1 John 4:13-15 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 
	In our last deliberation, we saw that heaven will be the fulfillment of all the relationships that are part of our created personality. God created the need for relationships within our beings. Much of our time on this earth is centered on trying to find fulfilling relationships in which to satisfy our hunger for intimacy.
The key relationship that needs to be established is that of the understanding of our connection with God through Jesus Christ. Once that is in place in our hearts, all the others will become more and more attuned to the plan and purpose of God in our lives.
	As such, putting our relationship with God at the pinnacle of all those that will be ours in heaven, we then considered how we will interrelate with the angelic hosts. They will want to know all about our relationship with God. As well, we will want to know about their activities as the ministering agents of God’s will on this earth. We will have many questions for them and they for us.
	The key relationships that we will address in heaven, however, will be those with fellow believers. The redeemed of the Lord will be spending the eternal ages with each other in the expression of the saving grace and mercy and faithfulness of God. We will have countless interactions with Christians from around the world and from all the ages of humanity with whom to associate and praise God for all that He has done in Jesus Christ. 
	As we considered, this will be one, very large family of believers, all united in Jesus Christ. It will be a perfect family without any disagreements, any issues, any misunderstandings, any divisions, or dissentions. It will be a family filled with endless variety, as it will contain people from every tongue and tribe and nation, every race, and every epoch. It will be filled with the vast cultures of history, each with their own story to tell of God’s perfect plan as it unfolded in their lives. It will be a beautiful family, perfect in every way. There will be no outcasts, no cantankerousness, and no personality conflicts. Our final point was that it will be a completely satisfying family of believers. It will be the perfect relationship that will never be threatened or grow old. It will satisfy the heart of God and it will satisfy our inward God-created need for fellowship. It will be faultless and ideal in every way. 
	This morning, then, let us look at a very specific and key aspect of this perfect fellowship in heaven. Many of us wonder about those special relationships that we have now on this earth? What about our family members: spouses, children, parents, siblings, natural relatives, and in-laws? What about those very near and dear friends to whom we have been joined for all these years? What will our relationship be with those dear brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we have had the privilege to worship God? We have spent much time and effort and energy together to learn how to better please Him and to grow in the grace and the love of Christ. This is something that we do in a corporate relationship that becomes very much the core of our hearts and minds as we consider the mighty work of God in our lives. These are key personal relationships that have taken years and years to develop in the mighty working of God’s grace. What about them? Will we still have this intimacy with one another in heaven?
	Quote, We will certainly know one another in heaven. King David looked forward to being united with his dead son there. ‘I shall go to him,’ he said (2 Sam. 12:23). Paul urges bereaved Christians not to ‘sorrow as others who have no hope. For…God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus’ (1 Thess. 4:13, 14). The reason for not grieving like unbelievers is that their parting is not permanent. They will meet again. We cannot know less in heaven than we did on earth and so we will recognize there those known to us here. That is surely comforting. End quote. 
	Keep in mind that every good thing will be immensely and asuredly better in heaven. Consider the fact that our relationships will no longer be subjected, in any manner, to the sinful nature with which we struggle on this earth. In our greatest efforts to love our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends, we are continually beset with those elements of self which try to insinuate our interests into each relationship. There is always a sense of what I am getting from my efforts to make this relationship work. Yes, I want to please God, but I am the immediate benefactor of a relationship that does not cause too much undo stress and strain in my life. We so deceive ourselves with our interests that we can often be blind to the true nature of our earthly relationships.
	That will not be the case in heaven. We will love one another in purity and in truth. All that we read in 1, 2, and 3 John will be in perfect practice in our hearts and minds. 1 John 4:7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
	Quote, If God has given you a Christian husband or wife, parent or child, brother or friend, you can be sure that, whatever the parameters of your future relationship with them may be, the friendship will be closer there than it is now. You will know them more intimately, love them more intensely, delight in them more fully. It is impossible that we should lose anything good in that place where good abounds. We can look at Christians whom we love especially and praise God that we will continue to love them, more and more, for ever and ever. End quote.
In heaven, we will be with our loved ones forever and ever. What an immense joy that will be! Those who have gone before will be waiting for us with open arms to declare the glory of God and to share their songs of His worship with us. After all, never let us forget that our focal point throughout the ages will be the glory of God. 
This is something that must be stressed continually because there are those whose focus of heaven is very limited in scope and understanding. There are those times, when I must confess before you all, that I look forward to heaven in order to see Leah and to see my dad and to meet my grandparents, thus losing focus of the true object of my anticipation, Jesus Christ. 
