The greater your expectation is of Eternity the better life you will have on earth. The lower your expectation of Eternity, the worse your life will be on earth. Because expectations affect behaviour!
If you really want to live life on earth the way it ought to be lived you must learn to live it with eternity in mind. Many of us live in defeat and sorrow because of our poor expectations about eternity.
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
1 Corinthians 15:19
Where is your hope? Where are you investing your time? Where is your treasure? Where is your heart?
Our hope cannot be in this life alone, if so we are the most miserable and pitiable people!
This verse above shows us the reason why many people are anguished, depressed, anxious, sad, bitter, and tired of life.
Many have put all their hope here on this earth and with the passing years come: disappointments, failures, abuse, loss of jobs, and the feeling that life has been really hard.
Many have placed their hopes in Christ only here on this earth and so they get hurt and do not have a joyful and happy life.
As believers, we trust Christ to lead us into a new life after death. But if we only trust him to help us in this life, and our focus is in this short life alone, we will get disappointed and live a meaningless life.
Eternity is the cornerstone of the Christian life !
Unfortunately most of the teachings on the internet and TV, pastors and leaders are teaching people how to be prosperous, how to have a good life on earth, how to make money, the five steps for prosperity, etc…
I believe that God want to bless and prosper you, but this should be not your goal and main desire. Seek God and put Him and His kingdom first and everything will be added to you! This is the correct biblical teaching.
Jesus’ teachings were always preparing his disciples for eternity.
The way you live on this earth today is shaped by the vision you have for eternity.
Today through the word of God I want to help and equip you to live the rest of your life victoriously and without fear, How? By living in the light of Eternity ! We need to have the right vision of eternity.
“So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Mark 10:29-30 NKJV
Jesus promised to bless you here on this earth. You shall experience miracles, you will experience deliverance and you will experience supernatural things from God. Jesus promised to bless you if you leave everything behind to serve Him.
Here on earth you will be blessed, and you will also be persecuted but Jesus ends his speech by saying: “and in the age to come, eternal life.” After this life, you will have eternal life! Eternal life does not compare with life on this earth.
“God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.” Max Lucado
Beloved brothers and sisters, Stay firm and don’t give up because the end will be worth it.
The apostles and disciples preached the gospel under persecution, and almost all of them died because of their faith but they did not deny Christ.
Why did they have this strong faith? Because their hope was not in this earth. They had a great expectation of eternity and lived each day waiting for the great day that they would be received by the Lord Jesus and would receive the eternal reward.
Let’s see what said Paul about his death.
“according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:20-21 NKJV
Can you see what Paul’s great expectation was? His expectation was not here on this earth.
For me, to live is Christ! If I am living is to make disciples, if I’m living is to please my Lord , to live is to be together with my brothers and sisters, to live is to love the lost, this is living is.
To serve Christ is to truly live and to die is a profit, it’s gain!
Whoever lives for Christ lives happily and when the day of death comes, it will be your best day yet!
In the first message I said that we are all dying. From the moment you are born, you started dying. We are all heading towards death.
Everyone of us is under the sentence of death. None of you who are listening to me right now will be alive in 90 years from today. Nobody, we will all be gone!
Today you may be young, you may have the strength to run, to exercise, to carry weight. But the day will come when you won’t have the same strength, you won’t have the same vigour.
As you know , life here is short, and many people are departing to eternity every day. Children, adults, young couples die every day!
Dying is not the problem! But, are you prepared to stand before Jesus after death?
“For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.” 2 Corinthians 5:10
I wonder how the moment when we stand before Jesus is going to be! I know many people don’t like to think about it! But one day we are going to face Jesus Christ! I’m excited for that day, I live each day of my life waiting for this day to arrive!
Everything I do, I do it thinking of that day. We need to live in light of eternity.
All we need to do is change our perspective!
I know we have to live in a real world, we have to work, to study, to pay our bills , but We must live with our feet here but with our minds on eternity.
What are you going to do with the years of life you have left?
Where is your hope? Where are you investing? Where is your heart? Where is your treasure?
My challenge to you is the following: Store up treasures in eternity!
Pastor, how do I store up treasures in eternity?
Investing in what will enter into eternity! Invest in people! Love people, invest your time in discipling people, visit people, help your small group because it’s there to save people.
Why do we have to invest in people?
Firstly, because the eternal destination of lost souls is in our hands, and you were saved to reach out the lost.
Secondly, people are the only thing you will take with you from this life to eternity. What you do for people, you are doing for Jesus and this will be your reward in eternity.
Remember that people have free will. They are the ones who will decide for themselves, if they want to serve Jesus or not but there are two things you must do:
- You need to have a good testimony of a born again Christian, who was freed and delivered by Jesus.
- You must invest your time, visiting, evangelising and and making disciples.
Jesus said: go and make disciples. It’s not just preaching. We have to invest time, loving, serving, witnessing and planting the seed of the kingdom of God in their hearts.
This is the great investment you can make in your spiritual life, invest in what is eternal, invest in what you will take with you to eternal life!
If today was the last day of your life, how would you feel standing before the Lord Jesus? We all have one chance at life, the bible says no one will return, but after death you will be judged according to how you lived here!
I’m excited for this day, I live each day of my life waiting for it!
That is living in the light of eternity. All we need to do is to change our perspective!
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 that are above, set your eyes on the reality of heaven, think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, set your hearts and your mind on eternity.
Shift your vision!
God is telling us: make the life to come bigger than the life you are living now.
If we make the life to come bigger than the life we are now living, we will live better lives. Where we set our eyes will determine how we live our present.
When the eternal spiritual perspective infiltrates our thinking, it will change our daily earthly walk.
We don’t know when the day of the Lord will come and we don’t know the day when we will depart to eternity, but we must live in light of that time.
Those who live in light of eternity do more for the kingdom of God and have healthier spiritual lives!
So, when it comes to your personal life, you must live differently, in your family life, in your church life, when giving your contribution to the kingdom of God.
You must reflect your faith at your work, your school and the community.
So we have to live in light of that day, today, we need to get ready for that day, today!
We need to grow higher and deeper in developing eternal perspective and the time to get ready for that day is Now!
Everything you do on this Earth is going to bring you either reward or regret in eternity.
The day when you see Jesus, what will it bring you, Reward or Regret?
The bible says: There will be rewards for those who were faithful and many will have regrets: it depends on how you spent your time! Many are wasting their time; they don’t have time to pray, to read their bible, to come to meetings, to visit people in need, to talk about Jesus, to have time with God…
My life and your life now, is a preparation for that day when we will stand before the Lord.
If we live in light of that day our expectation will transform our behaviour,
if we live with eternity in mind, we will live a life that pleases God.
If we life in light of eternity we are not going to be afraid of death.
Eternity will give us victory in time!
I want you to enter Heaven with celebration.
I want us to enter Glory with our heads raised high.
May God help us to live with an eternal perspective and be received by Him as good and faithful servants.