The Puzzle Is Real

Next Stop, Heaven!

• Matt & Melissa Pisani • Season 1 • Episode 44

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Have you ever thought about life with an eternal perspective? Join Matt & Melissa Pisani as they discuss the reality that Heaven awaits! Be a part of God's story today by sharing His light to this dark world. 

www.mattandmelissapisani.com

@puzzleisreal

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Puzzle is Real podcast where we will be discussing faith, family, and Relationships hosted by Matt and Melissa Paani. This is The Puzzle is Real podcast when you know, you know.

Speaker 2:

All right. Here we are back with another jam packed, enthusiastic, boring, fun. Hope you pay attention. Don't get distracted. Episode

Speaker 3:

<laugh>, all of it mixed into one giant bowl of words. Yeah. And ideas.

Speaker 2:

A fruit bowl

Speaker 3:

And mission and,

Speaker 2:

And gummy bears

Speaker 3:

As our kids love those gummy bears

Speaker 2:

<laugh>. So, hey, we are, uh, we're really happy to be on another episode and thanks for everyone that keeps

Speaker 3:

Streaming.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Keep streaming stream, baby. We appreciate it. We wanted to talk to you guys tonight about a, a topic of I think controversy at times and I'll, I'll just open it up with, um, a question, Melissa. Yes. If you were to die today mm-hmm.<affirmative> and stand before God, do you know you would go to heaven? Would, would he an allow you to enter into his kingdom?

Speaker 3:

Well, according to scripture and according to I guess me surrendering my life to Jesus, yes. Um, yes, I believe I will go to heaven. But I think years ago I thought I was going to heaven, but according to the scripture, I maybe would've not.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I think this is gonna be one of those episodes that really gets people's wheels spinning. Cuz the main question is always, do we think we're all going to heaven? Does everybody go to heaven? Mm-hmm.<affirmative> And I would be the first to admit, no, I did not think I was always going to heaven. I probably questioned it for the time in my life where I was not honoring God. I was disconnected from relationship with him. And I was pretty far from any type of, you know mm-hmm.<affirmative>, repentance, just living in sin.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And I also, I mean this is my opinion here, this is not based on anything, but I think, um, you know, a lot of people say, well I said the salvation prayer or I did this, but yet they're not making that daily commitment every single day to follow Jesus, to submit to him because they've kind of taken that as the free gift to say, well I did this already, so I'm going to heaven. I mean, I don't, I don't know. I think it has to be a daily commitment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I think of, um, in Matthew, the book of Matthew chapter seven and some of you're gonna be like, oh, I know where he's going. Verse 21 to 23. And it says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. But the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name, name and do many mighty works in your name and then I will declare it to them. I never knew you. Mm.

Speaker 3:

That's sobering.

Speaker 2:

Depart for me, you workers of lawlessness. Mm. Oof. So that's pretty powerful cuz like I know that can be like convicting if you're following the Lord and you're doing his works, but yet lack the relationship. Right. In other words, like you're doing really cool stuff, kingdom stuff, but you get so caught up in doing kingdom stuff and doing the works that you forget about the relationship. And I think isn't that kind of how life is just with people?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And I actually got convicted recently, and I always think about the Mary and the Martha, right? Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, it's like the Martha wants to go and get all the things done and prepare all the things. And Mary just sits at Jesus' feet. And I think I've mentioned this in one of the other podcasts because just the other day I'm like, oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. And then I'm like, no, I need to like, spend time with my children and do the things that he wants me to do and like put on worship music and let the kids dance and have fun and, you know, so it's, it is a daily commitment and um, I think sometimes we need those promptings and those reminders. Yeah. And this whole episode that we're gonna talk about is having that eternal perspective. Not, you know, thinking about Yes, we wanna think about the day and you know, a year ahead, but we also want to think about eternity because not today, I mean, tomorrow is not promised.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And I think,

Speaker 3:

And where are we going?

