1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 
	We have spent many weeks in terms of what will be the truth of our complete redemption in Jesus Christ. Heaven will show forth the vast fullness of what God has accomplished in terms of man’s salvation by the perfect sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son. There is a massive glory in Him of which we are barely at the edge of understanding. God’s work in His Son, Jesus Christ, fills the deepest core of what God has created for His glory. In line with this, let us now consider a part of the purpose which we will serve to His glory alone in heaven.
	What will be our service in heaven? What will we be doing for the eternal ages to come? These are valid questions about which we often spend time pondering. 
Some might wonder about the idea of service and whether that is an appropriate word for our experience in heaven. It is argued, after all, that heaven is a place of rest, as it surely is. The writer to the Hebrews addresses this reality in Heb 4:9, There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. The Apostle John refreshes our hearts with the promise of heavenly rest in Rev 14:13. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them." We long for this rest in heaven, and it is there for us, in accordance with every promise of God.
	Quote, In heaven, we will enjoy a profounder rest than we have ever experienced before. We will have rest from sin – both its external assaults and its inner promptings. We will rest from grief and suffering, for ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain’ (Rev. 21:4). No frustration or disappointment will drain away our strength. Never again will we be exhausted by opposition. Doing our duty in a perfect world will not fatigue but energize us. 
	What a rest this will be! It will mark the complete fulfillment of one of our Savior’s most winsome promises: ‘Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matt. 11:28). End quote. 
	Think of the rest that awaits us in heaven. No more sin. How we love that phrase as we repeat it over and over again in the magnificent majesty of our Lord and Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. No more will we fight the energy zapping battle with the lusts of our flesh. That will be forever ended in the reality of Jesus Christ’s victory. 
No more will we be drained of energy and strength in the emotional upheavals of this age. There is no greater loss of energy, that I have found in my limited experience on this earth, than that of the constant drain that is suffered during long bouts with a loved one’s illness and death. The very fibers of our beings are left with no more ability than to exist. By the end of the day, there is seemingly nothing else we can do but to collapse in bed with a hope that we will be somewhat restored with energy in the morning.
Then, after a fitful night of trying to sleep, we get up in the morning with less energy than we had when we went to bed. Each day is merely an action of survival as we do what needs to be done, with seemingly nothing other than the Lord’s promises that we will make it through the day by His strength. It becomes a burdensome, dreary task, day after day, until that morning when the Lord gives us the ministry of the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It is a foretaste of that rest before us in heaven, and it feels so refreshing and so light.
Some may better relate to the burden of emotional strain and stress in the interactions of loved ones during times of anger and frustration and dissension, when no matter what we do, we are always wrong. We love our family members, but it is a constant battle with sanity to be around them. We feel so drained in our interactions, so hopelessly lost in our efforts to make amends and to get on with a loving relationship. These battles within the bonds of loved ones are terrible and destructive and utterly frustrating and de-energizing.
Then there are the emotional and physical drains of work with the pressures and the stresses that tax our every ability of patience and endurance. We get caught up in the politics and the gamesmanship of dealing with others on so many different levels, none of which serve to help us find rest. 
All of these elements cause us to yearn for the rest of heaven. And we will rest when sin is no more, when our hearts are freed from envy and struggle and strife. When death and illness are no longer elements of concern and there is no longer any pain or frustration. Be assured that we can know God’s rest now in Jesus Christ, if we turn to Him and trust Him. But, in heaven, we will know Him in perfection. Oh the rest of heaven that is ours in Jesus Christ. What joy and peace will be ours in Him through all of eternity!
But this rest of heaven is not sitting around doing nothing. We were not created to inhabit a rocking chair, to just sit and veg, as we put it! Quote, How tedious it would be to spend eternity doing nothing! We were designed for work and would be miserable without it. Even now the weekly Sabbath is not a day of idleness but of joyous activity. So rest in heaven is not an everlasting slump in a celestial deck-chair but the reinvigoration which comes from fulfilling, with our whole beings, the purpose for which we were created and redeemed. ‘His servants shall serve Him. They are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple’ (Rev. 22:3; 7:15). End quote. 
What will be our service unto God, which will be with complete rest in Him? According to scripture, it will be that of worship. We will worship God continually on the basis that He is worthy of all worship. Rev 4:11, "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created." And Rev 5:9-13, And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." 
