Philippians 4:13 "I'm ready for anything through the strength of Christ who lives in me." I want to help out, God says. No matter how hopeless your situation is -- some of you came crawling in here tonight. You've had a tough week! God wants to say to you, "Don't give up." No problem is too big for God. No situation is hopeless if you'll turn it over to Him.

"I am ready for anything through the power of positive thinking"? No, it doesn't say that. "I am ready for anything because I psyched myself up." No, "I'm ready for anything through the strength of Christ who lives in me."

Why does the resurrection matter? Because my past can be forgiven, my present can be managed, and...

3. My Future Can Be Secure

One of the universal problems we've all got is death. Everybody dies. I'm going to die someday and so are you. Only a fool would go all through life unprepared for something he knows is inevitable. That doesn't make sense. Sometimes we get so busy in the here and now we don't stop to think about what's going to come.

People don't like to talk about death. Invite your friends over some time, serve them some coffee and pie and say, "Let's talk about death." See what happens. But it's inevitable so let's talk about it.

They asked some children to write sentences about what they believed about death. Gilda, age 8, said, "When you die they put you in a box and bury you in the ground because you don't look too good." Stephanie, aged 9, said, "Doctors help you so you won't die until you pay their bill." Marsha, aged 9, said, "When you die, you don't have to do homework in heaven unless your teacher is there, too." Raymond, aged 10, said, "A good doctor can help you so you won't die. A bad doctor sends you to heaven."

The fact is everybody has a deep internal longing to know, "What's going to happen? What's going to happen after I die?" It's obvious we're going to spend more time on that side of eternity than on this side. Here we only spend 60, 70, maybe 80 years. This is just the first inch of the yardstick. This is preschool for what's going to happen in eternity. It is interesting to me that as 70 million baby boomers approach middle age, all of a sudden, they're interested in the Hereafter. U.S. News & World Report this last week on the cover: "The Rekindling of Hell." More people believe in heaven and hell than ever before in American history. Why? Because people are wondering, "What's going to happen?"

The fact is there are a lot of misconceptions about heaven. Most of them come from bad movies. (The movies can be good but the theology is bad in them.) Heaven Can Wait, Oh, God, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Defending Your Life -- they are cute little ideas of what they think heaven is going to be like.

What is it really going to be like? When you go to the Bible, what does God say it's really going to be like in heaven and in hell?

One day you're going to stand before God and you're going to need to know the right answers. Here's what the Bible says about the future -- about heaven and hell.