unto him, Sir, thou know, and he said to me, these are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood's lamb. Therefore, and that word therefore always points back to wherefore, are they before the throne of God serving him day and night in his temple. And he that sets on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more. Now underline the word no more. Neither thirst any more. Again, any more. Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. So if you don't like heat, there you go. The lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into the living fountains of water. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And that last phrase, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And so I've entitled it, A World Without Tears. John in chapter 14, the same one who wrote the book of Revelation, the apostle John, he was exiled on that island of Patmos where he writes the book of Revelation. But earlier John writes one of the unique sayings of Jesus Christ. It must have been a very difficult day for the disciples. No doubt Christ was speaking about his death and resurrection. They didn't want to really hear about that. He was speaking to them about the suffering and persecution that they were going to have to go through. And then he was talking to them about, you're going to have to drink this cup, and you're going to have to go through what I'm going through. So the disciples, no doubt, were having a difficult time. Jesus now turns and says to them in John 14, 1, Let not your heart be troubled. Ye 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 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. And you remember the response by Thomas. Well, where are you going? We don't know. And Jesus said, Thomas, have I been with you so long? I am the way, the truth, and the life. So one of the great promises that God makes to you and to I is that he is now preparing a place for us. He's been gone for 2,000 years, and he is now preparing this mansion for us. And when he's ready and done, and when that last one comes to know Christ, he is going to come and take his bride back into heaven, and there is going to be the marriage feast of the Lamb. And we will be able to occupy that great place. But the key is that Jesus Christ made a promise. I am preparing a place, and I'm also preparing a people. And the great thing about accepting Jesus Christ is that you now get to enjoy everything that God has. Now, I look around the world in which I live, and I see the pain and the agony and the tears and the heartache. And having a church this size, I hear so many horrible things, terrible things all over the world. And we hear about things. We see the destruction of war. We see what terrorism is doing. We see the fear and how our kids are out there on the street, and some of them are doing great and some are doing bad. And some marriages are doing good and some marriages are doing bad. And some of us have been divorced, and some of us have buried our loved ones. And so life is very difficult to live. Even with the Lord, life is tough, but God is good. And the thing that God is saying today to you and I is, listen, when you took my son and you believed on him, do you understand what you also get in spite of all that? You get a heaven with no tears and no sorrow, no pain, no agony, no divorce, no sore bodies. In other words, you're never going to have to go through another operation in your whole life. And I like that. It's a wonderful thing. And when I begin to look at this, I begin to realize we have made a horrible mistake. We think for some reason this is heaven. And so we pour our life here, and we build nice things, and we buy nice things, and we like nice things. And there's nothing wrong with that. But you need to remember as you look out, this is not heaven. In other words, there's going to be pain, and there's going to be sorrow. There's going to be disappointment, and there's going to be great upheaval in our life. And we need to kind of have a hope. And that hope needs to be in what God said. And I believe that those who went before us, those who paid the price, those that gave their life, hung upon a cross and were crucified and died, and those that were persecuted beyond measure, they had a hope. And their hope was a better life, and that better life was heaven. And because we don't think about heaven, and because we don't understand heaven, we kind of think that this is it, and all we have is Jesus Christ, and we hope to get to heaven, but we have no idea what heaven's about. I want to share with you today what heaven is a little bit like. Because I want to tell you, when you understand heaven, and you're not going to hell, you're going to be real thankful. And not only that, but you're going to be able to have a little bit more patience, and you're going to be able to put up with things, because you know that when it's all said and done, you have a mansion ready. So if I'm going to make it, and be happy, and maintain, and last until the Lord comes, or until I die, I need to have a vision. And my vision needs to know that in my life, there's going to be a day that you will not have any more pain, and you will not die, and Satan will not mess with you, and you won't wake up bummed out, and you won't go through depression, and you won't go through heartache, and no one's going to hurt