“Our Confidence”
I Thessalonians 4:13-18 Text
Even in the of our physical body, the child of God has a Hope!
Christians sorrow, but it is temporary, our hope is eternal.
Hope (Gr.) expectation. Confidence or faith.
1) We have the confidence of Heaven.
St. John 14:1-4
II Corinthians 5:1
Just the sound of the name of Heaven brings a peace and a hope to our spirits.
Roget’s Thesaurus- Heaven is placed in a group of word displaying exquisite
concepts such as delightful, beautiful, divine, angelic, boundlessness, bliss,
the promised land, celestial, blessedness and spaciousness!
Descriptive words such as radiant, pure in heart and angelic.
2) We have the confidence of seeing family and friends.
II Samuel 12; 23
People question, “Will we know our loved ones in Heaven?”
Why would we not? It’s home! We will know them!
I Corinthians 13:12
Someone once said that, as a child when he thought of Heaven, he thought of a very cold ominous place with an innumerable amount of faceless angels. As years wnet by, one of his siblings died. When he then thought of Heaven, he pictured this family member, very lonely, standing in this ominous dark cold place with these faceless beings. As years went by, more and more of the family, friends and acquaintances went to their reward in Heaven. In the later years of his life, when this individual thought of Heaven, he lovingly thought of it as a place where he knew more of the population there than he did on earth.
3) We have the confidence of seeing Jesus
St. John 14:3 “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.”
I John 3:2
We have hope, confidence and faith. In Psalm 23:4, David speaks with this confidence, because the Lord is his Shepherd. We that are a part of the family live with eternal hope!
