LIVING THE ETERNITY DRIVEN LIFE
JOKE: Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy takes out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead." There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"
INTRO: Discuss new Christian club I’m doing at ESS for grade 6-8 students; and chapel this coming week at Eastgate. Anne & Eric, two residents there, have entered eternity.
OPENING TEXT: “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away.” (Psalm 39:4).
QUOTE: “Life on Earth is a temporary assignment...To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths. First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, Earth is only a temporary residence. You won’t be here long, so don’t get too attached. Ask God to help you see life on Earth as he sees it… In order to keep from becoming too attached to this Earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life—longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity. We are not completely happy here because we’re not supposed to be! Earth is not our final home, we were created for something much better…You will not be in Heaven two seconds before you cry out, “Why did I place so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking? Why did I waste so much time, energy and concern on what wasn’t going to last?” (Rick Warren).
• MOVIE ILLUSTRATION: SCHINDLER’S LIST: The film about the true story of Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. Last scene of the movie: “I could have got more. This car – 10 people right there. This pin, two people.” Will we be like this in Heaven?
• What does it mean to live the eternity driven life?
KEY TEXT:
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10;24-25).
THE BIG IDEA: In our key text we see three keys to living the eternity driven life. First of all, we must be faithful in our meeting together; secondly we must spur one another on to love and good deeds; and finally, we must look for ways to encourage one another.
ILLUSTRATION: I thought of this as we were discussing living the eternity driven life…
A man left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he sent his wife a quick e-mail. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter, and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor dead. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen: Dearest Wife, Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Your Loving Husband. p.s. Sure is hot down here.
1. WE MUST BE FAITHFUL IN OUR MEETING TOGETHER:
a. Notice I didn’t start with ‘spur one another on to love and good works.” If we don’t meet together, and gather in community, we cannot challenge one another to grow!
b. Can you say, as David did: "I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." (Psalm 122:1).
JOKE: A mother woke up her son one morning and said, “Honey, it’s time to get ready for church.” The son replied, “But mom, I don’t want to go to church today!” The mother persisted, “But you have to go to church!” The son again responded, “I don’t want to go to church!” The mother said, “You need to get up.” The son said, “Why?” The mother said, “I’ll give you three good reasons… #1 – you’re always glad you’ve gone once you get there; #2 – you always enjoy the music at church and today will be no exception; and #3 – you’re the pastor…”
c. QUOTE: “We are created for community, fashioned for fellowship, and formed for family, and none of us can fulfill God’s purposes by ourselves. The Bible knows nothing of solitary saints or spiritual hermits isolated from other believers and deprived of fellowship.” (Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life).
d. QUOTE: From Lord of the Rings: “Fate has chosen him. A fellowship will protect him. Evil will hunt him.” This is descriptive of our Christian journey as well!
e. TEXT: “Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
f. In the creation week of Genesis 1-2, God said over and over, “It is good,” but there was one time he said, “It is not good… that man should be alone.” We need relationships!
2. WE MUST SPUR ONE ANOTHER ON TO LOVE AND GOOD DEEDS:
a. Jesus said the two greatest commandments were: “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39).
b. To live the eternity driven life means we focus on one thing – RELATIONSHIPS.
c. QUOTE: “Within a small fellowship…We hear each other’s stories. We discover each other’s glories. We learn to walk with God together. We pray for each other’s healing. We cover each other’s back. This small core fellowship is the essential ingredient for the Christian life. Jesus modeled it for us for a reason. Sure, he spoke to the masses. But he lived in a little platoon, a small fellowship of friends and allies…Church is not a building. Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays. I know, it’s how we’ve come to think of it…Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term. Not at all…when Scripture talks about church, it means community. The little fellowships of the heart that are outposts of the kingdom. A shared life.” (John Eldredge, Waking the Dead).
d. SMALL GROUPS! Not just meeting together on Sunday mornings.
3. WE MUST LOOK FOR WAYS TO ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER:
a. In the Greek, the word “encourage” means “to call to one’s side, to comfort, to strengthen.” To encourage is to inspire another with courage. “People live by encouragement. Without it they die. Slowly... Sadly... Bitterly.”
b. The word ‘but’ contrasts two things: neglecting meeting together; and encouraging one another. It’s not good enough to just go to church, we must encourage others!
c. The word encourage is from the same Greek word as one of the Holy Spirit’s names, parakaleo. Jesus called Him the Comforter – the encourager.
d. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come alongside to help. And that’s the role God has for us in the lives of other Christians – to be encouragers – people helpers.
CLOSING CHALLENGE:
Hebrews 10:25 tells us to do these things and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
• That ‘Day’ is approaching – what day is that? When Jesus returns, and we enter eternity.
• “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14).
• Are you living the eternity driven life? Let’s make relationships our priority!
STORY: (from Chicken Soup for the Soul)
In a class I teach for adults, I gave the assignment to "go to someone you love, and tell them that you love them." At the beginning of the next class, one of the students began by saying, "I was angry with you last week when you gave us this assignment. I didn’t feel I had anyone to say those words to. But as I began driving home my conscience started talking. Then I knew exactly who I needed to say `I love you’ to. Five years ago, my father and I had a vicious disagreement and never really resolved it. We avoided seeing each other unless we absolutely had to at family gatherings. We hardly spoke. So by the time I got home, I had convinced myself I was going to tell my father I loved him. Just making that decision seemed to lift a heavy load off my chest.
At 5:30, I was at my parents’ house ringing the doorbell, praying that Dad would answer the door. I was afraid if Mom answered, I would chicken out and tell her instead. But as luck would have it, Dad did answer the door.
I didn’t waste any time - I took one step in the door and said, `Dad, I just came over to tell you that I love you.’ It was as if a transformation came over my dad. Before my eyes his face softened, the wrinkles seemed to disappear and he began to cry. He reached out and hugged me and said, `I love you too, son, but I’ve never been able to say it.’
But that’s not even my point. Two days after that visit, my dad had a heart attack and is in the hospital. I don’t even know if he’ll make it.
So my message to all of you is this: Don’t wait to do the things you know need to be done. What if I had waited to tell my dad? Take the time to do what you need to do and do it now!
• Invitation to home groups and “Driven by Eternity.”
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