you because you're going to be with God. That's a wonderful day. But as long as I'm here today, I'm going to be in the neighborhood, we're going to get hurt, people are going to talk about us, people are going to say things, our kids are going to talk back, we're going to get mad, we're going to get divorced, we're going to do things we shouldn't do because we're in this body of flesh. So the key is, yes, you're in this world, but you're not of this world. You have a better place coming. So if God wants to bless you, so be it. If God wants you to sacrifice, so be it. But listen, you can hold a little bit more of the understanding, and you can be more patient with your children and with your spouse and with the things you do and don't have if you understand there's a heaven waiting for you. And so the first thing I realized, very simply, is in heaven, there will be no more sorrow or sin, no more disappointment or disasters in your life, and no more Satan messing with you. It's going to be Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And here, He says the very first thing, in heaven, there will be no tears. Notice with me in chapter 7, verse 17, a world without tears, isn't that amazing? He says, For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them into the living fountains of water. Now, underlying, the Lamb will feed you, and God shall wipe away all your tears from your eyes. There's a scripture in the book of Psalms, it says in verse 56, verse 8, Thou tell my wonderings, put thou my tears into a bottle, are they not written in the book? So every tear and every emotional moment you have in your life, God holds. Because it hurts God when you are hurting. And when you cry, and when you begin to tear up, those are liquid prayers, or those are just emotions that are unbelievable. It is the crushing of a heart. It is the devastation of a will. It is a disaster of something gone wrong. And it's an upheaval in your heart. You're broken. And it can be because you're hurting for somebody, or someone has really hurt you. Or because your life is out of control. Or because things don't make sense. It can be because of fear, or because you lost a loved one. There are so many reasons why tears begin to happen. And we've always heard, as men, don't cry. That is the most foolish thing you can ever hear. Real men do cry, and real women do cry. In other words, tears are part of our life. They're a cleansing. But they're a moment in our life that we lose control. Where all of a sudden, out of the depths of our heart, we just break. And it can be a quiet moment. It can be in a bathroom, hiding from a husband, because you're so mad you want to just go after him. It can be with a child that's disappointment. It can be with, you know, whatever. It can be with a church, or with someone falling apart. But tears, and the emotional upheaval, and every one of us have gone through that. Your boyfriends have broken up. Girlfriends have broken up. Some of you are widowed. Some of you are not happy. Some of you have gone through horrible moments. But listen, because of Jesus Christ, He can take that sorrow, and He can turn it to joy. He can take the heaviness, and begin to give you a garment of praise. God can turn it around. But it doesn't mean He won't take the tears away. But one day, when you get to heaven, you will never cry again. You're never going to feel that emotion, that upheaval, that emotional torment in your own heart, your own life. Because you're not going to ever be disappointed. And so the Bible says, no more tears. And that's what I want to share with you this morning. There are certain things in heaven that will never happen. No more tears. No more emotional upheaval. No more disappointment. No more insecurity, or fears, or rebellion going on. It's going to be Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And you're going to be rejoicing in a brand new body. Your mind is not going to think evil. And your heart is not going to think wicked. Because there's no more sin or Satan. In other words, you have a brand new body, a brand new mind and heart, and you're worshipping God for the rest of your life. And it's going to be the greatest day in your heart. And all you're going to do is say, Thank you, Lord, for the rest of your life. So here, you're going to have tears. There are going to be moments where you just get so discouraged in life. But you need to realize, when your heart is shattered, you need to turn to Christ. And when your will is devastated, you need to turn to Christ. And when people talk about you, you need to look to Christ. And when people stab you in the back, you need to look to God. And yes, the tears are going to flow. But listen, one day they never will. And so I look forward to a day that my emotional makeup is different. Because God now has filled me, and changed me, and I've been transformed by the renewing of my mind, and God's given me a brand new body. It's going to be a wonderful day to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. That this corruption is going to put on incorruption. And then there's going to be a metamorphosis, a changing. And in a moment, God's going to give me a brand new body. I'll have hair maybe, and you won't. It'll be a wonderful day. It's just I know no more hospitals, or no more surgeries, or no more... I can't wait. But until then, I have to