It is easy to become enamored with ideas of meeting those beloved ones who have preceded us into glory, and thus to devalue the glory of God, Himself. We will be reunited with our loved ones, but it will be into the perfection of the praise and adoration of the work and the majesty of the One by Whom we are united, God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  
Richard Baxter strikes the balance with regard to our anticipation of meeting our loved ones once again. Quote, When I look in the faces of the precious people of God, and believingly think of that day, what a refreshing thought it is!...We must be very careful that in our thoughts we look not for that in the saints which is alone in Christ, nor expect too great a part of our comfort in the enjoyment of them; we are prone enough to this kind of idolatry. But, yet, He who commands us so to love them now, will give us leave to love them then, when Himself has made them much more lovely. I know that Christ is all in all; and that it is the presence of God that makes heaven to be heaven. But yet it much sweetens the thoughts of that place to me that there are there such a multitude of my most dear and precious friends in Christ. End quote. 
This knowledge should cause our hearts to well up with an increased desire to live the Good News before men, especially before our loved ones who do not know the salvation of God. There should be an upwelling from within our beings to truly express the Love of God so that others, near and dear to us on this earth will remain near and dear to us in heaven. 
Do not forget, or worse, choose to ignore the truth that those who die apart from knowing Jesus Christ will no longer be our loved ones in heaven. All the saints in heaven will rejoice in the righteousness of God in His Holy judgment and the punishment of the sinners who reject His Only Begotten Son. Rev 16:5-7, And I heard the angel of the waters saying, "Righteous art Thou, who art and who wast, O Holy One, because Thou didst judge these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink. They deserve it." And I heard the altar saying, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments." 
	We should find ourselves infused with the desire that no one be lost, especially those about whom we care so deeply. Look at the heart of the Apostle Paul as he gave expression concerning those to whom he had given the Good News in Thessalonica. 1 Thess 2:19+20, For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy. 
Those with whom we share the gospel become our glory and joy. They are the fruits of the labor that we offer unto God with all thanksgiving in our hearts. These are the ones with whom we will share eternity in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
	Can you imagine the joy and the jubilation and the satisfaction that will be shared together when we meet those by whom our lives in Christ on this earth brings forth the harvest of eternal glory? Often we are not aware of the testimony that we present to others on this earth. We have loved ones whom we desire to know the Lord and we pray endlessly for them. We are to them the living expression of the love of God in Jesus Christ. We live forth as He directs, giving of ourselves for His sake in their lives. We often suffer wrongs and false accusations, but always count it for their hope of salvation. Many times, we are long out of the picture, either by death or distance, and we often do not know what becomes of those whom the Lord put so fully on our hearts and into our lives.
	But, in heaven, what a blessed reunion will be ours as we are met by all those whom God touched through our lives on this earth. The glory of Jesus Christ will be so amplified in each member of His Body as we celebrate His life that saved us. There will be an endless sea of praise as each one of those beloved of God is paraded before our eyes of understanding. Eph 1:15-19, For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. 
Think of the joy that will be filling the heavens as mothers and fathers see the faces of their children whom they lifted up so earnestly on this earth for the saving hand of God. Year after year, parents faithfully pray for their children and ask the Lord to work mightily in their lives. Many become separated, never to know if the Lord has answered those prayers. But, in heaven, there will be no doubt. There will be a family reunion of those who have called upon Jesus, most through the faithful witness of parents or other loved ones. What joy and peace and thanksgiving will accompany each presentation of the redeemed of the Lord! 
Also, please remember that those whom we touched on this earth with our testimony of the life of Jesus Christ will be our treasures in heaven. Matt 6:20+21, "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. It is in the sharing of the Gospel, through word and deed, that these treasures are collected to be displayed to God’s glory in heaven. 
As well as working in our hearts the desire to share the love of God in Jesus Christ with our loved ones, we should also be aware of the greater call that heaven puts on all our relationships on this earth. Consider that the truth, as we have stressed, of no more sin in heaven is a clarion call to no more sin in our lives on this earth. It should challenge us to put away sin even now in our daily walk on this earth. So too, the perfection and purity of our relationship with the beloved of God should be working in our hearts now to cause us to want to learn more and more perfectly how to love our brothers and sisters in Christ on this earth. There is no reason to wait. What is true in heaven should be becoming truer and truer each day of our lives in dealing with each other. 
Quote, So why can we not love them more now? Why such hellish quarrels between Christians, such misunderstandings, criticism and falling out? ‘Is it not enough that all the world is against us, but we must also be against one another? Oh happy days of persecution, which drove us together in love, whom the sunshine of liberty and prosperity crumbles into dust by our contentions!’…Let us try to see each other as we will be in glory and treat each other here as we will there. End quote. 
We need to learn to love each other and to accept each other now so that the glory of God is not hindered in any fashion on this earth. It will be perfectly seen in heaven. It should be thus seen on this earth. That is the challenge of these lives, to live the life that Jesus Christ gives us each day in a manner that will bring glory and honor to Him, Alone. So be it!
By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is  1 John 4:16+17. And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. Amen.