Speaker 2:

It's really important for everyone to know that this is not to, um, to beat anyone up and say like, oh, people are going to hell man. They gotta listen to this. This isn't fire and brimstone. Hey, when, when I recommitted my life to Jesus, I was a, a straight train wreck and it took me time and I'm still nothing without him and I'm still a work in progress and I still make mistakes and have to repent. So it's a constant pilgrimage journey that we go on. But the power is in saying, I've decided to follow Jesus. I've decided to repent, turn from, and repentance is turning from right that act of sin or that act of constantly living in error and living in, um, you know, any type of wickedness or whatever that you fill in the blank thing is that has stopped you and separated from God, draw into relationship with him again. And as you continue to draw into relationship with him, you're not gonna want disconnect. Right. And that's really important. And I think it's even more important that you know, that it's never too late to keep building. It doesn't have to be a, a legalistic, regimented thing that, you know, somebody gives you the handbook. This is how you st stay in, um, you know, covenant mcat. This is how you spend time with God. You seek God on that. He will show you. But we know that the more the time that we play, pray and continue to stay in covenant and also abide in him, man, when we do all those things, it's powerful. And, and just the fact of worshiping the Lord, dancing before the Lord, just how David did, that's really powerful. Right. If you can seek him with all your heart, soul, and mind, love him with all your heart, soul, and mind and strength, if you can literally each day have a new song on your heart for him, that's where the money is. It's not about always just the works. The works will come as an extension of your relationship and your love for him and with him. And then he's gonna instill love in you. That's his holy spirit. That's him saying, Hey, I'm gonna come upon you as you seek me. I'm gonna come upon you. So for everyone that's out there that's saying, Hey, well I don't know how to do that. It's as simple as sitting silent, reading the word of God. And then you go a little deeper and say, well, is there like a, a Christian song or a worship song that I really enjoy? And you put that on, you spend that time with God and allow him to speak into your heart and mind he'll do the rest.

Speaker 3:

Or even journal too, I think. Yeah. That's something that has always been therapeutic for me in a lot of ways. And before I was saved, I didn't even realize that that was my way of like praying to God, even though like I always believed in God, but I just didn't fully surrender my life until I was in my late twenties. But you know, journaling is a great way to just get the thoughts going. And sometimes God takes over your pen and you look back and you read things. You're like, what? That doesn't even sound like me. Cause I feel like God will work through you, however you're willing to have that quiet time and to spend that time with him. So whether it's just sitting in silence, reading the Bible, putting on music, journaling, I mean, God can use any of it as long as we're willing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. And it says in the Bible that no one will come to the Father except through me. That's Jesus. Right. And I think we also have to remind ourselves that this is our father through the salvation of Jesus, right. Through his son, he's adopted us. Like we get to play with our father, we get to sit with him and, and dream with him and sing to him and with him. So that's really important, I think when you really personalize it. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, he's not a foreign God. He's a very intimate and loving father. Mm-hmm.<affirmative> who cares about every little thing that we can imagine and think of before we even say it. Okay. So I just wanted to encourage everyone, like take advantage of that. There are people that have been misled, that are following religions and are missing out on relationship with the father. So cool.

Speaker 3:

It is really cool. And it just, as you follow Jesus, I think your purpose, um, I don't know. It just, it becomes so clear when you're searching in the world for that validation and that promotion and the money and all that stuff. I mean, it means nothing. It really means nothing. And I think when you follow Jesus and you are doing his will for your life, and that's just whatever, it's a daily commitment every single day to say, all right, God, what do you want me to do today? You don't have to figure it all out and say, oh, this is the will for my life and this is what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my life. I think it's something that we're figuring in figuring out Yeah. Throughout our journey, whether it's to, you know, he's about saving souls. He wants to bring us all to heaven, so he's gonna use us in whatever way to bring people to his kingdom. And I think that's such a big concept, but it's, it's so beautiful in a lot of ways. And you know, I just, I see how he's working in our lives and just how he put us in a new place because he wanted us to reach the people down here and build relationships and also just to kind of expand our reach and for our children. I mean, I can go on and on. I'm probably rambling right now, but<laugh>,

Speaker 2:

Preach. Preach.