be strong, and victorious, and go through it. And every day, wake up with pain. But one day, there will be no tears, and no sorrow. And sometimes the tears that you cry, that you don't even know the people know, God knows. And God knows the pain, and the sorrow, and the agony. But in other words, God loves you. You know, there's a great verse, I've got to share it. Isaiah 25, verse 8. He will shadow the death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off your face. Almost like a divine handkerchief. He'll come and pat your eyes, and He says, no more tears. In other words, God today, He'll hold you. The Bible says, when you grieve, He'll comfort you. When you're moaning, He'll interpret it. In other words, everything that you go through, God understands. And God's there to hold you, and embrace you. And He'll catch the tears when you begin to cry. But one day, you won't need to be held, because you'll be with Christ. It's going to be a wonderful day. Amen? It's going to be a glorious day. No tears. And so they're gone forever. Another thing I realize is no more hunger. Oh, you're going to rejoice. You think, well, praise God. I'm hungry now, thinking about Baker Square. We're talking about what two-thirds of the world is starving to death. In other words, they don't know where food is coming. Their stomachs are bloated. But here, I think a different way. We're starving because we need fellowship. And we're hungering for God. And we know we should be with God. And we should hang out with God. But we don't. And we know that we should put God first. But we don't. And so, in our spirit, we're hungry. Our spirit is starving. And yet, we're just barely feeding it. Well, one day, you are going to be fed by the Lamb Himself. And you will never know the guilt or the shame of not going to God. Today, we live with the guilt. We live with the shame. We feel the hunger. We feel the pain. We feel the agony. In third worlds, they feel physically hungry. But today, we feel that spiritual hunger. We can have churches on every single corner. And there can be great things going on. But we're not letting God feed our soul. And so it messes our life up. One day, you will never need to worry about that. We need to get up and have devotions. And we should. And we should enjoy it. But some of us are too busy. One day, you're going to be a devotion. You're going to be with the Lord. And God's going to change your whole life. But until then, how do you solve the hunger? You turn to God. No hunger whatsoever. And then He says in Isaiah 49 verse 10, No thirst. It says, They shall hunger no more, nor thirst, nor shall the heat nor sun smite them. In other words, you're never going to be hot. It's going to be perfect air condition all the time. For He that has mercy on them shall lead them. But listen, thirst. Some of us are thirsting. We thirst after lust. Or we thirst after this. Horses speaking about water. People are dying in starvation. And starving to death. But they're also dying because they can't get water. Well, here we are in a country that has everything. But we're so filled with material things. I need this. I've got to have that. And it's never enough. I'm right there with you. We've got to have a nicer car. A bigger home. Have more clothes. Have more things. We've got to work more. Do more. In other words, we have no time to throw the ball with the kid. Or sit down with the wife. Why? Because we're busy getting things. Because we're thirsting. But we're not thirsting for God. We're thirsting for things. And all of a sudden, they don't fill us. They're nice. It's nice to have a nice home. And it's nice to have a nice car. But they don't bring satisfaction. And so all the things we thirst for. All the dreams of families. And all the things that we want in our life. The new cell phone. The new this. The new that. It's all gone. You're going to be in heaven. And you're never going to thirst. You're going to be totally satisfied. You're never going to want. Never going to need. Never have to have. In other words, when you get to Jesus. You're going to realize that He is the lover of your life. And you're going to be so filled with love. You're never going to take your eyes off of Him. You're going to hold Him. And see Him. And be able to fellowship. And talk. And minister. And love. And there will be no pain. And no sorrow. And no... Nothing up there. I mean, just nothing but the grace of God. Nothing of sorrow. No pain. No thirst. No hunger. And I think today, we live our life. Trying to feed ourselves. Or trying to want to do things. And it's hard to fit Christianity in. You see, in the early days. They didn't have a choice. Today, we live in a very materialistic world. If the church isn't a certain way. We go find another church. Or if the pastor isn't a certain way. We go find another pastor. Wasn't that way before. It tells us the world is thirsting. But one day. I'm going to be satisfied. Deep down inside. It can happen today. I can ask Christ into my heart. I can hang out with the Holy Spirit. He can show me who I am. He can begin to minister to my heart. And I can even have a little bit of heaven right here. Because I can live in heaven here. Because I live above. And so I can bring heaven down to this earth. And I can teach people how to be content. Or how to be satisfied. Or how to go without. In other words, I can