Eternity and Everyone

1. Today I’m going to be preaching about “Eternity and Everyone”. This may be part 3 of last 2 Sundays. I’m very much captured in my heart, as I see world events, that this local church and the Body of Christ worldwide, that we have to be aware of the times we live in, and be His servants in this world at this hour. And I don’t think that we can no longer be lazy Christians, I’m not looking at you because I think you’re lazy. I don’t think we can be content Christians, with where we are in the Lord. He is wanting us to know Him more, because everyone, will face eternity.
2. If I could put it down to 3 things, I think people everywhere are looking for 3 things, very simply. I think people everywhere are looking for love. Isn’t it true, you want to be loved? I don’t want people to hate me, I want them to love me. People are looking for purpose, why am I here? And I think people are looking for community, a place to live that out. You can things, different things, but this is what I boiled it down to when I thought about eternity and reaching everyone.
3. Our hearts have got to become burdened with love for everyone. And that’s why when we pray for the war situation, I don’t want to pray for a side to win; I pray for the war to stop, and the Lord to be glorified. For people to know that God is the ruler of all, Amen? Perhaps the greatest act of love for someone to do, is to tell someone about Jesus.
4. Now I’m going to make a hard statement; I think, and the Lord talked to me about this, it is an act of injustice, not to tell people about Jesus. If people cross your path, and the Lord says, ‘share Me with them’, and you don’t do it, this is injustice, it is not right. Because the Lord is wanting to use you to let them hear. I love the picture of the early Church after the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and we don’t want to look back, but we learn from what was back then.
5. Do you know when you read in the book of Acts, those early Christians, they ate together, they lived with one another, they studied the Word together, they did life together, and I really think the Lord is saying, we’ve got to begin to live, we open our hearts, open our homes, surrender our time to God, so that we can begin to live with people that need the Lord. People need the Lord, and we are the ones that tell them of the love of Jesus.
6. Matthew 9:35-38, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” Actually, in some of your Bibles, there’s a heading that says, ‘The Workers are few’.
7. Do you know that when you ask Jesus to come into your life, you become a worker in His harvest field. The most important thing you do with your life, is to live for Him. Your job is second. If you sell real estate, if you work in a bakery, if you work for a computer company, that’s what you do to pay your bills. But while you’re there, you’re a worker for the King of kings. The minute you walk in through that door, into the bakery or wherever you’re at, ‘Jesus use me, show me today, whom I can speak to about who you are’.
8. Sociologists divide people up, into generations, ‘Generation Z’, is young people 12 – 30 years old. 73% said they feel alone that no one’s there. That’s not just in America or Canada, it’s in Greece, it’s all around the world. They’re looking for love, they’re looking for community. And lots of times, ’Hey old people’, you people above 30, because we’re not Generation Z, they are looking for mature people, mothers and fathers to give them community, Amen. Just show you care. But we have to open our time, and open our homes, Amen. Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Harvest. And guess what, the good news, ‘The Gospel’, is too big, just to remain inside of you.
9. Some times I’m amazed, I know the good news and I want to run all over this building with you and shout, ‘Hallelujah, hallelujah’ and I just can hardly keep it in. Because, my sins have been washed away, by the Blood of Jesus, Amen, and not only that, I’m never going to die, hallelujah, because He came up out of the grave, hallelujah, Amen. And not only that, He’s sitting at the right hand of the Father, right now, and He’s praying for you and me. Hallelujah. This is good news. How can I keep that just with me? There are walls of opposition everywhere, that come up against the witness of Jesus Christ. Satan will do anything he can, to get you to close your mouth. He will even burden our minds with, ‘Oh, I’ve got to go to work, I got to make money’, to where you don’t even pray about this.
10. But the promise of the Lord in Isaiah 43:19, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” I was with someone last night, and we were talking about what God is doing in Greece, in fact he is a leader here in Greece and the conversation actually was that among the Greeks, we do not see God really reaching out. And I’ve heard this conversation for all the years I’ve been in Greece, and I see one or two heads shaking in agreement with me. We’ve heard these words. But I believe the Lord is beginning to challenge His beautiful Bride, His Church, that any wall of opposition, thoughts of opposition, they must come down. Because God wants to use us, to do a new thing.