	Quote, This worship will take us ever deeper into the knowledge of God. Throughout endless ages we will discover new aspects of his infinite majesty, holiness, power, grace and loveliness. Ecstasy will fill our souls as we learn more and more of his being and ways. We will study all that our Lord has done, the interweaving of his purposes, how the movement of every atom since creation, the fall of every leaf and flight of every sparrow, together contribute to his glory. As this is increasingly revealed to us we will be lost in wonder, love and praise. End quote. 
	This reality should have its impact in our lives right now. As we have seen, we should be more and more learning what it means to worship God in these lives that we live today. We should be finding ourselves more and more enamored with God in all His grace and mercy evidenced in our day to day lives. This is what we should be practicing as we are being prepared for heaven. Our hearts and souls and minds should be more and more brought into greater measures of what it means to worship.
	We must be very careful not to limit what is entailed in worship. Many of us consider it just in terms of our time gathered together on Sunday mornings, or prayer, or singing, or scripture reading. However, our entire life is worship unto God. 
Heaven is a spiritual and a physical reality as we have seen. There is going to be a new heaven and new earth, as we are told in Rev 21:1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away… Everything we do in heaven will be filled with worship unto God. The same is to be true of everything we do on this earth today!
We will be given the responsibility of stewardship over the new earth and it will be a perfect stewardship of service and worship completely unto the glory of God. The writer to the Hebrews highlights this in Heb 2:6-9. But one has testified somewhere, saying, "What is man, that Thou rememberest him? Or the son of man, that Thou art concerned about him? "Thou hast made him for a little while lower than the angels; Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, And hast appointed him over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. " For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. 
	We do not yet see everything subjected to man in Jesus Christ, but we will. Jesus, as the Son of Man, is Lord over all. We are in service to Him. Our stewardship of all this earth is the eternal work that will serve to bring glory to God forever and forever. 
We will join the song as recorded in Psalm 8 with new vigor and stamina in an endless life of worship unto God. Ps 8:4-9, What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him? Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God, And dost crown him with glory and majesty! Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth! 
	Quote, In this new world we will be given remarkable new tasks. Thrilling avenues of service will open before us, calling for the use of all our gifts and talents, many unsuspected or undeveloped in our present existence. ‘The reason, the intellectual curiosity, the imagination, the aesthetic instincts, the holy affections, the social affinities, the inexhaustible resources of strength and power native to the human soul, must all find in heaven exercise and satisfaction.’ Throughout eternity we will live full, truly human lives, exploring and managing God’s creation to his glory. Fascinating vistas will unfold before us as we learn to serve God in a renewed universe. ‘Every legitimate activity of (new) creaturely life will be included within the life of worship of God’s people.’ End quote. 
There is an immense challenge in this life that we live now, before we see heaven. This reality holds the inherent truth of the faithfulness of our service unto God today as it will be expressed then. Christ gave expression to it in Matt 25:23, Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' We are presented with the task of being those faithful stewards of God even now, on this earth. Our lives are to be consumed with the responsibility to worship God on this earth in all that we are given to do by the Lord each day. The greater the measure of our faithful service now, the greater the measure of life that will be ours in heaven.  
Quote, But will it not spoil our joy if some are given greater rewards than others? Might we not feel jealous or deprived as we see other saints honored above ourselves? Not in the least. Heaven is a place of perfect love where, for the first time, we will truly love our neighbors as ourselves. To see their greater blessings will bring us nothing but happiness. What true parent is ever resentful when surpassed by one of his of her children? Our pleasure in their success is greater than if the achievement had been our own.
In any case, every one of us will be given as much responsibility and blessing as we are capable of receiving. ‘Although there be degrees of glory, yet all shall be filled, and have what they can hold; though some will be able to hold more than others. There will be no want to any of them; all shall be fully satisfied, and perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of divine goodness, according to their enlarged capacities. As when bottles of different sizes are filled, some contain more, others less; yet all of them have what they can contain.’ What we ought to do now is, by growth in grace and devoted service, to increase our capacity for future blessing. End quote. 
Let us not put off or minimize the reality that we are chosen to worship God to the very maximum of our capacity to do so. We need to seek earnestly for the Holy Spirit to work into our lives the increased desire to serve God on this earth. We will do so in heaven in measure to our heart’s desire of service this very day. Let that service be in complete and perfect alignment with the admonition of Christ recorded in Mark 12:30, …you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' So be it!
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 1 John 5:2-4 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. Amen.