really live this Christian life. If I know that after this. I have a place I'm going to go. So I can suffer. Or I can give a little bit more. I can walk that second mile. I can be a little bit more patient. Because down the road. There's going to be a place in heaven for me. In other words, this is the gift. So Jesus said. Because you've accepted me. This is what my Father wants to give you. No tears. No hunger. No sorrow. No thirst. And another one. I read is no death. If you go with me to Revelation 21.4. There's no more death. In Revelation 21.4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death. No sorrow. No crying. Neither shall there be any more pain. Amen. No more pills. For the former things are passed away. Revelation 21.4. Let me read that to you that are sick. And God shall wipe away the tears. And there will be no more death. No more sorrow. No more crying. There shall be no more pain. And everything is gone. In other words. When you get to heaven. A brand new body. All the aches. And all the pain. And all the moans. And all the groans. When you get older. You're going to feel. And it's a wonderful thing. To wake up and feel. Wow. I'm in heaven. But until that time. You're going to have arthritis. Until that time. Your bones are going to ache as you get older. Your mind is going to get a little fuzzy. Your ears are going to get a little dull. Your eyes are going to get a little dim. That could be a good thing. Someone flirting at you. You can't hear them. See some gal looking at you. You can't see her. By the time you run after her. She's already gone. So it's a good thing. Getting old. You know. You shouldn't be doing that anyway. But it kind of works for you. It's amazing. What do you say honey? What? What? What? And then I hear. Hey. It's time to eat. Yeah. Okay. Great. I can hear you now perfectly. You know. I just hung myself. But anyway. Death. Jesus wept. He wept over Lazarus. He wept because he physically saw the pain and the agony. Some of you have lost your children. Some of you have lost your mom and dads. Some of you have lost your best friends. It's absolutely devastated you. And we don't want to talk about it. We go to Baker Square. Hey. Let's talk about dying. No. We sit down. Hey. You want to talk about death? No. No one talks about dying. Why? We save that for what? The funeral. And we don't want to go there. And it's the only time we talk about dying. And yet Jesus, one quarter of the Bible is about dying. Going to heaven. So you ought not to be afraid. If you're absent in the body, you're going to be with the Lord. Now do you want to die? No. We want to live. But I'll tell you what. If you die, you're going to be with the Lord. But you're going to die. Some of you are not going to be here next year. Maybe not me or my wife or my kids. I can't plan that. And it's going to rip my heart. It's going to tear me apart. But I'll tell you what. In heaven, no one's going to die. I'll never have to go through that emotion of losing or filling the pain or filling the loneliness because someone's gone out of my life. Because God's going to fill it. And down here, I look around. Oh, this is heaven. This is not heaven. He's the God of this world, Satan. And we live in this world. And we're part of this world. And we go through this world. And we need to make an impact. But we can't make an impact if we're afraid of dying. And we can't make an impact if we're lusting after everything. We need to really get a hold of this thing that, listen, maybe we don't get it now, but we'll get it in the end. And maybe we might get it now, and we're still going to get it in the end. So I'll tell you what. Let's be faithful. And let's look to God. Don't try to make this heaven. Live here. Enjoy it. God can bring heaven into your life and into your heart, into your marriage. But He's going to have to do that through you, through a relationship, not through what you own. But in heaven, there's no death. And then the spiritual death. What a horrible thing. Remember Jesus? He wept over Jerusalem because He knew they were dead. So sometimes there's that spiritual death. Oh, Lord, help me. I just, I just, I'm dying. I feel dead inside. And think about that for a moment. How many times we feel like we've backslidden. Or we're not right with God. Or we feel like we've let somebody down. And the guilt and the shame, it's all gone. In other words, all this emotional upheaval is gone. Because God is in our heart, and we're in heaven. As long as you live in this body of Adam, you're going to suffer. You're going to have difficult times. Satan's going to come after you. You're going to have moments you trust God, moments you don't. Moments you really get the victory, moments you don't. It's going to be a battle. And that's what Jesus said. As I yield my body, reckon my body, I give it to God. But it's going to fall apart. And one day, it won't. In other words, the war is over. And when I think about death, I begin to realize, Lord, you have done it. No more death. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Let me give you two more. No more darkness. I like this the best. No more darkness. It says in Revelation 21-23, And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God did light it. Isn't that cool? In other words, the sun is falling apart. The stars are going out. What you see, they're already gone. They just haven't got here yet. New stars are being born. The moon's a reflection. It's all just creation. But Jesus is going to shine seven times brighter. And there will not be a need for the sun, or for the stars, or for the moon. For He is the light. And guess what? He's in your heart. He's in your heart shining right now. When you asked Christ into your heart, He came in. And so we live in this world. Now here this is. Jesus said, Men love darkness rather than the light. And that's why we're losing our kids. That's why we're losing our husbands and wives. That's why we're losing our church. Because darkness is pulling. And darkness is fun. And sin is fun. And righteousness is hard. But sin is difficult. It's kind of like a banana split or broccoli. Which one do you want? Well, sin is that banana split. And righteousness is like broccoli. I mean, Moses said sin is enjoyable. Only for a season. Then it will kill you. And so sin is always attractive. But I'll tell you what. There's deception. And there's darkness. And there's moments in our life, and moments in your life, that sometimes you just get depressed. Sometimes the darkness begins to overwhelm you. You can't see God. You can't feel God. You have to live by faith. And Satan comes in and he hassles you. And he lies about relationships. And you kind of have to go through this life trusting God. One day, no darkness. One day, no messing. One day, everything is just lit up. Because He is the Son. He is Jesus Christ. He is the glory of God. In other words, you're going to be there. No pain. No sorrow. No tears. No son. Just Jesus. And you're going to be lovers forever. Never ever having a problem. Never ever dying for the rest of your life. And then, this is kind of sad, but hang on. If you like surfing, if you like your boats, you buy your boats, you spend all that money, you park them. Doesn't make no sense whatsoever. You buy the jet skis, you pay the money every month, and they sit there. Because you're too busy getting other jobs to pay for the jet skis. So you don't use them. Let me tell you something. This might help you. In the new heaven, new earth, no sea. So it says right here in Revelation 21, verse 1, Now let me tell you what I think. I think John, being on that island, having that sea in front of him, he was separated. And he just probably, by the inspiration of God, heard God say that in the new heaven and the new earth, there is no sea. In other words, it's just going to be land. In other words, nothing is going to divide. And so the sea is gone. So if you enjoy all those sports, get going. But remember, the sea has been a devastating thing. The sea has sunk the Titanic. And the sea has taken lives. And people die in the sea every single day. And that's why the Bible says the sea is going to give up the dead. In other words, it's going to be gone. Just Jesus Christ. I remember one day I took my wife on a romantic boat ride. Romantic. Out on the lake, showing off my bandana. I was singing. We were flying. And then we hit a stump. Broke the propeller. I looked up. She was at least 6 feet up in the air. By the grace of God, she came back down in the boat. And then we just coasted to a stop. That was the end of our romantic boat ride. So she didn't want to go out with me no more. So parked the boat. And didn't let me run with the boat. Use it or get rid of it. In other words, enjoy your life. But remember, it doesn't make you better. There's no sea. And then Jesus Christ is the Lord of all. There's no churches. There's no little cliques. There's no little things going on. Not the Baptists or the Calvary or the Calvinists or this denomination or the Pentecostal. No. Check this one verse out and we'll close here. This is the greatest verse. In Revelation 21-22. And I saw no temple therein for the Lord our God, the Lamb, is the temple himself. That's so cool. It's like I'm from Calvary. I'm from the Baptist church. To go to heaven and hear everyone boasting. No one's going to boast. No one's going to brag. No church. I'm just a brand new person with a brand new body with a brand new life with a wonderful God. Pastor Steve Mays. With an exciting look at our future in heaven. Glad to have you with us today on Light of the Word. You know all too often people think of salvation in Christ as a kind of retirement plan for the future. And so it is. But what about our earthly existence? Are there ways we can enjoy these great benefits today? Pastor Steve Mays says absolutely. Throughout his series on Revelation he shares the importance of tapping into the power of Christ for today. It's tremendous encouragement that will help you navigate through the valleys of life. This new look at the book of Revelation is where Pastor Steve reveals not only insight concerning the last days but practical instruction that we can use as we wait for the Lord to return. By the way, today's message is part of the set. And we'll be glad to tell you how to get this collection on Revelation. Just contact us at 1-800-339-WISE and we'll give you all the details. 800-339-WISE You can also order it right now at our website lightoftheword.org That's lightoftheword.org When the 2012 Summer of Sermons continues Steve shares three great reasons to separate yourself from worldly living. Positive study that can keep you strong in the Lord. Next time on Light of the Word. Light of the Word.