Better Than You Can Imagine / Worse Than Literal Fire… Pick Your Eternity

To say that Jay Carty is an unusual communicator is a mild statement. Maybe a little nuts would be more accurate, not a preacher, not a teacher, more a storyteller with a very important message. Where some deep preachers are too snoozey for the rank and file, and where some humorists don’t have much to say, Jay’s stuff is generally regarded as an unusual blending of humor and profound content. A former Oregon State Basketball star and LA Laker, jay has dedicated his life to helping people say yes to God. Now, we hope you enjoy Carty’s contemporary classics.

And what are your odds of being like Enoch and Elijah? You want to bet on that one? Huh? No, it is appointed in a man and a woman, but wants to die and then comes judgment.

Now, spiritual death. You were born that way. Little babies are born spiritually dead. Now, I happen to believe that little babies go to heaven. David made it clear if a little baby dies, even though they’re born … Have you ever seen little babies play with each other? Give me rip. Oh, they’re sweet when they’re asleep, but they were born with your sin nature. They were. The virgin birth, the crucial doctrine. If Jesus isn’t born of a virgin, he would’ve got Adam’s sin transmitted through his dad. But because he has the Holy Spirit as his Father, he doesn’t get a sin nature. The sins of the parents, or sins of the father are visited upon the children for up to four generations. That’s where it comes from.

So, if Jesus isn’t born of a virgin, he wouldn’t qualify to die for his sin, let alone ours. But with the Holy Spirit as his Father, no sin nature, Jesus wasn’t an onion. But you are, right? And me too. See, you’ve got a sin nature. You were born spiritually dead.

Now, David said he would be with his baby in paradise. So, babies aren’t held accountable for their sin. So at what point does the child become accountable for its sin? I don’t know, Bible’s silent. That’s why if you know right from wrong, you want to know Christ.

I have a sister-in-law who’s in the state hospital in Sonoma. She’s almost 50 now chronologically, but she’ll never be more than a year and a half old. Not quite potty trained and she’s 50. And when she dies, she’ll go to heaven, I’m convinced because she’s only a year and a half old and Jesus never condemned a toddler.

My daughter is six, three, I have a son who’s six, 10 and my little girl, she was little once. When she was nine months old, she was about this tall and she couldn’t quite walk yet, but she could hold onto the furniture to get around. We had a low profile stereo in those days, that had drawers that slid this way, a stereo where it just played records. Have you ever seen those? The little black, round things? Not CDs, not tapes, records. You know what a record is? You’ve seen those? Record. Yeah, okay. Well, she loved to get her hand in there and click the clicker. Because when you clicked the clicker, the wheel went around and she could make the wheel go faster or go the other direction. Or, grab the arm and go … with it. So, we made the stereo a daddy no-no. And a daddy no-no in our household was an automatic, no questions asked, hand slap, before that was considered child abuse.

So, there’s my little girl and she got her foot out and go (singing). And I said, “Oh, Kim,” I called her that because it’s her name, sure. I say, “Kim, that’s a daddy no-no, I have to slap your hand.” I took the hand and she goes … So, I take the hand, I whack it. Now folks, make a long story short, I whacked the hand 20 times and on the 21st stick, I took that hand out and I whacked it, and her whole disposition changed, her whole demeanor altered. She went like this. She thrust her hand in the stereo and she stared at me. If she could’ve said it, she would’ve said, “Bite the wall, dad. Hang it in your ear, pop. I’m going to do what I want to do because I want to do it.” I was at war with a nine-month-old kid and if I’d lost the battle, I would’ve lost the war and the house would’ve been run by a nine-month-old tyrant. And I took the little hand and it was big and swollen and hot and puffy and throbbing and pulsating, and I whacked it. And she goes … and it was over. Where did she get that? From her mother. No, doesn’t stand the test of scripture. She clearly got it from moi.

When she was five years old, with her grandma beside the bed, not knowing nearly enough to get saved, it would seem to me, my little girl asked Jesus in life. And that’s her date? Time, date, and place. And she’s the Wycliffe missionary today. She was born again when she was five. Spiritual birth. She’d been born physically. I was born again, maybe when I was 14, for sure when I was 29. I asked Jesus in at 14, but didn’t live like it until I was 29. So, was I saved at 14 or 29? I don’t know. We’ll let the theologians battle it.

I know at 29 that I was born again. At least I was, but I’ve probably been all along, but I don’t know, I’m not going to get hung up about it. I confirmed it at 29.

This is why that’s important, folks, is because you still have the issue of eternity and you will spend it. Now, physically, I’m in good health. I just had a physical, my heart beat’s 50 beats a minute. My cholesterol’s 176, anything under 200’s pretty good. My good cholesterol’s 59, that’s excellent. But my PSA is .9, that’s wonderful. I have the blood chemistry of a 17 year old. I’ve just been locked in a really old body with a chicken neck.

I’m going to die healthier, but I am going to die, right? And when you die, you want to make sure you’re spiritually alive because you’re going to spend eternity either thar or thar. And let me tell you about those two choices.

I took all the verses on heaven and hell and I reduced them to a phrase or word. This is everything the Bible has to say about both heaven and hell. We’ll start with heaven. Place where God dwells, place of righteousness. You can worship God. If you don’t like to, you probably find you won’t get to.