11. Do we have a lot of young people, of all ages passing by in front of the church, and the Lord challenged me, ‘How many times have you come out of the church, and you never talk to those people passing by.’ Here I am Lord, it’s the mission field once I leave here. Lord I’ll speak to those people on the street if You tell me. I will do it. Sometimes He won’t tell you – just do it anyway. The Lord wants us to begin to ask for what we have not seen. I have not seen a great awakening in Greece, but I’m asking for it. Are you ready to see what you have never seen before? The Lord tells us in His Word in Luke 1:37, “No Word from God will ever fail”. Jesus never fails. God doesn’t fail, the Holy Spirit doesn’t fail. What God has promised will come to pass. And God has said, “My glory is going to cover the earth, as the water covers the sea’. Hallelujah. The glory of God, even in Greece, but we’ve got to begin to say, ‘Lord, make the way, use me Lord, do a new thing’.
12. I’ve always liked the story in John 9:1-41, there was a man born blind, he was blind all his life, Jesus heals him, and he goes to the scribes and pharisees, and they asked him, ‘Who did this?’ And the conversation goes on, ‘I don’t know, but this man he did it’. And then Jesus comes back to him and says, “I’m Jesus, the Messiah”, hallelujah. Simplified story. But Jesus gave a promise, the Word of God, that He would heal, and sometimes God uses a process that we don’t understand. The God of the promise, is the same God of the process. Do you know what Jesus did? A very unorthodox act, He spit, and He put that spit on the blind man’s eyes. I never thought about this before, until I was preparing this sermon. Did you know, your DNA, is in your spit, so when Jesus spit, and put it on that blind man’s eyes, hallelujah, the DNA of the King of kings, hallelujah, went into the eyes of the blind man. The DNA of Christ the Messiah, and Jesus wants us to reach out and touch people, with the DNA that is within us, the DNA of the King of kings. That DNA will raise us up at the last day. Amen. It is the power of Jesus Christ, hallelujah.
13. Ephesians 1: 19-20, “and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.” I don’t know why we do not see more healings; I’m going to be honest. I don’t know. But it doesn’t stop me from believing. I don’t know why we don’t have more money to buy a building for a church. whatever, I don’t know. I believe His great power is within us. If the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty could raise Jesus from the dead, then His power, has authority to do what God wants that will cause this world, Greece, to wake up and see that He is Lord God Almighty.
14. I’m going to live forever with Jesus. Are you going to live forever with Him? I plan to spend eternity with Him. I plan to live with you. Turn to someone and say we are going to live together for ever. We need to like each other now. Like and love each other, work on it. But a lot of people I know right now, aren’t ready for eternity. That’s why I preached the sermon last week. I don’t want my neighbors and people know, left behind, to go through the wrath of God. We have a very little amount of time on earth. Cecilia will take this rope and go, go… she’s going to bring it all the way around this room. Let’s pretend that this rope goes on forever, we know it doesn’t but let’s pretend today. This rope, it represents the timeline of your existence. You see this little end here? Just see the little black mark. This is you time on earth. The rest of it is eternity. Just a few short years here on earth, and then all of eternity, somewhere else. Our time on earth, too often, we only think about this part. We get consumed with this part. And some of the things I’m going to say there’s nothing really wrong with them, like working to save for a trip. There’s nothing wrong with saving to work for a trip. But when you are consumed by it, that you no longer work for the Lord, this is all you’re thinking about, the small piece. What about the rest of the rope?
15. What we do here, on earth, this little part, will determine our existence, forever. Only what we do for Jesus, when you stand before the Lord, He’s not going to ask you how much money did you save? He’s not even going to ask you if you were a good mother or dad, or a good brother or sister. It will be, “Do you know Me? Did you live for Me?” Because only what we do for Jesus, will count in the end. Colossians 3:1-4 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
16. And Philippians 3:12-15, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” Paul is talking to us the Church. I hope you see the power of these Scriptures. I love what Paul says in Verse 13, I forget what’s behind me, but I’m looking ahead, what’s ahead. There’s a prize when I reach home in Jesus, when I reach heaven, Amen.
17. So, what are we waiting for, so many people in the world, 8 billion people, in these times, as never before, if the hour is late, they need to hear the good news. The days may go darker, but the light in us will grow brighter. Amen. Titus 2:13, “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”. And I love Philippians 3, where it says that our citizenship is in heaven. I carry 2 passports; it’s nice. Some of you have 3 or 4. It’s nice. But they won’t matter when we stand before the Lord. When He says, “Why should I let you into heaven?” And you say, ‘I come in the merits of Jesus. I come because of all He did, Hallelujah. He came into my life, and He stamped me and made me a citizen of Heaven.’ In brief, it’s about this little bitty amount of time of each one of us’ life here on earth. As we wait for Jesus to come back, I hope to see Him in my lifetime, I’m going to fly, and if you don’t know what I mean ‘I’m going to fly’ come talk to me later. But while we wait, and I love for those, I know for those I love who don’t know Him yet, that Jesus is patiently waiting for those future believers, who will come to Him, Amen. He’s patiently waiting, He could come today, but He’s waiting. On purpose He’s waiting, because He wants as many as possible to hear the message, and come to know Him.
18. And I never thought about this either till yesterday, someone will be the last believer prior to Jesus coming in the Rapture. He’ll sound the trumpet, and there will be that last one that will fly in the sky. All around the earth are signs that the hour is late. Matthew 16, says that, do you see the signs? You may not be able to completely discern them, but we should be encouraged, the Lord wants us to be encouraged, that we’re alive for a special purpose right now. Maybe, you’ll witness to the last believer that will be carried into the clouds, because we should be witnessing all the time, our life a living witness. And it’s not that you talk all the time, but you shine so bright for your love for Him, that someone will come up to you on the bus, or the metro stop, ‘Ah, there something different, what is it about you?’ The Lord wants us to shine.
19. How do we live while we wait? Quit trying to find a lighter cross. We will suffer in this world. Your cross is designed for you. It’s not too heave nor too light. And as you carry it, following Jesus, you will be becoming like Jesus. He is our pattern. He is our model. ‘Oh Lord’, ask yourself, ‘How am I living in these times?’ Are you only looking for what you enjoy right now? The apostle Paul said, ‘I cannot think about that right now.’ Instead, he’s saying, ‘In this little time I have right now, I keep my eyes on the finish line.’ I keep my eyes, no turning back, I’m looking forward. I’m straining towards the mark. Our model is Jesus.
20. We must be more aggressive. Acts 26:17b-18, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” This local church is participating in the ‘Everyone’ campaign, that by the year 2033, every person in the world, will be prayed for by name. Every person in the world will be witnessed to about Jesus Christ.
21. The passage we just read in Acts, the first thing was, go and tell them. ‘As the Father has sent Me’, Jesus said, ‘so send I you’. Quit putting it off onto other people, like me – Oh Gail, she left her home, I don’t need to. Yes, I came, but you need to go too, but I don’t know where, and you need to tell, but I don’t know who. But as the Father sent Jesus, He’s sending you and you and you… We’re all called to go, amen. I get to preach. Maybe you think you’re not supposed to, but guess what? There was a man named Philip in the Bible. One day he was standing here and the Spirit of the Lord just transported him somewhere else. Because somebody needed to hear the message, but he was there ready to go.
22. Go and tell to open the eyes of unbelievers, the eyes of the blind. The Bible says, the god of this world, his name is Satan, he has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the glory of Jesus Christ. How many people do you know, that 10 years ago thought different than what they do now. Minds are being blinded, and we might suffer some persecution in telling them the truth. But let’s go with love, because this is the only short time we have. We want to see them live with us in eternity, Amen.
23. That unbelievers would turn from darkness to light. Did you know that people living in the dark don’t even know they’re in the dark? Satan is deceiving people, but the Lord Jesus has won over all the power of Satan. And finally, and if our prayer people would come forward, to grant forgiveness and a place. The end of that verse in Acts, says that people who turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, will receive forgiveness of sins, and find a place among those who are sanctified in Jesus.
24. Only what we do for Christ will count in the end. I do believe with all my heart, that Satan works even among us, to just be tired sometimes, to make us hard to care for people who are lost without Jesus. But the Lord is inviting us – can you ask Him today, ‘Lord please give me a burden to be Your servant, to be Your worker, to be Your light, to give Your message. Lord, break my heart with the things that break Yours.’ Do you remember what Jesus said about Jerusalem, He looked over the city, two words, “Jesus wept”. They had rejected Him. Your witness could be rejected, but when was the last time, that you wept for Greece? When was the last time you had a burden for your neighbor to know Jesus? When was the last time you asked the Lord to help you love that person that is so mean to me, they need You Jesus, use me? We’re asking this church to pray for 5 people for 5 minutes a day, until they know Him. I’m not going to ask you to raise your hands, but have you done it?
25. Actually, it’s OK that there’s not a lot of emotional response, because sometimes we can make an emotional response, and it leaves us when our emotions leave. But I believe the Lord is calling us, to fix our thoughts on Him, to set our mind on Him, our hearts on Him. Lord, maybe we should pray like this, ‘I know people are dying and going to hell, and sometimes life just seems hard, I work a lot to get my future ready, Lord, take care of my family. Lord, I know that I should be a witness, but I really haven’t been. Help me to care enough, and Lord I come before You, and I’ll pray for them, souls this time even right here now today in this church, people have died without Jesus. Lord, help us. Give us a burden from heaven, even sometimes we’ll push away from our tables, and not eat and just spend time with Jesus. Pray that people will know Jesus. People need the Lord.