Living In Light Of Eternity

Living In Light of Eternity

Last winter, Emily and I made a decision that has forever changed our lives. We decided to bring a child into the world. On October 14 2002, God blessed us with a beautiful and health baby girl. Since that day our lives have never been the same. No longer could we simply think of ourselves. Now we needed to think ahead to make sure our daughter had food, clothing, adult supervision, and much more. From the day we decided to start a family, we have needed to live in light of that decision. For those of us who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope for eternal life, we should be living every day in light of that decision. We should be living in light of eternity.

We were made for eternity. Ecc. 3:11 says…

CS Lewis once wrote "If I find in myself a desire that this world cannot fulfill, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

So if we were made for eternity, it makes sense that we should live our lives now in light of eternity.

In Hebrews 11:23-28 we learn that Moses was a man who lived not merely for the here and now, but for eternity.

Read Hebrews 11:23-28

23By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.

26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

The evidence of this testimony is in the decisions he made. Moses refused the allurement of the world. Verse 24 says, "he…refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter". At this point in history, Egypt was the leading nation of the world in power, prestige, education, and pleasures. All of this was at the fingertips of Moses. According to the historian Josephus, Moses was even in line for the throne of this advanced civilization. All of these things were more than a mild distraction, they were undoubtedly a powerful temptation pulling Moses away from living the life God wanted for him. We today can certainly understand the pull of the world, because we feel it in our lives too. That’s why Paul warned Timothy " no one serving as a soldier (in working for the Lord) gets involved (or entangled) in civilian affairs - he wants to please his commanding officer" (II Tim 2:4). There is certainly nothing wrong with working hard to provide for our families, in fact it is a noble act. But It is so easy to become distracted with these necessities to the point where we lose sight of what is really most important.

ILL- A young banker was driving his BMW, in the mountains, during a snowstorm. As he rounded a turn the vehicle slid out of control and toward a cliff. At the last moment he unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped from the car. Though he escaped with his life, his left arm was caught near the hinge of the door and torn off at the shoulder. A trucker passing nearby witnessed the accident, stopped his rig, and ran back to see if he could be of help. There standing, in a state of shock, was the banker at the edge of the cliff moaning, "oh my BMW, my BMW". The trucker pointed to the banker’s shoulder and said "man you’ve got bigger problems than a car". With that the banker looked at his shoulder, finally realizing he’d lost his arm, and began crying ":oh my new Rolex, my new Rolex". The pull of the world can easily steal our affections away, and cause us to live for the wrong things. But believers must live in light of eternity.

ILL- My first car - windshield

Hebrews 11:25 tells us that Moses chose affliction and association with God’s people, instead of "the pleasures of sin for a season". It was not politically correct, or personally advantageous for Moses to choose an enslaved nation living in poverty, over living in luxury with those in power. But this man of God was not looking at the short term. He was looking at what was best in the long run. Like Abraham before him, he considered himself to be a stranger and pilgrim on earth. Instead of earthly riches, he "looked for a city…whose builder and maker is God…an heavenly…city", (Heb 11:10-16), For this kind of living in light of eternity, he was one of whom it could be written "God is not ashamed to be called their God".