Last week I started the message “Get ready for your appointment”, and I said that teaching about this life is not my most important task, instead my main duty as your leader and pastor is to get you ready for eternal life. This is my great challenge: To get you ready to face Eternity.
Your eternity is determined by your lifestyle in these few years on earth!
“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.
Hebrews 9:27
You have an appointment with death. Every one of us is destined to die once and after that, we are going to face God and the judgment. One day every one of us will face death! After death there will be no time to repent. Repentance must happen right now, in this life!
God’s intention is for us to spend most of our time here getting ready for our appointment!
Everything you do in this earth, will bring you either reward or regret. It will either bring you joy for having invested your life in God’s kingdom or sadness and regret for wasting your time on earth.
According to the bible: you will exist forever! God created us as eternal beings. The bible says: Your life here is a vapour ! It will soon pass away!
You will stay a few short years on earth and then eternity somewhere else.
What is terrible and sad is: Many of you only think about this few years and forget about your appointment.
All you can think of is:
I need to enjoy this part of life. I need to be happy, I deserve it. I need to have as much pleasure as I can. I need to think of the future: Buy a house, another house, another car , I need work hard to give my family a good life. I need to travel, I need to save money and enjoy life.
Are you kidding me? What about the part that goes on forever?
Don’t forget it : This few years on earth , will determine the millions and millions of years that will go on forever more!
One day some people that are listen to me will regret the kind of life that lived and they will say : I should have listened my pastor.
I know we have to live in a real world, we have to work, study , pay our bills… But we should live with our feet here and our minds on eternity.
1 “If you were raised from death with Christ. So live for what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Think only about what is up there, not what is here on earth. 3 Your old self has died, and your new life is kept with Christ in God. 4 Yes, Christ is now your life, and when he comes again, you will share in his glory.” Colossians 3:1-4
The bible says if you were raised from death (or if you are born again) , seek the things from above, set your eyes on the reality of heaven, think about the things of heaven, not things of earth, set your hearts and your mind on eternity.
Shift your gaze!
God is saying to us: make the life that is to come bigger than the life you are now living .
If we make the life to come bigger than the life we are living now, we will consequently live a better life now. Where we look at, changes how we live.
I’m not living for this life, I’m living for the next!
When the eternal spiritual perspective infiltrates our thinking, it affects our daily earthly walk.
In sports athletes know they can be tested at any time for anti-doping test, and because they know that, the conscious ones stay off steroids and drugs.
They deal with things differently because they know the day is coming when they will be tested. Even if they don’t know when it will happen.
We don’t know the day when Jesus will come, and we don’t know when our appointment with the Lord will be, but we must live with the knowledge that this day could arrive at any time.
Those who live in light of eternity do more for the kingdom of God and they take good care of their spiritual life!
So in your personal life, as well as in your family life, in your church life , when giving your contribution to the kingdom of God, you must do things differently. You need to reflect your faith when at your job, your school and in the community.
So we have to live in light of that day today, we need to start getting ready for that day today!
We need to grow higher and deeper in our Eternal perspective and the time to get ready for that day is Now!
The day when you see Jesus , what will you feel: a sense of Reward or Regret ?
The bible says: There will be rewards for those who were faithful.
After 22 years in the ministry as pastor I have found that most believers are not fully aware of what the bible calls “Eternal Judgement and rewards”.
Many churches today do not talk more about the “Eternal Judgement and Hell”, many pastors don’t teach anymore about it!
Paul said that the “Eternal Judgement” is the foundation (Hebrews 6:2) and some churches have no foundation.
Today there are some preachers that say there is no eternal torment in hell.
Some people say: How can a God of Love send anybody to hell?
I learned everything about hell from the same person from whom I learned about the love of God – Jesus himself !
In the entire bible, the only person who talks about hell is Jesus!
Jesus said some pretty serious things about hell and one of the shocks I had when studying His teaching on hell was this : Many of His warnings about hell were directed at His own disciples!
His own followers, who committed their lives to Him!
“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28
Most of the warnings about hell that Jesus gave were given to his own disciples, those who were committed to Him.
So, Christians who are in churches, above all, need to be afraid of hell!
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:27 said that :
“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:27
Everything I know about hell came from the lips of Jesus himself and He’s the most loving person who ever lived. Hell is there and it’s real!
Many people make jokes and make it a subject of comedy and others say that hell is here on earth, or that you make your own hell on earth! Have you heard this before?
It’s not fashionable to talk about hell, but the bible says that “Eternal punishment” is an elementary doctrine of Christ.
Hell is real, if it was not then Jesus was a liar and I’m not prepared to say that! Jesus is the Truth!
Now we are going to read about Lazarus and the rich man!
Many people say that this is a parable, but I want to make it clear: it’s not a parable , this is a real story!
This is not a parable , Jesus was telling a true incident which He saw.
How do I know that?
Whenever Jesus told parables He never used individual people’s names , He always said : there was a man.
But in this passage Jesus talks about a certain rich man and also gives the name of Lazarus. You will never find Jesus giving names to people in His parables. He also mentions Abraham by name.
Luke 16:19-24
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
23 In Hades (Hell) , where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony (tormented) in this fire.’ Luke 16:19-24 NIV
I want you to notice that the rich man recognises Abraham and Lazarus.
What does this tell us? People are very much human beings in hell and are still very recognisable.
They still have their reasoning facilities, they still keep their emotions , they still have their will, their features, because they were able to recognise each other.
In Hell they still have their senses , they can hear , they can feel; they feel pain, they feel thirst, they can still touch, they can smell , they can taste , they can see!
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”
Luke 16:25
26 “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’”
Luke 16:26
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,
28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’” Luke 16:27-28
Here he pleaded Abraham to send Lazarus to his 5 brothers, so they wouldn’t come to that place.
29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ””
Luke 16:29-31
Hell is a place of absolute loneliness and hopeless and a place of eternal remembrance, this is the greatest torment.
He was in hell worried about his family, his 5 brothers!
He asked, send someone from the dead and they will repent!
Hell was not created and was never meant for human beings!
God never intended for any humans beings to end up there!
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:”. Matthew 25:41
God prepared Heaven for us and Hell for the devil and his angels.
Many people say: How can a Loving God send people to Hell? God is a loving God indeed but He is also Just and Holy.
If He allowed people with the nature of Lucifer into Heaven, it would pollute the entire city of Heaven. He is merciful but He is Just.
Jesus never came to condemn us, He came to save us!
By the cross we know the gravity of sin and the greatness of God’s love toward us.
God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you”.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.” ’”
Revelation 2:11
Maybe you are in the church but you are not sure about your salvation or you never had an encounter with God. You need to repent , because Jesus died for your sins and you need to be saved and to be born again. Repentance means forgiveness of our sins , to renounce , to quit our old life style!
When we give our life to Jesus , when we repent from our sins , when we abandon our sins , our name is written in the Book of Life !
Jesus came to save you , He loves you and you need to live for Him and get ready for your appointment!
God bless you.