Won’t be a have to, not in the sense that He requires it. It’s a have to in the sense of sneezing. When you have to sneeze, you’re going to sneeze, right? And most of you, when you sneeze, you go … you know like that? There are a few of you that go and ear wax goes … like that. But most of the folks go … and you see God, He’s so incredible. You won’t the praise, it’ll be … “Hallelujah … awesome.” You’ll just have to get it out or you’ll blow yourself to smithereens. No hunger, no thirst, no tears, no death, no sadness, no pain, no hard labor. Always be with the Lord, paradise, beautiful, magnificent, nothing unclean. God will be our light. No sun, no moon. God will be our light. That means no seasons, no day, no night, no months, no seasons. God will be our light. That means no time, no young, no old.

I think. I mean sure, but I mean, there’s the fetus, there’s you at your age, there’s no age, no … We don’t understand all that, but no, God will be our light. No seasons, no time. Lots of places to dwell. Took six days to make this. This is pretty good, right? Before we messed it up, it’s really gorgeous. Christ been working on heaven for about 2,000 years, so it’s liable to be nice.

Oh, here’s one, no sex. I have a friend who said, “If there’s no sex in heaven, he’s not sure he wants to go.” But if everything in heaven is better than anything on Earth, well, let’s go. That sounds pretty good to me. Actually, there’ll be no need for it. Sex is given to us as that mechanism, to so bond us with our spouse to see us through the most difficult times of life. You’ll be perfectly bonded with each person that’s there. So, no need for the mechanism. New perfect bodies to be able to slam dunk from the waist. Every spiritual blessing will be yours. Physical description used all that’s the ultimate in beauty, gold, silver, jewels, crystals, stuff like that.

You’ll retain your personality with your sin nature removed. You’ll be served by angel. You’ll be served by Christ. I cried when I figured that out, he’s out washing feet. He doesn’t sit on a throne with a scepter ruling and reigning, he’s out washing feet. The ultimate servant leader. No time or time limitations. In charge of many things. You’ll worship and reign and serve in proportion to what with your time, talent and treasure. And you’ll do everything perfectly.

Never have to say, “Excuse me,” because you won’t ever offend anyone. The best here is just a foretaste of heaven. Oh, did you know, you all have the same amount of time, talent, treasure? I think I covered this last time I was here, but let’s just make sure. We have 24 hours to work with and you have the same amount of money. And you have the same amount of talent. Let me prove it to you. I have a ministry, Yes! Ministry, so let’s say you have a million dollars and you want to give me a hundred thousand of it for the ministry, which is the greatest gift. See, works in terms of proportion.

Billy Graham is utilizing 80% of his God-given ability and his God-given sphere of influence and you’re utilizing 85% of your God-given ability, and your more limited sphere of influence. Yours is the greater reward because God rewards according to percentage. We’re all in the same boat, isn’t that fun?

Oh, this is hell. You keep your personality with your sin nature turned loose. Satisfaction, never available. Absence of all that’s good, presence of all that’s bad and evil. Unrestrained demonstration of selfish urges, no fulfillment, continual burning, consuming fire, unquenchable fire. People argue as to whether or not it’s literal fire. It’s probably literal. If it’s not literal, then it’s worse than if it is literal. Let me explain that.

Look at the Grand Canyon. Will your words describe it? No, can’t touch it. Can’t begin to describe what’s actually there. So, if fire is allegory and it’s our best attempt to describe how bad it is and if it’s not literal fire, then whatever it is, it’s worse than a literal fire.

So, if it’s allegory, that’s not good. That’s worse. You understand how that works? And it still can be literal fire, even though it’s a place of utter outer darkness. Let’s go to your high school chemistry, Bunsen burner. Outside’s relatively cool, tip’s fairly cool. Hottest spot, right at the top of the blue cone inside, right? But the coolest spot’s right at the base. Where the material becomes gaseous and combustible, right there, there’s a place that’s devoid of light. The only way you can see it is because of reflected light. What’s the definition of darkness? Absence of light. Every fire that’s a pure fire has a spot that has no light.

Hell can be utter outer darkness and still be fire if it’s big enough. That’s wild, isn’t it? Eternal destruction, outer darkness, weeping, gnashing of teeth. No presence of God, no glory of God’s power. Like the fire burns with brimstone, the fire of second death, extreme anguish, worse than death itself. You understand that if it’s not literal, minimally as I said this morning, hell is at least a place where there’s the total absence of God. God has turned this world over to the enemy as a place to test our faith, but He still has brakes on the world. It can’t run unchecked, He still has his hand on it. Can you imagine what it will be when He removes His hand?

Well, some people would rather be there than be in God’s presence. The two great armies of the world that march with a goose step, the German army, the Third Reich army, the Nazi army and the Soviet army. Why a goose step? Stiff knee stiff neck. The atheist armies of the world, stiff knee, stiff neck. Nobody wants to bow the knee and bow the head to God, because then you can’t be your own God. See, the minute you admit that there is a God, you can’t be your own God.

So, hell will be a place where there is the total absence of God, minimally, whether or not it’s fire, it’s the total absence of God. Is that what you want? You get to decide. Degrees of punishment though, devil goes in first. Well actually, the beasts of the prophet go in first, a thousand years later here comes the devil and then the demons and I had one junior hire yell out, “And then the Celtics.” And I said, “Yes.” They beat us out of a ring in the seventh game of the finals. Oh, killed me.

Cindy Lauper’s wrong. She said, “I can hardly wait to go to hell. All my friends are there and we’re going to party forever.” And Cindy, those screams are not party hearty screams. Satan does not rule there with a scepter on the throne either. It’s a place created for his eternal torment. Wrath and fury, tribulation distress, sudden destruction, no escape, pits of nether gloom. Torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest.