We are going to set up the title of this message by going through a scenario. Imagine with me that there is a knock at the door, we go over to it, open it up, and in walks a man with a beautiful Armani suit, a fedora hat, and big smile on. “I have great news for you,” he says. “I am willing to give you 5 million dollars for 5 minutes of your time.”
Immediately some questions jump to the forefront;
What do I have to do? - Whatever I ask you to do, but I promise that you will keep your integrity and you will not have to break any laws.
Is the money guaranteed? - Yes, It’s right here in this briefcase
Will I be safe? - No, it won’t be safe, it could cost you everything. But in 5 minutes you will have 5 million reasons to be happy
What 5 minutes do you need? - The Next 5 minutes.
Who here would be willing to make the deal?
Your first thought might be, what could happen in 5 minutes that I couldn’t recover from. Even you are in excruciating pain, its only for 5 minutes. And then you have a lifetime to enjoy 5 million dollars.
It’s an interesting scenario to consider for a few reasons. The reason that we are going to consider today is God’s call on our life in light of eternity.
When Jesus calls a person, he demands everything. Jesus says you must be willing to die to every single thing in this life, so that you can really live in Christ. You must be willing to do anything that God puts in front of you.
Salvation is free, but following Jesus will cost you everything.
Our time here on earth is only but the blink of an eye when compared to the in-exhaustive expanse of eternity that awaits us who are Christians.
And so, if we are willing to do anything, and endure anything for a 5 minute span to gain only 5 million dollars. How much more sense does it make to live this life with complete surrender to God when he has promised us an eternity with Him in the life to come.
It’s about keeping the right perspective in life. It’s so easy to get caught up in the challenges of this world that really don’t make any impact on eternity. And so it is wisdom to keep our thoughts grounded in the word of God.
Philipians 3:12-21 talks about this perspective in 3 different sections.
Press On Towards the Goal
Warnings Against Deception
Our Hope
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,* but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
The apostle Paul uses the language of “Pressing On”.
It’s stronger than just following after God,
its more urgent than general obedience,
Paul is saying that he is putting all his strength and effort into this goal of reaching the end of his race to receive the heavenly prize for that which God is calling him to.
With what sort of urgency are you living your life? What effort do you put into reaching the end of your race?
I hope that realize that as a Christian you live on earth, but your citizenship is in heaven.
What do you think heaven is like? What do you believe will happen to you after you die? What or who is waiting for you in the life to come?
Revelation 21:1-7 says
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.* 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
That is a picture of our future as Christians. It’s important to know what you believe about your future, because what you believe about the future has a massive affect on how you live your life today.
Let me give you two stories to prove the point.
Two men are taken as prisoners of war and become cellmates. One month into their captivity they both receive a letter on the same day. The first man’s letter states that his home has burnt to the ground and tragically, his wife and children did not survive the fire. The second man gets a letter from his family stating that they have successful fled the country and are starting a new life. They will be waiting for him upon his release.
This news drastically changes the prison experience for both men. The one is left with no hope. He gives up all sense of fight and survival, and 6 months later he dies in despair. The other man is filled with hope. He spends his time thinking of his family, dreaming about his future with them. That hope gives him the determination and perseverance to survive to the end of the war, and eventually be reunited with his family.
Both men were in the same situation, the same conditions and the same cell. One survived and the other gave up. The only difference was what they believed about their future.
Here is another story. Two women are hired to work in a small room doing meaningless tasks in downtown Calgary. They turn cranks, and pull levers to make certain light patterns on the wall, but every night their work resets and they start from scratch the next morning. The first women is told that her work although meaningless will be rewarded with an annual salary of one million dollars at the end of the year. The second woman is told that she will be making minimum wage, minus the union fees of ten dollars a week.
As you can imagine, they both go about their business with very different perspectives. The woman who is set to make 1 million whistles as she works. She turns those cranks and pulls them levers with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eye. Nothing can take her joy. But the lady who is making minimum wage is beginning to go crazy, if not from her mindless task then from the cheery attitude of the one beside her. Within months she finds a job that brings her more purpose and fulfillment and resigns her job downtown.
Both women were in the same work environment. They were both tasked with the same mundane job. One made the best of it, the other quit. The only difference was what they believed about their future.
What you believe about your eternity, will affect how you live this life, and your next 5 minutes.
So what’s the goal? What are we pressing on for? Let me tell you how I see it.
It’s not a crown or a reward that I might be given, because I will take those things and lay them at the throne of God at the first possible opportunity.
It’s not status or reputation, because I want to be small so that God can be large. I want to be a servant so that God can be King.
It’s not riches, because God is my creator, He owns it all anyway.
My goal is simple. My goal is to know God. My goal is to not only know about God, but to know God. And although I will never know him the way that he knows me, I believe that he will take me on a process of transformation through which I will know him more and more and more. And this transformation always be in the next 5 minutes of my life.
Romans 12:2 says, “ Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Transformation rarely happens quickly. Our minds are transformed as we read the Bible, as we live in healthy Christian community, and as our habits and lives change to reflect God’s truths, but this is an ongoing process.
I’m sure that we’ve all heard some variation of the rags to riches story like this one.
Charles had a mind for business but no real experience to think of. Maybe that was because he was only 17 years old. He had no money for college, but he did have a dream of one day being CEO of a major company. He found employment in the mailroom of one of these companies. As he walked from office to office with the mail each day, Charles kept his mouth shut and his ears and eyes open; he wanted to learn everything he could. No one really took notice of Charles, after all, he was just the mail boy. But he took notice of them, picking up on traits and tendencies and getting an insiders look at how business was run.
When Charles turned 19 he was still a mail boy, and still learning everything that he could. By now others had began to see some good qualities in Charles, he was a hard worker, he was on time, and he had developed a knack for always coming into each office at the right time. That is, he never disrupted meetings and he made sure that he was not interfering with office work. One day he ran into an upper level manager who was a little frustrated. His executive assistant had just quit on him and he was feeling overwhelmed. Charles offered to help for the day, on the next he was hired as the executive assistant to that manager.
Over the next decade, Promotions and opportunities like these followed, and Charles patiently and diligently learned and grew with experience until one day, seemingly out the blue, the CEO named Charles his future successor, and enrolled Charles in an intense 2 year personal mentoring program that also saw Charles be given much more responsibility.
It only took 15 years, but today Charles is no longer an eager 17 year old with no money for an education. He is the Chief Executive Officer. You could say, that he has been transformed.
I tell you that story simply to illustrate that transformation isn’t a simple and quick process. Although God saves us in a moment, we are being transformed until the day that we die by his power at work within us.
But some of us resist this transformation. Because many times it is painful. Many times this transformation is accompanied by tears, and by questions and by things that we simply don’t yet understand. Some times we look at transformation as a curse instead of a blessing. We see the pain of the next 5 minutes, and forget the glorious future that God has in store.
There are many of us who are confused because we fall into a certain faulty way of thinking. We say, because I am a Christian I have arrived.
We think of conversion as the end of a journey, instead of the beginning of a relationship
We think that the believer is so accepted in Christ, that his personal actions no longer matter in the sight of God.
We think that the hard work of salvation has already been accomplished, and so we should relax and enjoy this good life.
But this thinking comes from a poor understanding of salvation. Salvation should be thought of in three different tenses; Past, Present & Future
Past Salvation - God has saved me
We talk about the moment where God’s kindness brought us to repentance, and we called on the name of Jesus for salvation.
Present Salvation - God is saving me
This part of our life where we are being changed and transformed into God’s original plan and purpose for our life.
There are parts of us that still bear resemblance to our sinful heritage, passed down to us from Adam. There are parts that don’t reflect God’s goodness and God’s glory. But God is saving us from those parts. We know that we are not yet Holy as God is Holy, but we also know that our lives are being shaped and moulded by God every day.
Future Salvation - God will save me
The day will come when we will be completely transformed. In fact, we will even be given new bodies and we will be holy as God is holy. The curse and the stench of sin will have no place in our life or in our world, as God will bring a new heaven and a new earth, and God will wipe every tear from our eyes.
This is the future and certain hope of the Christian. We will be made new.
In the Bible there is a part of the harvest that is called the First Fruits. When the crop is just coming in, the very first part that is ripened and harvested acts as a preview for what the farmer can expect for the rest of his crop.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a first fruit and a preview of what all Christians should expect to happen in the future.
1 Corinthians 15:20 says “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
The Resurrection of Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection of all Christians who die. I am going to let the Apostle Paul explain to you about this from 1 Corinthians 15:35-49
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
When will this miracle happen. Not at your death, no instead the Bible shows us over and over again that it happens at the Return of Christ.
And this is what we have to look forward to as Christians. Not only do we get the ultimate prize of knowing God and being his child in paradise, we also get new bodies that will be ours as we occupy a new heaven and a new earth. It is for a period of time that will never end, for the reign of Jesus is eternal. It is in a place that will be holy and perfect, for it is the home of God and sin has been dealt with and discarded.
And the pain and the danger, the trials and the tears, the joy and the sorrow, the blessings and the burdens, this Christian walk. It is all a part of God’s saving power in our lives, that transforms us from glory to glory. For a glorious future awaits each one of us who are called into relationship with God.
I’ll conclude with these two thoughts. Some people say that you just need to get a better attitude in life. When challenges come, you just need to keep your chin up and keep on keeping on. And while that sounds like a good thought, it is not an eternal thought.
An attitude that is pleasing to God can’t be manufactured. Instead it is a gift from God. The hope that you have from your status as God’s child is not the result of a good attitude. Instead it is God’s truth in your life that changes that way that you think, and the person that you are. It is His promise of a new heaven and new earth that changes your outlook on life.
Be warned thought, your attitude counts for nothing of eternal value if its based on lie. So live according to the truth.
Because what you believe about your future, affects how you live your today.
Not only will these next 5 minutes be potentially hard, dangerous and incredibly challenging. But God actively using these minutes in order to form and prepare you for eternity. God is saving you in these 5 minutes as you surrender to him.
What I’m saying is that you don’t go through needless trials. You don’t experience pointless heartache. It is all used by God for His glory, and your salvation.
The next 5 minutes might cost you everything. But in the words of Jim Elliot, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
God’s salvation is a free gift, but following Jesus will cost you everything.
What are you willing to surrender for the joys of the life to come? Will you press on towards the prize as a citizen of heaven while you are living here on earth?
