Don't Love the World

Christians today are struggling, being persecuted, heavy burdened. Aren't we? Each one in a different color, different taste, but all of us struggle, all of us go through hardships, being persecuted, and we are heavy burdened a lot of times. A time will come, no more struggles.

That is the new heaven. That is the new Christian. There will be no more struggles, no more suffering, no more finished, the end.

It'll be all happiness and joy. Israel today, as we speak, is living in denial of her Messiah. Till now they still say Christ hasn't come yet.

Till now they say Christ hasn't come yet. But a time is coming where the Israelite people who are denying the Lord now, they will confess and they will profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and they will worship Him. This is the new earth.

The Israelites who are living in denial of the Lord, they will worship the Lord at a later stage. That is the new earth. The new heaven, Christians who are struggling now, there will be no more struggles for the Christians.

That is the new heaven. Another way of looking at a new heaven and a new earth. Christians today, from the outside, they are in agony.

From the inside, they are being renewed by the day. And when I say Christians, I'm talking about the true faithfuls, true followers of the Lord. From outside, you are persecuted.

From outside, you're struggling. From outside, you're having hardships. But as you are being persecuted from outside, from the inner person is being renewed by the day.

Therefore, Christians from outside, they are old. But from the inside, they are new. So the old heaven is external to us, but the new heaven is internal.

Old, I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm being kicked, punched, ridiculed every single day.

I am the old heaven from outside. But from inside, I'm at peace. I find my Lord.

I am in harmony with the Lord. We are one from within. Therefore, today's Christians, externally, they are the old heaven, but internally, they are the new heaven.

Like St. Paul puts it, from outside, we're being punched, kicked, and dragged in the streets. But from inside, we are renewed every single moment. We are new.

Also, my beloved, when the Lord Jesus calls us, the true Christians, to Him at the end, what is He going to do? He's going to give us a glorified body. This glorified body sins no more, no longer weak, no longer struggles, no longer finds hardships. You see, now our struggle is because of our earthly body.

This earthly body drags me in the streets of this world. The spirit says, I want to go to church. The body says, I want to go clubbing, baby.

I want to dance with somebody. Get down, brother. I'm going clubbing.

I'm rapping. Like somebody, someone asked me one day, he said, Bishop, do you like M&M's? I said, yeah, they're nice chocolate. He was talking about a rapper called M&M.

I didn't realize it was like, yeah, a rapper. So I like another rapper in a box called M&M chocolate. Right.

So the body gives us mischief. Like St. Paul puts it, the things I want to do, I'm unable to do. But the things I do not wish to do, then I do.

You see, that's the body. That's the body. That is the old heaven from outside.

I want to do what pleases the Lord, but the weakness of the body takes me and makes me do things that are against the Lord. So externally, I am old, but internally, the spirit is fighting to be renewed by the day. When the Lord calls you at the end to Him, He knows your struggles.

He knows your weaknesses. He knows where you fail and where you succeed. But when the Lord sees your intention is Him, when you are seeking Him from the heart, when you are truly longing to be with Him, yet your weakness is hindering you from getting to Him, since He knows your intention, He will call you to Him one day and He'll make you remain with Him forever.

When He calls you that day, He will replace this earthly body that gave you hell with a glorified body that will give you heaven. And when He gives you that glorified body, then I saw a new heaven. But this time, this new heaven is new from without and new from within.

No more suffering, no more struggles, no more tears, no more sins, living in joy and happiness and the love of the Lord and the heaven of all heavens forever. And He will wipe every tear from your face. No more.

Then we'll be new from outside and from inside. But now, with faith, I'm new from inside, but I'm old from outside. Just one thing, when He says the first heaven and the first earth passed away, I'd like to say this, the first heaven and the first earth passed away.

What does that mean? We need to know one thing, my beloveds, material never fades away. Material never fades away. But what happened to the material? It changes.

But for it to disappear, just to perish, that doesn't happen. So material will never perish, fade away. But material, one thing happens to it, it changes.

I'll give you an example. When something is burnt, a piece of wood was lit on fire. That wood is a material.

You see, that material did not just fade, disappear, evaporate. But what happened to that wood? It turned into ashes. So what happened to the material? Changes, but never disappears.

It changes. Therefore, the first heaven and the first earth passed away, Christ will change and make them new heaven and new earth. This earthly body, He will change it into glorified spiritual body.

But has the body faded away and disappeared? No, it just changed because what God has created will stay, but He will change it into a much more exalted glorified status. That's all. So this body will change into a spiritual glorified body.

Christ, our Lord and King came to change what was old into new. That's what He came for. Everything that was of old, Christ came to make it fresh, new.

The old Adam into the new Adam. The old Adam troublesome. The old Adam transgressor against God's law.

The new Adam faithful, loyal to God's law. The old Adam earthly. The new Adam heavenly.

The old Adam temporal. The new Adam eternal. The old Adam weak.

The new Adam strong. The old Adam mortal. The new Adam immortal.

He changed. He came to change what was old into new, my beloved. Therefore, material doesn't fade away, but rather changes.

This old earth, i.e. the body, will change and be new glorified spiritual body. Same body, but changed from earthly to spiritual. Is it hot? Must be me then.

Did you get it? Not doing. Very good. Now we continue with verse one.

It says, also there was no more sea. God, we said God gave Abraham how many blessings? Three blessings. One, your descendants will be like stars of heaven.

Two, dust of the earth. Three, sand on the seashore. But here it says, but there was no more sea.

Now the sand is to do with the sea. Wherever there is the sea, the borderline is sand related to the sea. So since there is no sea, there is not going to be any more sand.

I think I heard what I heard here. Now who is the sand? We said is Ishmael. Now here we're talking in a way that is symbolic.

We're not talking about the literal sense. Now the stars of the heaven are those who are true followers of Christ. The dust of the earth are the true Israelites that will confess and profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and God.

They will be the dust of the earth. But the sand of the seashore will be no more. Why? Because I'll give you a few reasons why the sea will not be seen in heaven anymore.

Now we said that chapter 21 is talking about the glorified church. This is talking about heaven. Why is there not going to be a sea in heaven anymore? The sea here symbolically represents worldly people.

People that live for the world. People that live for the flesh. People that live for materialism only.

People that worship the creation rather than the creator. This is the sea. All these people are the sea.

Yes. So the sea will be seen no more. Meaning every worldly person cannot exist in heaven.

Cannot be. Why? Because they chased the wrong God. Some people made their God money.

Some people made their God fame. Some people made their God power. Some people made their God the throne.

Such people will never inherit the kingdom of God.