Pastor Al Q&A - Death

What happens to people when they die? Well, if you don't know Christ, what's the answer? Hell. Why?

You're not righteous.

You're not righteous; what difference does that make? You're guilty and you're sinful and all that, but why does that mean you have to go to hell? Cause God is holy. You know what the term "holy" means? He's utterly, completely, thoroughly, infinitely perfect. And He will not allow anything in His presence that's not like that. Are you that way? Not on your own. But guess what. If we get Jesus Christ to come inside of us and be our life, then inside we have absolute perfection, before God. And so He says, "Glad to have you."

Now, is your body gonna make it into heaven? Nope, not until God recreates it in the resurrection, but you are if you know Christ. Why? Because you have Christ in you, and He is all the perfection you need. God says, "Glad to have you. Thanks for coming. I'm happy to have you with me forever. And I'm gonna give you a new body, eventually." Okay? So, if you don't have Christ, you gotta stand up there and say, "I'm guilty." God says, "You can't be in my presence. You're gone forever, and ever, and ever, with no chance of ever coming back. Hell is more unbelievably horrible than you and I can imagine. You oughta have a good grip in that. But what happens to the Christian, when he dies? Let's see.

After people die, do they go straight to heaven, or do they stay in their grave and nothing happens until the rapture, and then everyone goes to heaven? That's what my teacher says. I don't know who wrote that question, but good question. What do you think?

You go straight to heaven.

You go straight to heaven. Well, that'd be great, wouldn't it? How do you now that?

"Um, I don't know."

That's wishful thinking. Man, you're gonna bank your destiny on that? Whew. I'm teasing ya. Hey, the Bible says; it tells ya, flat out. Do you know that? It gives you a straight answer. It's really encouraging. In fact, you happen to be right, you just don't know why. Somebody look up a verse for me, would ya? Ah, I gotta find my, 2nd Corinthians, ah, shoot, I forgot to write it down. Now I'm in trouble; I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay, let's go into, agh, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 6. Are you there? Start reading.

"Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord."

'Kay, keep going.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight -- we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord."

Okay. So, what's it say there? If you are here, in the body, then you're apart from Christ, physically, aren't you? Even though Christ is in you, you're not with Him in heaven. He's in you how? By His Spirit. Remember, the Father is one with the Spirit is one with the Son. And so, the Son is in you through His Spirit, but you aren't with Him cause Christ is still physical; He's in heaven. But what does is say happens to you when you're absent from your body? You're present with Him. Yeah, you are right, that was great, huh, good deal. It's like a multiple-choice quiz and you finally got one right. Hey, would you rather it be that way? Why is it that way? Why is it, when you leave your body, you're with the Lord, instantaneously. Come on, reason with me. What have I been telling you? What does it mean to be a Christian? You're one with Him. Guess what, when you leave this body, what's gonna happen to ya? You're gonna be with Him, just like that. Why? Because He's sharing His life with ya. Where He is, you will be, okay? That's pretty cool, isn't it?

Now, I'm not sure exactly what it's gonna be like when you get there without a body. What's that gonna be like? I don't know. It kind of seems like, the Bible talks about, we're kind of given a temporary kind of body-like thing, because you look in Scripture and it talks about people in heaven doing certain things and saying certain things and kneeling down and stuff like that. And it looks like they got bodies, but there hasn't been a resurrection yet. So, you probably get something like a trailer house to live in. A temporary dwelling place until He then resurrects your body and makes it altogether new, like His incredibly, wonderfully, glorious and righteous, as an eternal, physical expression of who you are forever and ever in His presence.

So, who'sever teacher this is, probably got it a little bit wrong. Cause we don't just hang around until the rapture; we actually go to be with Christ. What happens at the rapture? Your bodies are raised up with Him, that's right. And how 'bout those of us who aren't dead then, what happens to us? We're transformed, it says, changed to be glorious creatures, rather than the people that we are.