Speaker 3:

No, it's just, um, I think when you live outside of your own self and you're doing something that's a, a mission that God has put us on this earth for a mission for a reason. And when you're walking in that purpose, I think it just gives you so much excitement because you're like, wow, this is not about me. This is about him and he's going to use me. I mean, like, the God of the universe is going to use you to like, bring people to Jesus. Like that's incredible. And

Speaker 2:

I think it's also like really purposeful and exciting when we remind ourselves this is an internal perspective that we're talking about. We're talking about eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. We can't forget. Like there is a hell, there's a real place that unfortunately those that do not wanna follow Christ, do not wanna live for God, do not wanna continually surrender their lives to him and for him will be sent to a place of darkness. Right. And, and a place of gnashing of teeth. And, and you know, we can go into the Bible and talk about it in more depth at another time, but it's a real thing. Right. Heaven or hell, we've seen spiritual warfare. We've seen things that are, um, demonic because that's the reality, right? Because without Christ, we are nothing and mm-hmm.<affirmative> and we're just sinners that need to be saved by his blood, by his grace. And unfortunately a lot of people have denied that. So I think that the eternal perspective when you're living for God is so fun because now you're a part of his story, you're a part of the story that continues to build and you're bringing heaven on earth. And I think back to a time when we were visiting my old college campus and visiting my old college town, Melissa was pregnant with Mercy mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And, um, we went to this pizzeria on the corner. I wanted Melissa to try it. Oh yeah. And I think I was outside.

Speaker 3:

I think you were in the bathroom.

Speaker 2:

You went to the bathroom? I was out. Oh, I went to the bathroom. I was out in the, the street on the sidewalk of Bridge Street. Oh yeah. And we were up in, uh, uh, Swego New York. And, uh, this guy had approached me and oh was telling me this whole story and, and he needed money. And um, and I said, yeah, let me, let me get you some food. I'll, I'll bring you inside. We went into the pizzeria to get, get him some stuff, get him some food. And um,

Speaker 3:

And he had no shame in his game. He was already salad pizza.

Speaker 2:

He was going to town. I was like, all right man. And um, and he was telling me his story, how he had to get to a different part of the state. Anyway, something just happened and mm-hmm.<affirmative>, this just this whole demonic presence started manifesting out of him mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And, uh, he had asked me a simple question and he said, what do you do? And I said, I tell people about Jesus. And as soon as I said the name Jesus, this guy totally like, flipped a switch. And, um, yeah, it was just powerful to see how the, the name of Jesus can not only, um, wake something up, right. There was something in this man that needed to go, but it also reminded this man of, of who Jesus was and that he loved him. And this same man had a Bible on him. Mm-hmm. And he had taken it out of his pocket. Do you remember that? Yeah. And he's, and he said, I know who he is, right. And, and showed us the Bible and um mm-hmm. He was in a battle. And you know, very shortly after that, you know, we, uh, we had to get going, but you know, we blessed the guy. Like we definitely were keeping him in prayer. He wasn't ready for prayer at that point. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, he was kind of, um, I think just out of it, you know, and, um, yeah. And in awe of that we were walking in the authority of Christ. But, you know, every day we have a, an opportunity to minister to people. It doesn't always end the way that we want, but we get to be the light and darkness and and that's something that we're commissioned to do. It doesn't make us brave or or courageous on our own strength, it's God. But just be encouraged that throughout every season that God wants to use you, it's an eternal purpose. He wants us to remind people that it's never too late to follow him.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And we'll leave you with one scripture is, um, Colossians three, two. And that is set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. And I think that's just something that we all have to digest every day is to say, you know what? We're not gonna get caught up in all the keeping up with the Joneses and the sports and all this stuff. Like, those things are great and fine, but where is your long-term perspective? And we should be having an eternal perspective. So lots of tidbits of information in there, a lot to digest. But um, ask yourself, you know, these questions and look in the Bible, there's, there's, you know, there's verses there's a lot about heaven and what it's gonna be like and how you get into heaven. So we can do like another part series of this and yeah,

Speaker 2:

I wanna talk more about heaven next time. What's going on up there? I don't

Speaker 3:

Know, but it's gonna

Speaker 2:

Be a amazing, I want to go, um, y'all know, I want to go to the Tron room,<laugh>. Some people know about that, that are listening. Um, it's, Hey, it's so fun to be a part of how God is, um, moving here on earth. Right. And join in on, on the adventure, ask God to show you how you can be that light and darkness and literally bring his kingdom to earth every day.

Speaker 3:

Yep. It's all about that mission. We have to complete the mission. So figure that out and God will do the rest. He will. So thank you guys for listening and share with a friend. Encourage someone and, um, we'll see you soon.

Speaker 2:

Love ya,

Speaker 3:

Tata. Hey

Speaker 1:

Guys. Thanks so much for listening to the Puzzle Israel podcast. Please subscribe today and share with a friend. See you soon.